musiclover

Prosecutors said Thursday they plan to appeal a judge’s order granting a new trial for a Cleveland man convicted of setting a fire that killed eight children and a woman in the deadliest house blaze in the city’s history.

A federal jury convicted Antun Lewis, 28, last year of using gasoline to set the 2005 fire that killed Medeia Carter and the eight children, aged 7 to 14, who were attending a birthday sleepover at her house. He faced a possible life sentence.

City leaders unveiled a plan Tuesday aimed at reinventing public education in Cleveland’s schools. Mayor Frank Jackson, Schools CEO Eric Gordon along with leaders from the Greater Cleveland Partnership, Cleveland Foundation, The Gund Foundation and The Breakthrough Charter Schools unveiled the plan.

The group says the plan recognizes that the current public schools model for Cleveland is not working.

Republican Presidential candidate Newt Gingrich stopped in Cleveland Wednesday during a tour of the Buckeye State. He came to Jergens Manufacturing to highlight how American manufacturing can be successful and bring more jobs to the area. Speaking to workers inside the facility, he told them how his plan for allowing companies to write off their new equipment expenses could allow companies to modernize and reinvest.

“They would be able to modernize so rapidly that no one could catch up with them and so we want to have a tax code that really favors manufacturing jobs,” said the former House Speaker.

Authorities have raised the alert level for Cleveland Volcano in Alaska’s Aleutian Islands, suggesting it may be on the verge of erupting ash and disrupting air travel. More >

The Indians made a move with the pitcher they’ve only known for the last 11-plus years as Fausto Carmona. Carmona, who was arrested last week in the Dominican Republic on false identity charges, was placed on baseball’s restricted list Thursday by the club.

The Indians had to apply to the commissioner’s office in order to have Carmona placed on the list because of his unusual legal entanglement. Players on the restricted list do not count against a team’s 25- or 40-man roster and will not be paid until they report.

Most Cleveland sports fans, we can safely assume, hate LeBron James. But that doesn’t apply to the city’s sports stars, some of whom continue to look to James for professional advice and guidance. Per the Sun-Sentinel and ESPN: “As high school stars, Kyrie Irving and Tristan Thompson met James at his invitation-only camp. Ever since then, the two Cleveland Cavaliers rookies have kept in contact with James, looking at him as a source of advice. It doesn’t matter that James broke Cleveland’s heart, leaving the Cavaliers to play for the Miami Heat. James’ relationship with Irving and Thompson remains the same. ‘I think besides what I do individually, I think that’s just what I was born to do, and that’s just try to give back,’ James said.

The grand-opening ceremony for the Greater Cleveland Aquarium took place Thursday afternoon in the FirstEnergy Powerhouse at the Nautica Entertainment Complex to officially open the new world-class aquarium. More >

A 33-year-old Cleveland man was indicted today on 28 counts of dog fighting, six counts of cruelty to animals, two counts of drug possession and one count each of drug trafficking and possessing criminal tools.

Collin Rand Jr. was arrested Dec. 27, five days after police and animal control officers served a search warrant at his home in the 700 block of East 91st Street.

The first trials for more than a dozen men accused in a series of sexual assaults on an 11-year-old Southeast Texas girl may happen in March.

Eleven of the men appeared Thursday in state court in Liberty for status updates in a case that has divided and horrified the town of Cleveland. Their cases were reset for Feb. 6, but prosecutor Joe Warren says the first trials could be in March.