
The morning newsletter of the Ohio Capital Journal
Reporting for the People
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By David DeWitt | Editor in Chief
Good morning Ohio!
Dr. Amy Acton promised to “give a voice” to Ohio’s small business community during a Tuesday visit to Fox’s Bagel and Deli in Bexley. The Democratic candidate for governor described several ideas including loans to help new businesses get off the ground.
By Nick Evans
The Ohio Capital Journal asked Republican candidate for governor Vivek Ramaswamy’s campaign about his plans for small business but got no response.
By Megan Henry
Ohio's chronic absenteeism rate has been trending downward in recent years, but still remains higher than it was pre-pandemic.
By Morgan Trau
Early voting numbers in Ohio’s liberal-leaning counties are exceeding their 2022 numbers. Democrats hope their voters turn out to change the balance of power in the U.S. Senate.
COMMENTARY
By Terrance Hinton, Ph.D.
For Ohio, the failed execution in Tennessee adds urgency to the debate over whether changing execution methods can address the broader concerns about capital punishment or whether the state should abolish it altogether.
The big challenges and policy issues that cross state lines.
STATELINE
By Tim Henderson
A perfect storm of harsh immigration enforcement, aging journeymen and a building boom for data centers is wreaking havoc on the nation’s supply of skilled trade workers.
THE RUNDOWN
News from other states
By Baya Burgess, Kansas Reflector
Almost 50 million Americans ages 18-29 will be eligible to vote in the November election, outgrowing the voter-eligible Gen Z population by 9 million since 2024, according to an April survey. Most of them believe the country is on the wrong track, the survey found.
NATIONAL NEWS
By Ashley Murray
A growing number of voters in public opinion surveys are taking their anger about affordability to the polls this midterm election and blaming President Donald Trump’s tariffs as a culprit for rising expenses.
By Jonathan Shorman
Homeland Security obtained tens of millions of unspecified records as part of a sweeping nationwide effort to find voter fraud, according to internal DHS reports, and weighed using undercover agents to investigate voter registration efforts by nonprofit groups.
By Jennifer Shutt
Nearly all of the U.S. senators elected this year will be in office when Congress debates how to restructure Social Security to prevent an automatic drop-off in retirement benefits in 2032.
By Ashley Murray
Every child in the United States with a valid Social Security number is now enrolled in a tax-advantaged investment account, titled a “Trump Account,” President Donald Trump announced Wednesday.
By Shauneen Miranda
Leading immigration advocates and experts sounded the alarm Wednesday on the Trump administration’s sweeping efforts to undo state laws allowing some immigrants to pay in-state college tuition in the states where they reside.
SCIENCE FRIDAY
Immune cells that clear old and dying cells get sluggish with age. Scientists think that rejuvenating these cells could help combat aging. Read more from Livescience
CATCHING OUR EYE
Assault on Ohio public schools. The Elyria Chronicle-Telegram’s Owen MacMillan reports, “'We are under assault,' Advocates say Ohio school funding being actively undercut.”
As districts across the county pursue funding levies next month, and those across the state face mounting financial pressures, a group of parents, educators and advocates gathered to discuss the state of school funding in Ohio and its future.
A panel of policy experts, educators and parents argued at the event that Ohio’s school funding shortfall was not the result of overpaid administrators or local fiscal irresponsibility, but of an active choice by the state legislature to underfund public schools.Get the Flock out? WOSU’s Katie Geniusz reports, “Meet the central Ohio residents who want to 'DeFlock' their neighborhoods.”
On June 13, the DeFlock chapter of Upper Arlington held its first meeting. It would be the first DeFlock group in central Ohio. Six people showed up, including the group's two founders, Paul Shannon and Christian Gabis. The organization aims to have Flock cameras removed from the community.
Now, Shannon and Gabis believe the group may have outgrown the 75-seat Friend’s Theater at the Tremont Branch of Upper Arlington Public Library.Ohio swing counties. Ideastream’s Matthew Richmond reports, “Ohio’s statewide races could depend on a few counties, Brown’s return to the ballot and Trump.”
This year’s election is similar to 2018 — it’s a midterm election, halfway through President Donald Trump’s term and the president’s approval ratings are low.
And Sherrod Brown’s presence on the ballot may serve to drive up support for other Democrats, like gubernatorial candidate Amy Acton, said David Cohen, director of the Applied Politics Program at University of Akron…
The election may come down to who shows up to the polls in a few counties, said Cohen, including Ottawa, Trumbull and Mahoning Counties.Vance’s laughable definition of ‘socialism.’ Cleveland.com’s Howard Koplowitz reports, “‘Our VP really is an idiot’: Vance hammered for ‘laughably dishonest’ definition of socialism.”
“So, I don’t know what the term means anymore. I think in reality, what it actually means in the American context is that you want to replace American workers with foreign workers, and you want boys to play in girls’ sports,” the vice president continued. “That’s what united the socialists that I see running across the United States of America today.”
Trump administration critics and political observers both mocked Vance and accused the vice president of being fully aware of the proper definition of socialism.
The primary definition, according to Merriam-Webster, is “any of various egalitarian economic and political theories or movements advocating collective or governmental ownership and administration of the means of production and distribution of goods.”
Vance’s definition “is so laughably dishonest,” said Reason reporter Billy Binion. “The Trump administration would like to change the definition of socialism because it’s engaging in it and has bought stakes in dozens of private companies. JD Vance is practically a woke progressive at this point.”
THE POD
THAT'S ALL FOR NOW, FOLKS.
Mahalo!
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