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By David DeWitt | Editor-in-Chief
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A new law banning low-level THC hemp products and changing the state’s marijuana laws hurts Ohio businesses, plaintiffs argued during a preliminary injunction hearing Monday.
Intoxicating hemp products and various candies. (Photo by Megan Henry, Ohio Capital Journal).
By Megan Henry
Happy Harvest and Get Wright Lounge filed a lawsuit in Franklin County Court of Common Pleas after Ohio Senate Bill 56 took effect March 20 after Ohioans for Cannabis Choice failed to get enough signatures to get a referendum on the November ballot for voters to block the law.
By Susan Tebben
As the U.S. Supreme Court temporarily holds off a ban on telehealth abortion pill care, Ohio reproductive rights advocates and clinics say the potential loss of that type of abortion access will cause uncertainty and direct impacts to public health and wellbeing.
By Morgan Trau, WEWS
After the U.S. Supreme Court struck down major provisions of the Voting Rights Act as unconstitutional, some states are trying to draw new district lines ahead of the election. Ohio, which completed a bipartisan process in 2025, will likely not be joining the latest mapmaking effort.
COMMENTARY
President Donald Trump dances as he departs after speaking at the Port of Corpus Christi. (Photo by Roberto Schmidt/Getty Images)
By David J. Jackson
Bowling Green researchers recently conducted a poll to measure the strength of the MAGA movement in Ohio. While MAGA remains popular with older, rural, conservative, Born Again men without four year degrees, the movement is showing cracks in the state.
STATELINE
The big challenges and policy issues that cross state lines.
By Anna Claire Vollers
A group of Republican-led states is pushing forward with a lawsuit that could weaken a key federal disability rights protection under a part of law known as Section 504, even after the original dispute over gender dysphoria was resolved.
THE RUNDOWN
News from other states
By Jerod MacDonald-Evoy, Arizona Mirror
The leader of ICE admitted that he had never even heard of some of the countries his agency has been deporting immigrants to. He also falsely claimed ICE has never raided churches or hospitals, while the CBP leader pledged to arrest families of undocumented people.
NATIONAL NEWS
By Jennifer Shutt
Voters, including those within the Make America Healthy Again movement, say the rising cost of healthcare is a significant concern that will have an impact on whom they support in November’s midterm elections, according to a poll released Wednesday by KFF.
By David Lightman
Iconic landmarks around Washington D.C. are increasingly branded with President Trump’s name and image, including the Justice Department and Trump’s name being added to the performing arts center built as a memorial to slain President John F. Kennedy.
By Jennifer Shutt
U.S. Senate Republicans released a roughly $70 billion spending package Monday night that will keep ICE operating for the rest of President Trump’s term without any new constraints. The legislation also includes $1 billion for Trump’s ballroom.
By Ashley Murray
The alleged White House Correspondents’ Dinner shooter was indicted by a grand jury Tuesday on four federal charges, including attempting to assassinate President Donald Trump and assaulting an officer or employee of the United States with a deadly weapon.
HISTORY THURSDAY
When Roseann "Chic" Canfora arrived at Ohio's Kent State University in 1968, she says she was constantly being given leaflets by anti-war activists on campus — and throwing them away…
As a sophomore, she was among the protesters rallying on May 4, 1970, when members of the Ohio National Guard fired into a crowd of students, killing four and injuring nine — including her brother, Alan, who was one year her senior.
"My brother's roommate pulled me behind a parked car, and it was at that moment that I realized this was live ammunition because the car was riddled with bullets," she recalls. "The glass of the car windows was shattering above us, and we could hear the M1 bullets zipping past our heads and bumping into the ground in the pavement around us. And it was a horrifying 13 seconds."
CATCHING OUR EYE
Absentee ballots. The Statehouse News Bureau’s Jo Ingles reports, “Voting rights advocates report problems with new Ohio law on absentee ballots.”
This is the first Ohio election in which mail-in absentee ballots must be returned by 7:30 p.m. on Election Day. Voting rights advocates say they are hearing from voters who are concerned about their mail-in ballots arriving in time.
Cincinnati-area voter Terry Susskind said she requested a mail-in ballot and received it on April 14. She called the board of elections on April 29 to check on it.
“The ballot had not yet arrived. They were very helpful," she said. "They said they would send me another ballot which did arrive within two days which we filled out and dropped off."Sports betting on credit. Cleveland.com’s Jeremy Pelzer reports, “Ohio moves to ban use of credit cards for sports betting.”
Ohioans may soon no longer be able to use credit cards to place sports bets, under a draft rule change put forward by Gov. Mike DeWine’s administration this week.
The rule change, which could take effect in as little as a few months, is one of the reforms sought by sports-betting critics, who say using credit cards to place bets amplifies the risk of gambling addiction and financial ruin.Richland County voters ban solar and wind energy. Signal Ohio’s Jake Zuckerman reports, “MAGA-friendly Richland county voters preserve ban on wind and solar.”
In a Republican-dominated district, voters narrowly upheld a ban on utility scale renewables in most of the county in a 53% to 47% vote. A referendum backer called the result disappointing, yet ‘telling.’FBI going after journalists. MSNOW reports, “FBI investigating leaks to journalist who wrote explosive article on Kash Patel: Sources.”
The FBI has launched a criminal leak investigation focusing on an Atlantic magazine journalist who wrote a deeply unflattering account last month of Director Kash Patel’s work habits, two people familiar with the matter told MS NOW.
The sources said the so-called insider threat investigation is highly unusual because it did not stem from a disclosure of classified information and because it is focused on leaks to a reporter. The agents involved are part of an insider threats unit based in Huntsville, Alabama, the sources added.
Typically, leak investigations look into government officials who may have disclosed state secrets or classified documents. Journalists who receive and publish such information have typically only been involved as potential witnesses.
THE POD
THAT'S ALL FOR NOW, FOLKS.
Mahalo!
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