CINCINNATI —

The letters that spelled out the name of football legend Paul Brown were taken off of the front gate of the stadium Wednesday to make way for a new name.

However, it seems like the county is more interested in the fine print of the naming rights contract.

“From a fan perspective, I was excited about it, but also as a county commissioner,” said Hamilton County commissioner Alicia Reece. “But, let’s put the emotion aside and get into what’s in black and white.”

Reece said she’s in favor of the new naming rights that will make the home of the Bengals, Paycor Stadium, but she’s concerned about some of the details.

The contract says that after the first $16.6 million, they split naming rights money with the Bengals getting 70% and the county getting 30%.

Reece said there are some other layers to the contract that her financial team has analyzed and determined that the county will get a much smaller amount than that.

There is also a clause that has the county paying for “fulfillment costs.”

Those are things like advertising, private suites, club seats and tickets among others and there is no cap on those costs.

Reese wants to renegotiate the deal because the county contract only extends to 2026 and the naming rights contract runs 13 years beyond that.

“We’re happy that it’s a local company. We’re happy for the Bengals. What I’m trying to get to is a win, win, a win for the local company, a win for the Bengals and a win for the taxpayers,” Reese said.

The Los Angeles Unified School District and union leaders said Friday they reached a deal on a new contract for workers after a strike that shut down the nation’s second-largest school system for three days.The agreement includes a pay raise for workers such as bus drivers, custodians, cafeteria workers, special education assistants and other support staff. Union leaders from Local 99 of the Service Employees International Union say that will raise the average pay for those workers significantly.The deal must still be voted on by the full union.The roughly 30,000 workers represented by the union walked off the job from Tuesday to Thursday amid stalled contract talks. Classes resumed Friday.District superintendent Alberto Carvalho, SEIU Local 99 Executive Director Max Arias and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass announced the deal together.Members of United Teachers Los Angeles, the union representing 35,000 educators, counselors and other staff, joined the picket lines in solidarity.

The U.S. and its allies restart Iran nuclear talks on Monday unsure how Tehran's new government will approach negotiations, not optimistic about the prospects ahead and emphasizing that if diplomacy fails, the U.S. is "prepared to use other options."

The parties to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action will reconvene in Vienna after almost six months to discuss a mutual return to the deal by both the U.S. and Iran, but the hiatus has given time for new obstacles to take root.

Video above: Trump's Iran deal exit 'very bad judgments,' Biden said earlier this month

On Friday, Iran announced yet more advances in its uranium enrichment, which reduces the amount of time Tehran would need to develop a nuclear weapon, if it chooses to, an announcement clearly meant to give Iran leverage when it arrives in Vienna for talks.

Other parties to the agreement -- including Germany, the UK, Britain, France, China and Russia -- are coming into the talks calling for negotiations to pick up where they left off. European sources tell CNN they expect the Iranians to treat the meeting as "round one." U.S. officials have expressed similar concerns.

The recently elected hardline government in Tehran will send a new set of negotiators to Vienna who have been emphasizing the need for complete U.S. sanctions relief, not compliance with the deal, while U.S. officials have said they have absolutely no plans to offer Iran incentives to talk.

'The time to choose is short'

And senior U.S. officials have repeatedly warned that if advances in Iran's nuclear program and enrichment capability continue unabated, they could render the benefits of the JCPOA moot -- a development that would force the U.S. to pursue other options.

"We are still hopeful that diplomacy can find a way," Brett McGurk, the National Security Council's coordinator for the Middle East and North Africa, told the Manama Dialogue organized by the International Institute for Strategic Studies. "But if it cannot find a way, we are prepared to use other options."

"There is no question, we are not going to allow Iran to get a nuclear weapon, period," McGurk said. "And when it came to military force for behavior change, that is a pretty fuzzy objective for a military force. When it comes to military force to prevent a country from obtaining a nuclear weapon, that is a very achievable objective."

U.S. Special Envoy for Iran Rob Malley said in a tweet after a Nov. 18 meeting with Middle Eastern allies and European parties to the deal that Iran could choose one of two paths: "continued nuclear escalation & crisis, or mutual return to the JCPOA, creating opportunities for regional economic & diplomatic ties."

"Time to choose is short," Malley wrote.

Sources familiar with preparations for the talks say that the parties were closely watching International Atomic Energy Agency director Rafael Grossi's visit to Tehran last week, seeing it as an indication of Iran's approach to the talks in Vienna, those sources said. Grossi told the IAEA board afterward that the talks were "inconclusive."

One of the contentious issues remaining is that Iran is refusing inspectors from the IAEA monitoring access to the Karaj centrifuge production facility, which reports suggest has resumed operations.

"This is seriously affecting the [IAEA's] ability to restore continuity of knowledge at the [Karaj] workshop, which has been widely recognized as essential in relation to a return to the JCPOA," Grossi told a Board of Governors meeting on Wednesday.

The Arms Control Association noted that Iran's refusal to allow the IAEA to install new cameras or confirm that production hasn't restarted could undermine attempts to revitalize the JCPOA and its strict verification regime if it isn't possible to fully complete records of Iran's nuclear program. Tehran's refusal to grant access to Karaj also drives speculation and concern about what, exactly, Iran is doing, the ACA said.

'No choice'

On Thursday, the U.S. Mission to International Organizations in Vienna told the IAEA meeting that "if Iran's non-cooperation is not immediately remedied ... especially the restoration of continuity of knowledge at Karaj, the Board will have no choice but to reconvene in extraordinary session before the end of this year in order to address the crisis."

Meanwhile, on Friday, Iran announced its stock of 60% enriched uranium has grown to 66 pounds and its amount of 20% enriched uranium had also increased. Both levels are much closer to weapons-grade uranium which is enriched above 90%.

According to the Arms Control Association, enriching uranium to 20% "constitutes about 90 percent of the necessary work to enrich to weapons-grade."

As Iran's stockpiles grow, the ACA says, its breakout time, or the time it would take to produce enough uranium enriched to weapons-grade for one bomb, decreases. The ACA estimates that Iran's current breakout time is likely about one month, down from 12 months when the JCPOA was fully implemented.

Enrichment was limited under the JCPOA, which the U.S. left unilaterally in May 2018 under former President Donald Trump. Iran restarted enrichment last year to pressure the U.S. to ease sanctions.

'A very uncertain proposition'

State Department spokesman Ned Price reflected the ambiguity surrounding the resumed talks on Nov. 22, calling the mutual return to compliance with the JCPOA "a very uncertain proposition."

The next day, Price told reporters in Washington that, "it is our hope that the new government in Iran shows up in Vienna and shows up in Vienna ready to negotiate in good faith to build on the progress that had been achieved in the previous six rounds of negotiations."

But he added that the U.S. has "been very clear that we are not prepared to take unilateral steps solely for the benefit of greasing the wheel" to get the talks going again. Former President Donald Trump pulled the U.S. from the deal in 2018.

Sources familiar with the preparations for the talks have told CNN that the U.S. and its allies are not at a point where they would begin offering Iran confidence-building measures, but one official said there is a possibility the U.S. and its allies could employ them down the road. As a result, incentives for Iran won't be discussed at this week's meetings in Vienna, where the U.S. and allies will be focused on simply taking the temperature and seeking to advance from where they left off months ago, U.S. and European sources explained.

'Plan B'

Everyone involved in the talks is mindful of the ticking clock. The sources told CNN that there's still time to reach a deal, but it would likely run out by the end of next year. For now, they said there is no hard and fast "Plan B" yet.

Critics of the deal say that the Biden administration has sacrificed leverage by easing pressure on Iran while it builds up its nuclear program.

"The Biden administration's Iran policy is failing, and without a significant course correction that policy will either result in Iranian nuclear weapons or in a war to stop that development," said Mark Dubowitz, the CEO of Foundation for Defense of Democracies. Dubowitz argued that the administration's approach will allow Iran to rebuild toward a "lethal end state" of with pathways to nuclear weapons and a robust nuclear infrastructure.

"Israel is going to have no choice but to use military force to stop Iran's nuclear weapons before Tehran reaches this lethal end state," Dubowitz said.

Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett has been making clear that Israel will be prepared to act if necessary. Addressing delegates at a security conference near Tel Aviv on Tuesday, Bennett said that "if there is a return to the JCPOA, Israel obviously is not a party to the agreement and is not obligated by it."

Bennett complained that after the nuclear deal was signed in 2015, the "State of Israel simply went to sleep. We were occupied with other things. We will learn from this mistake. We will maintain our freedom of action," he said.

Western officials have tried to argue to the Israelis that attacks on Israel's nuclear program are not very useful when the overall goal is to come up with a comprehensive solution, and especially when the Iranians have sped up their capability to rebuild after attacks, sources familiar with the Iran talks have told CNN.

Western officials have also raised the danger of Iran responding with kinetic action, but sources familiar with the talks say Israeli officials still seem to think that it is still an effective tool to show their capabilities.

Asked about those warnings, Price said that, "at the end of the day, the United States and Israel, we share a common objective here, and that is to see to it that Iran is verifiably and permanently prevented from obtaining a nuclear weapon. And we continue to believe that diplomacy in coordination with our allies and partners -- and that, of course, includes Israel -- is the best path to achieve that goal."

"We've also been very clear that this is not a process that can go on indefinitely and if the Iranians through their actions or through their inactions demonstrate or suggest that they lack that good faith, that they lack that clarity of purpose, we'll have to turn to other means," Price said Tuesday. "We have a variety of other means we're discussing those with our allies and partners."

Diplomatic flurry

In recent weeks, U.S. officials have conducted a flurry of diplomacy with regional powers and other parties to the deal, working to forge a united front.

President Joe Biden met with European partners to discuss Iran during the June G7 meetings in the UK. In recent weeks, Secretary of State Antony Blinken has also conferred with European allies, as well as China and Russia, on Iran. And Malley recently met with Gulf countries, Israeli officials and European partners in the JCPOA.

"I think the Iranians believe they have some eastward option with Russia and China in which they can circumvent the pressure of sanctions," McGurk said on Sunday. "And that is just wrong. And so I think we are approaching the talks at the end of November as a pretty united front with the P5+1."

There are some serious negative perceptions around COVID-19 vaccines, but there are also strong emotions around getting them and those who really want them.

It all boils down to there just isn't enough to go around yet.

“And so, don't get down on yourself for feeling resentful that your grandmother is getting it and you're not,” said Susan Whitbourne, Professor Emeritus at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

Whitbourne is an expert in psychological and brain sciences. She says vaccine envy is real.

In addition to resentment, people may also be constantly checking on vaccine availability. Or they may feel hopeless.

Whitbourne says don't get down on yourself, get resourceful.

“But I would look for every option that you can find within reason, in order to try to secure one for yourself, or this could be vicarious vaccine envy for somebody that you care about who is unable to get it, so it doesn't have to be about yourself, which helps reduce the selfishness aspect of the thing,” said Whitbourne.

Whitbourne also suggests helping others by sharing things like information on vaccine sign-ups. That works well for those who may be experiencing vaccine guilt, an emotion that may come after getting the shots.

Whitbourne, who is over 70 and has been vaccinated, advocated on Twitter for equity and for her state to expand eligibility to 65 and over, which they recently did.

“And you can create a focus on behalf of the other people that you think are deserving, whether you have gotten the vaccine or not. It's still important for people to get vaccinated,” said Whitbourne.

She also attributed a lot of anxiety and stress around vaccines to lack of planning, which frustrates people.

After much delay, senators unveiled a nearly $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure package, wrapping up days of painstaking work on the inches-thick bill and launching what is certain to be a lengthy debate over President Joe Biden's big priority.

The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act clocked in at some 2,700 pages, and senators could begin amending it soon. Despite the hurry-up-and-wait during a rare weekend session, emotions bubbled over once the bill was produced Sunday night. The final product was not intended to stray from the broad outline senators had negotiated for weeks with the White House. 

"We haven't done a large, bipartisan bill of this nature in a long time," said Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. He said a final vote could be held "in a matter of days." 

A key part of Biden's agenda, the bipartisan bill is the first phase of the president's infrastructure plan. It calls for $550 billion in new spending over five years above projected federal levels, what could be one of the more substantial expenditures on the nation's roads, bridges, waterworks, broadband, and the electric grid in years.

Senators and staff labored behind the scenes for days to write the massive bill. It was supposed to be ready Friday, but by Sunday, even more glitches were caught and changes made.

Late Sunday, most of the 10 senators involved in the bipartisan effort rose on the Senate floor to mark the moment.

"We know that this has been a long and sometimes difficult process, but we are proud this evening to announce this legislation," said Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., a lead negotiator.

The bill showed "we can put aside our own political differences for the good of the country," she said.

Sen. Rob Portman of Ohio, a Republican negotiator, said the final product will be "great for the American people."

Over the long weekend of starts and stops, Schumer repeatedly warned that he was prepared to keep lawmakers in Washington for as long as it took to complete votes on both the bipartisan infrastructure plan and a budget blueprint that would allow the Senate to begin work later this year on a massive, $3.5 trillion social, health and environmental bill.

Among the major new investments, the bipartisan package is expected to provide $110 billion for roads and bridges, $39 billion for public transit, and $66 billion for rail. There's also set to be $55 billion for water and wastewater infrastructure as well as billions for airports, ports, broadband internet, and electric vehicle charging stations.

The spending is broadly popular among lawmakers, bringing long-delayed capital for big-ticket items that cities and states can rarely afford on their own.

Paying for the package has been a challenge after senators rejected ideas to raise revenue from a new gas tax or other streams. Instead, it is being financed from funding sources that might not pass muster with deficit hawks, including repurposing some $205 billion in untapped COVID-19 relief aid, as well as unemployment assistance that was turned back by some states and relying on projected future economic growth.

"I've got real concerns with this bill," said Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah.

Bipartisan support from Republican and Democratic senators pushed the process along, and Schumer wanted the voting to be wrapped up before senators left for the August recess.

Last week, 17 GOP senators joined all Democrats in voting to start work on the bipartisan bill. That support largely held, with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., voting yes in another procedural vote to nudge the process along in the 50-50 Senate, where 60 votes are needed to overcome a filibuster and advance legislation.

Whether the number of Republican senators willing to pass the bill grows or shrinks in the days ahead will determine if the president's signature issue can make it across the finish line.

Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, said he expects Schumer to allow all senators to have a chance to shape the bipartisan bill and allow for amendments from members of both parties.

"I hope we can now pump the brakes a little bit and take the time and care to evaluate the benefits and the cost of this legislation," Cornyn said.

The bipartisan bill still faces a rough road in the House, where progressive lawmakers want a more robust package but may have to settle for this one to keep Biden's infrastructure plans on track. 

The outcome with the bipartisan effort will set the stage for the next debate over Biden's much more ambitious $3.5 trillion package, a strictly partisan pursuit of far-reaching programs and services including child care, tax breaks, and health care that touch almost every corner of American life. Republicans strongly oppose that bill, which would require a simple majority for passage. Final votes on that measure are not expected until fall.

This story was originally published by Alex Livingston and Simon Kaufman at Newsy, with contributions from The Associated Press.

WASHINGTON —

Video above: What's the deal with infrastructure?

Senate Republicans reached a deal with Democrats on Wednesday over major outstanding issues in a $1 trillion infrastructure package, ready to begin consideration of a key part of President Joe Biden's agenda. An evening test vote was possible.

Lead GOP negotiator Sen. Rob Portman of Ohio made the announcement at the Capitol, flanked by four other Republican senators who have been in talks with Democrats and the White House on the bipartisan package.

"We now have an agreement on the major issues," Portman said. "We are prepared to move forward."

Asked about the agreement during a tour of a truck plant in Pennsylvania, Biden expressed approval.

"I feel confident about it," he said.

For days, senators and the White House have worked to salvage the bipartisan deal, a key part of Biden's agenda.

The outcome will set the stage for the next debate over Biden’s much more ambitious $3.5 trillion spending package, a strictly partisan pursuit of far-reaching programs and services including child care, tax breaks and health care that touch almost every corner of American life, and that Republicans strongly oppose.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer opened the Senate on Wednesday announcing a possible test vote on the bipartisan package in the evening. It will require 60 votes in the evenly split 50-50 Senate to proceed to consideration, meaning support from both parties. That would launch a potentially long process to consider the bill, and any possible amendments.

Republican senators met Wednesday morning with Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell, who appears to have given his nod to proceed. Portman said McConnell "all along has been encouraging our efforts."

Sen. Krysten Sinema of Arizona, a lead Democratic negotiator, said she expected the package would have enough support to move forward.

Sinema said she spoke with Biden Wednesday and he was "very excited" to have an agreement.

Democrats, who have slim control of the House and Senate, face a timeline to act on what would be some of the most substantial pieces of legislation in years.

The bipartisan package includes about $600 billion in new spending on highways, bridges, transit, broadband, water systems and other public works projects.

Filling in the details has become a month-long exercise ever since the senators struck an agreement with Biden more than a month ago over the broad framework. There remains work to do as they draft the legislative text.

Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, who has been central to talks, said, "That doesn’t mean every 't' is crossed, every ‘i’ dotted, but on the major issues we are there."

Republican senators sparred at their closed-door lunch Tuesday, one side arguing against doing anything that would smooth the way for the Democrats’ broader bill, according to a person granted anonymity to discuss the private meeting. Others spoke in favor of the bipartisan package.

A recent poll from The Associated Press-NORC found 8 in 10 Americans favor some increased infrastructure spending.

House Democrats have their own transportation bill, which includes much more spending to address rail transit, electric vehicles and other strategies to counter climate change.

At a private meeting of House Democrats on Tuesday, Rep. Peter DeFazio of Oregon, the chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, called the Senate's bipartisan measure complete "crap," according to two Democrats who attended the session and spoke on condition of anonymity to describe it.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi did not commit to supporting the bipartisan package until she sees the details, but said Wednesday she's "rooting for it."

Pelosi said, "I very much want it to pass."

Senators in the bipartisan group have been huddling privately for weeks. The group includes 10 core negotiators, split evenly between Democrats and Republicans, but has swelled at times to 22.

Transit funding has remained a stubborn dispute, as Republican senators are wary of formalizing what has been a typical formula for the Highway Trust Fund allotting around 80% for highways and 20% for transit.

Most Republican senators come from rural states where highways dominate and public transit is scarce, while Democrats view transit as a priority for cities and a key to easing congesting and fighting climate change. Democrats don't want to see the formula dip below its typical threshold.

Expanding access to broadband. which has become ever more vital for households during the coronavirus pandemic, sparked a new debate. Republicans pushed back against imposing regulations on internet service providers in a program that helps low-income people pay for service.

Sinema said transit and broadband were the remaining issues being finished up Wednesday.

Democrats also have been insisting on a prevailing-wage requirement, not just for existing public works programs but also for building new roads, bridges, broadband and other infrastructure, but it's not clear that will make the final package.

Still unclear is how to pay for the bipartisan package after Democrats rejected a plan to bring in funds by hiking the gas tax drivers pay at the pump and Republicans dashed a plan to boost the IRS to go after tax scofflaws.

Funding could come from repurposing COVID relief aid, reversing a Trump-era pharmaceutical rebate and other streams. It's possible the final deal could run into political trouble if it doesn't pass muster as fully paid for when the Congressional Budget Office assesses the details.

Portman said the package will be "more than paid for."

Meanwhile, Democrats are readying the broader $3.5 trillion package that is being considered under budget rules that allow passage with 51 senators in the split Senate, with Vice President Kamala Harris able to break a tie. It would be paid for by increasing the corporate tax rate and the tax rate on Americans earning more than $400,000 a year.

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Associated Press writers Alan Fram and Josh Boak in Washington and Tali Arbel in New York contributed to this report.

WASHINGTON —

President Joe Biden will look to sell Americans on the economic benefits of the $973 billion infrastructure package while in Wisconsin on Tuesday, hoping to boost the bipartisan agreement that is held together in large part by the promise of millions of new jobs.

Biden will travel to La Crosse, population 52,000, and tour its public transit center, followed by a speech about the infrastructure package announced last week.

The president presented his message to Democratic donors on Monday that the agreement was a way for the United States to assert the principles of democracy and the economic might that can come from dramatic investments in the country's economic future.

“This infrastructure bill signals to the world that we can function, we can deliver," Biden said. "We can do significant things, show that America is back.”

White House officials issued an internal memo that highlights how the largest investment in transportation, water systems and services in nearly a century would boost growth. The memo notes that the total package is four times the size of the infrastructure investment made a dozen years ago in response to the Great Recession and the biggest since Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal in the 1930s.

It also emphasizes an analysis suggesting that 90% of the jobs generated by the spending could go to workers without college degrees, a key shift as a majority of net job gains before the pandemic went to college graduates.

“This is a blue-collar blueprint to rebuild America,” the memo says.

Potential economic gains were a shared incentive for the group of Democratic and Republican senators who agreed to the deal on Thursday. But the process briefly fell into disarray late last week as Biden suggested the deal would be held up until he also received a separate package for infrastructure, jobs and education that would be determined solely by Democrats through the budget reconciliation process.

Biden said Saturday that this was not a veto threat, and by Sunday the package appeared back on track.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Monday that Biden is “eager” for both bills to be approved by Congress and that the president is going to “work his heart out” to make it happen.

“The president intends to sign both pieces of legislation into law,” Psaki said at her daily briefing.

Approval of both bills by Congress remains a long haul with this summer's initial votes expected in July. Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell questioned the legislative process ahead and mounted fresh obstacles while speaking Monday in Kentucky.

McConnell said he has not yet decided whether he will support the bipartisan package, but he wants Biden to pressure House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer to say they will allow the bipartisan arrangement to pass without mandating that the much larger and broader follow-up bill be in place.

“I appreciate the president saying that he’s willing to deal with infrastructure separately, But he doesn’t control the Congress,” McConnell said at a press conference in Louisville.

The two bills had always been expected to move in tandem, and that is likely to continue as Biden drops his veto threat but reaches across the aisle for the nearly $1 trillion bipartisan package as well as his own broader package. The Democratic leaders are pressing ahead on the broader bill, which includes Biden's families and climate change proposals, as well as their own investments in Medicare, swelling to some $6 trillion.

The prospect of additional economic gains might be a way to garner public support and soothe partisan tensions. Biden also faces pressure from Democrats such as New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who told NBC's “Meet the Press” that the spending isn't as huge as it might seem because the sums are spread out over multiple years.

The eight-page White House memo comes from Brian Deese, director of the National Economic Council, and senior adviser Anita Dunn. It indicates that the $110 billion for roads and bridges would help relieve traffic and congestion that costs the economy over $160 billion annually. The memo justifies the $48.5 billion planned for public transit by citing studies that link light rail and buses to increased earnings and employment for workers. It defends the $66 billion for repairs and upgrades for rail lines by saying that current delays and disruptions weigh on growth.

The bipartisan agreement also would help nurture the market for electric vehicles, improve broadband access, repair water lines and create resilience against damage from extreme weather events.

Meanwhile, the White House and Congress are pushing ahead on separate infrastructure legislation, a top priority of the administration that is shared by many lawmakers interested in securing federal funds for long-sought road, highway, bridge and other construction projects back home.

This week, the House is scheduled to vote on a highway, transit and water infrastructure bill that would invest up to $715 billion over five years. It overlaps parts of the bipartisan agreement and could become a building block toward the Democrats' broader package coming later this summer or fall.

The bill contains many of the priorities that Biden has set, including $45 billion to replace lead water service lines throughout the nation and $4 billion for electric vehicle charging stations, as well as a big boost in spending for transportation programs focusing on repairing existing roads and bridges.

It also opens the door to nearly 1,500 requests from lawmakers that would fund specific projects back in their congressional districts, moving Congress a step closer toward a return to earmarked spending.

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Associated Press writers Lisa Mascaro and Kevin Freking in Washington and Bruce Schreiner in Louisville, Ky., contributed to this report.

PIKE COUNTY, Ohio —

On the fifth anniversary of the Pike County murders, a status hearing in Pike County Court turned into a surprise plea deal in the killings.

Eight members of the Rhoden family were brutally murdered in what Gov. Mike DeWine called the biggest case in Ohio's Bureau of Criminal Investigation history.

The youngest charged, Jake Wagner, agreed to a plea deal to avoid the death penalty.

DeWine stood alongside family members of those who were killed and teared up talking with us about the emotions of this day.

"Five years ago, today, I was here, we met with family members in the church and I committed to them that we would find who did this and that we would bring them to justice. There was a lot of justice done today," DeWine said.

On the five-year anniversary of the Pike County murders, an emotional DeWine stood outside the Pike County Courthouse.

Thursday brought a victory in a case he'd held close to the heart since he was Ohio's attorney general.

Wagner agreed to a deal, pleading guilty to 23 counts including eight counts of aggravated murder for the killings of eight members of the Rhoden family in 2016.

They were shot execution-style at four homes.

"That removes the sentence of death from, as a possible sentence, that will not be possible, at that point, to impose a possible death sentence. Do you understand that?" the judge said.

"I do, your honor," Wagner said.

Prosecutors said there was a growing custody dispute between Wagner and Hannah Rhoden over their daughter.

They outlined meticulous planning by Jake Wagner, Angela Wagner, George "Billy" Wagner and George Wagner IV, including buying phone jammers and hacking Facebook accounts, forging custody documents and building silencers for guns.

Jake Wagner apologized in court.

His attorneys said he knows he will die in prison.

"Family's been through hell. While today, I'm sure was a very gratifying day, it couldn't have been an easy day. They've got to be leaving here just totally exhausted and, you know, emotionally spent. But these are tough people, these are strong people," DeWine said.

Prosecutors said Jake Wagner clearly implicated the other Wagners in his statements.

They also said he led them to weapons and vehicles used in the killings.

In addition to a series of life sentences, Jake Wagner could also owe hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines.

Prosecutors said Jake Wagner's deal also includes an agreement that will allow Angela Wagner, George "Billy" Wagner, and George Wagner IV to avoid the death penalty, but that means Jake Wagner will have to testify in each of their trials.