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!
Ohio Republican U.S. Sen. Jon Husted has numerous ties to the biggest utility bribery and bailout scandal in state history. One of his top aides in the U.S. Senate lobbied for a utility that profited from the scandal.
Ohio Republican U.S. Sen. Jon Husted. (Photo by Graham Stokes for the Ohio Capital Journal. Republish photo only with original story.)
By Marty Schladen
When then-Lt. Gov. Jon Husted was appointed to the U.S. Senate at the start of 2025, he was coming from an administration with numerous high-ranking officials connected to the utility lobby. In 2020, that administration was rocked by the biggest bribery and money laundering scandal in Ohio history — all of it related to utilities.
When Husted reached the Senate five years later, one of his first moves was to hire as a top advisor a longtime utility lobbyist.
By Megan Henry
Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost recently filed a motion on behalf of Ohio State University asking to drop 77 cases involving the late Dr. Richard Strauss sexually abusing Ohio State student-athletes.
By Susan Tebben
The Ohio Attorney General's Office and the ACLU of Ohio are countering the claims of a Trumbull County judge who says the Ohio Constitution’s amendment protecting reproductive rights hinders his ability to do his work.
By Megan Henry
Ohio state Rep. Darnell T. Brewer, D-Cleveland, is introducing Amya’s Law — a bill that would penalize adults who leave firearms accessible to minors.
EDITOR COMMENTARY
The U.S. Supreme Court. (Photo by Ashley Murray/States Newsroom)
By David DeWitt
History will recognize this generation of America as the one that rolled back the Civil Rights era. Our time will be known to posterity as a generation that did not plant trees of liberty and justice for all, but struck them down.
THE RUNDOWN - GERRYMANDERING EDITION
News from other states
By Piper Hutchinson, Louisiana Illuminator
In a nearly 10-hour hearing that spanned overnight, Louisiana lawmakers advanced a congressional redistricting bill that would eliminate one of the state’s two majority-Black districts, giving Republicans another seat in their bid to maintain control of Congress.
By Cassandra Stephenson, Tennessee Lookout
Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee has signed a new U.S. congressional district map carving up Memphis, the state’s only majority-Black, majority-Democratic district. The state NAACP this week added two more plaintiffs to its lawsuit over the map.
By Seanna Adcox and Skylar Laird
With just days before early voting polls open, South Carolina lawmakers will begin a special session for the purpose of redrawing the state’s congressional lines.
By Anna Barrett, Ralph Chapoco, and Andrea Tinker, Alabama Reflector
Alabama Republican officials moved swiftly to implement an order from the U.S. Supreme Court allowing the use of a 2023 congressional map as those challenging the maps as violations of the Voting Rights Act sought to restore an injunction.
By Markus Schmidt, Virginia Mercury
The U.S. Supreme Court ruling weakening a key enforcement of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 is fueling new concerns in Virginia over the future of Black political representation, particularly if Republicans regain full control of state government after the next census.
By Maya Homan and Alander Rocha, Georgia Recorder
Georgia lawmakers will reconvene in June for a special session to redraw the state’s political maps, Gov. Brian Kemp announced. The move comes in the wake of a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision that weakened key protections of the Voting Rights Act.
STATELINE
The big challenges and policy issues that cross state lines.
By Alex Brown
Desperate to get a handle on rising property insurance costs driven by natural disasters, some state lawmakers are opening up a new line of attack in the effort to force oil companies to bear the cost of climate change effects.
By Kevin Hardy
The fiscal leaders of several states are demanding transparency and consumer fairness as President Donald Trump’s administration seeks to refund billions in international tariffs following a recent Supreme Court loss.
By Tim Henderson
Housing shortages have eased in most states since 2020, as new construction has made apartments and houses more affordable.
By Kelcie Moseley-Morris
Lawmakers and advocates alike told Stateline the topic of menopause used to be taboo, but there has been a generational shift in recent years that has led to more legislation in statehouses around the country, providing more access to treatments and preventive care as well as more educational opportunities for healthcare providers.
By Tim Hardy
Large, immigrant-rich cities saw population fall back between mid-2024 and mid-2025 after nation-leading increases the year before.
By Shalina Chatlani
Health officials from the U.S. cities hosting the 2026 FIFA World Cup say they are preparing to deal with infectious diseases, heat-related illness, and an array of other health threats when millions of fans, many of them from overseas, come to watch the games.
NATIONAL NEWS
By Ariana Figueroa
The U.S. House Thursday rejected a proposal to rein in President Donald Trump’s months-long military actions in Iran that have left dozens of U.S. military members dead, while killing thousands of civilians and displacing millions in the Middle East.
By Jonathan Shorman
The U.S. Department of Justice on Wednesday suggested to a federal appeals court that upholding a lower court decision blocking the Trump administration’s access to sensitive voter data would weaken its ability to investigate racial discrimination in voting.
By Jennifer Shutt
Officials from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Wednesday the risk of a member of the general public contracting hantavirus remains low despite several passengers on a cruise ship becoming infected with the disease.
By Jennifer Shutt and Ariana Figueroa
U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson pressed for increased funding for the Secret Service, arguing most of the money U.S. Senate Republicans included for the agency is for security needs, not building a new ballroom at the White House.
By Ariana Figueroa
Long-time federal immigration official David Venturella will lead U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the agency spearheading President Trump’s mass deportation campaign, according to a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson.
By Ariana Figueroa
The U.S. Senate approved a resolution Thursday that will prevent lawmakers in that chamber from receiving their paychecks during any government shutdowns that begin after this year’s midterm elections.
SCIENCE FRIDAY
The U.S. is no longer a WHO member state, and the CDC has endured deep staffing cuts at the hands of the second Trump administration. The agency has been slow to issue public statements about its efforts to manage the hantavirus outbreak, and on the few occasions they've spoken with the press, CDC representatives have often been vague or imprecise.
Live Science spoke with Guest — who led Emory's COVID-19 Outbreak Response Team within Georgia and advised Atlanta city officials during the mpox outbreak — about the country's management of this outbreak. We discussed whether the CDC, once considered the world's premier public health agency, may no longer be equipped to handle infectious disease outbreaks.
CATCHING OUR EYE
Data centers. News Channel 5 WEWS’ Michelle Jarboe reports, “Ohio's data center boom really started in New Albany. We went there to see what it looks like.”
In 2024, the state provided $554.9 million in sales-tax breaks for data centers — and local sales-tax breaks for those projects totaled $166.8 million, according to new calculations from the Ohio Department of Taxation.
Those numbers illustrate the sharp uptick in these construction projects, including the building boom taking place in New Albany.Prices. The Associated Press reports, “Producer prices shot up 6%, adding pressure on companies to hike prices for struggling customers.”
U.S. wholesale inflation came in hot last month. Producer prices rose 6% from a year earlier, the highest point in more than three years, as the Iran war pushes up energy prices and intensifies pressure on companies to pass along their rising costs to consumers.
The Labor Department reported Wednesday that its producer price index — which tracks inflation before it hits consumers — shot up 1.4% in April, the biggest monthly gain in more than four years.
Energy prices climbed 7.8% from March to April and 22.7% from a year earlier. Gasoline soared 15.6% from March and diesel, the dominant fuel used in shipping, jumped 12.6%.$700,000. WCMH’s David Rees reports, “Federal judge orders Ohio anti-vaccine activist to pay nearly $700,000 in taxes.”
A federal judge has ordered Ohio physician and vaccine skeptic Sherri Tenpenny to pay nearly $700,000 in unpaid federal taxes and interest, years after her testimony against COVID-19 vaccine requirements drew national attention during the pandemic.Lawsuit. Cleveland.com’s Sabrina Eaton reports, “U.S. Rep. Max Miller sues ex-wife and her lawyer for defamation over abuse claims.”
U.S. Rep. Max Miller on Wednesday filed a defamation lawsuit against his former wife, Emily Moreno, and her attorney, Andrew Zashin, and his law firm, alleging they falsely portrayed him as a domestic abuser to multiple media outlets.
The lawsuit assigned to Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge Joy Kennedy seeks compensatory damages in excess of $25,000, punitive damages “in an amount sufficient to punish Defendants and deter future similar conduct,” and attorneys fees.
Miller, a Bay Village Republican, claims the defendants engaged in a coordinated defamation campaign against him, providing false statements published by national media outlets including the New York Post, TMZ, the Daily Mail and The Daily Beast, that falsely depict him as violent and abusive towards Moreno and the couple’s two-year-old daughter.
THE POD
THAT'S ALL FOR NOW, FOLKS.
Mahalo!
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