The morning newsletter of the Ohio Capital Journal
Reporting for the People
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By Nick Evans | Reporter
Good morning Ohio!
Family and friends remembered 20-year-old Pierre Damas Bel as a hard-working, loving, and dependable young man who had hopes of building a hospital in Haiti.
Pierre Damas Bel's funeral at St. John’s Missionary Baptist Church in Springfield. (Photo by Megan Henry, Ohio Capital Journal)
By Megan Henry
Pierre Damas Bel died in an apparent suicide on Aug. 31. His family said that happened becuase he was forced to wear an ankle monitor by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement after the U.S. Supreme Court allowed President Donald Trump to end temporary protected status for the 330,000 Haitians who’ve fled violence in their home country.
By Marty Schladen
Former U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, a Democrat, has an eight-point lead over U.S. Sen. Jon Husted, a Republican who was appointed by Gov. Mike DeWine, according to a poll of Ohio registered voters released last week. The same poll found that in the contest for governor, Democrat Amy Acton was up six points over Republican Vivek Ramaswamy.
By Morgan Trau
Even though Ohio is starting a gas tax holiday, drivers won’t see prices fall immediately. Gov. Mike DeWine signed a bill temporarily reducing the state’s gas tax into law Thursday morning. While the provisions are effective now, the holiday didn’t fully start until 12:01 a.m. Sunday.
COMMENTARY
A driver pumps gas at a Royal Farms in Columbia, Md., as rising fuel costs put pressure on household budgets nationwide. The national average price per gallon of regular gas is now $3.96, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. (Photos by Amanda Watford/Stateline)
By Rob Moore
While a majority of Ohio economists polled do not think a gas tax suspension will provide meaningful relief, the decision does reveal something: Ohio legislators are willing to pay $725 million to support households. What other ways could they do it?
The big challenges and policy issues that cross state lines.
STATELINE
By Kevin Hardy
Prediction market platforms say they are like commodity markets that offer contracts to speculate on the future price of corn or oil — not sportsbooks that allow gamblers to place bets. But many states reject those justifications, arguing the platforms offer a backdoor to skirt state gambling regulations, particularly on sports.
By Mariel Padilla
Every generation has an ideological gender gap — and Gen Z is no different. A new poll from The 19th and YouGov sheds light on how young men and women are shaped by certain historical moments and tend to diverge on issues of gender and reproductive rights.
By Tim Henderson
Jobs across the United States rose by 29,000 in September, a disappointing result as recent growth was also revised down in Friday’s monthly jobs report, the last one before midterm elections.
By Nada Hassanein
Nearly 100 community-based organizations have lost their federal HIV-prevention grants this week as the Trump administration redirects dollars to state and local health departments.
By Anna Claire Vollers
A Trump administration rule change, disability rights advocates fear, will make it harder for disabled people to receive services they need to live in their communities — and to stay out of institutions.
THE RUNDOWN
News from other states
By Liam Niemeyer
All but one of the speakers at a Kentucky listening session voiced concerns or outright opposition to the construction of hyperscale data centers. Those worries ranged from the loss of farmland, the need for stronger ratepayer protections, a lack of transparency from local government officials reviewing data center proposals, and potential tax breaks that data center developers exploit.
NATIONAL NEWS
By Ariana Figueroa
This summer, arrests of immigrants in the United States soared to the highest levels since President Donald Trump returned to office.An unprecedented increase in cooperation between local and state law enforcement and federal immigration officers helped drive numbers up.
By Jonathan Shorman
One month from Election Day, President Donald Trump’s long-running pressure campaign over elections is approaching a decisive moment. Interviews and public comments by more than a dozen current and former election officials, legal experts, lawmakers and others ahead of the midterms reveal anxiety over what Trump may do.
CATCHING OUR EYE
We’ve all been there… The Ohio Newsroom’s Kaitlin Thorne digs into “The challenge of growing colossal pumpkins inside Ohio’s prisons”
Behind barbed-wired fences and multiple security checks sits a small patch of land in the center of the Belmont Correctional Institution in southeast Ohio’s Belmont County.
The growing season is over, so it doesn’t look like much now, but just a few weeks ago it was home to a colossal pumpkin weighing 1,700 lbs.
The pumpkin-growing tradition dates back to 2022, when Mansfield Correctional Institution issued a challenge: grow the biggest pumpkin in a prison yard. The Larry Stewart Giant Pumpkin Challenge, in its fifth year, now involves correctional institutions across the state.
Notes from the underground. The Cincinnati Enquirer’s Sydney Franklin reports, “Cincinnati firms chosen to plan next steps on reviving subway tunnels”
The effort to revive Cincinnati's abandoned subway tunnels is not over. And some of the world's leading design and engineering experts have vied to study how to repurpose them, a sign that this could be more than a city daydream.
Over-the-Rhine-based Woolpert Inc. was ultimately chosen to lead the study for $284,073.
City records obtained by The Enquirer reveal that Woolpert and its team have likely been working on the feasibility study throughout this year. The final study is estimated to be done by early 2027.
Delay tactics. Jonathan Walsh from News5Cleveland reports, “A man has lived in a $4.5 million mansion for 15 years while fighting foreclosure — now he's facing eviction”
Louis Telerico has been living in a 17,000-square-foot home in Barrington Estates, an exclusive residential area in Aurora, near the 17th green of a golf course.
A foreclosure on the property began in August 2011. Court records show Telerico filed numerous motions over the years, including multiple bankruptcies, appeals, and other filings. The foreclosure took 14 years before the bank finally acquired the property in 2025, then sold it to investment company ERADAL.
At a recent eviction hearing, a magistrate approved the eviction of Telerico. However, Telerico's attorney, Mark Graziani, indicated the situation may not be fully resolved.
Telerico told News 5 he plans to live in the house until he dies and said he believes he will be able to secure financing.
THE POD
THAT'S ALL FOR NOW, FOLKS.
Mahalo!
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