Thursday, July 9th, 2026

Welcome to Thursday’s edition of The Pennant. To listen to this newsletter, click the “Listen Online” link in the top right corner of this email.

On this day in 1962, Andy Warhol's Campbell's Soup Cans went on display at the Ferus Gallery in Los Angeles, a debut that helped launch the Pop Art movement.

A truck driver faces evidence tampering charges after his semi killed UMass Lowell goalkeeper Toby Forsythe, a 21-year-old Gahanna native. Read more in the Top of the Fold.

An investigation found that Polymarket has been paying creators to fake winning bets. Find out how in our Business section.

MADISON COUNTY, Ohio — A truck driver has been charged with tampering with evidence after his semi rear-ended a car on Interstate 71 early July 5, killing 21-year-old Tobias "Toby" Forsythe of Gahanna, a UMass Lowell soccer goalkeeper. 

Bekhzod Asrarov, 42, an Uzbek national who Fox News reported entered the U.S. in 2024 through the diversity visa lottery, is accused of removing the truck's dashcam, which troopers later found in his pocket.

HAMDEN, Ohio — A relative of the family charged after 16 children were found living in squalor in a Vinton County home says he and his family have received death threats despite having no involvement, telling WOWK the harassment forced them to delete social media and kept his wife from work.

FAIRLAWN, Ohio — The Fairlawn Police Department is warning of zero tolerance for "teen takeovers" after rumblings that the social media trend could target the area, saying anyone who organizes or joins unsanctioned gatherings that turn into crime, property damage, or disruption will be identified and held accountable. 

The department said Summit Mall and all city businesses are private property, and those who come to cause trouble could be arrested and banned indefinitely. 

For more on this story, go here.

LIBERTY TOWNSHIP, Ohio — A former Lakota Local Schools teacher used district technology to groom and later abuse a student over about three years, and the district let him retire before investigations closed, according to a July 1 lawsuit detailed by education writer Sean M. Brooks.

The suit — against the teacher, Superintendent Ashley Whitely, and Principal Bill Brinkman — says the teacher began messaging the student on the district's Remind app when she was 13 and kept contacting her through her district email and Chromebook after the app was dropped. It claims the district never monitored the messages or told her parents she was repeatedly pulled from class.

Parents reported the teacher in March 2025 after allegedly finding him typing and deleting sexually explicit content in a shared online document while the student was logged in. The district promised administrative leave, but instead granted Family Medical Leave and approved his retirement weeks later, the suit says.

The lawsuit also alleges a school nurse's failure to monitor doses led the student to stockpile medication she later used in a suicide attempt that required hospitalization. The district denies the allegations and says the teacher resigned before its investigation finished.

Read Sean M. Brooks' full account at The American Classroom.

NEW YORK — Prediction market Polymarket paid mostly college-age content creators to film themselves making fake trades and fake wins on dummy versions of its website, according to a Wall Street Journal investigation of more than 1,100 videos.

One creator, George Makihara, posted a clip showing a $100,000 win on a bet that President Trump would say "McDonald's" in January. On Polymarket's real site, more than 50 accounts made that bet, and all of them lost.

The Journal found that about 10% of the videos it reviewed depicted creators winning almost $900,000, when identical real bets would have lost more than $166,000. The paper reported the company also built near-copies of its site, recruited others to repost the clips, and paid creators to target U.S. users, who can reach its unregulated platform through a VPN despite a 2022 ban.

Polymarket told CBS News it is committed to transparency and is conducting a comprehensive audit of its active promotional content.

On June 26, a consumer protection firm sued Blockratize, which operates Polymarket, along with founder Shayne Coplan and marketing chief Matthew Modabber, over the campaign.

The Pennant welcomes letters to the editor and guest columns from readers. Submissions may be edited for length, clarity, and AP style. The Pennant reserves the right to verify all information contained in submissions before publication.

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