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 Ohio cities of Columbus and Springfield are bracing for impact after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Thursday that President Donald Trump can end legal status for Haitians who've fled the violence in their home country.
Ohio cities brace for impact of Supreme Court allowing Trump to take legal status away from Haitians
Hundreds of people gathered at St. John Missionary Baptist Church in Springfield to call for an extension of Temporary Protected Status for Haitians on Feb 2, 2026. (Photo by Megan Henry, Ohio Capital Journal).
By Megan Henry
About 30,000 Haitians with temporary status live in central Ohio and an estimated 12,000 to 15,000 Haitians call Springfield home, with a mixture of temporary protected status, citizenship, and other legal status.
Deporting Haitians in Springfield would eliminate roughly $300 million in annual spending from Clark County, with an estimated economic loss projected to exceed $400 million.
By Ariana Figueroa
The U.S. Supreme Court Thursday is allowing the Trump administration to strip legal status from 350,000 Haitians and 6,000 Syrians, a move that opens them up to deportation. The ruling will dramatically impact Columbus and Springfield, Ohio.
By Megan Henry
Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine has vetoed a bill that would have required absentee voters to provide a copy of their driver’s license or state ID starting with the November 2027 election.
By Susan Tebben
According to analysis of national census data, black-owned businesses in Ohio continue to increase payroll, and drive jobs and income in the state.
By Nick Evans
Gov. DeWine vetoed a measure Wednesday that would’ve set terms for utility submetering companies in Ohio. The companies purchase electricity in bulk at a lower rate and then sell it to a multi-unit complex like apartments at a higher residential rate.
EDITOR COMMENTARY
The United States Declaration of Independence. (Getty Images file photo.)
At 250, America’s broken social contract, moral rot, and open betrayal of basic decency and humanity
By David DeWitt
America greets our 250th birthday not as the last, best hope of Earth, but under a noxious cloud of broken promises, betrayed ideals, hateful discourse, public corruption, and petulant, petty public leaders peddling horrendous lies without shame.
STATELINE
The big challenges and policy issues that cross state lines.
By Anna Claire Vollers
Republican state lawmakers are increasingly inserting their politics into higher education, enacting laws that give greater power to politically appointed boards and administrators while weakening tenure protections and faculty say over curriculum.
By Kevin Hardy
Workers in more than 20 cities and states will see the minimum wage increase next month as local governments continue to raise the wage floor amid federal inaction.
THE RUNDOWN
News from other states
By Henry Redman, Wisconsin Examiner
Recent polling from the Democracy Defense Project found that three out of every 10 Wisconsin voters aren’t confident this year’s elections will be conducted accurately.
NATIONAL NEWS
By Jennifer Shutt
The Trump administration sent Congress a request Wednesday for $87.6 billion in emergency funding to cover the cost of the war in Iran and other expenses.
By Jacob Fischler
State courts cannot find liability for labeling shortcomings in pesticides and related products because such products are covered by federal law, the U.S. Supreme Court said Thursday in a decision backing agricultural giant Monsanto.
By Jonathan Shorman
A federal judge blocked major portions of President Donald Trump’s executive order restricting voting by mail on Thursday, finding he had exceeded his constitutional authority.
By Jennifer Shutt, Ariana Figueroa, and Shauneen Miranda
U.S. Senate Republicans walked into a lunch with the president on Wednesday looking for ways to unify, but Republican senators said during interviews after the meeting ended that it wasn’t entirely productive and didn’t create much, if any, goodwill.
By Ariana Figueroa
The U.S. Supreme Court sided Thursday with the Trump administration’s request to turn away asylum-seekers who present themselves at ports of entry at the U.S.-Mexico border.
By Amelia Twyman
Placards featuring 272 names, each with a photo and the age of a child or young adult who lost their life due to what their families call social media-related causes, lined the lawn of the U.S. Capitol’s Upper Senate Park Tuesday evening.
By Ashley Murray and Sam Gauntt
President Trump kicked off his administration’s celebration of America’s 250th anniversary Wednesday with a rally speech nearly mirroring his days on the 2024 presidential campaign trail to a crowd of supporters waving American flag placards.
SCIENCE FRIDAY
Data from NASA’s Perseverance rover confirms the presence of macromolecular carbon on Mars – another potential piece of the puzzle in the search for life. Read more from Livescience
CATCHING OUR EYE
Energy reliability standards. Cleveland.com’s Anna Staver reports, “PUCO rejects FirstEnergy bid to weaken reliability standards, allow outages to last longer.”
Ohio regulators rejected FirstEnergy’s request to weaken its reliability standards, concluding that customers should not have to accept longer and more frequent power outages because the company has struggled to meet existing benchmarks.
The Public Utilities Commission of Ohio denied the utility’s application on Wednesday and left current standards in place.Campaign finance. The Cincinnati Enquirer’s Victoria Moorwood reports, “Developer spent 'unprecedented' amount on suburban Ohio election.”
A developer donated $64,000 to a Warren County commissioner candidate, the largest in at least a decade. The developer's company, Conger Construction Group, has built government-owned projects in the county.
The donations to Mark Messer's unsuccessful campaign are legal as there are no contribution limits for county commissioner races.Outdoor recreation. The Athens County Independent’s Dani Kington reports, “Governor vetoes outdoor rec funding cut.”
Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine issued an eleventh-hour line-item veto on a house bill provision that would have stripped the Outdoor Recreation Council of Appalachia of $750,000 in state funding.
DeWine waited until last night to announce the veto. The funding cut would have automatically gone into effect hours later without his action.
THE POD
THAT'S ALL FOR NOW, FOLKS.
Mahalo!
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