Would America’s Second Amendment keep us safe from a potential invasion? The Wake Up for

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Second Amendment: American gun rights supporters say the guaranteed right to bear arms – coupled with the fact that the U.S. is the only nation with more guns than people — makes us safer from an attack and more capable of fighting outside oppression. But would the proliferation of guns in American households – where four in 10 adults have access to a firearm — really deter a potential invasion? Robert Higgs talked to experts who say the answer likely is no.

Irishtown Bend: Work is beginning to to create a 23-acre park atop the reconfigured slope of Irishtown Bend, with trails and sweeping views of the river and the downtown Cleveland skyline. Yet Steven Litt reports the effort still hangs in the balance pending the outcome of legal actions related to the Cleveland-Cuyahoga County Port Authority effort to gain control of a small but critically located holdout property at the top of the hillside on the southeast corner of West 25th Street and Detroit Avenue.

Juvenile court: Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Michael O’Malley was shocked to learn that local juvenile courts could lose money if they send too many kids to the state’s youth prison system, the Ohio Department of Youth Services. The state RECLAIM program, which doles out $30.6 million annually to Ohio juvenile courts, is widely hailed as a success that aims to keep youth out of prison by funding programs aimed at helping them overcome poverty, mental illness and behavioral issues, among others. Adam Ferrise reports O’Malley believes the system needs to be tweaked.

Gov. Mike DeWine says he will not participate in a gubernatorial debate later this month at Central State University. We’re talking about whether that’s a smart move on Today in Ohio, cleveland.com’s daily half-hour news podcast.

Householder trial: A federal judge on Friday set a Jan. 23 trial for former Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder and lobbyist Matthew Borges in the House Bill 6 scandal. John Caniglia reports U.S. District Judge Timothy Black has estimated the racketeering trial will run at least six weeks and include evidence gleaned from thousands of documents involving the bill.

HB6 push: A federal judge on Friday continued his push to delve into the House Bill 6 scandal, demanding to know why information he sought earlier last week should be shielded from the public. U.S. District Judge John Adams told attorneys in a FirstEnergy Corp. shareholders’ case that they have until noon Wednesday to file briefs as to why details about the discredited legislation can be withheld, reports John Caniglia.

Ukraine: U.S. Sen Rob Portman on Sunday praised Poles near the Ukraine border for welcoming an estimated 1.2 million Ukrainian refugees fleeing Russia’s attack and urged the United States to help Ukraine get the fighter jets it needs to fend off the assault. Portman, who is visiting Poland’s border with Ukraine with a bipartisan group of U.S. senators, told CNN’s Dana Bash that 100 refugees per minute are entering from Ukraine, Sabrina Eaton reports.

Military ballots: Gov. Mike DeWine has signed a bill the state legislature passed this week that would temporarily loosen deadlines for military voters to receive and return their mail ballots — a move aimed at cleaning up one of the spillover effects of ongoing state redistricting delays. Andrew Tobias reports that DeWine on Friday signed Senate Bill 11, which pushes back a March 18 mail deadline and doubles the amount of time the ballots can arrive back in Ohio after Election.

Redistricting deadline: The Ohio Supreme Court has set a 4 p.m. Tuesday deadline for the Ohio Redistricting Commission to respond to new arguments from the League of Women Voters of Ohio and others that its latest congressional redistricting maps unconstitutionally favor the Republican Party. Kaylee Remington reports the court is currently considering whether to approve the latest state legislative and congressional maps, which are supposed to be used for the first time in the upcoming May 3 primary election.

Police reform: Cleveland and the U.S. Justice Department on Friday agreed to make changes to the city’s police-reform agreement to incorporate a new system of police accountability that voters approved last year. Adam Ferrise reports the changes to the city’s court-monitored consent decree were made necessary after voters in November approved Issue 24, which mandated a slew of changes to the way police misconduct is handled, including a creating a civilian review board that will have the final say on disciplining officers.

County bills: Cuyahoga County’s legal community found itself in a bind last week when access to one of its most important resources was shut off due to nonpayment. Kaitlin Durbin reports that Lexis Nexis, a tool that attorneys, judges and public defenders rely on for research, temporarily went dark on March 3 after the county failed to pay its bill dating back to September.

Office suburbs: The coronavirus pandemic has led executives to reconsider their company’s office footprint, including location, size and price. But those decisions may end up affecting the Cleveland real estate market in a peculiar way – having more companies fill up suburban office space, reports Eric Heisig.

ERP: After six years of setbacks and millions of taxpayer dollars in overruns, phase one of Cuyahoga County’s information technology overhaul is nearly complete and ready for rollout. This piece of the Enterprise Resource Planning project, known as the ERP, has been the most difficult for the county to implement and has taken years’ worth of delays and cost overruns, Kaitlin Durbin reports.

Daylight savings: Clocks were set forward one hour at 2 a.m. Sunday, marking the start of Daylight Saving Time. Sunlight will stretch on more each day for the next few months until June 20 through July 4, to which then it will begin to darken a little bit earlier each day, Zachary Smith reports.

School rankings: Five of the top 10 school districts in Ohio, as reported this week by Stacker in using rankings from Niche, are in Cuyahoga County. Zachary Smith reports Solon City School District has the highest graduation rate (96%) on the whole list, as well as the highest reading (94%) and math (96%) proficiency.

$5 trip: The Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority is reminding residents of its $5 roundtrip fare to downtown Cleveland for the annual St. Patrick’s Day parade as a way to save hassle and green, reports Kaitlin Durbin.

Mask guidelines: New COVID-19 guidelines say most Ohioans can stop wearing masks in all 88 Ohio counties. Julie Washington reports that nearly all of Ohio’s counties are green, for low community spread of COVID-19, on the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention map.

Vaccinations: Ohio’s COVID vaccination campaign – like much of the United States – has dramatically slowed in recent months. However, the state hit a milestone this past week. About 70% of Ohioans older than 12 years old have at least one vaccine shot, Jane Morice reports.

Kid treatment: Pfizer has begun a Phase 2 and 3 clinical trial of its COVID-19 antiviral drug Paxlovid in children ages 6 to 17, reports Julie Washington. The trial will evaluate the safety and efficacy of the treatment in children who have COVID-19 symptoms and a confirmed infection, who are not hospitalized and at risk of severe disease.

Timeline: A study published in The Lancet says the death toll from coronavirus might be three times what has been reported. Marc Bona reports in his weekly news roundup that lack of diagnostic or reporting resources or lack of access to healthcare and other factors might have contributed to a much higher mortality toll.

Ohio unemployment: Ohio added jobs and lowered its unemployment rate in January but the state is still lagging behind the U.S. average and labor force participation. Sean McDonnell reports the state added 18,600 jobs in January, increasing employment to 5,421,600, up from 5,403,000 jobs in December. The unemployment rate was 4.3% in January, down from 4.5% in December.

Teacher extortion: A former teacher and track coach at Mayfield Middle School pleaded guilty Thursday to more than a dozen felony charges…