Officers were sent to the residence at about 4:43 a.m. on Monday, July 13, according to a press release from Police Chief Donald A. Karr. When they arrived, they found three injured people — two adults and one juvenile. A fourth person, also a juvenile, was not hurt.

Both adults had serious injuries and are receiving treatment, Karr said. A juvenile is in custody and is being treated for minor injuries.

The department did not say how any of the four people were hurt, what led to the call, how the four are related to one another, or why the juvenile was taken into custody. No charges have been announced.

Karr said the department is not releasing any names.

“We will not be releasing names at this time out of respect for the family,” the release said. “Further details will be released as required.”

The chief said required steps were taken at the scene and that the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation was called in to process it. BCI, a division of the Ohio Attorney General’s Office, is routinely requested by small departments to handle crime‑scene forensics and major‑case work.

“Our thoughts and prayers are with them and their family,” Karr said of the injured adults.

Gibsonburg police were assisted by the Woodville Police Department, the Sandusky County Sheriff’s Office, Sandusky County EMS, Gibsonburg Fire and the Sandusky County Prosecutor’s Office, according to the release.

Gibsonburg is a village of roughly 2,500 people in Sandusky County, about 25 miles northwest of Tiffin.

TiffinOhio.net will update this story as police release additional information.

Originally published on TiffinOhio.net.

The source of the outbreak is unknown and under investigation, the health district said in a news release.

Cyclosporiasis is an intestinal illness caused by a microscopic parasite. People become infected by consuming food or water contaminated with the parasite. Symptoms include intense, watery diarrhea, loss of appetite, weight loss, cramping, bloating, nausea and fatigue, and typically develop within two to 14 days after exposure. The health district said person-to-person spread is extremely unlikely.

The illness can cause prolonged illness in older adults, pregnant women, young children, and people with weakened immune systems or underlying health conditions, according to the health district. Anyone experiencing symptoms should contact a healthcare provider; early diagnosis and treatment can shorten the illness and prevent complications.

Part of a broader Ohio and Midwest increase

The Seneca County cases come as cyclosporiasis case counts climb across Ohio and neighboring states.

The Ohio Department of Health reported 177 cases statewide in 2026 as of July 2, with 171 of those occurring in June, mostly after June 20. Twenty-eight Ohioans had been hospitalized. No deaths have been reported in Ohio.

ODH Director Bruce Vanderhoff said the illness is not typically life-threatening but called it “a serious illness that can cause dehydration” and said it can require people to seek emergency medical care.

The state’s most recent public county-level breakdown, reflecting data as of July 2, listed 2 cases in Seneca County. The health district’s figure of 5 lab-confirmed cases reflects a later date and is drawn from cases reported directly to the district; the two counts are not a direct comparison.

That same state breakdown shows heavier concentrations elsewhere in northwest Ohio: 30 cases in Lucas County, 20 in Wood County, 10 in Wyandot County, 7 in Crawford County, 5 in Fulton County and 2 in Sandusky County.

ODH said it is working with local health departments and with state and federal partners on interviews and traceback investigations to identify any common exposure. As of that release, no common source had been identified. The illness is generally transmitted by eating contaminated produce, and ODH said it can be treated with antibiotics, along with rest and fluids.

How to reduce your risk

The health district listed several preventative steps residents can take while the investigation continues:

• Wash your hands with soap and water before preparing or eating food.

• Carefully wash all produce.

• When able, cook produce to at least 160 degrees Fahrenheit.

• If you are experiencing gastrointestinal symptoms such as diarrhea, do not swim or visit splashpads. The health district noted that one person with diarrhea can spread germs to everyone else in a pool.

The Seneca County General Health District can be reached at its Tiffin office, 92 E. Perry St., at 419-447-3691, or its Fostoria office, 801 Kirk St., at 419-435-4401.

More information about the illness is available from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Originally published on TiffinOhio.net.

According to the campaign, the endorsement was made by the executive committee of the UAW Ohio State CAP Council on the recommendation of the Fostoria Area UAW Community Action Program, which represents members in Seneca County. That route matches the process the union describes publicly: candidates are vetted by UAW Region 2B’s area Community Action Program councils, which then make recommendations to the Ohio or Indiana state CAP boards, made up of rank-and-file members and retirees.

The endorsement lands in a district built on factory work. Manufacturing is the largest employment sector in both Seneca and Sandusky counties, with roughly 7,000 workers in each — about a quarter of employed residents in each county — according to U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey estimates.

Jones has spent more than 20 years as a production supervisor at JVIS Tiffin USA, formerly Toledo Molding & Die. Before that, he served four years in the U.S. Army as an airborne infantryman with the 3rd U.S. Infantry Regiment — the Old Guard — the Army’s official ceremonial unit. He has represented Tiffin’s 1st Ward on City Council since 2024.

“I’ve spent two decades on a plant floor in Tiffin,” Jones said in the campaign’s announcement. “I know what it means when a line goes down, when a shift gets cut, when a plant that’s been here for generations starts talking about consolidation. The people who build things in Seneca and Sandusky County don’t need somebody in Columbus who’s never done it. They need somebody who has.”

The campaign also said Jones does not accept corporate PAC money, that more than 90 percent of the money he has raised this cycle has come from donors inside House District 88, and that his average contribution is about $73.

Campaign money was a live issue in the district this spring. During the Republican primary, challenger Eric Watson repeatedly criticized incumbent Rep. Gary Click over filings showing Click drew the bulk of his fundraising from corporate political action committees and donors outside the district.

A district Click nearly lost

Click, R-Vickery, is a three-term incumbent who is term-limited after the coming cycle and is seeking a fourth and final two-year term. He survived the May 5 Republican primary by fewer than 600 votes, finishing with 6,859 votes to Watson’s 6,260 — 52.28 percent to 47.72 percent — according to returns from the Sandusky and Seneca county boards of elections. Click carried his home county of Sandusky but lost Seneca County, where Jones lives and holds elected office. Watson declined to endorse Click after the race.

Jones ran unopposed in the Democratic primary. The UAW endorsement adds to a growing list of labor and veterans’ backing for his campaign: the national veterans group VoteVets endorsed Jones in March, and the Ohio Federation of Teachers endorsed him in a June 18 letter from union President Melissa Cropper.

Ohio’s 88th House District covers all of Seneca and Sandusky counties. The general election is Tuesday, Nov. 3.

More information about the Jones campaign is available at jonesforohio.com.

Originally published on TiffinOhio.net.

“I recommended, to Governor Henry McMaster, Lindsey Graham’s wonderful sister, Darline, to serve as interim Senator from the Great State of South Carolina,” Trump wrote in a social media post. “This would be a fabulous tribute to Lindsey, who loved her dearly!”

McMaster is scheduled to announce his appointment to the Senate at 4 p.m. Eastern during a press conference. The person selected for the role would serve out the remainder of Graham’s term through early January. Graham was close to his sister, Darline Graham Nordone, after their parents died when she was a teen.

Graham, 71, died unexpectedly this weekend of an aortic dissection due to arteriosclerotic cardiovascular disease, according to preliminary findings from the District of Columbia’s medical examiner that were shared by Graham’s office. 

Graham’s death has also triggered a special election process in his home state to determine who will advance to the November general election for a full six-year Senate term. 

Graham won the Republican primary in June and was set to face Democratic candidate Annie Andrews later this year. 

The special election to determine which Republican will advance is scheduled for Aug. 11, with a runoff taking place on Aug. 25 if necessary. 

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

Originally published on TiffinOhio.net.

Allies of an Ohio progressive advocacy group that is being probed by the FBI are hoping to use news of the investigation to mobilize voters this November.

Innovation Ohio launched a social media ad campaign this week referencing the June 11 raid of the Ohio Organizing Collaborative. The investigation’s exact focus remains unclear, but the FBI previously asked elections officials in at least Cleveland and Columbus about voter registration work performed in 2023 and 2024 by a company owned by an OOC founder.

The ads, which feature clips of TV news coverage, describe the raid as “a deliberate attempt to scare Ohioans, suppress participation, and silence those fighting to protect our freedom to vote.” It directs viewers to Hands Off Ohio, a website that’s raising money to continue the OOC’s voter registration drives in Ohio and to help targets of the investigation push back publicly. 

Innovation Ohio President and CEO Michael McGovern said the Hands Off Ohio coalition is taking its message directly to voters after previously holding in-person rallies. The ad campaign costs at least $100,000, and is being targeted at progressive voters in the state, McGovern said. In addition to social media platforms, the ads also will air on streaming video devices.

“We think Ohioans are smart enough to see through the BS. Rather than allow themselves to be intimidated, we believe these authoritarian tactics will motivate everyday people from across the state to come together to defend their freedoms,” McGovern said.

The Ohio Organizing Collaborative and its political arm, the Ohio Organizing Campaign, are major progressive groups in Ohio, helping fund voter registration drives, ballot initiatives and other forms of political organizing and advocacy. 

The groups also serve as a conduit for tens of millions of dollars coming from large national foundations that fund liberal political causes across the country. The Ohio Organizing Campaign spent $9.6 million in 2024, the group’s public tax filings show – of which $9.1 million went to Black Fork Strategies, a political firm owned by Ohio Organizing Collaborative founder Kirk Noden. 

Black Fork, in turn, was the subject of several complaints by elections officials in Cuyahoga, Franklin and Hamilton counties that year, among others. Elections officials referred their concerns to Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose, saying Black Fork’s canvassers committed multiple instances of apparent voter registration fraud, including changing voter registrations without those voters’ knowledge, and in a handful of instances, registering dead people to vote. Elections officials said they detected the questionable registrations and blocked them. An elections official in Cuyahoga County told Signal Statewide in an interview last month that none of the registrations resulted in fraudulent voting.

Federal officials haven’t commented on the case, and officials with the Ohio Organizing Collaborative have denied wrongdoing.

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

Originally published on TiffinOhio.net.

As of Thursday night, the U.S Election Assistance Commission has no members. The White House in an email dismissed Democrats Thomas Hicks and Benjamin Hovland. Republican Christy McCormick resigned, and GOP member Donald Palmer left earlier this year.

Trump’s move guts, for now, a four-member board created in 2002 after the chaos that dogged the 2000 presidential election. That result came down to the vote count in Florida, where the question was debated of whether “hanging chads” on ballots counted or not.

The commission legislation, signed into law by President George W. Bush in 2002, is designed to have the panel help states establish credible voter registration and voting systems.

Activists saw Trump’s sudden firings as the latest, and perhaps most ominous, chapter in his efforts to influence elections in a way opponents say is meant to help his party in the fall midterms.

To them, it becomes part of a growing list that includes extraordinary congressional map-drawing in Republican-leaning states, a fierce effort to require voters to provide photo ID and proof of citizenship and the Supreme Court’s curtailing of the 1965 Voting Rights Act.

“Here we go again,” said a joint statement by Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Calif., and Rep. Joe Morelle, D-New York., after the commission decision became public. They’re the top Democrats on the congressional committees that deal with election law.

“Purging commissioners just months before the midterm elections and further gutting support for our state and local elections officials is a blatant part of his plan to politicize our elections and enable more unlawful and dangerous election interference,” they said.

The White House insisted it is interested only in a fair election.

“The Administration from the start has been working across all agencies and local partners to safeguard elections from fraud and abuse, and investing in a strong infrastructure to sustain that mission especially in the midterm elections,” a White House official who asked not to be named told States Newsroom in an email.

Trump’s election orders

To skeptics, Trump’s latest action was part of an ongoing push to influence election procedures – an effort unheard of in modern times for an incumbent president – that shows no signs of abating.

The election commission would not alter the national voter registration form as Trump wanted so that it would include proof of citizenship. Trump issued an executive order requiring proof of citizenship for voters, but a federal judge blocked the effort, saying states and Congress had that authority.

He is also attempting to restrict voting by mail. The Supreme Court last month rejected a bid to bar mail votes from being counted after Election Day. The votes can count as long as they are postmarked by that day.

But the administration is trying another court challenge, aimed at preserving Trump’s executive order telling federal agencies to come up with a national list of documented adult U.S. citizens who could then vote.

The order would also have the U.S. Postal Service establish a system for dealing with mail-in votes from the approved lists. A federal judge has blocked the order. The case could wind up at the Supreme Court later this year.

Can the SAVE America Act be saved?

On Capitol Hill, when Congress returns to work Monday from the Fourth of July recess, House lawmakers will confront how or whether to proceed with the SAVE America Act, Trump’s bid to require voters to show identification and proof of citizenship.

The legislation is expected to go nowhere, since it needs 60 votes in the Senate, which has 47 members who caucus with the Democrats.

Trump, though, has put enormous pressure on supporters to move the bill. “THE SAVE AMERICA ACT’S non-passage is CRAZY, and a serious threat to any politician who votes against it!” he wrote on Truth Social Friday. He explained he will not sign a housing reform bill, which passed Congress by big bipartisan margins last month, in protest. Without his signature, the bill will become law anyway at 12:01 a.m. Saturday.

The SAVE America Act has paralyzed the House, as supporters refused to let members consider any other legislation until the chamber passes the act.

Trump has been moving on other fronts. His administration backed a successful challenge to a key provision of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, a law that tore down decades-old barriers that kept minority voters in the South from voting and gaining political clout. 

The president also energized movements across conservative states to redraw congressional district lines, normally done after censuses in years ending in zero.

Instead, eight states, including Texas, Florida, Alabama, Louisiana, North Carolina, Tennessee, Ohio and Missouri have adjusted their maps this year in ways expected to help Republicans.

California and Utah have redrawn maps to create more potential Democratic seats. But all the changes, said the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics, have created “a Republican advantage of some size.” 

Trump’s initiatives have sparked bitterness for and against.

“Democracy doesn’t disappear overnight, it erodes piece by piece. SCOTUS weakens voting rights. Trump guts the bipartisan Election Assistance Commission and pushes the SAVE America Act to choke voter registration and fair elections. We cannot stay silent. We must resist,” Rep. Analilia Mejia, D-N.J., said on X.

Rep. Abe Hamadeh, R-Ariz., applauded Trump’s latest action.

“President Trump is right to clean house at the Election Assistance Commission,” Hamadeh said on X.

“For too long, it has enabled weak standards & defended vulnerable machines that fueled irregularities in 2020 & 2022. Rather than address legitimate concerns with transparency & accountability, the EAC circled the wagons & politicized a sacred nonpartisan process,” he said.

Rigged elections?

At the heart of all these efforts is Trump’s long-held view that elections are too often rigged. He made that claim after losing in 2020, despite no evidence of much if any fraud.

Most recently, he alleged rigging in the Los Angeles mayoral primary, where Republican Spencer Pratt failed to advance, topped by two Democrats. Again, there’s been no evidence of wrongdoing.

The independent Election Assistance Commission that Trump gutted helped in establishing the credibility of elections by, in its description, “advancing Safe, Secure, Accurate, and Accessible Elections.”

The Center for Election Innovation & Research has found that over the past 25 years, “states have implemented several innovative policies that streamline the process of voter registration, promote voter list accuracy, and create more options for eligible citizens to register or update their voter registration.”

Among the changes: more online voter registration, same-day voter registration, and automatic voter registration. Forty-six states and Washington, D.C., use at least one of these methods, up from seven states in 2000.

Next steps

The commission’s ability to effect change now appears stymied.

“Congress deliberately structured the Election Assistance Commission as a bipartisan agency to help states administer free, fair, and secure elections,” said Michael Waldman, president and CEO of the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU Law.

“These removals leave the agency without leadership and unable to carry out its major responsibilities,” he said.

Trump is using the authority that the Supreme Court appeared to give him in a decision last week allowing him to remove members of independent agencies, except for Federal Reserve governors.

Trump would have to appoint two Democrats as well as two Republicans to the EAC, but they would need Senate confirmation.

Asked if the president planned appointments anytime soon, the White House official said, “The Administration from the start has been working across all agencies and local partners to safeguard elections from fraud and abuse, and investing in a strong infrastructure to sustain that mission especially in the midterm elections.” 

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

Originally published on TiffinOhio.net.

Legislators at an annual conference hosted by Future Caucus, an organization that aims to strengthen bipartisan dialogue among Gen Z and millennial leaders, engaged in tech-related policy discussions and agreed states should impose some guardrails on online activity, especially for kids.

South Carolina state Rep. Brandon Guffey urged lawmakers to pursue policy that would hold Big Tech companies accountable for exposing kids to harmful online content. He said he champions “guardrails” over device bans because “we cannot keep kids (offline) right now.” 

“I don’t want to take away anybody’s rights to be free,” the Republican said. “But at the end of the day, we have a responsibility to protect the next generation.” 

Guffey wrote Gavin’s Law, an act passed in 2023 that made “sextortion,” or the use of explicit content for blackmail, a felony in the state. The law was named after his 17-year-old son Gavin Guffey, who lost his life in 2022 due to online sextortion, and whose story Guffey shared with the roomful of quiet, attentive legislators.

Tomicah Tilleman, president of the organization Project Liberty that works to shape and advance AI policy, also warned state lawmakers of the addictive nature of the technology, a feature he said comes at the cost of users’ personal data for tech companies’ financial gain. 

“Take a hard look at the structures that have led us to where we are, and start thinking at a very first-principles level about how we can build something better,” Tilleman said.   

State Rep. Christine Cockley, a Democrat from Ohio, highlighted the growing issue of young people turning to AI chatbots for suicide assistance. 

She is working to pass a bill alongside a Republican colleague that would require AI developers to build their models using mental health frameworks because she said she is “sick of hearing” stories about chatbots helping children write suicide notes and encouraging self-harm.

“The biggest thing I’ve learned is that we have to listen to the people with the lived experience to create good, sound policy,” Cockley said.

What to do about AI? 

AI was a dominant theme throughout the rest of the morning.

State Reps. Monique Priestley, a Vermont Democrat, and Joe Hogan, a Republican from Pennsylvania, talked about the speed and scale of AI’s growth into almost every sector of society and weighed the pros and cons of managing the technology at the state level versus federal level. 

Hogan said he believes states can succeed in protecting children and consumers from chatbots, but he thinks a “national framework” is more effective when it comes to developing the actual AI models. 

On the other hand, Priestley said states should lead on the issue because it would help them address harms that only happen in certain areas, she said. 

Plus, she added, it would protect states’ rights to self-govern. 

Though the panelists expressed a handful of different views on questions related to AI policy, they agreed that the technology requires government regulation. 

“It is the one bipartisan issue where we can come together and experiment,” Priestley said. “We are the laboratories of democracy, and when we are scared into not being those laboratories, then I think all of America is let down by that.” 

Bipartisan look to the future 

Future Caucus has convened summits of young lawmakers since 2017, with the goal of strengthening bipartisanship.

This year’s Future Summit, as the meeting is called, focused on the country’s 250th birthday with the title “Next 250 — The Courage to Build.” 

Organizers invited Gen Z and millennial lawmakers to look back on the history of American politics, share their visions for the country’s future and work together to build a plan for that next chapter. 

Aside from Friday’s internet safety and AI sessions held, state legislators sat in on discussions led by their peers throughout the week on topics such as passing bipartisan legislation, bridging the gap between elected officials and public constituents and empowering female leadership. 

“There is joy in this community that surprises people, and it comes from discovering that politics doesn’t have to be a zero-sum game,” Future Caucus president and CEO Layla Zaidane said in a speech Thursday. “Solving problems (with people) who think differently from you is not only possible, but it is deeply fulfilling.” 

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

Originally published on TiffinOhio.net.

The Department of Homeland Security agency issued new guidance to employers saying work authorization for hundreds of thousands of immigrants with Temporary Protected Status impacted by a recent Supreme Court decision would expire in one to two weeks, instead of Friday.

The agency said Haitians with TPS will have valid work authorization until July 24, while nationals of Burma, Ethiopia, Somalia, South Sudan, Syria and Yemen with TPS will have it until July 17.

The decision came hours before immigrants hailing from those countries were set to lose their work authorizations under earlier USCIS guidance.

The Supreme Court ruled June 25 that the Trump administration could move forward with a plan to end TPS for immigrants from Haiti and Syria, even while the lower courts continue hearing legal challenges. 

The conservative justices found the Trump administration’s decision to end TPS was not subject to judicial review, impacting several other cases challenging the termination of humanitarian protections.

But the lower courts had not aligned their cases with the Supreme Court order by Friday, leaving in place, for now, their orders forbidding deportation.

Typically, decisions from the high court go into effect 32 days after a ruling. USCIS jumped ahead of that schedule with its July 1 guidance. The July 24 expiration date is still within 32 days of the court decision and could be further delayed.

Trump and asylum

During his second term, President Donald Trump has ended TPS for about 1 million immigrants who were initially granted humanitarian protections because they hail from countries deemed too dangerous to return. 

Federal judges are still hearing arguments about if the Trump administration’s decision to end TPS was based on discriminatory practices, such as race or country of origin. 

But the 6-3 conservative Supreme Court majority did not find that immigrants challenging their legal protections being revoked were “entitled” to any judicial holds postponing the end of their TPS. 

TPS recipients from Haiti and Syria will have their deportation protections in place until lower courts lift them or unless they have a protected status other than TPS, such as a pending asylum case. 

But not every TPS recipient can apply for asylum. For example, if someone has TPS due to a natural disaster, they are unlikely to meet the criteria for asylum, which is fear of persecution “on account of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion.”

The Trump administration last year stopped processing asylum cases for immigrants from dozens of countries, including Haiti and Syria, but a federal judge in June struck down that policy. 

DHS has said that it plans to deport those who have lost TPS following the Supreme Court’s decision.

So far, the administration has declined to renew protections for 14 countries under TPS. The remaining countries with TPS are El Salvador, Lebanon and Ukraine. 

Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin has until Saturday to extend TPS for immigrants from El Salvador, who were the first to receive protections from the program. 

TPS can be renewed on cycles ranging from 6 to 18 months. It does not provide a path to citizenship.

Healthcare crisis

TPS beneficiaries from Haiti make up one of the largest shares of immigrants in the program Congress created in the 1990s.

The states with the largest population of TPS recipients from Haiti are Florida, New York, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Ohio according to the immigration advocacy group fwd.us.

More than 50,000 Haitians with TPS work in the healthcare industry, and lawmakers from both parties have raised concerns about the consequences of such a sudden loss of workers.

New York Republican Rep. Mike Lawler, warned that “immediately shutting off TPS will create a crisis in our hospitals, nursing homes, and in the (intellectual disabilities) community.”

Members of a union that represents healthcare workers along the East Coast gathered in New York City Friday to protest their opposition to work permits ending for TPS recipients and raised concerns that a sudden loss of workers would exacerbate the shortage of caregivers. 

A 2024 report found that nearly half of all nursing homes in the U.S. struggle with staffing shortages. 

“If TPS ends, we will face a caregiver crisis, the likes of which we’ve never seen,” said Andy Cassagnol, the executive vice president of Service Employees International Union Local 1199.

He said the move will worsen staffing shortages in home care settings and nursing homes. 

“This is a cruel, heartless, and inhumane policy that will rip parents away from their children and devastate whole communities,” Cassagnol said of the Supreme Court’s decision. “Imagine seniors and individuals living with disabilities waking up to find their favorite aide is just gone. Maybe someone who is the only familiar face in their lives has disappeared.”

U.S. Rep. Ayanna Pressley, a Massachusetts Democrat who sponsored a bill in the House that would extend TPS for Haiti for three years, said in a statement following the Supreme Court’s decision that the “implications of this ruling are nothing short of catastrophic.”

Haitians allege racism

But even if Pressley’s bill managed to garner 60 votes in the Senate, it’s unlikely that Trump would sign the measure after he vowed on the campaign trail to end TPS for Haitians and used pejorative language to describe Haiti and its people. 

The president’s words regarding Haiti have been central to TPS recipients’ claims that the decision to end protections was due to racism, not an evaluation of improved country conditions.  

The conservative majority of the Supreme Court noted equal protection arguments were unlikely to prevail in the lower courts. 

“None of the cited statements by either the President or the Secretary was overtly racial, and in substance all expressed policy views that could rest on race-neutral justifications,” Justice Samuel Alito wrote for the majority.

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

Originally published on TiffinOhio.net.

The justices also decried the state law that requires partisan labels on state supreme court races, an Ohio Supreme Court decision to allow judges to endorse political candidates, and movements throughout the country to politicize judges’ seats.

“When average citizens start to talk about judges and justices by putting them in a political tribe, it undermines who we are,” said former justice Yvette McGee Brown, in a press conference outside the Joseph P. Kinneary federal courthouse in downtown Columbus.

Brown stood with fellow former justice Michael P. Donnelly and former Chief Justice Maureen O’Connor during the press conference with the organization Justice in Motion.

Donnelly said the fear is not just the loss of independence for judges and justices, but of societal and legal norms that were once believed to be concrete.

“You all grew up with the same norms that we accepted as Americans: that America was the great melting pot; if you were born here, you were an American; no one is above the law,” Donnelly said. “You see these norms being broken … it’s like a firehose coming at us.”

The justices were also joined by former North Carolina Supreme Court justice Robert Orr, along with former Ohio attorneys general Nancy Rogers and Richard Cordray, and judges from across the state.

Orr said the separation of powers between the branches of government is critical for democracy.

“The founders of our nation feared the consolidation of power into the hands of any one branch or any one person, and it was the judiciary that the framers of our Constitution … turned to, to abide by the law, to be independent, to be judges not for a party or a person, but for a Constitution and the people,” Orr said.

_Former Ohio Supreme Court justice Yvette McGee Brown speaks at a press conference on Wednesday, as part of a movement to promote the elimination of partisanship in the judicial branch.

(Photo by Susan Tebben / Ohio Capital Journal)_

Justice in Motion puts judges from multiple states on a tour bus that travels from Pennsylvania to Michigan, holding events like the one in Columbus “focused on the rule of law, constitutional democracy, and public trust,” according to the organization.

Donnelly said the “assault” on the rule of law “could not be overstated,” especially with enormous ramifications possible from the midterm elections in November.

“In my lifetime, I have never seen this danger to the rule of law,” Donnelly said. “Call it out, don’t be afraid, exercise your vote as an American, it’s all on the line.”

Cordray said the danger to judicial independence starts at the very top.

“We’re here because we believe in the rule of law, and hate to see it corrupted by people who think they’re above the law, including the president of the United States,” he said.

O’Connor was flanked by her own “defender of democracy,” her 19-month-old dog Carlo. She pointed back to the redistricting battles that lasted the better part of four years in Ohio, with the supreme court she led rejecting five statehouse district maps and two congressional maps.

The former chief justice and former state lieutenant governor also mentioned the defeat of Issue 1, an effort she championed to overhaul the redistricting system in Ohio, and eliminate the Ohio Redistricting Commission.

Because Issue 1 was voted down in 2024, the commission continues to be made up of elected officials, mostly from the majority party, and includes the governor, secretary of state, and auditor of state.

But hard work in the next election could not only bolster the integrity of the judiciary, but bring about hope to address gerrymandering again, O’Connor said.

“We have the opportunity to vote for people who will make up the redistricting commission that we still have, that will make a difference how maps are drawn,” she said.

O’Connor added there is “talk” of a possible push to try redistricting reform again in 2027, depending on the results of the midterms.

The judges and justices urged Ohioans to educate themselves on the judicial candidates running in the November election, from the supreme court, down to their county courthouses.

Partisan politics should play no role in an independent judiciary, Donnelly said, and public confidence in it “is its lifeblood.”

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

Originally published on TiffinOhio.net.

“I don’t understand the idea of a championship golf course near the nation’s capital. There are already world-class golf courses there,” said former Ohio Gov. Bob Taft, who served from 1999 to 2007. He is the great-grandson of William Howard Taft, the 27th president.

“Now is not the time to devastate cherry trees that have an important role as part of the cultural alliance between the United States and Japan … It’s very concerning.”

Taft, a Republican as is Trump, is an avid outdoorsman and golfer. He said chopping down cherry trees is an afront to his family heritage and a threat to the beauty of Washington as an international tourist attraction.

“They are a United States institution,” Taft said. “People from all over the world come to the Cherry Blossom Festival.”

Cherry trees were given by the Japanese to former President Taft and his wife, Nellie, who had ambitions to beautify the nation’s capital. She admired the flowering trees when her husband was the presidentially appointed Governor General of the Philippines.

Some of those historic trees plus others could be removed to make way for Trump’s plan to turn the public East Potomac Golf Links into a “championship” venue capable of hosting major tournaments such as the PGA Championship and Ryder Cup.

The plan would also eliminate a riverside bike trail and other public recreation areas. Trump toured the course June 28 with government officials and golf course planners. The project could begin as early as Sept. 1.

The Ohio connection to the threatened Japanese cherry trees goes back to 1912-1913 when 3,020 saplings from the banks of the Arakawa River in a Tokyo suburb were planted along the Tidal basin.

“Without President and Nellie Taft, the trees wouldn’t be there,” the former governor said. “They make Washington a more beautiful setting.”

Bob Taft had an emotional ceremony in 2000 in Japan during his first foreign trade trip as governor. He joined Yukika Sohma, daughter of former Tokyo Mayor Yukio Ozaki, to plant Ohio dogwood trees in a Tokyo park across from the building housing Japan’s legislative assembly.

“Times change, but the flowers will keep on,” Sohma said at the time in a story published in the Columbus Dispatch.

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

Originally published on TiffinOhio.net.

This article was first published by The Marshall Project, a nonprofit news organization covering the U.S. criminal justice system. Sign up for their newsletters, and follow them on Instagram, TikTok, Reddit and Facebook.

Some people on Ohio’s death row praised Gov. Mike DeWine for having the courage to come out against the death penalty. Others said actions speak louder than words, and they want the governor to commute their death sentences to life without the possibility of parole.

But all agreed with the governor on one thing: Ohio’s death penalty law is broken. DeWine said long delays in carrying out executions undermine its intended function as a deterrent. Condemned prisoners resoundingly said that the possibility of being executed never stopped anyone from committing murder.

In the days after DeWine called on legislators to abolish the death penalty in Ohio during a press conference last month, The Marshall Project turned to the people who are awaiting execution in the state’s prisons. Sixteen responded, providing a rare perspective on capital punishment from those most directly affected by it.

DeWine helped enact Ohio’s death penalty law 45 years ago as a young state legislator. In his statement last month, he said the decades it takes, on average, to carry out executions have rendered the sentence meaningless.

Several of the people we heard from said they had hoped, or even expected, to hear him say he would commute the sentences of the more than 100 people on the state’s death row to life without parole. But during his two terms in office, DeWine has commuted only one person’s death sentence.

Since his announcement, the governor has not answered questions about whether he might commute more before his term ends in January.

“All he did was kick the can down the road for others to deal with. And, to me, that made him a coward!” said Grady Brinkley, who was convicted of murdering his girlfriend and sentenced to death in 2002.

Jeremiah Jackson, 46, was convicted in 2010 of murdering a laundromat employee in Cleveland during a series of robberies. He compared DeWine’s announcement to a candy wrapper: “Nothing sweet inside to have. Just something to look at.”

DeWine has not carried out an execution during his time in office, routinely saying that the drugs needed for lethal injection are not available. In his statement, he did not address the morality of executions, though some commended him for supporting a position increasingly embraced by pro-life conservatives.

“It takes courage to reexamine your beliefs and speak openly about that change,” said Stanley Jalowiec, who was convicted of murdering a police informant in 1994.

Nearly all of the people we heard from on death row agreed that the death penalty does not deter crime.

It “never even entered my mind as I was committing my crimes. Why should it have?” asked George Brinkman, who received two death sentences for five murders in 2017.

“Nobody thinks: ‘I’m gonna rob this gas station and shoot a clerk,’” said Thomas Knuff Jr., who was convicted of fatally stabbing two people and sentenced to death in 2019. “I’m sure some crimes of murder are planned. But those people never think they will get caught, so they never think about a death penalty beforehand.”

Several said they were unaware, prior to their arrests, that Ohio has a death penalty, or that it has executed 56 people since 1981.

“I don’t know that capital punishment could ever be a deterrent to murder, no more than prisons are a deterrent to crime,” said Keith LaMar, who maintains that he is innocent of killing five prisoners in a 1993 riot at the state prison in Lucasville, for which he was sent to death row.

“People make decisions based on what they themselves perceive their options to be, and sometimes — most times — we can’t see what we can’t see,” he said.

Jalowiec agreed.

“Most of the guilty men I have spoken with never seriously considered the possibility of a death sentence before committing their crimes,” he said. “Many acted under the influence of drugs and alcohol, acted in a moment of rage, or simply believed they would never be caught. The possibility of execution was not part of their decision-making process.”

A growing body of research has found that the brain’s ability to fully reason, assess risks and check impulses continues to develop until a person’s mid-20s and sometimes later. About a third of Ohio’s death row prisoners were sentenced before they turned 25, and some were convicted of crimes committed when they were teenagers, according to a Marshall Project review of state prison records.

“I believe most death row inmates were kids when we caught our cases and hadn’t fully matured into adulthood,” said Jonathan Monroe, who was 25 a quarter century ago when convicted of killing two women in Columbus in search of drugs. “Our upbringing, the abuse that we endured and the lack of proper guidance should all be factored in.”

As governor, DeWine cannot unilaterally repeal the death penalty. He asked lawmakers to do that. And, if they don’t, he urged them to put the issue on the ballot for voters to decide.

Since 2011, Democratic legislators, and more recently some Republicans, have tried to repeal Ohio’s death penalty, proposing legislation that would set the maximum punishment at life without the possibility of parole.

Death row prisoners are not optimistic that lawmakers will give voters the chance, or that voters would ultimately support repeal.

“They have been talking about abolishing the death penalty since 2005. I know. I have been on this case since 1985,” said Percy Hutton, who has an execution date set for 2028. Hutton was convicted of fatally shooting a man during an argument.

Though DeWine said nothing about the possibility of wrongful convictions, several people said exonerations of people sentenced to death should give everyone pause.

“Lots of guys have been released over actual innocence from death sentences in America, and some were ultimately killed before DNA or other evidence cleared them,” said Knuff. “Death is absolute. Death is final.”

Opponents of the death penalty in Ohio released a report earlier this year highlighting a dozen people freed from the state’s death row after being wrongfully convicted.

Beyond abolishing the death penalty, state officials should extend rehabilitation programs to people on death row, many respondents argued.

Edward Lang III was sentenced to death nearly 20 years ago at the age of 18 after being convicted of killing two people during a drug deal in Canton. If his sentence were commuted to life without parole, he said he would “join a college program. Get a state job to help provide for myself. These things are not available to death row, as we are just left to rot away.”

If the governor were to grant them mercy, several said they dreamed of participating in prison programs, getting educated, being less of a financial burden to their families and mentoring younger prisoners. One man said he relies on his family to supplement his $16 monthly prison stipend, which isn’t enough to cover his hygiene needs.

“Things can change for the better, and holding on to that hope is important,” said Taci Jordan Vixen, who along with co-defendent Archie Dixon, is scheduled to be executed in 2027 after being convicted of burying a man alive in 1993.

But a couple of people said that life without parole would be a fate worse than death.

Richard Bays, who was convicted of killing a man during a home robbery while under the influence of crack cocaine, said he would contemplate ending his own life in that situation.

“I don’t want commutation,” said Knuff. “Life in prison is no life I want.”

James Conway III was convicted of fatally shooting an Ohio State University student and wounding another person outside a club in 2002. He’s had the same nightmare over and over again during his 23 years on death row.

“They come get you, to take you to the execution chamber, and you can’t contact family or legal counsel. Many of us, including myself, suffer panic attacks and other conditions related to the extreme long-term stresses of living under the threat of being executed,” he said.

“It just comes over you, and you go through it until your body can’t take it anymore. Then you sort of pass out and hope things are better when you wake up.”

Decades of waiting to be killed are psychologically torturous, many said.

LaMar is the next person scheduled to be executed in Ohio, with a date set in January. He called the years he has waited since arriving on death row in 1995 “soul-murdering.”

“I noticed almost immediately that most of the men were mentally unstable and should have been in some kind of mental institution,” he said.

While some cling to hope, others say they feel like they are already dead, emotionally and spiritually.

“Just being on the Row will suck the very life out of a person! Year after year of this makes a person want to die! There is no reason to go on!” said George Skatzes, who was convicted of murdering three people, including a corrections officer, during the 1993 prison riot in Lucasville.

The families of condemned prisoners also suffer under death sentences.

“The tears, the fear and the grief were simply too much for her,” Jalowiec said of his mother. “My family has spent decades living with the uncertainty, stress and emotional burden that comes with a death sentence.”

Conway said his mother talked about killing herself when he was convicted in 2003. Her grandchildren — his kids — grew up without a father present in their lives.

“In my opinion, they should have access to the same resources that are available to victims’ families through the prosecutor’s office,” Conway said. “Regardless of what anyone thinks about me, they are victims of this situation as much as anyone.”

Austin Myers, the youngest person on Ohio’s death row, said he feels forgotten “by nearly all except for those who want you dead.”

“I believe that much of my family mourned the loss of me at the time that I was convicted and sentenced to death, and I never heard from them again,” he said.

One man said his children took their mother’s last name. Some said they have become estranged or watched most of their family members die while they waited to be executed.

They struggle daily with a legacy of pain and suffering that will not die with them.

“The victims are waiting to cheer on our death. Our families are waiting to grieve us,” said Lang.

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

Originally published on TiffinOhio.net.

Why did the legislature last fall, as we were preparing to give thanks for our blessings, rush through changes in our election laws that made it harder to vote and easier for Donald Trump to stifle resistance? 

The answer comes from a multi-layered 22-year story that points to one conclusion: The Ohio Republican Party has stolen voters’ power in elections and access to the franchise, and is equipping Donald Trump to do the same in the next few months.

First, let’s get the simplicity of grace periods out of the way.

In Ohio last year, if you dropped your absentee ballot in the mail five days before Election Day and for some reason it was routed through the Detroit Post Office (I speak from recent experience) it might arrive at the local board of elections a day or two after Election Day.

In 2025, Ohio’s four-day grace period meant your vote would have been counted if it was postmarked before Election Day and arrived within four days after the election. 

Not this year. The legislature and Gov. Mike DeWine changed the rules.

A ballot that arrives after midnight election night won’t be opened. It’s headed to the incinerator rather than counted in what promises to be one of the most consequential mid-term elections in American history.

More than 11,000 votes in the November 2024 presidential election would have been destroyed rather than counted under the new rule.

Let’s go back two decades and find out why we had a grace period in the first place.

In 2004, Ohio was one of three closely watched pivotal states in the hot Bush-Kerry presidential election. Polling showed them neck and neck. Adding to Ohio’s tension was a constitutional amendment proposing to ban same-sex marriage, plus new voting machines across the state. Turnout promised to be extraordinary — and it was.

The system failed. There weren’t enough machines, not enough poll workers, and some voters were waiting in line for more than eight hours.

At one polling place at closing time there were 400 people still in line. Worse, a machine in a Columbus suburb gave George W. Bush 3,893 extra votes and Kerry lost the state by only 2 percentage points. 

For only the second time in American history there was a Congressional motion to reject a state’s slate of electors. It was Ohio’s.

The election was a public relations nightmare for Ohio Republicans. They controlled the state legislature, governor’s office, Ohio Supreme Court, and the Ohio Secretary of State’s office with J. Kenneth Blackwell at the helm.

Republican state Rep. Larry Wolpert of Hilliard offered a solution in 2005: Let anyone who wants to vote by mail do so. The supporting argument was that mail-in ballots would take the pressure off of having enough machines and poll workers on election day.

Absentee ballots were not as common then. In the 2004 election and for decades previously, Ohioans could only cast a mail-in ballot if they knew they would be out of town or otherwise incapacitated on election day. In 2004, about 10 percent voted by mail, and many were overseas military as the U.S. engaged in wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

The legislature approved Wolpert’s idea. 

But as Wolpert anticipated the first test in the 2008 presidential election he had a new concern: What if the U.S. Postal Service can’t handle all the ballots in a timely manner. And again, Ohio was in the spotlight as the first Black presidential candidate faced off against a military and citizen hero.

Wolpert proposed another fix: A 10-day grace period. As long as a ballot was postmarked no later than Election Day, it had 10 days to arrive at the local board of elections to be counted. The legislature approved.

In those days, Republicans didn’t know who would be most likely to vote by mail. They did it to prevent another election disaster.

But now they know who is most likely to vote by mail: Democrats, about 2-1.

Which brings us to the Trump-MAGA regime.

What began as an effort to help all Ohioans vote and avoid embarrassing catastrophes has become a tool for disenfranchising Democrats and concentrating power in the hands of Republicans who claim to be populists but instead are working against the people of Ohio.

(For anyone who wishes to argue that Republicans would not do such a thing, I’ll remind them that the Republican Speaker of the Ohio House and former chairman of the Ohio Republican Party were arrested in 2020 and now in prison for orchestrating what a federal prosecutor described as the largest bribery scandal in state history. The GOP goal was to use the bribes to orchestrate elections and pass laws that benefited those who would do the bribing. In this case, it was First Energy, and Ohioans were on track to pay billions in higher utility rates as a result.)

The 10-day grace period stood the test of time. In 2020 and the height of the coronavirus pandemic, 57% of Ohioans voted by mail or early to avoid large crowds and the deadly infection. 

But Donald Trump lost that election. And that’s when it all started. The steal.

His false claims of voter fraud, especially for mail-in ballots, and attempts to prevent the peaceful transfer of power energized his MAGA adherents in Ohio.

The state was overrepresented among those arrested in the Jan. 6 insurrection. When Mar-a-Lago was raided, a Columbus-area man attempted to shoot up an FBI office. 

And an emboldened Ohio legislature came to Trump’s aid. 

Emboldened how? Despite the Speaker of the House and director of the Ohio GOP indicted in a massive bribery scandal months before the 2020 election, gerrymandered district borders resulted in Ohio voters returning the GOP to power at the Statehouse.

More importantly, this emboldened legislature and Gov. DeWine in 2021 drew district boundaries again that the Ohio Supreme Court ruled violated the constitution’s anti-gerrymandering clause. They defied the state court and we proceeded to elect an unconstitutionally districted legislature. 

Today, of our delegation to Congress, 66% are Republican. In the Ohio Senate, 77% are Republican. In the Ohio House, 65% are Republican. But only 19% of Ohio voters have registered as Republicans and in polling, about one-third of Ohioans identify as Republican. 

People wonder: Will Donald Trump defy the courts? In Ohio, the legislature and governor already have. 

In the midst of that battle, in May of 2022, then-Ohio Senate President Matt Huffman was quoted in the Columbus Dispatch as saying that as the supermajority we “can pretty much do what we want.”

But while the Ohio GOP was riding high in 2022, the same wasn’t the case at the national level. The House Select Committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection held a series of hearings concluding in December 2022 that poured emotional testimony and photos into the political ecosphere as it explored Trump’s role in attempting to block the election certification, his failure to stop violence, and his baseless claims of voter fraud. 

At the same time, a predicted Republican sweep of Congress in midterm elections failed to materialize, raising concerns among GOP leaders that they might be facing headwinds.

And Trump announced his plan to run again in 2024.

The Ohio GOP jumped to action to complicate free and fair elections. A bill languishing in the Senate for a year, Ohio House Bill 458, introduced in October 2021, proposed to eliminate August special elections. That’s all.

The bill was grabbed in the first week of December 2022 and more than 40 new provisions were added, imposing new identification requirements to register to vote and to cast a ballot on Election Day. Failure to present the required ID meant the voter had to use a provisional ballot and then go to the board of elections to prove identity. 

Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose defended the ID requirements saying that polling shows people overwhelmingly favor some form of photo ID for voting. That was true. About 80% of Americans liked the idea. But while that was the main talking point, the legislature went way beyond photo IDs to make it harder to vote.

Lawmakers also reduced the time voters had to prove their identity in the event they were challenged at the polling place. The time period was reduced from seven to four days, meaning they might need to secure a certified birth certificate and visit the Bureau of Motor Vehicles by Saturday rather than have a full week. 

How many Ohioans might be ill-prepared to meet these new requirements? Bureau of Motor Vehicles data suggested that about 500,000 registered voters did not have the necessary state identification to continue to vote. Trump beat Kamala Harris by 640,000 votes in 2024 and Hillary Clinton by 447,000 in 2016.

For people who might be challenged at their polling place in Cincinnati’s densely populated Price Hill area, a trip to the board of elections in Norwood to prove their identity might require a half day’s bus ride. If they needed a certified birth certificate, another few hours on the bus and $24. 

The bill also reduced the number of days in which a voter can request an absentee ballot, eliminated the option of voting at the board of elections the day before the election — one of the busiest days — and limited the number of drop boxes for absentee ballots to just one per county.

Franklin County, Ohio’s 17th most sprawling county with 891,435 registered voters has one box, as does Lake County, Ohio’s tiniest county: one box and 80% fewer registered voters (161,867). 

And after Republican Ohio Senate General Government Committee Chair Theresa Gavarone of Bowling Green said the 10-day grace period for mail-in ballots might be eliminated, they instead reduced it from 10 days to four. Her argument for the reduction was two-fold: People want to know who won, and more days to count means more opportunities for fraud. 

But her suggestion that people wanted to know who won meant they wanted the vote count within hours of the polls closing. Knowing who won didn’t include taking time to make sure that everyone who put their ballots in the mail on time or were challenged at the polling place were counted. That, historically, was tens of thousands of voters.

Moreover, lawmakers offered no evidence that fraud ever occurred in those grace periods. 

There was little time to muster public testimony in the 10-day window in which the bill was debated, but 19 presented opposition testimony and only one, speaking on behalf of the Florida-based Opportunity Solutions Project, was in favor of the bill.

Two days after the last opponents spoke, the bill was voted out of committee, approved in the Ohio Senate and the Ohio House concurred. 

Did any of these changes make a difference?

In the five years prior to this bill, an average 7.2% of people who didn’t have adequate identification were unable to satisfy requirements in time to prove they were legitimate voters.

In 2023, the first year of the new identification requirements, the rejections surged four-fold to 29% and remained high at 25% in 2024, according to a study by All Voting is Local, a voter-rights advocacy group.

In total, 34,364 provisional ballots were rejected in 2024, the group said.

The report is head-exploding.

Who are the people who were rejected? Were any of them legitimate voters who were unable to gather the new documentation? Did they have transportation? What communities did they live in? What was their life situation?

This information wasn’t explored by GOP lawmakers in public, though it is very possible they had it then (and LaRose is able if not required to know most of this now).

And with so few people in Ohio paying for quality local journalism these days, there aren’t enough investigative reporters to find out.

As he signed Ohio House Bill 458, Gov. Mike DeWine said that he believed that the provisions should assure the state’s election integrity “and I do not expect to see any further statutory changes in Ohio voting procedures while I am governor.”

Except the opposite happened.

Trump took office and began an effort to take control of elections. 

On Oct. 14 last year, Gavarone and Republican state Sen. Andrew Brenner of Delaware County introduced Ohio Senate Bill 293 with one purpose: Eliminate those last four days of grace. That’s all. Keep the talking points simple. But like the previous bill, it would grow to be much more.

For context, in the same week that the no-grace bill was introduced, the federal government was shut down over healthcare-benefit cuts that were about to go into effect, Vice President JD Vance said the president was considering invoking the insurrection act, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth issued an order that Pentagon news media were not permitted to publish any information that wasn’t authorized by the Defense Department, an alleged drug boat was exploded killing three people and the president posted an AI video of himself in a fighter jet dropping fecal matter on No Kings protestors, tens of thousands who had gathered that weekend.

In that head-spinning news on a weekly basis, the bill was through both houses in five weeks — a remarkable feat for Ohio lawmakers. Bills and resolutions usually don’t move that fast unless Republicans want to control women’s reproductive rights or, well, elections.

In her public statement about eliminating voters’ grace, Gavarone did not disclose publicly that this was an idea considered and discarded three years earlier — which might require explanation as to why it was kept.

Instead, Gavarone cited a Donald Trump March 25, 2025 executive order that said all ballots must be received no later than Election Day to be counted. 

One might conclude that she believed Trump had the authority to do so and states had to act. It was a curious position for her to take, considering that the U.S. Constitution grants election powers to the states and Congress, not the president.

Though Trump’s order was most likely unconstitutional, and some states said they would resist, Ohio Republicans were just getting started.

Only one week after introduction, the first hearing on Ohio Senate Bill 293 was held in the Senate General Government Committee chaired by Hudson Republican Kristina Roegner.

Gavarone and Brenner offered more reasons for the legislation. Brenner’s statement was simple: Four days of grace are four more days for cheating, though he offered no evidence that the grace period had facilitated any cheating.

Gavarone told her colleagues that the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals had ruled that Mississippi’s grace period was unconstitutional. Ballots had to be counted on Election Day, the 3-judge panel said. She argued that states needed to respond swiftly to the ruling and named a few other states that already had changed their rules.

An example she gave was Minnesota, which she described as a “reliably blue state.” But Minnesota’s mail-in ballots always were required to arrive by the close of polls on Election Day. They only adjusted the time for in-person delivery on Election Day — it had nothing to do with the grace period. Moreover, the “reliably blue state” was actively opposing Trump’s executive orders in the courts. 

Thus, Gavarone’s contention that this was a bipartisan mutually-shared concern about election integrity loses credibility. The audacity to suggest it flies in the face of the name of the plaintiffs on the case: The Republican National Committee and the Mississippi Republican Party.

That wasn’t the end to her fog of disinformation. Gavarone apparently was unaware of the following as she proposed restrictions on Ohio voter rights:

• The three judges on the 5th Circuit panel who heard the appeal of the Mississippi District Court ruling were all Trump appointees. A disproportionate number of the 5th Circuit’s cases are appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court and a disproportionate number are overturned. In other words, this court’s record wasn’t stellar.

• The U.S. District Court for the southern District of Mississippi, which originally heard the arguments, threw it out on a summary judgment, meaning the judge had heard enough. Republicans had no case. The judge, Louis Guirola Jr., was appointed to the bench by Republican George W. Bush, had been the senior judge for six years and also served at the time on the U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court at the behest of Chief Justice John Roberts. He was respected.

• The 5th District ruling was a year old. If the ruling is foundational to her bill, why did the GOP wait a year?

• More importantly, Gavarone didn’t disclose potentially disqualifying information. Several states had filed suit to block Trump’s executive order and they won just a few months earlier. A U.S. District Court in Massachusetts found that grace periods were indeed constitutional – NOT unconstitutional. The court went as far as to block Trump’s order.

• And finally, the Mississippi 5th Circuit ruling was not binding on Ohio, though the Massachusetts case had implications for Ohio because Trump’s executive order was blocked.

Public hearings on the no-grace bill began a week after her testimony and public opposition was 50 to two.

The only supporters were not from Ohio. One was a lawyer from Texas, the other a lobbyist from Indiana and both working for organizations tied to Project 2025, a playbook for dismantling the separation of powers in the federal government and shifting governing authority to the president.

The Texas man was Chad Ennis. He assisted Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton in questioning the integrity of the 2020 elections in Harris County, Texas, a county of 5 million people which votes Democratic. Paxton is a 2020 election denier who led Republican states in attempting to block certification of Joe Biden’s victory. Ennis is now vice president of the Honest Elections Project, which was among about 100 conservative organizations supporting the creation of Project 2025. 

The other proponent was Paul Lagemann, a former Indiana flooring-business owner who became a political consultant and for the last 19 months has been a lobbyist for Heritage Action, the political arm of the Heritage Foundation. The Heritage Foundation was a key leader in Project 2025.

On the other hand, 50 Ohio citizens delivered opposition testimony.

Unfazed, Republicans moved the bill to the Senate floor where it was approved immediately after opponents finished their testimony. 

Then the black magic happened.

When the bill moved across the building to the Ohio House, it grew from five pages to 67 and contained several new cumbersome requirements that for all practical purposes gave Donald Trump what he wanted from Congress in the so-called SAVE Act — if not more.

The changes require the secretary of state to compare the state registered-voter database with the Department of Homeland Security’s database of U.S. citizens.

Should there be a discrepancy, the person’s voter registration would be summarily canceled with no warning or opportunity to respond. 

Moreover, the secretary of state must routinely check every voter, compare birth dates, name-spellings, driver’s license numbers, addresses and Social Security numbers across other databases.

If a jot or tittle is out of place, a letter is to be sent to the voter seeking proper documentation and verification or they will be challenged when they try to vote and have only four days to fix discrepancies.

In the Ohio House, there was no public support for the more restrictive bill.

Opposition grew – 74 provided testimony against it. That’s 74-0.

But despite there being no public support, the bill was voted out of committee to the full Ohio House where it was approved the following day, back to the Ohio Senate for approval of the House amendments, then to the governor for his signature.

DeWine signed it Dec. 19 and it went into effect three months later.  

Left in the ether was the opposition testimony from Ohioans. Like that of John Sheehan. He is a Dayton-area retired Air Force major who did his research. He found that in the three previous elections, 20,896 votes would have been incinerated rather than counted if the four-day rule had not been in effect.

“Is it actually the intent of the Ohio legislature to disenfranchise over 20,000 registered Ohio voters?” he asked in his testimony.

Another was Columbus attorney Andrea Yagoda, who in the short time she had to prepare her 7-page testimony she spelled out many of the same arguments used in the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn the  5th Circuit ruling. She delivered an angry demand.

“These legislative committees always ask the voters for data, etc when we testify and yet conveniently fail to provide any to support their bills. Tell us Senators Gavarone and Brenner how does the four-day grace period encourage fraud? Ohioans like myself would like to know.”

What are Ohioans to do as the legislature dismantles public education, facilitates taxpayer subsidies of artificial-intelligence factories, prohibits free speech on campus, and operates its own newsroom that attempts to discredit the free press?

“Vote” is too simple of an answer. While voters do in fact need to turn out Ohio elections already are stolen at the state level and the final machinations for a Trump takeover are only months away.

The questions are: What do Ohioans hope for and how do we get it? 

First of all, the majority of Americans no longer support this administration. In Ohio, Trump’s approval has dropped from plus 11 in the 2024 election to minus 14 in a recent Fox News poll.

The right to vote is identified by 85% of Americans as extremely or very important to our country’s democratic identity, according to an Associated Press-NORC poll done in anticipation of the 250th anniversary.

Alarmingly, the poll shows 33% believe there is NO threat to voting rights. If you are concerned, you are in the majority.

Ever hear of Alcoholics Anonymous? They meet regularly and challenge each other to live constructive, productive lives. Form a Trump Derangement Syndrome Anonymous group. Meet often with friends, discuss shared values, challenge each other to constructive action, and figure out how to be seen, heard, and respected. 

Each time you meet, talk about what you did. Freedom of speech and assembly and the right to address our government — to irritate if necessary — may be our last resort.

Find and contact your state legislator here: https://www.commoncause.org/find-your-representative/

Doug Oplinger is a Pulitzer-Prize winning journalist who worked at the Akron Beacon Journal for 46 years and led the statewide Your Voice Ohio media collaborative of 50 newsrooms for five years. He is a contributing author in the Kettering Foundation book “Reinventing Journalism to Strengthen Democracy” and provides pro-democracy news analyses of Ohio current events in The Ohio Defiant on Substack and Facebook. He can be contacted at oplingerdoug@gmail.com.

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

Originally published on TiffinOhio.net.

Researchers at Stanford University and other institutions studied how a hotter, drier climate is poised to spike water bills for residents of Santa Cruz, California, in a peer-reviewed study published this week in the journal Nature Sustainability. While the study focused on that coastal city, the outlook is similar for many cities that will be forced to make costly upgrades to water systems as climate change intensifies, said lead author Jennifer Skerker, who worked on the research while studying for her doctorate in civil and environmental engineering at Stanford. 

Without significant government funding, the costs of new water transport systems, desalination plants and sewage water reuse systems are likely to be borne by individual water systems, which are expected to pass them onto consumers through water bills.

“So this really pits water affordability against water reliability, when in reality we need both of these to have safe, accessible and affordable water for everyone,” said Skerker, who now works for a local water utility.  

Though low-income residents use significantly less water, they will be hit hard by rising rates, which force them to spend a larger share of their resources, she said. Water rates have increased at three times the rate of inflation over the past two decades, as water providers updated aging infrastructure and addressed deferred maintenance backlogs.

The research comes as many Americans are already struggling with high energy bills: One in six American households are behind on utility bills, according to the National Energy Assistance Directors Association. While rising electric prices have sparked outrage among ratepayers, regulators and state lawmakers, relatively cheaper water has not always received the same level of attention. 

“I think water affordability definitely needs to be part of the conversation with energy affordability,” Skerker said. “…On the water side, households might be using less water than is healthy, or we can even see households making tradeoffs between paying for water or energy, or paying for groceries or medical bills.”

Like other Western cities, Santa Cruz has implemented many water conservation practices: By 2021, locals had cut water use by nearly two-thirds over two decades. That leaves few low-cost options to increase water supplies in an area entirely reliant on surface water.

The study lays out several potential scenarios for local water bills depending on climate conditions and water investments. In one of the driest scenarios, researchers predict median water bills for the poorest residents could rise from about $60 to $111 per month (in 2026 dollars) by the middle of the century. That means more than one-third of households in Santa Cruz could struggle to afford water. 

The study acknowledges that cities with larger reservoirs, more interconnected systems or access to lower-cost water sources may not experience the same acceleration in water bills. But it does envision “water affordability hotspots” across the country as more areas struggle to source and treat enough drinking water.

“It does seem unsustainable,” Skenker said, “and I think cities really need more help from the state and federal government.”

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.

Jai Chabria, now Ramaswamy’s chief strategist, was then a senior advisor to Gov. John Kasich. The Columbus Dispatch reported in August 2011 that he was among senior administration officials “heavily involved in strategy and decision making” for the pro-SB 5 committee.

The Dispatch story was not primarily about Chabria. It was about Connie Wehrkamp, Kasich’s deputy press secretary, who took a leave of absence from the governor’s office that week to go work for Building a Better Ohio full time.

Wehrkamp is now Connie Luck. She is Ramaswamy’s campaign spokeswoman. Her LinkedIn profile lists her as Connie (Wehrkamp) Luck.

The campaign they worked on lost, and it lost badly. On Nov. 8, 2011, Ohioans repealed SB 5, 61% to 39%. In Seneca County the margin was wider: according to the county board of elections’ official canvass, 11,825 voters here rejected the law and 7,122 voted to keep it — 62.41% to 37.59%, across all 51 precincts, on 51% turnout. It was not close. It was buried.

Neither Chabria nor Luck wrote SB 5. The bill was sponsored by a state senator, and nothing in the record makes either of them its author. But when the law reached the ballot, and Ohio’s teachers, firefighters and police officers were fighting to kill it, both were working to save it.

The campaign points to its union endorsements. The Ohio Conference of Teamsters and the statewide construction trades have backed Ramaswamy, citing his opposition to a right-to-work law and his support for prevailing wage. Chabria has noted that a decade ago, Republican endorsements from organized labor “would have been unfathomable.”

What Senate Bill 5 actually did

Since 1983, Ohio law has given public employees the right to bargain collectively — to negotiate as a group, through a union, with the government that employs them. It applies to teachers, firefighters, police officers, dispatchers, school custodians, snowplow drivers, nurses at public hospitals and clerks at the county courthouse. The law says they may negotiate over wages, hours and the other conditions of their work: health insurance, pensions, staffing levels, safety rules, how layoffs are handled.

Senate Bill 5 would have cut that down to wages. Health insurance and pensions would have come off the table entirely. Public workers could still have argued about their paychecks. They could not have bargained over what came out of them.

The bill also would have banned strikes by every public employee in Ohio, and required workers to pay at least 15% of their health insurance premiums. It would have replaced negotiated salary schedules with merit pay, and ended the “fair share” fees that non-members pay toward the cost of bargaining that covers them.

Then there was binding conciliation, and that one hit the firehouse hardest.

Police officers and firefighters in Ohio already cannot legally strike. That was the trade in 1983: safety forces give up the walkout, and in exchange, when talks deadlock, a neutral arbitrator hears both sides and picks one of the final offers. It is the leverage they have instead.

SB 5 would have taken the arbitrator away too. A Tiffin fire captain could not have struck, could not have gone to a referee, and could not have bargained over her pension or her family’s health coverage in the first place. About 350,000 Ohio public employees would have been covered.

The law never took effect. Ohio’s constitution lets citizens veto a statute directly: gather enough signatures and the law is frozen until voters rule on it. Opponents gathered 1.3 million — the most in state history for a referendum — and on Nov. 8, 2011, Ohio struck the law down.

The unions SB 5 would have covered are not with him

SB 5 was a public-employee bill. It never touched the private-sector building trades. Every worker it would have hit was on a public payroll.

Most of those unions have endorsed Democrat Amy Acton.

The Ohio Civil Service Employees Association, the Ohio Association of Public School Employees, AFSCME Ohio Council 8 and AFSCME Retirees Chapter 1184 endorsed Acton jointly in December. So has the Ohio Federation of Teachers. So have the United Auto Workers, SEIU District 1199, the Communications Workers of America, the United Mine Workers and the painters’ district council.

Ramaswamy’s labor support comes almost entirely from the one corner of organized labor that SB 5 left alone.

Even that corner is splitting. In April, the Dayton Building and Construction Trades Council — 18 unions across 10 counties — publicly broke with the statewide trades body that had endorsed Ramaswamy and backed Acton instead.

The lawmaker Ramaswamy endorsed for state treasurer

In January, Ramaswamy’s highest-profile down-ballot endorsement went to state Sen. Kristina Roegner of Hudson in her candidacy for state treasurer. Roegner, who previously served in the Ohio House, was sworn in weeks before SB 5 reached the floor. She voted for it. The House Journal for March 30, 2011 records final passage at 53 to 44, with Roegner in the affirmative column.

It was not a party-line vote. Five Republicans broke with their caucus and voted no. Roegner was not among them. She also voted with the majority to reject a Democratic motion to have the 300-page bill read aloud in full, and again to reject a motion to table it.

She backed the bill publicly as well, calling it “a bill that should cause the taxpayers of Ohio to celebrate” in comments reported that spring.

Two years later, she and then-Rep. Ron Maag announced three measures at a Statehouse press conference: bills barring mandatory union dues in the private and public sectors, and a joint resolution to put right-to-work before voters. Roegner argued the proposals were about individual freedom, not a rerun of SB 5. Then-Senate President Keith Faber said the Senate would not take them up. The bills died.

Ramaswamy endorsed her anyway, calling her “kind and deeply loyal” and joining a letter urging the state party to back her.

He was not alone. State Rep. Gary Click, the Vickery Republican who represents Seneca County, endorsed Roegner too. She was one of three candidates Click endorsed who lost on May 5. Click’s own standing with the top of the ticket has wobbled: his name was quietly removed from Ramaswamy’s endorsement page in April, then restored.

Roegner lost. Jay Edwards, the former state representative backed by Vice President JD Vance and U.S. Sen. Bernie Moreno — and dogged by questions about his HB 6 vote and Householder ties — beat her 53% to 47%. He faces Democrat Seth Walsh in November.

Chabria waved off the Vance-Ramaswamy split as “a headline in search of a story.”

Where Ramaswamy draws his line

Ramaswamy has never claimed to oppose unions across the board. He opposes particular ones, and he says so. During his 2024 presidential campaign he called for eliminating teachers’ unions and federal employee unions. As a candidate for governor he has said he is “certainly not running a campaign not to eliminate teachers’ unions either.”

David Pepper, Acton’s running mate, has argued in appearances with northwest Ohio union members that a candidate who reserves the right to eliminate the unions he dislikes is a threat to all of them. Ramaswamy’s campaign points to its labor endorsements as the rebuttal.

11,825 votes

The workers SB 5 covered teach in Tiffin and Fostoria. They ride the trucks out of the firehouses. They drive the patrol cars. In 2011, voters in this county were asked whether those workers should keep the right to bargain, and 11,825 of them said yes — a 25-point margin against the law.

The people who lost that fight now run the campaign of the Republican nominee for governor. Whoever wins in November decides whether it gets picked again.

Attempts to reach Ramaswamy’s campaign for comment were unsuccessful. The election is Nov. 3.

Originally published on TiffinOhio.net.

The U.S. Marshals requested help from the Wyandot County Major Crimes Unit/METRICH Enforcement Unit and the Wyandot County Sheriff’s Office on Thursday, July 9, to locate James D. Fisher, who was wanted on an outstanding warrant out of Huron County. Investigators identified a home at 16368 State Highway 231 in Nevada as the place where Fisher was believed to be staying.

With assistance from the Wyandot County Sheriff’s Office and the Ohio State Highway Patrol Special Response Team, the Marshals carried out the operation at the residence and took Fisher into custody.

While speaking with people inside the home, investigators learned that firearms and suspected illegal narcotics were on the property, according to the release. Detectives also determined that James E. McDaniels was barred from legally possessing or having access to firearms. Based on that information, investigators obtained a search warrant for the residence.

During the search, deputies and detectives recovered more than 2 pounds of suspected methamphetamine, $81,263 in cash and more than 140 firearms, the release said.

McDaniels was arrested and charged with aggravated possession of drugs and having weapons while under disability. The suspected narcotics will be sent to a laboratory for analysis, and additional charges will be submitted to the Wyandot County Prosecutor’s Office for review, authorities said.

The Wyandot County Major Crimes Unit, U.S. Marshals Service, Wyandot County Sheriff’s Office and Ohio State Highway Patrol all took part in the investigation.

Wyandot County Sheriff Todd Frey encouraged residents to report suspicious activity through the Wyandot County Sheriff’s Office app, the METRICH app or by contacting their local law enforcement agency. Anonymous tips are accepted.

Originally published on TiffinOhio.net.

Creech, R-West Alexandria, was investigated by the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation over allegations that in 2023 a minor female relative accused him of climbing into bed with her while wearing only his underwear. Creech told investigators he had gotten into bed with the minor in his underwear but denied the sexual nature of the allegations. Clark County Prosecutor Daniel Driscoll, brought in as a special prosecutor, declined in October 2024 to bring charges, writing that Creech’s behavior was “concerning and suspicious” but that the evidence fell short of the threshold needed for prosecution. No charges were filed. Creech has denied wrongdoing and called the allegations “demonstrably false.”

Click and Creech are among the cosponsors of House Bill 249, the Indecent Exposure Modernization Act, which the Ohio House passed in March and which is now pending before the Senate Judiciary Committee. Republican sponsors describe the measure as a way to shield children from obscene public performances and to preserve privacy in restrooms and locker rooms. Opponents, including the ACLU of Ohio, call it a drag ban that would criminalize gender nonconformity and raise First Amendment concerns.

In its statement, the party put two direct questions to Click: whether he will call on Creech to step aside, and how he justifies cosponsoring what its backers market as child-protection legislation alongside a colleague whose conduct a special prosecutor labeled “concerning and suspicious.”

“Let’s be entirely blunt about Gary Click’s silence,” said party chair Gina Grandillo. “Rodney Creech admitted to state investigators that he climbed into bed with a minor relative. His own Republican Speaker was troubled enough to strip his committees and ask him to resign. Yet Gary Click looks the other way.” Grandillo accused Click of being “entirely comfortable using ‘child protection’ as a political talking point” while staying quiet about Creech, and said families in Seneca and Sandusky counties “deserve to know why their representative won’t stand up.”

The allegations first cost Creech his committee posts. House Speaker Matt Huffman, R-Lima, stripped Creech of all four of his committee assignments — including his chairmanship of the House Agriculture Committee — in May 2025 and asked him to consider resigning, calling the matter “very serious.” Huffman reversed course in February 2026, restoring Creech to his committee seats, though not to the Agriculture chairmanship, and signing a letter requesting that the Ohio Republican Party endorse him for re-election. The party did so, and Creech went on to win his May primary. He is the Republican nominee for re-election in House District 40, which covers Preble County and parts of Montgomery and Butler counties.

Click and Creech are frequent legislative allies. Click is also a primary sponsor of House Bill 693, the Affirming Families First Act, which would write the disputed concept of “parental alienation” into Ohio law — the same term Creech used publicly to dismiss his accuser. That bill remains before the House Judiciary Committee.

Click, who represents House District 88 covering Seneca and Sandusky counties, has not publicly called for Creech to step down, according to a review of endorsement materials, campaign statements and public reporting by TiffinOhio.net. He has previously disputed the outlet’s coverage of his record. Click faces Democrat Aaron Jones in the Nov. 3 general election.

Originally published on TiffinOhio.net.

Andrew Havas, whom Husted’s campaign named a Franklin County campaign chair in December, was one of 112 volunteers the campaign appointed to represent Husted across Ohio’s 88 counties. He also serves as vice chair of the Franklin County Republican Party executive committee.

Amy Natoce, a spokesperson for Husted’s campaign, told NBC News that the senator’s team had been unaware of the case. “Mr. Havas did not disclose his history to the campaign,” Natoce said. “Upon learning the facts, we immediately accepted his resignation as a campaign volunteer.” NBC News reported that Havas did not respond to its requests for comment.

According to court records reviewed by NBC News, Havas pleaded guilty in 2009 in a case involving a 15-year-old in Ohio’s Mahoning County. He was originally charged with sexual misconduct with a minor, and the charge was later reduced to a single misdemeanor assault count, NBC reported. A 2008 criminal complaint accused him of “being reckless” as to the minor’s age. NBC reported that Havas, who was 22 at the time, was sentenced to 90 days in jail and served his sentence in the Mahoning County jail from May to August 2009.

NBC News reported that Havas had represented the Husted campaign at events this year, including a June luncheon in Columbus and a late-June meeting of two suburban Republican clubs, and that he introduced Husted at a December party.

The resignation is not the first time Husted’s campaign has faced scrutiny over the Ohio Republicans it has elevated. As TiffinOhio.net has reported, the campaign’s Sandusky County chair, state Rep. Gary Click (R-Vickery), told an Ohio House committee in 2023 that “young girls” had described to him how painful sex was, during testimony supporting his legislation restricting gender-affirming care for minors. Click, a former Baptist pastor, has never publicly identified who those individuals were, and he has not been accused of a crime.

The campaign also promoted a March 2026 graphic touting endorsements from Ohio House Republicans that included state Rep. Rodney Creech (R-West Alexandria). A minor female relative accused Creech in 2023 of climbing into bed with her while erect and wearing only his underwear, according to Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation records. A special prosecutor declined to file charges, and Creech has denied the allegations.

Husted, Ohio’s former lieutenant governor, was appointed by Gov. Mike DeWine in early 2025 to fill the Senate seat vacated by Vice President JD Vance. He faces former Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown — who lost the seat to Republican Bernie Moreno in 2024 — in a Nov. 3 special election that will appear on ballots statewide, including in Seneca and Sandusky counties. The contest is among the most closely watched Senate races in the country.

Havas’s departure lands amid a separate line of Democratic attacks on Husted over his campaign finances. TiffinOhio.net has reported that Husted accepted $116,892 from Columbus billionaire Leslie Wexner between 2001 and 2025, including a contribution two months before he voted in September 2025 to block a Senate amendment directing the release of documents related to Jeffrey Epstein. In February 2026, the Justice Department unredacted an FBI document that named Wexner as an Epstein co-conspirator, and Wexner later confirmed the donations under oath in a congressional deposition. Wexner has denied wrongdoing and has not been charged with a crime.

Husted’s campaign has said it gave Wexner’s contributions to charity, reporting $34,300 in donations from Wexner and his wife to a Columbus nonprofit that supports human-trafficking survivors.

Originally published on TiffinOhio.net.

The flight was first reported by The Rooster, the Columbus newsletter that has tracked Ramaswamy’s air travel throughout the campaign. Citing flight-tracking data and an aviation source, it reported that a Bombardier Global 5500 left John Glenn Columbus International Airport around 10:20 p.m. and landed at Paris’s Le Bourget the next morning — the newsletter’s count put it as his fifth international private-jet trip of the year, after Portugal, Greece, the Dominican Republic, Turks and Caicos and Puerto Rico. The transatlantic leg alone, by The Rooster’s estimate, burned roughly 3,511 gallons of jet fuel and put about 34 metric tons of carbon dioxide into the air, at a fuel cost near $21,000.

To be fair to him: he showed up in Ohio first. He worked a parade in Lancaster and made the rounds in Upper Arlington before wheels-up. His campaign has said he pays for the plane himself, not with donor money, and that the aircraft is how a candidate covers all 88 of Ohio’s counties. Supporters make a reasonable point that wealthy, self-funding candidates get scrutinized for private travel that nobody would notice from a candidate who flies coach. A man is allowed to own a jet. A man is allowed to take a vacation.

But you tell people what you value by where you choose to be when it counts. And on the one day the country marked 250 years, Ramaswamy chose to be somewhere else.

Here is what he chose to leave. According to the state’s own tourism office, America 250-Ohio spanned all 88 counties, part of more than a thousand events staged across the year. Columbus — the city his jet departed from — hosted the state’s signature homecoming and picnic at the Statehouse, cannon fire at 11 a.m., a concert and fireworks downtown, the weekend after Red, White & BOOM! lit up the same skyline. Lancaster, the town where he waved from the parade, celebrated until its own fireworks at 10 p.m. Even here in our corner of northwest Ohio, people gathered: a 250th concert and picnic in Fremont, the Flag City festivities in Findlay, fireworks up and down Sandusky, Hancock and the surrounding counties.

“There is something uniquely Ohio about spending the Fourth of July on a courthouse square, along a parade route, at a hometown festival, or under a sky full of fireworks,” the state tourism director said in announcing the celebrations. Millions of Ohioans did exactly that. The Republican nominee for governor of Ohio watched the country’s 250th birthday recede beneath a wing.

It would be easy to file this under bad optics and move on. It is more honest to file it under pattern.

This is the same Vivek Ramaswamy who, in December 2024, sat down and typed that “American culture has venerated mediocrity over excellence for way too long.” Not a rival’s paraphrase — his own words, his own keyboard, posted while he was still co-chairing a federal cost-cutting effort. It is a strange thing to campaign to lead a state full of people whose culture you have publicly graded as mediocre. It is a stranger thing to spend the nation’s 250th birthday abroad after saying it.

And it is the same Vivek Ramaswamy who built his fortune in Ohio and then, in 2024, moved his company to Texas — relocating Strive, its staff and roughly $1.7 billion in assets to Dallas. Ohio was a good enough place to make the money. It was not, apparently, a good enough place to keep it. Now the state is a good enough place to run.

Look at the trajectory and a shape emerges. Ramaswamy has never held elected office of any kind. The first job he ran for was the presidency, in 2024. When that ended, he took a perch in a new federal agency. When that ended, he came home to run for governor. For a man who started his political life reaching for the top of the ballot, the Ohio governorship can look less like a calling than a landing — a platform, a credential, a place to stand while looking at something higher. Governors of Ohio have looked at the White House before. It is not cynical to suspect he is one of them; it is only reading his own resume back to him.

None of this is illegal. None of it is even unusual for a certain kind of ambitious, very rich candidate. That is rather the point. The private jet to Paris on the Fourth of July is not a scandal. It is a tell — a small, unguarded window into how a man ranks his obligations when he thinks the cameras have been packed away for the night. The country was having a birthday. His neighbors were on the square. He had somewhere better to be.

Ohioans will decide on November 3 whether that instinct belongs in the governor’s office. They spent the 250th the way they always have — together, at home, under the fireworks. They are entitled to ask why the man asking to lead them could not be bothered to do the same.

Originally published on TiffinOhio.net.

The Scoops & Slices Trail officially kicks off Saturday, July 11, with two events open to the public. A geocaching information session runs from 10:30 to 11:30 a.m. at the Tiffin-Seneca Public Library, hosted in partnership with Cachers Anonymous and built for both first-time and experienced geocachers. Destination Seneca County staff will also be on hand from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Tiffin-Seneca Farmers Market to help people sign up for the free digital trail pass.

How the trail works

Participants sign up for a free digital pass, then choose between two tracks — or complete both. The Foodie Trail sends people to participating pizza shops and ice cream stops, where a minimum $5-per-person purchase and a QR code check-in count toward a prize. The Geocaching Trail sends people hunting for 30 hidden caches placed around the county, each scanned through a Bandwango QR code inside.

The two tracks work differently on the back end. Business check-ins earn points toward the trail’s hat prize, while geocache finds do not earn points at all — instead, the system automatically unlocks a bonus prize location once a participant logs 25 cache finds.

What you can win

Visiting five participating businesses, with the $5-per-person minimum purchase at each, earns participants the trail’s official Skippy Hat, named for the trail’s mascot. Multiple people can split a single purchase and still qualify individually, as long as each person’s share meets the $5 minimum and each has their own pass.

On the geocaching side, finding 25 of the 30 hidden caches — each named for a pizza or ice cream flavor, from “Pepperoni” to “Rocky Road” — earns participants a trackable, collectible Scoops & Slices Geocoin. Both prizes are claimed through the digital pass and picked up at the Hampton Inn of Tiffin.

Where to go

The Foodie Trail includes 27 businesses across seven Seneca County communities:

• Attica: Smitty’s Pizza

• Bascom: Bascom Stumble Inn; I.C. Treats -N- Things

• Bloomville: Rose Marie’s Eats & Treats

• Fostoria: Domino’s Pizza Fostoria; Fostoria Pizza Palace; J B Twisters Ice Cream & Things; Jac & Do’s Fostoria; Marco’s Pizza – Fostoria; Red’s Pizza

• New Riegel: Left Field; New Riegel Cafe

• Republic: Fat Head’s Family Restaurant

• Tiffin: Big Dipper Ice Cream and More; Big Mike’s; Domino’s Pizza Tiffin; Fort Ball Pizza Palace (North and South locations); FroZone Frozen Yogurt; Heavenly Pizza; Jac & Do’s Pizza; Jolly’s Drive In; Little Hugo’s; Marco’s Pizza – Tiffin; Napoli Pizza; Reino’s Pizza & Pasta; Shake Shak of Tiffin

Other details

The trail pass itself is free. The only required costs are the $5-per-person minimum purchases at Foodie Trail stops; a Geocaching Premium membership is optional and only needed for those who also want to log finds in the official Geocaching app.

People without smartphone access can request a paper passport at the Destination Seneca County Welcome Center, 96 S. Washington St. in downtown Tiffin. Business visits on the paper passport must be verified by an employee signature, and geocache finds are verified with a secret word found inside each cache.

Separately, the Hampton Inn of Tiffin is offering trail participants 15% off a stay, subject to room availability, for anyone who tells the front desk they’re completing the Scoops & Slices Trail.

More information, including sign-up for the free digital pass, is available through Destination Seneca County’s trails and passes page.

Originally published on TiffinOhio.net.

On June 30, hours after the court reaffirmed that nearly everyone born on U.S. soil is a citizen, Moreno, R-Ohio, announced he would reintroduce a revived version of a 1993 immigration bill written by the late Democratic Senate leader Harry Reid. Moreno said he would formally introduce the measure — which his office is calling the Immigration Stabilization Act of 2026 — when he returns from recess on Monday, July 13. As of this writing, no bill number has been assigned.

“Before far-left radicals took over the Democrat Party, their leader Harry Reid introduced a great bill to end birthright citizenship, ensure no illegals could vote, and crack down on employers who abuse illegal labor,” Moreno said in a statement. “It’s a great bill, so I say let’s vote on it and find out once and for all if Harry Reid would still have a home in the modern Democrat Party.”

Reid, who died in 2021, disavowed the 1993 legislation years later, calling it a mistake.

According to a backgrounder from Moreno’s office, the bill would cut legal immigration, cap annual refugee admissions at 50,000, expand border enforcement, and make it a federal crime for noncitizens to vote in any election. Its citizenship section states that birthright citizenship would not apply to children born in the United States to mothers who are “neither U.S. citizens nor lawful permanent residents.” That wording is significant: it would leave the children of green-card holders untouched while targeting the children of parents who are in the country temporarily or without legal status.

What the court actually decided

The legislation follows the Supreme Court’s June 30 decision in Trump v. Barbara, which struck down Trump’s executive order seeking to deny citizenship to children born in the U.S. to parents who were undocumented or on temporary visas. The court voided the order 6-3, splitting 5-4 on the underlying constitutional question. Writing for the majority, Chief Justice John Roberts held that children born in the country to parents “unlawfully or temporarily present” are citizens at birth, and described citizenship as “the right to have rights.”

Justice Brett Kavanaugh agreed the order was invalid but on narrower grounds, suggesting Congress could write new exceptions into federal law. Moreno and other Republicans have seized on that opening. Even so, such a bill would need 60 votes to advance in the Senate, and immigration analysts have described the current round of Republican proposals as messaging measures unlikely to reach the president’s desk.

The Ramaswamy question

The renewed fight over who qualifies for birthright citizenship runs directly through the top of Ohio’s Republican ticket. Vivek Ramaswamy, the GOP nominee for governor, was born in Cincinnati in 1985 to parents who immigrated legally from India. His citizenship is not in dispute: he is a citizen by birth under the 14th Amendment.

His parents’ immigration status is where the details matter. During his 2024 presidential campaign, Ramaswamy described his parents as noncitizens when he was born, saying his mother later naturalized and his father never did. This year, as questions about his background resurfaced in the governor’s race, his campaign told the Toledo Blade that his parents held green cards — lawful permanent resident status — at the time of his birth. If accurate, that status is precisely the category Moreno’s bill would exempt, meaning the measure as written would not reach someone in Ramaswamy’s circumstances.

Ramaswamy has, at the same time, campaigned to narrow birthright citizenship for others. He has said the right should not apply to the children of parents who entered the country illegally, and he has supported Trump’s mass deportation agenda — positions that sit alongside a national profile built on attacking identity politics. That record has not spared him from attacks on his own citizenship from within his party. Far-right commentator Nick Fuentes has called him “an actual anchor baby,” and his former primary rival Casey Putsch repeatedly used the same slur — a term that denies the citizenship the Constitution guarantees to U.S.-born children of immigrants.

A local voice in the fight

The tension is not confined to Washington. State Rep. Gary Click, R-Vickery, whose district covers part of Seneca County, criticized the court’s ruling in comments to News 5 Cleveland, republished by the Ohio Capital Journal.

“I don’t think that makes sense in any civilized society to say people can come over here, you know, pop out a kid and go back home, but that kid is now an American citizen and can have influence over our elections, can run for office, be a president someday,” Click said.

Click’s objection — that a U.S.-born child of immigrants could one day “run for office” — describes, in broad strokes, the path of his own party’s nominee for governor.

Moreno’s own biography adds another layer. Born in Colombia, he immigrated to the United States as a child and became a citizen at 18, renouncing his Colombian citizenship. He is now among the Senate Republicans pressing hardest to restrict how citizenship is granted to the next generation of immigrants’ children.

Whether Moreno’s bill advances or stalls, its arrival sharpens a question Ohio Republicans have not been able to avoid this year: how a party campaigning to narrow birthright citizenship squares that goal with a statewide ticket led by a candidate who holds his own citizenship by birth. Ohioans will decide the governor’s race on Nov. 3.

Originally published on TiffinOhio.net.

The Department of Homeland Security, which includes FEMA, sent states last month notices of available federal funding for non-disaster grants under the Homeland Security Grant Program, the Nonprofit Security Grant Program and the Transit Security Grant Program.

Those notices included “blatant attempts to force communities to comply with the Trump administration’s political demands” or risk losing $200 million in federal funds, the letter said.

“As we approach the 25th anniversary of September 11th, it is deeply alarming that DHS and FEMA, under Donald Trump, continue to manipulate the very funding born out of a national tragedy,” they wrote. “Playing political games with counterterrorism funding undermines public safety and deprives first responders of the resources they need to do their jobs.”

The panel’s 15 Democrats, led by ranking member Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, signed the letter to Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin and acting FEMA Administrator Robert Fenton.

Spokespeople for DHS, FEMA and the committee’s Republicans did not immediately return messages seeking comment late Thursday. A White House spokesperson referred a request for comment to DHS.

SAVE computer system

The department is withholding up to 20% of the programs’ congressionally appropriated grant funding unless states and cities update their election laws, the Democrats wrote. The administration wants states to use the department’s powerful SAVE computer system to verify the citizenship of every voter, among other demands, the letter said.

The department also continues to retain more than $600 million in 2025 funding, the lawmakers said.

Some of the administration’s demands are unworkable or illegal under federal court decisions or state law, they said.

For example, two days before the notice went to states, a federal judge ruled that states could not use the SAVE system to check voter eligibility.

“It is unclear how or why DHS and FEMA published (notice of funding opportunity) guidance that would deliberately conflict with a court ruling,” they wrote. “To date, FEMA has not provided a revised (notice) that complies with court orders on the use of the SAVE system.”

‘Costly and impossible’ for states

Several requirements, demanded barely five months before midterm elections in November and one month before grant applications are due, “are costly and impossible to achieve on the unrealistic timeline dictated by the administration,” the letter said.

Other criteria were unclear, such as a requirement to “reconcile voters and ballots using a methodology the Secretary has not disclosed,” the Democrats wrote. The department has also not said how post-election manual audits must be conducted.

The lawmakers asked the administration to revert to 2024 guidance, which would remove confusion about the grant programs’ requirements and their legality, release materials that informed the department’s decision to tie the grant funding to election security and to immediately release all holds “explicit or de facto” on last year’s grants.

Constitutional mandate 

The changes would “very likely harm” states’ election integrity, David Becker, the executive director and founder of the nonpartisan Center for Election Innovation & Research, said in a media briefing earlier Thursday. 

Becker predicted that the order would be “very easy to block” in court.

The department’s requirements are not authorized by Congress or the Constitution, which empowers states to administer elections, Becker said.

“This administration continues to either fail to understand or openly defy the constitutional mandate that gives authority to run elections to the states,” 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.

A July 4 White House report accused the Smithsonian Institution and its National Museum of American History of promoting what it called a “radical, activist ideology” that downplayed U.S. achievements and promoted injustices related to race, gender and sexual identity.

But the report does not advocate for a neutral presentation of history, said Asim Ali, an American studies professor at the University of Maryland. Instead, the report’s authors are promoting their own vision of American history that downplays the country’s shortcomings to promote national pride, Ali said.

“The report frames what the National Museum of American History is doing as being ideologically and politically motivated,” Ali said. “But what it is actually saying in the first several pages is that it should be following a different ideology — one that is focused on what the authors of the report want to see.”

A spokesperson for the Smithsonian, a constellation of museums largely funded by the federal government, said the museum had a nearly two-century track record of nonpartisan service.

Television chef Julia Child gave her Model 182 Garland Commercial Range to the Smithsonian Institution. (Photo courtesy National Museum of American History, copyright Garland Group)

“For more than 180 years, the Smithsonian has served the American public with nonpartisan and independent scholarship, and we remain committed to doing so,” the spokesperson wrote in a statement to States Newsroom. 

Lonnie G. Bunch III, the secretary of the Smithsonian, was more forceful in an internal email, according to a July 8 Washington Post article.

His email to employees said the White House report was “not a fair characterization of the work and totality of the National Museum of American History,” according to the Post.

‘Ideological capture’

The scathing 162-page report published by the White House Domestic Policy Council represents the latest push in a broader Trump effort to restructure some of the nation’s hallmark cultural and artistic institutions to hew more closely to the nationalistic vision that animates his MAGA movement, American University history professor Pamela Nadell said.  

It alleges the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History has “explicitly adopted an ideological framework that no longer treats the American story as a shared national inheritance to be taught or celebrated,” instead painting the country in a “problematic” light with “thinly veiled anti-Americanism.”

“This ideological capture has moved the Museum’s mission away from straightforward historical education and scholarship toward an extreme political activism that seeks to transform our country,” the report said. 

The Star-Spangled Banner flew at Baltimore’s Ft. McHenry to celebrate a crucial 1814 victory over British forces in the War of 1812 and became the subject of the national anthem written by Francis Scott Key. Eben Appleton, the grandson of Ft. McHenry’s commander, George Armistead, gave the original flag to the Smithsonian in 1907. It is on display at the National Museum of American History. (Photo courtesy of National Museum of American History)

Struggle to define history

Ali said he thinks the report’s introduction reads like “propaganda” due to its focus on ideology and disregard of the contributions of academics and researchers. 

Nadell also said the Trump administration is trying to get the Smithsonian — along with other cultural and educational institutions across the country — to conform to a certain “patriotic, heroic narrative.” 

She said she disagreed with the report’s attempts to deemphasize flawed parts of America’s story that are “essential to tell the complete history of the nation.”

The White House report also has its defenders, who agree with Trump that U.S. educational and cultural institutions ought to show the country’s history in a more positive light.

U.S. Sen. Jim Banks, an Indiana Republican who introduced a bill to codify a 2025 Trump executive order on the presentation of U.S. history, said in a social media post Tuesday that the White House was right to criticize the National Museum of American History. 

“The Museum of *American* History has no major exhibits dedicated to *America’s* founding,” the senator wrote. “Instead, it focuses on ‘social justice’ and ‘decolonization.’ This is wrong.” 

An 8-foot section of the original lunch counter from Woolworth Department Store in Greensboro, North Carolina, on display at the National Museum of American History. Four African American students at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical College began a nonviolent, direct-action protest by sitting at at the “whites only” lunch counter in February 1960. (Photo courtesy National Museum of American History)

‘Woke’ institutions

The Domestic Policy Council, which is led by former Trump campaign speechwriter Vince Haley, accused museum leadership of advancing personal ideological agendas that contradict the institution’s founding patriotic principles.

The language used in the White House report echoes arguments the second Trump administration has made against academic and cultural institutions the president has deemed too culturally liberal or “woke.” 

Last year, less than one month after he assumed office, Trump named himself chairman of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and took control of much of the center’s programming. 

He has also ordered colleges and universities to make changes to their diversity, equity and inclusion-related programs and threatened to withhold federal funding if they did not comply. 

And the July 4 report is not the first move the Trump administration has made against the Smithsonian Institution. The president issued a March 2025 executive order to “restore the Smithsonian Institution to its rightful place as a symbol of inspiration and American greatness” and get rid of any “improper ideology.”

Then, beginning in August of last year, he launched an investigation into exhibitions and materials from eight of the Smithsonian’s 21 museums.

Constructive criticism OK

Andrew Taylor, an associate professor of arts management at American University, said the Smithsonian should not be immune from criticism.

“I think anybody and everybody in the country has the right to hold the Smithsonian accountable and to make their best case for the things they’re concerned about,” he said. “That’s fine, that’s harmless and it’s useful.”

But, he added, the White House’s critique seemed more designed to disrupt an honest public accounting of the nation’s story.

“It feels like the report is intended to change what we consider to be our shared history, without actually going through the process of knowing what that should be,” 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.

Graduate-level programs such as nursing, occupational therapy and speech-language pathology are, for now, considered “professional” degrees by the U.S. Department of Education after a court order in late June halted the agency’s new “professional” definition while a legal challenge unfolds.

That definition had limited the number of advanced degrees eligible for higher annual and lifetime loan limits to just 11 fields, while excluding several programs, such as nursing.

In response to U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell’s interim ruling, the department temporarily expanded the list of degrees considered “professional” to 29 fields, per guidance given to institutions. 

Pushback from Trump administration

But the Education Department said it was confident its definition is “lawful” and vowed to keep defending the regulations. 

The agency also stressed in its guidance that the temporary “professional” designations “are provided solely to facilitate implementation of the Court’s order and may change as litigation in the case proceeds.”

A department spokesperson, speaking on background, declined to comment on whether the department would appeal the ruling. 

The department said in its guidance that while the case continues, institutions may wish to consider limiting loan amounts to the graduate-level caps for programs temporarily deemed “professional” in an effort to “mitigate potential disruption to student borrowers resulting from changes in program classification that may arise from the ongoing litigation.” 

The programs on the expanded list from the department include: veterinary medicine; law; divinity/ministry; rabbinical studies; clinical psychology; counseling psychology; school psychology; clinical child psychology; health/medical psychology; family psychology; forensic psychology; clinical, counseling and applied psychology; chiropractic; audiology; speech-language pathology; dentistry; anesthesiologist assistant; physician associate/assistant; athletic training; medicine; osteopathic medicine; podiatry; optometry; pharmacy; occupational therapy; physical therapy; registered nursing; nurse anesthetist; and nursing practice. 

On the flip side, the department identified several programs that may have been considered “professional” prior to the court’s ruling but no longer carry the status while the court order is in place, such as theology, pharmaceutical sciences, environmental psychology, and clinical and industrial drug development. 

Schools ‘not sure what to do’

Denise Morelli, of counsel at Sligo Law Group, a firm made up of former Education Department attorneys, said the department’s late June guidance lacks clarity, especially in spelling out any repercussions for schools and students if the agency prevails in court and can keep its “professional” degree definition.

“I do think that has an impact on schools and students because schools are, kind of, not sure what to do because now … these people in these programs are allowed to have the higher loans, according to the department, but the department’s not saying they can keep them,” said Morelli, a former attorney for the Office of the General Counsel at the department. 

“You could be partway through the program, the department prevails, now the student has to get their loan amount cut, and it could also affect their annual limits, so it puts both students and schools in a very precarious position right now,” she added. 

Student loan system overhaul

The new definition is part of President Donald Trump’s administration’s sweeping overhaul of the federal student loan system stemming from the GOP’s 2025 “big, beautiful” law. Most provisions in the overhaul took effect July 1. 

Part of the regulations axed a program allowing for unlimited borrowing for graduate and professional students and set new caps on federal student loans, with much different limits based on whether a degree is deemed “professional.” 

Now, graduate student loans face a $20,500 annual cap and $100,000 lifetime limit. Professional student loans are subject to a $50,000 yearly limit and $200,000 aggregate cap. 

Lawsuits crop up

The department’s new “professional” degree definition prompted a handful of legal challenges against the administration, including the suit that sparked Howell’s June order. 

That case stems from a pair of combined challenges brought by a total of eight groups representing people in fields outside of the department’s new “professional” definition. 

One of the lawsuits was brought in May by the American Association of Nurse Practitioners; the National Association of Pediatric Nurse Practitioners; the American Association of Colleges of Nursing; the Association of Schools and Programs of Public Health; the National Education Association; and the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy. 

The PA Education Association and the American Academy of Physician Associates filed the other lawsuit in June. 

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

Originally published on TiffinOhio.net.

D.C. Superior Court Associate Judge Carmen Guerricagoitia McLean, who is presiding over the felony case against David C. Hearn, scheduled a status hearing for Aug. 5. McLean was nominated by President Barack Obama and, when that nomination expired, by President Donald Trump.

Mary L. Dohrmann, senior counsel at the Washington Litigation Group and a member of Hearn’s legal team, said during the arraignment hearing that he is an “upstanding citizen and member of the community” and three-time Olympian canoeist who regularly represents the United States in international competitions. 

Dohrmann said it would be a “waste of the court’s resources to impose any conditions” on Hearn ahead of a future trial. 

Assistant U.S. Attorney Kevin Reddington said prosecutors have “a lot of evidence” in the case and that he wanted the status hearing to be scheduled before a trial. He later said the government wants to “quickly” share its evidence with Hearn’s legal team as part of the required discovery process. 

U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro charged Hearn, of Bethesda, Maryland, with destruction of property of more than $1,000 for allegedly vandalizing the newly refinished Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool on June 19. Trump, who has closely overseen the multi-million-dollar renovation of the Reflecting Pool, has blamed vandals for damage to it.

During a brief press conference outside the D.C. Superior Court Building after the hearing, Norm Eisen, co-founder and executive chair of Democracy Defenders Fund and a member of Hearn’s legal team, said “every American should be alarmed about this prosecution.”

“This indictment reflects the administration’s effort to scapegoat Davey and to shift blame for their own failures,” Eisen said. 

Federal prosecutors, he said, should never have charged Hearn. 

“It is not a crime to touch the Reflecting Pool, to touch water in the United States of America,” Eisen said. 

Maryland Democratic U.S. Rep. Jamie Raskin, in whose congressional district Hearn resides, wrote in a statement released during the hearing that “Hearn would never desecrate a federal building or landmark by writing his name on it or affixing his name illegally to it or engaging in any other kind of political graffiti, vandalism or delinquency.”

“I hope—and will do everything I can to guarantee—that Davey gets true due process and a fair trial on these absurdly trumped-up charges,” Raskin added. “It is only a matter of time before an impartial judge and jury recognize that this case has been built on a Kafkaesque arrest and Orwellian charges.”

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

Originally published on TiffinOhio.net.

They didn’t mention the corporations that have huge contracts with the state Medicaid system — even after several have been sued and two were accused of up-charging the system by a quarter-billion dollars in a single year.

“President Trump and Vice President Vance’s war against fraud has come to the great state of Ohio,” acting U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche said from a stage in Whitehall with other administration officials and Ohio Republicans arrayed behind him.

“And this is a war that we will win. The team behind me, federal and state partners, have come together to battle what is a fraud crisis in this country. It has crippled our taxpayer programs and robbed the American purse for too long.”

Blanche focused on suspected cheats such as two Ohio state employees and two others who are accused of billing the state Medicaid system $30 million for behavioral health services that weren’t delivered.

“Some criminals have gotten so bold, so audacious as to defraud the government of tens of millions of dollars…,” Blanche, who formerly worked as Trump’s criminal defense lawyer, said. “It should shock your conscience.” 

Blanche represented Trump when Trump was convicted of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records.

The acting attorney general ticked off allegations that Ohioans ripped off the pandemic-era Paycheck Protection Program and other alleged scams as he touted Trump’s Task Force to Eliminate Fraud. The group is led by Vice President JD Vance, an Ohioan. 

All told, the alleged scams described by Blanche and the others appeared to total about $100 million.

“These numbers are staggering, but just the tip of the iceberg,” Blanche said. 

He later added, “Americans deserve to know that if someone lies or cheats or steals to get ahead, they will be punished, and they deserve a government that will never be taken advantage of by fraudsters.”

What never came up were giant health conglomerates that have huge contracts with the state Medicaid program.

In Ohio, for example,UnitedHealthcare provides health plans financed by Ohio Medicaid. Similarly, CVS Health offers Medicaid managed-care programs through its insurance company, Aetna. 

The cooporations are, respectively, the third and fifth-largest by revenue in the United States. And they own a “vertically integrated” gamut of companies, including health insurers, physician practices and pharmacies. They do business with each other and with competitors.

They also own two of the three dominant pharmacy middlemen — known as “pharmacy benefit managers” — in the country. They’ve been accused of abusing their dominance in multiple aspects of healthcare to take huge profits and drive up costs.

In 2017, pharmacy benefit managers owned by CVS and UnitedHealth served all of the Medicaid managed-care companies under contract with Ohio Medicaid. 

A newspaper investigation a year later turned up evidence suggesting that the middlemen might have charged taxpayers far more for prescription drugs than they reimbursed the pharmacies that had bought and dispensed them.

When the Medicaid department obtained all reimbursement data for 2017 and hired a company to analyze it, Ohioans learned they’d paid $224 million more for Medicaid prescriptions that year than already-struggling pharmacies received.

The conglomerates denied doing anything wrong, and continue to insist that they save money for consumers.

Details unearthed in the same investigation led then-Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost to sue Centene, the country’s largest Medicaid managed-care provider.

Yost accused them of using redundant pharmacy middlemen to overbill the state. 

Within months, Centene settled with Ohio for $88 million and announced it was setting aside more than $1 billion to settle with other states that hadn’t even sued it.

Centene never admitted wrongdoing, and it’s unknown how much it made off of the disputed pharmacy arrangement.

Despite the company’s conduct, Buckeye Health Plan, a Centene-owned managed-care company, still does business with Ohio. It collected more than half a billion dollars in 2024.

Yost has sued the drug middlemen owned by the big health conglomerates over other things. For example, he accused them of defrauding state pension funds. 

In 2022, Yost announced that he’d collected more than $100 million from the companies, with other cases still pending.

But Yost did not mention the hundreds of millions he’s accused big corporations of improperly collecting from taxpayers when he took the podium during the June 4 press conference.

Speaking just before his planned resignation, he instead focused on alleged fraud by smaller players — and on praising Trump.

“Today marks something different,” Yost said. “I’ve been engaged in this fight since I was the elected auditor of state back in 2011. Through my eight years as auditor of state and almost eight years now as attorney general, I have been doing Medicaid investigations, prosecutions… I have never had the level of interest and support from the federal government under any administration that you’re witnessing here today.”

One of those less-supportive administrations Yost was referring to was Trump’s first.

“It’s sometimes been a lonely fight,” Yost said. “It’s no longer a lonely fight. What’s the difference? President Trump, Vice President Vance and this team that you see arrayed here today.”

Antonio Ciaccia is a Columbus-based expert on drug pricing who has worked with numerous state attorneys general to investigate government spending on drugs. 

He said there has to be a focus on provider fraud, as the Trump team is doing. But, Ciaccia said, it doesn’t go nearly far enough. 

“There are billions of dollars flowing through the system. You should look at it essentially as a spigot that people think they can just pull out as much as possible,” he said.

“In the era of managed care, fraud, waste and abuse prevention has to extend far beyond the provider level because providers can engage in small-scale fraud. But now that insurance companies and their vertically integrated subsidiaries stand in between the provider and the state paying the bill, vertical integration has created conflicts of interest and opportunities for fraud, waste and abuse to be conducted at a far larger scale.”

Blanche and other members of the Trump administration blamed laxness by former President Joe Biden for Medicaid fraud in Ohio. But John Kulewicz, a Democrat running for state attorney general, pointed out that Republicans have been in charge of the Ohio Department of Medicaid since January 2011. 

“It seems to me that here you have a classic case of people who were either asleep at the switch, or they looked the other way,” Kulewicz said in an interview.

“The folks who got together a few weeks ago for that press conference have had absolute control of the state government for the past 16 years now. So they’ve had the unimpeded ability to audit and prosecute any issues like that and nothing’s been done.”

Ohio Auditor Keith Faber is the Republican nominee for attorney general. He was on the stage during the June 4 press conference, but he didn’t speak.

His campaign was asked whether he intends to investigate possible fraud by corporations that contract with the state, and whether he intends to continue Yost’s efforts.

“Keith opposes fraud in whatever form and wherever it might be. He looks forward to serving as Attorney General and working with the administration and General Assembly to limit fraud, waste, and abuse,” Matt Dole, an advisor to the Faber campaign, said in an email.

“One of Keith’s first steps as Attorney General will be to learn more about ongoing investigations and litigation. He won’t commit to any outcome now, but rather encourages voters to look at his record and philosophy to understand the strong stance he’ll take to support law enforcement, protect consumers, and defend Ohio’s Constitution.”

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

Originally published on TiffinOhio.net.

Solar panels sit on less than one-seventh of 1% of prime farmland in Ohio, according to a map recently released by the Solar Energy Industries Association, or SEIA.

In Ohio — and increasingly around the U.S. — fears over farmland loss have become one of the most common arguments against proposed large-scale solar development.

For example, agricultural issues were on Republican state Sen. Bill Reineke’s list of reasons for sponsoring a 2021 law that now lets Ohio counties ban most solar and wind projects and imposes added hurdles for those that might move ahead.

Two years later, a presentation to Ohio lawmakers by Mitch Given, then Ohio director at pro-natural gas group The Empowerment Alliance, included slides on ​“lost Ohio farmland” and ​“fighting the nonsense of turning corn fields into solar fields.” Shortly after that, Given spoke at a rally to build opposition to the Frasier Solar project in Knox County.

When Richland County banned large-scale solar and wind energy in most of its territory last year, all three commissioners voted for the resolution, saying they were deferring to officials at the township level who wanted to preserve the agricultural nature of the area.

“They are very protective of farmlands, and it was clear to those township trustees that they did not want to lose farmland to large wind and solar,” Richland County Commissioner Tony Vero told Canary Media last fall.

When residents mounted a referendum effort to overturn the ban, Richland Farmland Preservation was the group whose campaign successfully kept it in place.

It’s not just Ohio. Last week, U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins invoked arguments about the loss of prime farmland to push back against New York’s approach to siting solar energy. She made similar claims last August while announcing that her agency — which has long helped farmers install solar arrays on their own properties — ​“will no longer fund taxpayer dollars for solar panels on productive farmland.”

Local officials in Idaho, Wisconsin, and several other states have also passed ordinances restricting or banning solar on certain farmland, according to a 2025 report from the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia University.

Calls to reject solar on farmland often focus on the acreage of a proposed installation — but they rarely provide context on what a few hundred acres looks like in practice, or how it compares to other uses that may encroach on agricultural areas. That’s where SEIA’s new map comes in.

Overall, about 31 of Ohio’s 37 square miles of solar generation area overlap with what the U.S. Department of Agriculture would deem prime farmland, the SEIA map shows.

Meanwhile, golf courses take up more than 2.7 times that much. Suburban sprawl from 2014 through 2024 used more than five times as much.

“That farmland is being permanently lost,” said Tom Bullock, executive director for the Citizens Utility Board of Ohio, a consumer advocacy group. In contrast, building solar on leased land ​“doesn’t destroy the ability to make it arable land once again.”

Calls to protect farmland from solar also tend not to acknowledge the fact that a significant amount of active farmland is, in fact, being used to produce energy already — just in a far less efficient manner.

Ohio farmers harvested corn from more than 3.1 million acres last year, Department of Agriculture numbers show. About 40% of that is used to make ethanol, most of which is blended into gasoline. Corn ethanol biofuels require about 30 times the land per unit of energy as solar, according to a 2025 study by Cornell University researchers.

The increasing pushback against solar on farmland comes as Ohio and other states face growing electricity demands that are pushing energy bills ever higher.

“With energy demand rising at a historically fast rate, Ohio needs every electron it can get, as soon as possible,” said Andrew Linhares, Midwest state affairs director for SEIA, noting that solar and storage accounted for 91% of new capacity added in the U.S. for the first three months this year.

“We need all forms of energy, but gas plants take five to seven years to build, and we are still years away from bringing new nuclear online,” Linhares said. ​“Solar-plus-storage is available now.”

From a local perspective, these statewide concerns may not ​“move the needle,” Bullock noted, ​“because a local township is worried about their township, and not the macro numbers.”

Even so, better data can help local officials make better decisions as they scrutinize different development proposals.

“Land use planning, not necessarily at a federal or even regional level, but at a local level … has got to be critical,” said Dale Arnold, director of energy, utility, and local government policy for the Ohio Farm Bureau Federation, which advocates for farmers.

That’s because officials must juggle a slew of other priorities alongside agricultural needs, from boosting economic development and tax revenue to ensuring adequate housing and the protection of natural areas.

But, many advocates point out, solar and farming do not need to be at odds.

A farmer in Knox County teamed up on a sheep-grazing agreement with the Frasier Solar project, for example. And pilot studies at a Madison County development aim to develop best practices for growing forage or other crops at scale amid rows of panels.

“Achieving a clean energy future does not have to be a choice between agriculture and energy production,” said Karin Nordstrom, an attorney with advocacy group the Ohio Environmental Council.

This story was originally published by Canary Media.

Originally published on TiffinOhio.net.

In that time I’ve seen the city go from a seemingly unstoppable economic and population decline to a thriving locale fully on the upswing.

That miracle turnaround was thanks in part to the thousands of Haitian people seeking safety, many of them recipients of a little-known legal protection called Temporary Protected Status (TPS), who’ve arrived in recent years ready to contribute to the community and make Springfield flourish.

Haitian residents are business owners, workers, and church members. They’re parents, they’re students. They’re our neighbors, and they belong here. Yet our political leaders continue to attack them.

Every Springfield resident has their own story of the terrible days and weeks following Donald Trump’s dissemination of a racist hoax targeting hard-working Haitians making their home here.

There were bomb threats, assaults on the street, and children being pulled from school due to dangerous conditions.

Personally, I’ll never forget the fear on my congregation members’ faces during Sunday service.

But I also remember the good, the resilience and bravery from the broader community throughout that terrible period.

We resisted Trump’s cowardly bullying, sticking by each other when it mattered most. And now it’s time to do so again.

The president’s recent efforts to eliminate TPS for tens of thousands of Haitian residents aren’t just callous — they represent a new attack on our entire community.

Since it was first established in 1990, the TPS program, which offers safety and status in the U.S. to people from other countries who cannot return to their homes because of perilous conditions, has been uncontroversial and with bipartisan support. But no more.

Trump has been belligerent in his efforts to kick out TPS recipients with little consideration for both the dangerous conditions they fled in the first place as well as the lives they’ve built in the U.S., now teetering on the verge of collapse.

In response, we’ve witnessed not just indifference from members of Congress, including those representing us Ohioans, but in some cases, even celebration of this cruelty.

One sees this and can’t help but wonder how they could have strayed so far from the teachings of Christ.

As a pastor, it’s my job to help guide my congregation towards holiness not just in word but also in deed — a commitment that requires real courage and conviction.

It’s a responsibility I take with complete seriousness, something severely lacking these days among our political leaders.

It’s hard to imagine a faith leader taking the pulpit to deliver insults and inspire hate towards those brave enough to flee their homelands in perilous times, to label kindness as weakness or tell us to ignore essentially every moral teaching in the Bible.

They’d be run out of the parish, and with good reason. Yet that’s exactly what we’ve come to expect from the president and his supporters in Congress.

Luckily, there’s a better path. As soon as this month, the U.S. Senate could vote on a bill to preserve TPS protections for Haitians for three more years (the same bill already passed the House with bipartisan support).

This wouldn’t just thwart Trump’s reckless rug-pull from beneath people fleeing unimaginable danger back in Haiti, it would also offer stability and security to the broader Springfield community.

Now is the time for our leaders in Congress and justices of the Court to stand up for Ohio communities and against Trump’s bullying of our hard-working residents and neighbors. They must keep Haitian residents here, at home, where they belong.

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

Originally published on TiffinOhio.net.

Last year’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act made major changes to the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program, or SNAP, including new eligibility and work requirements. Already, more than 4 million Americans have lost SNAP benefits, putting more pressure on food banks and food pantries across the country.

But beginning in fall 2027, states for the first time must begin to fund some SNAP benefits themselves. Analyses of newly released data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture show states could be on the hook for more than $9 billion. Some states, county officials and advocates fear this will remove more Americans from the safety net program and even push some states to consider dropping out of SNAP altogether.  

The new law will penalize states depending on their payment error rates — a technical calculation by the feds of SNAP overpayments and underpayments, not fraud. States with a payment error rate above 6% will have to fund 5% to 15% of their benefit payments. Previously, the feds provided the aid.

In USDA’s most recent analysis, the error rate slightly improved across the states in fiscal year 2025, but officials said states still made a collective $10.1 billion in improper payments. 

“These payment error rates are further proof that state accountability is severely lacking in SNAP,” Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said in a June news release. 

As many as 36 states will face new cost share requirements in the fall of 2027. And nearly half of those are expected to be on the hook for $100 million or more a year, according to the left-leaning Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

For example, in Michigan, the current error rate could cost the state $300 million a year, the center estimates. Texas could be on the hook for an estimated $725 million and New York may need to spend more than $1 billion. 

“States are going to have to make some really painful decisions as they have to balance their budgets about how they are going to cover those costs, and if they can’t fully cover the required cost-sharing requirement, by raising revenue or cutting elsewhere in their budget,” said Katie Bergh, senior policy analyst at the center. 

The change is heightening fears that states will slow down benefit approval, cut access or even choose to drop out of the program altogether, Bergh said. While advocates and some officials have unsuccessfully pushed Congress to reverse its SNAP changes, many are now asking for at least a delay in implementation to give states time to improve their payment error rates.

After USDA released its new data last month, New Jersey Human Services Commissioner Stephen Cha said the error rate measurement is “fundamentally flawed.” Though the state significantly cut its error rate from 14.33% to 6.86%, it could still be on the hook for an estimated $100 million. 

Cha reiterated previous calls for Congress and the Trump administration to eliminate or delay the changes.

“Penalizing states will do nothing to improve payment accuracy or meaningfully address waste, fraud, or abuse,” Cha said in a statement. “Instead, they impose a significant financial and administrative burden on State and county governments, threatening our ability to effectively administer SNAP and meet the critical needs of families across New Jersey.”

In a statement to Stateline, a USDA spokesperson noted states have had decades to improve erroneous payments. “Perhaps now, States will stop spending other people’s money so recklessly,” the statement said. 

Looming budget pressures

In 10 states — California, Colorado, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Virginia and Wisconsin — counties administer the SNAP program. 

The National Association of Counties has said the cost shift will threaten not only food access, but could squeeze the ability of counties to fund public safety, emergency management and infrastructure needs.

“These cost shifts threaten to destabilize county budgets, forcing reductions in staffing and delaying critical nutrition assistance for vulnerable residents,” association CEO Matthew Chase said in a letter last year to congressional leaders. 

The National Conference of State Legislatures, which represents lawmakers and legislative staff, said states are committed to administering SNAP benefits accurately and to being held accountable for their performance. But in a statement, the organization said USDA’s most recent data “make clear that additional time is needed” to implement meaningful improvements. 

State efforts to improve their payment accuracy also have substantial tradeoffs.

This spring, the Urban Institute and the American Public Human Services Association surveyed all SNAP agencies across the country. Thirty-nine states responded to the survey, representing a 78% response rate.

The survey found that SNAP administrators are investing in staffing, technology and automation to respond to the federal law. But many states are turning away from efforts to improve timeliness and may have to reduce staffing and benefits to comply. 

In the survey, 29% of states identified narrowing eligibility policies as a potential risk and 11% saw a wholesale withdrawal from SNAP as a potential risk. 

Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt, a Republican, said churches, food banks and other organizations would ensure that people are fed there.

Stitt, the chair of the bipartisan National Governors Association, said he believes federal programs like SNAP are operated with “a lot of fraud and abuse.” He also suggested that the program had become too seamless, with cards that resemble credit cards allowing recipients to easily purchase groceries. 

“Maybe it’s going back to the day where there was a little stigma attached and you had to actually go to a food bank and pick up commodity cheese and commodity groceries, and it had a little stigma so you were a little bit embarrassed,” he told Stateline. “Maybe we should go back to a little bit of that instead of just making it so easy…” 

“Nobody’s going to go hungry in Oklahoma,” he said. “…I can assure you people were eating, getting married, graduating from high school before we even had anything called SNAP benefits.”

The error rate

The federal focus on error rates is incentivizing states to slow down or entirely halt benefits in some cases, said Gina Plata-Nino, SNAP director at the Food Research & Action Center, a nonprofit working to combat hunger.

That’s because states face no penalty for wrongfully denying benefits, she said, only for paying too much or too little in benefits. The rate, calculated by a random sample of households, adds the number of overpayments and underpayments together. And states can still be penalized for overpayments they later recover from recipients. 

“There is no oversight in terms of the people who are eligible and being cut off,” Plata-Nino said. 

In Massachusetts, nearly 175,000 people lost SNAP benefits between July of last year and May of this year. And understaffing at the Department of Transitional Assistance has caused thousands of incoming phone calls from residents to get disconnected, according to the Massachusetts Law Reform Institute, a poverty law and policy center.

That organization has pushed for more caseworkers, though a legislative budget proposal last week would cut $26 million from existing operations, said Victoria Negus, senior economic justice advocate at the institute.  

“What is happening is a version of what I’ve been calling ‘can’t see the forest for the payment error rate trees,’” she said. “They have set up this system that forces states to try to meet a number that is almost impossible for them to meet without fully decimated access to SNAP, because it takes time to methodically and carefully reduce payment error rates.”

In Alabama, officials said the state continues to prioritize staff training, automation and other changes to reduce the state’s error rate. The current error rate of 9.52% could cost the state an estimated $170 million.

Alabama’s legislature has set aside nearly $150 million for the SNAP program. But state Sen. Greg Albritton, a Republican who leads the budget committee, told the Alabama Reflector in April that those funds won’t be released unless the state can reduce its error rate to 6% or develop another plan to cover costs of the federal cuts. 

Kathryn Shoupe, spokesperson for the Alabama Department of Human Resources, noted that the federal data can be over a year old. She also noted that it isn’t evidence of fraud, but usually unintentional reporting errors from recipients.

LaTrell Clifford Wood, the hunger policy advocate at the anti-poverty nonprofit Alabama Arise, said the state needs hundreds more employees to fully meet the need. She noted that more than 52,000 people have already lost SNAP benefits in Alabama. And with rising grocery prices, she said the focus on the error rate will force difficult budgetary decisions that could affect other parts of the state budget, such as education.

“It is a metric with moral ambiguity,” she said. “We are putting paper pushing over people.” 

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 measures include requiring monitoring of absences and publicly releasing data, developing new guidance on the best ways to address the problem and increasing punishments for parents and guardians of chronically absent students. 

Chronic absenteeism is defined as missing 10% or more of school days in an academic year, which equates to about 18 days or two days per month. 

A Utah law signed in March creates a student attendance monitoring system and requires the identification of at-risk students. Parents of students in grades 1-6 will receive a notice of violation after five truancies. If parents don’t meet with school officials to address the truancy, they could face a class B misdemeanor. 

Oregon’s new law requires every school district and public charter school to compile data about the students who regularly attend class or are chronically absent, which will be made publicly available by the state’s Department of Education.

Vermont’s new law overhauls how the state defines and handles chronic absenteeism and truancy. Chronic absenteeism will remain categorized as 10% or more days of missed attendance. Truancy is classified as 20 or more unexcused absences within a school year.

If a student is considered truant and school-based interventions haven’t improved attendance, the law allows the state’s attorney to fine parents a maximum of $1,000 or to file a court petition against the parents. 

Additionally, by July 2027, the state’s Agency of Education must develop a model policy on chronic absenteeism and truancy, including guidance on excusing absences, addressing absenteeism among students with disabilities and considering how bullying and hazing could impact a student’s attendance.

Under a new Tennessee law, a student transferring during the school year will have the number of unexcused absences reported to their next school, and any future unexcused absences will be added on a cumulative record. And it removes the five-hour limit on the amount of community service a judge may order for the parent or guardian of a student with five or more unexcused absences during a school year.

Under a sweeping K-12 education legislative package enacted this year in Mississippi, the state is required to fund one attendance officer per 4,000 compulsory‑school‑aged children. 

And a recent New Jersey law establishes a chronic absenteeism task force, which will develop recommendations on the best way to address the problem.

According to FutureEd, a think tank at Georgetown University, lawmakers filed more than 70 bills across 24 states this legislative session about chronic absenteeism. 

Of the 44 states and Washington, D.C., that have released 2024-25 attendance data, most states showed improvement, FutureEd found. But Colorado, Oklahoma, Mississippi, New Mexico and the district reported a rise in missed school days. And no state has fully returned to pre-pandemic levels, it said. 

According to its most recent data, the U.S. Department of Education says the national rate of chronic absenteeism reached about 31% in 2021-22 and fell to 28% in 2022-23. 

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.

Medically tailored meals are fully prepared, home-delivered meals that are customized by a registered dietitian nutritionist for people with diet-linked conditions like diabetes, heart failure or chronic kidney disease. They’re part of a broader category of “food is medicine” interventions that use free, healthy food to improve people’s health

The “food as medicine” movement has picked up steam in recent years, propelled by some in the “Make America Healthy Again” movement who share the philosophy of using nutrition to help prevent and manage chronic diseases.

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, has championed “food as medicine” and praised the potential of such programs to improve health and lower healthcare costs. However, Kennedy attracted criticism last year after praising one company that makes such meals for Medicaid and Medicare enrollees. The Associated Press reviewed the company’s offerings, finding the menu included the type of ultra processed foods high in sodium and sugar that Kennedy has often criticized.

Massachusetts was the first state to broadly offer medically tailored meals to Medicaid recipients with diet-related diseases, so researchers with Tufts University, the University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School and other groups focused their research on that state.

They found that enrollees in Massachusetts Medicaid who received medically tailored meals had 31% fewer hospitalizations and 20% fewer emergency department visits.

Per-person health costs declined by an average of $3,433 while participants were in the program, which offset nearly all of the program’s cost to taxpayers.

“Our results show that food really is medicine, with major clinical and policy implications for health-insurance coverage of medically tailored meals to impact diet-related diseases and healthcare costs,” said the report’s senior author Dr. Dariush Mozaffarian, a cardiologist and director of Tufts University’s Food is Medicine Institute, in a June statement announcing the findings.

Medicaid, the federal-state public health insurance for people with low incomes, has increasingly given states flexibility to launch medical meal programs. Poor diet is a leading cause of death, disability and the use of emergency health services, researchers noted.

States offering medically tailored meals include California, Delaware, Massachusetts, New York, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania and Washington.

Researchers in the Massachusetts study found that the program not only improved health outcomes, but also yielded significant cost savings for the state’s Medicaid program, even when accounting for the cost of the meals, for people with certain conditions, including heart disease, diabetes, chronic kidney disease and depression.

While the research was limited to one state with meals delivered by one established nonprofit provider, the study’s authors were hopeful the findings could help guide other states considering similar programs.

“It’s rare to find anything in medicine that both improves health and saves money,” Mozaffarian said in June. “It should be a no-brainer to extend similar programs to patients in other states and covered by other health insurance programs, such as Medicare and employer-based insurance.”

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.

Affordable Care Act Marketplace insurers are proposing a median premium increase of 14% for 2027, which would be a double-digit hike for the second year in a row, according to a new analysis of preliminary rate filings.

Insurers must submit their requested premium changes to state regulators by July 15, per Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services deadlines. Rates should be finalized later this summer.

Released Wednesday by the Peterson Center on Healthcare and healthcare research group KFF, the analysis looked at proposed rate changes among 77 Marketplace insurers across 16 states and Washington, D.C., that have made proposed rates publicly available. Those are Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Texas, Vermont and Washington state.

The majority of insurers across those states are proposing a median ACA Marketplace premium increase between 10% and 20%, while 20 insurers are requesting premium increases of more than 20%. None included in the analysis proposed a decrease in premiums. 

Along with the expiration of enhanced premium subsidies, insurers are also citing rising healthcare costs and changes in federal regulations as reasons behind the increases.

At the end of last year, enhanced premium tax credits expired, leading to more out-of-pocket costs for some people enrolled in Marketplace plans. Premiums increased especially for those with incomes at 400% or more of the federal poverty level — or roughly $63,000 for a single person — who completely lost subsidies. That caused many healthier enrollees to leave the Marketplace, leaving behind enrollees who are more expensive to cover, according to KFF.

While the proposed increases are lower than last year’s median nationwide proposed rate change of 18% — the finalized change was 20% — it’s the second-highest requested change since 2018, according to the report.

ACA Marketplace enrollments have seen a steep drop, with 2.6 million fewer Americans on the rolls in February compared with the same time last year, The Associated Press reported.

Stateline reporter Nada Hassanein can be reached at nhassanein@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 Marietta gathering follows months of similar events in Columbus, Toledo, Youngstown, Westlake, Steubenville, Lima and Norwalk. Most of the people stepping to the microphone have been local residents — teachers, city and school-board officials and, in at least one case, a survivor of sexual abuse — who say they want answers about Husted’s judgment.

Campaign finance records from the Federal Election Commission and the Ohio Secretary of State, reviewed by TiffinOhio.net, show Husted accepted $116,892 from Wexner across 21 contributions between 2001 and 2025. The most recent was a $3,500 maximum donation to his Senate campaign on July 3, 2025. According to those records, Husted is the only senator up for re-election in 2026 who took money from Wexner during the current election cycle.

About two months after that July contribution, on Sept. 10, 2025, Husted voted against an amendment offered by Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer that would have directed the attorney general to publicly release documents related to Epstein. The amendment, attached to the annual defense authorization bill, failed on a largely party-line vote of 51–49.

Husted’s campaign rejects the idea that he opposed releasing the files. A spokesperson called that framing a “gross mischaracterization,” saying Husted objected to attaching the Epstein language to a defense spending bill, which he called “utterly inappropriate.” When the Senate later took up standalone legislation, in November 2025, it approved releasing the records by unanimous consent, and Husted did not object; the day before, he told Columbus television station WBNS that the files should be made public while protecting victims and any future prosecution.

On the donations, Husted’s campaign says it has given the money away. Communications director Tyson Shepard said Husted “directed the campaign to donate Wexner’s money to charity,” and the campaign has reported donating $34,300 in combined contributions from Wexner and his wife, Abigail, to Freedom a la Cart, a Columbus nonprofit that supports survivors of human trafficking. The campaign has also pointed to donations former Sen. Sherrod Brown received from people described as Epstein associates. TiffinOhio.net’s earlier coverage of the charitable-donation pledge has more detail.

Wexner, the New Albany billionaire who founded Victoria’s Secret parent company L Brands, has never been charged with a crime in connection with Epstein. His name appeared in an Aug. 15, 2019 internal FBI document that referenced him as a co-conspirator; the Department of Justice unredacted that reference on Feb. 10, 2026, after pressure from Reps. Ro Khanna, a California Democrat, and Thomas Massie, a Kentucky Republican. The same document noted “limited evidence” of Wexner’s involvement. A legal representative for Wexner has said federal prosecutors told his counsel in 2019 that he was “neither a co-conspirator nor a target” and that he cooperated with investigators. Wexner later confirmed the donations under oath during a February congressional deposition, acknowledging it was plausible he had given Husted about $117,000 over the years.

At the earlier stops, the criticism has come mostly from people who live in those communities. In Lima in June, Fourth Ward city councilor Jeannine Jordan said Husted’s eventual vote to release the files did not show “courage of conviction,” because his September vote had aligned with most Senate Republicans. Alice Donahue, a Lima school board member, spoke as a survivor of sexual abuse and said Wexner’s name appears thousands of times in the files released so far. In Steubenville, resident and educator Karen Lloyd said “a profound shadow hangs over the office of Sen. Jon Husted.” At several events, demonstrators carried signs criticizing Husted, including some reading “Pedophile protector.”

Husted has repeatedly declined to answer reporters’ questions about the money and his vote. During a February campaign stop in Norwalk, the Norwalk Reflector reported that Husted turned his head and did not respond when asked directly about the Wexner contributions and the Epstein files.

Democrats and the campaign of Brown, Husted’s opponent, contend Husted took roughly 10 times as much money from Wexner as any other sitting senator. Brown’s campaign has made the Wexner donations a central line of attack, while Husted’s campaign has run its own ads tying Brown to Epstein-associated donors. Reviews by FactCheck.org have noted that people who gave to Brown, unlike Wexner, have not been charged with crimes or labeled co-conspirators by the FBI, and that not all of the $116,892 went to Husted alone — a portion flowed to a joint gubernatorial committee and transition fund Husted shared with Gov. Mike DeWine.

Husted was appointed to the Senate in January 2025 by DeWine to fill the seat vacated by Vice President JD Vance. He faces Brown in a November 2026 special election that is among the most closely watched Senate contests in the country. The Wexner donations have surfaced alongside other scrutiny of Husted, including his documented role in the House Bill 6 utility-bailout scandal.

Originally published on TiffinOhio.net.

Under a deal reached March 3, Moderna agreed to pay Genevant Sciences, a subsidiary of Ramaswamy’s Roivant Sciences, and its partner Arbutus Biopharma a settlement worth up to $2.25 billion to resolve patent litigation over the lipid nanoparticle technology used to deliver Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccines, including Spikevax. A $950 million upfront payment was due on or before Wednesday, July 8, according to securities filings by both companies. A further $1.3 billion is contingent on the outcome of a federal appeal.

Ramaswamy spent the days before that deadline abroad. Hours after marking the Fourth of July at events in Lancaster and Upper Arlington, he flew by private jet from Columbus to Paris on the night of July 4 — his fifth international trip of the year, according to flight-tracking data cited by the Columbus newsletter The Rooster.

A shareholder, not a bystander

Ramaswamy founded Roivant in 2014 and served as its chief executive until 2021, stepping down from the company’s board in early 2023 to run for president. He holds no current role at the company and is not a party to the Moderna case; the settlement money is paid to the companies, not to him. But he remains one of Roivant’s largest shareholders, holding roughly 7 percent of the firm — a stake that stands to benefit from a deal that has strengthened the company’s balance sheet and its stock.

Roivant recorded a $770.2 million gain tied to the settlement in its most recent earnings. Its shares rose about 6 percent the day the deal was announced — Arbutus jumped roughly 24 percent — and Roivant’s board authorized a $1 billion share repurchase program that returns cash to shareholders.

A campaign built on the pandemic

Ramaswamy faces Democrat Amy Acton, the former state health director who led Ohio’s early COVID-19 response, in the general election on Tuesday, November 3. He has made Acton’s 2020 record a centerpiece of his campaign, accusing her at rallies of spreading dangerous “COVID ideology,” and a super PAC backing him has aired ads that TiffinOhio.net has reported to contain false claims about her role in the shutdowns.

He has also distanced himself from the vaccine his former company’s technology helped make possible. On a July 2023 podcast appearance during his presidential run, Ramaswamy said he was vaccinated but regretted it: “Had I had the facts that I do now, as a young, thankfully healthy male, I would not have chosen to get vaccinated,” he said at the time.

His own pandemic ghosts

Ramaswamy’s public posture as a COVID skeptic sits alongside a 2020 record that ran the other way. As Roivant’s CEO, he served as an adviser on COVID-19 to then-Lt. Gov. Jon Husted — now a U.S. senator — a role he described in a 2021 op-ed. During that period, the Associated Press reported, Ramaswamy supported vaccines, received one himself and advocated mask-wearing, though he said he never backed government mandates for either. A Roivant company, Datavant, pushed for a national registry that would sort Americans by immunity status, allowing those with natural immunity to “get back to normal life.” Roivant also spent $70,000 lobbying the federal government on COVID-19 drug issues in 2020 and 2021.

The central premise of his attacks on Acton has been contested by the Republican who appointed her. Gov. Mike DeWine, who has endorsed Ramaswamy, has repeatedly said the decisions to close businesses and schools and to postpone Ohio’s 2020 primary were his own. “I told her to issue the health order,” DeWine has said of the primary postponement. “The decision was mine.” Acton’s campaign has said she is “proud of the work she did alongside Governor DeWine to put public health over politics, save lives and keep Ohioans safe.”

After entering politics, Ramaswamy moved to strip part of that history from public view. In early 2023, a Wikipedia editor who disclosed being paid by Ramaswamy removed a reference to his service on Ohio’s “COVID-19 Response Team.” Ramaswamy has called the edit a simple correction, saying the panel never met. His campaign has acknowledged paying an editor but denied the change was politically motivated.

Ramaswamy has defended his record as consistent. In an interview with the AP, he said both his support for the registry and his talks with Husted were about “getting the economy going again,” and described his overall position on the virus as “nuanced.” “As a decision maker, you have to weigh the costs and benefits of your actions,” he said. “You can’t be unmoored from the data.” His campaign referred questions about his time at Roivant to the company, which did not respond to the AP.

Critics see a contradiction

Innovation Ohio, a progressive research and communications group, has seized on the settlement. “This sums up exactly who Vivek Ramaswamy is: someone who did everything he could to get rich off of the COVID pandemic,” said the group’s president, Michael McGovern. “We can’t trust him to look out for Ohioans best interest because the only thing he seems to care about is looking out for himself and his own ambitions.”

“Vivek wants to have it both ways: attack Ohio’s COVID response in public, while quietly making millions,” McGovern said. “Vivek is a total fake, and Ohioans can see it.”

The settlement TiffinOhio.net first reported in the spring resolves only part of the litigation over the vaccine technology. Genevant and Arbutus are still pursuing a separate case against Pfizer and BioNTech, whose Comirnaty shot accounts for roughly two-thirds of global COVID-19 mRNA vaccine sales.

Originally published on TiffinOhio.net.

Democrats would need a perfect political storm to flip any of Ohio’s Republican-held congressional districts. 

Increasingly, they think one could be brewing in a Cleveland-area district Trump won by 11 points.

Ohio’s 7th Congressional District is held by Rep. Max Miller, a former Trump aide who’s represented the district since 2022. Democrats hope Brian Poindexter, a union official and council member in Brook Park, will overperform in the district thanks to his blue-collar background and roots in the legacy Ford factory town.

“I think Brian’s building things up,” said Dave Brock, chairman of the Cuyahoga County Democratic Party. “And if we’re going to have a Blue Wave, this is going to be one of the seats we can get.”

“If anybody else won the primary, they were essentially going to concede it to Miller,” Brock added. “With Brian, we’ve got a shot.”

Jim Renacci, a Republican who held the seat in the 2010s, said this year’s political environment reminds him of 2018. He ran for U.S. Senate that year, losing to Democratic former Sen. Sherrod Brown by 6 percentage points even as Republicans won every other partisan statewide office. 

“Do I think Max Miller’s going to win that seat? Yes,” Renacci said. “Do I think it’s close? Yes. Do I think he’s going to spend a lot of money? Yes.”

Why Democrats like their odds

Democrats see three fronts converging over the 7th Congressional District: a candidate with a biography that fits the district, an incumbent Republican in the middle of a tabloid-fodder divorce and a national political climate that historically hurts the party holding the White House. 

The district consists of Cuyahoga County’s affluent western suburbs, its more blue-collar or exurban southern suburbs, as well as Medina, Wayne and part of Ashland counties. 

The district, on balance, is safe Republican. But the path to victory for a Democrat would include doing well in Parma and nearby Brook Park – communities that elect Democrats to local office, but which Trump won in 2024. Sherrod Brown won the district by four percentage points in 2018, even as he won statewide by six points – showing a Democrat can win in the district, even if it’s very tough to do so.

Democrats officially rate the 7th Congressional District as a second-tier priority – it and two other Ohio districts appear on a Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee list of “in play” districts. The DCCC’s “Red to Blue” district list, meanwhile, represents Republicans they view as being easier to defeat, based on their districts’ designs. None of those are in Ohio. 

Ohio’s 7th District was not included in an initial reservation of ads placed earlier this year by the House Majority PAC, a political action committee associated with House Democrats. Data provided to Signal Statewide by Medium Buying, a Republican firm in Columbus that tracks political spending, confirmed that hasn’t changed. 

Instead, Democrats have made small initial ad reservations in the two other “in play” Republican-held districts in Ohio where Trump won by at least 10 points – the 10th Congressional District, represented by Dayton Rep. Mike Turner, and 15th District, represented by Columbus Rep. Mike Carey. 

But Democrats recently have grown more bullish on the 7th District as the best of the three potential pickup opportunities, specifically because of the head-to-head matchup between Poindexter and Miller.

Part of that is due to the candidates’ personal backgrounds. Poindexter worked odd jobs before getting involved with the building trades at age 27. He became a union ironworker, working on construction sites before later taking a position as an apprentice instructor at the Ironworkers Local 17 training center**.**

Miller, in turn, is a member of one of Cleveland’s wealthiest families, which got rich by founding and later selling Forest City Enterprises, a real-estate company. After getting a job as a trusted political aide for Trump, Miller ran for Congress in 2022, vowing to defeat then-Rep. Anthony Gonzalez for voting to impeach Trump in 2020. Gonzalez dropped out, and Miller won the seat comfortably.

Democrats aren’t saying how. But they’ve signaled they may make a political issue out of Miller’s messy divorce. 

Emily Moreno has accused Miller of abusing her in court filings tied to their 2025 divorce. Miller has denied the allegation, and countersued Moreno for defamation. It’s not the first time Miller has sued an ex – in 2021, he sued Stephanie Grisham, a former aide to First Lady Melania Trump, for defamation after Grisham accused Miller of abusing her toward the end of their relationship. Comments Miller made about Grisham in connection to his divorce led Grisham to sue him this week, accusing him of violating a non-disparagement clause in their eventual legal settlement.

Miller also made some state Republicans cringe with a post in May in which he called out his former father-in-law, U.S. Sen. Bernie Moreno, for funding and enabling “his daughter’s malicious campaign to ruin my life.”

Tabloids and other non-Ohio media have followed along, providing coverage complete with photos, statements from lawyers and police videos.

Several race-rating websites cited the divorce in part when they recently downgraded Miller’s chances of getting reelected. The Cook Political Report, Sabato’s Crystal Ball and Inside Elections still view Republicans as likely to win the district, but now give Democrats a chance of winning. This distinction could force Republicans to change their plans and unexpectedly defend the seat if Democrats see enough of a political opening to fund ads in the district.

Likely trying to entice potential donors, Poindexter’s campaign released an internal poll last week that it said showed Miller with a narrow 44%-43% lead. Perhaps more notably, it showed Trump’s disapproval rate at 54%, which would be a dramatic shift in sentiment from the president’s double-digit victory. 

Kyle Kondik, managing editor for Sabato’s Crystal Ball, in an interview called the Ohio 7th Congressional District race a “sleeper.” 

“I think there’s something going on there. Miller’s favored – but I could see it being competitive,” Kondik said. 

Tom Coyne, a Republican former mayor of Brook Park, is among those who think Poindexter could win.

Coyne, a vocal Trump supporter and former longtime Democrat, said in an interview that some district voters may have soured on the president due to the war in Iran. Coyne said he personally supports Trump’s rationale for attacking the country, but said the president has done a poor job at explaining it. He also said there are independent voters in the region who support Trump but aren’t wedded to either major party.

“If Brian runs an independent campaign on his own, on working man’s values, then I think he has a good chance,” Coyne said. “If he is part of the Bernie Sanders total program there with [New York City Mayor Zohran] Mamdani and company, I would be shocked if Brook Park would support that.”

Kevin Kussmaul, a Republican city councilman in Parma, said Miller has delivered for Parma since getting elected to Congress, such as by helping attract federal funding to deal with flooding issues, and maintaining close ties with the city’s large Iranian-American population.

“I don’t think there’s a hesitation not to vote for Max,” said Kussmaul, the first elected Republican to serve on Parma City Council since the 1980s. “But they’re very cognizant of prices right now. So, it will be very interesting to see what happens on the national front, and what President Trump does for the rest of the summer.”

The Bernie factor

Poindexter won a crowded primary election in May, thanks to eclectic support that unified more left-wing and centrist elements of the Democratic Party coalition. 

Several voters interviewed for this story said they became interested in Poindexter after he got an endorsement from Sen. Bernie Sanders, of Vermont. Sanders came to Parma Heights the Friday before the election to hold a rally for Poindexter.

In his remarks, Sanders name-dropped New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who’s become increasingly influential on the left since getting elected last summer. The audience cheered, according to a recording posted by Sanders’ political operation. Mamdani has other ties to Poindexter – they also share a consulting firm, FIGHT Agency, which helped Mamdani in his improbable victory, and is backing progressive and union-backed Democratic candidates in other high-profile races.

“What we are trying to do, with, I think, some success, and with Brian’s help… is build a new political movement in this country,” Sanders said.

Meanwhile, a PAC funded by Anthropic, the AI company, spent $1 million on pro-Poindexter ads, while a PAC associated with Blue Dog Coalition, a centrist Democratic group, spent another $360,000 on pro-Poindexter mailers, according to federal campaign finance records.

Poindexter said in an interview he doesn’t know why the AI-affiliated group spent money on his race. But he said it shows that someone with resources decided the district is winnable for a Democrat. 

“I think they see in me somebody who can win this seat, and they made the decision to invest in the race,” he said.

Clayton Henson, Miller’s campaign manager, cited the late pro-Poindexter spending spree in a statement provided for this story.

“Congressman Miller will be reelected. A special interest PAC bought a primary win for Poindexter against a group of underfunded candidates. That’s not an option for the general election. Over the course of this campaign, voters will learn about every extreme position Poindexter has taken.”

National and state Republicans in turn have tried to tie other Democratic candidates in Ohio to Mamdani, and are likely to do the same with Poindexter.

Zach Bannon, a spokesperson for the National Republican Campaign Committee, issued a statement for this story that offers a preview of what to expect from Republicans if the race becomes competitive.

“Radical far-left liberals are working to bring the socialist wave to Ohio through Democrat Brian Poindexter,” Bannon said. “With support from Mamdani’s Working Families Party and AOC’s Progressive Caucus to Bernie Sanders himself, Poindexter has proven he’s all-in for socialism which is one of many reasons he will be rejected this fall.”

‘I’m not a Democratic socialist‘

Poindexter has held a couple town hall rallies since securing the Democratic nomination, first in affluent, suburban Bay Village in late June and then again last week in Brook Park.

About 40 people filled green plastic chairs in a library conference room to watch Poindexter, who gave a 10-minute speech before fielding questions for another 30 minutes or so. 

During his speech, Poindexter described how he was first inspired to run for office in 2016, when he saw Sanders speak at Cleveland State University while campaigning for president that year.

“I liked what Bernie had to say, because he was saying the things that I knew were wrong,” Poindexter said. “Working people were working harder and getting less.” Fast-forwarding a decade, Poindexter said he was floored when Sanders agreed to speak at his campaign rally in May.

“It was,” Poindexter said, “​​like Santa Claus coming to your house for Christmas dinner. It was the best gift I could ever get.”

Poindexter then immediately pivoted to playing pre-emptive defense.

“A lot of people don’t like Bernie Sanders’ politics,” Poindexter said. “A lot of people in our area go, ‘He’s a Democratic Socialist.’ And that’s a big buzzword right now on all the cable networks and stuff, right? But I also think a lot of people in our district respect Bernie Sanders, because he’s stood firm on what he’s been fighting for for so long.”

Poindexter made a similar point in an interview following the event when asked how he thought Sanders’ backing might play in his Trump-supporting district.

“Even the people who don’t agree with Sen. Sanders’ politics respect his commitment to the things he cares about… So, I think it’s a net positive. And regardless of what people think, I’m proud to have his support.”

During the event in Brook Park, an audience member asked Poindexter about the term “Democratic socialist,” which has increased in cachet after left-wing candidates won congressional Democratic Primary elections last month in New York and Colorado. 

“How do you embrace people who are going to accuse you of being a commie, because I’m dealing with the same thing myself,” she said.

“They see a ‘D’ next to my name, and they go, ‘Oh, you’re a commie,” Poindexter said. He went on to say that Democratic Socialists are part of the Democratic tent, but so are moderate Democratic groups, who also support his campaign.

“I’m not a Democratic Socialist, if that’s what people want to hear,” he said. “However, they have some ideas I like, like lifting the cap on Social Security.” 

Poindexter went on to name-drop a senatorial Bernie who supports the idea – Sen. Bernie Moreno, the Ohio Republican.

The Sanders’ endorsement likely played well with the audience at the library, some of whom wore T-shirts that promoted the Cuyahoga County Progressive Caucus and the Working Families Party. 

Nan Mager, a retired prison therapist who lives in Fairview Park, said she voted for Poindexter in the primary election after learning that Sanders and Rep. Ro Khanna, a Sanders-aligned Democratic congressman from California, had endorsed him. She said she thinks Poindexter is the right candidate to defeat Miller, with his background as an ironworker contrasting with Miller’s background coming from generational wealth.

“I’m hoping Brian can break through to people who are suffering financially because of what’s happening in Washington,” Mager said. 

Another attendee, Sam Sheffield, also cited the Sanders endorsement as a positive in an interview. He said he also liked Poindexter’s views on workers’ rights.

Finally, Sheffield, a lawyer from Seven Hills, said he thinks Poindexter “would be the strongest candidate to take on Max Miller.” 

“And I think unseating Max Miller was probably my primary motivation.”

Nickie Antonio, a Lakewood lawmaker who’s the top Democrat in the state senate, said a decade ago, she would have thought Sanders was too “far left” to be an effective campaign asset in Ohio.

“Today in 2026, Bernie is speaking the truth of where we’re at in this country,” said Antonio, who spoke at the Sanders-Poindexter rally in May. “It is so far to the right, they are so far to the extreme, that Bernie is talking about issues that affect the middle, as well as anybody on any side of the middle,” Antonio said.

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

Originally published on TiffinOhio.net.

After enacting large swaths of their agenda during the last year and a half, GOP lawmakers can’t seem to agree on what comes next, with senators openly debating each other on social media and a group of far-right House lawmakers blocking work on the floor, forcing the speaker to send them home early for the Fourth of July break. The infighting and limited time in session could prevent Republicans from notching any more wins before voters head to the polls in November.

The disagreements, largely over a voter identification bill known as the SAVE America Act, have held up the annual government funding measures needed to avoid another shutdown and a defense policy package that provides lawmakers one of their best opportunities to shape the country’s military objectives. 

Agreement on a farm bill to address agriculture and food safety net programs is years overdue with few signs of true momentum. And lawmakers are no closer to reauthorizing a foreign surveillance program that lapsed earlier this year for the first time in decades. 

On top of all that, House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., wants to use the complex budget reconciliation process to pass a third party-line bill, though his Senate counterparts aren’t fully on board with that idea. 

Johnson said during an interview on “Fox News Sunday with Shannon Bream” in early July that he believes the package could include elements of the voter identification bill, possibly clearing the way for other legislation to move forward. He said the reluctance from some Republican senators “is based upon what they think may be in it.” 

“What we’re planning to do is send over a bill that will be irresistible for any Republican. A really incredible piece of legislation that will get the job done, meaning that we will continue to increase affordability; we will reduce fraud, waste and abuse in government; and we’ll secure elections,” Johnson said. “Every Republican will vote for that if packaged correctly. And that’s what we’re planning to do right now.” 

Lawmakers’ time to get that done will be extremely limited when combined with other work on Congress’ to-do list. 

Both chambers return to the nation’s capital on July 13 but will be out for nearly all of August and October. In total, the House will be in session for about 24 days and the Senate at work on Capitol Hill for approximately 28 days ahead of the November midterm elections. 

GOP argues for keeping majorities

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said during a late June press conference he wants to “get as much done as we can in the amount of time we have left between now and the midterm elections.”

“There are things that I believe will create a record of accomplishment that our candidates can run on that will enable us to take an argument to the American people that will persuade them that they want to keep majorities here in Congress, in the United States Senate and in the House, that are Republican to work with the president to get good things done for this country,” he said.

While GOP senators “have differences of opinion,” Thune said, they agree that their goals should be “to keep the country safe, to put more money in the pockets of the American people and to give them better opportunities to get ahead.”

Republican senators, however, do not agree when it comes to the SAVE America Act that would, among other things, require proof of U.S. citizenship to register to vote and a photo ID to cast a ballot. 

Utah Republican Sen. Mike Lee posted to social media in early July that the chamber must pass that package, even if that means changing the rule that requires at least 60 lawmakers vote to cut off debate. Republicans control the chamber with 53 seats.

“History will not look kindly on us if we don’t pass the SAVE America Act,” he wrote. “Neither will voters.”

Texas Republican Sen. John Cornyn responded in a post of his own: “Then show us the votes!”

Filibuster fight

Michael Thorning, director of structural democracy at the Bipartisan Policy Center, said the slim majority in the House and narrow majority in the Senate combined with President Donald Trump’s focus on the voter identification bill has led to “a lot of negotiation between different factions within the party about what is going to be on the agenda.”

While the House can pass bills with a simple majority, the Senate needs bipartisan support for most bills to move past procedural votes. This requires compromise between Republicans and Democrats in the upper chamber on some of the more pressing and politically fraught issues. 

That requirement often results in changes to House-passed bills or an inability to move forward with them at all — leading to considerable tension between GOP lawmakers who want to keep the procedural step and those that want to get rid of it.

The 60-vote threshold gives Democrats a chance to force compromise, but it also gives them a way to slow down or gridlock the Senate during an election year, compounding the challenges Republican leaders face from within their own party. 

This year is no exception. Democratic leaders must balance calling on voters to reject Republican incumbents while on the campaign trail and then work with some of those very lawmakers to negotiate certain must-pass bills when back on Capitol Hill. 

“This, really unfortunately, is a part of a longer term trend that we’ve seen for quite a while in Congress, which is that the minority party does not have a lot of incentive to cooperate with the majority,” Thorning said. “And so, you know, it’s not unusual to see the minority party sort of trying to posture and position itself to deny the majority party perceived legislative wins.”

That calculation is particularly acute on government funding ahead of the Oct. 1 deadline, following three shutdowns of varying impact and length during the last year.

“I would say on appropriations, the difficulty there on funding the government is that it’s never clear which way the blame is going to cut,” Thorning said, adding it would be “a pretty risky assumption” that a funding lapse this year would be blamed on Republicans. 

“If Democrats were to deny the appropriations process from going forward and the government were shut down, it’s not clear who the voters would blame,” Thorning said. “And that would really be happening for the first time ever right up to an election. You know, voters have rarely had the opportunity to weigh in quite that proximate to a government shutdown on who they do or don’t blame. So that’s sort of uncharted territory.”

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

Originally published on TiffinOhio.net.

If Trump does not sign the measure, it would become law at 12:01 a.m. Saturday under a provision of the Constitution that gives the president 10 days, excluding Sundays, to sign or veto a bill. Trump has said he would not sign the bill to pressure the U.S. Senate to pass an unrelated election security measure he considers a higher priority.

The constitutional provision does not apply if Congress is adjourned, resulting in what is called a pocket veto, but the current July Fourth recess does not count as an adjournment, experts agree.

“This would be considered a recess so the bill will become law without signature 10 days after presentment,” Jason Roberts, a political scientist at the University of North Carolina, wrote in an email to States Newsroom. 

The White House has not publicly communicated its legal position and spokespeople did not return a message seeking comment Wednesday. 

Trump has vetoed only two other bills passed by the GOP-controlled Congress during his second term. Both were noncontroversial and targeted to local projects in Florida and Colorado.

‘A huge problem’

Groups representing a vast array of housing interests, from low-income renters to bankers, have endorsed the wide-ranging legislation that packages together numerous bills affecting every corner of the industry.

“Housing affordability is a huge problem for almost everybody,” Alys Cohen, the director of federal housing advocacy at the National Consumer Law Center, said in an interview. “And so there’s broad consensus that Congress needs to do something about that, period. So, as a result, they have a lot of different stakeholders coming together to really get something done.”

The bill, called the 21st Century Road to Housing Act, generally seeks to lower housing costs by expanding the supply, while also adjusting loan programs backed by the federal government. 

Estimates of the number of housing units needed to meet demand vary, but it is “probably” near 4 million units, Kristen Klurfield, an associate director for housing policy at the Washington, D.C.-based Bipartisan Policy Center, said.

The package includes an assortment of smaller bills to update regulations on manufactured homes, loosen requirements for home construction and adjust a rural loan program to help lower income people qualify for and keep mortgages. The wide scope of the bill gives every segment of the policy space a reason to support it.

“In general it modernizes federal programs,” Klurfield said. “It incentivizes pro-housing policies locally, streamlines regulations that have been hindering housing production and really expands options for affordable housing financing. And so we think that the bill tackles the problem from these several angles, and that’s really what it’s going to take to chart a path forward.”

Trump quiet

As the package was gaining momentum in Congress last month, White House staff said Trump supported it. After it passed both chambers of Congress with broad bipartisan votes, he was set to sign it at a high-profile ceremony at the Capitol. 

But the president changed course and canceled the signing ceremony at the last minute in a protest of Congress’ failure to pass an election security measure, the SAVE America Act, he considers a top priority.

Since the Senate passed the housing measure, 85-5, and the House cleared it, 358-32, in June, Trump has disparaged the bill as “a big yawn” and “unimportant” compared to the election bill. 

That bill would introduce a series of restrictions on voting, especially vote-by-mail, and would require voters to provide photo ID to cast ballots. Critics say it raises new barriers to voting while attempting to limit noncitizen voting, which is exceedingly rare. The GOP-controlled House has passed a version of the SAVE America Act, but it does not have the 60 votes needed to advance in the Senate.

Trump has not commented on the bill in several days and spent Wednesday attending a NATO conference in Turkey.

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

Originally published on TiffinOhio.net.

The losses come after the Republican-controlled Congress last year allowed pandemic-era subsidies to buy insurance on ACA exchanges to expire. That caused premiums to double for most of the 25.2 million Americans who got their insurance there.

After the subsidies expired, national enrollment dropped by 2.6 million in February 2026 when compared to February 2025, the AP reported. That’s about a 10% drop.

In Ohio, the losses went much deeper. 

Enrollment dropped from just under half a million in February 2025 to 336,000 four months ago. That’s a loss of nearly a third of enrollees, 32.4% or 161,385 people.

Oklahoma, the state with the next-highest losses, saw a decrease of 32.3%.

Among neighboring states, Michigan and Indiana also saw big losses of more than 25%. Meanwhile, Kentucky and West Virginia lost 14.3% and 13.1%, respectively. 

Pennsylvania lost just 1.2% of its enrollees. 

Congressional Republicans — including Ohio’s senators — allowed the subsidies to expire months after voting in favor of President Donald Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill Act. 

The legislation kept Trump’s 2017 tax cuts from expiring. That provision is estimated to have created a $1 trillion windfall over 10 years for the richest 1% of Americans while the law cut a similar amount from Medicaid and nutrition assistance.

During his first term, Trump tried repeatedly to repeal the ACA — or Obamacare — but he was unsuccessful. However, the provisions in Trump’s 2025 spending bill have diminished former President Barack Obama’s signature program.

Simply dropping coverage purchased on Obamacare exchanges doesn’t mean people didn’t get it elsewhere, but some are likely to become uninsured. 

The subsidies helped bring down the share of uninsured Americans to its lowest level ever. With them expiring Dec. 31 and with the Trump bill’s Medicaid cuts, it’s reasonable to assume that the portion of Ohioans who lack health insurance is going to go up substantially this year, said Natasha Murphy, health policy director at the Center for American Progress.

“While it’s still too early to quantify the full increase in the uninsured population for 2026, the direction is becoming increasingly clear,” Murphy said in an email. “Early marketplace enrollment data already show coverage declines, and the combination of the loss of enhanced premium tax credits and other recent federal policy changes is making health insurance harder to afford, leaving many families without a realistic alternative.”

The cuts to Medicaid are also leading some insurers to exit states that expanded eligibility to include Americans making 138% or less of federal poverty guidelines. For example, the Arkansas Advocate on Monday reported that Centene — the largest provider of Medicaid managed care in the United States — was exiting that state’s Medicaid program.

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

Originally published on TiffinOhio.net.

Nearly half said unaccepted health insurance was the reason their child did not receive mental healthcare treatment while 40% said provider availability and 29% said cost (people surveyed could select more than one barrier). 

“Many young Ohioans experience mental health challenges, and families often have difficulty navigating the mental healthcare and insurance systems,” according to the study. 

“Accessing needed mental health treatment is important, especially for children, because mental health conditions often continue into adulthood.” 

The average out-of-pocket cost for an individual 60-minute psychotherapy visit with an out-of-network provider cost $55 in 2021, according to the study.  

“If a child needs to receive treatment from an out-of-network provider for therapy once a week … the family would pay an average of $220 per month,” the study said.

Seeing an in-network provider came with a $28 out-of-pocket price tag, it showed.

That cost jumps to $164 for someone without health insurance or someone who pays without insurance, the study said.

“Healthcare for mental health issues can be expensive, and as many mental health conditions are chronic, they often require ongoing treatment,” according to the study. “Costs of care and prescription drugs can accumulate quickly with or without insurance.”

OhioGuidestone — Ohio’s largest community behavioral health provider that is not a federally qualified health center — charges $142 per hour for therapeutic behavioral services. They charge $206 per day for their day treatment group and $41 per hour for group psychotherapy.  

Just under half of Ohio children were on Medicaid and 46% had commercial insurance in 2023. 

Health Policy Institute of Ohio found commercial plans rarely cover therapeutic behavioral health support, case management, intensive home-based treatment, behavioral health nursing, crisis services/mobile response, and peer recovery services. 

“One of the most important takeaways from this brief is unlike traditional physical health care, it tends to be that insurance problems are more substantial for kids who are on commercial insurance compared to a program like Medicaid,” said Health Policy Institute of Ohio Analyst Brian O’Rourke.

“This can range from really narrow provider networks in terms of difficulty finding an in-network behavioral health provider to help with those mental health needs,” he said. “It could include really high out-of-pocket costs, even when you do find a provider in network, and then limitations on the types of covered services.”

An Ohio patient was 1.6 times more likely to see an out-of-network provider for a behavioral health office visit and 3.6 times more likely to see an out-of-network provider for inpatient behavioral healthcare. 

The state has a lack of mental health providers and 75 Ohio counties are mental health shortage areas, according to a study last year from the Health Policy Institute of Ohio. 

Ohio behavioral health clinicians are reimbursed an average of 18% less than medical or surgical clinicians, which can “lead some providers to not accept insurance and instead require patients to self-pay, which is out of reach for many families,” according to the study. 

Sometimes having a health insurance plan is not always enough. 

Going without behavioral health services over time can ultimately make things worse, O’Rourke said.

“If someone’s going through with untreated severe anxiety or depression, they’re going to have to deal with the burdens of that condition, but also it’s going to affect their school performance, potentially their ability to find a job and secure employment,” he said.

Ohio lawmakers have introduced a handful of insurance related bills. 

Ohio House Bill 219 would create network adequacy standards for Ohio health insurers. Ohio state Rep. Kellie Deeter, R-Norwalk, introduced the bill which has had two hearings so far. 

Ohio House Bill 220 prohibits health insurers from retroactively denying a prior authorization for mental health or substance use disorder treatment. Ohio state Rep. Heidi Workman, R-Rootstown, introduced the bill which passed the House earlier this year. 

Ohio House Bill 709 would require private insurers to cover telehealth mental health services. Ohio state Reps. Karen Brownlee, D-Symmes Twp., and Meredith Craig, R-Smithville, introduced the bipartisan bill earlier this year and it has had one hearing so far. 

The lawmakers are on break and will return after the November election. Any bill that does not pass before the end of the year must be reintroduced in the new General Assembly to be considered. 

Health Policy Institute of Ohio recommends the state monitor costs of behavioral healthcare, expand provider availability, and consider changes related to insurance limitations and mental health parity. 

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 Republicans should underscore their affinity with the president’s campaign to call out “improper ideology”— coloring America’s origin story with politically biased interpretations that cannot be trusted.

Trump has repeatedly railed against “overly ideological” presentations at the Smithsonian Institution, especially the National Museum of American History, to federally funded historical sites and national park programs, exhibits, signs, brochures.

The White House insists on “restoring truth and sanity” to the way “American history is presented and taught.”

Trump issued an executive order last year to bring “objective facts” back to that storytelling which he claims have been replaced “with a distorted narrative driven by ideology rather than truth.”

Ohio’s GOP overlords must show their fealty to the EO that decrees museums “should be places where individuals go to learn — not to be subjected to ideological indoctrination.”

They can start by acknowledging the ideological indoctrination rolling into the state fair on July 26. Transparency is always in the public interest.

Such notice would at least inform thousands of unsuspecting fairgoers that these so-called Freedom Trucks heavily promote a Christian conservative narrative of American history to school visitors with ahistorical Christian Nationalist fiction.

Citizens will learn that America was uniquely founded on biblical principles and divine law. Historians dispute that slant as flat out wrong.

The built-in bias of the gargantuan museum trucks is unsurprising considering who Trump’s Freedom 250 project tapped to create the interactive displays featured in the six mobile exhibitions crisscrossing the country.

PragerU, a far-right media organization that churns out misleading and inaccurate edutainment videos, produced the slick, digital interactives showcased in the tractor-trailers coming to select cities and states all year.

Hillsdale College, a right-wing conservative Christian college in Michigan (that also helped craft Project 2025) wrote the historical narratives that guests will read nationwide.

Many of those people won’t know (without the aforementioned disclaimer) that the traveling “Founders Museum,” pulling up in a semi to an event near you, is distinctly aligned with the political and religious right’s view of American history. 

But the focus of the trucked in production is on white men and Christianity.

For the most part, this multimedia expo steers clear of slavery, injustice, and oppression. The marginalized get only a glancing notice.

In this sanitized version of the birth of a nation, pivotal patriotic moments of the American Revolution are highlighted while the roles and historic struggle of enslaved people, Native Americans, and women are downplayed.

This immersive experience, paid for with over $14 million in taxpayer money, avoids any portrayal of America’s past or present in a negative light.

The digital romp through the revolution is largely a one-sided, feel-good, pro-American version of history with a pronounced Christian overlay.

It omits complex historical truths but gives prominence to letters on religious freedom, the faith of the Founders and religious artifacts.

It intentionally presents a skewed tribute to American greatness with passing attention to the few wrinkles in history that were ironed out in time.

The walls of the truck musems overflow with texts, QR codes, AI avatars of founding fathers and other historical figures, that all bang the drum for American exceptionalism. 

The spectacle is packaged to attract mass appeal, like propaganda about America’s “golden age” was marketed to put a positive sheen on costly tariffs and a reckless Middle East war.

The roadshow starts with AI-generated videos of George Washington claiming that “our rights are a gift from God” — a statement the first president is not documented as saying — and John Adams mouthing the words of right-wing influencer Ben Shapiro almost verbatim: “Facts do not care about our feelings.” 

One section in the PragerU extravaganza, called Voices of Liberty, features triumphal accounts from everyday Americans that appear to be fake.

If those narratives are manufactured, said the head of the American Historical Association, “it tells us that their approach to history is a politicized invention designed to make political arguments.”

The last thing visitors see before exiting the trucks is a video of the twice-impeached, attempted coup plotter himself thanking PragerU (for delivering a partisan vehicle to brainwash the masses) and gushing about America as “the greatest force for freedom, justice, equality and prosperity in the history of the world.”

A nearby board quotes Trump’s State of the Union address last year heralding the dawn of the “golden age” and pumping Americans to “get ready for an incredible future” (of sticker shock price hikes tied to destructive trade wars and a massive military campaign to affect foreign regime change and neutralize a potential nuclear threat — which accomplished neither).

As local communities and states get wise to the AI-generated fiction passing as historic fact — that multiple historians pan as inaccurate — many are cancelling Freedom Truck appearances after blowback from residents who complain the exhibit uses patriotism as a disguise to push white Christian nationalism mixed with Trump self-promotion.

At least 11 states have declined to participate.

Ohio has already hosted one tractor-trailer museum in Chillicothe and will do so again at the state fair in Columbus.

A transparent disclaimer would serve Ohioans. But don’t expect it. Because not all distorted narratives “driven by ideology rather than truth” are improper depictions of history, according to Trump’s EO.

Only those that represent America’s story in full, not the extremely curated right-wing make-believe designed to indoctrinate.

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

Originally published on TiffinOhio.net.

The city’s rules got stricter over time. In 1954, a Columbus apartment building with 100 one-bedroom units had to have at least 100 parking spaces; by 2022, the minimum was 150. For a 2,500-square-foot restaurant, the mandate grew from nine parking spaces to 34.

But in recent years, housing shortages have prompted Columbus and other cities and states to scale back or even eliminate minimum parking requirements. The need to provide parking makes projects more expensive, raising costs for developers that they often pass on to residents. In some cases, the rules prevent projects from ever being built.

Since 2019, at least 14 states have enacted 34 laws reducing or eliminating parking minimums, according to the Parking Reform Network, a coalition of groups that opposes minimums. Since 2017, 116 cities, including Baltimore, Buffalo, Denver, Hartford, Minneapolis and San Francisco, have removed all parking minimums citywide.

Catie Gould, a senior researcher at the Sightline Institute, an environmental think tank that is part of the Parking Reform Network, said the idea of repealing parking mandates used to be confined to urban planners’ policy debates. Now it’s become mainstream, she said, as the need for more affordable housing has risen to the top of the national agenda.

“I don’t think parking reform would be happening if we weren’t having a housing crisis,” Gould said, adding that many parking minimums aren’t based on any rational formula or proof of demand.

“We know people still drive, and if you drive, you need parking, and nobody’s arguing about that,” she said. “The question is who decides how much parking you should need.”

In some cities, residents have pushed back against the changes, arguing that eliminating on-site parking lots merely creates more congestion and crowding on public streets. Opponents also have questioned whether developers will simply pocket the savings, rather than make units more affordable. And they note that older people and those with disabilities will have the hardest time coping with an absence of off-street parking.

But the growing movement has unified some groups, such as developers and environmentalists, who are typically at odds.

“From the developer’s side, parking is the big thing that has to be solved early on to determine feasibility of a project,” said Matthew Fitzsimmons, an architect and project manager at the architectural firm HCM Design who been involved in building more than 11,000 residential units, including a project in Baltimore.

Eliminating or reducing parking minimums, Fitzsimmons said, allows developers to use land and money that would have be devoted to “very expensive structured parking” for better amenities or design features for a project.

For Ryan Carter, policy director for Catawba Riverkeeper, which is dedicated to preserving and protecting the Catawba-Wateree River Basin in North and South Carolina, fewer parking lots means less water pollution: Carter noted that even one inch of rain on a single acre of impervious parking surface can generate 27,000 gallons of storm runoff into the river basin.

California goes first

In the fall of 2022, California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom signed the first statewide ban on parking minimums. The law, which went into effect at the beginning of 2023, prohibits city and county officials from imposing parking requirements for housing developments or businesses within a half mile of a transit station.

California, which consistently ranks among the worst states for affordable housing, has followed up with additional measures, including a law reducing parking requirements in areas zoned for residential development and a law restricting local governments from increasing minimum parking requirements for renovations and additions to single-family homes.

The state also has instituted a cap on parking requirements for multifamily housing developments and approved a measure allowing developers to use shared parking spaces to meet parking minimum requirements.

Oregon has also taken sweeping action, enacting a law in 2023 that prohibits or restricts parking minimums in 48 cities and three counties located in the state’s eight metropolitan regions with populations of at least 50,000.

In the past three years, states including Connecticut, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Maine, New Hampshire and Washington also have enacted laws that restrict or prohibit parking minimums, with many of them focusing on developments near mass transit hubs.

In April, Virginia Democratic Gov. Abigail Spanberger signed legislation that prohibits localities from imposing parking minimums within a half mile of mass transit stations. And just this week, North Carolina Democratic Gov. Josh Stein signed a measure that eliminates minimum parking mandates in most of the counties in his state.

“This bill gives North Carolina another tool in the toolbox to build more homes and make housing more affordable,” Stein said in a news release. “This change will lower rents for people.”

Local authority

Some local leaders have bristled at state efforts to limit local zoning authority.

Betsy Gara, executive director of the Connecticut Council of Small Towns, testified against the legislation in her state, arguing that “municipalities are in the best position to determine whether eliminating or modifying minimum parking requirements will pose any public safety or other issues in their community.”

In written testimony, Gara noted that on areas without sufficient off-street parking, vehicles may be parked haphazardly on the street, potentially blocking emergency vehicles and snow plows and limiting access to fire hydrants and loading docks.

But Virginia Democratic Del. Irene Shin, the sponsor of the legislation in her state, said the shortage of affordable housing has become so acute that state lawmakers had to act.

Shin said that in her hometown of Herndon in Fairfax County, parking minimums requiring multifamily buildings to provide 1.5 parking spaces for each one-bedroom unit and two for larger units have inhibited much-needed residential development.

Forty-five percent of renter households in Fairfax County spend more than 30% of their income on rent and utilities, meaning they are “cost-burdened” under federal housing standards.

“We’ve come to a point where the state is much more interested in stepping in to increase housing because the localities on their own just haven’t been doing enough,” Shin said.

Gould of the Sightline Institute acknowledged that the elimination of parking minimums will place additional burdens on cities, which will have to manage curbside parking for residents and businesses with strategies such as residential parking permits, parking meters and loading zones.

She pointed to her own Portland, Oregon, neighborhood, where a 12-story subsidized affordable housing building is under construction near the city’s light rail. She supports the project, but worries that the city has not done enough to proactively manage street parking before the new residents arrive.

“Many cities and towns aren’t really prepared for that scenario,” she said.

This story was updated to correct the spelling of Betsy Gara’s name. Stateline reporter Robbie Sequeira can be reached  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.

Georgia Republican state Rep. Beth Camp sponsored a bill to expand contraceptive access in her state after her daughter faced a two-month delay renewing her birth control prescription. The new law, passed in April and signed in May by Republican Gov. Brian Kemp, allows pharmacists to prescribe contraception methods such as birth control pills and shots directly to patients without a doctor’s signature.

Current Georgia law requires patients to receive a birth control prescription from a doctor, which they can then fill at a pharmacy. Camp has said the new policy could help increase access to contraception in areas with primary care provider shortages.

“In our state, we have such a challenge with access for medical professionals,” Camp told the House Health Committee earlier this year. “This is just really, to me, opening up a whole new stream of opportunities for women to be able to access contraception.”

In Maryland, Democratic Gov. Wes Moore in May signed a measure that requires public higher education institutions and community colleges to annually submit a report on contraception access to the Maryland Higher Education Commission. It also requires the commission  to submit a report on contraception access to the General Assembly and requires each community college to provide students with access to all methods of over-the-counter contraception.

Tennessee Republican Gov. Bill Lee in March signed into law a bipartisan bill that requires private health care plans to cover a yearlong supply of birth control. The state’s Medicaid program, TennCare, already provides a 12-month supply of birth control. The measure is set to take effect July 1, 2027.

And Democratic Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger in April signed a new law establishing the right to contraception and allowing people to sue if their rights are violated. Spanberger also signed another law requiring health insurance companies to cover both prescription and over-the-counter contraceptives without cost-sharing. Both laws went into effect this month.

Stateline reporter Sofia Resnick can be reached at sresnick@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.

A sharply divided 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 2-1 on July 2 that such immigrants must receive a bond hearing within 90 days.  One of the two judges said 30 days would be a better time limit. 

The dissenting judge  said having no bond was appropriate, calling the Trump policy “constitutionally sound.” 

The 2025 policy has faced widespread rebellion among federal judges, even Trump appointees, with many of them freeing immigration prisoners and calling the policy unconstitutional. Other appeals courts have also struck it down in a conflict likely to be heard in October by the U.S. Supreme Court. 

Last week’s ruling affects three of the states with some of the largest detention centers — Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas. Immigrants from across the county often  are transferred to those states. 

“Since ICE moves people it has detained so quickly and frequently, isolating them from their lawyers, families and support systems, many New Yorkers are held at detention centers in these states,” said Reed Dunlea, a spokesperson for the New York Immigration Coalition. 

The American Immigration Council, which was a party in the case, noted that the case turned on three longtime Texas residents with no criminal history and U.S. citizen children, all detained in traffic stops. 

The decision “affirms that constitutional rights do not disappear simply because someone is in immigration proceedings,” said Rebecca Cassier, an attorney for the council who argued in the case, in a statement.

The Department of Homeland Security, in an unattributed statement to Stateline, said it disagrees with the decision and looks forward to Supreme Court review: “DHS strongly disagrees with the Fifth Circuit panel and is confident in its legal position regarding mandatory detention.”

It’s a partial reversal of the same appeals court’s ruling in February that greenlighted limitless detention for some immigrants in those states despite conflicting rulings for other states that struck down the policy as unconstitutional. As of now only the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld the detention policy, covering centers in seven states: Arkansas, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota and South Dakota. 

One federal court in California struck down the mandatory detention policy nationwide in a class-action lawsuit. The ruling was stayed pending appeal in March but remains in effect in part of California and has often been cited by other state judges in freeing immigration prisoners, according to a Stateline review of recent immigration rulings. 

The immigrant detention population peaked in January at an all-time high of more than 70,000 people. It declined to about 60,000 in April as fewer non-criminal immigrants were detained in the wake of controversy and protests over enforcement in Minnesota and other places. 

There are some signs that fewer non-criminals are being detained even as arrests have surged in recent days in an attempt by the Trump administration to double the number of arrests to 2,000 a day. The share of immigration arrests that led to detention dropped from 38% last year to 17% between March and May. 

Fewer than 30% of immigrants detained in April had criminal convictions, including traffic offenses and immigration crimes. The others had only immigration violations or pending criminal charges. 

Stateline reporter Tim Henderson can be reached at thenderson@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.

He had developed the schedule of an owl. And he thought to himself that the dark circles that had appeared under his eyes made him look like one.

He’d landed at the Winn Correctional Center after Alabama state police had caught him in December going 15 mph over the speed limit and driving without a license. He was on his way home from getting his favorite sandwich, carne asada, when he was pulled over. Once the officers realized he was an immigrant, they called U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Chavez offered to show them documents that proved he wasn’t living in hiding. Immigration authorities had granted him Special Immigrant Juvenile Status because, as a toddler, he’d been abandoned by his parents in Honduras and had come to this country on his own when he was 14. His sister, who’d migrated years earlier and was living in Alabama, offered to help take care of him. A lawyer was helping him pursue permanent residency.

“I’m legal in this country,” Chavez pleaded with the officers. But the officers, he said, weren’t having it. One of them told him, “Your papers are of no use to me.”

And just like that, an otherwise law-abiding high school student — who loved his welding and carpentry classes, had braces and a girlfriend, and spent weekends playing soccer at the park with his nieces and nephews — was thrown into detention and put on a path toward deportation.

“I’m just waiting here,” he said during a video call from detention. “I really don’t know what’s going to happen to me.”

Chavez is hardly alone. A first-of-its-kind analysis of Immigration and Customs Enforcement data found that unaccompanied minors living in the U.S. are being detained and removed at about three times the rate they were during the last time President Donald Trump was in office. In addition, a ProPublica analysis of court data found that immigration judges, who report to the Justice Department, have issued more than 10,000 removal and voluntary departure orders each month for immigrant minors who either migrated alone or with relatives, a rate that is nearly four times higher than in Trump’s last term.

The vast majority of unaccompanied minors removed last year had no criminal history in the United States, ProPublica’s analysis of ICE data showed.

Before Trump returned to office last year, Chavez would have likely been given a ticket and allowed to return to his sister. But as part of the president’s mass deportation campaign, his administration has moved to systematically roll back policies that provided immigrant minors access to legal counsel and relief from deportation while they pursued permission to permanently stay in the country. Those policies were based on laws that had been implemented over more than two decades, with bipartisan support, because both parties believed unaccompanied immigrant minors — ill-prepared to navigate a new country on their own, much less a legal system daunting to most adults — are especially vulnerable to trafficking and other kinds of exploitation.

Congress created SIJ specifically to protect immigrants, like Chavez, who are under 21 and are able to prove in family court that they had been abused, neglected or abandoned by at least one parent in their home countries.

Trump administration officials have long argued that not only are the programs designed to help unaccompanied minors rife with fraud, but that their very existence has encouraged hundreds of thousands of children to embark on dangerous journeys to the border, increasing their risk of falling into criminal hands. To make its case, his administration points to the record 450,000 unaccompanied minors who arrived at the U.S.-Mexico border and were released into the country under President Joe Biden.

Neither those children nor the people to whom they were released were properly vetted, say Trump administration officials. As a result, administration officials say, some of the children became victims of abuse or exploitation. Alarming numbers of them were found working illegally in factories or in other jobs that put them at risk for trafficking, injury and wage theft.

Other minors, the administration has said, became criminals. It put out a July 2025 government report that said since 2013, some 19,000 SIJ petitioners were found to have criminal arrest records, including hundreds with serious charges like murder and sex offenses. The administration says the best way to stop such abuses and criminality is to disincentivize immigrant children from coming in the first place.

White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson said Trump is “undoing the damage Biden did.” Responding to questions about ProPublica’s data analysis, which was based on data provided via Freedom of Information Act requests and was validated with outside experts, a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said the agency “could not verify the veracity” of the data.

Advocates argue that the administration is using exceptional cases to cast all immigrant minors and the adults who sponsored them in a negative light. They say that some of their clients who have been living in the U.S. for years, including those, like Chavez, who have since turned 18, face serious risks if sent back to their home countries. The majority of the unaccompanied minors who have come to the United States in the last decade were fleeing Central American countries crushed by economic turmoil, violence and political upheaval. Some came from families riven by poverty and domestic violence. Some, like Chavez, have no parents to go back to.

“These children have been through incredibly harrowing and traumatic experiences,” said Michael Lukens, the executive director of the Amica Center for Immigrant Rights, a legal defense organization. “And ICE is retraumatizing them.”

To the administration’s claims that its policies are aimed at protecting minors, he said, “If you’re worried about the welfare of kids, stop rounding kids up and trying to deport them.”

Deporation orders for 25 minors in three hours

Sometimes the deportation orders issued in immigration court have been coming so fast that lawyers say even they have a hard time explaining them to their clients. Within a span of three hours on a single morning in April in a downtown New York immigration courtroom, Judge Jem Sponzo issued deportation orders for 25 minors, almost everyone on her docket appearing virtually that morning. Some of the hearings were only a few minutes long, and some of the minors were too young to understand what was happening to them.

Among the children in court that day was an 8-year old girl from Ecuador who was seeking asylum and SIJ. The girl’s mother had already won asylum in a separate case. But Sponzo ordered the girl to be deported anyway.

In another case, an attorney pleaded for more time to prepare enough evidence to support an asylum petition for her client from Guatemala. The attorney said her client’s home in Guatemala was dominated by an abusive father whose violence made it hard for her to gather information she needed for the case. Sponzo politely denied the request, saying, “I empathize and thank you for your efforts.” Then she ordered the child deported.

A high school senior from Guatemala who lives in Queens, with side-swept black hair and wearing a short sleeve athletic shirt, appeared on a video screen from a room with piled-up clothes on the bed and an American flag tacked on the wall. He stayed on mute while his lawyer asked for more time for his applications for SIJ and asylum to be processed. Sponzo said no and ordered him deported. His lawyer said in an interview her client is now afraid he could be picked up by ICE at any time.

At the end of the day, several of the attorneys said they felt blindsided by the judge’s rapid-fire denials. Although they all said they would appeal her rulings, which could buy their clients some time to stay in the U.S., one said the deportation orders would “hang over their heads like a loaded gun.”

Olivia Cassin, a former immigration judge who oversaw juvenile dockets in New York, said that before Trump returned to office, there was widespread recognition that it took time for immigrant minors’ SIJ and asylum petitions to work their way through the backlogged system. For SIJ recipients, getting a green card often takes years. Judges typically gave minors that time. Now the authorities overseeing immigration courts have instructed them not to do so. Sponzo cited those instructions at the end of many of the cases she heard that day in April.

Cassin is one of the more than 100 immigration judges who have been fired since Trump returned to office. Some of the judges who lost their jobs said they believe they were pushed out because the administration saw them as not aligned with its agenda. But they also say they’ve received no official explanation for their firings. Sponzo was also fired recently. She could not be reached for comment.

The Justice Department did not respond to questions about the firings.

It’s not just the overhaul of the immigration courts that is having an effect on immigrant kids. Early on in Trump’s second term, officials moved to curb funding for advocacy groups that provide legal services to unaccompanied minors. It also put an end to a Biden-era policy known as “deferred action,” which protected minors who had been granted SIJ from deportation. SIJ on its own does not confer legal status, and the deferred action policy was implemented to cover those with SIJ until they could get their green cards.

After advocacy groups took the administration to court, federal judges ordered the government to restore funding for legal assistance and access to deferred action for SIJ recipients. Despite those rulings, some legal advocates say they still have not been paid what they’re owed. And earlier this month, several groups said federal agents appeared at their Washington-area offices, seeking to look at client files, even though they didn’t have warrants. The advocates said they saw the move as an attempt to intimidate them_._

As for granting deferred action, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services said in a statement that the agency would do so only under “compelling circumstances on a case-by-case basis.” DHS, which oversees USCIS and ICE, emphasized in an email that having SIJ “does NOT confer lawful status,” adding that “any recipient may be subject to removal.” The agency did not respond to a question about the agents who visited advocates’ offices.

Over the last year, the administration says it has tracked down 146,000 of the unaccompanied minors who entered the country under Biden in order to check on their well-being. The majority of all the minors who entered the country in recent years had been released to one or both parents in the United States or to other close relatives.

Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said at a June press conference that some of the welfare checks found minors were doing fine with their families. But he asserted that he’d also tracked down children who were in the hands of rapists and other criminals. “We start digging into these cases and you start hearing absolute horrific things,” he said.

When asked for verifiable details about some of the cases Mullin mentioned, DHS did not respond. A DHS spokesperson later sent a list of 16 people who had sponsored immigrant minors and had previously been charged with crimes including assault, drug trafficking or domestic violence. Meanwhile, Justice Department officials said they’d indicted less than a handful of people on charges of smuggling or exploiting immigrant minors.

No officials from DHS or the Justice Department explained what had become of any of the children connected to those indictments. As for immigrants who had entered the U.S. as children and are now adults, Mullin said, “we are working on the process of sending them back.”

Unsafe and unsanitary conditions

Soon after Chavez arrived in detention, one of the men in his cell recognized the teen’s pattern of sleeping through the day as a silent cry for help. Carlos Della Valle, who had migrated to the United States from Mexico, was attuned to Chavez’s struggles because he had a son around the same age. Even in detention, Chavez, with a head full of  tousled black hair and big brown eyes, had an easy laugh and smile. Della Valle worried that Chavez was “losing valuable time that he’s never going to get back.”

Winn was a tough place, advocates and detainees said. Two migrants died there earlier this year. One of the deaths was reportedly caused by cardiovascular disease, and authorities have not determined a cause for the other.

A recent report by the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General described unsafe and unsanitary conditions at Winn, including leaking ceilings, dirty food prep areas and an incident in which a guard put a detainee in a prohibited choke hold. A DHS spokesperson said that the agency is working to address the issues raised in the report, adding, “our death rates are lower than most state prisons.”

Della Valle began nudging young Chavez out of bed in the mornings and put him to work helping keep their cellblock clean.

Detainees were given an hour a day outside, sometimes less than that. Della Valle told Chavez that keeping himself busy, in whatever constructive ways possible, was the only way to make it through the monotony with his sanity intact.

Chavez briefly took a job in the barber shop that paid the standard wage for someone in detention —  $1 a day — but he said that giving haircuts to around 80 men in a shift was so grueling that he only lasted a month. Instead, Chavez and Della Valle pored over passages from the Bible together. They sat together for most every meal. Chavez learned to mix packets of powdered juice just the way Della Valle liked it.

Della Valle offered to help Chavez navigate the immigration system. He knew it well. In 1997 he’d twice illegally entered the United States. He was deported the first time but illegally entered again, married a U.S. citizen soon after and settled in Pennsylvania.

Because of his reentry, which is a felony, he has been ineligible to regularize his status. But he lived underground with little worry. Immigration authorities generally avoided targeting immigrants with long ties to their communities, like him. Not anymore.

Authorities intercepted Della Valle when he and his wife were returning from a Virgin Islands vacation, though they released him on bond at the time. Months later, however, he was taken into ICE detention. By the time he met Chavez, he had spent months being transferred among close to a dozen holding facilities. He worried about what detention might do to Chavez. Other men in his cellblock, who nicknamed Chavez “El Niño,” worried too.

“It was hard to see him, you know, because he’s just a boy. He’s not a grown man,”  Della Valle said. “I had to do whatever I could for him.”

Federal courts push back

While the administration has made progress bending immigration courts to its will, there’s evidence that federal courts, where tens of thousands of immigrants have challenged their detentions as illegal, are pushing back.

The National Immigration Project, a nonprofit legal advocacy group, tracked the cases of 263 immigrants who entered the country as unaccompanied minors and SIJ applicants. The group found that federal judges ordered releases or bond hearings in all but 12 of them since the start of the second Trump administration. In March, U.S. District Judge Gary Brown issued a scathing rebuke in one such case, writing, “The laws of human decency condemn such villainy.”

The administration can set policy, he wrote, but he added that “it is forbidden from trampling our system of laws — a system which has safeguarded this nation for close to 250 years.”

Among those recently released was 20-year-old Fredy Martinez. Born in Honduras, he was a teenager when he crossed the border as an unaccompanied minor. He had graduated from high school in Texas and was delivering a DoorDash order on his bike when he was detained, according to court documents about his case. He was held for eight months at a sprawling and deeply troubled tent detention camp in El Paso, Texas — which has seen a measles outbreak and detainee deaths, including one ruled a homicide — before a federal judge found his detention was illegal and ordered him released. DHS did not respond to a question about the center.

Another teenager named Carlos from Guatemala said in an interview that he was detained on his way to work at a car wash in Rockland County, New York, when he was 18, despite having been granted SIJ and deferred action. He was flown over 1,000 miles to a detention facility in Louisiana, though not the same one as Chavez. Carlos asked to be identified only by his first name because of his ongoing immigration case.

After his arrest, he said, “I was just thinking that I would never see my family again.” Carlos was held for more than two months before a federal judge set him free.

The DHS spokesperson did not answer questions about any individual cases. They said federal court rulings against the administration “should come as no surprise,” since “many activist judges have attempted to thwart President Trump from fulfilling the American people’s mandate.”

‘I had so many plans’

Six months into his detention, Chavez is on his own. He was ordered deported but is appealing the decision and filed a habeas petition.

Della Valle has been released, thanks to his wife’s outspoken advocacy. His release was bittersweet for Chavez. But Della Valle has not forgotten him.

Della Valle and his wife, Angela Della Valle, have helped Chavez’s sister, Mayuri Chavez, to pay off his outstanding traffic tickets and prepare his defense. The couple started a letter-writing campaign for him. They’ve passed out flyers with a picture of a chair Chavez made in carpentry class, asking people to color it in and send him messages of encouragement.

Della Valle said he feels pangs of guilt about leaving Chavez behind. He still speaks to Chavez most days and tries to keep the teen’s spirits up, but worries his words don’t carry the same weight now that he’s out. Della Valle tries to convince himself that Chavez will be OK, saying, “I think me being out might be good for him because he knows that there’s hope.”

Meanwhile, Chavez has been moved to different cells multiple times. One had only a single functional shower for dozens of men. The video call system often malfunctioned. Someone stole his small notebook, where he had carefully written down all the telephone numbers of the people he was in touch with outside. One night he dreamt he was free. When he woke up and realized he was still in detention, he panicked and had trouble breathing.

He said he has been trying to keep up the routine he started when Della Valle was there, but each passing week makes it harder.

In a series of interviews from detention, Chavez worried about losing half his junior year of high school. He missed a required English test and a deadline to turn in a history project, and now that the school year is over, he is unclear if he will be able to make the assignments up to be able to graduate on time. His sister spent a lot of money to get him braces, and without regular adjustments he worries it will all be for nothing. He missed the birth of his new nephew, and he is unsure if he will be able to meet him.

“I had so many plans,” he said, “but now everything is ruined.”

This story was originally produced by Minnesota Reformer, 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.

Lewis Hurst, 60, of Republic, informed the board of his retirement during the meeting. Erin Simmons, president of the Seneca County Board of Developmental Disabilities, confirmed the retirement in an email to TiffinOhio.net, saying Hurst “is no longer an employee with the Seneca County Board of Developmental Disabilities.” Simmons said the board “is following all Ohio Revised Code pertaining to this situation” and that Natasha Nichols continues to serve as interim superintendent.

The retirement follows Hurst’s guilty plea July 2 in Sandusky Municipal Court to one count of theft, a first-degree misdemeanor, reduced from the fifth-degree felony originally filed, according to court records. The court sentenced him to 30 days in jail and suspended the entire term, imposed a $500 fine with $250 suspended, and assessed $140 in court costs. Hurst was ordered to pay $857.99 in restitution; court records show a check for that amount was issued to Best Buy.

The charge stemmed from a January 24 incident. According to a Perkins Township Police Department investigation report obtained by TiffinOhio.net, a store manager reported inventory discrepancies on a specific computer model, and the store identified a credit-card transaction tied to Hurst. Perkins Township Police Officer Michael Todhunter wrote that surveillance footage showed a man placing a price sticker from a $499 computer onto the box of a $1,299 HP Omen R5 8500F computer before buying it at the lower price. Investigators used license-plate camera data and a Bureau of Motor Vehicles photo to identify Hurst, the report states.

The Seneca County Board of Developmental Disabilities placed Hurst on paid administrative leave following a special meeting Saturday, March 28. The board described the action as a “private personnel issue” that is “not otherwise related to Mr. Hurst’s leadership,” according to a statement reported by the Advertiser-Tribune, and named Natasha Nichols, its director of service and support administration, interim superintendent.

Hurst continued to appear publicly as superintendent after the case was filed. On March 10 — more than a month after the warrant issued — he told the Seneca County Commissioners the district was in “good financial shape,” according to the Advertiser-Tribune.

The Seneca County Opportunity Center, which operates under the county Board of Developmental Disabilities, provides services and supports for people with developmental disabilities and is funded in part by local taxpayers.

Originally published on TiffinOhio.net.

Ohio’s new business of leasing about 22,000 acres of its publicly owned lands to the oil and gas industry has grown into a $314 million gusher. 

The bulk of that money comes from one-time signing bonuses for mineral rights to natural gas trapped beneath 6,200 acres of Salt Fork State Park in Guernsey County ($62 million) and 14,800 acres of land at Jockey Hollow and Egypt Valley wildlife areas ($238 million), which butt up against one another in Harrison County, according to an analysis from Signal Statewide. 

And the first royalty checks have begun to arrive. Salt Fork State Park became Ohio’s first major leasing deal in early 2024, with an agreement spanning 5,700 acres of one of the largest parks in the state’s fleet. It’s now among the first to start producing. 

After the signing bonus, West Virginia-based Infinity Natural Resources has paid $11.3 million from 20% of royalties on gross production between the first payments in October 2025 and the most recent data from May 2026, according to new data from the Ohio Department of Natural Resources. That’s about $1.4 million per month. 

In general terms, about one-third of all the lease money stays with the park that hosts the development, with the rest freeing up budget space for any number of legislative priorities. 

Most project sites have produced nothing so far, including Leesville, Zepernick and Keen wildlife areas, according to ODNR spokesperson Andy Chow. A 302-acre lease at Valley Run Wildlife Area, in Carroll County, has made Ohio about $86,000 to date.

Infinity last month won a bid for another 513 underground acres at Salt Fork State Park, which could also add to the royalty checks down the line. 

The leases rely on fracking, an oil and gas extraction process technically known as hydraulic fracturing, where operators drill thousands of feet downward from just outside the park before turning 90 degrees and reaching laterally beneath them. From the bore, they spray a mixture of water, sand and chemicals at high pressure to free natural gas from shale, and pump it back up to the surface level to process and sell. 

A handful of out-of-state companies – Gulfport Appalachia, Ascent Resources and Grenadier Energy – will split the acreage of Egypt Valley and Jockey Hollow, per bids selected by state officials last month. It remains to be seen if the larger land mass equates to bigger royalty checks for the state. 

‘It’s really not about the money’

Mike Chadsey, a spokesman for the Ohio Oil and Gas Association, said the lease bonus payments and long-term royalty deals provide a “meaningful” source of state funds that don’t come from taxpayers’ pockets. 

“It’s a great example of how responsible energy development can deliver lasting economic benefits while helping preserve and improve the places Ohio families will enjoy for generations to come,” he said. 

“Through responsible state lands development and Ohio’s strong regulatory oversight, our industry continues to create jobs, generate public revenue, and provide the reliable energy that powers our economy and enhances the quality of life for all Ohioans.”

The state Oil and Gas Land Management Commission for more than two years now has steadily gone about its review and, in almost all cases, acceptance of applications for mineral rights leases under Ohio’s state parks, wildlife areas, roadways, and even a state prison. 

Its members have faced regular opposition from environmentalists associated with Save Ohio Parks, a grassroots organization formed by longtime climate advocates from Southeast Ohio. That has included public comments, media campaigns, stuffed public meetings, and occasional heckling during OGLMC’s meetings. 

The total dollar number hasn’t swayed Melinda Zemper, a steering committee member. 

“Whether it’s $200 million or $300 million, the fact is, when you have water depleted from our freshwater resources and converted into radioactive waste brine that has the potential to contaminate our aquifers and groundwater, that’s not a good tradeoff,” she said in an interview, referring to industrial waste that stems from the fracking process. 

“It’s really not about the money for Save Ohio Parks, it’s about preserving our natural lands for future generations and ensuring we have a livable planet.”

Where does fracking money go?

Generally speaking, some of the money stays with the park that hosted the drilling. The rest goes to the state. 

By law, at least 30% of the money must go toward capital improvements at the park – things like campsites, lodges and bathrooms. 

At Salt Fork, the state’s largest state park and oldest fracking lease site, a state board in 2024 approved $20 million in construction to renovate its lodge, beach house, splash pad and roadways, before increases worth another $3 million were approved this year. 

However, state lawmakers have paired the cash infusion from the leases with roughly dollar-for-dollar general revenue fund cuts. This essentially gives architects of Ohio’s $96 billion budget some new cash to spend on any given legislative priority or tax cut. 

The current leasing process was effectively created by 2023 legislation passed by statehouse Republicans and signed into law by Gov. Mike DeWine.

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

Originally published on TiffinOhio.net.

In the wake of Politico’s explosive Monday report that an ex-girlfriend of Platner’s alleged he sexually assaulted her in 2021, the political newcomer’s supporters in Congress and Democratic circles in Washington, D.C., rescinded their endorsements and sought a new candidate in the race that is seen as crucial to Senate control. 

The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee said it would pull all its resources from the race as long as Platner was the nominee, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer called for him to drop out and Sen. Bernie Sanders, a Vermont independent who gave a critical early boost to Platner in the race for the Democratic nomination, said he told Platner directly he should “step aside.”

Even Democratic National Committee Chairman Ken Martin said Platner should withdraw.

And key outside Democratic groups, including Planned Parenthood, the Sierra Club, and the Sanders-founded Our Revolution PAC, also withdrew their endorsements after the Politico report came out.

Platner has denied the accusation and, as of Tuesday afternoon, was still the Democratic nominee. But he raised the possibility he would leave the race Monday, saying in a short direct-to-camera video that he was “taking the time to reflect on the best path forward.”

Under state law, he must withdraw by July 13, and the party would have until July 27 to replace him.

Four Senate seats

Monday and Tuesday, national Democrats seemed eager to move on from the oysterman and first-time candidate, who gained nationwide attention for both his energetic economic populist campaign and his personal scandals, in an effort to preserve one of the party’s best chances to pick up a Senate seat this year. 

Democrats need to flip four Senate seats to win control of the chamber, with Collins the only Republican up for reelection in a state President Donald Trump lost in 2024. 

Elections forecasters generally considered the Maine race a toss-up before the latest news about Platner.

The Cook Political Report rates a North Carolina seat being vacated by retiring Republican Thom Tillis as leaning toward Democrats, while Republican incumbents facing strong Democratic challengers in Alaska and Ohio are tossups, as is an open race to replace Democrat Gary Peters in Michigan.

If Collins wins reelection, Democrats would have to sweep those races and pick up at least one seat currently seen as favoring the GOP to tilt the balance in the Senate, now controlled by Republicans with 53 seats.

The national environment generally gives Democrats an advantage, given Trump’s poor poll ratings and trends that favor the party not in the White House in midterm elections. 

But Collins’ electoral strength — she outperformed Trump by 15 percentage points in 2020, the last time she was on the ballot, to remain the only New England Republican in the Senate — has beguiled Democrats for decades. 

Quick consolidation 

Replacing Platner and quickly coalescing around another candidate could be the party’s best chance to keep the map competitive.

Rodell Mollineau, a Democratic strategist and co-founder at D.C.-based ROKK Solutions, said Maine Democrats should be mindful of the party’s loss in the 2024 presidential race following the replacement of President Joe Biden with Vice President Kamala Harris at the top of the ticket.

“A replacement could win if everyone gets on the same page quickly,” he said in a Tuesday interview. “Drawing from some of the lessons of 2024, it would be helpful if there could be a process where voters do not think that this person was thrust upon them and they had a choice.”

Several potential replacements have expressed interest since the Politico story published.

Former state CDC Director Nirav D. Shah, who finished second in the gubernatorial primary last month, said he had fielded “hundreds of encouraging messages” and that he was evaluating his next move.

Jordan Wood, who finished third in the primary for the U.S. House seat held by retiring Rep. Jared Golden, indicated he would appreciate consideration.

“If my fellow Maine Democrats decide through an open and democratic process that I am the best candidate to defeat Susan Collins, I would be humbled by their trust,” Wood said in a statement.

Our Revolution, which supports progressive candidates, warned “the Democratic establishment” to heed primary voters’ wishes if and when a replacement is selected. 

The Hill reported Tuesday the group is backing former state Senate President Troy Jackson, who finished third in the gubernatorial primary.

Spokespeople for Platner’s campaign did not return messages seeking comment Tuesday.

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

Originally published on TiffinOhio.net.

The Trump/Republican spending law made the largest cuts ever to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), which is largely used by children, older adults, and those with disabilities.

The cuts to SNAP have impacted millions of in-need Americans.

Not only did the spending law cause major damage, but the longest-ever federal shutdown that followed it meant even those who were able to get benefits couldn’t get them in a timely fashion, according to Gina Plata-Nino, director of SNAP policy and advocacy at the national Food Research & Action Center.

While all 50 states saw severe impacts, Plata-Nino said states like Arizona saw a more than 50% drop in SNAP benefits. Florida and Georgia each saw nearly 700,000 people lose benefits, despite still needing the help, she said.

“It means that kids are going to have less to eat,” Plata-Nino said. “For families, it might mean that there’s just no food on the table, and they may not be able to pay rent because they have to pay for this.”

Ohio saw a 7% drop in SNAP since the cuts, amounting to about 100,000 people.

While the Ohio Association of Foodbanks also serves people at poverty levels slightly higher than those who qualify for SNAP, executive director Joree Novotny said food banks work with SNAP to “fill shortfalls, prevent hunger, and promote nutrition,” even as demand at food banks rises.

Novotny said the association is partnering with the state and counties to protect SNAP access, as numerous factors push down on the economic livelihood of Ohioans, including inflation, consumer prices, and other costs.

SNAP benefit theft has also impacted the system, she said, adding to the “general economic strain” for thousands of Ohio families.

“All this means continued pressure on Ohio’s food banks and their local hunger relief partners, while at the same time, food supply from retailer and manufacturer donations and federal commodity programs is down,” Novotny told the Capital Journal.

Modernization of the SNAP cards used to purchase items has been approved by the Ohio General Assembly, and Novotny praised legislative action to give food banks emergency funds when the federal government shutdown held back SNAP benefits.

“These efforts and more will be important to food security for Ohio families and the continued strength of Ohio’s interconnected food supply chain,” according to Novotny.

On top of drastic cuts, the spending bill also changed the way states contribute, bumping the administrative costs a state pays from 50% to 75%.

“That means that SNAP has become a line item in the budget, and Ohio is looking at paying approximately $160 million additionally… to keep the program going,” Plata-Nino said.

States can also decide to opt out of the program if the costs are too high, but currently Ohio plans to continue.

The Ohio Department of Job and Family Services said lawmakers “helped cover the gap” for the increase, which takes effect in October.

An important part of the analysis of individual state SNAP programs is their error rate, or payment accuracy rate.

The rate shows how often states see common errors as part of their SNAP benefits participation.

Fraud is not considered as part of the error rate, but things like a failure to report income, incorrect makeup of a household, or miscalculating a household’s income or expenses are included, according to the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services.

The analysis of the error rates is done both by the states and by the federal government, and sometimes those separate analyses can differ, according to Plata-Nino.

It’s important that the error rates are accurately noted, because the number determines how much the federal government will contribute to states, and an inaccurate rate could mean less money coming to state programs, under the new law.

Ohio has set its focus on the error rates for SNAP.

According to a press release on June 25, the job and family services department said the payment accuracy rate for SNAP in Ohio has improved, down to 6.76% in 2025 compared with 2024, when the rate was 9.13%.

“We have been working closely with counties to improve payment accuracy by reducing common errors in the SNAP program,” said department director Matt Damschroder in a statement. “Together, we’ve made significant progress over the past year and remain committed to becoming even more efficient stewards of these critical public resources.”

The department noted the importance of the lower rate, as the changes in federal SNAP cost-sharing create a line in the sand for states.

States with error rates under 6% will continue to see 100% of benefit costs funded, whereas states above 6% will pay “an increasing percentage of benefit costs,” according to the department.

The 2025 error rate is not going to be used to identify the cost-sharing the state will have, but Damschroder and the department said it “demonstrates that Ohio’s improvement can significantly reduce potential costs.”

If the 2024 rate of 9.13% was used to calculate Ohio’s costs, the state would have had to come up with $321 million. Under the 2025 rate, the cost would be $160 million.

The state said about 1.4 million Ohioans use SNAP benefits monthly, at a cost of more than $270 million.

Plata-Nino said there’s still hope that the SNAP cuts could be undone via a Farm Bill that’s still being debated in Congress.

She said “at minimum,” the Food Research & Action Center and other organizations have asked for Congress to delay the implementation of the changes in cost-sharing for all states.

While current drafts of the U.S. Senate and U.S. House versions are “cost-neutral,” meaning there would be no change for the SNAP program, Democrats are attempting to hold off until changes can be made, according to Plata-Nino.

Still, without a crystal ball, it’s hard to know how the Republican majority and President Donald Trump will move forward.

“We just don’t know how this administration is going to act,” 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.

“I love the variety that’s in there,” she said. “They like the apple crisps a lot. We don’t usually get those. We love the fresh fruit, and I love that we’re able to come here every week.” 

The New Carlisle location is one of four weekly mobile routes Children’s Hunger Alliance has throughout Ohio this summer that distributes ready-to-eat meals for families to take home to their children. Each child can get a box. 

The shelf stable meals include five days worth of breakfasts, dinners, milk and snacks. The mobile routes also offer fruit bags with apples and oranges this summer. 

“It is helpful because the girls like to snack a lot, and it is snacky food, but it’s also filling, and it’s healthy stuff for them, and they enjoy picking out what their meals are each day,” Moore said. 

The New Carlisle mobile route goes from 10 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. on Wednesdays and about a dozen cars were lined up to receive their food boxes by 10 a.m. as the temperature was in the 80s, but the humidity was making it feel like it was in the 90s. 

About 150 food boxes were distributed on Wednesday. Another 176 boxes were given out the week before, and 226 were passed out on June 17, said Diane Miller Ryan, Children’s Hunger Alliance director of community outreach. 

The other mobile routes are in Coshocton on Tuesdays, Sabina on Wednesdays, and Troy on Thursdays. 

The Troy site distributes at least 178 boxes a week, the Sabina site averages 75 boxes, and the Coschoton site gives out more than 100 boxes a week, Ryan said. 

“During the summer — unless the kids are going to a summer camp or something like that, that actually serves the food — they don’t have any access to it, so this gives them access that they can get food and just help them, because everybody knows the price of food is outrageous now,” Ryan said. 

More than 505,000, or 1 in 5, Ohio children struggle with hunger and summer is typically the hungriest time of the year for students who receive free or reduced school meals.  

Nearly 29% of Ohio students participated in the school breakfast program and 57.3% of students participated in the school lunch program during the 2024-25 school year, according to the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce. 

“During the school year, more than 900,000 children across Ohio count on the stability of a healthy meal at school each day, but when summer arrives, that dependable source of nutrition disappears,” Children’s Hunger Alliance President and CEO Michelle M. Brown said in a statement. 

“For many families, that means stretching tight budgets even further, while often scrambling for affordable childcare or summer camps.” 

Romy Wilson picks up food boxes at the New Carlisle site every week this summer. 

“It’s a big help,” she said. 

Beth Thomas picked up three boxes on Wednesday. 

“The kids really enjoy them,” she said. 

Samantha Kennedy said her kids, 11 and 8, like the snacks and the milk. 

“I love that it gives my kids the ability to grab lunch on their own,” she said. 

“It’s wonderful that I don’t have to answer the question, ‘what’s for lunch?’ It also gives them some self-confidence to be able to get their own food.” 

Shawna Vanmeter said her kids like seeing what they get every week. 

“Their favorite thing is probably the beef sticks and the juices,” she said. 

One woman expressed her appreciation for the boxes and her kids said it’s like Christmas. 

The New Carlisle boxes include Cinnamon Toast Crunch, Cocoa Puffs, waffles, chocolate milk, a turkey stick, fruit juice, Cheerios, a beef teriyaki stick, a pepperoni stick, and pepperoni pizza crackers. 

“It looks like a lot of snacky things, but it’s whole grain crackers, or meat sticks,” Ryan said. 

“It’s stuff that kids will eat. The big thing is you have to get kids to eat things, so we try to make it as healthy as possible.”

Children’s Hunger Alliance has about 145 summer meal sites statewide that provide food for children that are sponsored through the USDA’s Summer Food Service Program. 

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

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Originally published on TiffinOhio.net.

The bill makes a number of policy changes to increase home supply like streamlining federal regulations, restricting institutional investors, and incentivizing local governments to lower housing barriers.

This follows an unprecedented rise in housing costs fueled by antiquated construction rules, underbuilding during the Great Recession, and rising inflation.

Though Ohio has enjoyed a relatively affordable cost of living for decades, the state has not been immune to these national housing trends.

The average Ohio house cost 65% more in January 2026 than it did in January 2020.

Without enough homes to meet the country’s growing demand, prices are going up and, with them, the median age of first-time homebuyers which now tops 40 years old. 

But Ohio doesn’t just have a housing supply issue. It also has a housing choice issue.

Increasingly, buyers do not have the freedom to choose the type of home that best fits their family’s unique wants and needs, constrained by local zoning regulations that often ban historic housing styles. 

In Ohio, only 3% of all homes are duplexes which Dr. Jason Reece, professor of City and Regional Planning at the Ohio State University, has called America’s “original workforce housing” because of their natural affordability and power to build family wealth through sweat equity. 

These so-called “missing middle” homes — duplexes, triplexes, and small townhomes — previously played a crucial role in expanding homeownership opportunities to middle-income families.

In the past, a young family that purchased a duplex could use their spare unit to generate extra rental income. They could also offer decent housing to family members at the start of their career or in their twilight years. This not only kept expenses low but also made family caregiving easier.

In theory, this path to the middle class is still possible.

In a recent analysis my firm Scioto Analysis conducted with the Affordable Housing Alliance of Central Ohio, we estimated a typical family can now earn or save nearly $1.3 million over a lifetime through duplex homeownership. And that doesn’t include the value fo the equity that the home itself builds over time. 

But Ohio families can only benefit from a duplex if they can find one.

We also mapped the zoning code rules in all eleven of central Ohio’s counties and estimated that duplexes were prohibited on 79% of all parcels.

In some communities, including those facing intense job growth pressures, they’re banned entirely. 

This isn’t just a problem in Ohio.

Across the country, duplexes and other traditional styles have gradually been removed from the marketplace.

Consumers have more freedom than ever to choose the kinds of food they eat or the places where they get their news, but they have fewer housing choices than their grandparents. 

From Maine to Montana to Arizona, and many places in between, cities and states are confronting this challenge with laws aimed at re-legalizing the duplex and restoring that tradition of choice. 

The 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act offers Ohio an opportunity to join them.

In particular, local communities will soon be able to learn zoning and land-use “best practices” from national research and case studies, compete for planning grants to localize these strategies, and seek a share of more than $200 million in competitive innovation funds to make these plans a reality. 

The state can accelerate this work, too, with its own reforms and supports, many of which were already laid out in the Ohio Senate Select Committee’s “Housing Reimagined” report and the Home Matters to Ohio plan.  

Each of these tools would make building housing in Ohio easier, which will improve prices and quality while expanding meaningful resident choice. And that will benefit everyone.

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

Originally published on TiffinOhio.net.

In the years ahead, the country can continue to follow the path blazed by President Donald Trump, who is attempting to bring states under the authority of a more powerful federal government led by him. Or it can move in a different direction, one where states become a heavier counterweight to an aggressive White House and rebalance the relationship between the states and the federal government.

The United States’ foundations are undergoing a significant stress test, experts say, raising questions about whether a radical reconception of the nation lies ahead. The federalism that has helped bind the states — and therefore, the nation — together is fraying, pulled apart by a president who demonstrates little regard for many of the nation’s core principles.

David Adkins, executive director and CEO of the Council of State Governments, a national group that represents all three branches of state government, said state-federal tensions were escalating long before Trump.

“I wonder if we will come to a breaking point in which the institutions of government no longer serve the society in which we live,” said Adkins, a former Kansas Republican state lawmaker.

“And again,” he said, “we will be required to balance personal liberty and freedoms against what powers we want the government to exercise.”

While a long line of modern presidents have expanded the powers of their office, Trump has wielded the executive branch as a weapon to punish states and those state leaders he views as enemies. Federal dollars and resources have become a form of leverage he has tried to use to pursue his political aims and deliver the retribution he promised to, if reelected. He is trying to assert an unprecedented level of White House control over state-run elections.

How states — and the people — respond will forever shape the nation.

As the United States marks the 250th anniversary of the country’s founding, Stateline has been exploring how the Trump era is transforming the relationship between the states and the federal government. This article is the fourth in an occasional series examining the fraught moment and what evolving — and often deteriorating — state-federal ties mean for the country, now and in the future.

As the Trump administration has been aggressively pursuing its agenda on immigration, election restrictions and other issues, Democratic states have been developing playbooks of resistance that could endure even after Trump’s time in office. They have enacted laws aimed at regulating the behavior of federal agents and preventing any attempts to illegally subvert the November midterm elections, for instance.

At least eight states have adopted laws limiting masking by law enforcement, according to Prosecutors Alliance Action, a nonprofit advocacy group that supports the legislation. The mask restrictions are in response to the widespread use of masks by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Border Patrol and other federal agents, as well as anger over the deployment of agents in places such as Minneapolis and Los Angeles.

Some states have also taken action to thwart any federal attempt to take over elections, which under the U.S. Constitution are run by the states. Administration officials have refused to rule out sending federal agents or troops to the polls, something already prohibited under federal law except in extremely narrow circumstances.

In late May, California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom signed into law a bill that prohibits election officials from providing federal agents with access to voter lists or technology absent a court order. And New Mexico lawmakers earlier this year passed a bill to prohibit troops at polling places.

More recently, officials in some states threatened legislation to undercut Trump’s Anti-Weaponization Fund by taxing payments at 100%. Critics argued that the fund would be used to pay off the president’s allies. The U.S. Department of Justice has said it is backing off plans for the fund amid bipartisan opposition in Congress, but leaders have refused to confirm that in writing and a federal judge has said a lawsuit against the fund can proceed.

Collectively, these efforts offer a window into how states are testing ways to push back against the White House. While the Trump administration is challenging some of these measures in court, Democratic state lawmakers have demonstrated that state-level resistance to increasingly aggressive exercises of federal power is possible.

“It is incumbent upon state legislators and state governments to protect their people from this incredible overreach and this display of horrors and egregious behaviors we are seeing from the federal government,” said Pennsylvania state Sen. Amanda Cappelletti, a Democrat who has been pushing restrictions on ICE.

In response to Stateline’s questions for this series, White House spokesperson Davis Ingle said in a statement: “The Trump Administration faithfully upholds our Constitution and the immortalized American principles of federalism, the rule of law, and the separation of powers.”

Rethinking the Constitution

Conservatives have long complained that the federal government has grown too large and too powerful. As Democrats fight Trump, some Republicans see an opportunity to forge a new bipartisan consensus in favor of states’ authority.

Pennsylvania state Sen. Cris Dush, a Republican, said the federal government has been overreaching since at least Woodrow Wilson’s presidency in the early 20th century. He argues that too many powers have been ceded to the executive branch that belong to legislators. 

“And that’s why we have a republic, not a democracy and not a king. It’s not supposed to go with the whims of either the public or whoever the chief executive is, and that’s why you’re now starting to see Democrats get on board with this,” Dush said.

“I’m glad to welcome anybody to this party that wants to come, because it’s all about getting the legislative authority back.”

Dush supports a convention of the states to draft proposed changes to the Constitution that limit federal power. The idea of calling a convention has long percolated in statehouses, especially among Republicans, but support for the idea appears to have grown in recent years.

The states know what the potential dangers are, and they’re getting better prepared.

– Former New Jersey Republican Gov. Christine Todd Whitman

Article V of the Constitution requires Congress to call a constitutional convention if two-thirds of state legislatures demand one but sets out few details about how such a gathering would operate. Any amendments proposed by a convention would need to be approved by three-fourths of the states.

Several different campaigns are pushing states to demand a convention, including one focused on a balanced budget amendment and another that seeks term limits. Collectively, 28 state legislatures have called for a convention, according to the good government group Common Cause, which opposes a convention. Thirty-six states must call for a convention to trigger one.

Former Utah Republican Gov. Gary Herbert has pushed for a balanced budget amendment to rein in federal spending and the ballooning national debt for more than 15 years. He said that states must lead the effort because Congress lacks the courage to confront the issue. 

“The burgeoning debt is just the result of not having appropriate balance between the state and federal government,” he said.

While conservatives and liberals fear a so-called runaway convention that could radically reshape the face of American government, Herbert said those same fears were present 250 years ago as the Founding Fathers met in Philadelphia to reshape the Articles of Confederation into the current Constitution.

“Well, the result was pretty good,” he said. “You know, we got this great Constitution everybody says was really a divinely inspired kind of a thing. … The Founding Fathers were brilliant in putting the Constitution together and said, ‘Here’s a role for the federal government, but here’s a larger role even for the states.’”

Stitt, the Oklahoma governor, said he wants states to have more control of federal spending. Bypassing Washington, D.C.’s bureaucracy would give states more authority and stewardship over federal taxpayer dollars, he said, forcing states to live within their means and end incentives to freely accept federal dollars rather than lose them to another state.

“So we have to change that incentive, and I think that’s a reasonable way to do it,” he said in an interview. “Now, Oklahoma would handle our own roads, bridges, etcetera, and I just think that the incentive would be totally different, and there would truly be 50 laboratories of democracy.”

Stitt is chair of the bipartisan National Governors Association. He’s criticized Trump’s deployment of the National Guard into blue states. But he said presidents of both parties have wielded the growing might of the federal government to influence policies across the country.

He pointed to Trump’s efforts to kill already-approved offshore wind energy projects, and he highlighted the Keystone Pipeline extension, which was thwarted by Democratic Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden but embraced by Trump. He called those sorts of turnabouts “un-American.”

“We’re in a terrible situation if this continues to happen in our country,” he said. “This is like what we’ve made fun of in these Third World countries from dictator to dictator.”

Unlike Stitt, critics of a convention of the states fear it could result in a dramatic overhaul of the Constitution that would endanger core liberties and freedoms. And because the Constitution provides few rules for how a convention would work, they worry the process would be susceptible to influence by wealthy interests.

Adkins, the Council of State Governments CEO, said a convention of the states could become more likely as state-federal tensions increase. He said states should begin having dispassionate conversations about how they would respond if a convention is called, what it would look like, and who would be in charge.

“Those are a lot of questions that we just don’t know about,” Adkins said. “But that’s sort of the ultimate nuclear option for the states in a dysfunctional federal system.”

States are ‘better prepared’

Whether a convention of the states ever takes place, the conversation surrounding the idea underscores the depth of frustration with the current state-federal relationship.

Last year a Gallup survey found that 62% of Americans believe the federal government has too much power, the highest percentage recorded since 2002. It was also the first time since 2007 that Democrats were more likely than Republicans to say the federal government is too powerful.

But what happens once Trump leaves office?Will at least some anger at the federal government dissipate?

Trump is a very unpopular president when compared against the past four executives to hold the White House. His disapproval rating stood at 58% on July 2, according to a New York Times daily average of polling on the president. Just 39% of Americans approve of the job he’s doing, down from nearly 50% in the weeks after his inauguration in January 2025.

Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly, a Democrat, said the way Trump has pushed the envelope could become a new normal “if the wrong people get elected.” But few people who run for president want to bully states, she said.

“They’re not looking to be king. They’re not looking to be a dictator,” Kelly said. “And there is plenty to do just with the responsibilities and the authority that the federal government traditionally has that there’s no need to go that way.”

A presidential administration that makes clear it will give states as much leeway as possible as it advances its agenda will go far in rebuilding relationships between the states and the federal government, said former New Jersey Republican Gov. Christine Todd Whitman.

But if not, states have learned from the Trump era.

“The states know what the potential dangers are,” Whitman said, “and they’re getting better prepared.”

In the birthplace of the nation, Philadelphians this spring were gearing up for a raucous Independence Day celebration. But feelings were mixed in this liberal stronghold, said Pennsylvania House Speaker Joanna McClinton, a Democrat who represents parts of Philadelphia.

She said Trump misunderstands the distinct powers of the states and is “trampling the American order” by seeking to upend American federalism. 

She and other Democrats in the closely divided commonwealth are trying to push back on the federal government through words and deeds.

But she said this administration hasn’t soured the excitement and pride in the American experiment. Republican and Democratic lawmakers were eager to participate in special sessions outside of Harrisburg this year in Philadelphia, where the founders signed both the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution.

“People recognize the challenges of the hour, and they make every effort to engage politically so we can get out of this mess,” she said. “But it doesn’t fully dampen the mood of being grateful for what this country still represents, and the potential that it still has.”

Editor’s Note: This story has been updated to clarify comments from David Adkins, executive director and CEO of the Council of State Governments.

States Newsroom reporter Jonathan Shorman can be reached at jshorman@statesnewsroom.com. 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.