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!
Medicaid supports home-based care for more than 100,000 Ohioans. But with looming cuts they might be forced into more-expensive nursing homes.
Dorothy Valentine, 80, of Dayton. (Photo by Marty Schladen, Ohio Capital Journal.)
By Marty Schladen
Polling shows that 62% of Americans think Medicare, the federal retirement program, pays for long-term nursing-home care, but it doesn’t. Medicaid does.
That’s why millions of American families with loved ones in the nursing home are forced to spend down their wealth until they qualify for Medicaid and then the federal-state health program foots the bill.
By Susan Tebben
Ohio has seen its second straight week of “significant increases” in cases of cyclosporiasis, the parasite that has been connected to leafy greens, and to severe diarrhea throughout the U.S, according to the state’s health director.
By Ariana Figueroa
A federal judge lifted a stay Wednesday on the termination of TPS for 350,000 Haitians, including in Ohio, in order to comply with a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that cleared the way for Trump to remove their legal status and open them up for deportations.
By Morgan Trau, WEWS
Northeast Ohio Republican lawmaker DJ Swearingen has dropped out of his Ohio House race for the fall, instead pursuing a new opportunity with the federal government.
COMMENTARY
An Amazon Web Services data center is shown situated near single-family homes. (Photo by Nathan Howard/Getty Images)
By Rob Moore
Last week, a group of legislators in the Ohio House of Representatives introduced a far-reaching bill to regulate data center development across the state of Ohio. Overall, though, it seems like this bill is a hammer for an issue that likely needs a scalpel.
STATELINE
The big challenges and policy issues that cross state lines.
By Kelcie Moseley-Morris
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche is one step closer to confirmation in the Senate, and based on promises he made to faith leaders around the country last week, that means national anti-abortion by the Justice Department actions may be one step closer as well.
By Robbie Sequeira
Three states this year became the first ones to enact laws restricting companies from using personal data such as browsing history or shopping habits to set individualized prices on goods and services, a practice known as surveillance pricing.
By Kevin Hardy
State leaders of both parties say the federal government — including the president — wields too much power, and they want to see more authority returned to the states.
THE RUNDOWN
News from other states
By Rudi Keller, Missouri Independent
Missouri Republican Sec. of State Denny Hoskins blocked a public vote on the state’s new congressional map Tuesday, declaring a referendum petition unconstitutional despite the citizens group People Not Politicians turning in more than 300,000 signatures.
NATIONAL NEWS
By Shauneen Miranda
U.S. Senate Democrats on Tuesday rebuked the Department of Education’s efforts to transfer its special education programs and civil rights enforcement to other agencies.
By Jacob Fischler
The stopgap spending bill supported by an overwhelming majority of U.S. senators does not address tens of billions in expiring transportation funding, leaving states facing a massive effective budget cut starting Oct. 1.
By Ashley Murray
U.S. acting Attorney General Todd Blanche was one step closer to confirmation Tuesday, after two skeptical Republicans voted to advance his nomination given Blanche’s signed promise that President Trump’s nearly $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization” fund is dead.
HISTORY THURSDAY
On this day, Aug. 6, in 1945, the United States dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan — the blast killed more than 70,000 people and destroyed most of the city — in an effort to hasten the end of World War II. On Aug. 9, 1945, the U.S. dropped a second atomic bomb on Nagasaki. Read more from Brittanica
CATCHING OUR EYE
Oh, the Ohio Ballot Board didn’t rewrite ballot language to confuse voters and make a mockery of themselves and democracy this time?
The Statehouse News Bureau’s Sarah Donaldson reports, “Ohio Ballot Board OKs language that puts Issue 3, or photo ID, on ballot.”
Ohio voters will have a whole slate of statewide candidates to choose from this fall, but just one ballot issue is going before them.
Members of the Ohio Ballot Board have given the green light for the language for Issue 3, which asks voters whether they should have to show government-issued photo ID for any in-person voting. That’s already required to vote, before and on Election Day, and it has been since 2023.Public schools levies and cuts. The Toledo Blade’s Mike Sigov reports, “Sylvania schools outlines $11.3M in cuts if earned-income tax levy fails.”
Sylvania schools has detailed about $11.3 million in cuts it would need to make if a 1 percent earned-income tax levy fails to pass in November.
In a letter Tuesday to “Sylvania parents, guardians, and community,” Superintendent Tim Zieroff encouraged recipients to “carefully” review the positions, programs, curriculum, activities, and other expenses to be eliminated or reduced beginning with the 2027-28 school year if the Nov. 3 operating levy is not approved.Public school teachers. Jessie Balmert reports in The Columbus Dispatch, “Ramaswamy revives debate over teacher merit pay in Ohio. Can it work?”
Republican gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy has proposed merit-based pay for Ohio's public school teachers. The concept of performance-based pay for teachers has been debated for decades by both Republican and Democratic politicians.
Research shows merit pay can be effective, but success depends heavily on program design, teacher buy-in, and avoiding overreliance on test scores. Previous attempts to implement merit pay in Ohio, including in Cleveland, have ultimately failed due to various challenges.
THE POD
THAT'S ALL FOR NOW, FOLKS.
Mahalo!
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