Tax change would spur Ohio development — and help low-income families most, new study says

Trump’s Ohio election claims do not comport with the facts. The Statehouse News Bureau’s Karen Kasler reports, “Trump claims China compromised Ohio voter rolls; LaRose’s office says ‘not a breach of any kind.’”

President Trump claimed in a speech Thursday night that voter rolls in 18 states were compromised by China in the 2020 election that he lost, but he didn’t produce any evidence. Ohio—which Trump won three times, including in 2020—is on that list, though officials have long said the state has the gold standard on elections systems.

A document released by the White House shows Ohio is one of 18 states that Trump claimed has voter data that was bought, stolen or hacked by China…

Republican Secretary of State Frank LaRose, who provided Ohio voter data to the feds at Trump’s request in February, pushed back on the seriousness of the situation in a statement from his office.

LaRose’s press secretary Ben Kindel said in a statement: "Based on the information we’ve received from our federal partners, China might have accessed publicly available election data about 10 years ago. This is the same transparent information that anyone in the world can access with an internet connection."

Ohio townships. The Ohio Newsroom’s Anna Huntsman reports, “Ohio township leaders warn cuts to police, fire and roads coming if property tax is abolished.”

Pike Township – like all of Ohio’s 1,300 townships – gets most of its operating funds through property taxes, Baum said. The township’s emergency services and volunteer fire department are funded entirely by property tax, through levies approved by voters, he said.

The call to abolish property taxes has Baum and leaders of other townships raising concerns.

Letting ICE off the hook for any misconduct. The New York Times reports, “Federal Agents Were Told F.B.I. Will No Longer Investigate ICE Confrontations.”

Federal agents around the country were told in recent days that the F.B.I. would no longer investigate confrontations with immigration agents — cases that sometimes yield evidence that could be used to prosecute Department of Homeland Security agents implicated in violent encounters, according to people briefed on the decision.

If enacted, such a change would sharply limit law enforcement scrutiny of immigration agents, as the Trump administration draws mounting criticism over killings at the hands of federal officers. In the last two weeks, two fatal shootings by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in Texas and Maine have thrust the government’s tactics back into the spotlight.

F.B.I. managers around the country received a written notice informing them of the change on Thursday, according to the people familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe internal communications. The same day, some ICE agents around the country were notified by their F.B.I. counterparts.

The guidance shared with them said that the bureau would stop investigating claims of assaults against Department of Homeland Security agents, the people said. Even though such investigations are intended to determine whether the officers were in fact attacked, they can provide a crucial means of gathering evidence implicating the agents themselves.

Iran war. The Washington Post reports, “U.S. teeters on all-out war with Iran after more troops are killed.”

The United States and Iran moved closer to all-out war over the weekend, as the exchange of attacks on civilian and military structures continued to escalate and with at least three and possibly four U.S. service members killed since combat resumed a week ago.

On Monday morning, the Kuwaiti military said it was responding to drone attacks from Iran, after President Donald Trump said Sunday night that U.S. Central Command launched another wave of attacks against Iran in retribution for the deaths of two service members during a strike on a military base in Jordan on Friday.