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Reporting for the People
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By David DeWitt | Editor in Chief
Good morning Ohio!
Facing insolvency, Social Security benefits will face cuts for tens of millions of retired Americans in late 2032 unless Congress takes action first. Whoever wins the Ohio U.S. Senate race this year will be faced with big decisions over the future of Social Security.
Former U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown, left, will take on U.S. Senator Jon Husted, right, in 2026. (Photos by CSPAN/Morgan Trau)
By Marty Schladen
Candidates in Ohio's tight U.S. Senate race briefly shared their plans to protect Social Security. Only one of Ohio's U.S. Senate candidates offered a specific fix. Experts say it's popular, but by itself, inadequate.
By Susan Tebben
The November general election holds the future of some Ohio libraries in the balance, just as it holds the future of candidates for statewide and legislative office.
By Megan Henry
Ohio Democratic lawmakers are introducing bills that would ban children 13 and younger from operating electric bikes and electric scooters, and require people wear helmets when riding e-bikes and e-scooters.
COMMENTARY
Graphic from digital scroll-telling website produced by Ohio University class.
By Kayla Payne
“A college assignment to tell the story of the Adena Mounds in The Plains broadened my perspective about our past. We are surrounded by elements of Indigenous history and culture that can be easy to overlook,” writes Ohio University senior Kayla Payne.
The big challenges and policy issues that cross state lines.
STATELINE
By Nada Hassanein
Urban hospitals are closing at roughly the same rate as rural ones, and the shuttered hospitals in both areas are more likely to have served communities with high poverty rates and fewer transportation options, a new study published in the journal JAMA shows.
By Amanda Watford
Across the country, sexual assault statutes vary in how they define incapacity, what level of impairment can make someone legally unable to consent and what prosecutors must prove about the accused person’s knowledge of the victim’s condition.
By Sofia Resnick
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said last week that it expects to complete its long-awaited safety review of abortion pills by mid-December and issue a report evaluating the results by March 2027.
THE RUNDOWN
News from other states
By Sarah Ladd, Kentucky Lantern
Kentucky has now confirmed more than 100 cases of measles as the state grapples with its highest case load this century.
NATIONAL NEWS
By Ashley Murray
The top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee is demanding his colleagues apologize to former special counsel Jack Smith after Missouri Republican Sen. Eric Schmitt launched false accusations and called Smith a “dirtbag.”
CATCHING OUR EYE
Whoa. The Statehouse News Bureau’s Jo Ingles reports, “Libertarian candidate for Ohio governor makes shocking discovery while shooting ad.”
Libertarian candidate for Ohio governor Don Kissick made a disturbing discovery along the Maumee River near Toledo Thursday morning.
Kissick’s manager Steve Perkins said Kissick, along with Libertarian secretary of state candidate Tom Pruss, were making a campaign commercial.
“During that, a youth approached them and said hey, ‘I think this is a body in the river. Can you come see if this, back me up on this?’’” Perkins said in an interview. “And they went. And they looked, and it was.”Survivors and the Wexner name. WOSU’s Katie Geniusz reports, “Epstein, Strauss survivors call for Wexner's name to be removed from Ohio State buildings.”
Survivors of Dr. Richard Strauss, the Ohio State team physician who sexually abused hundreds of victims, joined Jeffrey Epstein survivor Annie Farmer Thursday afternoon to call for Les Wexner's name to be removed from Ohio State buildings. They appeared at a pop-up exhibit of the released Epstein files in Columbus.
The exhibit is named The Donald J. Trump and Jeffrey Epstein Memorial Reading Room, and has been displayed across the country. It shows the 3.5 million pages of the Epstein files the Department of Justice released in 2025 in 3,437 bound volumes. The exhibit is located at the Sanctuary on Neil, 618 Neil Ave., near Goodale Park, and is open until Oct. 11.Nuclear startup. Bloomberg reports, “Vivek Ramaswamy’s Nuclear Startup Raises at $1.9 Billion Value.”
Atlas Atomics, a nuclear startup cofounded and backed by Ohio gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, has raised capital at around $1.9 billion valuation, according to people familiar with the matter.
The series A fundraiser generated about $400 million in fresh money, the people said, declining to be identified because the information is private. General Catalyst is leading the round and Andreessen Horowitz is participating in the capital raise.
Atlas Atomics, General Catalyst and Andreessen Horowitz declined to comment.Eastern Gateway. In the Columbus Dispatch, Laura A. Bischoff and Jessie Balmert report, “Criminal charges filed in investigation of Ohio community college.”
Three former Eastern Gateway Community College employees, including the college's last president, are accused of participating in a nearly $20 million scheme to divert federal Pell Grants and other financial aid from students, Ohio Auditor Keith Faber announced on Oct. 8.
Former President Michael Geoghegan and co-owners of the for-profit Student Resource Center, Michael Perik and Nicole Rowe Colclasure, were indicted on multiple felony charges, including engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity, for the alleged financial crimes. As a result, Eastern Gateway Community College closed in September 2025, eliminating a higher education option for students in eastern Ohio.
THE POD
THAT'S ALL FOR NOW, FOLKS.
Mahalo!
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