The morning newsletter of the Ohio Capital Journal
Reporting for the People
Make a tax-deductible donation supporting our work.
By David DeWitt | Editor in Chief
Good morning Ohio!
JobsOhio said it avoids conflicts. But the chairman of its board is a paid lobbyist for Intel, which has gotten millions from JobsOhio.
A massive Intel chip plant near New Albany, Ohio is years behind schedule. (Photo by Marty Schladen, Ohio Capital Journal.)
By Marty Schladen
Despite the fact that JobsOhio and its funding are rooted entirely in the state government, because of JobsOhio’s legal status as a private nonprofit corporation, it’s exempt from Ohio ethics law.
By Megan Henry
The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression gave 14 Ohio universities a “yellow light” rating for free speech policies in a new report, meaning that they operate under policies that could be too easily applied to suppress protected speech.
By Susan Tebben
After leading the Ohio Secretary of State’s Office since 2019, Republican Frank LaRose is setting his sights on a new statewide executive office in the 2026 Election: Auditor of State.
By Morgan Trau, WEWS
Republican leaders are concerned that Ohio Congressman Max Miller will not be able to win his reelection bid this November, as domestic abuse allegations have engulfed his campaign.
By Morgan Trau, WEWS
Ohio Republican U.S. Sen. Jon Husted said Thursday Ohio Republican U.S. Rep. Max Miller should resign and drop out of his race this November amid allegations of domestic violence.
COMMENTARY
A university professor addressing his students during a lecture. (Getty Images file photo.)
By Simon Tam
When the government claims the authority to decide what speech means — what it intends, what it implies — it doesn't need to punish anyone. The uncertainty does the work. That’s what’s happening under Ohio’s new higher education censorship law.
STATELINE
The big challenges and policy issues that cross state lines.
By Anna Claire Vollers
Disability advocates around the country are fighting a surge of federal and state actions that have eroded protections meant to keep people with disabilities living and working in their communities, rather than in institutions.
By Nada Hassanein
Two courts this week dealt blows to the Trump administration’s attempts to withdraw clean energy and climate grants totaling nearly $22 billion.
By Alex Brown
As Washington state reels from a devastating wildfire that destroyed hundreds of homes in Spokane last weekend, experts say the disaster has cast newfound uncertainty over a property insurance market that had just begun to stabilize.
THE RUNDOWN
News from other states
By Julia Goldberg, Source New Mexico
A New Mexico House subcommittee created to probe the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein’s activities at Zorro Ranch has released its first report, detailing his acquisition of the ranch, time spent there, visitors, and alleged sexual crimes and human trafficking.
NATIONAL NEWS
By Sam Gauntt
The deployment of National Guard troops hailing from all across the country to Washington, D.C. is expected to cost taxpayers more than $1.4 billion in additional funds through 2029.
By Ariana Figueroa
Health and Human Services plans to award a $150 million contract to a small Texas firm — with no specialty in immigration law and run by a former Trump official — to provide legal services to tens of thousands of unaccompanied immigrant children.
By Shauneen Miranda
President Donald Trump is urging Republican senators to “release their holds” and pass a measure making daylight saving time permanent nationwide.
By Shauneen Miranda
Dr. Erica Schwartz will be the next director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, after the U.S. Senate confirmed her nomination Wednesday.
SCIENCE FRIDAY
To avoid ending up with a less committed mate, some female birds listen for red flags in their suitor’s song.
Male pied flycatchers change their song after mating, and females use these song features to tell if a male is already paired, researchers report July 1 in Ethology. The results are consistent with earlier research showing that most female pied flycatchers prefer to settle with an unmated male. Read more from ScienceNews.org
CATCHING OUR EYE
Soaring electric bills. Signal Ohio’s Jake Zuckerman reports, “Electric bills hit new highs across Ohio, state data shows.”
Electric bills will likely hit record highs for millions of Ohioans when July bills go out this month, driven by rising rates, new systemic demand and a heat dome that lingered over much of the Midwest.
New data from the Ohio Utility Rate Survey – a state publication based on cost data from utilities – shows the electric bill for a residential electric customer using an average amount of power hit record levels in Cleveland ($189), Dayton ($188) and Akron ($184) in July.Red rover, red rover. Axios reports, “Reliably red Ohio suddenly a red-hot mess for GOP.”
Ohio, the red state that helped fuel President Trump's political comeback — and launched his presumed heir, JD Vance, onto the national stage — has become one of the GOP's biggest headaches for the midterms.
Why it matters: Republicans are struggling up and down the ballot in the Rust Belt state, which transformed from a perennial battleground into a Republican stronghold under Trump.
Ohio's GOP is scrambling under the weight of domestic abuse allegations, sluggish campaigns and a working-class rebellion.Profiteering off the presidency, part infinity. The Washington Post reports, “Lawmakers call for Pentagon probe of Trump family-backed companies.”
A group of Democratic lawmakers have asked the Pentagon’s official watchdog to open an investigation after The Washington Post revealed that 15 companies with investment from President Donald Trump’s sons have garnered $3.2 billion in federal contracts, investments, and loans — most coming after Trump took office for the second time…
Excluding giants SpaceX and Anduril from the tally, companies with investment from funds associated with Trump’s sons have gained more than three times the number of government contracts and other funding than they had before the president’s second term, The Post reported.Deporting active-duty military spouses. The Associated Press reports, “Trump’s immigration crackdown has detained more than 50 military spouses and parents.”
President Donald Trump’s administration has detained dozens of parents and spouses of active-duty U.S. troops as it rolls back immigration protections for military families to pursue its mass deportation agenda, an Associated Press investigation found.
More than 50 parents and spouses of active-duty service members have been detained since Trump took office for a second term, and at least six have been deported and one self-deported, the AP found in the first accounting of such detentions, which the government does not track. At least eight immediate family members of U.S. service members remain in federal immigration custody.
THE POD
THAT'S ALL FOR NOW, FOLKS.
Mahalo!
Thanks for reading The Eye-Opener. Did you know our weekend digest is also free? Sign up here. And if you enjoyed today’s edition, please forward to a friend. Increasing our readership helps us cover more news.