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Reporting for the People
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By Susan Tebben | Ohio Capital Journal
Good morning Ohio!
More than 30 Haitians in Springfield have been detained by United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement after President Donald Trump revoked their legal status earlier this summer.
Signs of support for Haitians in Springfield, Ohio, after temporary protected status for Haitians ended on July 27, 2026. (Photo by Megan Henry/Ohio Capital Journal).
By Megan Henry
Now, faced with a smaller, sicker clientele, the 11 insurers remaining in Ohio's marketplace are proposing to increase premiums on average by 14.7% for 2027, according to an analysis by the Center for American Progress.
By Susan Tebben
The Ohio Supreme Court dismissed an Ohio judge’s claim that the reproductive rights amendment in the state constitution hindered him from doing his job.
By Marty Schladen
Ohio has seen the biggest enrollment drop of any state since congressional Republicans allowed subsidies for insurance in Affordable Care Act marketplaces to expire. Nearly by a third of the half-million Ohioans who bought insurance there dropped it.
COMMENTARY
Gov. Laura Kelly joined singer and child literacy advocate Dolly Parton to an event marking statewide expansion in Kansas of a program donating a book each month to children 0-5. (Photo by Kansas Governor’s Office)
By Clay Wirestone
The preternaturally talented Dolly Parton had much to teach us, if we bother to pay attention.
STATELINE
The big challenges and policy issues that cross state lines.
By Shalina Chatlani
In 14 states, the closure of the closest rural hospital or its obstetric unit would force many Medicaid patients to drive an hour or more to get to another hospital that provides inpatient maternity care, according to an analysis released this week.
By Kelcie Moseley-Morris
In 14 states, the closure of the closest rural hospital or its obstetric unit would force many Medicaid patients to drive an hour or more to get to another hospital that provides inpatient maternity care, according to an analysis released this week.
By Kevin Hardy
Experts say the left has years of work ahead if it wants to match the prowess of the organized right, which coalesced more readily around a few core issues. But the second Trump administration has rallied Democrats across the states seeking to oppose federal policies.
THE RUNDOWN
News from other states
By Keaton Ross and J.C. Hallman, Oklahoma Watch
When Oklahoma inmate Steve Wilbanks spoke to a reporter by phone in late July, it had been six weeks since he worked in a prison call center, placing calls on behalf of insurance companies attempting to poach business from competitors and making political calls as primary elections were underway across the country.
NATIONAL NEWS
By Shauneen Miranda
President Donald Trump’s administration is appealing a federal judge’s temporary pause on a U.S. Postal Service regulation that places new restrictions on mail-in voting, according to a Friday court filing.
By Shauneen Miranda
With less than 70 days until midterm elections, Democrats remain favored to regain the majority in the U.S. House.
By Ashley Murray
Four months removed from a U.S. Supreme Court decision that gutted Voting Rights Act protections for majority Black U.S. House districts, and 63 years after Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech, thousands gathered at the Lincoln Memorial Friday.
By Ashley Murray
A developing trade war with Canada could bite Republicans ahead of the upcoming midterm elections as voters worry about rising prices and industries in states with competitive races could suffer.
By Ariana Figueroa
The U.S. Department of Treasury’s recent proposed regulation to limit refunds for certain tax credits based on immigration status is the latest move by the Trump administration to restrict noncitizens’ access to federal benefits.
By Ariana Figueroa
The U.S. Postal Service took another step Thursday in implementing a Trump administration policy to restrict mail-in voting, even as a high-stakes legal battle plays out and midterm elections approach.
By Shauneen Miranda
The U.S. Department of Justice on Thursday sued Arizona, New Mexico, Oregon and Washington over laws that allow immigrants in the country without legal status to pay in-state college tuition in the states where they live.
CATCHING OUR EYE
Social Security. NPR’s Ashley Lopez is reporting, “The Social Security trust fund is running out, and yet it's not a top campaign issue.”
Congress has about six years to shore up the Social Security trust fund, which is expected to run out of reserves by the end of 2032.
Enacting a solution is liable to be a significant political battle, likely involving cutting benefits for some Americans or raising taxes on higher earners, or both.And so far, congressional leaders haven't made it a top-tier issue.
Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Republican Sen. Bernie Moreno proposed raising the payroll tax for some Americans. Revenues from the tax go into the trust fund. But that bipartisan effort was immediately panned by conservative groups, and little else has emerged as a serious solution.Civil Rights. Ideastream’s Conor Morris is reporting, “Why one Ohio civil rights activist's sacrifice still matters today.”
Fifty years ago this month, a federal judge ordered Cleveland schools to desegregate.But it took decades of activism by parents and others — and the loss of one activist's life — to get to that point.
The Rev. Bruce Klunder, a young white Cleveland Presbyterian minister, died in 1964 when protesting schools that remained de factor segregated in Cleveland, years after the Brown v. the Board of Education U.S. Supreme Court decision deemed segregation unconstitutional.Lake Ontario. KOSU’s Sarah Liese is reporting, “Lake Ontario name change erases Indigenous history, Wyandotte Nation leader says.”
Chief of the Wyandotte Nation, Billy Friend, took offense to Trump’s decision to rename Lake Ontario to Lake America. The tribal nation is now headquartered in northeast Oklahoma, but has history in the Great Lakes region.
Trump’s executive order claims to restore names that honor American greatness, but Friend said it is another act of forced removal and erasure. He said his ancestors, who spoke Wendat, gave Ontario its name, Ontari’io, which means “the lake is big” or ‘the lake is beautiful.”
“It's not about politics; it's about history,” Friend said in a phone interview. “It's about respecting a tribal name and the people whose language gave that name to the lake.”
THE POD
THAT'S ALL FOR NOW, FOLKS.
Mahalo!
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