Ohio's top elections official has rejected a Republican challenge over the legal residency of one of the state's Democratic members of Congress.
Secretary of State Frank LaRose made the decision late last week, saying the complainant brought by a political activist did not provide “clear and convincing” proof that Rep. Emilia Sykes had relocated from Akron to her husband's home in Columbus.
The decision was left to LaRose after the Summit County Board of Elections tied 2-2 along party lines on Oct. 24 on whether the challenge should be taken up. The residency challenge came in the days before the election because her husband, Franklin County Commissioner Kevin Boyce, had listed Sykes as a member of his household in Columbus.
Sykes called the allegation that she doesn’t maintain residence in Akron “a deeply offensive lie.” The couple has said they maintain separate residences, and Boyce subsequently filed an affidavit with the Ohio Ethics Commission to clarify that his wife lives in Akron.
Ohio law does not require members of Congress to live in their districts.
Sykes, 38, was allowed to cast her ballot for the November elections in Akron while she waited for a decision in the case. She defeated Republican Kevin Coughlin to win her second term in a district centered on that city, where she comes from a family steeped in state politics. Her father, Vernon Sykes, is a sitting state senator and her mother, Barbara, is a former state lawmaker and statewide candidate.
In a letter sent Friday to the county elections board, LaRose noted that Sykes provided evidence that she lives at her Akron address and that Boyce had filed the clarifying affidavit.
FILE - Rep.-elect Emilia Sykes, D-Ohio, joins other newly-elected members of the House of Representatives as they arrive at the Capitol for an orientation program in Washington, Nov. 14, 2022. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)
Palestinian medics said an Israeli airstrike on the Gaza Strip killed at least five people, including four children, on Wednesday.
The Awda Hospital, which received the bodies, said the five were gathered outside of shelters in the built-up Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza. The hospital said another 15 people, mostly children, were wounded in the strike. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military.
In Lebanon, a tenuous ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah has held despite Israeli forces carrying out several new drone and artillery strikes on Tuesday, killing a shepherd in the country's south. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed keep striking “with an iron fist” against perceived Hezbollah violations of the ceasefire.
Hezbollah began launching rockets, drones and missiles into Israel last year in solidarity with Hamas militants who are fighting in the Gaza Strip. The war in Gaza began when Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking around 250 people hostage.
Israel’s blistering retaliatory offensive has killed at least 44,500 Palestinians, more than half of them women and children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not say how many of the dead were combatants. Israel says it has killed over 17,000 militants, without providing evidence.
The war in Gaza has destroyed vast areas of the coastal enclave and displaced 90% of the population of 2.3 million, often multiple times.
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DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — Palestinian medics said an Israeli airstrike on the Gaza Strip killed at least five people, including four children, on Wednesday.
The Awda Hospital, which received the bodies, said the five were gathered outside of shelters in the built-up Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, which dates back to the 1948 war surrounding Israel’s creation.
The hospital said another 15 people, mostly children, were wounded in the strike.
There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military.
The war began when Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting around 250 people. Some 100 hostages are still inside Gaza, at least a third of whom are believed to be dead.
Israel’s offensive has killed over 44,500 Palestinians in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not say how many were combatants. The Israeli military says it has killed over 17,000 militants, without providing evidence.
JERUSALEM — Israel’s military said Wednesday it had returned the bodies of two militants who crossed into Israel from Jordan in October and shot two soldiers.
The militants entered Israeli territory south of the Dead Sea on Oct. 18, shooting and wounding two soldiers before being shot dead by Israeli troops. Hamas praised the incursion but not claim responsibility for it.
The Israeli military did not release the names of the militants who carried out the attack.
A burnt house following a settler attack that damaged vehicles and houses in the village of Beit Furik, in the occupied West Bank city of Nablus, Wednesday, Dec. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Majdi Mohammed)
Mohammed Hanani looks at his burnt car following a settler attack that damaged vehicles and houses in the village of Beit Furik, in the occupied West Bank city of Nablus, Wednesday, Dec. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Majdi Mohammed)
Mohammed Hanani looks at his burnt car following a settler attack that damaged vehicles and houses in the village of Beit Furik, in the occupied West Bank city of Nablus, Wednesday, Dec. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Majdi Mohammed)
A man carries a sack of donated flour distributed by UNRWA at the Nuseirat refugee camp, Gaza Strip, Tuesday Dec. 3, 2024.(AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
A man grabs a sack of donated flour at a UNRWA distribution center in the Nuseirat refugee camp, Gaza Strip, Tuesday Dec. 3, 2024.(AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Israeli armoured vehicles move on in an area at the Israeli-Gaza border, seen from southern Israel, Tuesday, Dec. 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Tsafrir Abayov)
