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!
Ohio farmers are making hard decisions to pay the bills, and bearing the brunt of criticisms about food-borne illnesses in the produce aisle. They are demanding to be heard by Congress and Trump as tariffs dig into struggling farmers’ bank accounts.
A tractor sits on a Chris Gibbs' Shelby County farm. (Photo courtesy of Chris Gibbs)
By Susan Tebben
Trade conflicts with China and Canada are also causing issues. According to the president of the Ohio Farmers Union, two-thirds of livestock grown in Canada is sent to the U.S.
By Megan Henry
The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression gave four Ohio colleges and universities a failing grade on their 2027 College Free Speech rankings.
By Nick Evans
The man accused of injuring spectators at an event for Democratic candidate for governor Amy Acton was arraigned Tuesday. Patrick Havas, a 38-year-old man from Canfield, faces two charges of assault, one of inducing panic, and one of disorderly conduct. All four are misdemeanor charges. Havas pleaded not guilty to all of them.
By Morgan Trau, WEWS
There has been a rise in political violence in Ohio, but bills meant to curb these types of crimes have stalled. After a man attempted to attack governor candidate Dr. Amy Acton over the weekend, lawmakers are hoping to get some safety measures passed.
COMMENTARY
A protestor carries a sign during a demonstration against the cancellation of student visas. (States Newsroom file photo.)
By Steven Volk
Ohio is a state whose international students contribute an estimated $1.3 billion a year to the overall economy, and support almost 11,000 jobs. New Trump rules against student visas are a self-imposed wound that provides no understandable benefit.
STATELINE
The big challenges and policy issues that cross state lines.
By Kevin Hardy
Labor union membership continues to climb in the United States, though the increase remains sharply divided by the politics of individual states.
By Shalina Chatlani
On a rural stretch of land in Somerset County, Pennsylvania, an open meadow filled with bright wildflowers, a memorial grove of trees and a giant boulder marks the spot where United Airlines Flight 93 crashed on Sept. 11, 2001.
THE RUNDOWN
News from other states
By Laura Guido, Idaho Capital Sun
The Idaho Supreme Court on Friday unanimously ruled that state officials must redraft explanations of the effect of voting for or against the proposed abortion rights initiative that will appear on voters’ Nov. 3 general election ballots, as the statements were not clear.
NATIONAL NEWS
By Jacob Fischler
A U.S. Postal Service rule restricting mail-in voting, like the executive order from President Donald Trump that spurred it, is unconstitutional, U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani said in a Friday order extending a freeze on the policy.
By Ariana Figueroa
Within two years under the Trump administration, the bipartisan humanitarian Temporary Protected Status program created by Congress in 1990 and signed into law by former Republican President George H.W. Bush has been nearly obliterated.
By Ariana Figueroa
A District of Columbia Superior Court judge Friday seemed inclined to bar any new felony charges against former Olympian David Hearn, after the Trump administration accused the Maryland man of damaging part of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool.
WEDNESDAY WISDOM
“Despair is a sin. I believe that. It is easy to be bleak about the human race, but there are people who have proved to me that we can be better than we are.”
-James Baldwin
CATCHING OUR EYE
The Toledo Blade. The Toledo Blade reports, “Possible final edition of Blade announced; company explores sale.”
Block Communications has announced its intention to explore a sale of The Blade’s assets, which, if unsuccessful, will result in the final edition of the newspaper being published Dec. 31.Annie get your gun. The Ohio Newsroom’s Kendall Crawford reports, “A new film unveils the hidden history of iconic Ohio sharpshooter Annie Oakley.”
Most people know Annie Oakley for her incredible sharpshooting skills: hitting dimes in midair and splitting playing cards with her trusty .22-caliber rifle.
But a new documentary goes beyond those famous feats and takes a closer look at the life of the Darke County native — and the women who have spent decades piecing together her story.
“North Star” tells Oakley’s story, while also spotlighting the Garst Museum researchers who have kept her legacy alive: Brenda Arnett, Karen Besecker and Nancy Stump.Other states. The Statehouse News Bureau’s Sarah Donaldson reports, “Ohio US senators target other states licensing some immigrant drivers.”
Ohio’s two U.S. senators, Bernie Moreno and Jon Husted, want federal government intervention to block other states from issuing driver’s licenses to immigrants living in the U.S. without legal authorization.Roy Cohn and Trump. In The New York Times, Carlos Lozada writes, “Trump’s Only Teacher.”
At this point in the Trumpian arc, we’re all too familiar with the president’s methods: Deny everything; apologize for nothing. Hog the spotlight. Counterattack, counterpunch, countersue. Always declare victory, even when you lose (especially when you lose). Resentment sells. Nativism sells. Cruelty, if not yet normal, becomes the norm. Rules and traditions are for suckers; everyone is, if not corrupt, at least corruptible. These are President Trump’s instincts, yes. But before they were his, they were Roy Cohn’s.
Kai Bird’s new book, “American Scoundrel,” written with Susan Goldmark (Bird’s wife and chief researcher), is a biography of Cohn, the sinister 20th-century lawyer who served as chief counsel to Joe McCarthy when the junior senator from Wisconsin was Red Scaring America and as lawyer to Trump when the young real estate developer was deflecting allegations of discrimination against prospective Black tenants. “American Scoundrel” is very much a how-we-got-here book, showing how Cohn’s guile, paranoia and shamelessness guided McCarthy, rubbed off on Trump and stuck fast to America.
THE POD
THAT'S ALL FOR NOW, FOLKS.
Mahalo!
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