At one point, it was a spectacle of boxing trophies, lavish parties and even a few tigers roaming around the ground.
Now, the former mansion of legendary boxer Mike Tyson is being turned into a church after the landowner who bought the mansion at auction donated it to a local church.
The building in Southington, Ohio was built with gold-plated furnishings and even a jacuzzi room with mirrored ceilings. The mansion still has many of the extravagant touches but has been abandoned since the boxer went bankrupt and was forced to sell almost all of his possessions.
The mansion was given to Living Word Sanctuary that plans to have the building converted to a ministry center by the end of the year. They’ve even invited Mike Tyson to come and attend the first service in the building when it’s ready to go.
“How we stumbled upon the place was really God’s grace because we had no intentions of looking…,”said Pastor Nick Dejacimo of Living Word. The church plans to have Vacation Bible Schools and nature events at the grounds along with weekly worship services and Bible studies.
The church is currently meeting inside a YMCA in Warren, Ohio.
One person is dead and over 20 sickened after an outbreak of botulism at a Lancaster, Ohio church’s potluck dinner.
The Ohio Department of Health confirmed that each of the victims of the botulism had attended the potluck.
Fairfield Medical Center identified the first case of botulism on Tuesday morning and had several cases soon follow the initial patient. Most of the sick are middle-aged but there were no details released about the person who died from the illness.
Pastor Bill Pitts of Cross Pointe Free Will Baptist church said the potluck was aimed at building fellowship among members. The church provided meat and drink and everyone in attendance was encouraged to bring a covered side dish.
“Our main emphasis, right now, is for everyone to pray,” he said. “These are people that we love and work with. [I’m] just calling out for a lot of people to pray for them if they would.”
Hospital officials say at least five victims are being treated by intensive care units.
Botulism is caused by a nerve toxin produced by certain bacteria. The disease is rare but very life threatening.
Several states are seeing bills pushed forward to stop abortion after 20 weeks in the fallout of House Republicans pulling a vote on their federal level Pain Capable Abortion bills.
Ten states already have 20 week abortion bans while pro-abortionists have going to court to block laws in Arizona, Georgia and Idaho.
Ohio Right to Life announced Tuesday that legislators in their state house will introduce a 20 week abortion ban.
“Our Pain-Capable legislation will alter the abortion debate in Ohio,” Stephanie Ranade Krider, the group’s executive director, told the Washington Examiner. “An overwhelming majority of Americans, especially women, support protecting pre-born babies from scalpels and dismemberment. This is priority legislation for Ohio Right to Life and once again, the nation is watching.”
A poll by Quinnipiac University says that 60 percent of Americans oppose a ban on abortions after 20 weeks. Only 33 percent of Americans were opposed to the ban.
The House Republican’s decision to pull the vote at the last minute has been causing problems with pro-life organizations across the country who feel national leadership abandoned them.
The FBI has arrested a man from Butler County, Ohio in connection with a plot to kill House Speaker John Boehner.
Michael Robert Hoyt, 44, is facing charges of threatening to murder the Congressman that revolved around his poisoning the Congressman’s drinks at a country club where Hoyt worked as a bartender.
“Hoyt told the officer he was Jesus Christ and he was going to kill Boehner because Boehner was mean to him at the country club and because Boehner is responsible for Ebola,” United States Capitol Police (USCP) Special Agent Christopher M. Desrosiers said. “Hoyt advised he had a loaded Beretta .380 automatic and he was going to shoot Boehner and take off.”
FBI agents say that Hoyt had typed up an 11 page document outlining his claims against Boehner and the plot to kill him.
Agents admit that Hoyt is showing signs of mental illness but say that doesn’t mean he was not taking active steps to carry out his plan to kill Boehner. Police searched Hoyt’s home on Oct. 31 and seized an SKS assault rifle magazine, two boxes of 7.62 ammo, 35 loose rounds, a speed loader and a box of .380 rounds.
Hoyt faces 30 years in prison.
The Supreme Court is blocking Arizona from enforcing restrictions on medical abortions while a series of court challenges works through lower courts.
The ruling by the Court upheld a lower court ruling that blocked the rules regulating where women can take abortion-inducing drugs. Abortion-inducing drugs would also be prohibited after the 7th week of pregnancy instead of the current restriction of the 9th week.
The liberal-leaning 9th Circuit Court of Appeals blocked the state of putting the restrictions in place while the legal challenges are taking place. North Dakota, Ohio and Texas have similar laws to Arizona.
Abortionist Planned Parenthood says that drug conducted abortions for more than 40 percent of abortions in their abortion centers.
The Arizona restrictions were put into place following the deaths of 8 women who had taken the drugs. The FDA claims there is no connection between the drugs and the deaths.
Concerns over Ebola have shut down schools in two states.
Two public schools in Ohio are closed because staff members were on the same flight as Amber Vinson, the second nurse who contracted Ebola and flew from Ohio to Texas with a low grade fever.
An e-mail was sent to parents of children at Solon Middle School and Parkside Elementary School.
“This circumstance came to light late in the day and we have been working since then to get as much information as possible from public health authorities,” the district’s email read.
“Although we believe what the science community and public health officials are telling us about the low risk of possible transmission of the virus through indirect contact, we are nonetheless taking the unusual step of closing the dual school building for Thursday so that we can have the schools cleaned and disinfected.”
The Belton Independent School District in Texas closed all three schools because of two students who were on the flight.
“Canceling classes at the three campuses will allow us to thoroughly clean and disinfect the schools and buses that served them this week. It will also allow health officials additional time to re-assess the health risk to passengers on the plane,” said Belton Superintendent Susan Kincannon in a statement. “I’m frustrated that we didn’t learn until late tonight that the CDC was re-evaluating the health risk. The health and safety of our students is my first priority.”
A school superintendent who claims that he is a “man of faith” told a school principal and his teachers that they can no longer have a prayer chain for the sick and needy.
“I’m a man of faith who wants good for all, but I’m also a firm believer in separation of church and state,” Medina Schools Superintendent Dave Knight told The Cleveland Plain Dealer.
Still, this “man of faith” Dave Knight told Principal Chad Wise of A.I. Root Middle School that he had to stop a prayer chain for community members dealing with a number of difficulties. The plan was to uplift those who were facing illness, dealing with family deaths or in the middle of neglect or abuse cases.
“Public school staff can’t use district resources, including email, to promote prayer, especially when the principal, a person in a position of influence, is involved,” “Man of Faith” Knight told reporters. “When it comes to separation of church and state, it’s very clear.”
The principal was advised a single e-mail asking for keeping a family in “thoughts and prayers” was permissible but the prayer chain was a bridge too far.
Principal Wise says he will continue the prayer chain on his own time outside of school e-mail and outside the reach of “man of faith” Knight.
Reports have been released of a Muslim man who threatened to shot up an Ohio high school because of his hatred of Israel.
Police said that a man “with a heavy accent” called Pickerington North High School Wednesday morning and said that he would be shooting students at the school with an AK-47 assault rifle. The man said he was “Mohammed Shehad” and that his actions would be in response to Israel’s actions in the Gaza strip.
The school was put into lockdown until police could determine there was no actual threat in the area of the school.
Police say that no one has been arrested and it’s likely the threat has passed but they were not taking anything for granted.
“There is no way to be absolutely certain,” Fairfield County Sheriff Dave Phalen said.
Terrorism analyst Patrick Poole, who lives in Ohio, said radical Islam in Ohio is on the rise.
“We have had a growing problem here in the Columbus area for years that local law enforcement and the media want to continue to sweep under the carpet,” Poole said. “Not only has central Ohio been the home of the largest known al-Qaeda cell since 9/11—with several members currently in prison on terrorism charges and at least two deported—we’ve had a number of cases of homegrown jihadists come through town.”
A judge has ordered an infamous abortionist to close his clinic.
Martin Haskell, a notorious late-term abortionist, was ordered to close his Lebanon Road Surgery Center because it would not comply with state health regulations. The initial order to close the clinic was issued at the end of last year but had been delayed because of litigation.
“We are gratified to see yet another late-term abortionist shutting down,” said Mike Gonidakis, Ohio Right to Life president and member of the state medical board. “As a result of this Health Department order, Martin Haskell, a strong proponent and former practitioner of the controversial and deadly partial-birth abortion procedure, will no longer be able to abort children and jeopardize women’s health in Hamilton County.”
The order to finally close the clinic was issued by Democratic state judge Jerry Metz who said all the previous orders by state officials and judges to close the clinic were legally valid.
Haskell’s wife has been attempting to keep the clinic open by appealing to Christians, saying the Bible endorses the killing of children through abortion, despite ample evidence to the contrary.
The state of Ohio has been carrying out a crackdown on abortion clinics.
Two of the clinics are at risk of losing their licenses to end babies’ lives. Northeast Ohio Women’s Center in Cuyahoga Falls and Capital Care Network of Toledo have been recommended to lose their licenses by the Ohio Department of Health. If the clinics do not contest the action by the ODH, they would have to close August 12th.
A Planned Parenthood office in Bedford Heights was fined $25,000 after a March inspection of the facility.
“One of the reasons Planned Parenthood was fined is because the facility was improperly storing containers of human tissue, which brings the name of notorious abortionist Kermit Gosnell to mind,” Katherine McCann of Ohio Right To Life told the Christian Post. “Another was because of improper follow-up documentation for two abortion patients who were hospitalized for bleeding and a perforated uterus. How is any of this ‘healthcare’? The real war on women is being waged by Ohio’s abortion facilities.”
McCann said that the crackdown is part of actions taken by the state’s governor to hold clinics accountable for unsanitary conditions.
“Before Governor Kasich’s administration, it was a struggle to ensure that Ohio’s abortion facilities were being held to common-sense health and safety standards. That’s really what we’re talking about here, common-sense standards,” said McCann. “ODH isn’t holding these facilities to extra special standards — any inspection a clinic undergoes is in line with the Ohio Revised Code. But Ohio’s abortion industry can’t even meet these basic requirements. Thankfully, for the last four years, abortion mills haven’t been allowed to skirt the law like they used to.”
