But there is another part of Click’s record that follows him onto the road.

The Vickery Republican accumulated 10 traffic citations over the decade ending in early 2023, including four for driving more than 15 miles per hour over the posted speed limit and two for failing to wear a seat belt, according to Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles records reviewed by the Cincinnati Enquirer.

Click accumulated those violations while holding a commercial driver’s license permitting him to transport passengers.

Now, as Click drives a Challenger bearing his name around the district, the contrast is difficult to miss: one of Ohio’s most frequently ticketed state lawmakers has made a muscle car part of his campaign image.

Click ranked near the top of the Statehouse for traffic tickets

Click’s driving record stood out even among 129 state legislators whose records were examined by the Cincinnati Enquirer in 2023.

Fifty-two lawmakers had no traffic tickets during the decade reviewed. Another 28 had only one.

Only three lawmakers had at least 10 citations.

Click was one of them.

His 10 tickets placed him behind only then-state Rep. Niraj Antani, who had 14, and state Rep. Jay Edwards, who had 13. Four of Click’s citations were for exceeding the speed limit by more than 15 mph.

When the Enquirer asked Click about his record, he did not dispute the violations.

“There are more important issues than lawmakers’ speeding tickets,” Click told the newspaper.

Edwards, who had more citations than Click, responded differently.

“This isn’t something I’m proud of but I accept responsibility,” Edwards told the Enquirer. “I’m certainly not above the law.”

Highway Patrol chief: ‘Look very hard at your driving behaviors’

Ohio State Highway Patrol Superintendent Charles Jones did not dismiss lawmakers’ driving records as unimportant.

Asked by the Enquirer about legislators with repeated traffic violations, Jones said traffic laws apply regardless of occupation and specifically addressed lawmakers who had accumulated 10 or more tickets.

They should “look very hard at your driving behaviors,” Jones said.

Click was one of only three legislators who met that threshold.

The significance goes beyond traffic tickets.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says speeding endangers everyone on the road because it increases stopping distance, makes vehicles more difficult to control and increases the severity of crashes. In 2024, 11,288 people were killed in speeding-related crashes nationwide, accounting for 29% of all traffic deaths.

Ohio has its own significant speeding problem.

According to a 2025 Ohio State Highway Patrol traffic safety bulletin, 146,983 speed-related crashes occurred on Ohio roadways from 2020 through 2024. Those crashes included 1,713 fatal crashes that killed 1,890 people.

Speed was a factor in 30% of all fatal crashes in Ohio during that five-year period.

The problem is also present in the two counties Click represents.

State traffic data show 278 speed-related crashes occurred in Sandusky County in 2025, while Seneca County recorded 163.

Combined, Click’s two-county district experienced 441 speed-related crashes in a single year.

A muscle car becomes a campaign prop

A recent photograph shows Click posing directly in front of the campaign-wrapped Challenger alongside two other Dodge Challengers.

The white car is difficult to mistake for anything other than political advertising. An eagle stretches across the rear quarter panel. Red and blue graphics cover the vehicle. An outline of Ohio appears on the door alongside large lettering promoting Click as state representative.

The hood is covered in American flag imagery.

It is essentially a campaign sign on wheels.

What is not clear from the photograph is who legally owns the Challenger or who paid for the vehicle wrap. TiffinOhio.net has therefore not characterized the vehicle itself as a campaign expenditure.

There is also no evidence reviewed by TiffinOhio.net showing that Click has received a speeding citation while driving this particular vehicle.

But the documented record preceding it is substantial: 10 traffic citations, four involving speeds more than 15 mph above the limit, and a ranking that placed Click among roughly the top 2% of Ohio lawmakers examined for traffic violations.

The branding may be new.

The driving record is not.

Click is now sponsoring legislation dealing with traffic safety

There is another wrinkle to Click’s driving record.

He is currently a primary sponsor of House Bill 82, legislation dealing with traffic offenses in construction zones and named the Trenton Gallaway Work Zone Safety Act.

The bill was introduced by Click and state Rep. Mark Johnson in February 2025 and was reported favorably out of the House Public Safety Committee in June.

That puts Click in the unusual position of sponsoring legislation focused on dangerous driving behavior in work zones after compiling one of the longest traffic records among his Statehouse colleagues.

Click’s four documented speeding citations predate the current legislation, and there is no indication any of those violations occurred in a construction zone.

Still, his own record provides context as he asks lawmakers to change Ohio’s traffic laws while simultaneously making a Dodge Challenger part of his reelection image.

Click heads into a difficult general election

The Challenger is appearing as Click tries to rebuild his political standing after a bruising Republican primary.

Click survived the May 5 Republican primary by just 599 votes, defeating first-time challenger Eric Watson 6,859 to 6,260.

Nearly 48% of Republican voters in the district voted to replace the three-term incumbent.

Click also lost Seneca County outright, winning the nomination only through his stronger performance in his home county of Sandusky.

The narrow victory has been followed by an increasingly visible reelection push. Click is scheduled to hold a Sept. 21 golf fundraiser in Tiffin featuring Republican officeholders and Statehouse power brokers, even though Seneca County was the portion of his district he lost in May.

He faces Democrat Aaron Jones, a Tiffin City Council member, U.S. Army veteran and longtime manufacturing supervisor, in the Nov. 3 general election.

Click’s campaign-wrapped Challenger gives the incumbent another highly visible way to put his name in front of voters.

It also makes a record he once dismissed as less important considerably harder to ignore.

Originally published on TiffinOhio.net.

“We need to bring down property taxes in this state immediately — eventually down to zero,” Ramaswamy told supporters during his February 2025 campaign launch. “If you own land, it should not feel like it’s a lease from the government.”

But Ramaswamy, now the Republican nominee for governor, has since quietly abandoned that promise.

By early 2026, Statehouse News Bureau reporting noted that Ramaswamy had backed away from eliminating property taxes and was instead promising the “biggest property tax rollback in the history of our state.” By July, Ohio Capital Journal reported that Ramaswamy acknowledged eliminating property taxes was no longer feasible.

His current campaign plan now calls for rolling property taxes back to levels before the end of the COVID-19 pandemic and limiting future growth.

The shift came as state fiscal officials, tax researchers, local governments and municipal bond attorneys were putting numbers behind what eliminating Ohio property taxes would actually mean.

The most detailed analyses were prepared in response to a separate citizen-led constitutional amendment seeking to abolish real property taxes statewide — not Ramaswamy’s current rollback proposal. But those analyses examined essentially the same endpoint Ramaswamy promised voters at the beginning of his campaign: eliminating taxes on real property.

More than $20 billion would have to come from somewhere

Ohio does not collect a state property tax. The money is collected locally and pays for schools, police and fire departments, emergency medical services, libraries, developmental disability programs, senior services, roads and other local government operations.

In a February 2026 memorandum to Gov. Mike DeWine, Ohio Office of Budget and Management Director Kimberly Murnieks said property taxes generate roughly $24 billion annually for local governments — approximately as much as Ohio collects from its state income and sales taxes combined.

Because the proposed abolition amendment applied to real property but did not eliminate public-utility personal-property taxes, the amount that would actually need to be replaced would be more than $20 billion annually.

OBM concluded that replacing that revenue through other taxes would be “fiscally impractical and economically harmful.”

If Ohio tried to replace the lost revenue through income taxes, OBM said rates could need to rise to roughly 11% to 15% statewide.

A separate Tax Foundation analysis calculated that replacing Ohio property taxes through income taxes would result in an average all-in state and local income-tax rate of about 12.6%, with enormous differences among counties. In some counties, the combined rate required to replace property taxes could approach 27%.

That 27% figure is not a proposed statewide Ohio income-tax rate. It represents the upper end of the Tax Foundation’s county-by-county estimates if income taxes were used to replace the property-tax revenue currently collected in each county.

The alternative would not necessarily be cheaper.

OBM estimated that replacing the lost revenue through Ohio’s sales tax could require increasing the state rate from 5.75% to somewhere around 15% to 18%. DeWine went even further, warning that the rate could approach 20%.

For comparison, Tax Foundation data from July 2026 show Louisiana currently has the highest average combined state and local sales-tax rate in the country, at just over 10%.

Schools are particularly dependent on the tax

The consequences would be especially significant for Ohio public schools.

A study by Butler County Auditor Nancy Nix estimated that roughly $13 billion in annual property-tax revenue goes to school districts.

The Ohio Legislative Service Commission likewise found that property taxes account for approximately 95% of school districts’ local operating revenue, excluding property taxes paid by the state through existing rollback and homestead-exemption programs.

That does not necessarily mean schools would simply lose every dollar. A Legislative Budget Office analysis noted that eliminating real-property taxes could dramatically reduce districts’ calculated local capacity under Ohio’s school-funding formula, potentially requiring the state to provide considerably more money.

But the proposed abolition amendment contained no mechanism requiring the state to replace the lost revenue, and doing so would transfer an enormous new financial obligation to Columbus.

An anti-abolition coalition, Ohioans to Protect Public Services, has estimated that eliminating property taxes without replacement could result in more than 50,000 teacher layoffs. WOSU reported the coalition’s estimate in April.

That figure is an advocacy coalition’s estimate rather than an official state layoff projection. But the scale is notable: the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce reported 111,646 full-time-equivalent teachers in Ohio public schools during the 2023-24 school year. A loss of 50,000 positions would represent roughly 45% of that workforce.

Police, fire and EMS funding would also be exposed

Public safety agencies are another major recipient of voter-approved property-tax levies.

Ohioans to Protect Public Services estimates that eliminating property taxes without a replacement could jeopardize more than 32,000 positions among police officers, firefighters, paramedics, dispatchers and other first responders.

Again, that is a coalition estimate, not an official state forecast. But local governments’ reliance on property-tax revenue for public safety is well documented.

The Ohio Legislative Service Commission reported that Ohio had 944 law-enforcement agencies employing 26,004 full-time officers as of January 2024, including municipal police, sheriff’s deputies, township officers and state law-enforcement personnel.

Some communities are overwhelmingly dependent on property taxes for police services. The research compiled on the abolition proposal found, for example, that Washington Township said property taxes represented approximately 95% of its police funding.

“The total elimination of property taxes without a secured, guaranteed replacement creates a public safety crisis,” Independence Police Chief Robert Butler, president of the Ohio Association of Chiefs of Police, said during the debate over abolition.

Bond attorneys warned of another problem: Ohio’s local debt

Eliminating property taxes would not eliminate the debts Ohio communities have already incurred.

That created another warning from some of the state’s largest municipal bond-law firms.

In a February memorandum, attorneys from Bricker Graydon Wyatt, Calfee Halter & Griswold, Dinsmore & Shohl, FBT Gibbons and Squire Patton Boggs examined the impact of the proposed constitutional amendment.

They said Ohio local governments had nearly $22.3 billion in outstanding general-obligation bonds, many of which are secured directly or indirectly by property-tax revenue.

Abolishing that underlying security, the attorneys warned, would likely trigger immediate credit downgrades to “junk” status for affected Ohio general-obligation debt and could freeze the municipal credit market for local governments seeking to finance schools, roads, water systems and other infrastructure.

The memo also warned that replacing property taxes with income- or sales-tax revenue could make future borrowing more expensive because those revenue streams are more economically volatile.

The warning was directed at the full abolition amendment, not Ramaswamy’s current rollback proposal. But it underscored another complication with his original zero-property-tax promise: existing debts do not disappear when the tax securing them does.

Ramaswamy’s new plan still leaves billion-dollar questions

Ramaswamy is no longer proposing to eliminate the tax entirely.

His campaign now says he would roll property-tax collections back to levels “before the end of the Covid pandemic.” The campaign says new construction would not be affected, existing debt obligations would be honored and local governments would continue operating “with greater discipline.”

But the campaign has not publicly specified the exact tax year it would use as its rollback baseline.

The Statehouse News Bureau reported in July that Ramaswamy has said savings from reducing the size of government and economic growth — including a goal of increasing Ohio’s population to 15 million — would help finance his proposal.

Fifteen million residents would represent roughly a 36% increase in Ohio’s population. The campaign has not detailed a timetable under which that population growth would occur or provided a dollar-for-dollar replacement mechanism for local governments affected by the rollback.

Innovation Ohio, a progressive policy organization, attempted to quantify the proposal by assuming Ramaswamy meant rolling property taxes back to approximately 2021 levels.

Its analysis estimated that such a rollback would initially reduce local property-tax collections by roughly $4 billion annually, with the gap reaching approximately $6.6 billion a year by the time the policy was fully implemented.

The organization estimated that approximately $4 billion of the eventual reduction would fall on school districts.

TiffinOhio.net previously reported on that analysis in April.

The $6.6 billion estimate depends on Innovation Ohio’s assumed 2021 baseline. Ramaswamy’s campaign has not committed to that year, meaning the exact fiscal impact of his current proposal cannot yet be calculated.

The abolition effort is now targeting 2027

Meanwhile, the separate citizen effort to abolish Ohio property taxes has not disappeared.

Organizers failed to collect enough signatures to place their constitutional amendment before voters in November 2026 and announced in June that they would instead continue collecting signatures in hopes of making the November 2027 ballot.

That means Ohio voters will not decide on complete property-tax abolition this fall.

They will, however, decide between candidates offering sharply different approaches to the property-tax problem — including Ramaswamy, who began his campaign promising to take the tax to zero and is now asking voters to support a historic rollback instead.

The promise has changed.

The unanswered question is how much the replacement promise would cost — and who would ultimately pay for it.

Originally published on TiffinOhio.net.

Ramaswamy, the Republican nominee for Ohio governor, publicly endorsed the principle behind Trump’s reciprocal tariff policy before the president unveiled his sweeping tariff agenda in 2025.

During a January 2025 interview with The Breakfast Club, Ramaswamy laid out three approaches to tariffs and rejected the idea that the United States should leave its markets open when foreign countries imposed barriers on American goods.

Instead, he advocated reciprocity.

“If you’re another country and you’re applying tariffs to us … then we’re going to level the playing field,” Ramaswamy said.

“I think that is totally legitimate,” he added. “In fact, I think in most cases that makes sense.”

Asked later in the interview whether the United States should impose the same tariff when another country levies one against American goods, Ramaswamy answered affirmatively.

“Yeah, I think yes,” he said. “So it’s that simple.”

That position closely tracked the reciprocal trade policy Trump was preparing to pursue. In February 2025, Trump signed a memorandum directing his administration to develop reciprocal tariffs, saying the United States would respond to tariffs and other trade barriers imposed by other countries.

Ramaswamy continued supporting reciprocity after launching his campaign for governor. The Washington Post reported in April 2025 that Ramaswamy had indicated before Trump’s tariff announcement that he would support reciprocal tariffs — taxing imports in response to tariffs imposed on American goods.

There was a distinction between Ramaswamy’s position and every tariff Trump ultimately imposed. Ramaswamy argued for matching foreign trade barriers and had criticized imposing tariffs higher than those imposed on the United States. Trump’s eventual tariff program went considerably further in some cases.

But Ramaswamy had sided with Trump on the underlying use of retaliatory tariffs as an instrument of trade policy.

And as Trump’s tariff agenda played out, businesses and farmers across Ohio began reporting the cost.

Ohio manufacturer loses more than $4 million

At Tosoh SMD Inc. in Grove City, the bill climbed into the millions.

The central Ohio manufacturer, which employed 221 workers and makes specialized materials used in semiconductor and solar-panel manufacturing, lost more than $4 million in just six months because of tariffs imposed under Trump, according to reporting by The Columbus Dispatch.

The losses amounted to approximately 5% of the company’s annual revenue, Tosoh President and Chief Operating Officer Joe Buckfeller told the newspaper.

Tosoh produces sputtering targets and other high-purity materials used by companies including Samsung, Texas Instruments and Intel. The Ohio operation depends on specialized imported materials, including aluminum from Japan and France and copper from China.

Those imports became substantially more expensive under Trump’s tariffs.

The company attempted to pass some of the additional costs on to customers, but Buckfeller said customers resisted paying them. Tosoh also could not simply replace all of the imported materials with American alternatives because domestic suppliers did not produce some of what the company required at the necessary specifications.

In other words, tariffs promoted as a way to bolster American manufacturing were costing an Ohio manufacturer millions of dollars to continue making products in Ohio.

Ohio soybean farmers lose their Chinese market

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The consequences were also spreading across Ohio farm country.

China had long been the largest overseas customer for American soybeans. But amid Trump’s renewed trade war with Beijing, China retaliated against U.S. tariffs and turned increasingly toward producers in countries such as Brazil.

For Ohio soybean growers, the collapse was dramatic.

By the end of 2025, Ohio agricultural exports to China had fallen nearly $76 million compared with the previous year — a decline of about 74% — according to federal trade data reported by the Ohio Capital Journal.

Ohio soybean exports to China fell even further: 85%.

The decline was not attributable exclusively to tariffs. Brazil’s growing dominance in the Chinese soybean market and other economic forces also contributed. But the renewed U.S.-China trade confrontation was a major factor, with China halting purchases of American soybeans during the dispute in retaliation for Trump’s tariff policies.

Ohio farmers had been warning about the damage for months.

As TiffinOhio.net previously reported, soybean producers were being squeezed simultaneously by rising input costs, low commodity prices and disappearing overseas sales.

Clark County farmer Brian Harbage, whose operation is roughly half soybeans, said China had gone so long without purchasing American soybeans that recovering the lost business during the remainder of the year was mathematically impossible.

“We’re not going to catch up for this year because they haven’t bought any up to this date,” Harbage told TiffinOhio.net. “They can’t physically buy enough between now and the end of the year to make up for the losses.”

Shelby County farmer Chris Gibbs was even more direct about the condition of Ohio agriculture.

The tariffs, he said, had helped put farmers in a “hell of a mess.”

Farmers were also absorbing tariff-related increases on some of the equipment and materials they needed to operate while selling crops into a market weakened by retaliation.

Estimates at the time put losses for soybean producers at roughly $100 per acre in 2025.

Ramaswamy’s campaign said it was time to ‘hit back’

As concern about Trump’s tariffs mounted in April 2025, the Ohio Capital Journal asked Ramaswamy’s campaign whether he supported the tariffs and what he would tell Ohioans experiencing economic pain from the policy.

His campaign did not directly answer whether Ramaswamy supported each of the specific tariffs Trump had announced.

Instead, campaign manager Jonathan Ewing defended the broader economic argument behind Trump’s approach.

“For decades, Ohio workers have been hit hard by America’s manufacturing exodus, and it’s time to hit back,” Ewing said.

The response came after Ramaswamy had already publicly endorsed reciprocal tariffs.

The Washington Post noted at the time that Ramaswamy had said relatively little about Trump’s tariffs in the days following their announcement, despite having previously indicated support for reciprocal tariffs.

Trump’s full tariff program was not identical to the policy Ramaswamy had advocated. Ramaswamy favored reciprocity and had cautioned against tariffs that went beyond leveling what he considered an unfair playing field.

But as a candidate seeking to govern one of the nation’s major manufacturing and agricultural states, Ramaswamy had endorsed tariffs as a legitimate way to retaliate against foreign trade barriers, defended Trump’s hardball approach to trade negotiations and said reciprocal tariffs “in most cases” made sense.

Trump then put tariffs at the center of his economic agenda.

In Ohio, a Grove City manufacturer reported losing more than $4 million. Agricultural exports to China plunged. Soybean exports to the country collapsed by 85%. Farmers described losing money on every acre they planted and warned that one of their largest overseas markets could not simply be recovered overnight.

Ramaswamy sided with Trump on reciprocal tariffs.

Ohio farmers and manufacturers were left dealing with the consequences of the tariff fight that followed.

Originally published on TiffinOhio.net.

The Sandusky County Sheriff’s Office announced at approximately 3:15 p.m. Wednesday that Scott Dodd Jr. had been taken into custody.

Authorities had spent much of the day searching for Dodd after a Gibsonburg police officer was stabbed at Union Bank Wednesday morning.

Sandusky County Sheriff Chris Hilton told 13abc that Dodd allegedly stabbed the officer during the incident. The officer was taken to a Level 1 trauma center in Toledo and was undergoing surgery before 11 a.m.

Authorities had not publicly identified the officer as of Wednesday afternoon.

The stabbing triggered a large-scale search across Gibsonburg and surrounding areas.

The Sandusky County Sheriff’s Office warned residents earlier Wednesday that Dodd should not be approached and described him as armed and dangerous.

“DO NOT APPROACH,” the sheriff’s office said while the search was underway. “Residents of Gibsonburg area please contact the Sheriff’s Office or call 911 if you see this subject.”

The Village of Gibsonburg also advised residents to remain inside because of the active search.

“At this time we are advising all residents to please stay inside due to an active search,” village officials said earlier Wednesday.

Those warnings were issued before Dodd was taken into custody.

An Ohio Blue Alert was issued during the search. Authorities described Dodd as approximately 6 feet tall and 150 pounds, with brown hair, blue eyes and a scruffy beard.

The alert indicated that Dodd appeared to have suffered a gunshot wound to his right cheek. Hilton said investigators were working to determine whether the injured officer fired her weapon during the confrontation, according to 13abc.

Dodd was last reported on foot in the area of West Madison Street before his apprehension.

The search also affected nearby schools.

Woodmore Local Schools and Eastwood Local Schools were placed on lockdown while authorities searched for Dodd. Students and staff were accounted for during the lockdowns.

Multiple law enforcement agencies participated in the investigation and search, according to Hilton.

Court records cited by 13abc show Dodd had previously been arrested in Sandusky County on an assault charge in 2025. He pleaded guilty and was ordered to undergo anger-management treatment and placed on active probation, according to the station.

Authorities have not yet announced what charges Dodd will face in connection with Wednesday’s incident or released details about where or how he was taken into custody.

The Sandusky County Sheriff’s Office is expected to release additional information about the incident and apprehension.

This is a developing story and will be updated as additional information becomes available.

Originally published on TiffinOhio.net.

Parton’s nephew, Bryan Seaver, delivered the news of her death in a video for the family, sparking mourning from her birthplace of Locust Ridge in the mountains of East Tennessee across the state to Nashville, where she found fame, and around the world, where her name brought people happiness in her deeds and passion for life.

“Sadness lies with us, but not with Dolly. Dolly has lived in the light, and is in the arms of Jesus, surely met by (husband) Carl, her parents and countless others who have watched her and longed for her to meet them in the heavens,” said Seaver, who led her security detail for a decade.

Parton opened doors for generations of singers and songwriters from all walks of life, giving people hope that “anything was possible,” Seaver said. “She never saw a door she couldn’t open, and the doors she opened made and changed history.”

The daughter of a sharecropper and farmer, Parton asked that she be buried in a field of cotton, he said, “because after a life wearing heavy rhinestones, she finally deserves to be comfortable and have some rest.”

Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee called her “Tennessee’s favorite daughter” after learning of her death.

“Dolly Parton was one of a kind, who loved people, her work, her family, and her Lord. Tennessee has forever been changed — enhanced — by her, and will never be quite the same without Dolly,” Lee said in a statement.

Through her business network, Parton has an estimated net worth of $650 million and used her considerable wealth for philanthropic causes. 

“I’m kind of addicted to the feeling of giving,” she told People magazine in 2021, “knowing that I’m doing something good for someone else.”

The Dollywood Foundation created Dolly’s Imagination Library in 1995, which donates some 10 million books to children each year to bolster literacy.

“They call me the Book Lady,” she said in a 2006 interview with The Washington Post.

She started The Buddy Program in the 1990s, offering $500 to Sevier County middle school students to stay in school and graduate in Tennessee, eventually lowering the dropout rate. The foundation also offers $15,000 scholarships annually to five Sevier County High School seniors “who have a dream they wish to pursue and who can successfully communicate their plan and commitment to realize their dreams.”

Parton raised $12.5 million to help the victims of a 2016 wildfire in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park that devastated cities such as Gatlinburg and $1 million in response to Hurricane Helene in the East Tennessee mountains. She also gave $1 million to Vanderbilt University Medical Center during the COVID-19 pandemic to support development of the Moderna vaccine and filmed herself receiving a shot to encourage people to get vaccinated.

Parton received the Carnegie Medal of Philanthropy in 2022 for years of charitable work, which included putting together a team to help her support favorite causes, such as the Imagination Library.

Early this year, officials renamed the East Tennessee Children’s Hospital in her honor after she made a donation described as “generational and transformational.”

The fourth of 12 children, the country music icon debuted on the Grand Ole Opry at age 13 after growing up singing in church. 

She moved to Nashville and broke in with Porter Wagoner on his show in the 1960s, then went out on her own and recorded hits such as “Joshua,” “Jolene,” “I Will Always Love You,” “Here You Come Again,” “9 to 5,” and “Islands in the Stream.” Her songwriting skills and unmistakable voice enabled her to win 10 Grammys and earn a place in the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1999.

Parton starred in movies such as “9 to 5,” “The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas” and “Steel Magnolias” before opening Dollywood theme park in Sevierville, which led to the creation of a network of theme parks.

Early in her career, Parton’s appearance caught people’s attention, but she also displayed a business acumen that led her to an RCA contract and the decision to protect the publishing rights to her song catalogue, allowing her to collect millions of dollars in royalties over the years.

Parton opened Dollywood in 1986, saying in her biography, “I always thought that if I made it big or got successful at what I had started out to do, I wanted to come back to my part of the country and do something great, something that would bring a lot of jobs into this area.”

The Dollywood Company has multiple parks, including Dollywood’s Splash Country, Dolly Parton’s Stampede, the Dream More Resort and Spa, and her 50% share of the company was believed to be worth $165 million, Forbes reported in 2021.

In addition to the Country Music Hall of Fame, Parton was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2001 and the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2022, an honor she turned down at first because she didn’t think she “earned that right” but then relented after finding out that musicians outside the rock genre received the recognition.

Parton was a member of the Grand Ole Opry for more than half a century and Time magazine named her to its list of 100 most influential people five years ago.

This story was originally produced by Tennessee Lookout, which is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network which includes Ohio Capital Journal, and is supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity.

This story is republished from the Ohio Capital Journal under a Creative Commons license. View the original article.

Originally published on TiffinOhio.net.

In light of the ruling in the nation’s highest court, the administration late Monday asked U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani in Massachusetts to vacate her decision from earlier in August that blocks the U.S. Postal Service from carrying out aspects of Trump’s executive order, while the voting rights groups that brought that challenge argued Tuesday the block should remain in place.

Monday’s decision from the Supreme Court also drew the ire of Democrats, who argued that Trump’s executive order ran afoul of the Constitution and threatens democracy. 

Under the Constitution, states are responsible for administering elections. Many Democrats have said Trump’s order seeks to unlawfully grab that power for the executive branch.

The Supreme Court’s ruling halted a June decision from Talwani in a case brought by more than 20 Democratic-led states and Washington, D.C. 

But that ruling does not apply in a separate case, filed in the same Massachusetts federal court, by the League of Women Voters of Massachusetts and several other voting rights groups challenging Trump’s executive order. 

In its emergency motion in the voting rights groups case, the administration wrote that “the Supreme Court’s order leaves no room for any further dispute: this Court lacked jurisdiction to issue the preliminary-injunction in this case, just as it lacked jurisdiction to enter summary judgment in the (states’) case, because there is no justiciable controversy over a proposed rule until it is actually finalized by an agency.”  

Final rule published

Further complicating the matter, the U.S. Postal Service on Friday issued a final rule that details how the agency would execute Trump’s order. 

The voting rights groups on Saturday asked Talwani to enforce her August order as a result of the Postal Service issuing the regulation. 

Regarding that request, Talwani on Tuesday afternoon said the rule violated her order because she specifically said the administration could not take steps to implement the executive order. However, she declined to take action “other than identifying the violation.”

The groups redoubled their request earlier Tuesday, writing that the Supreme Court’s decision was based on the lack of a USPS final rule.

“That decision addressed a materially different record and did not consider the critical development that occurred last Friday: The USPS Defendants promulgated a Final Rule, transforming the posture of this case and supplying a final agency action that was not before the Supreme Court,” they wrote.

Talwani’s order on the administration’s request was still pending Tuesday afternoon.

Democratic blowback

Meanwhile, Democrats were quick to blast the Supreme Court’s decision, including the top Democrats in the U.S. Senate and House. 

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said it’s “a disgrace that the highest court in the nation is allowing Trump to put a dagger into the heart of our democracy,” in a Monday statement. 

The New York Democrat noted that “Trump’s effort to turn the Postal Service into a voter suppression machine is blatantly unconstitutional – yet his MAGA Supreme Court is refusing to stop it from going forward,” while adding that “Senate Democrats will fight every attempt to hijack mail-in voting and rig the rules before voters have their say this November.” 

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries also blasted the decision and vowed to continue fighting, saying “the sycophantic Supreme Court majority’s decision in the vote-by-mail case is sowing chaos in service to Donald Trump’s effort to undermine our free and fair elections.” 

Jeffries, also of New York, added that “the Trump-aligned justices on the Supreme Court did not and cannot give the President the power to decide how states run elections or who gets to vote by mail.” 

The respective heads of the Democratic National Committee, Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and Democratic Governors Association also pushed back against Trump’s executive order.  

“This is the latest attempt from Trump to rig the midterms because Republicans know their corrupt, cost-hiking policies are deeply unpopular and hurting people every day,” DNC Chair Ken Martin, DCCC Chair Suzan DelBene, DSCC Chair Kirsten Gillibrand, and DGA Chair Andy Beshear said in a statement.

“Democrats will not let them get away with it, and we are confident the American people will reject these Republican schemes in November,” they wrote. “We’re going to fight every day until Trump’s illegal executive order, and all of his other attempts to undermine our free and fair elections, are completely thrown out.” 

A spokesperson for the National Republican Congressional Committee, the party’s U.S. House campaign arm, did not return a message Tuesday.

This story is republished from the Ohio Capital Journal under a Creative Commons license. View the original article.

Originally published on TiffinOhio.net.

Brian Poindexter, a union ironworker and the Democratic nominee for Ohio’s 7th Congressional District, launched his campaign out of his garage. Fellow Brook Park councilman Thomas Dufour has served as his campaign manager, communications director, and treasurer since January. At an Aug. 15 town hall in Medina, he added another job title: cameraman.

“It started with just me and Tom in the garage, and then two became four, four became eight,” Poindexter said in an interview earlier this month, sitting at a picnic table in a small park in Parma.

Cook Political Report initially deemed the race “Likely Republican,” with Poindexter up against incumbent Republican U.S. Rep. Max Miller in a district that President Donald Trump won by 11 percentage points in 2024. Ohio’s 7th Congressional District includes Cleveland’s West Side suburbs, as well as Medina, Wayne, and Ashland counties.

When allegations of domestic violence against Miller caused several prominent Republicans to call for his resignation — a movement led by Miller’s ex-father-in-law, U.S. Sen. Bernie Moreno — Democrats turned their attention to Poindexter. Miller denies the allegations against him.

Progressives who backed Poindexter in the primary, like U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders and U.S. Rep. Ro Khanna, have since joined forces with some of the more moderate voices in the party, like former U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg and the Blue Dog PAC. Cook Political Report now says the race is a toss-up.

Races, deadlines, and the tools you need to cast your vote.

2026 Ohio General Election Voter Guide

After Poindexter was interviewed by The New York Times, NBC News, CBS News, ABC News, and Politico in early August, he told the crowd in Medina that going on national television has been “a nightmare.”

Poindexter spoke in Medina about starting an associate’s degree at 27 years old, paying student loans for his daughter, and living with his parents after a divorce in 2020. He has acknowledged the charges he picked up as a young man: a misdemeanor assault charge and two misdemeanor disorderly conduct charges, one that he pleaded no contest for and another that was dismissed. He added that fatherhood changed his perspective.

Between campaigning and serving on Brook Park’s city council, his work as an apprenticeship instructor at Ironworkers Local 17 is still his primary source of income, according to personal financial disclosures.

Poindexter has limited name recognition in his district, but his unusual biography could help, said Cyril Kleem, the Republican mayor of Berea. Brook Park shares a school district with Berea, and Kleem endorsed Poindexter in early August.

“A lot of working class people have felt left out,” Kleem said. ‘Some of those people have gravitated toward the Republican Party, particularly toward Donald Trump, because I think to a certain extent, the Democratic Party has been accused of forgetting about them. I think he represents them.”

Despite having support from almost the entire Democratic Party — including $6 million in committed spending from a super PAC dedicated to flipping the U.S. House of Representatives — Poindexter has repeatedly tried to shed the party label.

“I’m not in this to carry the flag for the Democratic Party,” he said. “I’m in this to flip a seat for working families.”

As Democrats rally behind Poindexter, Republicans splinter on Miller

While Kleem mainly endorsed Poindexter because of their collaboration at the local level, “of course” the allegations against Miller were a factor in his decision, he said.

Kleem said he privately told Poindexter to avoid talking about the scandal frequently, reasoning that protecting Miller’s daughter was more important than winning the race. The Brook Park councilman agreed, Kleem added. When asked about the scandal in interviews, Poindexter usually acknowledges the severity of the situation before pivoting to focus on Miller’s policies.

“If you talk to a strategist, they’re going to go for the throat. I still believe in ethics,” Kleem said. “If my doctor gave me six months to live, I’m not going to be sitting around worried about the elections I won. I’m going to want to spend time with my kids and my wife.”

In a July 8 affidavit for a defamation lawsuit he brought against his ex-wife, Miller wrote that labor unions turned against him because of the allegations. Representatives for three trade unions informed him that they would pull their endorsements, and the international organization for a fourth told him they would endorse Poindexter, he wrote.

Since then, four Republican U.S. senators have called for Miller’s resignation, including both of Ohio’s senators. U.S. Sen. Jon Husted pulled Miller’s endorsement from his campaign website shortly after releasing a statement saying he thought Miller would be “making the right decision” by dropping out of the race and resigning.

Husted’s campaign took $10,000 from Miller’s leadership PAC in 2025. According to campaign finance records as of July 31, he has not returned the donation. Republican candidate for Ohio governor Vivek Ramaswamy’s website still shows Miller’s endorsement.

Voters in Ohio’s 7th Congressional District have had mixed reactions to the allegations.

Victoria Kovach, a registered Republican from Strongsville who works as a server and social worker, said she plans to vote entirely Democratic this year. She usually votes Republican in local elections, she said, but the last time she voted in a federal race was for Hillary Clinton in 2016.

Her elderly father, her friends, and her 20-year-old son’s friends have all heard about the allegations, she said. Her father, who she said voted for Trump, supported Moreno and Husted’s calls for Miller to drop out of the race and resign.

“I know they’re allegations, but those are some pretty serious allegations — enough to ruin your name,” she said. “That’s not what we need to represent our county, which is why I feel like you have Republicans out here who are going to vote Democratic.”

Poindexter is running as a listener. But whom will he listen to?

Even though they don’t always see eye to eye on policy, Kleem said Poindexter will always hear him out. Poindexter emphasizes a commitment to strong constituent services when speaking to voters, promising to hold quarterly town halls and establish congressional offices throughout the district if elected.

“The [U.S.] House of Representatives is supposed to be made up of people who are representative of the people they serve,” he said. “I do that better than my opponent. I do that better than anybody else who has run for this district in quite a long time.”

He also brings his own ideas, like phasing in universal healthcare by first lowering the minimum age to qualify for Medicare to 55. He supports regulations on data centers, opposes increased military spending for the war in Iran, and doesn’t hide his support for reproductive rights and LGBTQ+ rights.

When asked what legislation he would support on his first day in office, he immediately said the Protecting the Right to Organize Act. Reintroduced in 2025, it would give more power to unions and weaken right-to-work laws. He has also said he would support Moreno’s push to lift the cap on the amount of annual income subject to the payroll tax that funds Social Security.

Some of his more progressive stances may be appealing to Democratic voters in a primary, but Kleem warned that they could alienate Republicans and independents in a general election.

His campaign does not accept corporate PAC money, and personal financial disclosures show that he does not hold stock investments. An outside group with corporate ties is supporting him: Jobs and Democracy PAC, a super PAC in favor of artificial intelligence regulation backed by AI company Anthropic, spent over $512,000 on advertising for Poindexter before the primary.

Poindexter has said he doesn’t know why the Anthropic-backed super PAC is supporting him. Miller has accepted campaign donations from a wide variety of corporate interests, including the Haslam family, Pfizer, John Deere, and more.

“I don’t have to be pro-labor, folks. I am labor,” Poindexter said in a speech at the North Shore AFL-CIO headquarters in July. “My friends, my family — I would not be able to look them in the eye if I went to Washington and forgot where I came from.”

Eileen Velasquez said she listens to the news on the radio in between caring for her grandchildren and shuttling guests from the Best Western in Brook Park to the Cleveland Airport. She doesn’t vote because whether Republican or Democratic, “the rich get richer,” she added.

Her food stamps to feed her family were cut by $175 around three months ago, and she criticized Trump for his attacks on immigrants. But instead of leaning toward one party or another, she simply listens.

“Politicians promise you gold, but they give you copper,” she said.

Neither Kovach nor Velasquez had heard of Poindexter when interviewed, and both said they had little hope that the Democratic Party could offer significant change. A poll conducted by Tavern Research in early August found that 35% of voters in the district were not familiar with Poindexter’s name.

Kleem said that faith cannot be won back in the few months before an election. As he finds his political lane, Poindexter could find himself being pulled in different directions if the people endorsing him have different perspectives, Kleem added.

“At some point, he’s got to find himself,” Kleem said. “The Brian I know is not Bernie Sanders, and he’s not anyone else. He’s Brian Poindexter. He’s a working man … I believe he is the kind that, if he was in a position to take on his own party, I think he would.”

This story is republished from the Ohio Capital Journal under a Creative Commons license. View the original article.

Originally published on TiffinOhio.net.

Wexner, 88, will remain on the board as chair emeritus, but he is no longer a voting member, university spokesperson Ben Johnson said. 

“Les Wexner has stepped back from his role as chair …. Les and Abigail have been great supporters of the university for many years, and we appreciate his ongoing service on the committee,” Johnson said in a statement. 

The Ohio State University Medical Center was renamed the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center in 2012. Wexner was appointed chair in 2013, but has not been at a board meeting since May 2025. 

A spokesperson for Wexner declined to comment. 

Robert Schottenstein will likely replace Wexner’s place as chair, according to a resolution set to be approved at the Sept. 1 meeting. 

“New board chairs always refresh the committee structure and appointments,” Johnson said in a statement. 

Schottenstein is the chief executive officer and president of Columbus-based M/I Homes, Inc. He was a trustee of Ohio State University from 2005-2014 and served as chairman of the board from 2012-2014. 

Schottenstein did not respond to a request for comment by the Ohio Capital Journal. 

Wexner and Epstein

Wexner, the billionaire founder of L Brands who lives in New Albany, was deposed by members of Congress in February about his relationship with Epstein.

Wexner was listed as an alleged co-conspirator of Epstein’s in a 2019 FBI document. The same document listing Wexner as a co-conspirator says there is “limited evidence of his involvement.”

U.S. House Democrats accused Wexner of facilitating Epstein’s alleged sex trafficking ring. Wexner has denied any wrongdoing. 

Epstein — who died by suicide in a New York jail 2019 after being arrested on federal sex trafficking charges — was Wexner’s personal financial adviser from 1987 to 2007, during which time Epstein reportedly misappropriated millions of dollars. 

Wexner graduated from Ohio State in 1959 and went on to found L Brands in 1963, which created Victoria’s Secret, Bath & Body Works, and Abercrombie & Fitch. Schottenstein previously served as a member of the board of L Brands. 

Wexner previously served on the Ohio State University Board of Trustees, including as the chairman, and was also a founding member of The Ohio State University Foundation. 

Les and his wife Abigail Wexner, and the Limited Brands Foundation, have given, raised or pledged more than $200 million, Johnson said. 

Ohio State University has received 500 requests to remove Wexner’s name from university buildings, which remain under consideration, Johnson said. 

The name requests are not related to Wexner stepping down as chair, Johnson said. 

In addition to the Wexner Medical Center, Wexner’s name is on two other buildings at Ohio State. 

The Wexner Center for the Arts is named after Les’ late father Harry Wexner. 

Wexner’s name is on the Les Wexner Football Complex at the Woody Hayes Athletic Center. 

Follow Ohio Capital Journal Reporter Megan Henry on X or on Bluesky.

This story is republished from the Ohio Capital Journal under a Creative Commons license. View the original article.

Originally published on TiffinOhio.net.

Data centers are indeed energy-intensive and the worry about their impact on local energy prices has moved most developers to work to get their energy generated in behind-the-meter projects that don’t draw from the electrical grid.

So if you are a data center developer, what kind of power are you going to put behind the meter?

Looking at the top sources of power in the United States, you can whittle the options down pretty quickly.

Coal, once the heavyweight for energy in the United States, has seen its economics turn against itself and the United States has only begun construction on one coal-fired power plant in the past 13 years.

For all the talk of small modular reactors, nuclear power is still not viable in Ohio due to the massive up-front costs and decades of regulatory hurdles to clear.

Hydropower and geothermal power demand specific topographic conditions, and biomass has economies of scale that don’t make it competitive with other technologies.

This leaves developers with three choices: solar, wind, and natural gas.

The state has put its thumb on the scale when it comes to choosing between these technologies. A range of state decisions have made siting solar, wind, and natural gas projects very different from one another.

Solar and natural gas projects over 50 megawatts must be approved by the Ohio Power Siting Board. For reference, this would be large enough to power all the homes in Canton with a little bit of energy left over.

Wind projects, on the other hand, only need to be 5 megawatts to face Ohio Power Siting Board scrutiny. That is only enough to power about half the homes in Athens.

The state has also given considerable latitude to county governments to ban solar and wind projects in unincorporated areas, a barrier gas-powered plants do not have to overcome.

For projects that are not outright banned, two local representatives get a vote on Siting Board decisions for wind and solar projects, a requirement not faced by natural gas projects.

Solar and wind projects also face a regime of siting rules that do not apply to gas plants.

Solar facilities face specified setbacks, landscaping, fencing, stormwater, noise, and vegetation requirements. Wind facilities face turbine setbacks and shadow-flicker, ice-throw, blade-failure, communications-interference, noise, and aviation requirements.

Solar and wind projects also face decommissioning planning requirements that gas-powered plants are not subject to.

Gas-powered plants do have one requirement that solar and wind projects do not: they must submit a range of operational air-quality analyses. This makes sense to a certain extent given solar and wind generation is emissions-free.

In an ideal world, technologies can compete against each other on a level playing field.

If there are specific costs associated with outcomes like public health, environmental sustainability, or even aesthetics, these can be captured through fees and taxes specifically designed to internalize these costs into the market.

Creating separate regulatory regimes for different technologies, on the other hand, makes legislators the arbiters of technological superiority rather than the market.

This story is republished from the Ohio Capital Journal under a Creative Commons license. View the original article.

Originally published on TiffinOhio.net.

The city received $968,620 through the Ohio Department of Transportation’s Small City Program for the reconstruction of East Perry Street between Jefferson Street and the Sandusky River, according to the City of Tiffin.

The project is estimated to cost approximately $1.05 million. The grant will cover 80% of construction costs as well as construction administration and inspection, while the city’s required 20% local match and design expenses will be paid through Road & Bridge Levy funds.

Design work is expected to begin in 2027, with construction currently scheduled for 2030.

The project will continue an earlier reconstruction of East Perry Street between Greenfield Street and Jefferson Street that was completed in 2023.

City Engineer Matt Watson said the project is part of a broader effort to rebuild state routes through Tiffin and address deteriorating infrastructure beneath heavily traveled roads.

“This grant award allows us to continue the initiative of rebuilding our state routes within our community,” Watson said. “Like the 2023 East Perry Street Reconstruction Project and the current North Sandusky Street Reconstruction Project, we are leveraging outside grants with our Road & Bridge Levy dollars to remove compromised brick underneath our truck routes.”

Watson said the city’s goal is to improve the long-term durability of high-volume roadways and extend the amount of time between future resurfacing projects.

Mayor Lee Wilkinson credited Watson and ODOT for securing the funding.

“I want to thank ODOT for their support of our community,” Wilkinson said. “I especially am thankful to City Engineer Matt Watson for going the extra mile to stretch our local dollars.”

The Small City Program provides federal transportation funding to eligible cities with populations between 5,000 and 24,999 for roadway and signal projects on the federal-aid highway system.

According to the city, ODOT received 15 applications seeking slightly more than $25 million during the latest funding round and awarded approximately $13 million.

Tiffin officials said the City Engineer’s Office has now secured approximately $8.7 million in state and federal grants for road and bridge infrastructure projects since voters first approved the Road & Bridge Levy in 2018.

Originally published on TiffinOhio.net.

The property, located at 458 Second Avenue, includes approximately 542,784 square feet of manufacturing and warehouse space on 35.42 acres. The facility is rail-served and includes multiple loading areas, drive-in doors and heavy electrical infrastructure.

Kreate is a Northwest Ohio-based manufacturer whose products include storage totes, shelving, waste containers, chairs and garden products. The company serves major retail customers and has expanded operations and projects beyond Ohio.

Details about what Kreate plans to produce at the Tiffin facility, how many employees could work there and when operations could begin have not yet been announced.

The acquisition gives new ownership to one of Tiffin and Seneca County’s largest industrial properties, which has been part of the area’s manufacturing base for decades.

It also leaves Tiffin without any large existing industrial buildings currently available for companies seeking move-in-ready space, according to the Chamber & Development.

Earlier this year, RELN expanded its Tiffin manufacturing operations by leasing the remaining available space in the existing speculative building at Eagle Rock Industrial Park.

With that building now fully occupied and the former Ameriwood property sold, local development officials said the area’s inventory of large industrial buildings has been fully absorbed.

Another speculative building is already under construction at Eagle Rock Industrial Park.

AFLP broke ground earlier this month on a new 120,000-square-foot industrial building expected to cost approximately $13.6 million. The building is being designed to accommodate either a single company or multiple industrial tenants seeking between 50,000 and 120,000 square feet.

Construction is expected to be completed by summer 2027.

“This acquisition is an encouraging next step for a property that has played an important role in Tiffin’s manufacturing history,” Tiffin Mayor Lee Wilkinson said in a statement. “We are pleased to welcome Kreate’s investment in our community and look forward to learning more about the company’s plans for the facility.”

Wilkinson said the transaction also demonstrates the need to continue developing new industrial buildings and sites to accommodate future companies considering Tiffin.

The Seneca Regional Chamber & Development said it will continue working with Kreate, the City of Tiffin, Seneca County and regional partners as plans for the property move forward.

Originally published on TiffinOhio.net.

Caudill says her mother was placed in a nursing home shortly before the COVID-19 pandemic, became traumatized when her family could no longer visit and died two months later.

Then she looks into the camera and assigns blame: “Amy Acton is to blame for this.”

What Ramaswamy’s campaign does not tell viewers is who it chose to deliver that accusation.

Caudill is not a previously apolitical Ohioan who emerged in 2026 to tell a story about the pandemic. She has spent a decade in Republican politics. She chaired Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign in Hamilton County. She became a Trump delegate. She worked with Republican Jim Renacci’s gubernatorial campaign until it cut ties with her after she posted a violent “silencer” meme targeting Jon Husted. She returned to the Republican National Convention as an Ohio delegate in 2024, holds leadership positions in conservative political organizations and, in May, narrowly won election to the Ohio Republican Party’s State Central Committee.

Ramaswamy’s campaign paid for the advertisement. It gives viewers no indication of Caudill’s extensive Republican political résumé.

That background does not determine what Caudill experienced when her mother died. It does, however, provide significant context when a gubernatorial campaign puts her on television to make the extraordinary claim that its Democratic opponent is personally responsible for a death.

And as TiffinOhio.net reported in a fact check Monday, the factual foundation beneath that accusation has problems of its own.

Trump turned Caudill into a political activist

Before becoming a familiar face in Republican politics, Caudill built a successful career in the insurance industry.

NPR profiled Caudill during the 2016 presidential campaign, describing her as a retired insurance business owner who had owned four Allstate offices. Caudill told NPR she eventually built what she described as the largest Allstate agency in Greater Cincinnati.

Donald Trump’s presidential campaign marked a turning point.

“Since Trump announced that he was going to run, I’ve gotten politically involved, which I had never done before,” Caudill told NPR in January 2017.

She did not remain a casual volunteer for long.

By March 2016, WVXU identified Caudill as the Hamilton County chair of Trump’s campaign. Contemporary reporting documented her organizing supporters, distributing Trump signs and representing the campaign as it arranged events in Cincinnati.

Her public comments during that campaign also demonstrated how closely she had aligned herself with Trump’s political movement.

After the release of the Access Hollywood recording, Caudill referred to Republicans who withdrew their support from Trump as “traitor Republicans,” specifically naming figures including Ohio Sen. Rob Portman and U.S. Sens. John McCain and Jeff Flake.

In another NPR interview, Caudill said she believed workers who installed her roof were in the country illegally. Asked what made her believe that, she responded: “They didn’t speak English. None of them did.” NPR noted that the foreman had never confirmed her assumption. The same profile described Caudill joining friends along Cincinnati streets to publicly demonstrate support for Trump.

Trump had given Caudill a political identity and, increasingly, a role inside Republican politics.

Then came the Jon Husted “silencer” meme

A year later, Caudill became involved with another Republican candidate for governor.

In 2017, she served as a campaign volunteer and local supporter for then-U.S. Rep. Jim Renacci, who was competing for the Republican gubernatorial nomination against several candidates, including then-Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted.

The primary became bitter.

Caudill ended up in the middle of it.

In October 2017, just days after a gunman killed 60 people in Las Vegas, Caudill posted an altered image on Facebook depicting a man bound to a chair, with Husted’s face placed over the man’s face and duct tape covering his mouth.

Across the image were the words: “A Silencer is a good thing when used properly.”

Contemporary public-radio reporting described the meme as seemingly advocating Husted’s assassination. Renacci’s campaign publicly said the post did not reflect its views.

It was not Caudill’s first attack on Husted during the campaign.

As TiffinOhio.net previously reported, Caudill had also entered the comments beneath a former Husted staffer’s Facebook tribute to her deceased grandmother and repeatedly attacked Husted there, including by posting derogatory memes and comparing him to a portable toilet.

After the “silencer” episode drew additional scrutiny, Renacci’s campaign parted ways with Caudill.

The target of that meme is now U.S. Sen. Jon Husted, the Republican nominee seeking a full Senate term in November.

Nine years after one Republican gubernatorial campaign severed its relationship with Caudill over her treatment of Husted, another Republican gubernatorial campaign chose her to appear on television and deliver one of its attacks against Acton.

She remained an “original” Trump activist — and went after J.D. Vance

Caudill’s political activity did not end with the Renacci controversy.

In 2022, she joined a group of Donald Trump’s original Ohio delegates in an extraordinary letter asking Trump to withdraw his endorsement of J.D. Vance in the Republican U.S. Senate primary.

The letter identified Caudill as Trump’s 2016 delegate from Ohio’s 1st Congressional District and described its signatories as the original Ohio “Trumpers” who supported him while much of the state Republican establishment opposed him.

The group told Trump that his Vance endorsement felt like a “betrayal” and urged him to reconsider backing a candidate they characterized as a “political chameleon and snake oil salesman.”

Two years later, Caudill’s assessment of Vance had changed dramatically.

At the 2024 Republican National Convention, after Trump selected Vance as his running mate, Caudill told El País that she knew Vance well, called him “one of us” and predicted Trump and Vance would make a strong team.

Caudill was again an Ohio delegate at the convention.

Later that month, FOX19 interviewed her at a Cincinnati-area Trump rally. Caudill described rallies as essential for recruiting volunteers, poll workers and voters.

“I hope to be able to turn Hamilton County red,” she said. “That’s my goal to turn Hamilton County into a Trump county.”

Her role now extends beyond individual campaigns

By 2025 and 2026, Caudill had become embedded in Republican and conservative political organizations beyond presidential campaigns.

A 2025 coalition letter organized by Americans for Prosperity identified Caudill as director of the Ohio Freedom Coalition. Former gubernatorial candidate Jim Renacci’s current political organization likewise identifies Caudill with the Ohio Freedom Coalition.

Caudill also serves in two political leadership positions with Northeast Republican Women.

The organization’s 2026 leadership roster lists her as chair of both its Legislative Committee and Political Advisory Committee. Its newsletter says committee chairs sit on the organization’s board of directors and help shape its goals and outlook.

The Legislative Committee tracks government policy and legislation. The Political Advisory Committee, according to the organization, keeps its president and board informed about political developments, issues and political leaders.

By that point, Caudill was no longer simply volunteering for candidates. She was helping operate pieces of the conservative political infrastructure around them.

She tried twice to win a seat inside the Ohio Republican Party

Caudill also sought formal power inside the Ohio Republican Party.

In 2024, she challenged incumbent Michelle Schneider for the Republican State Central Committee seat representing Ohio Senate District 8.

Official Hamilton County election results show Schneider defeated Caudill decisively that year, 15,017 votes to 9,625, or roughly 61% to 39%.

Caudill tried again in 2026.

This time she won.

Official results from the Hamilton County Board of Elections show Caudill defeated Schneider by just 368 votes: 11,755 to 11,387.

Caudill received 50.80% of the vote to Schneider’s 49.20%.

The same election records show Caudill also won a Republican county central committee seat in Delhi Township.

The victory placed Caudill inside the governing structure of the Ohio Republican Party at the same time she was continuing her work with outside conservative organizations.

Her 2026 campaign questionnaire shows what she wants the party to become

Caudill’s own State Central Committee campaign materials offer additional insight into what she hoped to accomplish in the position.

In a 2026 questionnaire submitted to Ohio Gun Owners, Caudill answered “yes” to all eight of the organization’s questions.

One asked candidates whether they would support closing Ohio Republican primaries so only Republican voters could participate.

But the pledge went further.

The organization also asked whether candidates would “oppose and refuse to endorse” any Republican candidate who supported keeping the state’s current open-primary system.

Caudill answered yes.

Right to Life Action Coalition of Ohio, the anti-abortion organization that also endorsed Ramaswamy for governor, endorsed Caudill for State Central Committee.

She entered the 2026 general-election season not as an outsider to Republican politics, but as an elected member of the state party apparatus with a decade-long record of organizing for its candidates and conservative causes.

That is who Ramaswamy’s campaign chose for its ad

None of this means Caudill did not grieve her mother.

It does mean the biography viewers are given in Ramaswamy’s advertisement is incomplete.

The spot was paid for by Vivek Ramaswamy and Rob McColley for Ohio, according to the disclaimer and ad-tracking information reviewed by TiffinOhio.net. Ramaswamy’s campaign therefore made the decision to feature Caudill and broadcast her accusation across Ohio.

The campaign does not tell viewers that she chaired Trump’s Hamilton County campaign.

It does not tell them she was a Trump delegate.

It does not tell them that another Republican gubernatorial campaign parted ways with her after the “silencer” meme aimed at Husted.

It does not tell them she was an Ohio delegate for Trump again in 2024.

It does not tell them that she holds leadership positions in conservative political organizations.

And it does not tell them that, three months before the ad aired, Republican primary voters elected her to the Ohio Republican Party’s State Central Committee.

Instead, the ad supplies one identifier for Caudill: her personal experience losing her mother.

The omissions surrounding that story extend beyond Caudill’s politics.

TiffinOhio.net’s review of the underlying timeline found that Caudill’s mother, Dorothy Farrell, was a resident of Erlanger, Kentucky, and died July 25, 2020, at St. Elizabeth Hospice in Edgewood, Kentucky.

Acton had resigned as Ohio health director six weeks earlier.

Ohio’s stay-at-home order had already been lifted.

Kentucky operated under its own pandemic rules and had preserved exceptions for end-of-life visitation. By July 15, 10 days before Farrell died, the state had also begun reopening nursing homes to visitors under new restrictions.

The ad does not identify the nursing home where Farrell stayed, meaning the available public record cannot establish whether that facility was in Ohio or Kentucky or precisely which visitation rule applied to her.

Yet Ramaswamy’s campaign offers viewers a definitive conclusion anyway.

“Amy Acton is to blame for this.”

The person selected to say it is not merely a grieving daughter. Linda Caudill is also a longtime Republican organizer, Trump campaign veteran, conservative political leader and newly elected member of the Ohio Republican Party’s State Central Committee.

Those facts do not appear in the ad.

They are part of who Linda Caudill is.

Caudill did not immediately respond to a request for comment for TiffinOhio.net’s earlier fact check. This story will be updated if she responds.

Originally published on TiffinOhio.net.

“I’m supporting everyone up and down the ticket,” the Republican nominee for Ohio governor said, according to a recording obtained by TiffinOhio.net. Asked directly whether he would campaign alongside Miller, he changed the subject to where the voter grew up, and then came back to it: “this is the most important election for preserving Republican control of the House, the Senate, and also protecting the Republican control of the state. If we compromise that, we’re done.”

That is a rationale, and it is the first one he has offered. It is worth being precise about what it covers.

What is on the other side of the ledger

Miller’s ex-wife, Emily Moreno, is the daughter of U.S. Sen. Bernie Moreno, R-Ohio. In police reports and court filings, she has said Miller held a gun to her head, threw hot water from a skillet at her body and scalded her chest and stomach, and pushed her against a wall. CNN obtained a recording of her February police interview through a public records request. An officer asked her what Miller did with the gun. “Holds it on me,” she answered.

The couple’s 2-year-old daughter turned up with a fractured collarbone. Detectives, a county Division of Children and Family Services caseworker and a Cleveland Clinic physician met in March to go over it. A detective who summarized the meeting wrote that bruising around the fracture made the injury suspicious, and that someone on the call said it would have taken a high degree of impact. A child protection specialist described the bruising near the fracture as resembling a handprint.

Two other women have accused Miller of physical violence.

Then there is the part that is not an allegation. On Aug. 2, during a roughly 20-minute livestream on X defending himself, Miller posted a link to a public Dropbox folder of records assembled by his attorney, Aaron Minc. Inside it was an unredacted nude photograph of his 2-year-old daughter. The same document carried the child’s name, unredacted, more than 70 times. Emily Moreno’s lawyers said the post had drawn more than 204,000 views by the following afternoon.

Minc has admitted he released the file and apologized. He called it completely unintentional and said he corrected it Monday morning. He has also told reporters the image did not show the child’s genitals and that she was shirtless. A federal lawsuit filed on Aug. 12 on the child’s behalf, against Miller, Minc and Minc’s firm, says a pediatrician reviewed the photograph and found otherwise.

Subodh Chandra, the lead lawyer on that case, put it this way: “This child is an entirely innocent victim who has become collateral damage to her father’s political ambition.”

Bernie Moreno, the child’s grandfather, was blunter. “When he went out and did what he did — including releasing photos of my granddaughter completely naked — now you have hundreds of thousands of psychotic human beings that have that. To say oops is grotesque,” he told reporters. “My personal opinion is that this is a felony, and that every single human being that touched that photo and transmitted it electronically should go to jail because it is illegal to do that.”

What Miller says

Miller denies all of it. He has never been criminally charged in connection with any of the allegations.

Prosecutors did not bring charges after concluding there was insufficient admissible evidence to take to a grand jury, according to police records. A child welfare agency deemed two reports that he abused his daughter unsubstantiated; a third recorded an “indicated” finding of physical abuse, meaning investigators saw signs of abuse but could not determine who caused it. Miller has said the bruising on his daughter resembled marks from a car seat strap. He acknowledged spraying his ex-wife with a kitchen sink sprayer during a 2024 argument but said the water was not scalding, said he did not mean to hurt her, and called it “horseplay.” He denies drug use and has offered to be tested. He sued Emily Moreno for defamation.

He also asked the House Ethics Committee to investigate him. It agreed on Aug. 4, saying it was reviewing allegations he may have engaged in domestic violence and abuse or illegal drug use, and noting that opening a review does not itself indicate any violation occurred. “I have absolutely nothing to hide,” Miller wrote.

The same logic, the opposite answer

Ramaswamy is not the only Republican who framed this around the majority. He is the only prominent one who got to a different conclusion.

Sen. Tim Sheehy, a Montana Republican, wrote on Aug. 6: “What kind of person would treat their daughter this way? This guy is clearly a degenerate sociopath. Max should step aside and seek help. Staying in this race makes it far more likely we lose this seat and hand Democrats a majority to impeach President Trump.”

Same premise. Same stakes. Opposite instruction.

Bernie Moreno had already gotten there on Aug. 2. “As he has admitted privately, Max Miller needs serious psychological help,” he wrote. “He is a danger to my daughter, and I hold my breath every minute he has custody of my granddaughter. If there are any basic standards of character required to hold elected office, Max Miller fails them. He should not serve in the House of Representatives. I believe Max Miller needs to seek professional help to end the clear pattern of abuse he has left in his wake. I believe he should not be free to continue endangering others until he does.”

Sen. Jon Husted, who faces former Sen. Sherrod Brown on Nov. 3, followed on Aug. 6. “Anyone who commits domestic violence is not fit to serve in Congress,” he wrote. “The House Ethics Committee should thoroughly investigate any credible allegations, and any member found to have committed domestic violence should resign from Congress immediately.” He added: “I believe Max would be making the right decision to step aside as a candidate and resign from Congress to focus on what is in the best interest of his daughter.”

Both senators are listed as endorsers of Ramaswamy. So is Miller. All three names sit on the same page, which was still live and unchanged when TiffinOhio.net fetched it Tuesday.

The page is easy to edit. We know because they edited it.

“Rep. Max Miller” appears under “Ohio Congressional Delegation,” listed with Reps. Dave Taylor, Jim Jordan, Michael Rulli and Warren Davidson.

In April, TiffinOhio.net reported that Ramaswamy’s campaign was promoting the endorsement of state Rep. Rodney Creech (R-West Alexandria), who was accused by a minor female relative of climbing into bed with her while erect and wearing only his underwear, according to Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation documents. Creech denied wrongdoing and was never charged. Within two days his name was gone. It has never come back. A string search of the live page Tuesday returned no result for Creech.

State Rep. Gary Click (R-Vickery) came off in the same edit and was back within roughly two hours of the removal being reported. He is on the page today.

So the campaign can move a name in under a business day. It has done it twice. What it has not done, in three weeks of a House ethics review, a federal lawsuit filed on behalf of a toddler, and two of its own endorsing senators calling for the man to quit Congress, is move this one.

None of that is silence anymore. Silence was the Aug. 5 answer, when reporters caught Ramaswamy at the Ohio State Fair and he said he wished everybody’s family well and that his prayers were with the granddaughter involved in that situation. That was all he would give them. Saturday was different. Saturday he gave a reason.

What it is worth

The deadline to replace Miller on the November ballot passed Aug. 10 with no substitute filed. He is the Republican nominee against Democrat Brian Poindexter, and he has said there is no chance he removes himself. The nonpartisan Cook Political Report moved the district to Toss Up this month. U.S. Rep. Mike Carey held a fundraiser co-hosted by Miller after the ethics review opened.

Meanwhile, the super PAC whose stated purpose is electing Ramaswamy has twice put his opponent’s childhood sexual abuse on Ohio television. Amy Acton disclosed on a 1994 medical licensure application that she had sought therapy after being abused as a child. Ohio removed that question from the form because it discouraged people from getting treatment.

That is the arrangement as it stands 10 weeks out. An abuse survivor running for governor is fair game for the airwaves. A congressman accused by three women, under House ethics review, and sued over a nude photograph of his own 2-year-old, keeps his spot on the endorsement list.

A voter asked Ramaswamy on Saturday whether he would go campaign with Max Miller. He never answered that. He answered a question nobody asked, about what he thinks is at stake in November, and in doing so he told Ohio what he is willing to carry to get there.

Originally published on TiffinOhio.net.

The FirstEnergy scandal followed the signing by Gov. Mike DeWine in 2019 of House Bill 6. The law allowed public funds to be used to prop up aging nuclear and coal facilities. FirstEnergy, a major Ohio utility company, admitted in a 2021 settlement that it had paid millions of dollars to public officials to get the bill enacted and had hidden those payments. Other energy companies, including American Electric Power, were also involved in making payments to public officials.

Investigations and legal proceedings in the case are continuing in Ohio.

Dr. Amy Acton, the Democratic nominee for governor of Ohio, issued a press release on Aug. 19 that lists executive orders she would issue on her first day in office if elected. They include measures intended to prevent future corruption in the state government.

Acton’s plan includes three executive orders: one to create an anti-corruption task force, one to prevent state appointees from jumping back and forth between government regulatory agencies and lobbying positions for the regulated companies, and one to increase campaign finance disclosure requirements for state contractors. 

Civic leaders fighting to root out corruption in the state say such measures are long overdue.

“We have had some real challenges with ethical government in the state of Ohio,” said Catherine Turcer, executive director of the nonpartisan good-government group Common Cause Ohio.

“There were the FBI arrests, and in fact, our former speaker is currently in prison because of shenanigans involving dark money and corruption in the Public Utilities Commission,” she told the Ohio Independent. “So Ohioans are very aware that corrupt activities actually end up ripping us off,” she said. “It ends up affecting our pocketbooks.” The scandal left Ohio ratepayers paying more for electricity, Turcer said.

Turcer said Acton’s proposals could help change the way Ohio’s government operates.

“You can’t study away a problem, but she plans to create an anti-corruption task force, and I think that’s incredibly important,” Turcer said. “Analyzing all the different ways that there’s corruption or fraud or abuse of power, where government isn’t functioning well, is a really good beginning to an administration.”  

Turcer said at a moment when Ohioans are struggling to pay their bills, ethics reform is especially important. 

“This is a time for candidates to step up with new ideas that really focus on ways to improve people’s lives. It is really clear that people are hurting, and they are hurting because of a variety of policies,” she said. “If they do not choose to address corruption, they are not getting at the heart of what is wrong.”

Acton is running against Republican biotechnology entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy in the Nov. 3 election. Incumbent Republican Gov. DeWine is term-limited.

The policy plan on Ramaswamy’s campaign website does not mention government corruption. His campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment for this story.

Originally published on TiffinOhio.net.

The spot, paid for by Vivek Ramaswamy and Rob McColley for Ohio and tracked by the ad-monitoring firm Medium Buying, features Delhi Township Republican activist Linda Caudill speaking directly to the camera about her mother.

“I had to put my mother in a nursing home because she had fallen,” Caudill says. “A few weeks after that is when Amy Acton shut down the state. My mother didn’t understand it. It traumatized her. She didn’t know why her family couldn’t come visit her. Two months later, she died. Amy Acton is to blame for this.”

What the ad never tells viewers is where Caudill’s mother lived or where she died.

Dorothy Farrell was 88 years old and a resident of Erlanger, Kentucky. She died on Saturday, July 25, 2020, at St. Elizabeth Hospice in Edgewood, Kentucky, according to her obituary from the Ronald B. Jones Funeral Home in Ludlow, Kentucky. Her funeral Mass was held at St. Henry Church in Elsmere, Kentucky. She was buried in Fort Thomas, Kentucky.

The same obituary that establishes those facts identifies one of Farrell’s surviving children as “daughter, Linda Caudill of Delhi, OH.”

Caudill did not learn where her mother lived and died from a news report. She buried her.

The timeline the ad leaves out

Ramaswamy’s campaign constructs a simple sequence for viewers: Acton “shut down the state,” Caudill’s mother could not see her family, and two months later she died.

The actual timeline is considerably different.

Gov. Mike DeWine lifted Ohio’s stay-at-home order on May 19, 2020, replacing it with an advisory containing strong recommendations and dropping travel restrictions. Farrell died more than two months later.

Acton resigned as Ohio health director on June 11, 2020. Farrell died six weeks later.

Kentucky allowed gatherings of up to 50 people to resume beginning June 29. Farrell died nearly a month after that.

And Kentucky’s own restrictions included an exception for people receiving end-of-life care from the beginning of the pandemic.

When Gov. Andy Beshear restricted visitation at Kentucky nursing homes in March 2020, patients receiving end-of-life care were the only group still permitted visitors, according to the National Governors Association’s record of Kentucky’s pandemic actions. Subsequent guidance told acute-care facilities to discourage visitors “except for visits in end-of-life circumstances” and similarly preserved end-of-life visitation at senior-care facilities.

None of those facts appear in Ramaswamy’s ad.

The strongest possible case for the ad still leaves a major hole

The ad does not identify the nursing home where Farrell stayed before entering hospice. That matters. Delhi Township sits across the Ohio River from Northern Kentucky, and without the facility’s name it cannot be established from the available records whether the nursing home was in Ohio or Kentucky.

Grant the campaign the possibility that it was in Ohio.

The ad still asks viewers to assign responsibility to Acton without giving them the information necessary to determine whether Acton’s rules actually governed the visitation Caudill describes. It never identifies the facility. It never identifies the specific order that prevented Caudill from visiting. It never mentions that Farrell lived in Kentucky. It never mentions that Farrell ultimately received hospice care and died in Kentucky. And it never mentions that Acton had been out of office for six weeks by the time Farrell died.

Instead, Caudill tells an Ohio audience that “Amy Acton shut down the state” and then says, “Amy Acton is to blame for this.”

The missing geography is not some incidental biographical detail. It is fundamental to determining whether the Ohio official being blamed actually controlled what happened.

DeWine has repeatedly said the COVID decisions were his

There is another problem with Ramaswamy’s effort to personally assign Ohio’s pandemic decisions to Acton: the governor who appointed her has repeatedly said otherwise.

DeWine, who has endorsed Ramaswamy, has publicly taken responsibility for the decisions his administration made during COVID-19.

“The decisions that were made during COVID, they were my decisions, so no one should blame someone else if they don’t like it. The buck stops with me,” DeWine told NBC4 in December.

Ramaswamy and groups supporting him have nevertheless spent much of the 2026 campaign making Acton personally synonymous with Ohio’s pandemic restrictions.

An earlier Ramaswamy ad blamed Acton for Ohio’s March 2020 primary election closure, a characterization DeWine himself contradicted and PolitiFact rated Mostly False. A Ramaswamy-aligned group has blamed her for Ohio’s pandemic shutdowns, used her history as a survivor of childhood sexual abuse in an attack ad and attacked her over a missed CDC training and an old joke about a television remote.

Ramaswamy, meanwhile, spent parts of 2020 advocating pandemic measures people close to the DeWine administration considered more aggressive than those Ohio ultimately adopted.

The latest ad takes that strategy somewhere new: it puts a grieving daughter on television to directly blame Acton for what happened to her mother.

Who Ramaswamy chose to put on television

Caudill has been a known figure in Ohio Republican politics for nearly a decade.

In 2017, she served as a volunteer and county leader for Jim Renacci’s gubernatorial campaign.

That October, days after the mass shooting in Las Vegas, Caudill posted a meme to Facebook depicting a man bound to a chair with rope. Jon Husted’s face had been edited onto the man, with duct tape covering his mouth. The caption read: “A Silencer is a good thing when used properly.”

Cleveland.com reported at the time that the meme seemed to advocate Husted’s assassination. A Renacci spokesman said Caudill’s post did not reflect the campaign and that she had been asked to remove it.

A month earlier, according to the Cincinnati Enquirer, Caudill had entered the comments of a Facebook post written by a former Husted staffer as a tribute to her deceased grandmother and repeatedly attacked Husted there. She posted derogatory memes, including one comparing him to a portable toilet, and called him “disgusting.”

After the “silencer” post drew additional attention, Renacci’s campaign parted ways with Caudill.

The man depicted in that meme is now the Republican U.S. senator appearing on the same November 3 ballot as Ramaswamy.

Nine years after another Republican gubernatorial campaign cut Caudill loose over her conduct toward Husted, Ramaswamy’s campaign chose her as the face of a television attack on Acton.

And it put her on television to make an accusation that depends heavily on facts the ad never gives Ohio voters: her mother lived in Kentucky, died in Kentucky hospice care, and passed away weeks after Acton had already left the Ohio Department of Health.

Those facts were not difficult to find. They are in her mother’s obituary.

Caudill did not immediately respond to a request for comment for this story.

Originally published on TiffinOhio.net.

The Ohio Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association endorsed Democrat Dr. Amy Acton on Tuesday, one month after the state’s largest police union threw its support behind Republican Vivek Ramaswamy. Among other departments, the OPBA is the certified bargaining agent for personnel at the Tiffin Police Department, and it has represented the deputy and dispatcher unit at the Seneca County Sheriff’s Office under an agreement filed with the State Employment Relations Board.

The union put collective bargaining at the center of its decision.

“OPBA’s primary focus is strengthening collective bargaining rights. Dr. Acton shines in that area. She understands how the state works, knows the challenges that law enforcement officers face every day, and will work to preserve our ability to collectively bargain as a union and address the serious concerns that arise from policing and protecting such a diverse state,” said George Sakellakis, whom the union identified as its director of government relations.

OPBA Executive Director Tom Austin framed the endorsement around public safety and public employment.

“The Ohio Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association is proud to endorse Dr. Amy Acton’s campaign for governor of Ohio because we know that she will fight for our police officers and Ohio’s public employees, protect our families, and strengthen public safety to ensure safer communities,” Austin said. “Dr. Acton understands the critical role that law enforcement plays in protecting Ohio communities and will stand alongside our members to ensure safety across the state.”

The union says it represents more than 8,000 public employees working across law enforcement in Ohio, operating out of four regional offices. Its members include police officers, corrections officers, sheriff’s deputies and dispatchers.

The police vote is split

The endorsement lands on the other side of a line drawn a month ago. On July 21, the Fraternal Order of Police of Ohio — the state’s largest law enforcement union — endorsed Ramaswamy and his running mate, Ohio Senate President Rob McColley of Napoleon. The FOP backed an all-Republican statewide slate, which the union described as the first time in recent memory it had done so.

That was a shift. In 2018, the Ohio FOP endorsed seven of eight Democratic statewide candidates. By 2022, that number was one.

Acton’s campaign has been assembling public safety endorsements on the other track. The Ohio Association of Professional Fire Fighters, which says it represents more than 14,000 firefighters and retirees, endorsed her earlier this month in Cincinnati. Four major public service unions endorsed her in December, and the Dayton Building and Construction Trades Council broke from its statewide affiliate in April to back her.

Why collective bargaining is the fault line

For public safety unions in Ohio, the phrase carries a specific memory. Senate Bill 5, the 2011 law that would have stripped bargaining rights from police officers, firefighters, teachers and other public workers, was repealed by voters 61% to 39%. Seneca County rejected it by 25 points.

Ramaswamy’s chief strategist, Jai Chabria, and his campaign spokeswoman, Connie Luck, both worked on the effort to save Senate Bill 5 from that repeal.

Acton, in the campaign’s announcement, tied her answer to the same two issues the OPBA raised.

“I am incredibly honored to receive the endorsement of the Ohio Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association. The OPBA represents hardworking Ohioans who have dedicated their career to protecting their communities and providing essential services,” Acton said. “As governor, I will protect collective bargaining power and our public pensions, stand alongside our public safety officers, and strengthen public safety to ensure that all Ohioans feel protected.”

The rest of the coalition

The campaign lists more than 20 labor organizations backing Acton, among them the Ohio AFL-CIO, the United Auto Workers, AFSCME, the Ohio Federation of Teachers, the Ohio Nurses Association, SEIU District 1199, the Communications Workers of America, United Steelworkers District 1, the United Mine Workers of America and the North Central Ohio Building and Construction Trades Council. A full list is posted on the campaign’s website.

Acton, a physician and the former director of the Ohio Department of Health, is running with former Ohio Democratic Party chair David Pepper. She has built her campaign around affordability, including a working families tax cut and a state prescription drug purchasing platform.

Ramaswamy, a Cincinnati-born biotech entrepreneur and former presidential candidate, is running with McColley, whose 1st Senate District covers a stretch of northwest Ohio. Ramaswamy has been endorsed by President Donald Trump and the Ohio Republican Party.

Election Day is Tuesday, Nov. 3.

Originally published on TiffinOhio.net.

In an unsigned emergency docket opinion, the court’s conservative majority wrote the Trump administration is likely to prevail on its argument that 23 Democratic-led states do not have standing to stop his executive order to change how the U.S. Postal Service processes mail-in ballots. 

The majority justices also wrote that a lower court’s injunction is “causing irreparable harm,” but left open the possibility that the executive order could still be considered unconstitutional.

“The Court’s disposition of this application does not mean that any measure taken by the Government to implement the Order will necessarily be lawful. On that score, time will tell,” the majority wrote. 

The legality of a Massachusetts federal district court order, which paused the executive order to overhaul vote-by-mail systems before the Nov. 3 midterms, will now be decided by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit.

Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented.

In a lengthy dissent, Jackson wrote the ruling “needlessly injects chaos and uncertainty into the upcoming midterm elections.”

The principle of courts not altering voting systems too close to the election has been eroded, she said, amounting to a “Kafkaesque nightmare.”

“States administering elections and the voting public that relies on them to do so deserve clarity, not caginess or confusion,” she wrote.

Final rule issued

The March 31 executive order at the heart of the case in part directs USPS to direct the redesign of mail-in ballot envelopes, including adding a unique barcode. It also asks USPS to collect voters’ names and addresses from state elections officials and directs the U.S. Justice Department to investigate and prosecute state officials who violate the order.

The Postal Service issued a final rule Friday detailing how the process would be carried out.

Whether an overhaul of mail-in ballots for each state could be completed in time for the Nov. 3 election remains to be seen, as vote-by-mail documents are sent to voters well in advance of Election Day.

A federal district judge in Massachusetts chastised the Trump administration for sowing confusion and “creating” an emergency by noticing a rule Friday that the U.S. Postal Service will eventually require federally regulated mail-in ballot voting envelopes and state data.

A 95-page notice alerting that the final rule would appear in the Federal Register on Aug. 26 outlined justifications for federal requirements on states to redesign ballot envelopes and provide a list of recipient names and addresses to USPS. The final rule became effective Friday, according to the document.

The final rule runs contrary to U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani’s Aug. 11 preliminary injunction barring the federal government from changing states’ mail-in voting rules prior to the Nov. 3 midterm elections, the judge wrote in a brief order on the docket Sunday. 

“Defendants did not file an appeal and did not seek, let alone obtain, a stay of the preliminary injunction,” Talwani wrote. “Nonetheless, on August 21, 2026, USPS issued its Final Rule, with an anticipated publication date in the Federal Register of August 26, 2026.” 

Talwani was appointed to the bench by President Barack Obama in 2013 and unanimously confirmed by the Senate the following year. 

Effective date delayed

The rule includes a provision that it will not be in effect for this year’s midterm elections if Talwani’s injunction is still in place, but the judge said it would still create significant confusion for voters.

The Trump administration asserted the rule would “have no effect on the rules themselves while the injunctions are in place, while ignoring the confusion that the publication will engender,” Talwani wrote.

It’s unclear what effect the final rule will have on the active litigation on the issue.

The federal government had appealed Talwani’s injunction because, it argued, Trump’s order could not be challenged until an agency published a final rule.

Groups want quick order

The voting rights advocacy groups, led by the League of Women Voters of Massachusetts, who sued President Donald Trump and administration officials over a March executive order overhauling mail-in voting procedures swiftly filed an emergency motion Saturday. 

They urged Talwani to quickly enforce her injunction, and to order expedited responses from the administration, citing “immediate, ongoing, irreparable harm caused by Defendants’ violation of the preliminary injunction, and in light of these fast-approaching dates.”

“There are now only 73 days before the November 2026 election, and far fewer before mail ballots begin to go out,” they wrote.

The Trump administration appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court in late July a similar district court ruling against its mail-in voting restrictions order in a case brought by nearly two dozen Democrat-led states.

The states argued that the federal government has no constitutional role in election administration, that the executive order unfairly limited vote-by-mail, which some states use exclusively, and that an overhaul of ballot requirements this close to an election was unworkable. 

High court appeal

In a supplemental brief filed to the Supreme Court justices Monday, U.S. Solicitor General D. John Sauer said the USPS’s rule issuance “underscores the need for relief from the district court’s improper, unripe injunction.”

“The Postal Service’s final rule imposes only modest requirements for preparation and envelope design for federal ballot mail — requirements that fall well within its traditional authorities to impose mailing standards for particularly sensitive types of mail,” wrote Sauer, who formerly worked as Trump’s personal defense attorney. 

Democratic officials in 23 states — California, Massachusetts, Nevada, Washington, Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania — and the District of Columbia brought the suit challenging the executive order. 

Twelve states with Republican attorneys general — Alabama, Missouri, Florida, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Montana, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota and Texas — joined the appeal to the Supreme Court on the federal government’s side.

This story is republished from the Ohio Capital Journal under a Creative Commons license. View the original article.

Originally published on TiffinOhio.net.

The Senate races, as well as the campaigns for every House seat, will serve as a test of Republican policies after two years of unified control of Congress. The outcome of this year’s midterm elections will also have a substantial impact on the remainder of President Donald Trump’s term. 

Republicans hold 53 Senate seats, requiring Democratic candidates to win over voters in at least four states that previously chose a GOP lawmaker.

Zachary Peskowitz, political science professor at Emory University, said Republicans have a bit of an advantage this year, but that doesn’t guarantee they’ll keep their majority. 

“I think that the Senate is a tougher map for the Democrats than the House is,” he said. “But given Trump’s approval ratings, obviously it is certainly possible that Democrats win, even in these tougher states.”

Alaska, Iowa, Maine, North Carolina, Ohio and Texas could be won by either candidate, according to a top elections forecaster, giving Democrats several paths to regain the Senate. That marks an improvement in the party’s chances, though they may also need to secure wins in competitive races in Georgia, Michigan and New Hampshire.

A 50-50 split would keep Republicans in charge of the Senate with the vice president casting the tie-breaking vote.

While each Senate candidate has a different message and variations in their policy goals, big-picture issues like the war in Iran, immigration enforcement tactics and the rising cost of living are at the top of voters’ minds. That’s been clear on the campaign trail.

Immigration enforcement key in Maine

Maine Republican Sen. Susan Collins, seeking her sixth term against Democratic challenger Troy Jackson, has faced several questions about immigration funding and federal officers’ actions. 

As chairwoman of the Appropriations Committee, Collins was central to negotiations earlier this year over whether Congress should place new guardrails on immigration enforcement after federal officers shot and killed two U.S. citizens in Minnesota.

She told reporters during the launch of her bus tour in mid-August that Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents involved in enforcement in Maine will now have to wear body cameras. Her comments came about a month after federal officers shot and killed Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero in Biddeford. 

“I think what happened is too many of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol agents were sent out there without proper vetting and without proper training,” she said. 

Collins also defended her decades-long strategy after a reporter asked about her voting record and criticism from Democrats that she often aligns with Trump.

“My approach has not changed in any way,” she said. “I have worked with five presidents. I’ve supported them when I think they’re right. I have not hesitated to oppose them when I think that they’re wrong.”

Affordability concerns amid Iran war 

North Carolina Democratic candidate Roy Cooper told supporters at a campaign rally in Henderson that healthcare should remain at the forefront, noting that changes to Medicaid included in Republicans’ “big, beautiful” law won’t take effect until after the election. 

“As we say back home on the farm, you ain’t seen nothing yet,” he said. “That’s why we need to send leaders there, to make sure that we are paying attention to those who have been left behind. Making sure that people have quality healthcare.”

The former governor and state attorney general spoke about concerns military families have experienced since Trump coordinated with the Israeli government to launch a war against Iran, which drags on despite the president’s initial claims it would only take about four to six weeks.

“We know this war in Iran has no strategy and we know that it is sending prices soaring at home,” he said. “Everybody at Fort Bragg obviously is on pins and needles worrying about their deployed loved ones who are out there. But also having to face the brunt of the rising prices in their own military families.” 

Cooper then criticized his opponent, former Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Whatley, for his comments on the economy, saying he hadn’t accepted how challenging the cost of living has become for Americans.

“People are struggling and looking up at the middle class and thinking, ‘Am I ever going to get there? Is the American dream dead?’ And so many people in the middle class who are just barely hanging on, not knowing what to do next,” he said. 

The issues highlighted during those two events are reflected in nearly every Senate campaign, with each candidate positioning themselves as the best solution to Americans’ struggles. 

GOP holds ‘slimmest of advantages’ 

So far, polling and analysis haven’t indicated a clear outcome to this fall’s elections. 

The Cook Political Report with Amy Walter rates Alaska, Iowa, Maine, Michigan, Ohio and Texas as toss-up races. Campaigns for Senate seats in Georgia, North Carolina and New Hampshire currently lean toward Democrats. 

Iowa and Texas had been in the lean Republican category but CPR changed that in late August, with Senate and Governors Editor Jessica Taylor writing “we see the overall battle for the Senate as a toss up, but one in which Republicans may still hold the slimmest of advantages.”

“Even though, on paper, it should be extraordinarily difficult for Democrats to flip seats that President Donald Trump won by more than 13 points, it’s increasingly hard to ignore both public and private polling showing both races to be more competitive than the Lean category reflects,” she added. 

Ratings could continue to fluctuate, possibly several times, before voting ends on Nov. 3, but the top concerns aren’t likely to change much during the next couple of months. 

A Pew Research Center poll released in late July shows voters consistently want politicians to talk about the economy, with 29% saying it’s an important issue, followed by 9% focused on ethics and reform, 7% on immigration, 5% on healthcare, 4% on foreign policy and 4% on the president. 

Democrats held a slight advantage at the time of the poll, with 43% of those surveyed saying they would vote for a candidate from that party while 37% said they were likely to support a Republican. The remaining 20% said they hadn’t decided or would vote for someone else. 

The poll showed that while voters agreed more with Republicans on crime and immigration, Democrats held an advantage on education, healthcare and environmental policy. 

Neither party outpaced the other on economic issues, with 37% saying they agree with Democrats, 36% saying they believe Republicans handle that issue better and 25% saying neither. 

Dems have enthusiasm edge

Emory University’s Peskowitz said many people will cast ballots based on party affiliation, though swing voters will decide based on the specifics of each candidate. And this year, that will likely be their economic policies. 

“What voters often do if they have negative perceptions of the economy or don’t feel great about the economy, they punish the incumbent presidential party,” he said. “The other important thing to keep in mind is enthusiasm of partisans and whether they’re willing to turn out to vote or not.” 

That trend may favor Democrats, since Republicans have held the House, Senate and White House for two years. And midterm elections almost always see the president’s party lose seats in Congress. 

Michael Traugott, a research professor emeritus at the University of Michigan’s Ford School of Public Policy, said the primary elections during the last several months have shown somewhat more enthusiasm among Democrats than Republicans based on turnout.

“And we’ll have to see how much of this, you know, carries over to the fall,” he said. 

What the president says about Republican candidates in toss-up states and whether Trump decides to endorse those candidates could also become a factor, Traugott said. 

“This is not necessarily the positive advantage that it’s been in past elections because he has historically low approval ratings,” he said. 

“Mike Rogers is going to have to think a fair amount about whether or not he brings Donald Trump into the state of Michigan to campaign with him. And I think that this could be true in other states,” Traugott added. “I’m not sure that Susan Collins would like to have Donald Trump come in to campaign with her.”

Rogers, a former GOP congressman who ran unsuccessfully for a Senate seat two years ago, and Democrat Abdul El-Sayed, former executive director of the Detroit Health Department, are both slated to appear on the ballot after winning their primaries. 

Democratic candidates will spend the next few months trying to sway voters frustrated or disillusioned with their party’s current focus, despite that being an uphill climb, Traugott said. 

“I think the pull of party identification is still very strong. So if there are people who voted for Trump in ‘24, say, and are unhappy with what’s happened since, I don’t think they’re going to switch to Democrats. It’s more likely they won’t vote for Senate,” he said. “Depending upon other things going on in their state, they could even stay home. So the consequence would be more in terms of turnout or not marking the ballot for the Senate race than it would be voting for a Democrat.”

This story is republished from the Ohio Capital Journal under a Creative Commons license. View the original article.

Originally published on TiffinOhio.net.

The administration noted in the Federal Register that it plans to use the fee to “serve as a dedicated revenue mechanism to help recover a portion of the federal government’s costs of administering the lawful immigration system, including activities carried out by DHS” and the departments of Justice, State and Labor.

Currently, it costs anywhere from $2,000 to $5,000 for an employer to hire a highly skilled foreign worker through the H-1B visa program. Congress created the program in the 1990s and visas are capped annually at 65,000, with an additional 20,000 for foreign workers who graduate with a masters or doctoral degree from a U.S. institution.

A federal judge in June struck down the Trump administration’s attempt to increase the H-1B visa to $100,000 for foreign workers hired outside the U.S. 

Workers on a temporary H-1B visa work in science, technology, engineering, mathematics, medicine or education.  

Employers use the H-1B program to hire foreign workers who have a minimum of a bachelor’s degree for up to three years, but the temporary visa can be extended for up to six.  

Last year, the Trump administration imposed a one-time $100,000 H-1B visa fee to employers in an effort to prevent high-skill jobs going to foreigners instead of U.S. citizens. However, the program is used to fill high-skill jobs that are difficult to fill with American workers. 

This story is republished from the Ohio Capital Journal under a Creative Commons license. View the original article.

Originally published on TiffinOhio.net.

During a White House Rose Garden event celebrating the back-to-school season, Trump and McMahon lauded the incoming federal school choice effort along with many of the education policies the administration has pursued, including ongoing efforts to dismantle the 46-year-old Education Department.

At least 30 states have already opted in to the school voucher program, which allocates up to $1,700 in federal tax credits for people donating to organizations that provide private and religious school scholarships.

The program, known as the Education Freedom Tax Credit, was created in the GOP’s mega tax and spending cut bill Trump signed into law in July 2025. 

“One year ago, as part of the great, big, beautiful bill, we passed the Education Freedom Tax Credit — the largest ever expansion of school choice — and we want every parent to have the power to send their child to a high-quality school that shares their values,” Trump told the crowd of educators, parents and students. 

Monday’s event highlighted Trump and congressional Republicans’ continued focus on school choice as a central point of their education agenda, with the upcoming voucher program marking a pillar of that effort. 

The umbrella term “school choice” centers on alternative programs to a student’s assigned public school. While opponents argue these efforts drain critical funds and resources from school districts, advocates say the initiatives are necessary for parents dissatisfied with their local public schools.

Attendees at the Rose Garden also included Republican Govs. Jim Pillen of Nebraska and Sarah Huckabee Sanders of Arkansas, as well as GOP Rep. Tim Walberg of Michigan, who chairs the House Committee on Education and Workforce.  

McMahon echoed the president, saying the federal program gives parents “unprecedented freedom to choose the path that is best for their child.” 

She added that “it’s no surprise that over half of our nation’s states — both red and blue — have raced to this historic choice option, benefiting families whether their child attends public or private school.”  

Dems working to reverse program

Meanwhile, congressional Democrats are already attempting to axe the program. 

Sens. Mark Kelly of Arizona and Mazie Hirono of Hawaii in April introduced a bill in the Senate, alongside nearly 30 of their colleagues, that would repeal the program. 

Rep. Gwen Moore of Wisconsin introduced a companion bill in the House in June with Reps. Suzanne Bonamici of Oregon, Maxwell Frost of Florida, Adelita Grijalva of Arizona, Mark Pocan of Wisconsin and dozens more original co-sponsors. 

The legislation faces a dismal fate in the GOP-controlled House and Senate. 

This story is republished from the Ohio Capital Journal under a Creative Commons license. View the original article.

Originally published on TiffinOhio.net.

The district said it qualified for the Community Eligibility Provision, a federal option under the National School Lunch and School Breakfast Programs that lets high-poverty districts feed every student for free without collecting household meal applications. The U.S. Department of Agriculture sets the rules and the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce administers the programs in Ohio.

“No student should have to worry about whether they can afford breakfast or lunch at school,” Food Service Director Colleen Neely said in the district’s announcement Monday. “Providing meals at no cost to our households allows us to focus on making sure every student has the nutrition they need to learn, grow, and succeed.”

Superintendent Greg Williamson said in the announcement that the change helps both in the classroom and at the kitchen table — a student who has eaten breakfast is ready to learn, and a family that no longer budgets for school meals keeps that money at home.

“This puts students first, and it is a real savings for our families,” Williamson said. “I want to thank Colleen and our food service team for helping to get us here.”

How the program works

To use the Community Eligibility Provision, a district, a group of schools or a single school must have at least 25% of its students already certified for free meals without a household application — children identified through programs such as SNAP, Medicaid and Ohio Works First. The USDA lowered that threshold from 40% in a rule that took effect in October 2023, opening the option to more districts. Eligibility is measured using data as of April 1 of the prior school year.

Tiffin City Schools met the threshold for 2026-27. Free meals apply to every enrolled K-12 student at Washington, Krout, Noble, Tiffin Middle School and Columbian High School. Breakfast is served before school and lunch is served daily. The district’s Lincoln Pre-K building was not among those listed in the announcement.

The free meal covers one complete breakfast and one complete lunch per student per school day. Anything beyond that — extras, second lunches, snacks, milk for students who bring their own food, and incomplete meals — is still charged to the student’s meal account, and students cannot buy those items on a negative balance.

Meal accounts have moved to PaySchools Central, which replaced Titan/LINQ. The district said previous balances carried over. Families can register at payschoolscentral.com or through the PaySchools Central app, and the district still accepts cash and checks. PaySchools customer service can be reached at 877-393-6628.

The one form families are asked to fill out

Because the district is no longer collecting free and reduced-price meal applications, families will not receive one this year. Instead, the district is asking one person per household to complete a short CEP Household Information Form, available on the PaySchools dashboard under School District.

The form does not determine whether a student eats free — every K-12 student does, regardless. The district said the form is confidential, takes a few minutes and helps Tiffin City Schools qualify for other state and federal funding that supports students. Household income data collected through those forms is commonly used in school funding and program eligibility calculations, which is why districts operating under the provision still ask for it.

Ohio and federal context

Ohio does not pay for universal free school meals. The two-year state budget signed in June 2025 keeps funding that makes meals free for students who qualify at the reduced-price level, but the line item that covers the state’s share of school meal programs was cut by about 5% compared with the prior year, according to an analysis by Policy Matters Ohio. A bipartisan Senate proposal to fund breakfast and lunch for all Ohio students, carrying a roughly $300 million annual price tag, was not included in the budget.

That leaves the federal Community Eligibility Provision as the main route for Ohio districts that want to feed every student without charge. It also arrives as hunger programs across the state report strain: participation in summer meal programs has climbed while federal nutrition cuts tighten eligibility, and groups running mobile summer meal routes have reported steady demand from families during the months when school meals stop.

For Tiffin City Schools, the change lands less than a year after voters approved the district’s first new operating levy since 2012.

Questions about school meals can be directed to the Tiffin City Schools Food Services Department at 419-447-5768. Menus are posted on the district’s Food Services page.

USDA is an equal opportunity provider, employer, and lender.

Originally published on TiffinOhio.net.

The limits imposed as part of the 2025 federal congressional budget reconciliation bill, championed by President Donald Trump as the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, may mean billions less in federal funding and state-directed payments, which could include devastating effects, especially to rural and financially struggling hospitals.

The healthcare research group KFF released a new analysis estimating $60 billion in current federal spending for hospitals could be reduced when new limits from the reconciliation bill take full effect.

That number is a moving goalpost, as the changes aren’t all being implemented at the same time.

“It does not represent the amount by which federal payments would be reduced in any given year, since these limits will be phased in over time starting in January 2028, and will fully take effect at different times in different states,” KFF wrote in the analysis.

The group also estimated an overall federal Medicaid spending reduction of $911 billion based on the terms of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.

The reduction in state-directed payments to hospitals will have varying impacts from state to state, and even from hospital to hospital, based on how much the states are spending for their individual Medicaid programs.

Hospitals operating on relatively high margins could see the changes land more softly on their bottom line.

“On the other hand, hospitals with relatively low operating margins (like rural hospitals and those serving relatively large shares of Medicaid patients) may adapt in ways that affect Medicaid enrollees’ access to care, such as by cutting service lines or closing,” KFF researchers stated.

Ohio’s Medicaid program serves more than a quarter of the state’s population, accounting for nearly 3 million residents, and is the second most common form of health insurance in the state, according to the Health Policy Institute of Ohio.

The institute noted the Medicaid budget in the state exceeded $43 billion in fiscal year 2025, with the federal government paying 68.5% of the total costs.

With the budget reconciliation bill restricting the ability for states to raise revenue through methods like provider taxes, along with placing caps on the amount states can reimburse providers through those state-directed payments, Ohio will have to account for the funding gap.

As part of the changes from the budget bill, Ohio has to change or eliminate a health insuring corporation franchise fee by July 1, 2027.

The fee is calculated using state Medicaid member counts, and is a provider tax overseen by the Ohio Department of Medicaid.

The health policy institute’s research showed the change or elimination of the fee could result in annual losses to state revenue of $640 million starting in 2028, along with $1.5 billion in lost federal matching dollars.

“States may pursue reducing Medicaid expenditures, however, doing so is likely to have negative health and economic consequences for Ohioans,” the institute said in a March analysis of the reconciliation bill’s changes to Medicaid.

The analysis also said Medicaid enrollees could see a loss of optional covered services, such as dental coverage, as a result of the changes, and Ohioans may have to pay more for things like prescription drugs.

Originally, the total funding losses to the state’s Medicaid program were estimated at $33 billion over the next decade.

This story is republished from the Ohio Capital Journal under a Creative Commons license. View the original article.

Originally published on TiffinOhio.net.

Ohio state Reps. Darnell Brewer, D-Cleveland, and Justin Pizzulli, R-Scioto County, recently introduced Ohio House Bill 984. 

“This legislation aims to provide greater financial predictability for counties, fiscal responsibility for taxpayers, support providers, and most importantly, help ensure that Ohio’s foster youth have access to care and resources they need to thrive,” Brewer said at a recent press conference. 

The bill would require the Ohio Department of Children and Youth to set reimbursement rates for the placement and care of children in foster care. 

“My goal with House Bill 984 is to ensure that the system safeguarding our children’s welfare remains viable by reigning in out of control rising placement costs,” Pizzulli said. 

Counties across Ohio are facing financial challenges due to rising placements and cost of care, the lawmakers said. 

Scioto County went from having 407 children in foster care in 2022 to having about 197 children in foster care today, but the county’s placement costs have increased, Pizzulli said. 

“We’re spending roughly three times as much per child as we were just five years ago,” he said. 

“Many of the children coming into care today have much more significant needs than we saw years ago. Providers are dealing with staffing shortages, wages have gone up, and the cost of providing this care has gone up.”

The costs in Scioto County surpassed $8 million last year, Pizzulli said. 

“What we are facing is an unsolvable math problem,” said Scioto County Commissioner Scottie Powell. 

“Counties pay nearly three quarters of all placement costs through levies and their general funds, with the federal reimbursement covering the remaining one quarter,” Powell said. 

The number of Ohio children placed in custody has dropped 9% since 2020, but costs have increased by 68% — a jump from $231 million to $389 million, he said. 

The average cost of care for a child in Ross County went from $59.64 per day to $151.55 per day and in Hocking County it went from $65.94 to $181.02 per day, Powell said. 

Scioto County Job and Family Services Director Tamela Moore Morton said they have a child in custody “who exhibits extreme behaviors” and has been placed in at least a dozen different placements around Ohio. 

“Because of behaviors, the facilities can decide to increase our daily rate to any amount they want, without necessarily increasing the level of care,” she said. 

“They know this child is hard to place, so they take advantage of the situation and charge the county unreasonably, or threaten discharge, or return the child to the lobby of the agency. There is no limit or cap on the amount they can ask for.” 

The child was on track to use nearly $1 million dollars of Scioto County’s funding in one year, Morton said. 

“That’s not the child’s fault,” she said.

“But when you have 200 other children that need those same protections, how do you choose who gets the services with the limited funds? Every county either has or will have a similar situation with a high needs child that could bankrupt their county in the blink of an eye. Unfortunately, Scioto County is already there.” 

Pizzulli mentioned the 16 children from Vinton County who were found by law enforcement authorities in terrible conditions at the end of June and how the therapeutic foster care costs needed for each child (ranging from $150-250 each day) would have bankrupted the southeastern Ohio county. 

The Ohio Controlling Board recently approved $1 million in emergency funds to help the 16 children from Vinton County, whose ages range from 18 months to 18 years old. 

“It’s imperative, especially in circumstances like that, that counties have the resources that they need to make appropriate placements and ensure children receive the care and support they deserve,” Pizzulli said. 

“I don’t want to wait for another county to reach a breaking point.” 

There were more than 14,000 children in foster care in Ohio in 2025 while the state had more than 6,000 certified foster homes, Brewer said. 

“Every foster youth deserves a safe, loving, and stable home,” Brewer said.  

“Foster parents and providers deserve the support they need to provide. We are trying to create reasonable guardrails, not barriers, to appropriate care.”

The Ohio lawmakers are currently on break and will come back after the November election. Any bill that does not pass before the two-year General Assembly ends in December would have to be reintroduced. 

“What we know of the General Assembly is that if we really want to do something, we can do it, and we can do it very, very quickly if we want to,” Pizzulli said. 

Follow Ohio Capital Journal Reporter Megan Henry on X or on Bluesky.

This story is republished from the Ohio Capital Journal under a Creative Commons license. View the original article.

Originally published on TiffinOhio.net.

It took mere minutes for the U.S. Supreme Court decision upholding state bans on trans athletes competing in women’s and girls’ sports to reverberate in Ohio’s competitive governor’s race — and the reactions from the Republican and Democratic nominees were all but indistinguishable.

“Ohio has barred men from competing with women in women’s sports and the Supreme Court now held that it’s constitutional,” Republican Vivek Ramaswamy told a Toledo newspaper.

Ramaswamy, a pharmaceutical entrepreneur, called the ruling “common sense” and pledged to enforce an Ohio law containing a ban on trans athletes in school-age sports. It was vetoed by the state’s current Republican Gov. Mike DeWine and opposed by every Democrat in the state legislature.

Then, Democrat Dr. Amy Acton weighed in.

“I do not support boys playing in girls sports. This is already settled law in Ohio, and as governor I will enforce and uphold the law,” the physician, who served as DeWine’s public health director, said in a statement to the same newspaper.

“As a doctor, public servant, and a mom, I will always stand up for fairness and protect kids’ health and safety,” she added.

Two candidates, from two different parties, taking the same public position, using the same language — wording favored by President Donald Trump’s MAGA movement that misgendered transgender athletes by referring to them as men instead of trans women. And in Acton’s case, language that misgendered trans children.

Democrats have been trying to figure out how to respond to Republicans’ anti-trans attacks since former Vice President Kamala Harris lost to Trump in the 2024 election. Republican campaigns and allied political groups spent more than $215 million that election cycle on ads targeting Democratic candidates’ past support for trans people and LGBTQ+ issues, according to data from AdImpact, which tracks political ad spending. In the final weeks of the campaign, tens of millions of dollars worth of these ads targeting Harris blanketed key suburbs in battleground states. They ended with the line: “Kamala is for they/them; President Trump is for you.” Harris never figured out how to respond. Internal research from the top super PAC supporting Harris showed that the “they/them” ads, on average, moved viewers 2.7 points in Trump’s favor.

The conversation among Democrats about how the party’s candidates should — or should not — respond to anti-trans attacks has since taken up a lot of oxygen in Washington as party strategists debate the best course forward.

Now, the conversation is consuming Democrats in Ohio.

Acton’s initial statement on the day of the Supreme Court ruling landed like a lead balloon with the state’s LGBTQ+ groups and leaders, the vast majority of whom were enthusiastic about her candidacy and the potential to beat Ramaswamy, who said during a GOP presidential primary debate in late 2023 that being trans was a “mental health disorder.”

Several Ohio-based LGBTQ+ leaders told The 19th that they expected to hear more from the candidate herself. They hoped she might clean up the inarticulate language she used misgendering trans children, or offer additional reassurances to LGBTQ+ Ohioans that she would have their backs.

But no public or private reassurances came.

Equality Ohio, one of the state’s largest groups working to protect the rights of LGBTQ+ people, updated Acton’s status on its 2026 Candidate Scorecard to “pending” from an “A” grade.

Ramaswamy’s “F” rating has remained unchanged.

“This reflects our belief that accountability is still possible, and that the door remains open at this time. Should Dr. Acton choose to take meaningful steps forward, we will update the status accordingly,” the group said in a statement.

The ratings change was announced during what was initially branded as a “conversation” between Acton’s campaign, the state party and LGBTQ+ stakeholders that only further inflamed the situation. The meeting — and its fallout — was first reported by the Buckeye Flame, a Cleveland-based news site focused on Ohio’s LGBTQ+ community.

The vice chair of the Ohio Democratic Party’s Pride Caucus, who is trans, was not admitted to the meeting and had to participate on speakerphone via the chair. It quickly became clear that it was less a conversation than a chance for participants to air concerns without any response from the campaign, attendees told The 19th. One described Acton’s campaign manager, Philip Stein, as “looking like someone who wanted to crawl under the table.”

Another participant said they went into the meeting thinking it could be a “teachable moment” that could repair relations between the campaign and Ohio’s LGBTQ+ community; they left feeling like the misgendering of trans children was intentional and a “cynical, consultant-driven play” to appeal to conservative voters.

“It felt like they were trying to throw trans people under the bus to provoke a backlash,” the person added.

Meeting participants who spoke to The 19th all asked to not be identified because the campaign has told them that talking to the press precludes future conversations.

Acton’s campaign wrote in an email to The 19th that she “will always stand up for Ohioans, including the LGBT community. As governor, she is committed to standing up to discrimination and ensuring all Ohioans receive equal protection under the law.”

More than 11 percent of Ohio’s adult population is LGBTQ+, according to an analysis released this month by the Human Rights Campaign, and research shows that queer people vote at higher rates than the overall adult public. While LGBTQ+ voters tend to favor Democrats, participants on the Zoom call told The 19th that the fallout would likely dampen queer voters’ willingness to support Acton by donating money, putting signs in their yards, going door-to-door in the final push or phonebanking.

Recent opinion polls show Acton and Ramaswamy nearly tied, trading single-digit leads well within polls’ margins of error.

Governors are uniquely positioned to defend or reject anti-trans bills: Congress remains deadlocked on all but the most pressing, must-pass legislation; the U.S. Supreme Court decided that state-legislature passed bans on trans athletes in sports can stand.

The law at issue in Ohio, H.B. 68, also prohibits minors from receiving gender-affirming care. DeWine vetoed it for that reason, but the GOP supermajority in the state legislature overrode his veto. The legality of the ban on gender-affirming care is a live question before the state Supreme Court.

Acton, in an interview with The 19th following the U.S. Supreme Court ruling but before the campaign’s Zoom meeting with LGBTQ+ leaders, offered a more nuanced position on the law than she has shared publicly:

“This is a political battle,” Acton said, “and sadly, people are using people’s healthcare and personal decisions and choices as a way to pit us intentionally against one another, and it has been a successful tactic politically to scare people and frighten everyday Ohioans.”

“I’m also here to fight for our common humanity,” she continued. “The governor vetoed pretty draconian legislation, and the way he did that is he took advice from folks: I, amongst many people, gave advice. He listened to families. As governor, I will always research issues, listen to the absolute best experts in the field, as he did, talk to families and understand their personal decisions and what’s going on with their healthcare, with their physicians.”

She added that Democrats needed to break the GOP supermajority in the statehouse so gubernatorial vetoes could not be overridden.

Acton’s campaign did not explain why she has not incorporated a more holistic approach to LGBTQ+ issues, like the one she described to The 19th, during campaign trail discussions. The campaign, as well as Acton herself, often point out that she is trying to become the first Democrat to lead Ohio in 15 years. A single Ohio Supreme Court justice is the only elected Democrat in statewide office; Ramaswamy is a billionaire self-funding his campaign with the backing of Peter Thiel, a tech billionaire and Trump ally.

Still, Acton’s public statement on trans athletes puts her at the conservative end of an array of approaches being taken by Democrats on issues impacting trans people in the country’s five most competitive gubernatorial races.

In Georgia, which has a ban on trans athletes competing in public school and college sports, Keisha Lance Bottoms is trying to flip the governor’s seat for Democrats in a race against Republican healthcare executive Rick Jackson. Shortly after the Supreme Court ruling, Bottoms’ campaign told a local news outlet that, as a mother, she “understands that there are important differences between male and female athletes in competitive sports. However, Keisha believes decisions about athletic participation should be made by appropriate athletic governing bodies — not by politicians.” Bottoms, the former mayor of Atlanta, also told a local editorial board regarding gender-affirming care: “I do not believe the government should weigh in on medical decisions by Georgians and their physicians,” and that those decisions should not be “dictated by politicians looking to score political points.” Nearly every reliable poll has shown Bottoms ahead of Jackson since they won their respective primaries.

In Wisconsin, term-limited Democratic Gov. Tony Evers has repeatedly blocked bans related to trans athletes and gender-affirming care from taking effect. Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley, the Democratic nominee for governor, has said that decisions regarding trans athletes should be left up to the state’s high school athletics association. He told HuffPost: “We don’t have to throw out our morals, our ethics … we don’t have to capitulate and get involved in these cultural wars Republicans try to throw out there because they don’t have anything to run on.” Polling conducted after the state’s Aug. 12 primaries shows Crowley with a slight lead over his Republican opponent, U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany, who is also a small business owner.

In Nevada, where sitting Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo tried but failed to get a “Protect Girls’ Sports” initiative onto 2026 ballots, Democratic Attorney General and gubernatorial candidate Aaron Ford has differentiated between his own beliefs and how he would govern. “I personally do not support trans athletes competing in sports opposite their gender assigned at birth,” Ford told a Nevada newspaper, using language preferred by LGBTQ+ rights groups. “But let’s be clear, Lombardo doesn’t care about this issue; he’s only using it as a political ploy to drum up support for his flailing reelection campaign.” Polls show Lombardo with a lead in the race.

In Iowa, Democrat Rob Sand responded with a simple “no” when a conservative radio host asked him in May 2025 whether “biological males” should play women’s sports — another way to describe trans women that many in the LGBTQ+ community find offensive. But Sand, the state’s auditor, has also backed protections for trans people. He said at a town hall that it was “wrong” for Iowa Republicans to repeal state civil rights protections for trans people — Iowa was the first state in the country to do so. “You should not be fired from your job in the state of Iowa for being different. You should not be evicted from your apartment,” Sand said. Polls have for months shown Sand with a lead over Republican businessman Zach Lahn. The nonpartisan Cook Political Report last week moved the Iowa gubernatorial contest from the “toss up” category to “leans Democratic” in its competitiveness rankings.

John Neffinger, a Democratic strategist and past communications director for the Democratic National Committee, said Democrats should remember that, beyond sports, a majority of voters believe trans people should be protected from discrimination. Candidates shouldn’t be afraid to highlight their desire to support basic protections for LGBTQ+ people, he added.

Polling consistently shows, for example, that more than half of voters prefer the Democratic Party’s approach to handling issues impacting trans people over solutions offered by the Republican Party. That includes polls conducted by Fox News.

The political challenge for Democratic candidates is that nearly three-quarters of American adults say they are “uncomfortable” with trans athletes competing on sports teams that align with their gender identities, according to data from the nonpartisan Pew Research Center. Republicans have used Democrats’ past pro-LGBTQ+ stances to highlight this perceived vulnerability with voters in widespread attack ads. The dynamic has put many battleground Democratic candidates in between a voting populace not ready to largely embrace trans athletes in kids’ sports and many LGBTQ+ and progressive groups that want candidates to offer full-throated support for trans people as they face existential threats from the Trump administration.

In focus groups of a dozen or so undecided voters, Neffinger said, there might be one person who objects to LGBTQ+ protections on moral grounds, but the vast majority show a high level of empathy for the challenges trans people face in public life — especially trans children and their parents.

“When you talk about sports, what you get from people is, ‘Now, that’s not right,’” Neffinger said. “But even then, they don’t want politicians picking on kids, they get that that’s not cool.”

For several years now, Neffinger has been in a cohort of Democratic strategists trying to help and encourage the party’s candidates and lawmakers to figure out how to meet Republicans’ anti-trans attacks head on. There are ways for candidates to walk the line between where the average voter is and where LGBTQ+ and other progressive advocacy groups want them to be, he said. They just have to be willing to do it.

Neffinger pointed to a 2025 statement from Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto shortly after the Nevada Democrat voted against the Republican-offered “Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act,” as an effective example of messaging that resonates with middle-of-the-road voters.

Cortez Masto’s statement read: “I support fair play and safety and do not support transgender athletes competing in girls’ and women’s sports when it compromises those principles. I believe local schools, student athletes, coaches, and parents are much better equipped to implement fair, strong policies on this issue than politicians in Congress.”

Staking out a fairness-based position — for everyone — paves the way for politicians to offer different policy solutions as circumstances demand, Neffinger said. That could mean allowing prepubescent athletes to compete on teams that match their gender identities, or on a case-by-case basis permitting trans athletes who received gender-affirming care before going through puberty, he added.

“Saying ‘no boys in girls sports’ feels like the latest way to dodge — ‘don’t make me talk about this.’ It doesn’t look like leadership, it looks like a cop-out, and it actually feels like you’re picking on trans kids,” he added.

Democrats of all stripes — centrists, progressives and LGBTQ+ advocates — also point to the 2025 governor’s race in Virginia, when Democratic former Rep. Abigail Spanberger beat Republican Winsome Earle-Sears, the state’s former lieutenant governor who spent as much as $9 million attacking Spanberger’s support for trans rights. Spanberger beat Earle-Sears by more than 15 points, and by nearly 30 points in Loudoun County, an exurban area near Washington, D.C., where anti-trans ads were believed to have hurt Harris the year before. Harris won Virginia, but only by about 5 points.

The various Democratic factions agree that what made Spanberger’s approach successful was that she introduced voters to her values early on, then took on anti-trans attacks as a matter of discrimination. Spanberger also emphasized that parents and doctors should make decisions for children, and she took voters’ concerns about fairness in sports seriously.

“Leaders must take a joint approach: fiercely defending LGBTQI+ people from discrimination and advocating for policies that will lift up families across the country,” the Center for American Progress, a Democratic policy organization, concluded in a recent analysis that caused ripples in Washington by recommending the party’s base accept some restrictions on trans athletes in youth sports.

Nan Whaley, the former Democratic mayor of Dayton, Ohio, and the party’s gubernatorial nominee in 2022, acknowledged that the political landscape related to LGBTQ+ issues has shifted to the right since her unsuccessful bid. She is an enthusiastic supporter of Acton and believes that, despite the falling out between her campaign and LGBTQ+ groups, voters should trust her. Whaley said that trans Ohioans have shared fears with her about their safety; some have asked whether she thinks they should leave the state, given its politics.

“If Vivek Ramaswamy wins, I don’t know what I can say to them, but I know what I can say if Amy Acton is governor,” Whaley said.“That’s what’s at stake.”

This story is republished from the Ohio Capital Journal under a Creative Commons license. View the original article.

Originally published on TiffinOhio.net.

Kroger was the literal poster child for bad corporate behavior at the U.S. Senate hearing called, “Your Data, Their Profit: The Consumer Cost of AI Surveillance Pricing.”

In front of a sign emblazoned with Kroger’s name, Republican U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Missouri, stated “Kroger is not just a grocery store … It is a data-selling mega-corporation” that earns “a third of its income … from selling the personal data of its own customers.”

The ire came from both sides of the aisle. Democratic U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Illinois, explained that, “Kroger’s loyalty program uses your data to predict exactly how much money you make.”

In short, surveillance pricing is a tool companies use to learn as much as they can about shoppers, including our income and education level, then leverage that information to charge each individual the maximum price they will pay. In Kroger’s case, it sells collected customer data to other companies, earning over $500 million last year.

Surveillance pricing may sound like science fiction, but it’s anything but. A former chief data officer of Visa testified before the Senate that it already costs the typical American household roughly $1,800 a year.

Hawley called surveillance pricing “the unholy trinity of everything Americans hate: spying on people, ripping them off, and taking away jobs.”

More than 2,000 shoppers have written to KrogerHurtsFamilies.com, a portal my organization opened this summer, to report how the company scams customers.

The spying: As one customer put it, “what at first seemed innocent … I now see as an absolute invasion of my privacy. They are tracking me! I feel like a bug under their corporate microscope.”

The ripping off: Hundreds of customers tell us they’re overcharged at the register, and a Consumer Reports exposé confirms it’s systemic: shoppers at Kroger stores nationwide paid nearly 20% more than the advertised sale price because of expired tags and other errors.

The jobs: As it turns out, Kroger cutting its workforce may be part of the pricing problem. “I work at Kroger and the problem with items ringing up wrong is because they cut hours,” a worker shared. “They don’t have enough people doing tags.”

Kroger is working to remedy this not by hiring more workers but by rolling out electronic shelf labels: AI-driven technology that could allow the grocer to change prices in an instant based on the weather or other temporary factors – or even what it knows about us and our families. Flu going around? Kroger could jack up the prices of cold medicine or tissues just when we need these products most.

Kroger says it doesn’t engage in this kind of surge or personalized pricing. But it won’t commit to not using these tools against us, and it has spent millions of dollars developing secret shopper profiles, digital price tags, facial recognition technology, and partnerships with big AI companies: the exact infrastructure it’d need to make each of us pay the most we’ll tolerate. Nobody spends that kind of money building a machine they don’t intend to use.

Kroger’s history gives us every reason to believe it intends to. A senior executive admitted under oath that Kroger raised milk and egg prices above inflation during the pandemic, raking in record profits. The company also admitted to charging higher prices in “no-competition” zones: places where shoppers have few other grocery options.

The machine is built, and the motive is on the record. Right now, the only thing standing between Ohio shoppers and the “on” switch is Kroger’s word.

Other statehouses are not waiting to find out what that word is worth. Lawmakers in at least 11 states introduced surveillance-pricing bills, and bipartisan bills are moving in Congress.

Ohio, the one state with the most at stake and the most leverage, has introduced nothing.

That’s why it’s time Ohio officials crack down on surveillance pricing before it’s too late.

Taylor Warren is the president of the Center for Responsible Food Business, a nonprofit dedicated to promoting corporate social responsibility to build a better food system. Through industry engagement, research, and consumer education efforts, the Center works to advance practices that benefit all stakeholders from the farm to the dinner table.

This story is republished from the Ohio Capital Journal under a Creative Commons license. View the original article.

Originally published on TiffinOhio.net.

Agents with Homeland Security Investigations, a subagency of DHS’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement, reported an “all hands-on deck” environment toward immigration enforcement began in January 2025, according to the DHS Office of Inspector General report.

“With ICE dedicating more staff hours to immigration investigations, staffing hours for fentanyl investigations declined,” the report said.

The report found that the hours dedicated to fentanyl investigations for fiscal 2025 declined by more than 250,000 hours, or 31%, compared to fiscal 2024.

“At the same time, immigration enforcement saw the largest increase across all investigative categories, rising more than 1.7 million hours (over 800 percent),” according to the report.

Inspectors interviewed more than 100 agents from 11 HSI field offices for the report.

At one HSI office, approximately 99% of work was dedicated to immigration, leaving almost no capacity for fentanyl investigations, the watchdog found. A drug investigation team of seven agents was reduced to about three and the rest of the personnel was reassigned to work on immigration cases, according to the report.  

Fentanyl is a highly addictive synthetic opioid that is the main driver of overdose deaths in the United States. HSI plays a key role in countering fentanyl smuggling in the U.S. by targeting routes, laboratories and collaborating with law enforcement to investigate smuggling operations.    

ICE agrees

The inspector general recommended that HSI review staffing levels “to ensure an appropriate level of coverage commensurate with the relative priority of fentanyl investigations.”

Inspector general reports are presented to the affected agency for comment ahead of publication. ICE agreed with the recommendations in the DHS OIG report.

“Homeland Security Investigations will review staffing levels, and determine and implement next steps, as needed, to ensure an appropriate level of coverage commensurate with the relative priority of fentanyl investigations,” ICE’s comments in the report read.

ICE estimated that recommendation would be completed by June 2027.

The report also found that the technology HSI agents and analysts used had limitations during fentanyl investigations and their missions were “hindered by delays in agents obtaining funds to purchase information and evidence (i.e., drugs) during an investigation; a lack of independent authority to investigate fentanyl-related offenses; and low, inconsistent referral of fentanyl cases from U.S. Customs and Border Protection to HSI.”

This story is republished from the Ohio Capital Journal under a Creative Commons license. View the original article.

Originally published on TiffinOhio.net.

The one-page order from Chief Justice John Roberts allows the justices more time to consider the legal arguments as to whether the president can continue with construction. 

The National Trust for Historic Preservation in the United States, a nonprofit Congress created to protect public buildings, sued to block construction late last year. The group charged that Trump violated the U.S. Constitution and federal law when he demolished part of the White House last July without approval from Congress. 

The trust wrote in its brief to the high court that the trial court’s pause should remain in place because any progress on the project could not easily be undone.

“We are grateful for the Decision of the United States Supreme Court,” Trump wrote on social media after the order. “The Military/Ballroom Complex being built on the hallowed grounds of the White House, which is so vital for National Security, will be THE GREATEST OF ITS KIND! Construction is under budget and ahead of schedule.”

Trump has argued the 90,000-square-foot ballroom — which the administration said this month will cost $400 million, double the initial estimate — is needed to reinforce security features and provide a larger space to host foreign dignitaries. Trump has said the project is being funded with private donations.

The East Wing of the White House was built in 1942. Workers last October demolished it, even after Trump said the ballroom construction would not impact the building. 

A federal appeals court this month upheld the lower court order that barred further construction of the ballroom above ground, but allowed for below-ground construction. The appeals court stayed its decision for 14 days to give the administration time to appeal to the Supreme Court.

This story is republished from the Ohio Capital Journal under a Creative Commons license. View the original article.

Originally published on TiffinOhio.net.

Theresa Hice-Fromille, a board member of the Haitian Community Help and Support Center in Springfield, confirmed that 29 Haitian people had been detained by ICE as of Friday.

Haitian Support Center Executive Director Viles Dorsainvil issued a statement on the increased ICE activity in the city.

“Behind every number is a human being,” Dorsainvil said. “Behind every detention is a family. Behind every deportation is a mother, a father, a husband, a wife, a child, a friend, a church member, a coworker, or a neighbor whose life may be changed forever.”

This is happening after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled at the end of June that President Donald Trump could end temporary protected status for the 330,000 Haitians who’ve fled the violence in their home country. Legal protected status officially ended for Haitians on July 27. 

Springfield Mayor Rob Rue acknowledged immigration enforcement now happening in the city.

“The City is aware of federal immigration enforcement activity occurring in Springfield, including arrests made by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement,” Rue said in a statement. 

About 15,000 Haitians live in Springfield, with a mixture of temporary protected status, citizenship, and other legal status.

“ICE has also indicated that targeted enforcement activity will continue throughout Ohio,” Rue said.

“The City does not direct or control ICE enforcement activity. We are focused on the safety and well-being of everyone in our community.”

ICE agents are detaining people in Springfield in shopping plazas and apartment complexes, Hice-Fromille said. A recent video circulating online shows ICE officers detaining people at a Springfield car wash. 

“We had somebody asking this morning if it was safe for her to run out to Walmart and get food,” Hice-Fromille said. 

Springfield Pastor Gilbert Joubert Adrien and another Haitian man were detained by ICE Thursday morning at a gas station. 

“It’s caused a flurry of concern,” Hice-Fromill said. “He has a wife and children, and they’re all extremely scared.” 

“Pastor Joubert Adrien left Haiti because his life was in danger, served Christ and his congregation faithfully and his arrest shows how far ICE will stoop to incite panic among people who came here peacefully, came here legally and offered nothing but good to our community,” Carl Ruby, pastor of Springfield’s Central Christian Church, said in a statement. 

Haitians in Springfield who are detained by ICE are being sent to Butler County Jail in Hamilton, which had 1,105 people as of Friday morning.

The general housing capacity for Butler County Jail is 844, even though the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction recommends 756 as the housing capacity, according to a 2025 ODRC inspection report.  

There are six Ohio detention facilities that contract with ICE to hold people who have been detained: Butler County Jail in Hamilton, the Seneca County Jail in Tiffin, the Geauga County Safety Center in Chardon, the Corrections Center of Northwest Ohio in Stryker, the Northeast Ohio Correctional Center in Youngstown, and the Mahoning County Justice Center in Youngstown.

“This becomes an economic driver for these local communities and these jails because they get paid by the feds,” said Richard Herman, a Cleveland-based immigration lawyer. 

“The goal of the policy is to inflict maximum pain, on the immigrant and people that love them and employ them, and inflict pain and try to crank up the numbers for deportations. … The system is trying to encourage them to sign the deportation order yourself.”

Haitians living in Springfield are being required to report to ICE offices in Blue Ash or Westervillve and wear ankle monitors. 

“There’s a lot of anxiety over what the ankle monitors could be leading to,” Hice-Fromille said.

“When (the ankle monitors) started happening, people really started retreating and isolating.” 

It’s unclear if Haitians with ankle monitors are being detained by ICE, she said. 

“I don’t have any information that people with ankle monitors have been detained,” Hice-Fromille said.

“What we did see last week was somebody being detained off of the street, given an ankle monitor, and released.”

Hice-Fromille is hearing that Haitians who previously lived in Springfield but have since moved away are also being asked to wear ankle monitors. 

“We’ve even had people who had to come in out of state because they no longer live in Ohio, but they had lived in Springfield at some point,” she said. 

The U.S. Department of State currently has a Level 4 “Do Not Travel” advisory for Haiti “due to the risk of crime, kidnapping, terrorism, unrest, and limited health care,” according to the state department. A top security official and chief of staff to the nation’s defense minister was kidnapped in June. 

Follow Ohio Capital Journal Reporter Megan Henry on X or on Bluesky.

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Originally published on TiffinOhio.net.

“We’ve got a lot of work to do,” Acton told reporters at a Columbus event. “But I think walking in the door and saying, ‘Look, there is a cost that we are all paying for corruption. We all know it. We’re famous for it.”

“We’re tired of watching (a) docuseries on it,” she went on, alluding to an HBO film about the House Bill 6 scandal. “And we know there’s more than enough good young public servants, older public servants, who want to do this work.”

Acton’s plan

Acton’s central argument is that corruption carries a cost borne by every Ohioan.

“I don’t know about everyone else here, but my electric bill went up 140 bucks this summer,” she offered as an example.

Her agenda includes three planks. First, she intends to create a task force to review state government and make recommendations within her first hundred days in office. That group will identify fraud and abuse, as well as opportunities to stricter oversight.

Acton also wants to eliminate the revolving door between state regulators and the industries they oversee. As governor, she won’t appoint people how have lobbied or worked in a given industry in the past three years, and she’ll require applicants disclose industry relationships and payments. Acton will also demand her appointees sign an ethics pledge committing to a three-year cooling off period before taking a job in the industry they previously regulated.

To limit the influence of dark money in politics, Acton would require state contractors spending money in political campaigns to disclose their donors. She’d also require companies bidding on lucrative contracts to disclose their ownership and political contributions.

In addition, Acton promised a state database detailing information about companies bidding for state contracts.

She spoke alongside Tiffany Muller from group End Citizens United Wednesday in Columbus. And Muller thinks Acton’s disclosure requirements could make a difference in the Ohio.

“This is something we’ve seen enacted in other states,” she said. “And what we have seen is that it works, right? It actually starts to get some of that dark money, that big special interest money, out of our system.”

A few grains of salt

While governors have substantial tools at their disposal to set state policy, their powers aren’t unlimited. Catherine Turcer from the government watchdog group Common Cause Ohio gave Acton credit for identifying and prioritizing a serious problem.

“One of the things that is really clear is that we have a corruption problem in Ohio,” Turcer said, “and that the state legislature has not taken the appropriate steps to create greater accountability (and) transparency.”

“I can’t imagine applying for the job of governor and not thinking about ways to improve the system,” she added.

But she warned Acton’s executive actions alone won’t be enough to fix the problem. Committing to appoint regulators who aren’t coming directly from a post in the industry they’re regulating is a good idea, but there’s little Acton can do on her own to restrict where her appointees go when they step down.

“When the state establishes good laws, there’s an enforcement mechanism,” Turcer said. “There’s not an enforcement mechanism in in this executive order.”

“For some people shame is really effective,” she added about Acton’s proposed ethics pledge. “But for others, it has no meaning whatsoever.”

Similarly, Turcer said Acton’s campaign finance disclosures for state contractors is a good first step, but not a panacea.

In an email, End Citizens United defended the disclosure requirements. The restrictions might only apply to contractors, but leveraging their interest in state money to get the full picture of their political spending, is a big deal.

Spokesperson Alysa James insisted “Dr. Acton’s plan is a real set of policies to turn this ship around and a pragmatic way to start fighting the pay-to-play culture that has taken over Columbus. Dr. Acton is the only candidate in this race we trust to ensure Ohioans are not paying for the cost of corruption.”

Turcer allowed that “reining in the folks that have contracts with the state of Ohio reins in corruption.

“But there are all sorts of other ways that the very wealthy and corporations influence the process,” she went on, “and it doesn’t address that,”

Hanging over any conversation of Ohio corruption is the House Bill 6 scandal, in which energy companies bribed the future PUCO chairman and funneled millions to political groups that don’t have to disclose their donors. That dark money helped get the law over the finish line and then beat back a referendum effort. But those companies weren’t state contractors. Acton’s disclosure proposals wouldn’t touch those transactions.

Still, Turcer said Acton’s appointment power could make a significant difference in Ohioans’ lives.

“These proposals do not get at the core of what went wrong with the House Bill 6 scandal. You can’t get there without the legislature,” Turcer said. “But she can appoint a more consumer-friendly person to the Public Utilities Commission. That is a very concrete thing that she could do that could change things.”

Follow Ohio Capital Journal Reporter Nick Evans on X or on Bluesky.

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Originally published on TiffinOhio.net.

A certification form called a Declaration of Gender Change no longer qualifies as a method to update the gender marker on BMV documents, something advocates say transgender Ohioans have used for years.

The form used documented proof of a gender transition attested by a physician, psychologist, or therapist to allow the change.

“Changing a policy this consequential overnight, without warning or transparency, is not an accident – it’s a choice,” said Dwayne Steward, CEO and executive director of LGBTQ+ advocacy group Equality Ohio.

Steward also called the move a “deliberate attempt at voter suppression and an intentional decision to make life harder for transgender Ohioans.”

The Ohio Secretary of State requires photo identification to vote, such as a passport, or a state drivers license, ID card, or interim ID issued by the BMV.

A spokesperson for the Ohio BMV said the bureau determined that the form “is not compatible” with state law, particularly a law that defines gender identity and sex.

“The BMV will record the sex that is stated on an individual’s birth certificate or passport as the sex that will be reflected on the Ohio drivers license or ID card,” a statement from the spokesperson said.

The BMV did not respond to questions from the Capital Journal about whether public notice was required or provided to make the change.

In the most recent state operating budget, the Ohio General Assembly implemented a “sex recognition policy” to apply to state laws. In the provision, effective as of 2025, gender identity is defined as “an individual’s internal and subjective self, disconnected from biological reality and sex and existing on an infinite continuum, that does not provide a meaningful basis for identification and cannot be recognized as a replacement for sex.”

“Sex” is defined as the “biological indication” of male and female, “without regard to an individual’s psychological, chosen, or subjective experience of gender.”

“It is the policy of the state of Ohio to recognize two sexes, male and female,” the code states. “These sexes are not changeable and are grounded in fundamental and incontrovertible reality.”

The measure comes alongside Trump administration policies that compel the federal government not to recognize transgender, nonbinary, and intersex identities, including in federal data collection.

It also comes after a 2024 Ohio Supreme Court decision in which a transgender woman appealed a decision by the Clark County Probate Court. The court approved her 2021 application for a name change on her birth certificate, but denied her request to correct the sex marker. Supreme court justices said they couldn’t “reach a consensus on how this case should be resolved,” but said the General Assembly has final say on whether further changes can be made to birth certificates. As it stands now, the court said state laws do not allow transgender individuals to correct their birth certificate based on their gender identity.

The Republican supermajority in the General Assembly has indicated they don’t plan to create more openings for transgender individuals, having passed laws banning gender-affirming care for minors, and barring transgender students from playing on sports teams based on their gender identity.

This story is republished from the Ohio Capital Journal under a Creative Commons license. View the original article.

Originally published on TiffinOhio.net.

High school students who want to represent their school are increasingly required to pay to play, with multiple Ohio districts charging fees that reach $500 for each sport a student pursues. According to the Ohio High School Athletic Association, the majority of high schools in Ohio now impose sports participation fees.

More schools are charging higher fees as districts grapple with inadequate state funding and rising costs.

Ohio’s approach to athletic participation fees is essentially the Wild West. There are no applicable state laws or limits on what school districts can charge student athletes and their families. While some districts offer fee waivers, there are no requirements that schools consider a family’s income or their ability to pay.

In the span of a few miles there is a staggering difference in costs and opportunity.

Columbus City Schools, the largest district in the state, does not charge a pay to play fee. But neighboring district Pickerington charges students $345 if they want to represent their community on the playing field.

Next door in Reynoldsburg, students and families are on the hook for a $500 fee per child, per season in order to participate in school sports.

Despite Ohio’s long standing embrace of high school sports, there is no cap across the state on what a large, athletic family might be required to pay.

Affirming a commitment to scholastic sports, state Rep. Gary Click has said that “No student athlete should be limited by their zip code.” But the reality is your zip code and the size of your wallet determine if you can play high school sports in Ohio.

For families in the Reynoldsburg school district, Click’s lofty words are overshadowed by a harsh reality. The $500 fee puts sports out of reach for many students. The district’s only publicized assistance is a payment plan; parents can pay the fee in two installments of $250. This in a school where the state labels more than 65% of the students economically disadvantaged.

Ohio is putting fees in the way of educational opportunity. Research studies have found students who participate in high school sports get better grades, are more likely to graduate high school and more likely to pursue education after high school.

Parents recognize the benefits sports provide. In a recent nationwide survey, 84% of parents in the U.S. agreed that participation in sports positively affects students’ performance in school.

Not only do parents see sports as beneficial, but so do the very school officials raising the cost to play. The entire school board in Mentor signed onto a statement declaring access to extracurriculars including athletics “another necessary component to producing well-rounded, successful young people, who are prepared for life after graduation.” Necessary or not, the Mentor school board raised their sports participation fee by 20% this year.

The survey of parents shows their support for their children participating in high school sports is nearly unanimous when there is no fee. When fees reach the levels charged by Reynoldsburg, however, most parents say they would discourage their children from pursuing a sport.

In fact, only in households making over $100,000 per year was there still a majority willing to encourage sports participation. Notable too, 87% of all parents said school-sponsored athletics should be funded through a district’s general budget rather than through imposing participation fees.

Ohio has a law requiring financial literacy be taught to every high school student, and a new law requires teaching something called the “success steps.” It is long past time for Ohio lawmakers to recognize that the financially sound path to student success is to fund scholastic athletics and put an end to pay to play.

Katie Niven is a Benton Scholar and Division 1 student athlete (softball) at Colgate University and is a 2025 graduate of Thomas Worthington High School.

This story is republished from the Ohio Capital Journal under a Creative Commons license. View the original article.

Originally published on TiffinOhio.net.

U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill ruled earlier this month that the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution provides a narrow right for a pregnant patient to obtain an abortion if the pregnancy could be a risk to their health, including their mental health. It’s the first ruling since the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health in 2022 to find that the U.S. Constitution includes a right to abortion access in certain situations.  

Mary Ziegler, a legal historian and law professor at the University of California, Davis School of Law, said Winmill’s ruling could be the beginning of a “slow erosion” of the Dobbs decision, similar to the way that anti-abortion advocates used lawsuits and legislation to chip away at the law established by Roe v. Wade after it was decided in 1973.

“They kind of worked over the course of decades to do a death by a thousand cuts, chipping away at its breadth,” Ziegler said. “This may be kind of a funhouse mirror version of that.”

For years, anti-abortion state officials and advocacy groups used various legal tactics to diminish access to abortion nationwide after Roe v. Wade determined that the procedure was a constitutional right. Over time, state legislatures passed procedural laws that made it more difficult for providers to offer abortion services, as well as so-called “fetal pain” laws, and worked up to passing the six-week and 15-week abortion bans that eventually led to Dobbs. 

Two years ago, U.S. Supreme Court justices were asked to consider whether Idaho could set aside federal law mandating stabilizing care in an emergency if that stabilizing care, in a doctor’s opinion, was to terminate a pregnancy. Now the question could be whether any pregnancy scenario where a patient’s physical or mental health is threatened is something that all states can regulate under Dobbs.

Health exceptions

Out of the 13 states that have near-total abortion bans, five have no exception for preserving a pregnant patient’s health, including Idaho, Arkansas, Mississippi, Oklahoma and South Dakota. 

All 13 have an exception to save a pregnant woman’s life, but doctors say there most often is no clear moment when they can easily say a person will die without an immediate abortion. Instead, doctors are left to guess whether terminating a pregnancy to save a patient would cost them their license to practice or land them in prison.

Even in states with health exceptions, some doctors hesitate to act because of the ban,  opting for delays that can cause medical complications such as organ damage or fertility loss. An Arkansas woman said she was denied an abortion during a miscarriage in 2024, resulting in a days-long ordeal that eventually led to her being transferred out of state to Kansas, where abortion is legal.

A pregnant woman’s health is not a state resource to be allocated at the legislature’s whim. The Fourteenth Amendment exists precisely to prevent subjugation like this.

– U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill

Winmill’s legal decision blocks enforcement of Idaho’s near-total abortion ban when a pregnancy is terminated under those circumstances. Idaho Attorney General Raúl Labrador, a Republican, appealed the decision to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday, and also asked Winmill to pause that injunction while the decision is appealed.

“The state’s interest in protecting unborn children from unjustified abortion is irreparably harmed by the order, and public interest and equity support a stay for that same reason,” Idaho Assistant Solicitor General Aaron Green wrote in the request for a stay.

The attorney general and leadership at the Idaho Family Policy Center, a religious organization that helped craft the legislation that established the state’s ban, have expressed confidence that Winmill’s decision will be reversed quickly.

“The Fourteenth Amendment protects the basic rights that are part of the historical fabric of our nation, not a right to take the life of an innocent child in the womb, an act that was a crime at the time that the Fourteenth Amendment was ratified,” said Caleb Pirc, general counsel for the Idaho Family Policy Center, in a statement. “We fully expect Judge Winmill’s attempt to shoehorn a right to abortion into the Constitution to be swiftly rejected on appeal.” 

Supreme Court watch

Dr. Stacy Seyb, a maternal-fetal medicine specialist  for Idaho’s largest health system, St. Luke’s, sued state officials and the Idaho Board of Medicine in 2024, arguing that the state’s near-total ban prevented him from providing appropriate care to all of his patients. Maternal-fetal medicine specialists handle the most high-risk pregnancies, including patients carrying multiples and those with conditions such as high blood pressure and gestational diabetes.  

In his ruling, Winmill wrote that although Dobbs allowed states to regulate abortion access, that case was about elective abortions, and that his ruling was about a pregnant woman’s ability to seek care under “the most difficult and tragic circumstances,” almost always when the woman wanted the pregnancy.

“By banning health-preserving abortion, Idaho attempts to deny this fundamental right on the basis that the threat of harm comes from a fetus, which depends on the woman for survival,” Winmill wrote. “But a pregnant woman’s health is not a state resource to be allocated at the legislature’s whim. The Fourteenth Amendment exists precisely to prevent subjugation like this.”

Winmill discussed the history of abortion bans in his opinion, writing that when the 14th Amendment was ratified in 1868, the states and territories that restricted abortion also included exceptions for therapeutic purposes when a doctor was acting in good faith.

But Winmill went further than many judges have gone by including a pregnancy’s threats to mental health, something that only Alabama has recognized as an explicit healthcare exception for abortions among states with bans, according to KFF. There, a psychiatrist is required to diagnose a pregnant patient with a serious mental illness that could result in their death or the death of the fetus in order to qualify for that exception.

“The brain is an organ of the body, and healthcare providers use empirical tools to reliably assess the risk of suicidality and the most effective treatments,” Winmill wrote. “It is an affront to human dignity to bar pregnant women from receiving life-saving care on the basis that the threat comes from a mental health condition rather than a physical health condition.”

Idaho’s role

Idaho has been at the center of the national debate about when health conditions take priority over an abortion ban since the first year after the Dobbs decision. 

The U.S. Department of Justice under former President Joe Biden sued Idaho to require that it acknowledge a federal law known as the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act — better known as EMTALA — in the context of patients who come to the emergency room with pregnancies that may need to be terminated to prevent infection or other adverse health outcomes.

The U.S. Supreme Court heard that case in late April 2024, but sent it back to the lower appellate court in June, saying it was too early in the process for justices to have considered ruling on it. The case was later dropped by the DOJ under President Donald Trump, but St. Luke’s filed its own lawsuit against the state that is still ongoing. That case is also before Winmill in federal court.

At the time of the EMTALA arguments, Idaho officials had argued that if it allowed women to get a legal abortion in an emergency room, anyone could come to a hospital’s emergency department  and threaten to harm themselves.  

Tanya Pellegrini, co-director of litigation at The Lawyering Project and one of the attorneys who represented Seyb in this month’s case, said that wasn’t true under EMTALA, and it won’t be true following Winmill’s ruling. 

“I think the order really speaks for itself in terms of why mental health should not be treated differently from physical health,” Pellegrini said.

Ziegler said she won’t be surprised if Seyb’s case ends up before the Supreme Court in the near future, because it strikes at the heart of questions about the Dobbs decision that have yet to be fully resolved.

“It’s a really important question that they’ll have to address sooner or later,” Ziegler said. 

Stateline reporter Kelcie Moseley-Morris can be reached at kmoseley@stateline.org.

This story was originally produced by Stateline, which is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network which includes Ohio Capital Journal, and is supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity.

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Originally published on TiffinOhio.net.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development counted 32,495 veterans experiencing homelessness, 387, or 1.2%, fewer than the previous year. HUD counted 18,877 veterans in shelters, and 13,518 living unsheltered in places not meant for habitation.

Twenty-five states recorded increases in veteran homelessness from 2024 to 2025, and 23 recorded decreases. Just two states — Alaska and Massachusetts —  saw no change.

The state with the largest increase, by raw numbers, was Oregon, which saw 228 added veterans, a 16% increase. Pennsylvania saw an increase of 98 veterans, a 14% increase, while New York, with an additional 93 homeless veterans, had a nearly 8% increase.

Mississippi had the largest percentage increase, rising 88%, going from 40 homeless veterans in 2024 to 75 a year later. Utah and Wyoming saw increases of 36% and 30%, respectively.

California recorded the largest numerical decline, with 624 fewer veterans experiencing homelessness, a 7% dip to 8,686. Florida declined by 192, while Indiana and Illinois each recorded 79 fewer homeless veterans. North Dakota’s numbers dropped 36% to 28 homeless veterans.

Since 2010, veteran homelessness has fallen by more than 56%, reaching an all-time low in 2025, and it’s been one of the few sustained decreases in any subset of homelessness during that time span. Details from this past January’s point-in-time count have not been released.

Adam Ruege, principal of policy and evaluation at Community Solutions, a national nonprofit that works with cities, counties and states to reduce homelessness, said the long-term decline resulted from sustained federal investments in housing and mental health services dating back to 2009. 

States have taken a bigger role in addressing veteran homelessness, with programs ranging from incentives for landlords, to coordinated services.

“Twenty years ago, being a veteran increased your likelihood of being homeless,” said Ruege, who previously worked for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. “What we’re seeing states do now, is that they are filling the gap between what the federal response isn’t doing and what localities can’t do because of funding constraints. 

In July, New Jersey announced that its Bringing Veterans Home initiative saw more veterans finding housing than entering homelessness. According to state officials, since the initiative launched in November 2024, it has permanently housed more than 2,500 veterans, backed by more than $30 million in state and federal money. There’s pending legislation to codify the program.

In March, the Minnesota Department of Veterans Affairs had a statewide by-name registry that allows agencies and service providers to coordinate individual cases instead of making veterans navigate programs independently. The registry, at last update, showed 150 veterans experiencing homelessness, dropping 25% in a year and 41% in two years.

States making efforts to incent or spur landlord participation in voucher and other housing programs, Ruege said, is one of the biggest steps toward getting veterans into permanent housing.

Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis approved a statewide measure in June that created a pilot program getting landlords to participate in a federal voucher program that compensates landlords for holding a vacant unit for up to 45 days while a veteran prepares to move in and reimburse up to $2,000 in qualifying property losses beyond the security deposit.

Maine Democratic Gov. Janet Mills signed a law in April that establishes an incentive program that can give grants to nonprofits for landlord and housing provider incentives, risk-mitigation payments and veterans’ past due rent.

“I think a big factor in their success has been recruitment of landlords,” said Ruege. “It’s just a matter of political and private will, and in some ways, the will of a landlord, to make strides in cutting down homelessness on the local level.” 

California announced $109.6 million in July for 278 permanent supportive homes across four communities, including 103 units reserved for veterans.

In March, Pennsylvania awarded about $805,000 from its Veterans’ Trust Fund to county agencies and nonprofits, including programs providing emergency housing assistance, residences, for veterans leaving homelessness and services for veterans exiting homelessness.

Erin Healy, a principal for large-scale change at Community Solutions, said veterans have often been treated differently from other groups experiencing homelessness.

“So, there is a sense of urgency around veteran homelessness, which doesn’t necessarily exist, even though it should, for all homelessness,” Healy said. “But we know these solutions and more empathy can still work for these other groups that are experiencing homelessness.”

Since the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2024 Grants Pass v. Johnson ruling gave governments greater latitude to enforce public camping restrictions, at least 14 states and more than 350 cities have adopted tougher laws targeting camping, sleeping or other activities associated with unsheltered homelessness. 

Indiana, for example, enacted a statewide public camping ban that took effect in July, while Georgia and Oklahoma have adopted laws that can hold local governments accountable for failing to enforce restrictions on public camping and related conduct.

Stateline reporter Robbie Sequeira can be reached at rsequeira@stateline.org.

This story was originally produced by Stateline, which is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network which includes Ohio Capital Journal, and is supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity.

This story is republished from the Ohio Capital Journal under a Creative Commons license. View the original article.

Originally published on TiffinOhio.net.

The woman went to the Tiffin Police Department shortly after 8 a.m. Sunday and reported that the man had been following her, would not leave her alone and had put the tracking device on her car. She also told police that he had been threatening her, according to a police media summary.

Read the full story at https://tiffinohio.net/posts/tiffin-man-arrested-airtag-tracking-threats/.

Originally published on TiffinOhio.net.

The drug did nothing.

By the time those patients delivered the answer, the money had already been made — by Ramaswamy, by his mother and brother on the company payroll, and by the small circle of funds that controlled roughly 90% of the stock. The people who lost were the ones who bought the story late: retail investors, and a pension fund for California’s public school teachers.

That sequence, not the failure itself, is the accountability question.

The record he bought for $5 million

GlaxoSmithKline did not quietly shelve intepirdine. It tested the compound in 13 clinical trials and dosed more than 1,250 people, including four Phase 2 studies in patients with mild-to-moderate Alzheimer’s. Then it stopped. Ramaswamy’s Roivant Sciences acquired the rights in December 2014 for $5 million upfront, plus milestones and a royalty.

Axovant’s own prospectus lays out what he was buying. Given by itself, the drug produced no statistically significant improvement in cognition or function compared with placebo. In the one trial that showed something — 684 patients already taking donepezil — GSK had set two primary endpoints. The drug hit one and missed the other: on the CDR-SB dementia-severity scale, the high dose came in at p=0.418 at week 24. Two secondary cognitive measures, MMSE and RBANS, showed nothing.

Federal regulators noticed. In an April 20, 2015 comment letter addressed to Ramaswamy by name, SEC staff instructed the company to disclose, if true, that the drug had failed to show a statistically significant improvement on MMSE or RBANS at any dose. Axovant complied.

The failures were on the table. Ramaswamy sold around them.

The family on the payroll

In 2015, Ramaswamy hired his mother, Geetha Ramaswamy, as Axovant’s vice president of medical and scientific strategy, according to an Aug. 12 investigation by Caleb Ecarma’s Oligarch Watch. The company’s prospectus confirms she was on the payroll at $250,000 a year, with a March 2015 option grant of 262,500 shares at 90 cents apiece. Ramaswamy’s brother, Shankar, was also an employee at $250,000, with an option on 750,000 shares at the same price.

Within weeks of the IPO, Oligarch Watch reported, Geetha Ramaswamy had co-published two reanalyses of GSK’s failed 684-patient trial — despite, the outlet found, having never run a clinical trial. One sorted patients into responders and non-responders instead of measuring how much they actually changed. The other, a completer analysis, dropped the more than 30% of patients who left the 48-week study. Axovant put completer-analysis data in a June 2015 filing days before the offering and used it in July to announce statistically significant benefits.

Those methods are criticized for exactly the reason they were useful here: throwing out the patients who quit breaks the balance randomization is supposed to create, and it can make a drug look better than it is. Oligarch Watch cited medical researchers who have warned as much for years. TiffinOhio.net has previously reported on that investigation and on the $260 million Forbes estimates Ramaswamy made during his time at Roivant.

The criticism was not invented after the drug failed. In July 2015, weeks after the IPO, Chardan Capital Markets analyst Gbola Amusa called the completer analysis “less robust scientifically” and less useful to regulators, said the IPO had overpriced a drug with a mixed Phase 2 history, and rated the stock a sell.

$5 million in, $315 million out

Axovant did not exist until October 2014. On June 11, 2015, it sold 21 million shares at $15 and raised $315 million at a $1.4 billion valuation — then the largest biotech IPO in U.S. history. The stock closed up about 90%, pushing the company toward $2.8 billion.

The prospectus for that offering states the company had never been profitable, had no approved products and had generated no product revenue. Its accumulated deficit was $21 million. It had not recruited a single patient for the trial that would decide everything.

Ramaswamy told Forbes the company had “a great drug candidate” that could make a huge difference for patients. On CNBC he described a drug that could help millions and said the company believed it was one Phase 3 study from approval. Roivant kept 75% of the equity. Two funds took 13%. The public float was about 10%.

Paid before the answer

Ramaswamy never held Axovant stock directly. He held Roivant, and Roivant is where the money moved.

He sold part of that stake in 2015 — the year of the IPO, two years before the trial — and reported $37 million in capital gains on returns he later released as a presidential candidate. Forbes reported he made at least $38 million in income that year. He has said he was forced to sell to make room for a new institutional investor.

Then came an extraordinary piece of timing. In August 2017, SoftBank’s Vision Fund led a $1.1 billion investment in Roivant. A Schedule 13D subsequently reported that SoftBank entities could be deemed to share dispositive power over the 75 million Axovant shares held by Roivant — 69.8% of Axovant.

Twenty days after that arrangement became effective, the Phase 3 results came in.

Oligarch Watch describes the transaction as a way for Ramaswamy to monetize the value tied up in Axovant without dumping Roivant’s enormous block onto the public market. The filings establish the timing and the ownership structure.

1,315 patients

On Sept. 26, 2017, Axovant announced that MINDSET had missed both primary endpoints. On cognition, the gap versus placebo was 0.36 points, p=0.22. On daily functioning, 0.09 points, p=0.83 — nothing. One secondary measure, a clinician impression scale, reached significance at p=0.02. The drug was well tolerated. It simply did not work.

The stock fell more than 70% in a day. Axovant shares held by the California State Teachers’ Retirement System went from about $1.23 million to $68,000, according to the fund’s SEC filings. Ramaswamy told Forbes it was the “single greatest failure” of his career and said he felt accountable to people who had bet on something he believed in.

The company tried the drug in Lewy body dementia. That failed too. On Jan. 8, 2018, Axovant killed the program. The company was later renamed Sio Gene Therapies and wound down.

Months after the collapse, Ramaswamy said he would do it again. There was probably nothing meaningful the company could have done differently, he told a 2018 conference, with the stock trading near $1.

“That is what’s most important”

There is one more exchange in the record.

In a 2023 Forbes profile, pharmaceutical scientist Raymond Schinazi recalled asking Ramaswamy years earlier about a different company, Inhibitex, whose experimental hepatitis C medicine Schinazi considered garbage. Schinazi’s recollection of the answer: “But we are making money. That is what’s most important.”

Ramaswamy denies saying it and notes that Schinazi’s own company, Pharmasset, competed with Inhibitex.

Different drug, years earlier — and the same question Axovant poses. Is the investment a success when the medicine fails?

David Niven, a University of Cincinnati political scientist, put the structure to Oligarch Watch bluntly: “heads I win and tails I also win.”

What survived

Roivant did not go down with Axovant. In 2019 it sold five subsidiaries and a 10% stake to Japan’s Sumitomo for $3 billion; Ramaswamy reported $174.5 million in capital gains for 2020. In 2023 Roivant sold its Telavant unit to Roche for $7.1 billion. Late last year, positive Phase 3 results for an autoimmune drug sent the stock up again. Forbes, which credits Roivant with helping bring multiple drug candidates to market, now puts Ramaswamy’s real-time net worth at $3 billion — and describes the 2015 IPO of a speculative Alzheimer’s drug that later failed as the thing that formed the basis of the company.

No regulator has charged Ramaswamy with anything, and he is not running on his innocence. He is running on his judgment. What the Axovant record documents is a version of capitalism in which the founder’s payout is settled before the product is tested — and he is asking to bring it to state government.

He is now campaigning to eliminate Ohio’s tax on capital gains — the same category of income through which he made much of his fortune.

Ramaswamy asks Ohio voters to judge him by his record as a businessman. Axovant belongs at the center of that judgment.

The drug failed its test.

The business model had already passed its own.

Originally published on TiffinOhio.net.

He has good reason not to. The arithmetic of the next presidential cycle is brutal for a first-term Ohio governor, and he knows the numbers better than anyone — he ran them himself in 2023.

What he promised

In February 2025, days before launching his campaign at a Butler County aerospace plant, Ramaswamy told NBC News that if elected governor he was “fully committed to serving a full term.”

Then he went further. Asked about his plans by the Wall Street Journal, he said he intended to be a two-term governor. “Those eight years will go by quickly,” he said.

Eight years is a claim on two full Ohio election cycles, made by a man who had spent the previous 24 months running for president, angling for a Cabinet post, lobbying for a Senate appointment, and taking — then abandoning — the co-leadership of the Department of Government Efficiency. Dave Yost built his primary campaign on that pattern. Yost is gone. The line stuck.

Forty-three days

Ramaswamy declared for president on Feb. 21, 2023 — 623 days before the 2024 election. Run that same interval back from Election Day 2028, which falls Nov. 7, and the launch date is Feb. 23, 2027.

Ohio’s next governor is sworn in Monday, Jan. 11, 2027. Feb. 23 is 43 days later.

Not one budget. Not one legislative session. Six weeks. A campaign built at the pace of his last one would be hiring in Des Moines and Manchester while the new administration in Columbus was still filling agency directorships.

Ohio law won’t stop him

Five states force an officeholder to quit before running for something else: Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii and Texas. Florida exempted presidential candidates in 2023, in a bill signed by a governor who was about to become one. Ohio has no such law at all. A sitting Ohio governor can run for president and keep the job while he does it.

The only hard limit sits at the far end. Article III, Section 2 caps a governor at two successive four-year terms. It says nothing about ambition.

2028 is occupied

JD Vance leads the Pollsmax average of national 2028 Republican primary polling at 40.0%, with Marco Rubio at 19.3%. Ramaswamy sits at 2.2%. Trump has called Vance “most likely” his heir apparent.

Vance is also from Ohio. And Ramaswamy’s campaign for governor was assembled out of Vance’s own political shop — strategist Jai Chabria, adviser Andy Surabian, ally Arthur Schwartz and pollster Tony Fabrizio all moved over in early 2025. Challenging Vance in 2028 would mean running against the operatives who built the operation, at 2%, against a sitting vice president with the president’s blessing, having just broken a promise to the state that elected him.

That isn’t a lane. It’s a cliff.

2032 is the cycle that fits

Run the numbers four years out and everything that blocks him disappears.

Ramaswamy turned 41 this month. He would be 47 on Inauguration Day 2033 — younger then than Vance is today. A single completed term as governor runs Jan. 11, 2027 to Jan. 13, 2031: promise kept, record built, term limit untouched, campaign launched from private life with a national donor file already in hand. Win a second term in 2030 and the timing tightens, but the constitutional clock still doesn’t bind until January 2035.

The one variable he can’t control is whether Vance wins. An incumbent Republican president fills the 2032 cycle. A defeated Vance empties it — and a two-time presidential candidate fresh off four years running a large industrial state stops being an asterisk and starts being a front-runner.

The machine is already federal

V-PAC: Victors, Not Victims, the outside group spending on Ramaswamy’s behalf, is not an Ohio committee. It is registered with the Federal Election Commission as an independent-expenditure-only super PAC, FEC ID C00892919, first filed in November 2024 — three months before he entered the governor’s race.

It reports $41.8 million raised this cycle and $25.9 million in cash on hand as of June 30. Federal committees aren’t built for one contest; they keep filing with the FEC until they terminate. Four billionaires supplied 98% of its second-quarter money, including $5 million from Elon Musk. A national fundraising apparatus, run by national operatives, aimed at Ohio for now.

What the ballot actually asks

The eight-year promise was made in February 2025. Since then the New York Times has listed him among Republicans who could make a quick leap from a governor’s race to a national campaign, he has spent 79 days of an election year outside Ohio including 14 international travel legs, and Steve Bannon has told his audience to write the state off.

The race is tight. The Pollsmax average of Ohio governor polling has Ramaswamy up less than a point, and an Aug. 13 Wedgewood survey had Amy Acton ahead 47-46. Acton has outraised him from actual donors three filings running.

Ohioans aren’t just choosing a governor for four years. They’re choosing whether to hand the office to a man whose answer to “will you run for president again” is yes, and whose only open question is which cycle. On the calendar, 2028 costs him everything. On the calendar, 2032 costs him nothing.

Originally published on TiffinOhio.net.

The Ohio Disability Candidates Forum ran from noon to 4 p.m. on Aug. 20 at the Fawcett Center in Columbus. Organized by the Ohio Olmstead Task Force and billed as nonpartisan and cross-disability, it paired the Republican and Democratic nominees for every statewide office on the November ballot — governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general, secretary of state, auditor, treasurer and U.S. Senate. Questions were set ahead of time so each candidate could lay out a disability policy platform. Organizers provided ASL interpreters, CART transcription and a universal changing station, and asked attendees to come fragrance-free.

Husted was listed. So was his opponent, Democrat Sherrod Brown.

At 3:10 p.m., according to a screenshot of the event’s question-and-answer channel reviewed by TiffinOhio.net, an attendee asked whether Husted and Republican governor nominee Vivek Ramaswamy were joining the program. Event staff answered that they were not, and that both “were unable to participate.”

At 8:19 p.m., Husted’s verified account posted: “It’s National Shooting Sports Month! It was great to be at the Black Wing Shooting Center in Columbus today with fellow Ohio sportsmen and hear about the issues that matter most to them.” The Black Wing Shooting Center is at 3722 Marysville Road in Delaware, Ohio, north of Columbus.

The vote behind the empty chair

The forum mattered because of a vote Husted cast last year.

Husted voted for the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, the Republican reconciliation law that carries the largest Medicaid reduction in the program’s history. KFF estimates the law strips roughly $33 billion in federal Medicaid funding from Ohio over the next decade, about a 13% cut against the state’s current spending baseline, according to analysts who briefed the Health Policy Institute of Ohio. An Urban Institute analysis projects that new work-verification rules could cost as many as 356,000 Ohioans their coverage by 2028, on top of roughly 113,000 who already dropped Affordable Care Act plans after premium tax credits expired.

The requirements take effect Jan. 1, 2027. Roughly 769,000 Ohioans will have to document 80 hours a month of work, school or community service, and advocates say the state still has not resolved basic questions about how people will prove it.

More than 45,000 Ohioans with disabilities receive Medicaid waivers, the mechanism that lets people be cared for at home instead of in an institution. Those waiver services are optional under federal law, which is why disability advocates have spent the past year warning that squeezed state budgets will reach for them first. Nationally, families are already bracing for a return to institutional care. In Ohio, a Public Citizen analysis identified nine hospitals at heightened risk of closing or cutting services.

‘Nothing in this bill that would impact them’

Husted has repeatedly told Ohioans the cuts will not reach disabled people.

In July 2025, as the bill moved through Congress, he told News 5 Cleveland that people with disabilities would not be affected. “There’s nothing in this bill that would impact them,” he said. A spokesperson told NBC4 the same week: “Disabled Americans, children, and their caretakers are at no risk for losing benefits because of this bill.”

Later that month, in a statement posted on his Senate website, Husted said there were “whoppers of a lie” circulating about Medicaid, and said the law would leave Ohioans with more health care resources than ever.

The work requirements he defends are the specific provision disability groups flag as the risk. The Center for American Progress found that the 80-hour rule reaches at least 2.6 million adults nationally who have difficulty working because of disability or illness but do not receive Supplemental Security Income or Social Security Disability Insurance, and therefore do not qualify for an automatic exemption. People in that group keep coverage only if they navigate the paperwork correctly.

On a Columbus radio show in November, Husted called the Medicaid changes purposeful and said, according to Heartland Signal: “So I love fighting for those things. I love doing that kind of stuff.”

The pattern predates Washington

Husted’s record on disability benefits did not start with last year’s vote. It started when he ran the Ohio House.

In April 2005, three months into his speakership, Husted led the House budget proposal that eliminated the Disability Medical Assistance program. The program paid for prescription drugs and doctor visits for 15,000 very low-income adults, described at the time as destitute and chronically ill. The same proposal cut off Medicaid coverage for 25,000 working-poor parents — families earning between 90% and 100% of the federal poverty line.

The following March, Husted voted for Senate Bill 7, an overhaul of Ohio’s workers’ compensation system that made it harder for injured workers to qualify for benefits and shortened how long they could collect them.

The law required objective medical evidence that a workplace injury had substantially aggravated a pre-existing condition, rather than a worker’s report of increased pain, and limited treatment for that aggravation to whatever it took to return the condition to its prior state. It narrowed the standard for permanent total disability, overturning an Ohio Supreme Court ruling that had counted the loss of a single limb as the loss of two body parts. And it capped nonworking wage-loss compensation at 52 weeks; under the previous system, a worker could draw on a 200-week allowance whether or not they had returned to work. The House passed the bill 58 to 37, and it became law.

The hug and the vote

In June 2025, Columbus attorney Sarah Bloom Anderson brought her 14-year-old daughter Audrey to Husted’s Washington office to ask him to protect Medicaid. Audrey has PURA Syndrome, a chromosomal disorder, and relies on a waiver that pays for a full-time caregiver at home. Husted hugged her. His office posted the photo. Not long after, he voted for the bill.

Bloom Anderson recounted the meeting four months later at a Brown campaign roundtable in Columbus, one of the screened, small-group events the Democrat has built his campaign around. Signal Ohio reported her words: “You can’t hug my daughter, look her in the eyes and tell her Medicaid won’t be cut,” she said, “and then sign that bill.”

Brown has run much of his campaign on that terrain, including a December meeting in Toledo with residents who said they could no longer afford their premiums.

An award, and a sponsor

Three years ago, Husted stood in front of a camera as lieutenant governor and handed CareSource the 2023 Governor’s Inclusive Employer Award for its record of hiring people with disabilities.

“Governor DeWine and I have made working with Ohioans with disabilities an important priority in our administration,” he said in the ceremony video. “We want to connect employers with Ohioans with disabilities in a way that helps everyone.”

CareSource is a listed fiscal sponsor of Thursday’s forum. Its logo sits on the event page, a few inches above the roster of candidates that included Husted’s name.

Ohio votes Nov. 3.

Originally published on TiffinOhio.net.

Windsor is the founder and editor-in-chief of a right-wing news website, hosts a weekday program on 98.9 FM The Answer in Columbus and works as an Ohio Statehouse correspondent for WHK AM 1420 in Cleveland. His station biography traces his start in broadcast journalism to WMFD-TV in Mansfield, where he pressed Gov. Mike DeWine, then-Lt. Gov. Jon Husted and then-Health Director Amy Acton over the state’s pandemic response. Two of those three are on Ohio’s ballot in November. Windsor lives in Richland County.

Asked this week about the 2018 case, Windsor said the allegations against him were “proven untrue in court or later retracted.” The Delaware County court file records no such finding. It records the opposite outcome: an agreed order restricting his contact with his former wife that ran until March 1, 2020.

The protection order was first reported in August 2024 by The Rooster, the progressive Ohio newsletter written by D.J. Byrnes, which obtained and published portions of the petition. TiffinOhio.net independently obtained the filing and reviewed the full court dockets in both the protection order case and the divorce.

What the record shows

Windsor’s then-wife filed a petition for a domestic violence civil protection order in the domestic relations division of Delaware County Common Pleas Court on March 1, 2018. A magistrate granted an ex parte order the same day, and the court transmitted notice of it to the national law enforcement database used to flag active protection orders.

The Richland County sheriff’s office served Windsor with the packet on March 5. That same day, an attorney entered an appearance for him and moved to continue the hearing — and Windsor filed for divorce, listing himself as plaintiff in a separate case before the same judge.

The protection order case then stretched across four months. Windsor moved a second time to continue in late April. Each time the hearing slipped, the court’s orders kept the ex parte protection in force. On May 30, a magistrate granted Windsor permission to serve discovery on his wife and, in the same order, directed that he have no contact with her or with anyone else the order protected.

The divorce moved faster. A separation agreement was filed May 21, a hearing was held May 22, and the court entered a decree of divorce on May 24, 2018. The marriage was over.

The protection order case was not. A full hearing went forward on June 27. Two days later, on June 29, 2018, the court entered a consent agreement and domestic violence civil protection order with terms effective until March 1, 2020. The court sent an updated notice to the national database and logged acknowledgments from two sheriff’s offices in July.

The order was entered five weeks after the divorce was final. Windsor was represented by counsel from the first week of the case through its resolution.

What the petition alleged

The petition and its attached narrative describe a marriage that began with an engagement in November 2015 and a wedding in March 2016 — dates confirmed by Delaware County probate records — and that his wife wrote turned controlling within weeks.

She alleged Windsor cut her off from friends and family, required joint email and social media accounts, monitored where she went and whom she spoke to, would not permit her to work, and drained her savings and her 401(k). She wrote that he blocked doorways and confined her to rooms during arguments, sometimes for hours.

A handwritten notation on the narrative reads: “He hit my daughter in the face and lied about it when she told me what happened.” The note is dated to November 2016.

The narrative alleges he threw a dishwasher across a kitchen, punched and damaged her car outside a work Christmas party, and shoved her from behind into a kitchen on Dec. 26, after which she wrote that she called 911 and deputies responded and documented a domestic dispute. She described a January incident in a bedroom, in front of two 5-year-old children, in which she said her hand was cut in two places after she took his phone off a dresser because he was recording. On Feb. 1, 2018, she wrote, officers came to her home and escorted him inside to collect belongings, and wrote up a domestic disturbance.

She alleged that in one three-day stretch he called her 48 times, left eight voicemails and sent 15 emails, and that the contact continued after her attorney asked his to stop. Attached phone records list dozens of calls across February 2018, and a handwritten tally counts daily contacts through January running as high as 51 in a day.

She alleged he contacted her workplace and tried to get her fired by telling a manager the company employed a drug addict. She alleged he told her, “You will be mine forever,” and said more than once that he would kill any man who came between them. She alleged he used a slur to describe her autistic daughter. She wrote that she miscarried during the marriage and that he left her at home alone while it happened and went to watch a football game at a bar.

None of this was adjudicated. A consent agreement resolves a protection order case by agreement rather than by a ruling on the evidence, and the docket contains no findings of fact on any individual allegation. It also contains no dismissal, no withdrawal of the petition and no filing that retracts anything.

Byrnes, who published the petition in 2024, is a frequent target of Windsor’s coverage and criticism, including over Byrnes’ 2024 prank on Vivek Ramaswamy.

Windsor’s response

TiffinOhio.net sent Windsor a detailed list of the allegations and asked him to address each one, along with the disposition of the case, whether he disputed specific claims, whether any criminal charges followed the incidents described, and whether he had disclosed the matter to his employers. He responded with the following statement: “I’ve never been charged or convicted of a crime beyond traffic violations. Like so many people, I went through a difficult divorce where each of us said things out of frustration. Many things said were proven untrue in court or later retracted. This happened many years ago and it’s unfortunate that this is now the grotesque obsession of online trolls who desperately want to stop me from shining a light on the actual crimes and misdeeds of those who are steadily undermining America and Ohio.”

His account of his criminal history is consistent with the records reviewed for this story. A protection order of this kind is a civil matter, not a criminal charge. Searches of Franklin County Municipal Court and Mansfield Municipal Court, both matching his date of birth, turned up four traffic cases resolved without contest and two old debt-collection suits. No criminal case appeared in either court.

His account of the outcome does not match the file. The court did not find the allegations untrue, and nothing in either docket shows a retraction. The case ended with Windsor agreeing to an order that restricted his contact with his former wife for nearly two more years, entered after the divorce that he says explains it had already concluded.

This is the second time this year that court records have complicated Windsor’s public account of himself. TiffinOhio.net reported in August that his media company owes a former county elections board member $150,000, and that his proposed bankruptcy repayment plan would return roughly five cents on the dollar.

Originally published on TiffinOhio.net.

Before the ceremony, members of the Class of 2030 will walk in a procession down Miami Street beginning at 1:45 p.m. Faculty, staff and returning students will line the route to cheer on the incoming Dragons as they make their way to Convocation.

During the ceremony, students will hear from university leadership as they are officially welcomed to the university and begin the 2026-27 academic year. Convocation marks the start of the school year and the opportunities, experiences and connections ahead of the incoming class.

The ceremony falls in the middle of RISE Week, Tiffin University’s welcome program for new and returning students, which runs from Aug. 20 through Aug. 28. First-year students moved into campus housing on Thursday, Aug. 20, and the week’s schedule includes academic sessions, a downtown walk, a student organization fair and a closing rally. The university lists Convocation as a required event for all new students.

Those unable to attend in person can watch on Tiffin University’s YouTube channel, where the ceremony will be livestreamed.

The private university sits along Miami Street and enrolls students in undergraduate, graduate and doctoral programs. In May, Tiffin University and Heidelberg University announced five new academic partnership pathways taking effect this fall, covering counseling, criminal justice, teacher education and nursing. The university also unveiled an updated dragon mascot in 2024.

For more information, contact Deborah Roszman, executive director of communications and public relations, at 419-448-3513 or roszmandl@tiffin.edu.

Originally published on TiffinOhio.net.

He got about a day.

The former state representative, who is running a write-in campaign for Ohio House District 89, challenged Erie County Treasurer Caleb Stidham to a debate in a Facebook post Thursday, attaching two conditions.

“I challenge Calab [sic] to a debate,” Kraus wrote. “SOS Frank LaRose has until August 28th to decide, so let’s have a debate. I’ll debate Calab Stidham anytime/anywhere about who is the better candidate. Qualifier - it must be open to the public and allowed to be video taped. If Calab is so qualified, this should be easy for him.”

LaRose did not take until Aug. 28. He ruled the same day, certifying Stidham to the Nov. 3 ballot and rejecting the argument from the Erie County elections board’s two Democrats that the closed party meeting that produced the nomination was unlawful.

Stidham did not immediately respond to a request for comment for this story.

“The Ham”

Kraus has settled on a nickname. In the debate post he referred to Stidham three times as “the Ham.”

“We all know the story. The Ham will not debate because he doesn’t know what the establishment wants him to say,” Kraus wrote.

“The fact of the matter is that I am the only candidate running that supports……. Ending property tax, you keep more of your hard-earned money because the government doesn’t deserve it… let’s end the theft! If you want to pay more and get less - vote for the Ham,” he wrote.

“Remember…an establishment conservative is just a big government tax and spend liberal in disguise - vote Kraus for less taxes and less government spending.”

He closed: “Write in Steve Kraus!”

No public statement from Stidham declining a debate could be located. Kraus’s assertion that Stidham will not debate is his own characterization.

“Columbus Mafia”

After the certification, Kraus issued a statement.

“It’s not unexpected that the Columbus Mafia would be able to keep their pick in place,” he wrote. “I don’t begrudge Secretary of State Frank LaRose for maintaining a practice that has plagued both parties for the last 30 years. If you want true representation, write in Steve Kraus on your ballot in November.”

How the ballot fight got here

The seat opened Aug. 4, when Rep. D.J. Swearingen, R-Huron, delivered a letter to the Erie County Board of Elections withdrawing from the November ballot after four terms, saying he was under consideration for another role.

Because House District 89 spans more than one county but fewer than all of them, state law handed the replacement decision to a six-member district committee made up of the chairperson and secretary of each county Republican central committee in the district. Stidham, who chairs the Erie County Republican Party, was one of three applicants. He was also one of the six people entitled to vote. The committee met the afternoon of Aug. 10 and picked him, 4-2.

Four days later the Erie County board deadlocked 2-2 on certifying him. Democrats Edward Leonard and MaryAnn Groot said the committee meeting should have been open to the public and that Stidham should have stepped away from the deliberation and the vote. Republicans John Adams and Gary Smith voted to certify. Under state law, a tie at a county board goes to the secretary of state, whose decision is final.

In a letter to the board explaining Thursday’s ruling, LaRose wrote that Stidham’s application appeared to follow the law and that the Erie County prosecutor’s office had agreed. He rejected the open meetings argument, writing that the Democratic members had not cited any relevant law.

“Respectfully, this certification vote is not the proper forum for an extra-judicial expansion of Ohio’s open meetings laws beyond their established statutory application,” LaRose wrote.

LaRose had headlined an Erie County Republican fundraiser at the Sandusky Yacht Club the previous evening, at an event the invitation said was held in support of Erie County candidates. He is term-limited as secretary of state and is his party’s nominee for state auditor on the same Nov. 3 ballot.

Kraus’s own deadline

Stidham’s name is now settled. Kraus’s is not.

Write-in candidates must file a declaration of intent by 4 p.m. on the 72nd day before the election, under Ohio Revised Code 3513.041. For the Nov. 3 general election, that is 4 p.m. Monday, Aug. 24. Write-in votes are not counted for anyone who has not filed.

The property tax claim

Kraus is running on eliminating property taxes outright, a position he says separates him from everyone else in the race.

The statewide push to do that is not on this year’s ballot. The Committee to Abolish Ohio Property Taxes, which spent more than a year gathering signatures for a constitutional amendment banning taxes on real property, announced in June that it had fallen short of its signature goal and would not file by the July 1 deadline. Organizers said they are aiming for 2027.

The seat Kraus lost

Kraus held House District 89 for seven months in 2015. A jury convicted him of theft from an elderly person, a fifth-degree felony, on July 27, 2015, and he vacated the seat that day.

A court later sealed the conviction. When an Erie County resident sued to keep him off the 2024 primary ballot, the Ohio Supreme Court ruled unanimously in January 2024 that he could run, sidestepping the question of whether a sealed conviction counts as an expunged one and holding instead that the office of state representative does not involve the kind of “substantial management or control” over public property that triggers disqualification. Swearingen beat him in that primary.

The rest of the field

Kraus is not the only Republican in the district objecting to how the nomination was handled. GOP consultant Jon Paul Morrow, who worked on Kraus’s 2014 campaign, has said Stidham should have abstained and warned publicly that the nomination could cost Republicans the seat. Statehouse Speaker Matt Huffman and state Sen. Bill Reineke were privately working to secure the nomination for Stidham before the committee met, according to a person familiar with the discussions.

Stidham has defended the process, telling NBC4 there was no conflict of interest because he did not lead or chair the meeting that selected him, and that Huron County Chairman Sven Stahl chaired it.

The Democratic nominee is Easton Retzke of Sandusky, a lifelong resident and Ohio State political science graduate who won his party’s nomination on May 5 and has spent the summer campaigning while Republicans argued over who would face him.

Originally published on TiffinOhio.net.

The Republican candidate spent nearly $560,000 leasing a private jet from V Leasing LLC, whose address listed for the company is a house owned by Ramaswamy, according to campaign finance reports from July 2025, January 2026, April 2026, and June 2026. 

He has also spent nearly $130,000 leasing a private jet from TVPX Aircraft Solutions in Salt Lake City, Utah, according to campaign finance reports.. 

Ramaswamy’s campaign did not respond to questions sent multiple times by the Ohio Capital Journal. 

“I love long drives,” Ramaswamy said in May when talking to a Youngstown news station.

“You think about the time we spend in Trumbull County, and you think about the time we even spend just going for a nice jog. You think about Cuyahoga National Park, not far from where we are. I’m a nature guy.”

Ramaswamy has loaned his campaign more than $25 million, according to campaign finance reports. The Ohio Capital Journal reported earlier this year that Ramaswamy’s campaign has put more than a half of million dollars on credit cards.

“If he is basically fronting money to rent a plane from himself, and then if he does not forgive the loans but reimburses himself, he’ll essentially be using donor funds to pay himself,” said Jordan Libowitz, vice president in communications for the nonprofit watchdog Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. 

Ohio Democratic candidate for governor Amy Acton often talks about how she drives a Jeep. 

“As life becomes even more expensive for Ohio families, Vivek Ramaswamy is spending hundreds of thousands of dollars flying around the world to luxury destinations on his private jet, treating Ohio like a flyover state,” said Addie Bullock, spokeswoman for the Acton campaign. “Ohioans know they can’t trust a billionaire who looks down at us from 30,000 feet to understand the challenges we’re facing or to fight for us.” 

David Cohen, political science professor and director of the Applied Politics Program at University of Akron’s Bliss Institute, said he can’t think of another candidate running for Ohio office that has used a private jet as their main mode of transportation for campaign events. 

“The fact that Ramaswamy has spent two years flying around on his own private jet is really a bad look,” he said. “I mean, let’s face it: Ohio is not California or Texas. You can drive from border to border in Ohio in a few hours.”

Ramaswamy flights

Federal flight records show Ramaswamy flew his private jet, operated by Talon Air LLC, to at least six campaign events in Ohio, Washington D.C., and Salt Lake City in April and May. The flights within Ohio lasted about 30 minutes. 

Ramaswamy flew to a campaign event in Lakeside on April 7, taking his private jet from Ohio State University’s airport in Columbus to Port Clinton. 

The next day, Ramaswamy used his private jet to fly from Columbus to Cleveland for a campaign event for the Cleveland Police Patrolmen’s Association.

Ramaswamy took his private jet from Columbus to Youngstown for an April 15 meeting with the Fraternal Order of Police at the Mahoning County Sheriff’s Office. 

After winning the primary, Ramaswamy took his private jet from Columbus to Cleveland for an event in Brecksville in Cuyahoga County on May 21. 

“He’s flying between Columbus and Akron for crying out loud, and Columbus and Cleveland,” Cohen said. “That’s a two hour drive. Get in the car.” 

Ramaswamy flew on his private jet from Columbus to Washington, D.C. for a campaign event with Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz on May 13. 

Ramaswamy took his private jet from Columbus to Salt Lake City for a data center energy conference on May 22 and flew back to Columbus on his private jet on May 25. 

Follow Ohio Capital Journal Reporter Megan Henry on X or on Bluesky.

This story is republished from the Ohio Capital Journal under a Creative Commons license. View the original article.

Originally published on TiffinOhio.net.

The vast majority of the accused worked for Border Patrol or Immigration and Customs Enforcement — the agencies tasked with President Donald Trump’s controversial mass deportations.

The Ohio Immigrant Alliance started searching court records after it was revealed last year that an ICE supervisor in Cincinnati had a lengthy history of violence against a woman with whom he lived. His history included 23 police visits to his house. 

A year earlier, a federal jury convicted an ICE deportation officer in Cincinnati of extorting sex from women over whom he held power.

An earlier version of the report listed 59 Homeland Security employees who had been charged or convicted. The newest version lists 152.

Some of the cases stretch back to the 1980s. But Lynn Tramonte, founder of the Ohio Immigrant Alliance, pointed out that criminality appears to be accelerating as Trump rapidly adds agents to his border-enforcement operation.

Just under one-fourth of the charges and convictions Tramonte and her team found happened since the beginning of the second Trump administration. Fifty-six percent of those on the updated list have been sentenced for their offenses.

About 90% of all cases involve allegations of sexual abuse or gender-based violence, Tramonte said, adding that just over half involved sexual abuse of children. In just under 45% of cases, agents were alleged to have abused their official authority as they committed crimes, she said.

Questions about agents’ vetting and training grew intense last winter when ICE agents in Minneapolis shot two U.S. citizens to death under questionable circumstances.

In July another ICE officer, David Brouillette, shot and killed a Columbian man in Maine. His ex-wife and some former friends told NPR that Brouillette had a long history of racism and violence. 

In an email, a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security said it vets new agents adequately and holds them accountable when they commit abuses.

“The ICE Office of Professional Responsibility diligently applies the proper personnel vetting regulations, including guidelines for national security, and evaluates all available information for every applicant based on these factors,” the spokesperson said.

“We take allegations regarding misconduct seriously and cherish the public’s trust. We work tirelessly to uphold the rule of law and hold ourselves accountable.”

Peter L. Markowitz, a professor at Yeshiva University’s Cardozo School of Law, said the list published by the Ohio Immigrant Alliance proves otherwise.

“One of the things that really stood out to me in this report is how plainly it exposed the hypocrisy of the federal immigration authorities,” he said during a virtual press conference. “We’re hearing the claims over and over again from ICE, from the White House about how they’re going after the worst of the worst. 

“But we’ve known for a while that the data just doesn’t match the rhetoric. The most recent data is that about 2% of the most recent immigration court filings involve any criminality at all. Meanwhile, this report is documenting that some of the worst of the worst are in fact employed by ICE. I don’t think this is going to come as a huge surprise to the American public because we’re seeing daily the brutality on our social media feeds.”

Markowitz and Tramonte said that an obvious reform would be to acknowledge that the government is seeking to deport less than 2% of the 66,000 people detained by ICE and Border Patrol based on allegations of criminality. In other words, the overwhelming majority are being held under civil and not criminal law.

Markowitz said “cooperative enforcement strategies” should be employed with documented immigrants.

“ICE is a federal agency that enforces civil law, just like the IRS, the” Securities and Exchange Commission and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, he said. “All these other agencies enforce their laws without using handcuffs and putting people behind bars.”

Those agencies can start a process that leads to criminal charges, “but their first instinct is not to initiate punitive enforcement actions to bring the harshest penalty possible. Instead they try to help the regulated entity to come into compliance.”

Markowitz said immigration authorities have pathways to do something similar.

“Unfortunately, ICE is doing exactly the opposite,” he said. “They’re creating enforcement problems instead of solving enforcement problems.”

This story is republished from the Ohio Capital Journal under a Creative Commons license. View the original article.

Originally published on TiffinOhio.net.

Six wind farms in the Midwest were certified to sell wind energy in the state in a supreme court decision that upheld a ruling by the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio.

The PUCO decision was challenged by Carbon Solutions Group, who has renewable energy clients in Ohio. The group argued that the energy company Avangrid did not meet the criteria to be certified for sales in Ohio, and that the commission didn’t act appropriately in the process of certifying the entities.

The challenge related to wind farms in four different states, each being certified as “a qualifying renewable-energy resource,” as is required in state law for the farms to be able to sell energy in Ohio.

The farms are located in states that don’t connect directly to Ohio, including Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Iowa.

In order to qualify as an energy resource, out-of-state facilities have to prove the energy can be delivered to the state, via a commission-adopted test that determines if energy coming from a noncontiguous state can be sent here.

The commission uses certain power-flow studies to determine whether energy sources sent from other states “have an impact on power flows over transmission lines within Ohio,” according to the supreme court decision.

The company challenging the certifications didn’t argue that the test was unreasonable, but instead that the test was “erroneously applied.”

While the utilities commission approved the certifications for three different reasons, the only reason challenged by the Carbon Solutions Group was whether Avangrid had proven they could deliver the wind energy to Ohio.

The group challenging the certifications argued to the supreme court that the commission “erred” in finding that the energy was deliverable, and that the wind farms had “failed to provide sufficient evidence demonstrating” that fact.

The Ohio Supreme Court reviewed reports and multiple pieces of testimony by members of the commission who determined the deliverability requirement had been met, and the majority decision noted a previous decision in which the justices ruled that “if the commission finds that a staff recommendation contains sufficient factual findings and conclusions of law, it may adopt the same.”

“In light of (the staff testimony and analysis) … we find no merit in CSG’s contention that the evidence does not support the staff’s deliverability findings and recommendations,” the majority wrote in the Tuesday decision.

Judge Julia Dorrian of the Tenth District Court of Appeals sat in for Justice Jennifer Brunner on the case, and wrote the majority opinion, joined by Chief Justice Sharon Kennedy and justices Patrick DeWine, Dan Hawkins, and Megan Shanahan.

Dorrian and the majority also said the evidence in the record of the PUCO decision didn’t show “misapprehension, mistake, or willful disregard of duty.”

“Although the commission in its order could have articulated its reasons in a more methodical manner, the commission did address its reasoning as well as the facts on which it relied…,” Dorrian wrote for the majority.

While the court sided with PUCO in saying the commission had the authority to determine if the tests proved the energy could be delivered, justices held back from setting a precedent for future cases that might ask for further study of electricity load, “or other evidence as it determines may be necessary when considering whether the deliverability standard is met.”

Justice Patrick Fischer agreed with part of the majority’s decision, but disagreed with his colleagues in siding with the commission’s decision that the energy could be delivered to the state. Fischer went so far as to say the majority opinion “ignores the commission’s clear violation” of state law as it pertains to record-keeping in contested cases.

“Furthermore, the majority errs in determining that sufficient evidence exists in the record to support the commission’s decision,” Fischer wrote. “In affirming the commission’s order, the majority has acted far beyond the scope of our appellate authority in reviewing commission orders.”

Fischer was joined in his opinion by Judge John Williamowski, a Third District Court of Appeals judge sitting in for Justice Joe Deters.

This story is republished from the Ohio Capital Journal under a Creative Commons license. View the original article.

Originally published on TiffinOhio.net.

At a moment when voters deserve clear, accurate information about how to participate in our democracy, they are instead being met with efforts to intimidate and confuse them.

Recent actions by state and federal officials have cast an unwarranted shadow over decades of nonpartisan voter registration work, in an attempt to create a climate that risks discouraging eligible Ohioans from exercising one of their most fundamental rights.

Just weeks ago, more than 100 FBI agents raided the Cleveland offices of the Ohio Organizing Collaborative (OOC), a nonprofit that has spent nearly two decades helping register eligible Ohioans. Agents searched employees’ homes and questioned staff for hours, with insufficient public explanation for the raid.

Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose recently warned voters to be suspicious of voter registration groups like OOC — and mine, the Voter Participation Center (VPC) and Center for Voter Information (CVI). He falsely claimed these organizations don’t actually help unregistered voters and urged Ohioans to ignore our mailers.

Not all outside mail is the same. Legitimate voter registration groups, including VPC and CVI, use the same official forms as state election officials. We also share our materials with election officials in advance.

We’ve worked closely over the years with Ohio election administrators who are entrusted to run free and fair elections. Bad actors don’t do that.

There’s a broader context for Ohioans: the same secretary of state who’s raising alarms about voter registration groups is the one who handed the personal information of eight million Ohio voters over to the Trump administration’s Justice Department.

The state official warning Ohioans not to trust groups that help them register is also cooperating with a federal government building lists of voters and intimidating the organizations that reach them.

With the midterms just months away, Ohioans are being hit with misinformation from multiple directions. No matter the source, the message lands the same way — don’t trust the mail, don’t answer the door, don’t bother casting a ballot.

This confusion is designed to do one thing: keep eligible voters from turning out.

That’s exactly why nonpartisan civic organizations matter. Groups like VPC and CVI help fill the gap left by under-resourced election offices, giving eligible voters official registration applications and accurate information about upcoming elections.

Since 2003, VPC and CVI have helped more than 7 million Americans register to vote nationwide. This year alone, we sent more than 350,000 registration applications directly to unregistered Ohioans.

Helping eligible voters register isn’t a partisan act. It’s a partnership with the state and local officials responsible for elections, built on a simple principle: voters should choose their politicians, not the other way around.

This campaign of confusion succeeds only if Ohioans get discouraged, tune out, or decide it isn’t worth the hassle to vote. Democracy is weakened every time an eligible citizen stays home because they no longer know who to trust.

The answer isn’t to sit out. It’s to show up anyway.

If you’re eligible to vote, confirm you’re registered. If you’ve moved, update your registration. When Election Day arrives, cast your ballot — and help your neighbors to do the same.

The most powerful response to confusion and intimidation is participation.

Democracy doesn’t depend on the people trying to discourage engagement. It depends on the people who show up anyway.

This story is republished from the Ohio Capital Journal under a Creative Commons license. View the original article.

Originally published on TiffinOhio.net.

An invitation obtained by TiffinOhio.net shows the Browns owners hosting a fundraiser for Republican gubernatorial nominee Vivek Ramaswamy on Tuesday, Sept. 1. Tickets start at $1,000 a person. Patrons pay $5,000, sponsors $10,000. Hosts are asked for $25,000. Co-chairs are asked to raise $50,000, and event chairs $100,000. The 4:30 p.m. private reception is reserved for chairs, co-chairs and hosts; a photo reception for the leadership committee follows at 5; the general reception and program begin at 6.

Ramaswamy’s running mate, Ohio Senate President Rob McColley, is listed on the invitation, which carries the campaign slogan “Lower costs. Bigger paychecks.” RSVPs are due Thursday, Aug. 27. The invitation notes the host committee was still forming when it went to print.

Ohio caps individual contributions to a joint governor and lieutenant governor ticket at $16,615.67 per election, which means a $100,000 event chair is not writing one check. That figure is a bundling target — a commitment to gather money from other donors on the campaign’s behalf.

The $600 million

The grant at the center of this is the largest single subsidy Ohio has ever committed to a professional sports franchise, and it does not come out of the general fund. It comes out of the Division of Unclaimed Funds — the roughly $4.8 billion pool of dormant bank accounts, uncashed checks, forgotten utility deposits and unclaimed insurance payouts the state holds in trust for its residents, including thousands of people in Seneca and Sandusky counties.

Gov. Mike DeWine had proposed paying for stadium projects by doubling the tax on sports gambling operators. The Ohio House preferred state-backed bonds. Senate Republicans produced a third option: redefine unclaimed property that has sat with the state for a decade as abandoned, sweep it into a new sports and culture facilities fund, and award the Browns $600 million of it as a performance grant. That version won. DeWine signed it into law minutes before the June 30, 2025 budget deadline.

Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb, who fought the Brook Park move and lost, called the provision “a $600 million public subsidy for a domed stadium in Brook Park.”

The money has not moved. Former Ohio Attorney General Marc Dann and former state Rep. Jeff Crossman sued on behalf of Ohioans whose property is in the fund, and in March a Franklin County magistrate granted a preliminary injunction halting the transfer, finding the challengers likely to prevail on claims that the law is an unconstitutional taking. The Sixth Circuit, on a separate federal track, declined to order similar relief. Dann said the legislature “tried to permanently confiscate this money for a private sports project.”

Ohioans noticed. Claims paid out of the fund nearly tripled in fiscal year 2026, to $182.57 million, as residents rushed to pull their money out before the state could take title to it. Construction in Brook Park is underway anyway.

The running mate

McColley is not incidental to this story. In January 2025, before any bill existed, the Napoleon Republican told the Statehouse News Bureau: “I’m not in favor of something that would just simply be a handout.”

Five months later, his chamber wrote the unclaimed-funds mechanism, and McColley became its most prominent defender, telling constituents in his newsletter that it “saves the state $400 million in debt service.” He argued the state would be repaid through taxes captured at the stadium site, dismissed the constitutional objections, and predicted the plaintiffs would struggle to show any damages.

During 2024, the year before that plan surfaced, McColley’s campaign accepted $30,999 from Jimmy and Dee Haslam, according to a review of state campaign finance reports by the Ohio Capital Journal. His Senate seat was not on the ballot that year. The same review found Ohio House Speaker Matt Huffman took $60,999 from the couple between January 2024 and March 2025, and that Senate Finance Chair Jerry Cirino took $15,000 in August 2024. Huffman’s office said campaign contributions do not influence policy decisions.

NBC4 in Columbus, reviewing the same records, reported DeWine has received $116,908.40 from the Haslams since 2017 and that the family gave more than $500,000 to Ohio political action committees in the year before the stadium request. News5 Cleveland put the family’s total Ohio political giving since 2020 at at least $1,145,000.

The check that is already in

Jimmy and Dee Haslam do not appear in Ramaswamy’s 2026 state campaign finance filings. Nor did TiffinOhio.net find either of them, another member of the Haslam family or a Haslam-controlled entity among the FEC-reported receipts of V-PAC: Victors, Not Victims, the super PAC backing Ramaswamy.

The man who negotiated the $600 million on their behalf does appear, however.

David Jenkins, president of Haslam Sports Group, gave the Ramaswamy-McColley campaign $10,000 on May 20 and another $16,615.50 on July 31, state records show. He listed his employer as Haslam Sports Group both times. That second figure is 17 cents below Ohio’s maximum contribution to a statewide ticket for a single election. His wife, Ada Jenkins, gave $16,615.50 on the same day from the same Strongsville address, bringing the household total to $43,231. The couple are listed as hosts on the Sept. 1 invitation.

Jenkins is not a peripheral figure in the stadium deal. Haslam Sports Group’s own description of his role puts government relations in his portfolio and credits him with leading the stadium planning process that produced what the company calls a public-private partnership. He was promoted to president in August 2025, five weeks after DeWine signed the grant into law.

Catherine Turcer, executive director of Common Cause Ohio, put it this way to the Capital Journal: “Ohioans aren’t naive. It’s not hard to connect the dots.”

The Haslams have also spent heavily against the kind of reform that would loosen the legislature’s grip on Ohio’s maps. In 2024 they gave $50,000 each — $100,000 combined — to Ohio Works, the committee formed to defeat the citizen redistricting amendment, putting them among its largest individual donors. The amendment failed. They have previously hosted fundraisers for J.D. Vance and for U.S. Sen. Bernie Moreno.

What the Haslam name carries

The family fortune that will underwrite the Sept. 1 event was built on Pilot, the truck-stop chain Jim Haslam founded in 1958 and Jimmy Haslam ran as CEO. In 2014, that company entered into a criminal enforcement agreement with federal prosecutors in Tennessee, accepting legal responsibility for a scheme in which employees deceptively withheld promised diesel discounts from hundreds of trucking customers. Prosecutors put the loss at more than $56 million. Pilot paid a $92 million penalty, agreed to full restitution, and separately settled customer claims for roughly $85 million. The agreement explicitly protected no individual from prosecution.

Nineteen former employees were ultimately implicated: 14 pleaded guilty, three were convicted at trial, and two received immunity, according to Trucking Info. Former company president Mark Hazelwood was sentenced to more than 12 years in federal prison. Jimmy Haslam has consistently denied knowing about the scheme, and he was never charged.

Nine years later, the Haslams and Warren Buffett went to war over the sale of Pilot. The family sued Berkshire Hathaway, alleging it had adopted an accounting method that would slash the price Berkshire owed for their remaining 20 percent stake. Berkshire countersued, alleging Jimmy Haslam had promised millions in payments to Pilot executives to inflate the company’s short-term earnings. At a Delaware hearing in December 2023, attorneys disclosed that federal prosecutors in Manhattan were examining Berkshire’s allegations. The two sides settled on the eve of trial in January 2024 on undisclosed terms, with neither admitting wrongdoing, and the Haslams sold the rest of Pilot to Berkshire days later. No charges have been reported against Haslam.

In football, the Haslams’ defining decision was the 2022 pursuit of quarterback Deshaun Watson, who was then facing more than 20 civil lawsuits from women accusing him of sexual assault or harassment during massage appointments. Two Texas grand juries had declined to indict him, and he denied wrongdoing. Cleveland traded three first-round picks for him and gave him a five-year, $230 million fully guaranteed contract — then the largest guarantee in NFL history. Women suing Watson publicly condemned the deal as a reward for his conduct. The NFL suspended him 11 games for violating its personal conduct policy. Three years later, Jimmy Haslam told reporters the franchise took “a big swing and miss with Deshaun.”

And in Cleveland, the same legislature that awarded the $600 million also amended the state’s Modell Law — written after Art Modell moved the original Browns to Baltimore — so that it applies only to teams leaving Ohio, clearing the path to Brook Park. The city and the Haslams then settled their dueling lawsuits for roughly $100 million paid to Cleveland over 15 years, part of it earmarked to demolish the stadium the team is leaving behind.

Billionaires backing a billionaire

Ramaswamy does not need the Haslams’ money to be competitive. He has already put $25 million of his own fortune into the race and, by campaign finance reports filed Aug. 6, had raised roughly $14.4 million more from donors this year, according to NBC4. Democrat Amy Acton reported $16.5 million over the same period.

The outside money is more lopsided. V-PAC: Victors, Not Victims, the super PAC whose stated purpose is electing Ramaswamy, has raised roughly $42 million, with about $37 million of it coming from five billionaires who do not live in Ohio — including a $5 million check from Elon Musk in May. The committee has also taken corporate money, including $250,000 from Scotts Miracle-Gro, which pleaded guilty to federal pesticide crimes in 2012.

Ramaswamy has campaigned on cutting government waste and shrinking what the state spends. He has also disclosed a stake in the venture firm 8VC, an investor in defense contractor Anduril, which is collecting an Ohio incentive package worth more than $830 million for its Arsenal-1 plant outside Columbus.

The timing of the Bratenahl event is its own complication. On Wednesday, Acton stood in a Columbus coffee shop and rolled out an anti-corruption platform, pledging three day-one executive orders creating an anti-corruption task force, restricting industry insiders from serving on the boards that regulate them, and building a public database of state contracts. She said it is time to put working families ahead of “billionaires, corporations and special interests.” Ramaswamy’s campaign dismissed the plan as hypocrisy, pointing to dark-money support behind Acton.

Thirteen days later, a family whose $600 million award is still frozen in a Franklin County courtroom will gather Ohio’s donor class in their living room to raise money for the ticket that would inherit the fight.

Originally published on TiffinOhio.net.

Seneca County Sheriff’s Office deputies were dispatched around 8:28 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 19, to the area of 1525 W. County Road 42 after receiving a report of a train striking a pedestrian.

Deputies arriving at the scene reported evidence of the collision on the locomotive. The man was pronounced dead at the scene.

Read the full story at https://tiffinohio.net/posts/man-killed-train-strike-seneca-county/.

Originally published on TiffinOhio.net.

The case centered on 25-year-old Owen Schumm of Tiffin, whom the Division of Wildlife identified as the main suspect. It began with a call to the state’s Turn-in-a-Poacher hotline reporting a possible wildlife violation to State Wildlife Officer Brock Williamson, who is assigned to Seneca County. Investigators later identified additional suspects accused of breaking various wildlife laws.

Schumm was convicted of eight state charges and the case’s only federal charge. According to the Division of Wildlife, the state charges were aiding a wildlife offender in hunting from a motor vehicle, two counts of killing migratory geese with a rifle, killing a killdeer, killing a woodpecker, littering, and two counts of possessing untagged deer parts. The federal charge was exceeding the daily possession limit for doves.

Read the full story at https://tiffinohio.net/posts/tiffin-man-owen-schumm-convicted-seneca-county-poaching/.

Originally published on TiffinOhio.net.

The ruling was announced in a news release from the Erie County Board of Elections issued over the name of Director Alex Jones. It says LaRose “ruled in favor of certifying Caleb Stidham’s name to the November 3 ballot.”

In a letter to the board explaining his reasoning, LaRose wrote that Stidham’s application appeared to follow the law and that the Erie County prosecutor’s office had agreed. He rejected the argument that the Republican meeting that nominated Stidham violated Ohio’s Open Meetings Act, writing that the Democratic members had not cited any relevant law.

“Respectfully, this certification vote is not the proper forum for an extra-judicial expansion of Ohio’s open meetings laws beyond their established statutory application,” LaRose wrote.

LaRose had until Friday, Aug. 28, to decide. He ruled eight days early, and roughly 24 hours after the two sides of the deadlocked board sent him their written arguments.

Both the Democratic and Republican members submitted their memos on Wednesday, Aug. 19. The Erie County release says the board also forwarded draft minutes of the meeting and the recorded audio.

That same evening, LaRose appeared at a Republican fundraiser in Stidham’s home county. TiffinOhio.net reported Wednesday that LaRose was advertised as the featured guest at the Erie County Republican Women’s Club event at the Sandusky Yacht Club, held, according to the invitation, “in support of our Erie County candidates.” Admission was $50, with sponsorships running from $250 to $1,000. LaRose is himself on the Nov. 3 ballot as the Republican nominee for state auditor. He ruled the next day.

How the tie got to LaRose

The Erie County board split 2-2 on Friday, Aug. 14, on whether to certify Stidham as the Republican nominee in Ohio House District 89. Republicans John Adams and Gary Smith voted to certify. Democrats Edward Leonard and MaryAnn Groot voted against.

Under Ohio law, a tie at a county board of elections goes to the secretary of state, who decides the question summarily. That decision is final.

The two Republicans who voted to certify Stidham are both listed as members of the Erie County Republican Party’s executive committee on the party’s own website, under the heading “Board of Elections Member.” The same page lists Stidham as the committee’s chairman.

Leonard, who read a position statement into the record, wrote that the party meeting that produced the nomination was defective. “After reviewing the circumstances of the Republican District Committee meeting at which Caleb Stidham was selected, I have concluded that the meeting was not conducted in accordance with Ohio law,” he wrote. He and Groot argued the meeting should have been open to the public and that Stidham should not have deliberated and voted on his own nomination.

Stidham has rejected the conflict-of-interest claim. “There seems to be some confusion; there is no conflict of interest because I did not lead or chair the meeting that selected me as the candidate,” he told NBC4. “The district selection committee meeting was chaired by Huron County Chairman Sven Stahl.”

The seat, and how it opened

House District 89 covers Erie and Ottawa counties and part of Huron County. The seat came open Aug. 4, when Rep. D.J. Swearingen, R-Huron, delivered a letter to the Erie County board withdrawing from the November ballot after four terms, saying he was under consideration for another role.

That left the nomination to a six-member district committee made up of the Republican chairs and secretaries of the three counties. Stidham was one of three applicants. He was also one of the six people entitled to vote. The committee met the afternoon of Aug. 10 and picked him, 4-2.

Swearingen carried the district with 58% of the vote in 2024.

What happens next

Former state Rep. Steve Kraus, who announced a write-in campaign against Stidham this week, faces a 4 p.m. Monday, Aug. 24, deadline to file a declaration of intent to be a write-in candidate. Protests against write-in candidacies are due 67 days before the election. Official ballots for the Nov. 3 general must be certified by Aug. 25.

Kraus said in a statement that the outcome was no surprise.

“It’s not unexpected that the Columbus Mafia would be able to keep their pick in place,” he said. “I don’t begrudge Secretary of State Frank LaRose for maintaining a practice that has plagued both parties for the last 30 years. If you want true representation, write in Steve Kraus on your ballot in November.”

The Democratic nominee is Easton Retzke, a Sandusky resident and Ohio State political science graduate who won the party’s nomination in the May 5 primary and has been campaigning as a nominee all summer.

Originally published on TiffinOhio.net.

Acton, a physician and former director of the Ohio Department of Health, presented the plan to reporters at a Columbus-area coffee shop and released it the same day, on her campaign website. She faces Republican Vivek Ramaswamy in the Nov. 3 general election.

“When I am governor, hard-working Ohioans will stop footing the bill for the cost of corruption in our state,” Acton said in the release. “It is time to put the needs of working families over the wants of billionaires, corporations and special interests.”

What the three orders would do

The first would create an anti-corruption task force to take public input, conduct audits and interview stakeholders, with recommendations due within her first 100 days.

The second targets what the campaign calls a broken appointment process. It would bar lobbyists, lawyers and consultants who have represented, been employed by or been paid by any organization regulated by an Ohio regulatory entity in the previous three years from serving on that same regulatory entity. Anyone seeking such a post would have to disclose the related relationships and payments. Appointees would sign an ethics pledge committing to a three-year cooling-off period barring them from working for an organization they regulated, and would face conflict-of-interest rules requiring public recusal.

“We believe that you can’t be sitting regulating something, and then flip over to the industry side, and then flip back over into the regulating side,” Acton told the Dayton Daily News at the event.

The third would require state contractors and advocacy organizations that spend on political campaigns to disclose their donors publicly, require any company bidding on a contract above $50,000 to disclose beneficial ownership, shareholders holding 10% or more equity and political contributions including gifts to PACs, and create a public database listing state contracts, winning bidders, bid windows and award amounts.

The reach of all three is bounded. The release states the directives apply to activity within the constitutional and statutory authority of the governor’s office, and says Acton would “encourage” other officeholders with appointment authority to adopt the same standards. Broader change would require the legislature. Anti-corruption bills introduced by Ohio Democrats since the scandal broke have not advanced in the Republican-controlled General Assembly, the Associated Press reported last year; GOP legislative leaders have said amending federal campaign finance law is outside their authority.

Why the appointment power matters

The governor appoints all five members of the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio, the body that sets the electric rates paid in Tiffin, Fostoria, Fremont and every other Ohio community, and that sets terms for the data centers now moving into the state. Both candidates have released competing data center plans ahead of that appointment power.

The last time that power drew national attention, it produced Sam Randazzo. Gov. Mike DeWine appointed Randazzo — a Columbus energy lawyer who had represented Industrial Energy Users-Ohio since 1992 and previously worked as a PUCO staff attorney and an assistant attorney general — as PUCO chairman in February 2019. He resigned in November 2020, days after federal agents searched his home. FirstEnergy later admitted paying Randazzo a $4.3 million bribe in exchange for regulatory favors. He was charged federally and by the state, pleaded not guilty and died before he could stand trial.

House Bill 6, the 2019 nuclear bailout law at the center of the scheme, was passed after FirstEnergy funneled roughly $60 million through dark money groups to install Larry Householder as House speaker and defeat a repeal effort. Householder, a Republican, is serving 20 years in federal prison. Former Ohio Republican Party chair Matt Borges was also convicted. FirstEnergy agreed to pay $230 million to avoid prosecution and a separate $100 million civil penalty to the Securities and Exchange Commission. Two former executives have been reindicted on state charges after their first trial ended in a hung jury.

Acton said the scandal has cost Ohio ratepayers more than $2 billion. The AP has described the scheme’s prospective price tag to consumers as exceeding $2 billion, calling it the largest infrastructure scandal in U.S. history. Ohio electric customers paid more than $500 million in coal plant subsidies added to the bill before that provision’s repeal took effect in August 2025, at a rate of $445,679 a day. In November 2025, state regulators ordered FirstEnergy to pay roughly $250 million for violations tied to the scandal, most of it refunded or credited to customers.

Her opponent

Ramaswamy has directed most of his own comments about corruption in state government toward Medicaid fraud, the Statehouse News Bureau reported. In May he pledged to target waste and abuse in the program, focusing on home health care providers.

Federal filings show five billionaires supplied roughly $37 million — more than 88% of the total — to V-PAC: Victors, Not Victims, the super PAC backing Ramaswamy.

Acton has built the rest of her campaign around household costs and tax credits. On Wednesday she tied the two together.

“We need a good statehouse,” Acton said. “We need good elected officials who want to work on the problems of our everyday lives. 95% of what I hear about no one disagrees on—no one disagrees on it. They just want us to get to work solving it. And so it is time for this corruption and this power and this stuff to end. And good people on both sides of the aisle who want to do this work. I welcome that work.”

Originally published on TiffinOhio.net.

Those changes align with provisions in the Save America Act and the Make Elections Great Again Act — White House priorities that have so far stalled out in Congress.

If states and local governments don’t comply with the administration’s demands, the Department of Homeland Security is threatening to withhold 20% of a Federal Emergency Management Agency grant helping agencies prevent or respond to terrorism.

In a press release announcing the changes, DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin drew a straight line from election security to national security.

“Under President Trump’s leadership,” he said, “we are taking decisive action to protect election systems from threats like foreign interference, insider threats, and cyberattacks.”

Mullin added the new requirement will “preserve election integrity and ensure that Americans can trust the results.”

Those changes aren’t simple tweaks. Requiring documentary proof of citizenship could disenfranchise millions of eligible voters who simply don’t have their documents on hand. What’s more, the database federal officials want local officials to use is unreliable. The complaint cites an unrelated agreement with the State of California in which the Department of Homeland Security itself acknowledges an estimated 5-10% error rate in its database.

The complaint also notes in Nashville, Tennessee, one of the parties to the case, the “entire fleet” of ballot scanners would need to be reconfigured for hand-marked ballots, and they’d likely need more of them because it takes longer to scan the ballots. In Texas’ El Paso County, new printers alone could cost $3 million, and in Harris County, which includes Houston, officials warned it would not be possible to comply with a state law requiring ballot counting conclude within 24 hours.

The cities and counties challenging the new DHS policy insist Congress authorized the agency to protect critical infrastructure, not determine “who may vote, how ballots must be counted, or how states maintain their voter rolls.”

“The power to administer elections belongs to the states, subject only to conditions imposed by Congress — not the President, not the Secretary of Homeland Security, and not FEMA.”

The grant

Every year since 2002, Congress has set aside one or two billion dollars for the Homeland Security Grant Program. Some of that funding goes to states and some goes to specific urban areas. In the 2026 fiscal year, Ohio is set to receive $5.2 million, and the city of Columbus has a roughly $3.6 million allocation.

Absent election changes, Columbus would miss out on more than $700,000 under the new DHS policy.

The complaint details how past grants in Columbus have funded a bomb robot, hazmat equipment for SWAT teams, and chemical detection systems. The city is planning to use part of its upcoming allocation to cover anti-drone equipment and to make preparations for Columbus’ role as a soccer host city in the 2028 Olympics.

“That money has been authorized by Congress,” Klein said in an interview. “It is for a very specific purpose, and the Trump administration can’t come in and then say, ‘Well, you can’t have this money, or at least all of this money.’”

Other local leaders made similar arguments.

Harris County, Texas is the third most populous in the country; if it was a state, the complaint noted, Harris would be the 25th largest by population.

In a press release, Harris County Attorney Abbie Kamin said, “This is the kind of federal overreach we’ve come to expect from the Trump administration.”

The county is expecting to use grant funding to bolster its radio network for first responders and maintain a public emergency alert system.

In Tennessee, Nashville and Davidson County Director of Law Tyler Yarbro criticized the Trump administration for attempting to withhold funds “unless we implement wholly unnecessary and costly changes to our election procedures.”

Nashville is counting on grant funding to purchase an armored vehicle and ballistic vests, as well as bomb sniffing dogs, and equipment for helicopter rescues.

Federal response

Often federal agencies decline to speak about ongoing court cases, but in this instance, FEMA was willing to oblige.

In an email, a FEMA spokesperson wrote, “Election security is national security, and protecting our critical infrastructure remains a top priority for the Trump Administration. Concerns over voting processes, data security, and registration practices have made it clear that action is required.”

“This partisan pushback is nothing new,” the statement said. “We fully expected opposition to common-sense measures designed to protect election security and safeguard the integrity of American democracy.”

Klein isn’t surprised either. This isn’t the first time, he said, that the Trump administration has attempted to link two unrelated programs to gain political leverage. He pointed to a previous lawsuit in which federal officials tried to condition Department of Transportation funding on local DEI policies and sanctuary city status.

“What does paving streets in Linden or the Hilltop have to do with that analysis?” Klein said. “Nothing. And this is really no different.”

Follow Ohio Capital Journal Reporter Nick Evans on X or on Bluesky.

This story is republished from the Ohio Capital Journal under a Creative Commons license. View the original article.

Originally published on TiffinOhio.net.