The answers are not flattering.

The Alzheimer’s drug that made him rich — and wiped out everyone else

In December 2014, a company under Ramaswamy’s Roivant Sciences umbrella bought an experimental Alzheimer’s drug, intepirdine, from GlaxoSmithKline for just $5 million. GSK was done with it; the drug had already failed in earlier trials. Ramaswamy saw an opportunity that had nothing to do with curing anyone.

Six months later, before running a single new late-stage trial to completion, he took the drug’s parent company, Axovant, public. The 2015 IPO valued the company in the billions — a record for a biotech debut at the time — even though Axovant reported having only a handful of employees, two of them Ramaswamy’s own mother and brother. That year, Ramaswamy reported roughly $38 million in income, most of it capital gains.

Then reality arrived. In September 2017, intepirdine failed its late-stage trial, and Axovant’s stock dropped more than 70% in a single day. It never recovered. The company was eventually wound down. Ordinary investors who had bought the hype were left holding next to nothing.

Ramaswamy was not among them. He had structured his personal stake through the parent firm, Roivant, insulating himself from the wreckage at the subsidiary. Heads, he wins; tails, the retail investors lose.

A pattern, by his critics’ account

This is where I will be careful, because the harshest words here belong to other people, not to me. Yale management professor Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, reviewing Ramaswamy’s biotech career, told Fortune the fortune was built by “basically a version of pump and dump.” A 2023 Newsweek opinion column went further, calling him a fraud outright. No regulator ever charged Ramaswamy with a crime, and he has never been convicted of one. Those characterizations are opinion and accusation, not court findings, and readers deserve to know the difference.

What is not in dispute is how Ramaswamy himself frames it. He has called Axovant his “single greatest failure” and said he has no regrets about how it was run. When pressed on whether he profited from a venture that cost others their savings, his campaign at first denied he made money on the failure, then acknowledged he had sold shares — saying he was “forced to sell a tiny portion” in 2015 to bring in an outside investor.

So here is the argued judgment, and I will own it as mine: a business model that reliably enriches the founder whether or not the product works, while leaving small investors to absorb the downside, is a scam in every sense that matters to the people on the losing end — even when it is perfectly legal. Legality is the floor, not the standard Ohio should accept from its next governor.

He already told Ohio what he thinks of it

Ramaswamy is running on a promise to make Ohio more competitive and more prosperous. Ohioans should weigh that pitch against what he did with his own company.

Ramaswamy co-founded Strive Asset Management in Columbus in 2022, marketing it as an “anti-woke,” anti-ESG investment firm. It grew fast. Then, in late 2024 — months before he announced his run for governor — Strive moved its headquarters from Columbus to Dallas, taking roughly $1.7 billion in assets under management and most of its Columbus staff to Texas.

When a candidate’s own firm votes with its feet and leaves the state he now wants to lead, that is not a detail. That is a tell.

Amy Acton served a Republican governor — and he says so himself

Now to the attack at the center of Ramaswamy’s campaign. He and the Ohio Republican Party have spent months branding Amy Acton “Dr. Lockdown” and accusing her of spreading dangerous “COVID ideology.” Here is the fact that branding is built to make you forget: Acton ran the Ohio Department of Health under a Republican governor, Mike DeWine, and signed the orders DeWine asked her to sign.

DeWine has endorsed Ramaswamy. He has also defended Acton’s work — and he personally knocked down the campaign’s central attack on her. One Ramaswamy ad blamed Acton for suspending Ohio’s in-person primary voting in March 2020. DeWine told the Associated Press that was his own call, not Acton’s, after a judge declined to delay the election. PolitiFact rated the ad “Mostly False.” When the Republican who appointed your opponent and endorsed you says your headline attack is wrong, that is not a close call.

Ramaswamy helped run the response he now calls disqualifying

The deeper problem is that Ramaswamy was not a bystander to Ohio’s pandemic response. He was inside it.

In a 2021 op-ed, Ramaswamy wrote that, as CEO of Roivant, he “worked with the lieutenant governor as an adviser on COVID-19” during 2020. The lieutenant governor then was Republican Jon Husted — now a U.S. senator — who stood alongside DeWine and Acton at Ohio’s daily pandemic briefings.

His positions at the time were not the civil-libertarian stance he sells today. Ramaswamy supported vaccines and mask-wearing and was vaccinated himself. According to a 2020 recording and Associated Press reporting, he also backed mandatory testing and a national COVID-19 registry that would have sorted Americans by immunity status to decide who could return to normal life. Ramaswamy says he never supported government mandates and that his proposals were about restarting the economy. Fine — but that is an argument about which restrictions to impose, not whether to act at all. It is the same debate Acton was in, and he was in it with her.

It was also lucrative. A Roivant subsidiary, Genevant Sciences, announced a $2.25 billion settlement with Moderna over patents used in COVID-19 vaccines. The pandemic Ramaswamy now invokes to disqualify Acton was, for his own companies, extraordinarily profitable. TiffinOhio.net detailed that record in earlier reporting.

Then he tried to erase his part in it. Before his 2024 presidential run, Ramaswamy paid a Wikipedia editor to remove a reference to his service on Ohio’s “COVID-19 Response Team,” along with a mention of his Paul and Daisy Soros Fellowship. He called it a correction and said the panel never met. The instinct is consistent across his whole career: take the upside, then scrub the receipt.

Ohio doesn’t have to be the next mark

Ramaswamy won the May 5 Republican primary and will face Acton, a physician and former state health director, on November 3. Acton spent the worst months of the pandemic at a podium next to a Republican governor, asking Ohioans to look out for one another — “don the mask, don your cape.” Ramaswamy spent that era, and the years around it, advising the same response and turning the pandemic into a payday, and now asks voters to believe he was on the other side of it the whole time.

None of this is hidden. It is in the SEC filings, the tax-record reporting, the relocation announcements, his own op-ed, and the governor’s own words. The record is the argument. Ohio can read it for itself — and it cannot afford to be sold one more time.

Originally published on TiffinOhio.net.

Judge Leonie Brinkema in the Eastern District of Virginia issued a brief order halting the Department of Justice, the Treasury Department and other high-ranking administration officials from taking any additional actions to create the fund or make payments from it.

The order came in a lawsuit filed by a former federal prosecutor and a California professor. The plaintiffs are represented by the legal advocacy groups Democracy Forward and Common Cause. The lawsuit is part of a flurry of legal challenges against the fund.

The Justice Department on May 18 announced a nearly $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization fund” that will make payments to individuals who believe they have been wronged by past administrations. The fund came as part of a settlement agreement in a lawsuit filed by President Donald Trump over the leaking of his tax return information by a former IRS contractor.

Trump’s settlement agreement provides for the creation of the fund overseen by a board of five members chosen by acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, who previously served as Trump’s personal attorney. Trump can fire the members for any reason.

Brinkema, a President Bill Clinton appointee, took no position on the legality of the fund in her order. She wrote that her order is to ensure no money is “irreversibly disbursed” while the plaintiffs’ motion for a temporary restraining order is pending.

She also set a hearing for June 12 — likely ensuring the fund will remain blocked for at least the next two weeks.

The plaintiffs in the lawsuit include Andrew Floyd, a former federal Jan. 6 case prosecutor who was fired by the DOJ in June 2025, and Joseph Caravello, a California university professor who was charged with felony assault on a federal officer after protesting an immigration raid last summer. A jury acquitted Caravello in April.

The nine-count lawsuit alleges in part the fund violates the plaintiffs’ First and Fifth Amendment rights, and violates the authority of Congress.

“Since its inception, this fund has been on a collision course with the United States Constitution,” their complaint says.

Trump has written on social media that the fund will help those “who were so badly abused by an evil, corrupt, and weaponized Biden Administration” receive justice.

Ashley Murray contributed to this report.

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

Originally published on TiffinOhio.net.

Among the top concerns: Could pardoned Jan. 6, 2021, riot defendants who assaulted police officers claim a slice of the pie and essentially be rewarded for committing political violence? 

Advocates are also legally challenging the fund’s structure that will conceal details from the public, including claimants’ names and amounts paid out.

Nikhel Sus, chief counsel for Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, otherwise known as CREW, which has filed suit against the fund, told States Newsroom the administration’s order is a “flagrant power grab of congressional authority.”

The fund, established by the Department of Justice to settle Trump’s multibillion dollar lawsuit against the IRS, has also complicated Senate Republicans’ plans to pass a simple majority immigration enforcement funding package. Some GOP senators are withholding votes unless guardrails for the fund are included in the legislation.

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche met with Republican senators on Capitol Hill on May 21 to defend the fund, but many GOP lawmakers left unconvinced and with multiple questions remaining.

Retiring Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., told reporters the fund is “stupid on stilts” and resembles “tyranny.”

Others were sweating out questions at town halls during the congressional recess. 

“I do not think one penny of any fund should ever go to any January 6 insurrectionist that was in the Capitol on January 6, 2021 … I want to be very clear … I clearly think Congress needs to have an oversight role in this before I can sign off or support this,” U.S. Rep. Mike Flood, R-Neb., said at a town hall in Norfolk, Nebraska, on May 26.

The fund hit a road bump on May 29 when it was temporarily blocked in the courts. Judge Leonie Brinkema in the Eastern District of Virginia, in a suit in which plaintiffs are represented by the advocacy groups Democracy Forward and Common Cause, issued a brief order halting the Department of Justice, the Treasury Department and other high-ranking administration officials from taking any additional actions to create the fund or make payments from it.

Brinkema, who made no decisions on the merits of the case, set a June 12 hearing.

What is the “anti-weaponization” fund?

In exchange for Trump and his family dropping a $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS for the 2019 leak of tax returns, the DOJ ordered the establishment of a settlement fund in the amount of $1.776 billion — a nod to the country’s founding. 

As part of the arrangement, Trump also agreed to drop an administrative claim for damages related to what Blanche described as an “unlawful” FBI raid of the president’s Mar-a-Lago residence, part of the Biden administration’s case against Trump for allegedly hoarding classified documents after leaving office. 

Trump also agreed to drop a claim for damages related to the DOJ’s 2019 inquiry into Russian meddling in Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign. 

Blanche introduced the fund on May 18 as a path to restitution for “victims of lawfare.”

“The machinery of government should never be weaponized against any American, and it is this Department’s intention to make right the wrongs that were previously done while ensuring this never happens again,” Blanche said in a press release. 

The fund will be led by five commissioners chosen by the attorney general, one of them in consultation with Congress. The president has the power to remove any member, according to the DOJ.

The department maintains the fund is nonpartisan. In addition to money, the DOJ will also issue formal apologies to eligible claimants, according to officials. 

Who is trying to limit or shut down the fund?

House Democrats tried to intervene in the president’s IRS case settlement, but U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams dismissed the case on Trump’s terms. Williams was appointed to the bench in the Southern District of Florida in 2010 by President Barack Obama.

On May 27, nearly three dozen former federal judges urged Williams to reopen the case, arguing the Trump administration “deceived” the court by not sharing with the judge details of the “anti-weaponization” fund. 

Further, the judges argued, the DOJ also claims the settlement forever absolves Trump and his family from tax audits and any other claims by a federal agency.  

“The parties to this case are using this lawsuit as the legal justification for these actions,” the judges argued.

Legislative proposals have also popped up in the House and Senate.

A bipartisan bill from Reps. Tom Suozzi, D-N.Y., and Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Pa., both up for re-election in swing districts, proposes to ban the use of federal money to pay claims submitted to the “anti-weaponization” fund.

“The Bipartisan Transparency for American Taxpayers Act ensures federal funds cannot be used for this fund without the transparency, oversight, and legal safeguards the American people deserve. Taxpayer dollars will not become a discretionary payout fund. Transparency is not optional. Accountability is not negotiable,” Fitzpatrick said in a press release.

Suozzi characterized the arrangement as a “slush fund to pay off January 6th criminals and other maladjusted minions!”

When pressed during a May 19 Senate hearing on whether Jan. 6 defendants who were convicted of assaulting police officers would be eligible for the fund, Blanche said “anybody in this country can apply” and final decisions will be made by the fund’s commissioners.

Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., announced plans to introduce painful amendments when and if the Senate GOP brings its immigration enforcement funding bill to the floor.

Van Hollen said he will call for votes on an amendment to block payment to Jan. 6 defendants who have been convicted of violent crimes and sexual abuse of children.

The Maryland senator also said he will introduce an amendment that would prohibit members of Congress from receiving payouts.

“And as it currently stands, Members of Congress have the chance to benefit from this corrupt scheme. If Republicans won’t put an end to this fund entirely, they should at least join with us to bar Members of Congress from cashing in on it,” Van Hollen said May 21 in a written statement.

Who is suing?

Multiple lawsuits have been filed against the fund.

U.S. Capitol Police Officer Harry Dunn and Washington Metropolitan Police Officer Daniel Hodges, who defended the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, argued in federal court that the pardoned rioters could use payout money to organize.

“In the most brazen act of presidential corruption this century, President Donald J. Trump has created a $1.776 billion taxpayer-funded slush fund to finance the insurrectionists and paramilitary groups that commit violence in his name,” they argued in a complaint filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. 

Legal advocacy groups, including CREW, Democracy Forward and Common Cause have also challenged the fund in court.

Through the order, the administration has granted itself “final unreviewable authority to disperse nearly $1.8 billion in money that Congress did not appropriate for that purpose to people that they subjectively determine are victims of so-called lawfare or weaponization,” Sus, of CREW, said in an interview.

The fund’s structure also flouts transparency laws, Sus said, not least of which includes moving $1.776 billion from the government’s legal judgment fund in a single transaction to a separate, unaccountable pot of money.

As the law stands now, the Department of Treasury publicly updates a website at least once per month with judgment award amounts paid to claimants by the U.S. government.

By withdrawing one lump sum, “they are wholly circumventing disclosure law that Congress passed specifically for that purpose to require disclosure for each settlement,” said Sus, whose organization filed the complaint in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

CREW also argues DOJ’s order is arbitrary and capricious.

“I think arbitrarily picking 1776 as the number for their (fund) valuation is the definition of an arbitrary precious action — like they just did it because they thought it was cool,” he said.

“And that’s not how the government’s supposed to operate. They’re supposed to actually consider the facts, they’re supposed to have a reasoned explanation for why they’re doing things.”

In the Virginia case, another group of plaintiffs is represented by Democracy Forward and Common Cause.

Among the plaintiffs are Andrew Floyd, a former federal Jan. 6 case prosecutor who was fired by the DOJ in June 2025, and Joseph Caravello, a California university professor who was charged with felony assault on a federal officer after protesting an immigration raid last summer. A jury acquitted Caravello in April.

The nine-count lawsuit alleges in part the fund violates the plaintiffs’ First and Fifth Amendment rights, and violates the authority of Congress.

The fund “does not offer benefits to victims of ideological targeting by Democrats and Republicans alike; instead, it offers benefits to those who have espoused views that were, or were perceived to be, oppositional to Democratic administrations, but not to those who have espoused views that were, or were perceived to be, oppositional to Republican administrations,” according to the complaint filed in the Eastern District of Virginia.

Juan Salinas II of the Nebraska Examiner contributed to this report.

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

Originally published on TiffinOhio.net.

Taken together, the speakers sought to downplay and displace concerns about the expansion of data centers around Ohio.

Ohio is now home to more than 200 data centers, with another 77 planned by the year 2030.

“We are all driving data center demand,” Dan Diorio from the Data Center Coalition told lawmakers.

Sure, artificial intelligence is a significant and growing driver, he said, but basic cloud computing infrastructure makes up the biggest share of data center computation. The number of people who are online now has almost doubled since 2018.

“The average household has 21 connected devices,” he said, between phones, laptops, watches, TVs, and thermostats. “My oven is connected to Wi-Fi. I can preheat it from here.”

And anyway, Diorio added, data centers are good for local economies, creating jobs in construction and upkeep, while placing limited demands on local services like schools.

Polling from Gallup shows 7 in 10 Americans oppose data center construction in their neighborhood.

Lawmakers expressed more concern with how to move forward than how to divvy up blame.

“What I also heard him say,” Ohio state Sen. Brian Chavez, R-Marrietta said after the hearing, “is they’re absolutely willing to pay for everything that they use.”

“They said it’s up to us to figure out how we allocate that, and it’s a very difficult calculus,” the committee’s Senate co-chair went on, “but I heard them say they are going to pay for it,”

The committee’s Ohio House co-chair, state Rep. Adam Holmes, R-Nashport, chimed in that it’s a question of determining “cost causation.”

“We just want to be fair,” Holmes said. “But it’s a demand of society as we grow, so just being fair on who pays for it.”

None of the speakers who addressed lawmakers Wednesday took a particularly oppositional stance to data centers. Instead, they said Ohio should welcome the industry, even if lawmakers should create guardrails to protect consumers.

Power impacts

Data centers place massive demands on the power grid and that demand will only grow over the next several years. The data center industry insists that it is ready and willing to pay for the new infrastructure necessary for its roll out.

Ohio state Sen. Shane Wilkin, R-Hillsboro, pressed Diorio on that point.

“So, does that mean data centers are going to cover that cost of the increase in the need for utilities for them specifically?” he asked.

“Yes, data centers are fully committed to paying our whole cost,” Diorio replied. “So, all the costs attributed to us, data centers are committed to paying.”

Ohio Consumers’ Counsel Maureen Willis said the central question facing lawmakers is how to encourage data center growth while protecting ratepayers from subsidizing that expansion.

“Ohio can and should do both,” she said. “We can welcome investment, we can support innovation, we can compete for economic growth, but we must also protect Ohio families that are already struggling with rising utility bills, and that balance matters.”

The problem, however, is that assigning costs to a specific customer class can be difficult. The cost of a new transmission line is relatively straightforward, but incremental increases in cost of power? That’s harder to parse.

Asim Haque from the regional grid operator PJM explained that in some states, utility regulators have begun to develop separate customer classes for data centers.

Public Utility Commission of Ohio Chair Jenifer French explained that’s exactly what Ohio regulators are weighing right now.

“They are not currently in their own class,” French said. “So we have communicated to the Ohio utilities and stakeholders that we will be evaluating how costs are allocated across the different customer classes, with the main goal again of ensuring that existing and future data centers are being properly allocated their share of FERC-approved transmission costs.”

But this also comes with a challenge, Haque told lawmakers.

“The challenge is, is that it takes a year or two to construct a data center, and it takes to be generous four to seven years to construct the corresponding supply.”

That means even with data center operators committing to cover their costs, there’s still a potential mismatch in supply and demand. Haque explained that, in the short term, PJM’s reserve margin of power will get “chewed up” by data centers and other power users, and that consumption might outpace the grid’s ability to replace it.

“There may be periods of strain on the grid,” he said, “where we are going to have to ask the data centers to effectively get off the grid and move to their backups, so as to not have to shed likely residential consumers.”

The environment

One of the biggest environmental concerns about data centers is their demand for water to cool their servers. But Diorio said data centers aren’t actually using that much water.

“Data centers are amongst the most efficient water users within the economy,” he claimed.

The 39 billion gallons the industry used in 2025 is less than the 59 billion gallons used by the semiconductor industry, and it pales in comparison to the 533 billion gallons used by the food and beverage industry, he said. Not to mention, he added, “the 2,500 billion gallons of water per year that were lost to water leaks in municipal water systems on an annual basis.”

But the scope of data center water usage in Ohio is at best murky.

Mary Mertz, who heads up the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, explained that her agency regulates the quantity of water in the state. The agency requires registration and licensing from high-capacity water users, but has no real ability to identify data center specific use.

“If you tie into a public water system, you do not register separately,” she said, “and all of Ohio’s data centers currently tie into a public water system, so there are no separate registrations for data centers. So, that is just something we do not have visibility into their actual water use.”

She explained the agency has seen rising demand from public systems with nearby data centers, but they’re unable to quantify how much of that increase is tied to the data centers themselves.

John Logue from the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency explained that most data centers don’t have to get a wastewater permit because they’re connected to a municipal water treatment system. If they discharge to a river or stream, however, the data center would need a permit for limiting and monitoring pollutants.

“Ohio EPA has only issued one such (National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System) permit for a data center at this time,” Logue said.

What’s next?

Committee co-chair Chavez laid out four further committee hearings in the coming weeks.

He warned the schedule could change, but lawmakers plan to take public comment June 1.

Following that, the committee plans to hold hearings for testimony from data center operators on June 4, local government officials on June 8, and companies associated with the data center industry on June 11.

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.

In November, Ohioans will vote for a new governor, attorney general, auditor, secretary of state, and treasurer, as well as one U.S. Senate race, and two Ohio Supreme Court races.

The Gongwer/Werth Legislative Survey is a recurring survey put out to members of the Ohio General Legislative Assembly to gather lawmakers’ views on current policy and legislative issues, according to the survey’s website.

For its most recent addition, the survey collected responses from 35% of Ohio legislators on the potential outcomes of six critical midterm elections.

Key Ohio U.S. Senate race

As former Ohio Democratic U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown tries to regain his congressional seat following a 2024 loss to Ohio Republican U.S. Sen. Bernie Moreno, the odds are split on if Ohioans will ride the blue wave this November.

Legislative respondents said there was a 35% chance Brown wins the race, with 8% being undecided and 56% choosing Republican candidate U.S. Sen. Jon Husted.

Husted, former lieutenant governor of Ohio, was appointed to his Senate seat following Vice President JD Vance’s election in 2024.

Brown has reentered the campaign trail running on a platform of affordable healthcare and worker protections.

Ohio governor race

Ohio’s race for the top desk has already been singled out as one to watch as November draws closer.

With Democratic candidate Dr. Amy Acton winning her primary uncontested and Republican candidate Vivek Ramaswamy running away with his own, both candidates move towards Election day with no prior experience as elected officials.

Legislative respondents said Ramaswamy has a 64% chance of winning, giving Acton 29% with 7% of respondents being undecided.

Notably, no Democratic respondents chose Ramaswamy, while 6% of Republican candidates said Acton would win.

Acton and Ramaswamy are already curating a record-breaking expensive election.

Ramaswamy is running primarily on a platform of cutting taxes, reducing government waste, and advocating for more energy independence, according to his website.

Acton’s platform includes creating more affordability in housing and healthcare, improving public education, and supporting small businesses, according to her website.

Ohio congressional races

The U.S. Congressional race in Ohio’s 9th district has also been highly watched, with current Ohio Democratic U.S. Rep. Marcy Kaptur facing off against former Ohio state Rep. Derek Merrin in a rematch, this time with the district’s lines drawn more to favor Republicans after Merrin lost by just a little over 1% in 2024.

Kaptur has represented the district since 1983, making her the longest-serving woman in congressional history.

Polled legislators have predicted another tight race for the pair. The survey said 52% of legislators chose Kaptur to retain her position, with 43% choosing Merrin to win, and 5% being undecided.

Kaptur’s platform emphasizes her priority to strengthen the economy and expand border security, according to her website.

Merrin’s platform includes lowering income and property taxes, reducing health regulations for patients, and promoting price transparency, according to his website.

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

Originally published on TiffinOhio.net.

In a truly audacious (or desperate) publicity stunt, Candidate Ramaswamy called on the legislature to speed a proposed constitutional amendment (that duplicates the state’s voter ID law) onto the November ballot.

The next day, both the Ohio House and Ohio Senate introduced identical resolutions to do just that — and fast-tracked the measures for passage by mid-June.

Why the mad rush to amend the Ohio Constitution with a voter ID provision — only three years after the GOP-controlled legislature passed the nation’s strictest photo identification requirements at the polls?

Good question.

The Ramaswamy-Statehouse narrative for suddenly putting the same mandates in the state constitution via a slapped together legislative amendment boils down to partisan insurance. 

The toughest voter ID law in the country needs to be constitutionally protected from “the whims of state lawmakers, judges and the political winds that blow them in,” wrote Ramaswamy in a recent op/ed.

A mere statute in the Ohio Revised Code enacted by Republican supermajorities, signed by a Republican governor, and enforced by a Republican secretary of state is “fragile” said the former hedge fund/bio tech executive, so the voter ID statute must be enshrined in the state constitution for added protection.

If that’s not a convincing case to make for a ballot amendment to replicate established law — and it’s not even in the ballpark of persuasion — Ramaswamy recycled assertions that “public faith in elections is at an all-time low” and “restoring public trust in elections” is important, yada, yada, yada.

In a telling sign, the Republican running for governor suggested his voter ID amendment should be easy to achieve because polls show voter ID proposals are widely popular — which, ironically, is also how Ohio Republicans sold their extreme voter ID law in 2023.

In 2026, Ramaswamy — and obliging Republican lawmakers expediting makeshift legislation for their de facto leader — intend to exploit that voter ID popularity to goose turnout in a toss-up election.

How else to explain a major constitutional change that makes no sense?

Stumping for a superfluous constitutional version of established voter ID requirements in Ohio will require fancy footwork on the campaign trail to market redundancy as a necessary amendment, but Ramaswamy, who tap danced his way to a fortune as a shrewd marketer, will spin away. He is already acting as if he’s governor with a compliant legislature in tow.

Ramaswamy’s running mate, Ohio Senate President Rob McColley, kicked off the impromptu legislative mission to enshrine settled voter ID law into the state constitution “to secure the fundamental right of voting and maintain that confidence in our election system.”

Pay no attention to the glaring cognitive dissonance of Ohio Republicans who boast of the state’s secure, “gold standard” elections while manufacturing gratuitous restrictions to “safeguard” voting and restore confidence in a system they acknowledge is above reproach.

“Voter integrity” is the tired mantra they repeat every time they move to restrict voting access.

They never address the lie that fuels legislative remedies for non-existent problems or reverse deliberately seeded distrust. Donald Trump tried to overturn a free and fair election he lost with an aggressive propaganda campaign built on deceit about rampant voter fraud and rigged elections.

He and his lackeys cultivated baseless doubt about the 2020 election even after it had been reviewed, recounted, audited, adjudicated and verified ad nauseam.

Trump is still lying about the election his own cybersecurity chief called the most secure in U.S. history. Those lies undermine the legitimacy of elections at the core of our democracy. 

Republicans perpetuate those lies with ongoing legislation that reinforces the perception Trump cemented about fraudulent elections that are, in fact, run by the book.

Ramaswamy credited the twice-impeached felon who tried to seize unearned power for recognizing the problem of depleted trust in elections and the solutions to “strengthen faith” in voting.

Pretty rich considering it was Trump who conspired to trample that trust and weaken that faith.

But it is the legislative maneuver in the Ohio General Assembly, synced to Ramaswamy’s ambitions, that most deserves voters’ scorn and rejection if the dual resolutions to amend the constitution (on a campaign whim) make it to the ballot this fall.

We’ve seen this movie before. Republican lawmakers tried to affect the outcome of another election with a last-minute legislative amendment thrown on a special election ballot in August 2023. It attempted to raise the threshold for passing constitutional amendments in the state from a simple majority to 60%.

The same legislative leaders — who just proposed a legislative amendment on a whim — claimed the constitution was revised too frequently and should be harder to amend.

It was a ruse to defeat a citizens’ initiative on the ballot three months later to enshrine abortion rights in the constitution — which passed overwhelmingly.

But Ohio voters saw through the Republican scheme to cancel their century-old majority voting rights to keep a majority of Ohioans from weighing in on constitutionally protected reproductive freedom.

Even in a sleepy summertime election, furious voters showed up to overwhelmingly reject the underhandedness of GOP leadership in the state.

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

Originally published on TiffinOhio.net.

Marquez D. Williams was charged May 27 in Sandusky Municipal Court with public indecency, persistent disorderly conduct, obstructing official business and resisting arrest, court records show.

Officers from the Sandusky Police Department were sent to Cedar Point shortly after 8:30 p.m. Tuesday on an assault report and were told the suspect had fled on foot into the parking lot, the report states.

The man approached a transgender woman from behind, grabbed her skirt and underwear and pulled them down, the report states. Several people in the area, including children, saw the woman exposed.

The woman’s friend chased the man toward the front gate, according to the report. The woman told a security officer what had happened as the man left the park and ran into the parking lot.

When the man ignored repeated commands to stop, an officer warned him and then deployed a stun gun, dropping him to the ground, according to the report. The man then became aggressive with officers, and additional units were called to the scene. Officers called for an ambulance afterward.

The woman told officers she believes the man targeted her because she is transgender, according to the report.

Ohio’s hate-crime statute, known as ethnic intimidation, applies only to certain offenses committed because of a victim’s race, color, religion or national origin. It does not cover gender identity or sexual orientation, so it was not available as an additional charge in this case.

Williams was taken to the Erie County Jail and has since been released. Court records list bonds of $250, $250 and $300 across the cases. He has not entered a plea, and his arraignment is set for June 3 at 9 a.m. in Sandusky Municipal Court.

The charges are allegations and have not been proven in court. The case was first reported by the Sandusky Register.

Originally published on TiffinOhio.net.

In a statement posted to Facebook, Kakarala wrote:

I would like to convey my deepest thanks and gratitude from the very bottom of my heart to all the area parents for trusting me with the health and well being of their children all these years.

Coming to Tiffin has proven to be one of the very best decisions of my entire life. I had an extremely satisfying and tremendously successful professional career doing what I love most—taking care of thousands and thousands of children these past nearly 50 years and seeing them grow up over the years with many eventually returning with children of their own.

I wish everyone health, happiness, and peace.

Thank you all,

Prasad C. Kakarala, MD

Kakarala’s retirement was announced in April, when the practice confirmed his final day in the office would be May 28. Board-certified and holding the designations MD, DCH, and FAAP, he served Tiffin families for more than 45 years and spent roughly three decades as a clinical professor of pediatrics at the University of Toledo College of Medicine.

The practice remains open

Tiffin Pediatrics continues to operate under new ownership at 455 W. Market St., Suite A. Dr. Amna Hilal has been named medical director, and nurse practitioners Samantha Dotson, APRN, and Whitney Stine, APRN, are continuing to see patients and serve as clinical leaders. The practice has said it is accepting new patients.

Kakarala has said he will remain available in the coming months to help with the transition of care.

Originally published on TiffinOhio.net.

Travis D. Martin, 25, of 505 N. Union Street, Fostoria, was charged Tuesday, May 26, with unauthorized use of a motor vehicle and 2 counts of child endangerment, a first-degree misdemeanor under Ohio law. The charges were filed by Sgt. Brandon Bell of the Fostoria Police Department.

Martin appeared by video for arraignment on May 27 and entered a not guilty plea. He was released on a personal recognizance bond and a waiver of extradition. Court-appointed attorney Joshua Sherman has been assigned to represent him.

A pretrial hearing is scheduled for Tuesday, June 9, at 11 a.m.

Originally published on TiffinOhio.net.

The company is currently hiring for multiple positions across all shifts, including operators, maintenance technicians, and process technicians. Attendees will have the opportunity to meet with company representatives, learn about JVIS operations, and explore available career opportunities at the facility.

JVIS, a Michigan-based automotive supplier, manufactures interior and exterior automotive components for major automotive manufacturers and suppliers throughout North America.

The Tiffin acquisition, completed earlier this month, preserved hundreds of manufacturing jobs that had been at risk following First Brands’ planned closure of the Toledo Molding & Die operations.

“We’re excited to continue growing our team here in Tiffin,” said Jonathan Crum, Plant Manager for JVIS Tiffin. “This facility has a strong manufacturing history, and we’re proud to build on that foundation while creating new opportunities for workers in our community.”

Tiffin Mayor Lee Wilkinson welcomed the company’s continued investment in the local workforce.

“JVIS investing in this facility is great news for Tiffin and our local workforce,” Wilkinson said. “We’re excited about this demonstrated commitment by JVIS and look forward to seeing continued growth and opportunity at this location.”

Individuals interested in attending the June 3 hiring event or applying for open positions can visit jvis.us/careers for additional information.

Originally published on TiffinOhio.net.

The New York Knicks beat the Cleveland Cavaliers 130-93 on Monday, May 25, completing a four-game sweep of the Eastern Conference finals and clinching the franchise’s first NBA Finals trip since 1999. Ramaswamy, the Republican nominee for Ohio governor, was in the building, having posted a photo with his wife on X earlier that evening captioned, “Date night in Cleveland. Let’s go Cavs…all the way back!”

The Cavs did not come all the way back. And according to the Ohio political newsletter The Rooster, which broke the account, Ramaswamy’s night got worse from there.

Citing a private security source it said had direct knowledge, the outlet reported that Ramaswamy tried to walk into the Knicks’ restricted area after the final buzzer, announcing that he was “running for governor of Ohio and wanted to welcome everyone to Ohio.” A Knicks security officer reportedly told him he “didn’t have access to the area” and turned him away. The newsletter also reported that arena security had stopped Ramaswamy before the game, when he tried to park near the Cavaliers’ players and ownership.

Ramaswamy’s campaign denied the account. Campaign manager Jonathan Ewing told The Independent the report was “100% fake, from a mentally unstable and unhinged left-wing blogger who may suffer from delusions.”

Mamdani gets the last word

What isn’t in dispute is how the night ended online. After the sweep, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani reposted Ramaswamy’s courtside “date night” photo to his personal and official accounts. The next day, CNN’s Kaitlan Collins asked him directly whether he had been trolling his Ohio counterpart.

“You know, I just hope you had a nice night, and we had a great one in New York,” Mamdani said on “The Source”. When Collins replied that it sounded like a yes, Mamdani answered, “I’ll leave that to you.”

A feud Ramaswamy helped start

The exchange extended a rivalry Ramaswamy has courted himself. Last summer, as the Columbus Dispatch reported, a super PAC backing his campaign ran a Times Square billboard urging New Yorkers unhappy with Mamdani’s rise to leave the city and move to Ohio — a stunt Ramaswamy promoted on X.

Ramaswamy, a Cincinnati native and Upper Arlington resident who built a fortune in biotech, ran briefly for president in 2024 before dropping out and endorsing Donald Trump. He was tapped to co-lead the Department of Government Efficiency alongside Elon Musk, then left the day Trump was inaugurated. He is now the GOP nominee for governor, running to succeed term-limited Gov. Mike DeWine. His Democratic opponent, former state health director Amy Acton, has led him in spring polling.

Originally published on TiffinOhio.net.

The filing in the federal District Court for the District of Maryland comes after a federal judge in Nashville, Tennessee, on May 22 dismissed the U.S. Department of Justice’s criminal indictment charges of human smuggling that stemmed from a 2022 traffic stop. The judge called the prosecution “vindictive and selective.”

Abrego Garcia’s habeas petition before Maryland federal Judge Paula Xinis argues that the Trump administration did not make a genuine effort to remove him to a country where he would not be harmed, persecuted, or potentially sent back to his home country of El Salvador. He has had protections against deportation to El Salvador since 2019. 

The Trump administration is trying to again deport Abrego Garcia to the west African country of Liberia. 

Abrego Garcia, whose wrongful deportation to a brutal Salvadoran mega-prison known as CECOT cast a national spotlight on the Trump administration’s aggressive deportation campaign, has agreed to be removed to Costa Rica because the Central American country will grant him protections and refugee status. 

But the Trump administration would only allow for his removal if he pleaded guilty to the Tennessee criminal indictment, which was dismissed last week. Abrego Garcia pleaded not guilty and since then, the Trump administration has tried to remove him to the African nations of Eswatini and Uganda.

“Considered cumulatively, the Government’s message is clear: because Abrego Garcia successfully challenged his unlawful removal to CECOT, declined the Government’s plea offer, and has continued to prevail in courts, the Government would rather seek to unlawfully remove him to a distant third country than lawfully remove him to the country he has designated,” according to the filing. “That is not a removal policy. It is punishment.”

The new filing asks Xinis to make a final order to resolve Abrego Garcia’s habeas petition by barring the Trump administration from deporting him to Liberia, or any country that is not Costa Rica. The filing also asks for the Trump administration to be prevented from redetaining Abrego Garcia, unless he will be removed to Costa Rica. 

Abrego Garcia was brought back to the U.S. from El Salvador to face the criminal indictment. Several courts, including the Supreme Court, found his removal to that country illegal, but the high court stopped short of requiring the Trump administration to return him to the United States.

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

Originally published on TiffinOhio.net.

“The American people deserve to know the true costs of this conflict, and they deserve transparency and honesty when their government commits the nation to war,” the senators wrote in the May 27 letter to the nonpartisan agency. “Your timely and comprehensive estimate of the immediate and long-term budgetary consequences will help ensure that the Iran war remains subject to rigorous and appropriate legislative oversight.”

House Budget Committee ranking member Brendan Boyle, D-Pa., sent a letter to the CBO in early March, asking the agency to estimate what the conflict would cost “under several scenarios, including scenarios of the war lasting longer than 4 to 5 weeks and deploying U.S. troops on the ground in Iran.” 

The senators’ letter asks CBO Director Phillip Swagel to “take into consideration the significant divergence between the administration’s public estimates and those produced by independent analysts and investigative journalists.”

The senators wrote that while Pentagon officials said in mid-May they believed the war had cost about $29 billion, other estimates placed its total costs much higher. 

“It is essential that Congress and the American public receive accurate, comprehensive estimates of the costs of the war in Iran,” they wrote. 

Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly, California Sen. Alex Padilla, Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet, Connecticut Sens. Richard Blumenthal and Chris Murphy, Georgia Sen. Jon Ossoff, Illinois Sens. Dick Durbin and Tammy Duckworth, Maryland Sens. Angela Alsobrooks and Chris Van Hollen, Massachusetts Sens. Ed Markey and Elizabeth Warren, New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker and Andy Kim, New York Sens. Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand, Oregon Sens. Jeff Merkley and Ron Wyden, Vermont Sen. Peter Welch and Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine all signed the letter. 

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

Originally published on TiffinOhio.net.

The decision by D.C. District Court Judge Carl Nichols, a Trump appointee, represents a setback for Democratic groups, lawmakers and other groups including the NAACP that have sued to stop the order ahead of the midterm elections in November. The March 31 order faces at least five lawsuits. 

The executive order directs the postmaster general, who leads the Postal Service, to propose a rule that would block states from sending ballots through the mail except to voters on lists provided by the state to the Postal Service. Under the order, the proposed rule is due this week.

The order also instructs the Department of Homeland Security to compile lists of voting-age U.S. citizens in each state, with the help of the Social Security Administration. Democrats allege the Trump administration is building an unauthorized national voter list, despite the U.S. Constitution giving states the responsibility of running federal elections.

The Department of Justice had told the judge that the federal government hadn’t yet implemented the directive. The judge’s opinion, released just after midnight in Washington, D.C., makes clear that he could arrive at a different decision if the Trump administration moves forward with enforcing the order. 

“The Court recognizes that the Postal Service may ultimately issue a final rule that directly affects Plaintiffs or their members, or that the Government may develop State Citizenship Lists that omit specific individuals due to particularized flaws,” Nichols wrote in a 26-page opinion. 

“Plaintiffs may, of course, renew their motions if and when those future actions occur,” he wrote. “Until then, however, Plaintiffs cannot show that preliminary injunctive relief is warranted.”

Implications for midterms

Nichols’ decision is the first ruling in what is likely to be a protracted legal battle that could eventually reach the U.S. Supreme Court. Thursday’s opinion dealt only with whether the executive order should be blocked immediately — the underlying lawsuit to decide if the directive is unconstitutional and illegal will continue.

Whether Trump can successfully implement the order holds major consequences for the midterm elections. If the White House is able to block the Postal Service from sending or receiving mail ballots from voters not on state-provided lists, it could upend elections in states where voting by mail is the norm and disrupt procedures in others. 

About 30% of voters cast mail ballots in 2024, according to data gathered by the U.S. Election Assistance Commission.

Trump has framed the order as a needed measure to combat noncitizen voting, though it’s exceedingly rare. The directive marks the White House’s latest effort to assert authority over elections as the SAVE America Act, which would require voters to show documents proving their citizenship, stalls in the U.S. Senate.

Democrats and voting rights advocates argue the executive order is unconstitutional. Under the U.S. Constitution, states administer elections and Congress has the power to pass regulations on them, but the president has no power to act unilaterally.  

Postal Service targeted

The battle over the executive order also carries ramifications for the future of the Postal Service. While the president used to appoint the postmaster general, since 1970 the Postal Service has operated as an independent corporation — a change intended to shield mail delivery from politics.

Postal law experts say that if Trump is able to enforce an order against the postmaster general, who now is appointed by a Postal Service Board of Governors, it will shatter the agency’s independence. 

The White House didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Democratic groups suing over the order, including the Democratic National Committee, in a joint statement expressed confidence they would eventually prevail. They said the decision doesn’t change the principle that the executive branch cannot infringe on Americans’ voting rights.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York and one of the plaintiffs, in a statement called mail voting safe and secure. He emphasized that presidents don’t get to rewrite election law “by decree.”

“Trump’s strategy is simple: if he can’t win voters, he’ll silence them — and now a MAGA judge is enabling him,” Schumer said.

A group of Republican state attorneys general has also intervened in the case to defend the order. They argue that Trump has authority to gather and organize information within the executive branch. They say Trump can direct the Postal Service to propose rules.

Missouri Attorney General Catherine Hanaway, who is leading the Republican legal effort, didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on Nichols’ decision.

Opponents look to Massachusetts

With Nichols’ decision, a federal judge in Massachusetts offers opponents their next opportunity to quickly halt the directive. 

Massachusetts District Court Judge Indira Talwani, appointed by President Barack Obama, will hold a hearing on Tuesday in a legal challenge brought by Democratic state attorneys general, led by California, along with the League of Women Voters and other civic groups.

Some legal analysts anticipate states may have an easier time challenging the order because its requirements, such as requiring states to submit lists of voters to send ballots through the mail, directly affect them. David Becker, director of the nonpartisan Center for Election Innovation & Research, wrote on social media that the states have “much stronger standing claims” heading into the hearing.

After federal agencies begin acting on the order, the challenge in Massachusetts “will be the case to watch,” he wrote.

‘Maximum amount of confusion’

At a mid-May hearing before Nichols, lawyers for the Democratic National Committee, Democratic leaders Schumer and Rep. Hakeem Jeffries of New York, and other interest groups had argued that, with the midterm elections less than six months away, there was no time to see how the Trump administration executes the order.

The proposal would result in a “maximum amount of confusion” and be a “nightmare for election officials,” Danielle Lang, who argued on behalf of the League of United Latin American Citizens, told Nichols. “Waiting will only erode public confidence in elections.”

At the time, Nichols warned Justice Department lawyers to notify him of “anything even approaching a material change” on implementing the order.

Justice Department senior trial counsel Stephen Pezzi told Nichols the plaintiffs have a right to “prepare for the darkest fears,” but, he argued, they can’t win a preliminary injunction based on speculation about error-prone citizenship lists and a postal rule not yet created.

Ultimately, Nichols agreed.

“In any event, given that the Executive Order does not command Plaintiffs to do anything, and that no agency has yet acted pursuant to the Order in a way that could harm Plaintiffs,” Nichols wrote, “they have not suffered any harm at present, much less harm that is ‘certain,’ ‘great,’ and imminent.”

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

Originally published on TiffinOhio.net.

Ohio Sens. Kent Smith, D-Euclid, and Bill Blessing, R-Colerain Township, recently introduced Ohio Senate Bill 443, also known as the Take the Dough, We Gotta Know Act. 

“The key point with this piece of legislation is that if you are going to take state dollars, there has to be a degree of transparency and oversight,” Blessing said. 

“This is a cornerstone of conservative philosophy in this state, where we have a program … and we have oversight over something like that. This is no different.”

The bill would require Ohio’s auditor to audit the funds of each school that is using EdChoice and EdChoice expansion vouchers each fiscal year. 

The Ohio Department of Education and Workforce would be required to create a report card for chartered non-public schools in order to “hopefully get an apples-to-apples comparison,” Blessing said. 

Schools accepting EdChoice vouchers would have to submit weekly attendance records, conduct criminal background checks of its employees, report the tuition and fees charged by the school in a five-year cost trend, report how many of their students have an Individualized Education Program, and publish their dropout and graduation rates. 

“The current voucher system is doing two things — providing tuition coupons for wealthy Ohio families to be able to send their children to private schools, and it’s underfunding Ohio’s public school districts with drastic ramifications for Ohio students,” Smith said. 

Lawmakers increased the EdChoice expansion eligibility to 450% of the poverty line in 2023 through the state budget — creating near-universal school vouchers.

This means K-8 students can receive a $6,166 scholarship and high schoolers can receive a $8,408 scholarship in state funding under the expansion. 

Ohio spent more than a billion dollars on private school vouchers for the 2025 fiscal year, the second full year with near-universal eligibility. Nearly half of the money — $492.8 million — was from the EdChoice expansion. 

“Why on earth would we spend billions of Ohioans’ hard-earned money on schools that don’t have to provide that level of transparency and accountability — it doesn’t make any sense,” said Ohio House Minority Leader Dani Isaacsohn, D-Cincinnati. “It’s what taxpayers deserve, that there would be accountability and transparency into all schools that receive public dollars.” 

Students in some counties don’t have the option to attend a private school. 

“Many of us barely know what vouchers are because we simply don’t have private schools,” said Ohio Rep. Justin Pizzulli, R-Scioto County. “Our best schools are our only schools, and those schools are public schools.”

Carroll, Champaign, Hardin, Harrison, Holmes, Meigs, Morgan, Noble, Preble and Vinton counties had zero private schools during the 2025 fiscal year.

Pizzulli said rural Ohio is frustrated with how schools are funded.

“We see our tax dollars supporting a voucher system that largely benefits areas with access to private schools, while communities like mine receive no or little practical benefit at all because those options don’t exist,” he said. “When vouchers were expanded, many of us were told, well, private schools would begin magically appearing and popping up all over the state, that simply has not happened.”

Nonpublic Ohio schools had 181,244 students enrolled in fiscal year 2025 — a 4.6% increase compared to fiscal year 2024. 

“What frustrates us is seeing our taxpayer dollars increasingly flow towards families who already had the means to afford private tuition, and so we’re just asking for fairness,” Pizzulli said.  

The lawmakers stressed Ohioans deserve to know how their tax dollars are being used. 

“The taxpayers deserve to know where the money is going, who is benefiting, and whether the investment is producing results,” Pizzulli said.  

Cleveland Heights Teachers Union President Karen Rego said her district is expected to lose $7 million over the next two years in layoffs and other cutbacks. 

“I don’t know where that’s going to happen, we feel very stretched thin already, and to lose staff members that we’ve lost this year, and the possibility of losing more next year is a really tough pill to swallow,” she said. 

Rego is not against people choosing what school they go to, but wants to see more accountability as far as how the taxpayer money is being spent. 

This bill is being introduced late in the General Assembly — any bill that does not pass before the end of the year must be reintroduced in the new General Assembly to be considered.

“If it goes nowhere in this General Assembly, or even next, that isn’t the point,” Blessing said. “We have identified a major problem here. We also have a solution.” 

Ohio House Speaker Matt Huffman, R-Lima, questioned how serious the senators are about this bill since they waited until now to introduce it. 

“Once that money goes to those private organizations, we don’t audit that, and I think if we’re going to come up with a scheme where something like that would happen, we need to make sure that the privacy part of it for people — kids and families going to school, and the people running the school — all of those things are intact,” he said. 

More than 300 public school districts are suing over EdChoice. A trial judge ruled last summer that the program was unconstitutional, but a hearing was held earlier this month before the 10th District Court of Appeals.

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.

Less well-known is another necessity — long-term care for seniors — that is also costly and getting costlier. And, because of the way it’s financed, it’s sucking vast amounts of wealth out of the upper middle class on down, a study published in April by the Roosevelt Institute says. 

“The result is a system that drains the resources of low-income and middle-class families, eroding their ability to build or transfer wealth across generations,” the report said. “In this way, long-term care is both a symptom and a cause of the nation’s deepening wealth divide. It is a force shaping who gets to grow old with security and who bears the financial cost of care.”

The report said that 62% of those surveyed think Medicare, the health program for people over 65, pays for long-term care. It doesn’t.

It’s financed by Medicaid, the state/federal health program for low-income Americans.

To qualify, you have to meet income and asset guidelines. In Ohio, individual assets have to be less than $2,000 and you can have a maximum monthly income of $2,982, according to the American Council on Aging.

No matter how frugal you were during your working years, no matter how much you saved, you have to pay out of your own pocket until you get down to $2,000. 

That means less money to invest in your heirs; to do things like paying the wildly inflating cost of a college education. Instead, the heirs take on that burden, often in the form of student debt.

The Roosevelt Institute, a progressive think tank, said that feeds inequality and makes it hard even for better-off Americans to get ahead.

“Even among upper-middle-class couples with lifetime earnings over $4.75 million, nearly half will spend down their assets paying for long-term care and eventually enroll in Medicaid if they require long-term care for five years or more,” the report said.

The vast majority of Americans — more than 80% — have to spend down and depend on Medicaid if they require long-term care for five or more years, the Roosevelt Institute report said.

If you slice the wealth distribution into fifths, even a majority of the top slice — 53% — have to go on Medicaid after five years, it said. That jumps to 75% of the second-richest tranche, 87% of the third-richest, 91% for the second-poorest and 95% for the group at the bottom, the report said.

The Scripps Gerontology Center at Miami University reports that with 2 million residents over 65, Ohio has the sixth-largest elderly population in the United States. So as those people age and require long-term care, Ohio families are losing a huge chunk of the wealth their elders spent a lifetime accumulating.

And, even as it wipes out intergenerational wealth, the way we finance long-term care is likely to get even harder on American families. That’s because of President Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act.

It gave $1 trillion in tax cuts to the richest 1% of Americans, while it cut a similar amount from Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance program. 

Many of the Medicaid savings are expected through less enrollment due to new work requirements. But the GOP law also seeks to save $150 billion over 10 years by capping certain state payments to providers such as nursing homes.

The Roosevelt Institute report said that long-term care imposes huge costs even on families who are able to personally provide long-term care to their elders. 

“Unpaid family care is not without its own intergenerational costs,” it said. “Unpaid caregivers provided an estimated $600 billion in economic value in 2021, often at the expense of their own career growth and retirement savings.” 

The Roosevelt Institute report said the way care for older Americans is financed affects everyone.

“Long-term care is not just an individual health issue, but a structural driver of wealth inequality,” it said. “By maintaining a system that depends on unpaid family caregiving, provides public support only after families have nearly exhausted their savings, and allows private, profit-driven companies to capture rising care costs, the US effectively penalizes aging.” 

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

Originally published on TiffinOhio.net.

Birmingham-Southern College in Birmingham, Alabama, was a Christian private liberal arts school that counted among its graduates members of Congress, famous musicians, Pulitzer Prize winners and the former executive editor of The New York Times. Yet it had been unable to endure years of financial losses.

About 15 minutes southeast, toward the Birmingham suburbs, the inaugural freshman class at Highlands College was finishing its first year that same spring. The private Christian school, which has just gotten permission from the state to award bachelor’s degrees, was born out of the nondenominational Church of the Highlands, the biggest religious congregation in the state and one of the largest in the nation. It claims a weekly attendance of 60,000 across more than two dozen campuses in Alabama and Georgia.

Long-established, religiously affiliated small colleges such as Birmingham-Southern are battling the same existential pressures weighing on non-religious liberal arts colleges nationwide: declining enrollment, rising operational costs and a deepening skepticism of higher education among families who fear ideological influence on their children or question whether steep tuition and fees are worth it.

But a different model of Christian education is on the upswing: Some of the nation’s biggest megachurches are getting into the college business, prioritizing job training and church culture over traditional liberal arts. A franchise-style model from a Christian university in Florida has made it easier than ever for them to launch.

The new schools are attracting big donors and growing their enrollment through a built-in base of believers — and some are pushing to access public funding.

States including Florida, Georgia and Minnesota have opened their state financial assistance programs to religious colleges in recent years. The change mirrors a broader push already underway in K-12 education, where states have funneled billions to religious schools.

Many of these new colleges eschew the regional accrediting that’s standard for more established universities. Some pursue alternative accreditation from religious nonprofits that may or may not be recognized by the U.S. Department of Education.

That means students’ college credits may not transfer to other schools or to graduate programs. And the costs of non-accredited coursework aren’t eligible for federal financial assistance offered through the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA.

Supporters of the megachurch-affiliated schools say they’re a good option for students who want practical training for specific jobs, generally in ministry or business. They say students benefit from being closely connected to their local faith community.

But some experts question whether the schools’ lack of traditional accreditation could limit students’ options after graduation, or whether their close ties to one church could have an outsized impact on the school’s accountability and transparency.

“Public funding is something that everybody should be concerned about, no matter your politics, no matter your religion,” said Adam Laats, a professor of education and history at Binghamton University in upstate New York who has written books on the history of Christian education in America.

“And I think it’s everyone’s business if there are schools that are restricting the chances of students in a way that students aren’t aware of what they’re getting into.”

Financial aid

Schools such as Highlands College are growing their physical footprints with big donations from heavy hitters. A $20 million donation from the Green family, whose patriarch David Green founded the Hobby Lobby craft store chain, funded Highlands’ first two residence halls.

In March, 3-year-old Austin Christian University — born out of Texas-based Celebration Church, which has more than 23,000 members — broke ground on a $50 million complex thanks to a donation of the same size from Roger Bringmann, a vice president at California-based tech giant Nvidia.

The schools’ focus more closely aligns with many conservatives’ educational goals. Republicans in statehouses across the country have pushed to increase Christianity’s influence and presence in education, while President Donald Trump’s administration has proposed relaxing accreditation rules.

In Florida last month, Republican state Attorney General James Uthmeier declared the state won’t enforce its constitutional ban on funding religious institutions, opening the door for state-funded scholarships for Christian colleges.

The newer Christian schools also may benefit from battles fought by their older counterparts.

Last year, Georgia agreed to allow religious colleges to participate in state-funded financial aid programs after a 64-year-old Christian college sued the state over its law that barred theological schools from public tuition assistance.

And after two century-old colleges filed suit in Minnesota last year, a federal judge struck down a 2023 state law that barred religious colleges from a state-funded dual enrollment program that lets high school students enroll in college credit courses tuition-free.

“We’ve done lobbying at the state level, working with the state legislators to get access to things like in-state, need-based grants,” said Patrick Fitzgerald, a spokesperson for Southeastern University, in Lakeland, Florida, which has partnered with more than 200 churches across the country to help them launch colleges. “Depending on the need in each state and the availability of state funding, we try to access every scholarship dollar that we can for students.”

Many megachurch schools offer financial aid. But tuition and fees at more established church-affiliated schools can run into the mid-five figures — on par with their private college counterparts, but far above in-state tuition at big public universities.

At Highlands College, tuition, housing and fees total about $42,000 per year. The school, which focuses on training for the ministry, says 100% of its students receive scholarships. In-state tuition, housing and fees at the University of Alabama cost $28,196 per year. At Birmingham-Southern, the year it closed, those same costs totaled about $36,500.

But costs vary. At Elevation College, which plans to welcome its first class this fall and was launched by North Carolina megachurch Elevation Church, the tuition, housing and fees are about $19,936 per year. VOUS College of Ministry in Miami, based at one of the fastest-growing megachurches in Florida, charges $12,136 per year in tuition and fees, though that doesn’t include housing.

Single-church affiliations

Unlike more traditional schools that are affiliated with an entire denomination, these newer schools are often deeply entwined with the leadership at just one megachurch.

At Austin Christian, for example, the college president is Connor Champion, the son of Celebration Church’s founding pastors, Joe and Lori Champion.

Last year, Church of the Highlands founding pastor Chris Hodges stepped down from his role there to focus on being chancellor at Highlands College, and tapped the college’s president to become the church’s new head pastor.

Some critics say that when schools are closely tied to one church, rather than to an entire denomination, the church’s leadership and finances have an outsized impact on the school.

“You can end up with this insular, sometimes authoritarian power structure, which I don’t mean to say is unique to religious schools, but it is one of the hazards of this kind of institutional structure,” said Laats.

But having a college tied to a local church also can boost its credibility and accountability within that faith community, said Rick Ostrander, a longtime Christian college administrator who is currently the executive director for the Michigan Christian Study Center at the University of Michigan.

“There’s always the danger with new markets and new models that develop some bad actors or just some unhealthy situations,” Ostrander said, “but I think that’s less likely in this area than some other quote-unquote professional areas.”

Church franchise models

The Highlands model — practical, church-based job training paired with academic courses offered through an accredited partner university — is spreading, in part, thanks to a franchise-style approach from a Florida university that has made launching a church-based college easier than ever.

Southeastern University in central Florida is a private school affiliated with Assemblies of God, one of the world’s largest Pentecostal Christian denominations. Southeastern is accredited by a federally recognized regional accreditation body, and it’s one of the fastest-growing private nonprofit colleges in the country, according to the Chronicle of Higher Education.

One reason for that growth is it has partnered with more than 200 churches, including some of the nation’s largest, to offer accredited Southeastern degrees through local startup colleges. Some of these church colleges, such as Highlands, have hundreds of students; some just a handful. Southeastern provides the academics while the church provides the practicum classes.

About a third of the 13,600 students at Southeastern are at schools affiliated with their network partner churches, said Fitzgerald, who is chief of staff for Kent Ingle, the president of Southeastern.

The university helps the church colleges line up curriculum and instructors, he said, and helps secure the necessary state approvals.

“We make sure that their courses are up to accreditation standards,” Fitzgerald said. “We make sure that the faculty they have are well-qualified, and we’re able to provide a stamp of approval on pretty much what they’re already doing, and so it’s a match made in heaven, if you will.”

By offering educational degrees, a church can create a pipeline of future staffers who are steeped in its culture, a priority for megachurches intent on preserving their brand.

And it gives churches additional workers who run conferences, staff events or manage social media, all for college credit rather than wages. That can be a boon for high-revenue megachurches that rely on an army of volunteers.

Fitzgerald said he’s not aware that Southeastern has ever said no to a church that approached it about becoming a partner site. Revenue from student tuition and fees is split between Southeastern and the church college.

Coming changes

One of Southeastern University’s biggest success stories has been Highlands College in Birmingham. The school began offering unaccredited ministry courses in 2011 before joining the Southeastern network in 2017.

In 2023, Highlands was awarded its own accreditation by the Association for Higher Education, a network of Christian schools that has been recognized by the U.S. Department of Education and the Council for Higher Education Accreditation. It now offers more than half a dozen bachelor’s degree programs.

This fall, the college will launch a new business school and a bachelor’s degree in business leadership. The Dunn School of Business is named in honor of the former CEO of a faith-based investment group that has invested millions in a church-planting network co-founded by Chris Hodges, the chancellor of Highlands College.

In Texas, Austin Christian University is focused entirely on business education, offering a bachelor’s of business administration degree through its partnership with Southeastern. Tuition, fees and housing are $35,000 per year. In addition to academic classes, students attend weekly sessions with Christian business executives and can work with Christian entrepreneurs on business projects in a “startup accelerator” program.

The business focus could help protect the school from coming changes at the federal level.

The Trump administration has been working to overhaul higher education, including proposing a new rule that would require undergraduate programs to show their graduates earn more than the median earnings of similarly aged adults with only a high school diploma, or risk losing access to federal student loans and grants.

Some Christian higher ed organizations, such as the Association for Biblical Higher Education and the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities, worry these provisions would have a disproportionately negative effect on Christian institutions, particularly those that train for traditionally lower-paying ministry or church roles.

Fitzgerald of Southeastern said he isn’t concerned that the federal overhaul will harm the newest crop of church colleges.

“We believe that as students begin to really reevaluate the return on investment of higher education, we think that unique models for education like this one are the ones that are going to thrive and succeed,” Fitzgerald said.

Stateline reporter Robbie Sequiera contributed to this story. Stateline reporter Anna Claire Vollers can be reached at avollers@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 reason has to do with the water cycle.

Water influences every aspect of our lives through a delicate cycle that transforms liquid water into vapor and back again.

As the Earth warms, more of that precipitation is arriving in intense storms that deliver more water than the landscape can handle. When storms drop a few inches of rain over a few days, the water sinks into the soil, nourishing plants and replenishing groundwater. But during heavy downpours, the rain can’t sink in fast enough, and much of the water runs off instead, often fueling flooding.

Water also evaporates faster in warmer temperatures. So, despite an increase in total annual precipitation nationally, the landscape is drying out more rapidly as temperatures rise, resulting in more severe and frequent droughts.

I’m a hydrologist at UMass Amherst. My colleagues and I are documenting these broad shifts and what they mean for the future of the terrestrial hydrological cycle – the water cycle on land – and the people and ecosystems that depend on it. The effects are occurring across climates around the world.

A hydrological cycle out of sync

Fundamentally, the terrestrial hydrological cycle is controlled by two things: precipitation that adds moisture to the ground and evapotranspiration, meaning water that evaporates either from the land back into the atmosphere or from plants releasing it through their leaves.

Over the long term, the total amount of precipitation that falls, minus the total evapotranspiration sending moisture back into the atmosphere, determines how much water moves through the hydrologic system. That affects stream flow, soil moisture and the amount of water sinking into the ground and recharging aquifers.

During heavy precipitation in the U.S. Northeast, water is rapidly routed through the shallow subsurface rather than reaching deeper soil and groundwater storage. Julianna C Huba, et al., 2026

When this balance shifts or becomes out of sync with its natural state, it affects how water moves through the landscape. And that directly influences where water is available and how much is there.

These shifts in precipitation are occurring alongside longer growing seasons that allow the land to accumulate more heat. As temperatures rise, drier air also pulls more water from the landscape, increasing the risk of drought.

The changing timing of precipitation can result in counterintuitive feedbacks, as recent studies in the Northeast have shown.

In one study, scientists at Harvard Forest found that more intense storms are delivering greater amounts of water at rates exceeding the soil’s capacity to retain it. For example, in 2023 they found that high-intensity events in their research area made up about 42% of the year’s total precipitation.

When more precipitation is concentrated, with long gaps between storms, the surface soils have time to drain and dry out. This has contributed to drier atmospheric conditions as less water is available to evaporate from the land.

This effect from bursts of heavy rain with dry periods in between shows up in data. My research group at UMass found in a separate study that while wet years in the Northeast are becoming more frequent, dry years are also becoming more frequent.

Data collected by scientists with Harvard Forest, near Petersham, Mass., from 1964 to 2023 shows how precipitation has been increasing, with a large percentage of it coming from downpours. Samuel Jurado and Jackie Matthes, 2025, CC BY-NC-SA

During the wettest years over the past decade, we found an accumulation of approximately 2 inches of water in the shallow ground, contributing to higher water tables, more frequent flooding and damage to infrastructure during heavy rainstorms.

Conversely, during dry periods the landscape dries out rapidly, resulting in drought advisories, fires, water restrictions and crop failures in what is normally one of the wetter regions of the U.S.

Finding solutions

Many states are now incorporating climate science into decisions about infrastructure and land use to better understand the risks ahead. Massachusetts, for example, created a climate data clearinghouse to make research and data widely available. It also invested in computer models to examine potential future scenarios of water storage on the landscape so communities and farmers can prepare.

Communities can boost their resilience to extreme storms with urban designs and construction that take flood risk into account, include careful drainage as more areas are paved and add features such as rain gardens, riverside parks and bioswales that move and hold more water where needed.

To manage dry years, communities can implement conservation measures, such as limiting outdoor watering, subsidizing low-flow toilets and showers, and using water pricing to encourage more careful use. They can also teach residents how to use less water and generally be more mindful of water use.

On a larger scale, a new study using computer models indicates that more aggressive efforts to reduce the drivers of climate change – particularly reducing greenhouse gas emissions from burning fossil fuels – can reverse the trend of extreme precipitation, eventually returning to rates seen in the 20th century.

Until that happens, however, the world will have to adapt to a changing hydrological cycle.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Originally published on TiffinOhio.net.

Vermont’s new law bans the sale or use of paraquat without explicit approval from the secretary of agriculture. Widely used to control weeds in major crops across the country, that chemical is linked to Parkinson’s disease.

More than a dozen states have recently introduced legislation to ban or limit the use of paraquat, according to The Council of State Governments. 

“With Vermont leading the way, states across the country now have a clear path to end the use of one of the most toxic herbicides still on the market,” Geoff Horsfield, legislative director for the Environmental Working Group, said in a news release. “This is a turning point in the effort to protect public health from a chemical that has been tied to devastating neurological harm.”

The nonprofit research and advocacy organization has been pushing for an end of paraquat use, which is banned in more than 70 countries.

Lawmakers in nearby New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania are also considering paraquat bans. And bills to ban or limit its use have been proposed in Hawaii, Iowa, Illinois, Minnesota, Missouri, Utah, Virginia, Washington and West Virginia. 

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says paraquat is one of the nation’s most widely used herbicides. But because of its inherent risks, only certified individuals may apply the herbicide and the agency warns against using it near home gardens, schools, parks, golf courses or playgrounds.

“Paraquat is highly toxic,” EPA’s website says. “One small sip can be fatal and there is no antidote.” 

Contact to the skin, swallowing or breathing the herbicide can cause lung damage, heart failure, kidney failure and has been linked to certain cancers. 

Agricultural giant Syngenta has faced thousands of lawsuits from people claiming the company did not warn consumers of the dangers of its weedkiller Gramoxone, whose key ingredient is paraquat. 

In March, Syngenta announced it would end global production of paraquat by the end of June. 

Stateline reporter Kevin Hardy can be reached at khardy@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 31-page motion invokes Ohio’s Uniform Public Expression Protection Act — the state’s new anti-SLAPP statute that took effect April 9, 2025 — and seeks dismissal of Miller’s claims with prejudice, an expedited hearing within 60 days, and a court order requiring Miller to pay her attorney fees, court costs, and other litigation expenses, all of which the statute makes mandatory if her motion is granted.

“Political candidate and Congressman Max Miller seeks to silence a woman who has information about his misdeeds,” the motion opens. “The First Amendment to the United States Constitution and Ohio’s Uniform Public Expression Protection Act (‘UPEPA’) prohibit him from succeeding.”

What Miller’s lawsuit alleges

Miller, who represents Ohio’s 7th Congressional District and is up for re-election in November, filed the underlying defamation complaint on May 13 in the same Cuyahoga County court. The lawsuit names Moreno along with her divorce attorney Andrew Zashin and his firm, Zashin Law, and seeks at least $25,000 in damages plus punitive damages “in an amount sufficient to punish Defendants and deter future similar conduct.”

Miller’s complaint focuses on two statements published in a May 7 Daily Mail article that TiffinOhio.net previously covered: that Miller hurled a pot of boiling water at Moreno during a June 2024 argument, with some of the water hitting her in the chest; and that Miller wrote his then-wife a handwritten letter the same day apologizing for “failing to protect her” without admitting to abuse. Miller’s complaint alleges Moreno “caused” those statements to be published.

Moreno’s UPEPA defense

Moreno’s motion, filed by The Chandra Law Firm of Cleveland, argues that Miller cannot succeed for four independent reasons under UPEPA.

First, the motion contends that accusations of abuse against a sitting congressman and congressional candidate are matters of public concern at the core of First Amendment protection. UPEPA, by statute, requires courts to “broadly construe and apply” its scope, and the motion cites U.S. Supreme Court precedent that criticism of public officials is “the kind of speech the First Amendment was primarily designed to keep within the area of free discussion.”

Second, Moreno argues that Ohio’s one-year statute of limitations on defamation has expired on any private statements she made about Miller — including statements to her parents, attorneys, and the court-appointed parenting coordinator dating back to 2024 and 2025.

Third, the motion includes a sworn affidavit in which Moreno states she has never spoken to a Daily Mail reporter, never directed anyone to leak information to the publication on her behalf, and ignored an August 2024 text message from Daily Mail reporter Kelly Laco that she attaches as an exhibit. The motion argues Miller himself publicized the underlying allegations through his own March 9 filing in the couple’s domestic-relations case and through an April 24 New York Post article that referenced the police reports — both publicly available sources reporters could have followed up on without any leak from Moreno.

Fourth, and most significant for the public record, the motion argues that the statements in the Daily Mail were true or substantially true.

What the affidavit and deposition say

According to the sworn affidavit Moreno filed with the motion, on Saturday, June 8, 2024, she told Miller she planned to leave him. She describes what followed as a two-part attack. First, Miller — who had just been cooking eggs — took the hot water from the pan and threw it at her. She fell to the floor in a fetal position, the affidavit states, after which Miller “took the sprayer from the sink and continued to spray me with hot water.” She took their daughter and fled to her parents’ home that day. Photographs documenting red marks on her body, taken the same day and attached to the affidavit, were also filed with the motion as exhibits.

The motion goes further, citing what it describes as Miller’s own admission to one part of that account. In an October 2025 meeting with court-appointed parenting coordinator Deborah Koricke, Moreno told Koricke about the hot-water incident. On May 12, 2026, Miller’s own divorce attorney Pamela J. McAdams deposed Koricke as part of the domestic-relations case. According to an excerpt of the deposition transcript filed as Exhibit A-7 to the motion, Koricke testified that Miller confirmed he sprayed Moreno with the sink hose. The motion cites Koricke Deposition Transcript at 16:6–14, and notes the full deposition is a public record in the Cuyahoga County Domestic Relations Division.

Miller’s admission, according to the motion, was limited to the second part of Moreno’s account — the sink-sprayer — and the motion concedes that “Miller did not say that the water was boiling.” His defamation complaint targets only the first part of the account: the Daily Mail’s description of him hurling a pot of boiling water. Moreno’s motion argues that distinction does not save Miller’s claim, because under Ohio law, substantial truth is an absolute defense to defamation. The “gist” or “sting” of the Daily Mail’s account — that Miller attacked his then-wife with hot water during the June 2024 incident — is true regardless of whether the water came from a pan or a sink hose, the motion contends, because Miller admitted to attacking her with hot water during the same encounter.

The motion also quotes from the handwritten letter Miller is alleged to have written. According to Exhibit A-1, the letter reads in part: “I do know you love me, protect me, and care for me. I failed to do that for you… I’m sorry I failed you and [daughter]. …I’m so sorry.”

A footnote in the motion asserts that “Miller previously falsely claimed that the letter didn’t exist,” citing a May 14 Politico article.

The motion also discloses that Bay Village police interviewed Moreno on February 23, 2026, as part of the open investigation into the couple’s then-2-year-old daughter’s broken collarbone. During that interview, Moreno told the officer about the 2024 hot-water incident, and the officer included her statement in the incident report — a document that is itself a public record and is attached as Exhibit A-8.

Miller dropped a separate case the day before

The motion arrives one day after Miller voluntarily dismissed a separate lawsuit he had filed against Moreno in February alleging she was pushing false domestic violence allegations against him. Miller’s filing dismissing that case Tuesday cited his daughter’s “well-being and best interests.” He did not move to dismiss the defamation suit.

Miller has denied the abuse allegations. His spokesperson told the Associated Press that Cuyahoga County Division of Children and Family Services investigated several allegations that he abused his daughter and deemed them unsubstantiated. The May 13 complaint says the allegations are “simply an attempt to destroy my personal and professional reputation.”

Background and what’s next

Miller, 37, was elected to Ohio’s 7th Congressional District in 2022 with Donald Trump’s endorsement after working on Trump’s 2016 and 2020 campaigns. He and Emily Moreno married at Trump’s Bedminster golf club in August 2022; he filed for divorce on their second wedding anniversary in August 2024. They share a 3-year-old daughter, with a joint-custody arrangement and $2,500 in monthly child support from Miller under their June 2025 divorce settlement.

The motion notes Miller’s history of using litigation in response to public abuse allegations. In October 2021, he sued former White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham for defamation after she publicly accused him of physical abuse during their prior relationship. Miller dropped that suit in August 2023.

Under UPEPA, all other proceedings in Miller’s defamation case are automatically stayed until the court rules on Moreno’s motion or any appeal of that ruling concludes — and any adverse decision is immediately appealable as an interlocutory matter. The court must hold a hearing within 60 days unless it allows limited discovery, and must rule within 60 days after that hearing.

The case is Max Miller v. Emily Moreno, et al., Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas Case No. CV-26-138810, assigned to Judge Joy Kennedy.

Originally published on TiffinOhio.net.

The U.S. Department of Justice asked the Supreme Court on Tuesday to wade into a legal fight between the Republican National Committee and a host of Democratic and voting rights groups over a series of voting restrictions in Arizona.

If the court takes the case, it could lead to a significant decision granting states greater leeway to purge alleged noncitizen voters close to elections and mandate that voters prove their citizenship — a key aim of the SAVE America Act, President Donald Trump’s signature elections legislation that’s stalled in Congress.

The high court’s decision could arrive prior to the 2028 presidential election.

Voting in Arizona

Arizona requires individuals to provide proof of citizenship, such as a birth certificate or passport, to vote in state elections. Residents who don’t offer documentation can still use a federal form to register, but can only vote in federal elections. 

Election officials must run the names of federal-only voters through a U.S. Department of Homeland Security computer program that can identify possible noncitizens.

The Justice Department argues that the Supreme Court should affirm the Arizona law and find that it doesn’t violate the National Voter Registration Act, a 1993 federal law that sets rules for how voters are registered and when states can remove them from their rolls. The NVRA imposes strict limits on canceling registrations in the 90 days before a federal election.

The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals previously ruled that Arizona’s law violates the NVRA.

“But that decision eliminates the flexibility the Act promises to States when enforcing their voter qualifications,” the Justice Department says in its brief.

While the Trump administration wants the Supreme Court to take the case, the underlying petition was filed by the Republican National Committee. Its chairman, Joe Gruters, in a statement said it was “unacceptable” that the RNC was still having to defend the Arizona law.

“Federal law is clear: only U.S. citizens have the right to vote in American elections,” Gruters said.

Appeals court ruling

Mi Familia Vota, a Latino voting rights group that’s opposing the RNC in court, said in a statement the Justice Department’s brief shows “MAGA Republicans and their friends in the Trump Administration are once again trying to disenfranchise Latino voters in Arizona.”

Opponents of Arizona’s law argue the 9th Circuit decision was correct. The state law, they say, goes well beyond what’s allowed under the NVRA. Election officials may remove individual voters in certain circumstances in the run-up to an election but the law prohibits sweeping purges.

“States cannot circumvent the limits on systematic removals that Congress — exercising its express constitutional authority to regulate federal elections — put in place to ensure that eligible voters have adequate time to correct erroneous removal procedures, thereby protecting Americans’ fundamental right to vote,” the Democratic National Committee and the Arizona Democratic Party argued in a brief filed Tuesday.

Democrats and voting rights groups warn about expanding use of Homeland Security’s SAVE system, short for Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements, that’s mandated under Arizona law. 

Initially a program used by states to check whether individual noncitizens were eligible for government benefits, the Trump administration has overhauled it into a tool that can verify citizenship by checking information in federal databases. 

SAVE can now check millions of names simultaneously. Many Republican states have begun uploading their voter rolls into SAVE to search for potential noncitizens. 

Critics of the program say SAVE has falsely flagged U.S. citizens, a problem that could be exacerbated if the Supreme Court allows its widespread use in the weeks before an election. Last-minute misidentifications could leave little time for voters to prove their citizenship.

Justin Levitt, who served as senior policy adviser for democracy and voting rights in the Biden White House and is now a law professor at Loyola Marymount University, said in an interview that the 90-day period serves as a “pencils down” time to minimize the possibility of errors just before elections.

“Anytime you’re matching one giant list to another giant list, you’re going to have mistakes,” Levitt said. “If you execute this systemic list maintenance two days before the election, those mistakes are going to keep eligible voters from voting.”

Voter purges

At a U.S. House hearing on the NVRA in December, Sophia Lin Lakin, director of the ACLU’s Voting Rights Project, pointed to several voter purges, including a 2024 effort in Virginia, to highlight the dangers of last-minute removals. 

That August, Virginia’s Republican governor at the time, Glenn Youngkin, ordered election officials to scrub the state’s voter list for noncitizens. More than 1,600 voter registrations were canceled, with citizens swept up in the purge. The Supreme Court in October 2024 declined to overturn the purge.

“There is no dispute that states and localities must keep their voter rolls accurate and up to date,” Lakin wrote in her opening statement. “But the integrity of our elections is not threatened by the phantom menace of widespread noncitizen voting — it is threatened by aggressive purge practices that wrongfully strike legitimate voters from the rolls and by unnecessary barriers to registration that prevent eligible Americans from getting on those rolls in the first place.

Noncitizen voting

The specter of noncitizen voting has been a central focus of Trump’s second term, despite studies showing it’s an extremely rare occurrence. One study of the 2016 election placed the prevalence of noncitizen voting at 0.0001% of votes cast.

Utah recently announced that a review of its 2 million registered voters identified just 27 confirmed noncitizens and an additional 25 “probable” noncitizens — a miniscule percentage of voters.

The Justice Department has sued 30 states and the District of Columbia in a so-far unsuccessful effort to force them to hand over private voter data so the information can be run through the SAVE system to search for noncitizens. In late March, Trump signed an executive order to restrict the transmission of ballots through the mail, though several lawsuits have been filed against it.

Trump also continues to demand that senators pass the SAVE America Act, even though it has stalled in the U.S. Senate. While the legislation would set a national proof of citizenship rule, some states have enacted or are weighing their own requirements. 

Republican attorneys general

Five states — Alabama, Arizona, Louisiana, New Hampshire and South Dakota — ask for proof of citizenship when voters register for the first time, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. One state, Wyoming, also requires proof when voters update their registration.

But Arizona was the only state before 2025 to maintain two separate voter rolls to enforce its proof of citizenship rules, according to the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University. The distinction helps explain why the Arizona case is now poised for consideration by the Supreme Court.

A host of Republican state attorneys general, led by Kansas’ Kris Kobach, have filed a brief urging the Supreme Court to take the Arizona case. They say the 9th Circuit gutted Arizona’s “common-sense measures” to protect its elections.

“This case presents yet another assault on State efforts to promote election security,” the states’ brief says.

In addition to Kansas, Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah and West Virginia signed on to the brief.

The Supreme Court has sent conflicting signals about proof of citizenship laws in the past. In August 2024, the court issued an unsigned order on its “shadow docket” allowing Arizona to enforce its proof of citizenship requirements for the 2024 election. 

But four years earlier, the justices declined to take a case over a Kansas proof of citizenship law. That left in place an appeals court decision blocking the law, which remains unenforceable.

The Arizona case would offer the Supreme Court a way to provide a more definitive opinion. If the justices decide soon to take it, they would likely hold oral arguments in the fall and potentially issue a decision next spring, more than a year before the 2028 presidential election.

The Justice Department’s brief says the case “offers an opportunity to resolve these important election-law issues outside the setting of a contested election.”

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

Originally published on TiffinOhio.net.

The announcement came the same day the Ohio General Assembly’s Joint Data Center Committee held its first meeting in Columbus. Sen. Bill Reineke (R-Tiffin), who represents the 26th Senate District covering Seneca, Sandusky and five other counties, sits on the panel.

The Ohio Tax Credit Authority will stop accepting new data center tax exemption proposals after its scheduled meeting on Monday, June 1, where one existing tax exemption request will still be considered, according to the governor’s office. The pause does not affect data center construction itself or the sales-tax breaks already granted to companies such as Amazon, Google, Microsoft and Meta.

Local lawmaker on the review panel

The committee is co-chaired by Sen. Brian Chavez (R-Marietta) and Rep. Adam Holmes (R-Nashport). Along with Reineke, members include Rep. Thad Claggett (R-Licking County), Rep. Heidi Workman (R-Rootstown), Rep. Chris Glassburn (D-North Olmsted), Sen. Shane Wilkin (R-Hillsboro) and Sen. Willis Blackshear Jr. (D-Dayton).

The committee plans to meet weekly and will take testimony from data center workers, residents and companies such as Google and Meta. According to a statement from Holmes, the committee’s mission is to ensure Ohioans have “accurate, relevant and usable information concerning the economic, environmental, and security impacts of Ohio data center development.”

Reineke is currently the only declared candidate for Ohio Senate president in the next General Assembly, a position he could assume in 2027.

DeWine’s reversal

DeWine had previously defended the data center tax break. In June 2025, he vetoed a line in the state operating budget that would have ended the Ohio Department of Taxation’s authority to grant the exemption, calling the incentive “important as Ohio competes with other states for technology jobs and capital investment.”

House Speaker Matt Huffman (R-Lima) has been working to round up votes for a veto override.

In Wednesday’s statement, DeWine signaled a more cautious stance.

“Data centers are a critical component to today’s technology-driven economy, which depends on the virtual, large-scale exchange of information,” DeWine said. “One of the reasons Ohio has been so successful in attracting new businesses and creating new jobs is that we have invested in the data infrastructure needed to support complex technological innovation.”

He added: “I fully support the Ohio General Assembly’s work to study the issue and bring forward facts about data centers, including the local benefits to communities when tax exemptions are granted. As this work is ongoing, I believe it is appropriate for the Ohio Tax Credit Authority to pause its consideration of new data center tax exemptions while the full impact of data center growth in Ohio is being reviewed.”

The cost question

The governor’s office said data centers that have previously received sales and use tax benefits in Ohio reported a total capital investment of $27.2 billion in 2025.

The pause follows Signal Ohio reporting that revealed the state had underestimated the cost of the data center tax break by more than $1 billion, intensifying scrutiny of an incentive that has been on the books for years but has drawn growing criticism as the industry has expanded.

Roughly 200 data centers are estimated to be operating in Ohio.

Ballot effort continues

The legislative review is not the only pressure point on the industry. A volunteer-led campaign is gathering signatures for a proposed constitutional amendment that would prohibit construction of data centers with a peak load of more than 25 megawatts per month. Organizers need 413,487 valid signatures from at least 44 of Ohio’s 88 counties by July 1 to qualify for the November ballot.

DeWine’s office emphasized that Wednesday’s action only suspends the ability for data centers to request new tax exemptions in Ohio. “It is not a data center ban,” the release said.

Originally published on TiffinOhio.net.

The May 2026 report, titled Vivek Ramaswamy’s Data Center Portfolio: Divided Loyalties, draws on Ramaswamy’s 2025 financial disclosure filed with the Ohio Ethics Commission in April. The group says the filing shows holdings in chip manufacturers, cloud and data center operators, industrial real estate trusts, infrastructure funds, and cryptocurrency — sectors that all stand to gain from continued data center expansion in Ohio.

“As governor, Ramaswamy’s policies and investments could ensure that he continues to cash in while the rest of us fall behind,” Innovation Ohio President Michael McGovern said in a statement accompanying the report. “Even if a data center project or policy isn’t in Ohioans’ best interest – it will almost always be in his.”

Ohio’s data center boom

Ohio is home to roughly 200 data center facilities and ranks fifth nationally by count, according to the Innovation Ohio report. The state and local governments have provided about $2.5 billion in tax incentives to the industry since 2017, and companies have announced plans to invest tens of billions of dollars more by 2030.

The cost of Ohio’s data center sales tax exemption alone reached approximately $1.6 billion in 2025, according to figures the Ohio Department of Taxation provided last week — about 11 times the department’s original $136 million estimate. Local sales-tax breaks added another $446.3 million in foregone revenue in 2024, the department said.

In March, the federal government announced plans for what would be the largest data center project ever built in the United States: a $33 billion natural gas power plant and up to $40 billion in data center construction at Pike County’s former Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant.

What the report says about Ramaswamy’s holdings

Innovation Ohio’s analysis lays out Ramaswamy’s stake across what it calls the “AI data center supply chain”:

Chips and semiconductors. The report says Ramaswamy holds NVIDIA stock both directly and through the Strive U.S. Semiconductor ETF (ticker: SHOC), a fund he co-founded. NVIDIA makes the dominant AI processing chip used in data centers worldwide. The fund also holds Intel, which received $150 million in JobsOhio grants and up to $8.5 billion in federal CHIPS Act funding for its semiconductor campus in New Albany, according to the report. Ramaswamy’s SHOC holdings were valued between $1 million and $5 million on his 2023 federal disclosure.

Cloud and data center operators. The disclosure shows holdings in Microsoft, Amazon, and Apple — companies that operate large data center footprints in Ohio.

Real estate and infrastructure. Ramaswamy holds shares in four industrial real estate investment trusts — Prologis, Plymouth Industrial REIT, Rexford Industrial Realty, and Terreno Realty — as well as the NYLI CBRE Global Infrastructure Megatrends Term Fund, which targets digital infrastructure assets including data centers.

Energy. The report notes that Ramaswamy’s campaign received $16,615 from the Vistra Employee PAC. Vistra Corp. is one of three nuclear energy providers announced in January to power Meta’s Prometheus AI supercluster in New Albany. The report also flags that TerraPower, which it says is scouting Ohio sites for its Natrium reactor campus, is backed by NVIDIA’s venture arm.

Cryptocurrency. Ramaswamy holds Bitcoin and Ethereum personally through a Coinbase wallet, and his asset management firm Strive, Inc. holds more than $50 million in Bitcoin, according to the report. Ramaswamy has publicly backed Ohio House Bill 18, the Ohio Strategic Cryptocurrency Reserve Act, which would authorize the State Treasurer to invest up to 10% of state interim funds in digital assets and permit Ohio’s public pension systems to invest in crypto-linked products.

What a governor controls

The report argues that the conflicts run through nearly every state body that touches the data center industry. As governor, Ramaswamy would appoint all nine members of the JobsOhio board, which awards economic development incentives; control appointments to the state Tax Credit Authority, which approves and monitors corporate tax breaks; and oversee the Ohio Power Siting Board and the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio, which permit new power generation and decide how the cost of grid upgrades is divided among ratepayers.

Industry donors

The report also highlights contributions from data center industry figures to Ramaswamy’s campaign, citing Ohio Secretary of State filings. Those donations include $16,615 from Rene Haas, CEO of ARM Holdings; $16,615 from Christopher Adams, CEO of Cleveland-based data center maintenance firm Park Place Technologies; and $33,231 combined from Reece and Frank Crivello of Phoenix Investors, a firm that converts industrial sites into data centers across 27 states.

Communities push back

The findings land as local resistance to data center expansion grows. Innovation Ohio’s report says at least 15 Ohio municipalities have enacted moratoriums on new data center construction, though other recent reporting from the Statehouse News Bureau and Ideastream Public Media puts the number of communities considering or enacting pauses at around 18, including Cleveland, where a one-year moratorium was introduced in April.

A separate group of citizens in Adams and Brown counties is gathering signatures for a proposed constitutional amendment that would prohibit construction of data centers with aggregate power demand exceeding 25 megawatts, according to Ballotpedia. Petitioners have until July 1 to qualify the measure for the November 3 ballot.

A pattern of overlap

The new report is the latest in a series of disclosures highlighting overlap between Ramaswamy’s investments and his policy positions. An April 13 analysis by the Center for Media and Democracy, reported by TiffinOhio.net, found that Ramaswamy’s promotion of state cryptocurrency investment would directly benefit holdings tied to his asset management firm. The Ohio Capital Journal reported in April on Ramaswamy’s stake in a company receiving more than $830 million in state incentives.

“Ohioans need a leader who will support policies about data centers based on what’s best for the people, not his bottom line,” McGovern said. “Ramaswamy is far too entangled with this industry to make sure it does right by our communities.”

The Ramaswamy campaign did not issue a public response to the Innovation Ohio report as of publication.

The full Innovation Ohio report is available at innovationohio.org.

Ramaswamy faces Democratic nominee Amy Acton in the November 3 general election.

Originally published on TiffinOhio.net.

The Ohio Supreme Court overturned a permit that state officials previously granted to a massive, 6,000-acre industrial-scale solar farm and battery operation in Madison County. 

In a ruling Tuesday, a fractured majority of Republican justices sided with a sweeping challenge brought by local and county officials against Oak Run Solar, which would sit in rural farmland between Columbus and Dayton. 

This makes for a significant setback but not necessarily a fatal blow to the facility. And it’s the latest in a series of legal roadblocks solar developers have faced from Ohio regulators and now, the state’s high court.

Four justices who formed a majority in the Oak Run case dismissed most of the alleged shortfalls in the solar farm’s application around aesthetics, wildlife and hydrology. However, they ruled that the project application to the Ohio Power Siting Board failed to include project renderings of its substations from public points of view. 

The court’s ruling reverses the issuance of the permit and orders the OPSB to “more thoroughly address” the visual impacts of the project. 

“By failing to provide any photographic simulations or pictorial sketches from public vantage points that show the substations’ support structures, which appear to be some of the project’s tallest features, Oak Run did not meet the rule’s requirements,” Justice Pat Fischer wrote for the majority.

The ruling is unusual in that over the past few years, it has been the gubernatorial and local appointees of the OPSB rejecting permits for utility-scale solar farms in Ohio. The Ohio Supreme Court has rejected lawsuits challenging several permits granted by the OPSB, but hasn’t yet ruled on multiple cases brought by developers seeking to reverse an OPSB denial. 

Some Republicans on the court wanted to go further. GOP Chief Justice Sharon Kennedy sided with local governments who said the developers failed to provide enough water quality and fire safety information on the operation. She called the court’s opinion “arbitrary and unreasonable” in a partial concurrence opinion. 

Justice Jennifer Brunner, the lone Democrat on the court, dissented. She said while developers didn’t include some specific renderings in their application, the OPSB still managed to thoroughly consider the viewshed impacts of a massive project area. 

A project spokesperson framed the ruling as a positive.

“The OPSB’s permit approval was largely upheld with only one clarification required: examining the visual impact of the project substations,” said Samantha Sawmiller, a senior development manager with Oak Run.

“Oak Run looks forward to working with OPSB to address this last open item so we can provide a significant opportunity for long‑term economic investment in Madison County while supporting Ohio’s growing energy needs.”

Oak Run Solar

Developers with Oak Run Solar, a project from Savion, a subsidiary of oil giant Shell, say the project would generate 800,000 kilowatt hours of electricity, enough to power 170,000 households.

The site would also include two, 150 megawatt batteries, enabling 24/7 storage alongside a generation operation that only runs during daylight hours. 

Plus, the site would be an “agrovoltaic” project, meaning it might include things like beekeeping, sheepgrazing, and groundcover gardening around the project, according to an OPSB writeup of the project. 

The developers filed the total cost of the project under seal, meaning it’s not publicly available. But they say they will hire 3,033 construction workers and 63 long-term workers; generate $8.3 million per year in economic output once operational; and pay an estimated $7.2 million in Madison County taxes. 

Much of the land is owned by Midwest Farms LLC, which spent millions on the land around 2009, property records show. Business records obtained at the time by the Columbus Dispatch linked Microsoft founder Bill Gates to the entity, but Savion didn’t respond to inquiries about Gates’ ties to the project.

Rough road for solar in Ohio

A mixture of a state law passed in 2021 that favors local opposition over renewable energy development, and a receptive regulatory panel on the OPSB, has repeatedly stymied renewable developers in Ohio. 

Since 2020, the OPSB has rejected seven solar farms. In each case, they haven’t identified any technical shortcomings. Rather, the projects haven’t met a requirement to satisfy the “public interest, convenience or necessity” due to the objections raised by township and county officials. 

Solar energy has drawn significant grassroots pushback in Ohio. Rural communities have stuffed public hearings around the state to object to permits. Counties and townships have taken to the courts to challenge permits after they’re granted. And last month, Richland County narrowly voted to uphold a ban on wind and solar facilities throughout most of the county.

Republican commissioners in 27 counties around Ohio have banned wind and solar in their jurisdiction. While state laws prohibit this kind of local control on oil or gas projects, the 2021 law passed by statehouse Republicans provided unique powers to local governments to kill wind and solar projects.

Signal Ohio is a nonprofit news organization covering government, education, health, economy and public safety.

Originally published on TiffinOhio.net.

But Beijing has not confirmed the figure and farm groups expressed skepticism that the deal would materialize.

“I think we are cautiously optimistic when it comes to these things because we’ve been on both sides of this equation. You know, the first time we went through the tariff crisis, we lost 20% market share,” said Todd Main, director of market development at the Illinois Soybean Association.

President Donald Trump visited Beijing in May for talks. Two days after the U.S. delegation returned, the White House shared a list of achievements reached between the two countries. 

This included a commitment that China would increase U.S. beef imports and buy at least $17 billion per year in additional U.S. agricultural products over the next three years. In a statement to Medill News Service on May 20, the Chinese Embassy in Washington did not confirm the $17 billion or the time frame. However, it discussed progress on the trade of beef and other agricultural products. 

Tariffs hit hard

American farmers have been caught in a cost pinch for years. Grain prices are down, and the costs of machinery and fertilizer are up, making it harder for farmers to break even. 

Last year, these pressures were exacerbated as the Trump administration placed high tariffs on Chinese imports, sparking Beijing to retaliate by halting imports of U.S. agricultural products. 

China is the world’s largest importer of agricultural products. This hit Midwestern farmers particularly hard. Iowa and Illinois produce the most soybeans in the United States, and China is their largest market by far.

If Beijing were to follow through on the commitments announced by the White House, it would increase total U.S. farm exports to China to $28 billion to $30 billion a year, according to Reuters. While this would be below the $38 billion exported in 2022, it would be higher than the $24 billion in 2024 and much higher than last year’s $8 billion. 

A return to predictable trade relations between the U.S. and China would benefit farmers, said Chris Chinn, Director of the Missouri Department of Agriculture.

“This announcement is a great first step in what we hope is a full commitment to purchasing American products,” he said.

Jerry Costello II, director of the Illinois Department of Agriculture, echoed this sentiment while expressing doubts at the likelihood of the deal panning out.

“If China truly committed to purchasing an additional $17 billion in U.S. agricultural products for three years and followed through on the purchases, it would provide meaningful support for Illinois farmers,” he said. “Unfortunately, it’s not that simple.”

When asked to confirm the $17 billion number, a spokesperson for the Chinese embassy notably omitted any mention of the figure or the time frame. 

“It is hoped that both sides will create favorable conditions for two-way agricultural trade by jointly reducing tariffs, removing non-tariff barriers, and expanding market access, so as to promote the recovery and continuous expansion of cooperation in agricultural trade,” the spokesperson said. 

China also resumed registration of U.S. beef suppliers after the summit, according to the spokesperson.

Soybean imports cut off

After the Trump administration imposed sprawling tariffs on China last year, China halted imports of U.S. soybeans for several months. In November, the U.S and China reached a trade agreement in which China committed to purchasing 12 million metric tons of soybeans by the end of February. The order represented a sharp decrease from 2024 levels.

“The ag industry has heard big promises before, but the actual trade commitments have often failed to materialize,” Costello said. “During previous trade agreements, China fell well short of its pledged purchases, leaving farmers to suffer the economic impact.”

Lance Muirhead, a seventh generation farmer in Macon County, Illinois, has felt the costs of the trade war first hand. As a direct result of ongoing trade disputes, he has had to tighten the budget on the farm he operates together with his family, he said.

“It has put a halt on us buying any new equipment we might have been in the market for,” Muirhead said. “I run a 16-year-old combine that I’d like to upgrade to a slightly newer model, but that’s just not in the budget the way commodity prices have been.”

He is “skeptically optimistic” about the new proposed trade agreement. While a tweet or a promise can have positive effects on the market, that hype is short-lived unless commitments are followed through with concrete purchases the way they were last fall, he said.

“I think the proof will be in the pudding and only time will tell, but I sure hope the agreement is executed,” he said. “When China has that big of a basket, it’s hard not to want to put all of your eggs, or soybeans, into it.”

‘Just fluff’?

Senator Adam Schiff, D-Calif., also expressed skepticism.

“There’s a long history of the president coming back and misrepresenting what he’s achieved. My first question is, are any of these commitments real or are they just fluff?” Schiff, a member of the Senate Agriculture Committee, told Medill News Service.

When China halted imports last year, it was a massive blow to U.S. soybean exports, said Main, of the Illinois Soybean Association. It’s a market that has been built up over the last 30 years, and establishing new markets takes time. 

Even if the deal were to pan out, soybean farmers still should diversify their buyers so they are no longer so reliant on China, he said.

“If you look out a decade or so, we know that long-term China is not going to be the dominant buyer that it once was,” Main said. “And so we have to pivot.” 

Medill News Service articles are reported and written by graduate student journalists in the Washington program of the Medill School at Northwestern University.

Originally published on TiffinOhio.net.

Another Central Ohio public safety leader has come forward to say he was molested by former Ohio State University doctor Richard Strauss.

Tim Becker is Gahanna’s public safety director and a former deputy chief of the Columbus Police Department. Becker explained former Columbus Fire Chief Jeff Happ’s decision to publicly share his abuse helped encourage him to do so as well.

“As a police leader, I often stood in front of cameras and urged crime victims and witnesses to come forward and share their stories,” Becker said. “I hope my example today inspires others.”

Becker also called for his alma mater to “hold itself accountable and do the right thing.”

“This is the right time, and these are the right reasons,” he said. “Although decades have passed, the wounds have not healed. It’s time to hear the victims and bring closure.”

Strauss and Ohio State

For nearly two decades Dr. Richard Strauss sexually abused patients under the guise of medical care. As a team doctor, many of Strauss’ victims were student athletes, but he is said to have preyed on other students as a physician at Ohio State’s Student Health Center as well.

Strauss was forced out by the university in 1998 but received emeritus status from the school’s board. He died by apparent suicide in 2005.

According to an independent investigation commissioned by the university in 2018, Strauss abused at least 177 male victims during his tenure at the school. But even that figure dramatically underestimates his impact. OSU has already settled with 317 victims. More than 200 others are still pursuing lawsuits against the school.

Earlier this month, Attorney General Dave Yost filed a motion in federal court urging the judge to dismiss 77 of the claims against Ohio State. Yost contends any abuse that occurred before Oct. 21, 1986 — the date Congress passed a law allowing states and universities to be sued for failing to prevent sexual abuse — should be thrown out.

Yost’s motion comes just days after he announced he will resign his post in June to take a job with the right-wing Christian nonprofit law firm Alliance Defending Freedom.

In a statement, OSU spokesman Chris Booker said since 2018, Ohio State has “sincerely and persistently tried to reconcile with survivors, including former football student-athletes, through monetary and non-monetary means, including settlements, counseling services and other medical treatment.”

The settlements so far have topped $61 million, Booker said, “and we remain actively engaged in mediation.”

“All former students who filed lawsuits have been offered the opportunity to settle,” the statement said.

Becker’s decision to share his story

Unlike many of Strauss’ victims, Becker wasn’t a student athlete.

“A rash from cycling led me to the Student Medical Center, where I suffered a sexual assault at the hands of Dr. Strauss,” he said.

“I did not report this crime at the time it occurred,” Becker continued. “I was very young. It was my word against the doctor, and I honestly feared that I would not be believed.”

Outside of the exam room, Becker said he would regularly see Strauss in the showers at OSU’s former athletic facility, Larkins Hall.

“I’d be the only person in the shower, and all of the sudden he’s standing right next to me,” Becker said. It felt like Strauss was stalking him, he said, and eventually Becker stopped going to the facility. He said there’s no way school officials were unaware of that aspect of the doctor’s behavior.

“I don’t think there’s any way possible,” he said. “He was so public about it, and there was so many people around.”

In the years since, the experience ate at him. Becker said he was vaguely aware of the Strauss lawsuit, but since he wasn’t a student athlete, he didn’t think it applied to him. When he saw news stories about Strauss, he changed the channel.

“Just seeing the picture of Dr. Straus triggered that trauma,” he said.

But earlier this month, former Columbus Fire Chief Jeff Happ shared that he was abused by Dr. Strauss as a high school wrestler at Bishop Ready in Columbus. Strauss saw youth athletes around the city as part of a supposed body fat study. Happ was just 15 the first time Strauss abused him.

Another Bishop Ready wrestler and retired Columbus Fire Captain Todd Schroeck came forward at the same time to share that he was also abused by Strauss as a high school athlete.

“I just wanted to step forward and tell others it’s time to be brave,” Schroeck said Tuesday. “It’s okay if you’re a victim, that doesn’t define who you are.”

As a high-ranking law enforcement official, Becker had interacted with Happ several times professionally and he reached out to speak to him. Happ put Becker in contact with Mike DiSabato, a wrestler who was first abused by Strauss in high school, who has become one of the leading voices pushing Ohio State University to make amends.

“For way too long, we have shamed sexual abuse victims over and over again,” DiSabato said. “And tragically, tragically here at the Ohio State University, we have shamed and traumatized sexual abuse victims in a way that is unspeakable. For eight years, sexual abuse victims have been fighting for accountability, fairness, and justice.”

Becker is not currently a part of litigation against the university and said he has not yet decided if he will join the lawsuit.

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.](https://ohiocapitaljournal.com/2026/05/27/columbus-public-safety-leaders-say-they-were-abused-by-osu-doctor/)

Originally published on TiffinOhio.net.

About 80 people recently submitted opponent testimony for Ohio Senate Bill 113, which would require every local board of education in the state to adopt a policy that would end any current diversity and inclusion offices or departments and ban any diversity, equity, and inclusion orientation or training. 

“This bill is frustratingly vague about what does and doesn’t qualify as prohibited diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives,” Ohio Federation of Teachers President Melissa Cropper said during last week’s Ohio Senate Education Committee meeting. 

ACLU of Ohio Legislative Director Gary Daniels also pointed out the lack of DEI definition in the bill.

“When school administrators, school staff, parents, stakeholders, and the state legislature all get to define for themselves (and others) what is “diversity, equity, and inclusion” then everything is diversity, equity, and inclusion and subject to banning,” he said. 

State Sen. Andrew Brenner, R-Delaware, introduced the bill last year which would also prevent the creation of any new such offices or departments and using DEI in job descriptions. Brenner recently lost his Republican primary race, meaning next year will be the first General Assembly without him since 2011. 

Less than 10 people gave supporter testimony on the bill last year. 

“SB 113 would seemingly outlaw efforts to recruit and retain more Black teachers, even though the data shows that it is objectively a good thing for students when school districts make an effort to hire a diverse teaching staff,” Cropper said. 

Black students who have one Black teacher in elementary school are 13% more likely to enroll in college and those who have two Black teachers are 32% more likely, according to a 2018 study published in the National Bureau of Economic Research. 

“(DEI is) not saying that we hire a lesser person or lesser qualified person because of the color of their skin or because of their gender,” Cropper said. “It means making sure that we’re opening opportunities to diverse populations and that when looking at all the people who are applying for that position.”

Schools with DEI initiatives had 30% fewer instances of homophobic remarks and LGBTQ students are 25% less likely to experience depression and anxiety in schools that promote inclusion, according to the 2021 National School Climate Survey by GLSEN. 

“DEI efforts are not about lowering standards, they are about removing barriers so standards can be met fairly,” said Joshua Meek, Equality Ohio’s statewide advocacy manager. 

Heather Fairs, with the Ohio School Counselor Association, said this bill would make it more difficult for schools to support every student’s academic, social, and emotional growth. 

“Restricting discussions, programs, or training related to diversity, equity, inclusion, belonging, or culturally responsive support could unintentionally limit a school counselor’s ability to identify barriers to student success and provide appropriate interventions,” she said.

Ohio House Speaker Matt Huffman, R-Lima, said he hasn’t had a chance to look at the bill. 

“There are some teachers that have been taught in the last several years in universities that these particular concepts need to be pushed as a primary part of education, even for very young children,” he said. “I think most parents and most of the public think that’s ridiculous that you’re talking about that to a second grader or third grader.”

Ohio Rep. Phil Robinson, D-Solon, said he has never heard parents, teachers, or administrators come in to testify against DEI in K-12 schools. 

“They do come in to talk about how we need more resources to be able to pay our teachers,” he said. “We need more resources for our textbooks and things of that nature. We don’t need to chase culture wars and salacious headlines.”

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.

“I went back to Bowling 1, we dismissed it as moot,” Chief Justice Sharon Kennedy said on May 20. “Why are we back here, why didn’t that resolve the case?”

An attorney representing Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine said she’d be satisfied “if the court were to simply put an end to the years of litigation and the waste of judicial resources as well as attorney resources litigating a case that simply has no point.”

An attorney representing Ohioans who were eligible for pandemic-era benefits said DeWine should have to ask the U.S. Department of Labor for benefits that weren’t received, because the governor “lacked the legal authority” to withdraw from a federal program nearly five years ago.

Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation program

The story of the case heard as part of May 20 oral arguments stretches back to 2021, when a group of individuals who were eligible for money under a pandemic-era federal program sued the state for ending its participation before the program ended in September 2021.

Before that, in March 2020, Congress passed the CARES Act. The measure did a number of things meant to aid Americans in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, including creating extra unemployment benefits through the Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation program. That included $600 per week in extra funds, from March to July of 2020, and $300 per week in extra benefits after that time. The program was closed in September 2021.

States were not required to participate, but Ohio did, at least at first. Attorney Mathura Sridharan from the Ohio Attorney General’s Office told the court the extra money “disincentivized returning to work, tightening labor markets,” which led to DeWine’s decision to withdraw from the program in June 2021. Ohioans returned to the pre-pandemic unemployment system and benefits.

That same year, individuals entered into a lawsuit in Franklin County Common Pleas Court, arguing that DeWine should not have taken the state out of the program. The Franklin County court said the CARES Act was not named as one of the federal laws in a “cooperation statute,” an Ohio law related to unemployment compensation that requires the state, through the director of the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services to “cooperate with the United States Department of Labor to the fullest extent” consistent with state law. The statute requires the ODJFS director to do so through actions like adoption of rules and regulations “as may be necessary to secure to this state and its citizens all advantages” available under specific federal statutes. Because the CARES Act was not included, the state was not mandated to participate, the court ruled.

The 10th District Court of Appeals, however, reversed this decision, concluding that the governor was compelled to seek benefits through the CARES Act.

Upon review in 2022, after the program had ended, the Ohio Supreme Court dismissed the case as “moot.”

In 2023, the Ohio legislature made changes to the “cooperation statute.” Lawmakers added a section that states nothing “precludes the director from ceasing to participate in any voluntary, optional, special, or emergency program offered by the federal government,” including CARES Act programs. Sridharan said lawmakers also explained that the governor has the authority to withdraw from the programs.

The case returned to a lower court, with attorneys for benefits recipients saying the supreme court’s dismissal didn’t cover all of the issues brought forth in the case, just the request that the court temporarily compel the state to continue being a part of the program while the court case was being decided.

Franklin County’s common pleas court this time ruled that the governor should have taken “all action necessary” to reinstate the program in Ohio. On appeal, the 10th District upheld the decision, leading to the second appeal to the Ohio Supreme Court.

“The lower courts’ decisions trample a trifecta of the other branches’ powers: they defy this court’s first dismissal, the (general) assembly’s statute, and the governor’s discretion,” Sridharan wrote in documents to the supreme court.

The power to end the program

In oral arguments in front of the Ohio Supreme Court this week, the state and attorneys representing individuals who were eligible for the benefits argued over the cooperation statute once again. The state maintained arguments that the case had already been decided by the supreme court and the program was long gone, while attorneys for benefits recipients said the program should have stayed in place and DeWine should ask for the money they may have received.

Attorney Andrew Engel, of the law firm DannLaw, said the case boiled down to a matter of authority, particularly who had the power to allow Ohio to join the benefits program, and who was authorized to end the participation.

Kennedy pointed to federal rules that allowed states to give 30-day written notice to terminate the benefits program.

“That’s what the governor did, because on May 13 (2021), the governor announced he would end the state’s participation in the … program, with an effective date of June 26th, so that was 30 days and then it closed,” Kennedy said.

The federal law states that the the governor can agree to join the program, but under state unemployment benefits law, according to Engel, only the Ohio General Assembly has the power to end participation and stop benefits.

“What we’re saying is under Ohio law, that process did not include the governor making a unilateral decision,” Engel told the supreme court.

The attorney said DeWine must now ask for the money benefits-eligible Ohioans would have received if the state hadn’t left the program. He added that because Congress appropriated the money “without fiscal year limitation,” the money should still be available until it’s appropriated for some other purpose.

Sridharan expressed skepticism that the funds were still available, but nevertheless asked the court to align their ruling in the current appeal to their previous ruling.

“This case expired when the program expired back in 2021,” she said.

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

Originally published on TiffinOhio.net.

The top Trump Administration official over Medicaid and Medicare vouched for Gov. Mike DeWine’s leadership on Tuesday as the governor has faced increased criticism from within his own party over how he’s tackled Medicaid fraud.

Dr. Mehmet Oz, administrator for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, praised DeWine’s decision to use $25 million of Ohio’s share of federal rural health funding to help expand Ohio SEE, a state program that provides vision checks and glasses to needy children. Oz and DeWine spoke with reporters at an elementary school in Dublin, where kids received new glasses as part of a ceremony highlighting the program.

Oz said he was impressed with visits earlier in the day with the local U.S. attorney and to a home health services provider who was convicted of defrauding Medicaid, including for billing for dead and ineligible patients.

“I trust Gov. DeWine,” Oz said, before later saying, “We’ve got a massive issue nationwide. I only ask for one thing: partners, governors that we can work together with, who believe there’s an opportunity to make the system work better.”

Oz’s visit, which DeWine said was planned months ago, was freighted with extra meaning given the particular political moment the governor faces. DeWine, who is nearing the end of his eight years as governor, has drawn sharp criticism from Republicans in Columbus and Washington, D.C. alike after a conservative website’s recent series highlighted instances of potential fraud in Ohio’s Medicaid program.

DeWine targets Medicaid fraud

The articles in the Daily Wire focused on home health care, in which unlicensed aides help homebound patients with non-medical services. The series comes as President Donald Trump has targeted mostly Democratic states with fraud crackdowns, although fraud is a longstanding issue in the massive program, which provides healthcare coverage to those with disabilities and low incomes, covering a quarter of Ohio’s population.

Nearly all states provide similar services. DeWine has said home health services are necessary to keep people out of nursing homes, which cost more and often can provide a lower quality of life. Amid the federal crackdown, DeWine has announced measures intended to reduce or prevent potential fraud in the program, including temporarily pausing the approval of new providers and reimplementing GPS tracking measures on home aides.

Asked Tuesday whether Medicaid should stop paying for these types of home health services, Oz said states need to figure out how to determine whether someone actually needs them. And he praised DeWine’s new anti-fraud measures.

“Ohio jumped on it immediately, and the governor actually made it part of a platform for the state to take this issue seriously. I think the American people want to know their tax dollars are spent wisely,” Oz said.

‘But Vivek is not the governor’

While in Columbus, Oz also met with another Republican leader: Vivek Ramaswamy, the GOP nominee for Ohio governor in the November election. Ramaswamy is running against Dr. Amy Acton, a Democrat who previously served as DeWine’s state health director.

Oz said he and Ramaswamy had a pull-up competition, in which Oz suggested Ramaswamy was helped by his background as a high-ranked prep tennis player.

Here’s the video evidence so readers can judge for themselves.

The one-and-only @DrOzCMS gave me a challenge in the backyard today. Practice what we preach! 💪🏼 pic.twitter.com/AcwoJfA90x

— Vivek Ramaswamy (@VivekGRamaswamy) May 26, 2026

The two also discussed Ramaswamy’s ideas to fight Medicaid fraud. Ramaswamy announced his plan last week, which includes seeking federal support for Ohio to keep a larger share of any fraud recovery. Typically, Ohio returns two-thirds of any such money to the federal government, since the feds provide two-thirds of the program’s funding.

Oz was diplomatically noncommittal about Ramaswamy’s idea. He called it a “very innovative idea” and said he referred Ramaswamy to the federal official who directly oversees the Medicaid program.

“But Vivek is not the governor. Here is the governor,” Oz said, gesturing toward DeWine. “What do you think?”

DeWine was succinct in his response.

“I’m open to any kind of idea,” DeWine said. “I thought it was a very intriguing idea.”

In a message, Ramaswamy campaign spokesperson Evan Machan said Ramaswamy “has laid out a practical plan to crush Medicaid fraud in Ohio and make healthcare more affordable for Ohioans.”

“Vivek has the unique skills and relationships to deliver lower healthcare costs for our state, and he looks forward to working collaboratively with CMS to implement his vision starting in January 2027,” Machan said.

Signal Ohio is a nonprofit news organization covering government, education, health, economy and public safety.

Originally published on TiffinOhio.net.

Ronald E. Callahan, 68, of Tiffin, faces a fifth-degree felony charge of attempted importuning after vigilante group Dads Against Predators (D.A.P.) confronted him March 11 at a Fremont Denny’s, alleging he had communicated online with a decoy posing as a 14-year-old boy and arranged to meet in person. He was arrested the following day.

At Callahan’s most recent pre-trial hearing on May 7, Assistant Fremont Prosecutor Dawn M. Haar extended a plea offer “dependent on review of evidentiary issues & electronic evidence,” according to the court’s case management entry. A similar entry from the April 14 pre-trial also referenced a plea offer extended by Haar, contingent on evidentiary review. The terms of the offer have not been made public.

Callahan, who has retained private attorney John M. Kahler II, has demanded a jury trial and waived speedy trial time at both pre-trial hearings.

Read the full story at https://tiffinohio.net/posts/tiffin-man-offered-plea-deal-in-fremont-child-sex-sting-case/.

Originally published on TiffinOhio.net.

New national polling and on-the-ground organizing across rural Ohio suggest the vision is colliding with the people who would have to live with it.

A Gallup poll released May 13 — the firm’s first ever measuring local opinion on AI data centers — found that 71 percent of Americans oppose building one in their local area, including 48 percent who are strongly opposed. Roughly a quarter favor the idea, and only 7 percent strongly favor it. Opposition to local data centers runs higher than opposition to local nuclear power plants, 71 percent to 53 percent.

Gallup reported that opposition crosses political and demographic lines. Forty-six percent of respondents said they worry “a great deal” about the environmental impact of AI data centers, and another 24 percent worry “a fair amount.” The polling firm noted that politicians who favor data centers in their area “are likely taking a politically risky stance.”

Ramaswamy has spent the past year doing exactly that.

”The next Silicon Valley”

In a Fox News appearance ahead of his February 2025 campaign launch, Ramaswamy framed his vision plainly: “As if Silicon Valley led the way in the American economy for the last ten years, I want to make sure it’s the Ohio River Valley for the next ten years.”

He repeated the line throughout the primary campaign, often paired with calls to “unshackle” Ohio’s energy production, attract more semiconductor and AI infrastructure, and welcome Bitcoin mining operations into the state. After easily defeating nonprofit founder Casey Putsch in the May 5 Republican primary, Ramaswamy now faces Democrat Amy Acton, the former state health director, in November.

The pitch is built around a state that is already among the most aggressive data center hosts in the country. Ohio has roughly 200 data centers — the fifth-most of any state — and companies have announced plans to invest up to $40 billion more by 2030. Since 2017, the industry has collected an estimated $2.5 billion in state and local tax breaks, including sales tax exemptions and property tax abatements of 75 percent that can last 15 to 30 years.

What Ramaswamy has not done is reconcile that pitch with the costs Ohio communities are already paying.

Rising bills, strained water, few permanent jobs

A single hyperscale data center can consume as much electricity as 80,000 to 100,000 homes. At an August 2025 Ohio Chamber forum, Ramaswamy himself acknowledged that Ohio’s electricity costs are roughly 50 percent higher than they were and projected to climb another 50 percent. He attributed the increase in part to data center demand, then argued the answer was to build more data centers and produce more fossil fuel energy to power them.

The Ohio Chamber of Commerce’s own analysis has flagged water as another flashpoint. Under the most likely growth scenario modeled by the Chamber, central Ohio — where most data centers are concentrated — faces 56 instances where water demand outstrips supply by 2040.

The job-creation case has also frayed under scrutiny. While construction crews build new server farms in waves, the permanent workforce at a finished facility is often a fraction of what a comparable industrial site would employ. A University of Virginia analysis found that as of 2024, Ohio’s data centers had generated roughly 22,300 short-term construction jobs but only about 4,500 permanent positions. Policy Matters Ohio found that of the nearly $1.1 billion in private investment Gov. Mike DeWine announced for the state in 2024, more than 90 percent was new Microsoft data center construction — which accounted for less than 5 percent of the new jobs created.

One recent Ohio data center project received a $4.5 million state tax exemption to create 10 permanent jobs.

Rural Ohioans push back

The backlash Ramaswamy is wagering against has organized itself into something more durable than a few town hall complaints.

A group of residents from Adams and Brown counties in southwest Ohio — operating as Ohio Residents for Responsible Development — cleared the Ohio Ballot Board on April 3 and is now gathering signatures for a constitutional amendment that would ban construction of any data center using more than 25 megawatts of power. The all-volunteer effort must collect more than 413,000 valid signatures from at least 44 of Ohio’s 88 counties by July 1 to make the November ballot.

“It’s definitely not one county. It’s definitely not only rural areas, although the push is coming from rural areas,” Austin Baurichter, a lawyer working with the group, told the Statehouse News Bureau. “And I would say, don’t ever count out the people out here. Don’t ever count out the voices of us Ohio residents on making it known what we want to do.”

At least 15 Ohio communities have enacted moratoriums on new data center construction, according to the same reporting. Lawmakers in at least 11 other states have introduced legislation to temporarily ban or restrict data centers.

The Ohio General Assembly has begun trying to catch up. The Ohio House passed a revised version of House Bill 646 on March 18, which would create a 13-member Data Center Study Commission to examine the industry’s effects on water, electric infrastructure, farmland, tax incentives and local government and report back with recommendations within six months.

Ramaswamy has not publicly endorsed a study, a moratorium, or any structural change to the tax incentive regime that has fueled the buildout. His verified social media posts on the subject continue to describe the data center boom as “good” and frame the conversation around producing more energy rather than examining what is consuming it.

A wager against where Ohio is going

Ramaswamy’s own financial position adds another layer to the politics. His Dallas-headquartered asset management firm, Strive, disclosed in a May 19 SEC filing that it now holds 15,391 Bitcoin — making it the ninth-largest public corporate Bitcoin treasury in the country. Bitcoin mining is one of the most electricity-intensive uses of data center infrastructure, and Ramaswamy has explicitly said he wants Bitcoin mining operations in Ohio. His top two super PAC donors, who together have given roughly $24 million to support his campaign, are crypto investors.

The competitive math of the November race also makes the data center issue more than abstract. A BGSU/YouGov poll conducted April 7-14 showed Ramaswamy leading Acton 48 to 47 percent — within the margin of error. A Democrat has not won the Ohio governor’s office since Ted Strickland’s 2006 victory, but the structural advantage Republicans have enjoyed for nearly two decades is not insulated from a backlash that, as Gallup found, crosses party lines.

The Adams and Brown county petitioners have until July 1 to qualify their amendment for the November ballot. If they succeed, Ohio voters could end up casting two related votes the same day — one on whether to allow the kind of large-scale data center expansion Ramaswamy is selling, and one on whether to hand him the office that would help deliver it.

Ohio’s general election for governor is November 3, 2026.

Originally published on TiffinOhio.net.

A gunman opened fire at a U.S. Secret Service checkpoint at 17th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue and was killed when agents returned fire. One bystander was also shot and injured, according to the Secret Service. 

President Donald Trump was inside the White House during the incident but was unharmed, and no ongoing operations were impacted, according to the agency.

“This second attack on the President this month underscores the critical need for top level, state of the art security at the White House, including the Ballroom, a knitted, unified, cohesive part of the East Wing Project, which is vital for National Security, and is being constructed to ensure that the President can perform his constitutional duties in a safe and heavily secured facility,” Blanche argued.

The acting attorney general, Trump’s former personal defense lawyer, filed the supplemental brief Sunday opposing a federal court order that temporarily halted any above-ground construction on the ballroom.

Shooting at press dinner

The proposed ballroom “will provide a ‘SAFE HAVEN’ from attackers such as the one last night, and on April 25th,” Blanche wrote, referring to the gunman who opened fire at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner last month.

The alleged shooter, Cole Tomas Allen, who pleaded not guilty, is charged with attempting to assassinate the president and is being held in jail in Washington, D.C., awaiting trial. 

The Trump administration and his supporters in Congress amped up calls for a secure ballroom following the shooting at the historic annual dinner where Trump, the first lady and several Cabinet officials safely evacuated.

But skepticism among some Senate Republicans of using taxpayer dollars has all but scuttled a $1 billion Secret Service funding proposal — $220 million of which was earmarked for the ballroom.

Trump maintains the ballroom will be funded by private donors and routinely speaks about the project at unrelated events.

Drone port, sniper facilities

Blanche slammed the lawsuit against the White House construction project as “meritless.” The National Trust for Historic Preservation filed the suit in December, less than two months after Trump demolished the White House East Wing to make way for the large structure. 

The lawsuit, Blanche argued, “has been a great attack on our Country in that the Military, Secret Service, and Law Enforcement are not happy that all of these Top Secret features have been revealed to potential enemies, criminals, and all others, including the fact that there will be a major drone port and Government sniper facilities on the heavily secured roof of the Ballroom.”

The proposed ballroom is slated to have “bomb shelters, a state of the art hospital and medical facilities, Top Secret military installations, structures, and equipment,” according to the court filing.

Trump posted an image of the filing on his Truth Social platform Monday morning.

The president also thanked the Secret Service on Truth Social in the wee hours of Sunday. 

“This event is one month removed from the (White House Correspondents’ Dinner) shooting, and goes to show how important it is, for all future Presidents, to get, what will be, the most safe and secure space of its kind ever built in Washington, D.C. The National Security of our Country demands it!” he wrote.

The National Trust for Historic Preservation did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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

Originally published on TiffinOhio.net.

DeWine was the guest at last week’s Columbus Metropolitan Club forum that was moderated by Ohio Public Radio and TV reporter Jo Ingles. DeWine, who is term-limited, has about 230 days left as Ohio’s governor. 

“Part of what I’m trying to do in the last 235 days is to finish your work,” he said. “Work is never done.”

DeWine endorsed Republican Vivek Ramaswamy for governor earlier this year, despite working alongside the Democratic candidate Amy Acton when she was the director of the state health department. 

“It’s clear where I stand,” DeWine said. “I’m a Republican. I’m for the Republican nominee. The Republican nominee is Vivek Ramaswamy.” 

DeWine said he has had many discussions with Ramaswamy, who said earlier this year he wants to consolidate Ohio colleges and universities — saying “We have too many of them.”

“When you ask him one of the most important things you want to do, (Ramaswamy’s) answer is to grow jobs, bring companies in, and second, make sure that we have educated people,” DeWine said. “We should not mistake governing for the campaign.”

Despite DeWine’s loyalty to the Republican Party, he has disagreed with President Donald Trump over issues including Haitian immigrants, the Jan. 6 Capitol attack, and the 2020 election. 

“The job of the governor is to be the governor of the people of the state of Ohio,” DeWine said when asked why is not more critical of Trump. 

“I cannot wake up every morning and think … what did the president do? … My job is to focus on the people of Ohio, and what I can actually do, and what I can accomplish.” 

On the topic of state politics, DeWine signed a bill into law in 2023 that requires citizens to show photo identification before voting, but stopped short of endorsing a constitutional amendment Ohio Republicans are trying to put on the ballot. 

“I haven’t seen the final language on it,” he said. 

DeWine has been saying for months he will make an announcement about Ohio’s death penalty and hinted during the forum that it will be coming soon. The last person to be executed in Ohio was in 2018, shortly before DeWine took office in 2019. 

“I don’t want to build this up because I’m going to do it shortly, and I think there’s been a lot of hype about this, but there really shouldn’t be,” DeWine said. “It’ll simply be Mike DeWine reflecting on the death penalty.”

Thinking back on his time in office, DeWine said his “biggest mistake” was signing the gambling bill into law in December 2021. 

“What I did not anticipate — and I should have — is the massive, massive amount of money that these gambling companies would come in … and they flood the airways,” he said. 

More Ohioans are gambling and losing money, and athletes are being abused online as a result of sports betting, DeWine said. 

He said the most important work he has done is focus on Ohio’s children — specifically through the Dolly Parton Imagination Library program, requiring Ohio schools to teach the science of reading curriculum, and creating the Ohio Student Eye Exam (OhioSee) program that provides students in kindergarten through third grade comprehensive eye exams and glasses at schools. 

“If we’re serious about reading, if we’re serious about early childhood development, what we call Ohio See, I hope the next governor will take OhioSee … and run with that,” DeWine said. 

DeWine, who will turn 80 the week he leaves office in January, plans to spend more time with his 28 grandchildren after his term expires. He said is going to set up a center at his alma mater Miami University. 

“We’re not sure exactly what, but we think it’s going to be a focus on children,” said DeWine, who graduated with a degree in education. “One thing I would like to do is to help social studies teachers.” 

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.

Ohio House Bill 649 has seen several hearings in the House Children and Human Services Committee, and the consideration continued on Tuesday, when the committee approved changes offered by the Republican sponsors of the bill.

The measure, sponsored by state Reps. Josh Williams, R-Sylvania Twp., and D.J. Swearingen, R-Huron, touches on several issues related to childcare fraud investigations, including verifying the attendance of individual children, and the authority and process through which potential fraud is investigated.

As introduced, H.B. 649 would require the Ohio Department of Children & Youth to conduct a “preliminary investigation” immediately after an allegation of “probable or suspected waste, fraud, and abuse” is levied at a childcare center that receives funding through the Publicly Funded Child Care program.

If a preliminary investigation finds substantiated allegations, the state’s Office of the Inspector General will be required to conduct an investigation, under the bill. In a change made in Tuesday’s committee hearing, the inspector general would be allowed to request additional evidence from the Ohio Department of Children & Youth at any point in that investigation, “and to pause the investigation until that evidence is made available,” according to the new version of the bill.

A previous version of H.B. 649 required that the Ohio House speaker and the state Senate president be notified when a childcare fraud case was referred to the inspector general, and at the conclusion of the investigation.

In the newest version of the bill, the House speaker and Senate president will be notified, but only at the beginning of a full investigation.

There were no objections to the changes made to the bill on Tuesday.

H.B. 649 previously had a provision in it that proved controversial to some, particularly childcare workers and owners. Williams had proposed that facility surveillance cameras be used to identify children attending the childcare centers, rather than the current system where a parent or guardian who drops off the child is verified within the system database, and photographed to confirm the individual child’s attendance. The proposal also would have required child care centers to retain at least 60 days of security camera footage for department “compliance reviews.”

In a March hearing, the committee amended H.B. 649, prohibiting the storage of photos or videos taken at facilities. The change to the bill would only allow footage taken from devices specifically provided by the Ohio Department of Children & Youth.

State Rep. Gary Click, R-Vickery, said during the meeting that there was “not a broad amount of support for (child photo or video capture) staying in the bill.”

The bill is being considered in the committee at the same time a separate GOP-led bill related to childcare fraud identification and investigation is also being looked at for legislative approval. Ohio House Bill 647 also saw changes at a recent recent hearing, moving some funding that had been included in the bill back to the budget of the Ohio Department of Children & Youth. That bill has the support of the agency’s director, Kara Wente, who spoke in support of it earlier in the consideration process.

Wente said while the department already has a diligent system in place to identify suspected fraud, H.B. 647 bolsters those efforts. Childcare fraud is not a statistically prevalent issue in Ohio. Wente and the department cited less than 200 reported cases last year, and only 24 that led to the loss of Publicly Funded Child Care program funding for investigated facilities.

Childcare facilities have been in the spotlight since the Trump administration froze funding to some states including Minnesota, after allegations were made by a right-wing influencer that facilities there, particularly those managed by Somali immigrants, were committing fraud using federal funds provided for childcare purposes.

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

Originally published on TiffinOhio.net.

Ohio’s utilities just can’t seem to pass muster when it comes to preventing power outages and getting the lights back on quickly.

In 2025, four of the state’s six regulated electric utilities failed to provide the level of reliable service expected by regulators — marking the 10th year in a row when at least one company has missed. Yet now, as customers see skyrocketing energy bills, the shortfall has some groups urging the state to reject utility requests to lower their reliability standards even further.

“Ohioans should expect the same utilities bragging about record profits to improve their service, not get worse,” said Karin Nordstrom, an attorney for the Ohio Environmental Council.

Looming large over the debate is the fact that Ohio leaders and utilities have blocked measures that could have improved reliability over the years. With 2019’s scandal-plagued House Bill 6, legislators gutted the state’s clean energy standards, which could have spurred the development of more solar and wind power that may relieve long-distance transmission congestion or provide alternate generation when fossil-fuel or nuclear power plants are offline. And utilities in the state have a history of opposing requirements for energy-efficiency measures, which can mitigate strain on the grid by reducing overall demand.

The companies looking to ease reliability standards are FirstEnergy​’s three Ohio utilities and Duke Energy Ohio, which together serve 2.9 million customers across the state. (The term ​“customer” generally refers to a whole household or business, rather than an individual person.)

Last year, Duke and the three FirstEnergy utilities — Ohio Edison, Toledo Edison, and the Cleveland Electric Illuminating Co. — missed their targets for the average number of power outages per customer. Toledo Edison also exceeded the average time allowed to get the lights back on after they go out. Those figures don’t count major events, such as severe storms, which affected hundreds of thousands of Ohio customers in 2025.

When they fall short, utilities have to provide regulators with an explanation and an action plan. If they fail repeatedly, companies are potentially on the hook for tens of thousands of dollars in penalties.

This isn’t the first time utilities have sought approval to lower the bar for their customer service. And the state Public Utilities Commission has occasionally indulged those requests.

But the latest asks come at a particularly fraught moment for the American grid. The data center boom threatens to push the system to its physical limits and further spike power prices, and North America’s grid authority is sounding the alarm about the computing facilities’ potential to cause blackouts.

Meanwhile, even though President Donald Trump declared an energy emergency on his first day in office, his administration is stifling the buildout of wind and solar, which could infuse the grid with much-needed electrons. While Trump has attacked renewable energy as unreliable, a new analysis by clean energy think tank RMI underscores that renewables have not measurably reduced reliability and can in fact boost it.

Researchers have identified two major factors that are making the country’s grid less dependable: aging infrastructure and extreme weather, which study after study has shown is more intense because of climate change.

FirstEnergy and Duke both cited increasingly extreme weather as one of the main reasons for relaxed reliability standards. Although major event outages don’t count toward the requirements, FirstEnergy’s application to loosen the mandated targets noted “smaller but more disruptive storms, heavier rainfall, and a rise in tree-related outages” outside the company’s rights of way, spokesperson Brooke Conlan said, citing federal data.

John Juech, a Duke Energy Ohio spokesperson, also pointed to weather variability as a significant reason for its excessive outages last year, along with vehicle accidents and other ​“high-impact incidents.” The company cited both factors when it filed its pending request for more lenient reliability requirements. He noted that the utility has improved its performance since 2017–2018, even though it’s fallen short of the standards in some recent years.

The Ohio Environmental Council’s Nordstrom pushed back on the idea that more extreme weather should translate to weaker regulation.

“Reliability standards must be strengthened as climate change continues to pose challenges for utilities,” she said. ​“As the challenges to meet climate change rise, so do the needs of customers.”

The changes sought by both companies’ utilities don’t look large on paper, but they could be significant.

A proposed compromise between Duke and staff members at the Public Utilities Commission would bump up the allowable outage frequency per customer from an average of 0.75 times annually to 0.87 — a seemingly fractional difference but one that would permit more than 90,000 outages above the current standard. The plan would also reduce the average time to restore power by 3 minutes per person. That’s not a marked improvement, though, since the company did better than that in each of the last eight years, says an April filing by the Office of the Ohio Consumers’ Counsel, urging the full commission to reject the plan.

“Consumers are not better off if the lights go out more often, even if they come back on a few minutes sooner,” said the office, a state agency that advocates on behalf of residential utility customers.

For its Cleveland Electric Illuminating customers, FirstEnergy wants the average extra time for getting the lights back on to rise by roughly 15 minutes per customer. The company wants the average frequency for both its Ohio Edison and Toledo Edison subsidiaries to increase by 0.05 per customer, which would mean accepting a total of more than 69,000 additional outages than current standards permit. Those utilities’ allowable time to restore power would also increase.

Averages don’t tell the whole story, though. Grid disparities within a utility’s service area could mean some neighborhoods with old equipment see significantly more or longer outages than others.

“The actual customer experiences that make up these averages can fluctuate greatly with even a small adjustment,” Nordstrom said.

The impacts of blackouts go beyond inconveniences or expenses for spoiled food, which can run into hundreds of dollars for extended power losses. They can also mean life or death for some, especially on superhot or frigid days.

Ohio Consumers’ Counsel Maureen Willis told Canary Media, ​“Reliability standards should protect consumers, not be adjusted downward simply because utilities are repeatedly failing to meet them.”

Briefing has wrapped up in both the FirstEnergy and Duke cases, and the Public Utilities Commission is expected to rule on them in the coming weeks.

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

Originally published on TiffinOhio.net.

The lawsuit, filed in U.S. district court in Cincinnati, alleges that a jailer used racial slurs against an Ecuadoran man, Luis Tenelanda, as he punched Tenelanda so hard that the detainee ended up in the hospital. 

In a written statement, the sheriff’s office said it couldn’t comment on the allegations because they’re part of pending litigation. But it said it ran a safe, professional operation.

“The Butler County Sheriff’s Office remains committed to the safe, secure, and professional operation of the Butler County Jail,” it said. “Sheriff (Richard) Jones continues to stand behind the men and women of the Sheriff’s Office who perform a difficult and demanding job each day while maintaining the professionalism and integrity expected by the citizens of Butler County.”

However, the plaintiff, his lawyers and an immigrant-support organization said there was a culture of mistreating immigrant detainees at the jail.

So much so, that in addition to asking for monetary damages, the suit asks the court to declare that Jones habitually fails in his duty to train and supervise jail staff. It also asks the judge to declare that the staff violated Tenelanda’s constitutional rights and caused him severe suffering in the process.

Lynn Tramonte, founder of the Ohio Immigrant Alliance, said the officer accused of attacking Tenelanda was given an oral reprimand for not filing an incident report. But the sheriff’s office decided that the jailer had not used excessive force even though Tenelanda had to go to the hospital, she said. 

“This didn’t need to happen,” Tramonte said during a virtual press conference. “Mr. Tenelanda had been in this country for decades. He has adult children. He was a construction worker who built fire stations, police stations and schools. He was very proud of his work in this country.”

Immigrant-rights advocates said the incident was part of a pattern at the Butler County Jail. Located in Hamilton, the jail has housed immigration detainees under contract with the federal government during both Trump administrations.

“This is about more than just one sergeant’s actions,” said Gabriel Davis of the Ohio Justice and Policy Center, which, along with the Norris Law Group, filed the case. “It’s about a culture of abuse and inhumane treatment.”

According to the complaint, the incident occurred on June 8, 2025.

Tramonte said that immigration detainees were typically kept in their cells for 22 hours a day. 

When they were abruptly told that Sunday evening they wouldn’t get out at all that day, some began banging on their doors and shouting for what they called their “break.” Tenelanda joined in, the lawsuit said.

Sgt. Corneal Rowe called Tenelanda and his cellmate such things as “illegals,” “Mexican son of a bitch,” and “savages,” according to other detainees quoted in the lawsuit. 

Then Rowe entered Tenelanda’s cell and punched him in the stomach so hard that Tenelanda fell back against his metal bed frame, hitting his head and body so hard it caused him to pass out, the suit said.

After being checked by jail medical personnel, Tenelanda returned to his cell, but woke in the middle of the night and vomited blood, the suit said. He continued to feel dizzy, vomited more and had severe pain in his arm later that day, it said.

Two days after the incident, Tenelanda was taken to the hospital for lab work and X-rays. He “was told that his arm was fine and that he had an inflamed stomach,” the suit said.

The hospital gave Tenelanda his medical reports, but a sheriff’s deputy took them and then refused to hand them over, the detainee’s lawyers said. They were forced to get another copy from the hospital after Tenelanda had been deported to Ecuador, they said.

It wasn’t the first time jailers in Butler County have been accused of mistreating immigration detainees.

Men born in Cameroon and Somalia sued, alleging that in 2020 they were repeatedly beaten. They also accused guards of taking a prayer rug from one detainee, a Muslim, and putting it in the toilet.

The case is pending and lawyers for Butler County are fighting the allegations. 

Tremonte pointed out that immigration detainees are locked in their cells almost constantly in Butler County even though they’re being held on civil — not criminal — detainers. 

Tenelanda’s treatment rankled him after spending 30 years in the United States, according to a letter that Tramonte read. He has children who are citizens, including one in law school.

“We Hispanics are not criminals like they call us and treat us,” it said. “I was working for a very prestigious company in Dayton, Ohio, building schools, buildings for police and firemen and hotels. I worked in all of those places until my last day — paying my taxes every year — and it’s not fair that they treat us like this.”

Tenelanda had been supporting his children. Now he’s back in Ecuador with an injured shoulder that prevents him from working, his letter said.

Tramonte said Tenelanda’s family “was impacted tremendously” by his deportation.

“There’s a lot of breakdown in families psychologically after deportation because they don’t know who to blame,” she said. “It’s hard. It’s stressful. It’s a very difficult time.”

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

Originally published on TiffinOhio.net.

The three cases — involving a former volunteer in Perry County, a former teacher and pastor in Muskingum County, and a former teacher in Miami County — are not connected to one another, and law enforcement has not alleged that any of the misconduct occurred during LifeWise programming. A LifeWise spokesperson told NBC4 that all three men passed background checks before joining the program.

The charges surface as LifeWise, founded in 2018 by former Ohio State football player Joel Penton, continues a rapid expansion across Ohio. The nonprofit now operates in more than 260 of Ohio’s 607 school districts, including a newly announced launch at Tiffin City Schools, according to Develop Seneca County, the local economic development organization that announced LifeWise’s membership last fall.

Perry County volunteer pleads guilty to rape, sexual battery

William VanSickle, a volunteer with the Northern Local LifeWise chapter in Perry County, was arrested in mid-April and has pleaded guilty to one count of rape and two counts of sexual battery against a minor, according to NBC4’s reporting. Jail records cited by NBC4 indicate VanSickle had forced sexual contact with a minor over a five-year period between January 2017 and January 2022.

VanSickle is scheduled to be sentenced June 1 and is being held on a $1 million bond. A LifeWise spokesperson told NBC4 that VanSickle was removed from the program once the organization learned of his arrest and that his role was in a “limited capacity.” Court records indicate that the minor did not know VanSickle through LifeWise.

Muskingum County pastor pleads guilty to voyeurism, gross sexual imposition

Christopher Riggs, a Muskingum County pastor and former LifeWise teacher with the Tri-Valley chapter, has pleaded guilty to voyeurism and gross sexual imposition involving a minor, NBC4 reported. Riggs resigned from his LifeWise teaching role in November.

According to NBC4, court documents show Riggs’s misconduct was directed toward a minor teenager who was known to Riggs but not connected to him through LifeWise. NBC4 reported that Riggs appeared to be the only pastor at Washington Township Baptist Church before his guilty plea.

Miami County teacher held on $500,000 bond; sheriff seeks additional victims

On Wednesday, the Miami County Sheriff’s Office said it had received multiple rape complaints from minors involving Kenneth E. Holycross, who worked as a teacher with LifeWise Bethel Local in Tipp City from August 2024 to summer 2025, according to NBC4.

Jail records cited by NBC4 show Holycross is being held on a $500,000 bond on two counts of rape. Court records indicate Holycross is accused of forced sexual contact with a minor under the age of 13 between May 1 and May 19. Miami County Sheriff’s detectives said they suspect additional victims may exist and have asked anyone with information to come forward.

Holycross also previously worked at Dayton Children’s Hospital as a mental health technician, according to his LinkedIn profile cited by NBC4. WDTN, NBC4’s sister station in Dayton, was told by Dayton Children’s that “Kenneth Holycross III is no longer employed at Dayton Children’s. We are working closely with investigators and are not aware of any incident that occurred at Dayton Children’s.”

A LifeWise spokesperson told NBC4 that Holycross had “limited interaction with students” during his time with the program and that there was no indication his alleged crimes were associated with his LifeWise work.

LifeWise points to background-check policy

LifeWise told NBC4 that all staff and volunteers undergo screening through ADP Screening and Selection Services, and that all three men passed their background checks without incident.

“LifeWise continues to use professional background screening services as part of its broader child safety policies and procedures,” a LifeWise spokesperson told NBC4. “We remain committed to maintaining strong safeguards, accountability and oversight throughout our programs.”

The organization said in a separate statement that “the safety and well-being of students is LifeWise’s highest priority” and that it takes “all concerns involving student safety extremely seriously.”

The recent cases are not the first time questions have been raised about LifeWise’s vetting. In 2024, NBC4 reported, a LifeWise director in northern Ohio was fired after losing her teaching license over allegations she sexted a minor. She did not face criminal charges, and the misconduct was not flagged by LifeWise’s background check process, which was being conducted at the time by a different vendor, ProScreening.

Critics renew vetting concerns as program reaches Tiffin

The Secular Education Association, a parent-led national organization that began in 2023 as a Facebook group called Parents Against LifeWise, first connected the three cases publicly, NBC4 reported. The group has long argued that LifeWise’s screening practices do not meet the same standards as those required of public school employees, who must undergo fingerprint-based Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation and FBI background checks.

The cases come as LifeWise continues to grow inside Ohio public school systems, including in Seneca County. Develop Seneca County announced in September 2025 that LifeWise had joined the organization and was “gearing up to launch its first program at Tiffin City Schools.” A 2024 proposal from a LifeWise steering committee outlined plans to serve students from Krout and Washington elementary schools, with classes held at the Chandelier Event Center and Restoration Alliance Church.

LifeWise reported revenue of more than $39.2 million in fiscal year 2024-25 and now serves roughly 60,000 students in 32 states, according to its most recent IRS filing.

Originally published on TiffinOhio.net.

The summit, held at the Grand Hyatt Deer Valley and co-hosted by Cox and the Washington, D.C.-based Abundance Institute, has drawn an attendee list heavy with Trump-administration officials, congressional Republicans, energy executives, and AI and crypto investors. According to the published agenda, Energy Secretary Chris Wright, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin, White House Office of Science and Technology Policy Director Michael Kratsios, and Nuclear Regulatory Commission Chairman Ho Nieh are all on the program alongside Ramaswamy. Tickets are sold out.

Ramaswamy, a Cincinnati businessman who won the May 5 Republican primary, faces former state health director Dr. Amy Acton in the Nov. 3 general election. Recent polling shows the race within the margin of error: a Bowling Green State University/YouGov survey in April had Ramaswamy at 48% and Acton at 47%, and the RealClearPolling average puts him ahead by a single point.

What the summit is

Cox unveiled Operation Gigawatt in October 2024 with a goal of doubling Utah’s electrical generating capacity to roughly 20 gigawatts by 2035. State officials have pointed to AI data centers, broader electrification, and the retirement of baseload generation as the primary drivers of rising demand.

The summit lands as Utah’s Military Installation Development Authority, the state land-use agency that approved both the state’s largest proposed AI data center and a planned uranium enrichment equipment site at Camp Williams, is drawing scrutiny over expanded authority to issue bonds and redirect tax revenue with limited public oversight, according to reporting by TownLift, a Park City news outlet.

The summit’s sponsors include NVIDIA, Chevron, NextEra Energy Resources, Holtec International, CoreWeave, Trust Ventures, Valar Atomics, Excelsior Energy Capital, Cholla, EnergySolutions, Oracle, and the Lehi-based battery company Torus, listed as one of two top-billed “Executive Partners.”

At least nine of those sponsors have together routed more than $407,000 into the campaign accounts and political action committees of Cox and other top Utah Republicans since 2022, according to a Utah Political Watch analysis of campaign finance disclosures published earlier this week. Torus alone cut Cox three $50,000 checks across 2022, 2024, and 2025. Cox personally received $226,041 of the $407,000 total.

Ramaswamy’s data center position

Ramaswamy has made data center and crypto infrastructure expansion a recurring theme of his gubernatorial campaign. At a March 2025 Lincoln Day Dinner appearance in Jefferson County, he told the audience: “It takes two years to build an AI data center or Bitcoin mining firm or whatever — all of which I want in the state, by the way.”

On his verified X account, Ramaswamy has called Ohio’s data center boom “good” on multiple occasions, consistently framing it as an economic opportunity while attributing rising electricity costs to insufficient fossil fuel production rather than the facilities themselves. “We’re seeing an AI data center boom (which is good), right at the time when we face supply constraints on baseload power generation,” he posted on March 27, 2025. “I’ll unshackle energy production in Ohio, from fossil fuels to nuclear energy, without apology.”

In his post-primary victory speech earlier this month, Ramaswamy pledged that Ohioans would “wake up to lower utility bills because the state is producing more energy” under his administration. He has not detailed how expanded electricity generation would offset the additional demand created by the data centers he says he wants to bring to Ohio.

The Strive connection

Ramaswamy founded the asset management firm Strive in 2022 as an anti-ESG investment shop. The company relocated from Columbus to Dallas in November 2024, according to Ohio Capital Journal, and has since pivoted aggressively into Bitcoin.

In a May 19 disclosure, Strive said it now holds 15,391 Bitcoin valued at roughly $1.1 billion, making it the ninth-largest public corporate Bitcoin treasury. Bitcoin Treasuries data places Strive’s holdings just behind Coinbase and Riot Platforms.

The company’s accumulation has not been profitable. Strive’s average cost basis is approximately $104,073 per Bitcoin, well above current market prices in the $76,000–$79,000 range. As of April, the firm was sitting on more than $500 million in unrealized losses on the position. Bitcoin mining and the data centers that house mining operations are among the most energy-intensive commercial activities in the world.

The two largest donors to Ramaswamy’s gubernatorial super PAC have similarly heavy crypto exposure. Ross Stevens, who contributed $14 million, is actively involved in Bitcoin and crypto ventures. Jeff Yass, who contributed $10 million, holds more than $2 billion in Strategy and Coinbase through Susquehanna International Group, according to a joint investigation by The American Prospect and the Center for Media and Democracy.

The Ohio context

The Ohio backdrop for Ramaswamy’s Utah appearance is one of mounting ratepayer pressure. Since House Bill 6 — the law at the center of the FirstEnergy bribery scandal — took effect in October 2019, the average Ohio household’s annual electricity bill has risen by $663, from $1,070 to $1,733, according to the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio. From 2020 to 2025, Ohio ratepayers paid roughly $527 million in utility subsidies tied directly to HB 6.

Ohio data centers have meanwhile collected approximately $2.5 billion in state tax breaks since 2017, according to a report covered by Signal Ohio, while individual facilities have created as few as 10 to 50 permanent jobs. Rural Ohioans have begun gathering signatures for a proposed constitutional amendment to ban large data centers, citing rising electric bills, water strain, and limited long-term employment.

Casey Putsch, the Republican who challenged Ramaswamy in the May 5 primary, identified data centers as a defining political issue in a January Ohio Capital Journal interview. “We’re being sold out to billionaire interests,” Putsch said. “The data centers, massive concerns, OK? They have tax abatements for 10 to 15 years, nothing coming in. We’re subsidizing the costs through the electricity because they suck the same amount of power as small towns.”

The campaign calendar

Ramaswamy entered the general election with a substantial cash advantage. His campaign reported more than $30 million on hand after the primary, including a $25 million personal loan, against Acton’s $5 million. Cook Political Report and Sabato’s Crystal Ball both rate the race “Leans Republican,” a shift from earlier “Likely Republican” classifications.

Acton, who has framed her campaign around lowering costs for Ohio families, has questioned her opponent’s focus. In remarks following her primary win, she described Ramaswamy as someone who treats Ohio as “a flyover state” and is “out for himself.”

The Operation Gigawatt Summit closes Friday afternoon with a 3:00 p.m. reception. The Ohio general election is on Nov. 3.

TiffinOhio.net reached out to the Ramaswamy campaign for comment on Friday’s Utah appearance. No response was received prior to publication.

Originally published on TiffinOhio.net.

Senate Bill 341 was set for a Judiciary Committee vote last week. After a closed Republican caucus meeting, the bill came off the agenda. It is not back on this week’s schedule either.

Senate President Rob McColley, R-Napoleon, who is running for lieutenant governor on Republican Vivek Ramaswamy’s ticket, told the Dispatch that even straightforward issues sometimes warrant more time. “We’ve still got time left in this legislative session,” McColley said.

That position is a marked shift from where McColley stood three months earlier. When the bill was introduced in February, he told reporters the Senate would “certainly take a serious look at it and probably pass it,” according to coverage by Morgan Trau of WEWS.

Sen. Bill DeMora, D-Columbus, who is co-sponsoring the bill with Sen. Louis Blessing III, R-Colerain Township, was blunt with the Dispatch about the delay. He said members of the Republican caucus appear comfortable with child marriage continuing in Ohio. Blessing, his Republican co-sponsor, declined to comment.

What Senate Bill 341 would do

The bill would set Ohio’s minimum marriage age at 18, with no exceptions. Under current state law, enacted in 2019, a 17-year-old may marry if a juvenile court finds the minor has completed marriage counseling, a 14-day waiting period has passed, and the spouse is no more than four years older. Parental consent is not required.

The 2019 statute followed a Dayton Daily News investigation documenting 4,443 marriages involving girls 17 and under between 2000 and 2015. Fifty-nine of those involved girls 15 or younger. The newspaper identified three marriages involving 14-year-old girls, including a pregnant 14-year-old who wed a 48-year-old man in Gallia County in 2002.

Unchained At Last, the national advocacy organization founded by Fraidy Reiss, says Ohio recorded 5,062 marriages involving minors between 2000 and 2024 — and that 53 of those occurred under the revised 2019 law.

No witness has testified against SB 341 in four committee hearings, the Dispatch reported.

Reiss told the Dispatch she does not know who in the Senate is holding up the bill. She called the blockage shameful and said it amounts to a betrayal of Ohio girls. The group has announced plans to protest at the Ohio Statehouse on June 3.

Committee Chairman Nathan Manning, R-North Ridgeville, said advocates plan to sit down with senators to make the case for the change.

The bill would leave in place language from a 2004 Ohio statute prohibiting same-sex marriage. That provision is currently unenforceable under the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2015 decision in Obergefell v. Hodges. If Obergefell were overturned, Ohio’s same-sex marriage ban would again take effect.

McColley’s hedge lands in a politically charged campaign

McColley’s reluctance to move SB 341 forward comes as the Ramaswamy gubernatorial ticket continues to face scrutiny over its handling of issues involving child safety and sexual abuse.

During his 2024 presidential run, Ramaswamy’s allied super PAC, the American Exceptionalism PAC, accepted a $100,000 donation from New York hedge fund manager Glenn Dubin, who was named in court documents as an associate of Jeffrey Epstein. The PAC pledged to refund the contribution but dissolved without doing so, according to federal filings.

Ramaswamy’s gubernatorial campaign has also drawn criticism for promoting endorsements from Ohio Republican state lawmakers accused of misconduct involving young people, as TiffinOhio.net previously reported. Those endorsements were briefly removed from Ramaswamy’s website before being restored.

In April, Ramaswamy faced sharp pushback after telling supporters that his Democratic opponent, Dr. Amy Acton, offered no real vision for Ohio “other than to complain about what someone else did to her” — a reference to Acton’s public account of surviving childhood sexual abuse.

Ramaswamy and McColley face Acton and her running mate David Pepper in the November 3 general election.

Originally published on TiffinOhio.net.

The measure — which succeeded 217-198 — would also bar federal funding under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 that provides federal aid to schools from being used “to teach or advance concepts related to gender ideology.” 

Eight Democrats broke ranks with their party to vote for the Republican-led effort, including: Reps. Vicente Gonzalez and Henry Cuellar of Texas, Don Davis of North Carolina, Cleo Fields of Louisiana, Laura Gillen of New York, Marcy Kaptur of Ohio, Marie Gluesenkamp Perez of Washington state and Eugene Vindman of Virginia. 

Fifteen House members did not vote.

Parental consent

The bill would also require schools to get permission from parents before changing “sex-based accommodations” to allow a student to access a locker room or bathroom consistent with their gender identity. 

Rep. Tim Walberg, chair of the House Committee on Education and Workforce, said during floor debate the measure “takes monumental strides to restore parental rights and educational sanity.”

The bill “affirms the right of parents to be in charge of their children’s upbringing and ensures schools remain partners in a child’s education” and “also establishes clear guardrails to ensure taxpayer dollars are used to support learning, not indoctrinate kids in radical ideology and agendas,” the Michigan Republican added.  

Walberg led the bill alongside Rep. Burgess Owens, a Utah Republican who brought forth a separate measure that was later looped in and bars the use of federal funds “to teach or advance concepts related to gender ideology.” 

The bill draws on a definition of “gender ideology” in a January 2025 executive order signed by President Donald Trump.

The order defines “gender ideology” as “the idea that there is a vast spectrum of genders that are disconnected from one’s sex.” 

GLAAD, an LGBTQ+ advocacy group, noted in a fact sheet that “gender ideology” is “an inaccurate term deployed by opponents to undermine and dehumanize transgender and nonbinary people.” 

House Dems, LGBTQ+ advocacy groups blast bill

Rep. Bobby Scott, ranking member of the House Education and Workforce panel, blasted the measure during floor debate, saying it would “impose a rigid federal mandate that ignores context, disregards students’ safety and prioritizes politics over people.” 

The Virginia Democrat noted that the bill “bars any discussion of transgender people or topics in the classroom, including “banning books with transgender characters” or discussing “the existence of transgender people.” 

Scott noted that the bill “takes away state and local control of curriculum on education — the very thing that the current administration claims they’re giving back to states by illegally dismantling the Department of Education.” 

Fears students will be outed

Rep. Mark Takano, chair of the Congressional Equality Caucus, criticized the legislation ahead of floor debate as the “Don’t say trans bill.”

The California Democrat told States Newsroom he was concerned the measure would force school officials to out students to their parents, regardless of whether the official knew the student could suffer harm.

Takano, who also sits on the House education panel, also expressed concern that in the case where parents are supportive of their child using different pronouns, “if the teacher uses a different pronoun, that could be interpreted as ‘promoting gender ideology.’”

He said “we can’t discount that this administration will use a maximalist interpretation of the law, which would make even the case where” a student with supportive parents of trans children “could not go by the preferred nickname.” 

David Stacy, vice president of government affairs for the Human Rights Campaign, condemned the bill as “cruel” and noted the LGBTQ+ advocacy group was “prepared to fight it,” in a statement shared with States Newsroom ahead of the vote. 

“Trans kids are not a political agenda — they are students who deserve safety and affirmation at school like anyone else,” Stacy added. 

“Despite the many pressing issues facing our nation, House Republicans continue their bizarre obsession with trans people,” he said.

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

Originally published on TiffinOhio.net.

The fight over election security is intensifying in Washington, D.C., as the White House and its allies seek to rewrite rules around voter registration and mail-in ballots ahead of the November midterm elections. The stakes of the contests are massive — control of Congress and the future of Trump’s legislative agenda.

Trump wants lawmakers to attach the SAVE America Act to unrelated housing and surveillance legislation after it stalled in the U.S. Senate. The SAVE bill would require individuals to show documents, such as a passport or birth certificate, proving their citizenship to register to vote. It would also mandate voters show photo ID to cast a ballot.

“Voter I.D., and Proof of Citizenship, must be approved, NOW,” Trump wrote Saturday on Truth Social, his social media platform. On Wednesday, he took to social media again to call for the firing of the Senate parliamentarian and suggested she’s an impediment to passage of the bill.

“We need THE SAVE AMERICA ACT passed, and NOW,” Trump wrote.

Democrats and voting rights advocates say the measure would cause chaos if passed this close to the election. They warn it would disenfranchise voters and create additional obstacles to voting for married women and others who have changed their names.

Vote possible soon

The Senate may hold another vote as early as this week on adding the SAVE America Act to a budget reconciliation bill. Senators rejected a prior effort to advance the legislation in a 48-50 vote in April, but Sen. John Kennedy, a Louisiana Republican, has vowed to try again. 

The SAVE America Act is popular among Republicans in the U.S. House, which passed the bill in February. But a handful of Senate Republicans have joined Democrats in opposing the proposal, which doesn’t have enough support to overcome a filibuster.

“It is voter suppression with a suit and tie,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat, said Tuesday in a speech at a progressive conference.

Some House Republicans have kept up pressure on the Senate to act. During a House Administration Subcommittee on Elections hearing Wednesday, Rep. Mary Miller, an Illinois Republican, called for the passage of the bill multiple times.

“American citizens deserve secure elections and to know that their votes are guaranteed,” Miller said.

Thune blames Democrats

Senators spent several weeks this spring debating the legislation before moving on to other business. Senate Majority Leader John Thune, a South Dakota Republican, on Monday said the chamber held a “robust debate” but indicated senators were unlikely to return to the legislation.

Speaking about the bill in the past tense, Thune cast the measure as a political cudgel that Republicans would use against Democrats in November.

“Democrats are on the record against all of it,” Thune said on the Senate floor. “And we’ll be sure the American people know that Democrats are blocking commonsense policies that have broad support from the American people.”

Democrats, fearing that Trump may try to assert unilateral control over elections regardless of whether the legislation advances, have begun outlining how they plan to combat any attempted election takeover. 

Schumer on Tuesday said Senate Democrats are launching an election protection task force. The group, which will include 11 senators and election experts, will be prepared to mount “lawsuit after lawsuit” throughout the election process.

“Let me be very clear: local officials run elections. Voters decide elections. Donald Trump does not,” Schumer said.

Troops at polling places

In describing their concerns, Schumer and others point to Trump’s refusal earlier this month to close the door on deploying troops to polling places. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth also recently dismissed the possibility as a “gotcha hypothetical” without actually ruling it out. 

Federal law prohibits federal troops and agents at election sites in nearly all circumstances.

“I’d do anything necessary to make sure we have honest elections,” Trump told reporters when asked about sending troops of immigration agents to the polls.

Trump’s critics also emphasize his efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss and his continuing portrayal of the contest as stolen. He has pardoned rioters who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, disrupting Congress’ certification of the election. 

On Monday, the Justice Department announced the creation of a $1.776 billion fund to compensate Trump allies who say they were victims of past administrations.

“This is pure fraud and highway robbery,” Rep. Jamie Raskin, a Maryland Democrat, said in a statement.

Executive orders

Preparations for possible interference in the midterms come amid a series of steps by the Trump administration over the past year aimed at giving the White House greater authority over elections — though the U.S. Constitution says they are administered by the states.

Trump signed an executive order last year that sought to mandate proof of citizenship to vote in federal elections, but the measure was blocked in court. He signed another order in March restricting the sending of ballots through the mail; a federal judge is expected to rule soon on a request to halt its enforcement.

Trump this week attacked Maryland officials over a mistake that caused voters to receive incorrect mail-in ballots for the state’s June primary. Maryland election officials have faulted a vendor for the error and are resending the ballots, but the president has called for a Justice Department investigation.

“You want to have proof of citizenship, you want to have voter ID, you want to have all these things. But to me, maybe the worst of all is the mail-in ballots,” Trump told reporters on Monday.

DOJ battles states

For months, the Department of Justice has demanded states turn over sensitive personal data on voters, such as driver’s license numbers, partial Social Security numbers and dates of birth. 

It has sued 30 states and the District of Columbia for the information, which it plans to run through a computer program called SAVE at the Department of Homeland Security to identify possible noncitizens.

Federal judges have so far ruled against the Justice Department. Several voting rights groups have also sued to block the DOJ effort, alleging the Trump administration wants to build an illegal national voter database.

Anthony Nel, a Texas resident and one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit, said in a statement that his voter registration was canceled a month after SAVE wrongly identified him as a possible noncitizen.

“The DOJ should not be building a national database out of our most sensitive, personal information when it can’t even get this right,” Nel said.

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

Originally published on TiffinOhio.net.

As more than 300,000 companies scramble to get their money back, one large group is getting stiffed: American consumers — including in Ohio. Tariffs were estimated to cost Ohio households $1,750 per year, with 130,000 jobs at risk and $18 billion in exports exposed — making it the sixth hardest-hit state in the country.

After President Trump imposed sweeping, indiscriminate tariffs on so-called “Liberation Day” last year, companies moved swiftly to pass on their higher prices to consumers. Consumers, already facing an affordability crisis — and reporting historic dissatisfaction with the economy — paid those higher prices at the grocery store, hardware store, and clothing store.

Instead of focusing on strategic sectors where American manufacturers were being undercut or where we’re developing new technologies, Trump imposed tariffs seemingly on a whim — hitting inputs that drove up costs for manufacturers and goods (like bananas or coffee) that are not made in the mainland United States and never will be.

The results were as expected.

New data from the Federal Reserve found that businesses were able to pass through tariffs almost completely, raising core goods inflation by 3.1 percent. The Harvard Pricing Lab finds that retail prices for imported goods are up 5.4 percent compared to pre-Liberation Day trend.

Furthermore, the shock and confusion of the Liberation Day tariffs and dozens of subsequent adjustments allowed companies to take advantage of the pricing environment, raising prices even if they were not directly affected. Some even bragged about it on calls with their investors.

Unsurprisingly, consumers think this arraignment is unfair.

Polling from my organization, Groundwork Collaborative, found that 44 percent of Americans think refunds should go to consumers — and 34 percent believe that refunds should go to consumers and businesses.

Just 7 percent say that only businesses should get their money back. But that’s what’s happening.

Consumers won’t see a dime from the refunded tariffs — and in all likelihood they’ll keep paying for them. Prices, as retail experts like to say, are like “rockets and feathers.” When they go up, they go up quickly. But when costs fall, prices come down slowly — if they come down at all.

Big corporations that were able to pass through the price increases will now get a windfall, with no plans to pass on those savings. Costco made news by announcing they planned to use their sizable refund to lower prices, but almost no other corporations have followed their lead.

In addition to hurting consumers, the benefits of tariff refunds are unequally distributed between big and large corporations. Some 56 percent of small businesses reported that tariffs negatively impacted their operations, and many have shared difficulties and confusion with navigating the tariff refund portal.

Larger companies have used their size and market power to negotiate with suppliers and push costs onto consumers, but many small businesses had to pay whopping bills or risk going under. Some even sold the rights to their future refunds to Wall Street for pennies on the dollar to get cash up front to weather the storm, and now companies like Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnik’s old firm are profiting.

Families are hurting in this economy. They’re facing rising prices at the pump — up 50 percent because of Trump’s war in Iran — along with runaway utility bills and further uncertainty as Trump’s latest round of tariffs wind their way through the courts.

Meanwhile, the Trump administration hasn’t lifted a finger to ensure that corporations pass their savings through to consumers. In fact, Trump has even asked businesses not to claim the refunds at all, telling them he’ll “remember” companies that opt out.

With corporate profits at record highs, Congress should step in to ensure that consumers see some relief. Americans already paid these tariffs once — they shouldn’t have to pay again while corporations cash the checks.

Originally published on TiffinOhio.net.

“If you want congressional leadership that fights to lower your taxes, that fights to put more money in your pockets and fights to protect your jobs, the only game in town is Donald J. Trump and congressional Republicans,” Vance said.

But the Trump brand is hurting — placing Republicans’ miniscule U.S. House majority at high risk, despite a GOP rush to redistricting in Southern states this spring following a landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision and earlier gerrymandering.

Public polling shows most voters are dissatisfied with President Donald Trump’s job performance and historically, the party not in the White House wins seats in the midterms.

The GOP gerrymandering could offset some losses, analysts say. But whether voter displeasure with the president translates into enough Democratic gains to retake the House and usurp the GOP trifecta in Washington also remains to be seen, five months out.

Vance’s visit to Democratic-leaning Kansas City underscored the extraordinary effort Republicans have undertaken to give the party a chance at retaining control of the House in the midterm elections. The GOP now holds 217 seats to 212 for Democrats, with one independent and five vacancies.

GOP states, including Missouri, have engaged in a blitz of gerrymandering over the past nine months, dividing areas like Kansas City in hopes of securing additional seats as the party faces political headwinds ahead of November. 

Without the redistricting war that Trump triggered last year, Republicans could lose no more than three House seats and keep their majority. Redrawn lines push that number up slightly, in the eight-to-10 range, Erin Covey, an editor who specializes in U.S. House races for the elections forecaster Cook Political Report, said in an interview.

“That is still not going to be enough to protect (Republicans) from a difficult national environment,” Covey, who specializes in House races, said.

Brandon Rottinghaus, a political science professor at the University of Houston, said redistricting may be more beneficial to Republicans in the long term than in the 2026 election.

“Because of the economic problems that the country is confronting, and the fact that a lot of that blame is going to be at the doorstep of the White House, it’s going to be a challenge for Republicans,” he said. “Republicans are playing the long game, and it’ll eventually pay off, but it’s going to be a tough ride this cycle.”

The case for Democrats

The president’s party has gained House seats in a midterm cycle only three times in the last century. Twice, after the 9/11 terrorist attacks and at the height of the Great Depression, history-shaping events explained the exception.

Not only is there no comparable event this year, but the political environment strongly favors Democrats.

A Quinnipiac University poll published Wednesday showed 50% of voters preferred Democrats won control of the House, while only 39% preferred Republicans.

The same survey showed Trump’s approval rating at a second-term low, 34% approval with 58% disapproving. On economic issues, as the price of gas has skyrocketed during the war with Iran, nearly twice as many voters disapproved of Trump’s handling than approved.

Other polls show similar attitudes. Both the preference for Democratic House control and disapproval of Trump have risen steadily.

“Midterms are typically a referendum on the party in power,” Covey said. “So the fact that Trump’s approval rating has been under 40% for the past several weeks, and it has obviously been made worse by the war in Iran, is going to be a really significant issue for Republicans.”

Redistricting might cap Democrats’ best-case scenario, but it doesn’t change the underlying conditions, Democratic campaign strategist Tom Bowen said in a Tuesday interview.

“It’s going to change some outcomes for sure,” said Bowen. “But the environment is what shapes these races more than anything else. Voters aren’t going to vote on redistricting. What they’re going to vote on is high gas prices, and that’s going to make seats where Trump did well… it’s gonna put some of those seats in play.”

Republicans in the Trump era have also struggled to get their voters to the polls when Trump himself is not on the ballot. 

“Your base is depressed,” Bowen said of Republicans. “Sure, you theoretically drew yourself, you know, 10 points of margin. It doesn’t matter if the environment is that terrible.”

US House redistricting arms race

Republicans did have a plan to prop up their House majority.

At Trump’s urging last year, a handful of Republican states redrew their congressional lines, beginning with Texas. Missouri, North Carolina and Ohio followed. States traditionally enact new maps once a decade following the census, but that norm has now been shattered.

Democrats responded with a California gerrymander approved by voters. In Virginia, voters also approved new lines but the election was invalidated in May by the Virginia Supreme Court.

California and Virginia are the only Democratic-controlled states to have advanced the new maps. In conservative Utah, state courts have forced adoption of a new map that could allow a Democrat to win a race to represent the Salt Lake area.

Democrats are actively weighing action in Colorado, Maryland, New York and other states, but their ability to act this year is restricted by state limits on gerrymandering and other procedural barriers.

The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision on April 29 in Louisiana vs. Callais then set off a new round of Republican-led gerrymandering. In a 6-3 decision, the court’s conservative majority sharply weakened the federal Voting Rights Act, which had protected districts where a majority of residents belonged to a racial minority group.

The Callais decision only explicitly struck down Louisiana’s congressional map, which contained a second majority-Black district that the conservative justices found unnecessary. 

But GOP-controlled states in the South interpreted the decision as a green light to eliminate majority-Black districts, often centered on major cities, that reliably elect Democrats.

Florida lawmakers passed a new map within hours of the Supreme Court decision. Alabama and Tennessee advanced gerrymanders, with Louisiana expected to follow soon. South Carolina lawmakers are also advancing a new map.

Federal and state court lawsuits have been filed against the maps, leaving open the question of whether judges could eventually block some of the gerrymanders. But opponents of Republican gerrymanders have not fared well in their legal challenges up to this point.

The U.S. Supreme Court has cleared the way for Southern states to act quickly to redraw maps, including lifting a lower court order that had stopped an Alabama gerrymander from taking effect. The justices also sped up paperwork to allow Louisiana lawmakers to move forward on developing a new map.

At the state level, the Missouri Supreme Court last week refused to block a gerrymander of the Kansas City region. Opponents had wanted the court to halt the map until state officials decide enough signatures have been gathered to force a statewide vote over the redrawn lines.

The dust is still settling on redistricting this year, but it so far has given Republicans a moderate edge.

The case for Republicans

While it would take a historical anomaly for Republicans to keep their House majority, the party’s campaign apparatus argues that some variables are in its favor. 

Notably, the GOP holds an edge in fundraising and a map with few Republicans running for reelection in districts Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris won in 2024.

“House Republicans are on offense and well-positioned to defy history thanks to strong candidates, a historic fundraising advantage, and a message that’s connecting with voters in battleground districts across the country,” Mike Marinella, a spokesman for the National Republican Congressional Committee, wrote in a statement. 

“While Democrats remain bogged down by messy primaries, a weak national brand, and a shrinking battlefield, Republicans are building the infrastructure and momentum needed to grow the majority in November.”

Even without redistricting, the 2026 House map favored Republicans: Sixteen Democrats won 2024 races in districts Trump carried, and only three Republicans came from districts that voted for Harris.

Those so-called crossover districts provide a starting point for the number of competitive districts, which continue to shrink as the country becomes more polarized and lawmakers draw U.S. House districts to favor incumbents.

Chris Pack, a Republican campaign strategist, said the situation was reversed in Trump’s first-term midterms, when Democrats gained 40 seats.

“I don’t think it’s fair to compare this (year) to 2018,” he said. That year, 23 Republicans represented districts that Democratic presidential nominee Hilary Clinton won. “Now, it’s three.”

In fundraising, the two House campaign committees, the NRCC and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, have raised similar amounts this cycle and have roughly equivalent cash on hand.

But the Republican National Committee’s cash on hand dwarfs the Democratic National Committee’s, $117 million to $14 million, according to Federal Elections Commission records filed April 30.

The president’s super PAC, MAGA Inc., has also raised more than $300 million this cycle, which it could spend on congressional races.

Pack also said the party could compete, despite the environment, by emphasizing Democratic positions outside the mainstream.

“It’s just really reminding voters that, again, Democrats are far more out of touch with everyday Americans than Republicans are,” he said.

Analysts maintain it is still the GOP at a disadvantage.

“Republicans do have a path — more of a path, certainly, than they did before the Virginia and U.S. Supreme Court decisions,” Covey said. “But they’re still the underdogs.”

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

Originally published on TiffinOhio.net.

Lawmakers in the Ohio House and Senate introduced joint resolutions this week to enshrine voter photo ID laws into Ohio’s constitution. 

House Joint Resolution 9 was introduced by Ohio Reps. Adam Bird, R-New Richmond, and Heidi Workman, R-Rootstown. 

Senate Joint Resolution 10 was introduced by state Sens. Jane Timken, R-Jackson Township, and Theresa Gavarone, R-Bowling Green. 

“This is about fair and free elections,” Timken said. “Voters need to know that when someone goes to vote, that it is the actual person who is registered to vote, and we do that by photo ID. This is overwhelmingly supported, not only by Republicans, but Democrats.” 

The Pew Research Center showed 83% of Americans support requiring photo identification to vote. 

“If you want to rent a car, you want to go to a hotel, get on an airplane, you need to show photo ID,” said state Sen. Kristina Roegner, R-Hudson.

“If you want to buy alcohol or even certain medicines, you need a photo ID. It makes all the sense in the world that when we’re talking about something as serious and as important as the integrity of our elections, that it would also require a photo ID.”

If an Ohio voter is unable to provide a valid photo ID in person on election day, the joint resolutions would allow a voter to cast their ballot provisionally and provide photo ID at the board of elections by the deadline for their ballot to be counted.

The resolutions require three-fifths approval to be placed on the November ballot. 

“I think the voters will decide that they want to protect it,” Bird said. “It’s wildly popular.”

Ohio law already requires citizens to provide photo identification before voting thanks to a bill the lawmakers passed in 2022 and took effect in 2023. 

“We have some of the most restrictive election laws,” said state Rep. Phil Robinson, D-Solon. “This legislation is unnecessary.”

A valid photo ID includes an unexpired driver’s license, state ID card, a passport, a U.S. military ID card, an Ohio national guard ID card, or an ID card issued by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. 

Ohio Senate President Rob McColley, R-Napoleon, said he hopes to pass the Senate’s resolution either June 10 or June 17.

“(The joint resolutions are) in response to some voter integrity concerns that have been happening nationally,” McColley said. 

McColley is running for the job of lieutenant governor in November, alongside Republican governor candidate Vivek Ramaswamy. Ramaswamy has said Ohio must enshrine voter ID in the state constitution.

“Voter confidence in our election system is lower than it’s been in a while, and I think it’s important that we offer the voters the opportunity … to decide for themselves whether they want to put this in the constitution, offering it the highest possible level of protection to secure the system that they have in place to secure the fundamental right of voting … for generations to come,” said McColley. 

Hawaii and Virginia had voter photo ID requirements laws, but those laws were repealed. 

“When you see these kinds of examples happening in other states, it becomes imperative that we protect photo ID in Ohio by placing it … in the Constitution,” Bird said. 

Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost brought forth six indictments for voter fraud in 2024 after receiving 600 referrals of alleged voter fraud from the Ohio Secretary of State. The indicted were accused of voting at least once between 2008 and 2020 despite not being U.S. citizens then. 

“Election fraud is so very rare,” said Ohio Senate Minority Leader Nickie Antonio, D-Lakewood. 

“I think this is an attempt by the Republicans to have an election go their way, because without doing something extraordinary like this, rather than just appeal to the voters on the basis of their policies, they’re actually limiting the amount of people that can vote because they see that as their path to winning.” 

Robinson worries these joint resolutions could potentially take away early voting or mail-in ballots. 

“I don’t see how that helps Ohioans be able to have their voice heard at the ballot box,” he said. 

McColley, however, said there are no plans to get rid of early mail-in voting or absentee voting in Ohio. 

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 analysis also found that detainees are moved around frequently and often to faraway places, making it difficult for them to maintain contact with legal counsel and families.

And despite President Donald Trump’s claim that his immigration crackdown was aimed at “the worst of the worst,” less than 5% of those detained had been convicted of violent offenses, the report said.

The Ohio Immigrant Alliance analyzed ICE data that had been obtained through Freedom of Information Act requests and processed by the Deportation Data Project. 

It found that while 117 people were detained in Ohio on the average day in 2024, that number soared to 656 in 2025 — the first year of Trump’s second administration. During the same period, the number of local jails under contract with the federal government to hold ICE detainees tripled from two to six.

The analysis also found that people were detained for weeks and that detainees were moved frequently. That could cause them to lose jobs — in addition to making it hard to stay in touch with their families and their lawyers.

For example, 535 detainees were moved from the Butler County Jail in Hamilton to a detention facility in Alexandria, La., the report said.

“The findings reveal a detention system defined by frequent transfers, relatively short detention periods for many individuals, and a detained population overwhelmingly composed of people without major criminal convictions,” it said. “Across all cases analyzed, the average length of stay was 55.71 days, while the median was 30.68 days, indicating that most individuals spend weeks in county jails and federal facilities before their cases are resolved.” 

The report added that the Ohio jails act as an entry point to a system from which detainees might find it difficult — if not impossible — to escape.

“These patterns point to a highly networked federal detention infrastructure in which Ohio’s facilities function as intake and transfer nodes within a much larger national system, with long-distance pipelines connecting Ohio facilities to staging centers in Louisiana, Texas, and elsewhere — effectively isolating detained individuals from their families and legal counsel,” it said.

Immigrant advocates have taken legal action to keep detainees out of that system.

In March, the ACLU of Ohio sued the federal government, arguing that ICE habitually violated the law and its own rules by arresting people without warrants — and without doing anything to determine whether the person was a flight risk. 

And earlier this month, the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that immigrants who had long been in the United States were entitled to a bond hearing. If such immigrants can raise bonds, they can stay out of the detention system at least temporarily. 

The three-judge panel of the Cincinnati-based appellate court upheld federal courts sitting in Michigan.

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

Originally published on TiffinOhio.net.

And most have been fairly recent purchases. The companies acquired more than 1.7 million of those, or 57%, since 2018, and about 45% of them since 2021, the report found.

More than two-thirds of those units are located in just 10 states: Texas, Florida, California, Georgia, North Carolina, Colorado, New York, Arizona, Virginia and Washington.

Texas has the highest number of private equity-owned apartments, the analysis said, with more than 1,900 properties and nearly 580,000 units. 

Private equity firms own nearly 1 in 3 apartment units in Georgia and almost 1 in 4 in North Carolina, the report found. 

Private equity firms use pooled investments from funds, endowments and wealthy individuals to buy a controlling stake in a company, try to maximize its value — often by cutting costs — and then sell it at a profit.

The metropolitan areas of Atlanta; Austin, Texas; Charlotte, North Carolina; Dallas-Fort Worth; and Orlando, Florida, have private equity ownership shares above 30%. 

Many of the states with the highest private equity ownership also have seen some of the largest increases in “cost-burdened” renters, the report said, meaning they spend at least 30% of their income on rent and utilities. Arizona, Nevada, Georgia, Texas and Florida were among the six states with the biggest increases in such renters. 

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.

Matthew L. Hoke, 42, was booked into the Lorain County Jail at 1:17 p.m. on May 16 on one count of engaging in prostitution, a third-degree misdemeanor under Ohio law, according to sheriff’s office records. He posted a $2,000 cash/surety bond and was released the same evening.

The charge is an allegation, and defendants are presumed innocent unless convicted.

The Lorain County Sheriff’s Office is the lead agency for the H.E.A.L. Human Trafficking Task Force, one of eight regional task forces that took part in Operation Spring Cleaning. The H.E.A.L. Task Force’s operation included a search warrant executed at King Me Spa, 35111 Royalton Road in Grafton, where deputies seized $18,622 in cash. The sheriff’s office did not specify where Hoke was arrested.

The statewide operation ran May 13-20 in 15 Ohio counties and was led by Yost’s Ohio Organized Crime Investigations Commission. Of those arrested, 84 men were charged with engaging in prostitution or solicitation in the misdemeanor-level portion of the sting. The remaining 38 faced felony counts including promoting prostitution, compelling prostitution, attempted unlawful sexual conduct with a minor, trafficking in persons and drug-related offenses.

Law enforcement executed 15 search warrants in connection with suspected trafficking at massage parlors in Akron, Columbus, Dublin, Grafton, Powell, Toledo and Willoughby, the attorney general’s office said. More than $120,000 in cash was seized along with evidence for ongoing investigations.

Officers referred 42 human trafficking survivors to healthcare and social-services organizations during the weeklong operation.

“This operation brings us to 1,065 arrests since our statewide stings began in 2019,” Yost said in a statement. “It shows the problem isn’t going away, but perpetrators are getting increasingly skittish as our message reverberates – Don’t buy sex in Ohio.”

Operation Spring Cleaning is the ninth statewide trafficking sting Yost has led since 2019. The announcement comes just over two weeks before Yost resigns as attorney general on June 7 to take a job as vice president of strategic research and innovation at Alliance Defending Freedom, a conservative Christian legal organization. Gov. Mike DeWine appointed Public Safety Director Andy Wilson to serve as interim attorney general through the end of the year. Voters will choose Yost’s successor in November, when Republican state Auditor Keith Faber faces Democrat John Kulewicz, an Upper Arlington councilman.

How to report suspected human trafficking

The Ohio Attorney General’s Office operates a statewide tip line for reporting suspected sex and labor trafficking. Tips can be submitted by calling 844-END-OHHT (844-363-6448), texting “ENDOHHT” to 847411, downloading the END OHHT app, or submitting information online at ohioattorneygeneral.gov/ENDOHHT. In an emergency, call 911.

Originally published on TiffinOhio.net.

Retired U.S. Capitol Police Officer Harry Dunn and Metropolitan Police Officer Daniel Hodges said in a complaint in federal court that Jan. 6 rioters, nearly all of whom received a pardon from President Donald Trump on his first day back in office last year, could benefit from the fund and use the money to organize more violent activity.

“In the most brazen act of presidential corruption this century, President Donald J. Trump has created a $1.776 billion taxpayer-funded slush fund to finance the insurrectionists and paramilitary groups that commit violence in his name,” the first paragraph of the complaint reads.

The complaint lists Trump, acting Attorney General Todd Blanche and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent as defendants.

The Justice Department, which Blanche has led since last month, announced the creation of the fund on Monday in conjunction with Trump dropping a $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS.

Claims by victims of ‘weaponization’

The fund would use money from a pool designated for settling legal claims against the federal government to compensate people who were “victims of lawfare and weaponization,” Blanche said in a press release.

Trump has long complained that the Biden administration targeted him, his allies and supporters for prosecutions that were not supported by facts on the ground. That claim was part of his rationale for pardoning people convicted of crimes on Jan. 6. 

The press release explicitly says there is no partisan test to benefit from the fund, but the structure gives Trump and Blanche, who was Trump’s criminal defense attorney before joining the government, near total control.

Payments from the fund would be decided by a five-member panel, which the attorney general would appoint. Only one appointment would require “consultation” with Congress and the president would be able to fire any member. The fund would dissolve in December 2028, the month before Trump’s term ends.

Dunn and Hodges said in Wednesday’s challenge that Trump’s IRS lawsuit was frivolous from the start because the president was suing a government agency that he controlled. The suit also came after the statute of limitations expired, they said.

The settlement “is a corrupt sham,” they said.

Jan. 6 injuries

Dunn and Hodges both deployed to the Capitol during the 2021 attack. The lawsuit describes the danger they faced and injuries they incurred. Hodges said a rioter tried to gouge out his eyes and that he thought he would die while crushed between metal doors.

Investigations of the attack showed that it was a “planned insurrection” by paramilitary groups like the Proud Boys, the suit says.

Many of the people Trump pardoned for crimes connected to the attack, including former Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio, who was sentenced to 22 years in prison for sedition, have expressed a desire to exact revenge, according to the suit.

On Jan. 6 of this year, Tarrio said on the podcast of right-wing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones that after his pardon, he was “searching for … retribution, retaliation.” 

Fund called ‘stupid on stilts’

The fund is illegal, Dunn and Hodges’ lawsuit says. No law authorized its creation, and the appropriation creating the judgment fund that is used to pay out other settlements does not apply when no settlement has been reached, they said.

Members of Congress, including Republicans, have major reservations about the fund.

Blanche pitched a group of Senate Republicans during a two-hour meeting Thursday, but didn’t appear to change many minds.

Sen. Rand Paul, a Kentucky Republican, said the meeting was a “spirited discussion.”

Shortly after the meeting, the chamber’s GOP leaders told members they would not vote this month on a $72 billion bill to fund immigration enforcement and security upgrades to Trump’s proposed White House ballroom. Senators sought to insert guardrails on the DOJ fund into the bill.

In a Wednesday interview with Spectrum News, retiring GOP Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina called the fund “stupid on stilts.”

“It will invariably put us in a position where your taxpayers dollars and my taxpayer dollars could potentially compensate someone who assaulted a police officer, admitted their guilt, got convicted, got pardoned, and now we are going to pay them for that,” he said. “That’s absurd.”

Senate Appropriations Chairwoman Susan Collins, a Maine Republican, has also voiced her objection. Blanche testified at a Senate Appropriations hearing Tuesday, when Collins questioned him about the fund. She later said his answers did not win her support.

“After my exchange with Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, I do not support the creation of the proposed Anti-Weaponization Fund,” she said in a written statement that also noted no court had approved it.

Dunn also a candidate

A White House spokesperson deferred a message seeking comment Thursday to the Justice Department. Spokespeople for the department did not return messages.

Dunn, who is running as a Democrat for a Maryland U.S. House seat, told Maryland Matters the fund did not come as a surprise.

“This was a promise to his supporters,” Dunn said. “When it was finally announced, there was no doubt in our minds to stop this.”

Ashley Murray and Will Ford contributed to this report.

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

Originally published on TiffinOhio.net.

The event is open to all residents and will include updates on city initiatives along with time for residents to ask questions and raise concerns.

“This Town Hall is an opportunity for residents to connect directly with city leadership and have meaningful conversations about the issues that matter most to our community,” Wilkinson said. “I encourage everyone to attend and be part of shaping Tiffin’s future.”

No registration is required to attend.

Originally published on TiffinOhio.net.

Ohio’s biggest tax break for data centers is more expensive than once thought. A lot more expensive. 

In 2024, the state sales tax exemption for data centers cost Ohio about $555 million in revenue, four times more than the state Department of Taxation forecasted.

In 2025, it cost a whopping $1.6 billion, eleven times more than the original estimate of $136 million

And that’s to say nothing of the local sales taxes – another $166.8 million in lost revenue in 2024, according to new actual cost data provided this week by Ohio Department of Taxation spokesperson Andrea Lannom. 

The tax department’s biennial forecasts of the size of the controversial tax exemption shared with the public amount to jarring lowballs of the actual figure, even when accounting for the imprecise nature of budget forecasting and the novel technology at hand. 

And the massive savings, realized as an exemption to Ohio’s 5.75% statewide sales tax, flow to some of the biggest companies on the planet, including Meta (Facebook), Alphabet (Google) and Amazon, all of which have recently built or are building arena-sized data center warehouses here. 

In 2024, the sales tax exemption cost Ohio $554.9 million, Lannom said. One year later, that snowballed to $1,568,700,00. 

Lannom said the department could not share data prior to 2024 out of a privacy concern because less than 10 companies claimed the exemption at the time. This, coupled with the accelerating use of the tax break, hampered department estimates. 

“We are unable to provide any calculated actuals prior to 2024 due to taxpayer confidentiality,” she said. “There has been significant growth in the data center industry and in the use of the data center exemption since the publication of the Tax Expenditure Report in November 2024.”

Debating data centers with inaccurate forecasts

State lawmakers rely on tax department predictions when crafting Ohio’s two-year operating budgets. And in the most recent budget legislation, lawmakers voted to end the data center tax break to help finance another round of income tax cuts. Gov. Mike DeWine vetoed the proposal, insisting the tax exemption is needed to lure data center developers to the state. 

A DeWine spokesperson declined to comment until after this article published Thursday morning.

“Our office continues to monitor and analyze the efficacy of this and all tax incentive programs,” said DeWine spokesperson Dan Tierney. “I will note that during 2025, the entities that received the $1.5 billion in sales and use tax benefits reported a total capital investment of $27.2 billion, showing a significant return on investment for Ohio. During 2024, the entities that received the $554 million in sales and use tax benefits reported a total capital investment of $9.6 billion.”

House Speaker Matt Huffman, a Republican, has said he would like to muster the three-fifths vote required to override DeWine’s veto but has indicated he lacks the political support. 

The new information vindicates the claims of Zach Schiller, a progressive economist with think tank Policy Matters Ohio, who has long maintained that the tax department estimates on data centers have been lowballs. 

But even he was surprised by how big the tax break had gotten, he said in an interview. He worried whether Ohio is legally able to get out of its long-term contracts with the developers, or whether lawmakers will at least halt any new tax breaks. 

“The thing that’s problematic is, what can be done about this?” he said. 

The scope of the tax department’s 2024 underestimate was first reported by News 5 Cleveland. 

Tax exemption dates back to 2010s

Republican lawmakers established the tax exemption in the early 2010s to lure technology companies to Ohio. The era predates the modern hyperscale and electric-intensive data centers that facilitate the artificial intelligence and cryptocurrency boom. 

For facilities that cost $100 million or more to build, the exemption allows developers to waive up to 100% of Ohio’s 5.75% sales tax for up to 15 years. And it can apply to capital-intensive, private natural gas plants some developers are building to fuel their operations. 

Use of the exemption started in 2016 at a modest $4.4 million scope in an era of far more humble data center operations. But since then, the project ambitions have ballooned and the math has added up quickly. Consider that federal officials recently touted what they described as the world’s largest data center in Scioto County, expected to cost $33 billion to build. 

Data centers have grown controversial in the U.S. given the exponential demand growth they place on the electric grid, the resulting increase in prices, the environmental concerns associated with the diesel generators and natural gas-fired power plants they keep on site, and their public subsidization versus the lack of post-construction jobs they offer. 

A recent report from the Ohio Chamber of Commerce estimated data centers have received $2.5 billion in public subsidies (including local property tax abatements) between 2017 and 2024. The same report states they’ve contributed $3.7 billion toward Ohio’s GDP if you include “direct” and “indirect” inputs.  

While lawmakers haven’t overridden DeWine’s veto of the data center tax break, they have responded to the political pressure in part by forming a special legislative committee broadly focused on data centers.

Rep. Adam Holmes, a Muskingum County Republican and chair of the committee, said he didn’t have any immediate knowledge on how or why the Ohio Department of Taxation’s numbers were so far off, but said the panel will soon field testimony from state officials. 

“I mean, that is the whole purpose of it. Let’s figure out what the heck is going on, and do it in a public forum,” he said. “But that tax [break], that needs to be explained.”

Sen. Kent Smith, a Cuyahoga County Democrat, said the new figures from the tax department means the data center tax exemption is one of the most lucrative incentives the state offers.

“There’s not a lot of things that take over $1 billion of our money, but holy crap the biggest tech companies in the world are one of them,” he said. “What might have been a well-intended privacy concern [from the tax department] just can’t hold water to $1 billion in tax breaks going to some of the biggest corporations in the world.”

Signal Ohio is a nonprofit news organization covering government, education, health, economy and public safety.

Originally published on TiffinOhio.net.