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!
Of the Republican-controlled states that went through the redistricting process mid-cycle, Ohio may be the only one where Democrats can flip seats.
Photo by Morgan Trau.
By Morgan Trau, WEWS
While the Democrats’ original goal in 2025 was to keep their five out of 15 seats, a glimmer of hope appeared in 2026 and now they’re trying to target Republican seats as well.
By Marty Schladen
Anxiety among Haitians in Ohio has been growing as the federal government has started flying people who lost protected status back to the troubled Caribbean country.
By Kathiann M. Kowalski, Canary Media
Clean energy scored a rare win in Ohio last month when state regulators unanimously approved a permit for 149 megawatts of solar and 149 MW of battery storage at the Hamden Energy site in Vinton County, located in the southeast quadrant of the state.
COMMENTARY
(iStock / Getty Images Plus)
By Gene Sasso
Ohio spent 2025 building the biggest overhaul of its property tax system in decades, and it still didn't touch the part that matters most, a gap that gets harder to call an accident the longer you look at it.
STATELINE
The big challenges and policy issues that cross state lines.
By Sofia Resick
There has been steady progress in developing vaccines for cancer. Researchers are especially excited about mRNA vaccines, which use synthetic genetic instructions to teach a person’s immune system how to recognize and destroy proteins found on cancer cells.
THE RUNDOWN
News from other states
By Jason Hancock
Republican officials aren’t giving up on the gerrymandered congressional map they pushed through the Missouri legislature last year, despite two setbacks at the U.S. Supreme Court and a state Supreme Court ruling that the map never became law.
NATIONAL NEWS
By Nada Hassanein
New rules going into effect next week allow immigrants’ enrollment in safety net resources to be taken into account for lawful immigration status applications, the latest in the Trump administration’s immigration overhaul.
CATCHING OUR EYE
Faith leaders on Ohio Haitians. The Statehouse News Bureau’s Karen Kasler reports, “Faith leaders call on DeWine to help Haitians in Ohio facing ankle monitors, detainment.”
Faith leaders delivered a letter to Gov. Mike DeWine Friday, asking him to protect Haitians immigrants in Ohio who have lost temporary protected status.
Hundreds of clergy members signed the letter asking DeWine to forward on the letter to U.S. Sens. Jon Husted and Bernie Moreno and U.S. Reps. Mike Carey (R-15) and Mike Turner (R-10). It asks them take whatever action they can to help the tens of thousands of Haitians in Ohio, most in Springfield and Columbus. Temporary protected status (TPS) ended for Haitians in July, which ended their ability to live and work legally in the U.S. Some Haitians are now being detained, while others are ordered to wear GPS ankle monitors.Rural pharmacies. The Ohio Newsroom’s Kendall Crawford reports, “‘A financial lifeline’: Rural pharmacists hope federal funds can bridge healthcare gaps.”
A large federal grant could help better connect rural pharmacies with local physicians.The Ohio Department of Health recently announced that $2 million from the Trump administration’s Rural Health Transformation fund will go to the Ohio Pharmacy Association.
The group aims to create a Health Information Exchange network that allows pharmacies to have access to patient medical history. That would help clear the way for small-town pharmacists to provide treatment, in addition to dispensing medication.Husted and Merrin at the Trump Fest in Dallas. Spectrum News’ Harri Leigh reports, “Why Husted and Merrin spoke at the GOP midterm convention.”
(T)wo Ohio Republicans in hotly contested races not only attended, but delivered speeches at the convention: former State Rep. Derek Merrin, who is challenging Rep. Marcy Kaptur in Ohio’s 7th District; and Sen. Jon Husted, who is fighting a comeback bid by former Sen. Sherrod Brown. Both of the races are considered toss-ups…
By speaking at the convention, both Merrin and Husted made a bet that tying themselves to the president would be a smart move in Ohio, a state that Trump won by a 12-point margin in 2024.Bankrupting the JFK memorial Kennedy Center and then extorting its future by tying it to Trump’s ego. The Washington Post reports, “Kennedy Center could close as early as Tuesday, warns of bankruptcy, documents show.”
Leaders of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, installed by President Donald Trump, say the center is on the brink of bankruptcy and argue that putting the president’s name on its facade — and thus ensuring his fundraising efforts — may be the only way to avoid imminent and “certain fiscal collapse,” according to documents obtained by The Washington Post…
Lawyers for Rep. Joyce Beatty (D-Ohio), a Kennedy Center trustee who has sued to keep Trump’s name off the building, blasted the new proposal.
“This constant effort to add Donald Trump’s name to the Kennedy Center facade is the definition of insanity,” lawyers Norm Eisen and Nathaniel Zelinsky said in a statement. “This is now the third attempt to deface this sacred memorial and turn it into a vanity project for one man’s ego.
“Worse still, now Trump is taking the Center hostage and threatening to in effect kill it unless he gets his way,” they added. “This has to stop.”Who among us hasn’t had their wedding funded by a Russian oligarch? ProPublica reports, “Donald Trump Jr.’s Bahamas Wedding Was Secretly Bankrolled by Russian Oligarch Close to Putin.”
The oligarch, Umar Kremlev, spent hundreds of thousands on expenses like renting out a private island. He appears to have met Trump Jr. only recently, but he attended the intimate wedding with a large group of other Russian guests.Elon. The Washington Post reports, “‘Musk’ film is almost four hours long, engrossing and terrifying. What to know.”
The documentary paints the tech titan as a power-hungry megalomaniacal con man with a God complex. Musk accuses the filmmaker of compiling “hit list” against him.We’ll meet again some sunny day. The Guardian reports, “AI could kill all humans in next decade, warn experts: but how seriously should we take them?”
Does artificial superintelligence really pose a risk greater than nuclear weapons? Is there a significant chance of “a Chornobyl-sized catastrophe”. Might there even be a greater than 10% chance that AI could “kill all humans” in the next decade?
These warnings were issued on both sides of the Atlantic about the potential impact of a technology that most people still think of as a more talkative search engine.
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.