COVID-19 canceling entertainment options as virus runs rampant through Cuyahoga County: The Wake Up for Tuesday, Dec. 21, 2021

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Don’t let the cloudy start today get you down … skies will clear by the afternoon, with highs around 40. Clouds will move back in overnight, creating a chance of snow showers as temps fall to around 28 degrees. Read more.

Local scores: Las Vegas Raiders 16, Browns 14

COVID-19 cancellations: Northeast Ohio’s arts and entertainment venues and performance groups are facing new challenges as the coronavirus pandemic and omicron variant surges in the region. Anne Nickoloff reports on the tough decisions organizers must make, such as canceling two days of peformances of “Wicked” at Playhouse Square.

Cuyahoga numbers: Cuyahoga County has the third highest COVID-19 case rate per 100,000 population among U.S. counties, Julie Washington reports. Cuyahoga also ranks fourth among U.S. counties for highest daily average COVID-19 case rate, according to the tracker.

National Guard: Cleveland Clinic and University Hospitals will support a community COVID-19 testing site that will be staffed by the Ohio National Guard and the Ohio Department of Health, beginning today. Laura Hancock reports the on-site, drive-thru testing will operate 9 a.m.-5 p.m. in the parking garage of the W.O. Walker Building in University Circle at 10524 Euclid Ave.

Budish deal? Lawyers for Cuyahoga County Executive Armond Budish approached the Ohio Attorney General’s office, asking prosecutors to agree to not to charge Budish with a crime in the corruption probe. In exchange, the county executive would agree to take the stand and answer questions about his former jail director, reports Cory Shaffer. The prosecutors created a three-page internal memorandum detailing the “pros and cons” of each choice.

Today in Ohio, the daily news podcast of cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer.

About one-third of the 3,000 COVID-19 tests that the Cleveland Clinic conducts daily are positive — and half of those positive cases are the omicron variant. That happened in less than a week, after Ohio announced its first omicron cases Dec. 11. We’re talking about how wild COVID has gone on Today in Ohio, cleveland.com’s daily half-hour news podcast.

Recreational marijuana: A group of Ohio medical marijuana businesses with a proposal placing recreational cannabis on the ballot said they submitted 206,943 signatures to Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose’s office Monday. Laura Hancock reports the submission of signatures is just the latest step in the winding process to get the issue on the November 2022 ballot. Next, county boards of elections need to verify the signatures, ensuring signees are registered to vote, live where they said they live and don’t sign more than once.

Tamia Chappman

Tamia Chappman, 13, died after being struck by a stolen car Dec. 20, 2019, during a police chase.

Police chase: Two years to the day of Tamia Chappman’s death, her family and social activists demanded greater accountability of the Cleveland police officers involved in the chase that ended her life. Kareem Henton of Black Lives Matter Cleveland on Monday urged the U.S. Justice Department to investigate the incidents surrounding the girl’s death Dec. 20, 2019, in East Cleveland, John Caniglia reports.

Computer art: A team of art historians and scientists at Case Western Reserve University has developed a computer technique that can identify with near certainty which artist made a particular painting based on tiny details of brush marks that can’t be controlled by the artist and aren’t visible to the naked eye. Steven Litt reports the method combines data from the precise, three-dimensional mapping of a painting’s surface with analysis through artificial intelligence — a computer system based on the human brain and nervous system that can learn to identify and compare patterns.

COVID changes: As the omicron variant takes hold in Northeast Ohio, some public places and government offices have recently closed or adjusted their work situations to account for rising COVID-19 concerns. Cameron Fields reports Heights Libraries announced on its website Monday that it was closing and would return to only curbside services beginning today.

Daily cases: The state of Ohio on Monday reported 8,082 new cases of COVID-19, almost even with the 21-day reported case average of 8,179. Julie Washington reports Ohio has now reported 1,855,222 cases since the beginning of the pandemic early last year.

Summa response: Akron’s Summa Health System has postponed nonessential surgeries, secured refrigerated morgue trucks and is limited in its ability to accept transfers from other hospitals, all to cope with a surge in COVID-19 cases, Julie Washington reports. Summa may need to divert ambulances to other hospitals.

Guardians negotiations: David Blitzer, part owner of the Philadelphia 76ers and New Jersey Devils, could be nearing a deal to buy about 35% of the Cleveland Guardians, reports Paul Hoynes. The deal would include a pathway to majority ownership for Blitzer. Guardians owner Paul Dolan has been looking for a minority owner since John Sherman put his shares of the team in escrow to purchase the Kansas City Royals in November 2019.

‘A Journal for Jordan’: Dana Canedy’s inspiring memoir “A Journal for Jordan” has been turned into a movie directed by Denzel Washington and starring Michael B. Jordan and Chanté Adams. Joey Morona reports the film, in theaters on Christmas Eve, tells the love story between Canady and her fiancé, Army First Sgt. Charles Monroe King, a Cleveland native who was killed in action in Iraq in 2006, just one month from completing his tour of duty.

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