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!
A full-time Ohio worker needs to be making at least $23.82 an hour to be able to afford a “modest” two-bedroom apartment, according to a new report released this week.
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By Megan Henry
The Housing Wage is an estimate of the hourly wage full-time workers must make to afford a rental home at HUD’s Fair Market Rent without spending more than 30% of their income.
By Marty Schladen
As some Republican leaders push allegations that Medicaid recipients and their families are defrauding Medicaid, a new poll shows most Americans believe they’re far from the main culprit. Most also said they see the overall Medicaid-fraud push as just politics.
By Morgan Trau, WEWS
Ohio Democrats are hoping to flip at least six seats to break the Republican supermajority, changing the balance of power within the Statehouse.
COMMENTARY
The 2026 NCSL Legislative Summit will bring together state lawmakers and legislative staff from the 50 states and U.S. territories from July 27-29 in Chicago. (Photo by Leontura/Getty Images)
By Tim Storey and Sue Urahn
Like two sides of a coin imprinted with the nation’s motto, “e pluribus unum” — out of many, one — America’s political factions are cast in opposition, but they are intrinsically bound together as parts of a larger whole.
STATELINE
The big challenges and policy issues that cross state lines.
By Kevin Hardy
More than 200 American mayors are calling on the federal government to reverse changes that will cost states billions and push millions of people off the food stamp program.
By Tim Henderson
The Trump administration claimed a rare court victory for its embattled immigration detention policy when an appeals court, covering three states with large detention centers, agreed to stay court rulings that freed three Texas immigrants during an appeal.
By Alex Brown
A coalition of Democratic state attorneys general has joined a lawsuit seeking to end the Trump administration’s halt of onshore wind projects in the United States.
By Shalina Chatlani
The number of cases of cyclosporiasis — a parasitic infection linked to contaminated water or food that causes severe intestinal issues — has more than doubled to over 4,173 cases across 41 states this week, up from the 1,645 confirmed cases in 34 states last week.
By Tim Henderson
The nation’s death rate may have fallen to a historic low last year as many of the killers of young people such as drug overdoses, gun homicides and traffic accidents continued receding in 2025, according to new federal statistics.
THE RUNDOWN
News from other states
By Ralph Chapoco, Alabama Reflector
More than 80,000 Alabamians lost access to a federal anti-hunger program after Congress passed new restrictions on it, according to a new analysis.
NATIONAL NEWS
By Ashley Murray
Former career Department of Justice officials and a survivor of abuse by the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein sounded the alarm Wednesday on acting Attorney General Todd Blanche’s fitness to lead the Department of Justice.
By Jennifer Shutt
Republicans in the U.S. House on Wednesday approved their outline for the third party-line budget measure, for Iran war funding and farm aid, though they won’t be able to begin work on that package until they reach agreement with their Senate colleagues.
By Ashley Murray
U.S. House Republicans passed a measure to curb stock trading by members of Congress that was packaged with an unrelated voter ID bill, part of President Donald Trump’s push for major federal involvement in elections.
By Sam Gauntt
Advocates and public health experts urged Republicans in Congress on Wednesday to implement a two-year delay on requiring states to begin sharing the costs for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits.
By Ariana Figueroa
A supermajority of the U.S. Senate Democratic Caucus has asked Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin to deploy body cameras to all federal immigration officers, following deadly shootings of immigrants in Texas and Maine.
By Shauneen Miranda
Education experts and advocates warned Wednesday that the recent federal student loan system overhaul stemming from the GOP’s mega tax and spending cut law will drive borrowers to private lenders and could derail their higher education plans.
By Jennifer Shutt
The U.S. Senate on Wednesday moved one step closer to confirming the first administrator for the Federal Emergency Management Agency since President Donald Trump took office last year.
SCIENCE FRIDAY
Measles cases in the U.S. hit a new 34-year high
With five months left in 2026, the country could lose its measles elimination status. Read more from ScienceNews.org
CATCHING OUR EYE
Won’t admit Trump lost 2020. Cleveland.com’s Sabrina Eaton reports, “Trump nominee Benjamin Flowers of Ohio wins Senate confirmation to appeals court.”
The Senate on Tuesday confirmed Benjamin Flowers to a lifetime seat on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit by a vote of 49 to 46, elevating the former Ohio solicitor general to the federal bench over Democratic objections to his record and his refusal to say who won the 2020 election.
Flowers, an Upper Arlington attorney and partner at Ashbrook Byrne Kresge Flowers LLC, fills the seat vacated by Judge Jeffrey Sutton. President Donald Trump nominated him to the court, which covers Ohio, Michigan, Kentucky and Tennessee.ICE and Flock. The Columbus Dispatch’s Anna Lynn Winfrey reports, “Columbus Police used Flock to watch ICE as it arrested hundreds in Ohio.”
Columbus police have faced scrutiny over whether its AI-powered license plate surveillance network has been used to aid in immigration enforcement. Turns out, a deputy chief used the Flock camera system to watch the enforcers too.
Agency audit data analyzed by The Dispatch show that Deputy Chief Tim Myers, who has defended some uses of Flock with local media, searched the network 54 times between Dec. 17-22 − largely the peak of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's “Operation Buckeye.”Data centers. WOSU’s George Shillcock reports, “Columbus City Council to pursue data center regulations instead of ban despite community demands.”
Columbus City Council put forth some new ideas for data center regulations, but residents responding to these ideas at a public hearing Wednesday say the city should be doing much more, with many calling for a moratorium.
City Councilmember Christopher Wyche explained to reporters before the hearing the city isn't proposing a so-called "moratorium," temporarily or permanently banning new data centers.
THE POD
THAT'S ALL FOR NOW, FOLKS.
Mahalo!
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