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!
At least 136 Ohio municipalities and townships have active moratoriums on data centers as of Sept. 16, local government records and news reports show. Meanwhile, 21 communities have passed permanent bans with at least 26 more under consideration.
Construction of a data center. (File photo from Getty Images.)
By Siddarth Sivaraman
A Bowling Green State University poll released Wednesday found that 78% of Ohioans support data center moratoriums until more information can be gathered about their effects. Seventy-five percent oppose construction in their local communities, and 63% are against construction elsewhere in Ohio.
By Marty Schladen
An analysis of government inspections and a survey of customers find that incorrect prices are frequent in the stores of Ohio-based grocery chain Kroger. It said they're usually in the store's favor.
By Megan Henry
Nearly 3,000 acres of Ohio’s only national forest were leased this week for more than $11 million by the Bureau of Land Management to out-of-state companies for fracking.
By Morgan Trau, WEWS
In one of the most watched gubernatorial races in the country, Dr. Amy Acton believes she can be the Democrat to turn Ohio blue.
COMMENTARY
A server room in a data center. (Photo by Getty Images.)
By Rob Moore
Property tax exemptions are a significant tool that can have a big impact on Ohio local government budgets. When evaluating whether to prohibit property tax exemptions for data centers, it’s worth asking: does it work, does it help, and who does it impact?
By Farrah Hassen
Government surveillance isn’t new, but new technologies that can detect our faces and track our movements are making it more ubiquitous. In fact, Ohio is one of the most heavily surveilled states in the country, with 62.4 cameras for every 100,000 residents.
STATELINE
The big challenges and policy issues that cross state lines.
By Shalina Chatlani
Concerned about conditions in federal immigrant detention facilities but often barred from entering them, some Democratic-led states are fighting to enforce their own health and safety standards at the sites.
By Kelcie Moseley-Morris
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration says it’s helping manufacturers increase the supply of estrogen-based hormonal patches and acknowledged a current nationwide shortage as more women seek hormonal therapies for symptoms related to menopause.
THE RUNDOWN
News from other states
By Peter Hall, Pennsylvania Capital-Star
Rolling blackouts would happen more than 13 days a year in a “worst case future” scenario, where data center growth is unrestrained and electricity supplies remain tight, according to a report commissioned by Pennsylvania utility regulators.
NATIONAL NEWS
By Ashley Murray
The Federal Reserve raised interest rates Wednesday for the first time in three years as inflation continues to dog the economy, largely driven by soaring gas and fuel oil prices while the war in Iran drags on.
By Jennifer Shutt
The U.S. House departed Wednesday for a seven-week campaign break after spending less than two weeks in session during August and September.
By Ashley Murray
As the November midterms approach, vulnerable U.S. House Republicans voted late Tuesday to require congressional approval for President Donald Trump to continue his war in Iran.
SCIENCE FRIDAY
In this excerpt from "On Time: The Physics That Makes the Universe Tick," author and theoretical physicist Jim Al-Khalili examines the possibility of time starting before the Big Bang, with the cosmological theory of eternal inflation.
CATCHING OUR EYE
Farmers, water, and data centers. The Reporting Project’s Alan Miller reports, “Farmers raise concerns about long-term protection of water resources in wake of Ohio Chamber of Commerce study on data-center demand.”
A key finding in an Ohio Chamber of Commerce study of water and electricity resources available for data center growth in central and southwestern Ohio is that those corridors are “broadly well positioned to support additional data center growth from a water-resource perspective through 2030.”
That’s a little more than three years from now. What about water resources 13 years from now? Or 23 years from now?
Some folks involved in agriculture and food production, which add an estimated $124 billion to the economy annually and are the state’s largest industry when combined, are concerned that not enough is being done to include them in discussions about water or to protect Ohio’s water resources far into the future.Well, disaster. The Athens County Independent’s Dani Kington reports, “Operator fights to reopen injection wells linked to disaster.”
A fracking waste injection company is fighting to reopen two suspended Noble County wells that the Ohio Department of Natural Resources linked to a 2021 environmental disaster.
The wells were initially suspended by order of the chief of the Ohio Department of Natural Resources Division of Oil and Gas Resources Management in January 2023. The division found the wells were responsible for a 2021 incident in which toxic waste injected into the ground by DeepRock Disposal Solutions burst to the surface via an oil and gas production well two miles away. The incident contaminated Noble County land and waterways, killed hundreds of animals, and cost the state nearly $1.3 million to clean up.Starting with love. In Matter News, Jack Shuler writes, “If you start from a place of love, you can’t go wrong: A vigil for an unhoused community member who recently died in Newark served as a call to not look away.”
“You know, the world has a way of overlooking people,” said Pastor Peter Borhauer of First United Methodist Church in downtown Newark, Ohio. “If you don’t fit whatever the expectations are, no one cares.”
He was speaking to a knowing crowd of 50 or so people gathered in the church basement to memorialize a friend named Daisy, a loved one who died on the streets of this small city. The room is filled entirely with church volunteers, outreach workers, and people who are unhoused or have been. The man across from me, “Mm-hmms,” in affirmation.
THE POD
THAT'S ALL FOR NOW, FOLKS.
Mahalo!
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