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!
Affordability is on the minds of many Ohioans this election season, whether it's groceries, utility bills, housing, or farming costs. Childcare affordability and the high cost of living for families are concerns across the political spectrum in Ohio, new research shows.
A daycare employee plays with two infants. (Photo by Amelia Ferrell Knisely, States Newsroom.)
By Susan Tebben
Ohio-specific polling commissioned by advocacy group Groundwork Ohio and the national early childhood advocacy group First Five Years Fund, showed “significant agreement across party lines about the problem.” The polling showed 64% of Ohio voters polled consider lowering the cost of living as one of the most important issues facing Ohioans.
By Megan Henry
A year after an orphan well explosion in Wayne National Forest killed two men, a worker who sustained severe burns filed a lawsuit against the companies involved.
By Morgan Trau, WEWS
A state audit of the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio shows that bills have spiked dramatically, and the agency exhibits a lack of preparation for rising energy needs.
By Morgan Trau, WEWS
Ohio’s top law enforcement leaders agree with the public: misusing Flock cameras should be punished. Attorney General Andy Wilson and the Fraternal Order of Police of Ohio are asking lawmakers for some regulations.
COMMENTARY
An Amazon Web Services data center is shown situated near single-family homes. (Photo by Nathan Howard/Getty Images)
By Brian Williams
The Ohio Republican tax giveaways to the tech giants now building data centers in Ohio will continue to plague the state for 30 years. But that $2.3 billion in tax exemptions is just one of many shortsighted deals where state assets were turned over to corporations.
By Alison Bell
Teacher shortages continue to affect schools in Ohio. At the same time, many working adults are looking for careers that offer purpose, stability and the chance to have a lasting impact. Taken together, those two realities create an important opportunity.
STATELINE
The big challenges and policy issues that cross state lines.
By Amanda Watford
Students ages 12 to 18 experienced higher rates of reported crime at school than away from school in 2024, according to a new federal analysis. But the overall rate of crime victimization at school has not changed significantly since 2014.
By Nada Hassanein
Tribal leaders across Washington and Oregon told Stateline that this year’s record-breaking wildfires burned timber that they rely on for income, threatened food sources and waterways, and harmed the health of their communities.
THE RUNDOWN
News from other states
By William J. Ford, Maryland Matters
Congressional representatives implored Black citizens to vote this fall during a town hall at the Congressional Black Caucus’s annual legislative conference last week. “This is the most consequential election of our lifetime,” said U.S. Rep. Gregory Meeks.
NATIONAL NEWS
By Jacob Fischler
Voting rights groups and Democratic officials are looking to defend against what they see as possible election interference from the Trump administration ahead of the upcoming midterm elections, now that they’ve won a major battle over mail ballots.
By Ariana Figueroa
The White House Thursday withdrew the nomination of Richard “Lance” Schroyer to lead the agency the president tasked with carrying out his mass deportation campaign, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
By Shauneen Miranda
The U.S. Senate on Thursday took another step forward on a sweeping bipartisan bill to overhaul the college sports world. The measure would set national standards for college athletes’ compensation and provide certain antitrust protections to the NCAA.
CATCHING OUR EYE
Data centers. Cleveland.com’s Sabrina Eaton reports, “Data centers become Senate flashpoint as Husted’s ratepayer bill stalls amid election battle.”
A day after the Ratepayer Protection Act passed the U.S. House of Representatives in a 417 to 3 vote, Husted asked the Senate for unanimous consent to skip debate and pass his bill, which would direct state utility regulators to consider standards requiring data centers that draw more than 100 megawatts of power to pay the full incremental cost of the electricity infrastructure they need…
Democratic U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich of New Mexico blocked Husted’s effort.Heinrich, who is the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee’s top Democrat, said Husted’s bill asks state regulators to consider making data centers pay their own infrastructure costs instead of requiring it.
“The Ratepayer Protection Act falls short of what we need to do to respond,” said Heinrich. Instead, he urged Senate approval of his own alternative proposal, called the Grid Savings Act, which would mandate the protections.Deforming drug. The Ohio Newsroom/WVXU’s Tana Weingartner reports, “An Ohio company distributed a deformity-causing drug. Survivors want recognition, support.”
From 1959 to 1962, a pharmaceutical company in Ohio distributed thalidomide without approval from the FDA. Some children whose mothers were given the drug during pregnancy were born with severely deformed limbs.
Now those survivors want the federal government to formally acknowledge their existence.
THE POD
THAT'S ALL FOR NOW, FOLKS.
Mahalo!
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