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!
The federal government is taking swipes at funding for teen pregnancy prevention, causing concerns in Ohio and elsewhere as advocates attempt to keep helping teens.
Getty Images.
By Susan Tebben
The cuts are also bringing about discussion when it comes to teens who are already parents.
By Morgan Trau, WEWS
The frontrunners for Ohio governor both want to regulate data centers but have different plans for how to address growing concerns.
By Kathiann M. Kowalski, Canary Media
Ohio has made $100 million available for new energy projects through the JobsOhio Energy Opportunity Initiative, but critics are pushing back on the decision to bar renewable energy projects from accessing the funds — and on the lack of transparency.
COMMENTARY
Lake Erie from Kelley’s Island. (File photo from Getty Images)
By Mike Shriberg
In a time of political polarization, it’s easy to forget that the vast majority of Americans of all backgrounds and beliefs — 80% or more, depending on the poll — value environmental conservation. One success story is the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative.
STATELINE
The big challenges and policy issues that cross state lines.
By Tim Henderson
Measles cases this year have surpassed all of 2025 to become the worst since the disease was declared eliminated in 2000, with cases now in 44 states and the District of Columbia, according to a federal report released Friday.
By Amanda Watford
Crime rates continued falling across a sample of large U.S. cities in the first half of 2026, with homicide rates dropping enough to put the nation on track for another historic low in killings. The decline builds on a trend that began in late 2022.
By Kelcie Moseley-Morris
A federal judge in Virginia ruled Thursday that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration did not sufficiently justify restrictions imposed in 2023 on a drug used to terminate early pregnancies, adding another layer of complexity to a string of legal cases.
By Kevin Hardy
Since President Donald Trump has gutted much of the federal government’s consumer protection work, state attorneys general are increasingly left to fight high prices and investigate businesses themselves.
THE RUNDOWN
News from other states
By Amelia Ferrell Knisely, West Virginia Watch
The executive committee of the West Virginia Republican Party is moving to disavow Del. Elliott Pritt from the party following his arrest for enticing a child and having a sexual relationship with the minor.
NATIONAL NEWS
By Jacob Fischler
Three people who observed federal immigration enforcement said in a federal lawsuit filed Friday that Homeland Security illegally recorded them and revoked their status in the department’s trusted traveler programs, TSA Precheck and Global Entry.
By David Lightman
Political party poll watchers are showing up more outside polling places. They have a different mission than the nonpartisan election observers long regarded as bulwarks of credibility, and there’s concern that voters will be confused.
By Ashley Murray
President Trump reignited his tariff agenda Friday by imposing new import taxes on products from dozens of top U.S. trading partners, immediately replacing temporary global tariffs he levied after the U.S. Supreme Court delivered a major blow.
By Sam Gauntt
A group of current and former U.S. Department of Agriculture employees are calling on the Trump administration to halt the mandated relocation of more than 2,500 employees from its Washington, D.C., headquarters to five regional offices.
By Sam Gauntt
The Democratic National Committee’s Rules and Bylaws Committee voted Friday that South Carolina should hold the party’s first primary in the 2028 presidential election cycle.
CATCHING OUR EYE
Records. Mother Jones reports, “Assault, Misogyny, Verbal Threats: Records Detail New Allegations Against Rep. Max Miller.”
Police reports and filings in a bitter custody dispute raise new questions about the conduct of an Ohio Republican as he campaigns for a third term.Segregated Ohio schools. The Ohio Newsroom’s Kendall Crawford reports, “Ohio schools are among the most segregated in the nation, per report.”
A recent report from the Segregation Tracking Project and education advocacy group Brown’s Promise finds Ohio’s public schools are the fifth most racially segregated in the U.S. — behind New York, Illinois, Pennsylvania and Michigan.
Those racial divides lead to worse outcomes for Black students, said Ann Owens, UCLA professor of sociology and one of the founders of the tracking project.County budget commissions. Ideastream’s Matthew Richmond reports, “County budget commissions now have the power to reduce property taxes. What will they do with it?”
Budget commissions have existed in Ohio since 2010 and have always had the authority to approve the tax budgets of any entity that receives property taxes; school districts, parks, libraries, social services agencies, townships, port authorities and community colleges, to name several.
But how far the commissions could go is an open question.Acting AG violated law on Epstein. Politico reports, “Todd Blanche ‘conceded’ violating law on Epstein files, judge finds.”
The Justice Department has effectively conceded it is violating the law Congress passed last November requiring the public release of the vast majority of records relating to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, a federal judge declared Thursday.Weaponization of government. The New York Times reports, “Trump Administration Admits Canceling Grants to States That Did Not Vote for Him.”
Federal officials said in court documents that they halted billions of dollars in funding for energy projects to states “based solely” on whether they backed President Trump in the 2024 election.Musk tries to deny deaths caused by DOGE cuts. The New Republic writes, “The Real Reason Elon Musk Keeps Insisting DOGE Cuts Killed “Zero” Kids.”
“Zero died because of DOGE. Zero. Point. Zero.”
That remarkable claim is from Elon Musk’s interview last week with The Economist, in which he reiterated one of his favorite new claims: His Department of Government Efficiency’s huge cuts to international humanitarian aid did not result in the death of any children abroad. This isn’t meant as a vague or hyperbolic exaggeration. Musk’s assertion is quite emphatically that not a single child—or even a fraction of a child, as his strange “zero point zero” formulation suggests—died due to these DOGE cuts…
But it’s all nonsense. Researchers have documented hundreds of thousands of deaths. A USAID whistleblower revealed that the agency itself projected that the cuts would unleash immense human suffering. Nicholas Kristof of The New York Times recently documented specific, concrete cases of people who died in Africa of malaria, HIV, and other maladies due to DOGE-driven reductions in medical supplies and aid workers.
THE POD
THAT'S ALL FOR NOW, FOLKS.
Mahalo!
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