Cincinnati Edition

For the second time in 13 months, President Donald Trump was impeached by the House of Representatives. This time however, 10 Republicans joined in indicting their party's leader, voting alongside all the Democrats. That includes Ohio Rep. Anthony Gonzalez, R-Ohio, of the 16 th District.

During the lame duck session in December, the Ohio General Assembly gave final approval to legislation prohibiting execution of the severely mentally ill. House Bill 136 cleared the Ohio House on Dec. 17 and Governor DeWine signed the bill into law. DeWine has also imposed an unofficial moratorium on all executions in the state due to ongoing problems finding lethal-injection drugs.

In May, Hamilton County voters approved Issue 7, a countywide tax hike to improve Metro bus service throughout the region. The ballot measure increases the sales tax by 0.8%, generating $130 million annually for busing improvements. With the arrival of 2021, SORTA will now start receiving some of those funds to begin the first phase of the Reinventing Metro plan.

The year 2020 was historic in Cincinnati with the pandemic leading to shutdowns and fiscal crisis, historic protests of racial injustice, and the arrest of three City Council members. Now 2021 brings the arrival of a new COVID-19 vaccine.

Elizebeth Smith Friedman was born to a Quaker family in rural Indiana, but a meeting with an eccentric millionaire who believed that William Shakespeare did not write all those plays would change her life, and the course of history.

Congress has now affirmed President-elect Joe Biden's win after an assault on the U.S. Capitol Wednesday. Vice President Mike Pence made the announcement just after 3:40 a.m. Thursday. It came hours after a pro-Trump mob stormed the Capitol in an effort to halt the process. Four people died during the assault.

The Brent Spence Bridge was shuttered for six long weeks, forcing the busy interstate corridor's commuters to find alternate routes from Covington to Cincinnati as the I-71/75 artery was closed.

Ohioans age 65 and older, school employees and people with medical conditions that put them at high-risk will be eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine in about two weeks. This group, called "1B" in Ohio's vaccination plan, includes about 2.2 million people.

When President-elect Joe Biden is sworn into office he plans to make changes to shore up Social Security benefits while extending the program's solvency. To many advocates for the program, it couldn't come at a more crucial time. With the workforce depleted under the pandemic, fewer people are contributing to payroll taxes that fund the system and that has further depleted the reserves.

The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that a wrongful death lawsuit against Cincinnati Public Schools can move forward. The case involves 8-year-old Gabriel Taye, who died by suicide in 2017. According to the lawsuit, his suicide was the result of the chronic bullying he suffered at Carson Elementary School. Gabriel’s parents, Cornelia Reynolds and Benyam Taye, sued Cincinnati Public Schools for his wrongful death.

Maslow's Army welcomed in 64 people out of the cold on the first day their new winter day center opened on Christmas. The Todd B. Portune Winter Day Center was three years in the making and opened in the former Queensgate Correctional Facility at a crucial time. According to Maslow's Army Executive Director Samuel Landis, there is a 38% increase in the number of people unable to get into a shelter due to the pandemic.

As 2021 arrives and the U.S. reaches the 10-month mark in the pandemic, we are also approaching another milestone. Some of the first babies to have been conceived during the shutdown are arriving. But are they arriving in great numbers, a sort of lockdown baby boom? Or has COVID-19 brought on a baby bust? An entire generation of fewer children born under a time of great uncertainty, economic devastation and mass loss of life.

While a vaccine for the novel coronavirus that has sparked a global pandemic is now a reality, thousands of people across the country continue to experience lingering symptoms after contracting the disease months ago. Medical experts and Cincinnatians who suffer from so-called "long haul" symptoms say surviving COVID-19 isn't always as simple as beating the virus itself.

On Cincinnati Edition 's weekly news review:

President Donald J. Trump continues his refusal to concede his loss in the November election and also to maintain that fraudulent votes prevented the Republican's second term.