Former Lorain Schools employee sues
ELYRIA — A former Lorain Schools employee filed a lawsuit Friday in county Common Pleas Court saying he was unjustly fired.

Frank Sowell was demoted as the district’s chief human resources officer in May and terminated late last month. The Lorain school board voted to terminate his two-year contract, which would have expired in 2009, citing “gross incompetence.”

Sowell’s suit said Superintendent Cheryl Atkinson criticized him for not completing work plans and reports, not completing an emergency notification list, management of the district’s United Way campaign, assigning handling of two union grievances to another employee and not completing a schedule for administrator evaluations in a timely manner.

The suit called the criticisms “inaccurate, untruthful and the result of political pressures from the (school) board.” It also explained why Sowell believed each one was unfounded.

Sowell is asking the court to give him back his job and award back pay and benefits.

Route 58 reopened after culvert fixed

HUNTINGTON TWP. — State Route 58 has been reopened just north of Stewart Road, the Ohio Department of Transportation announced Friday.

The highway had previously been closed for a culvert replacement.

D.C. mayor to appear at Obama rally

OBERLIN — Washington, D.C., Mayor Adrian Fenty, a graduate of Oberlin College, is coming back to his alma mater today to rally supporters of Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, according to the Obama campaign.

Fenty will appear at 7:30 p.m. at Finney Chapel for a “Get Involved” discussion with students, said Keary McCarthy, Northeast Ohio coordinator for the Obama campaign.

“It should be a good crowd,” McCarthy said. “I hear he’s very charismatic, and he was an early endorser of Sen. Obama.”

Often considered a rising star in the national Democratic Party, Fenty is the current mayor of the District of Columbia. He is the youngest person ever to hold the office, winning it at age 35.

Before becoming involved in Washington, D.C., politics, Fenty worked for the late U.S. Sen. Howard Metzenbaum.

Earlier in the day, Fenty is scheduled to appear in Akron, East Cleveland and Cleveland.

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