The Sept. 25 event is being coordinated by local residents Charlene Thomas, Michelle Tuite and Susan Wilkinson, with businesses and organizations across Tiffin participating throughout the day.

Participating businesses will offer Dolly-inspired specials, activities and experiences, while attendees are encouraged to dress for the occasion.

The main festivities begin at 4 p.m. in City Lot 6.

Activities will include Dolly karaoke, children’s activities, photo opportunities and a large community “Coat of Many Colors” banner that attendees can help color.

Mayor Lee Wilkinson is also scheduled to issue a Dolly Day proclamation.

A live horse will be available for petting and brushing, and The Bagel Buggy, Sargent Oinks and Scoops of Joy will serve food during the event.

The evening will conclude with a community showing of “Steel Magnolias.” Attendees are encouraged to bring lawn chairs.

Event will support local children’s literacy

Dolly Day will also raise money for the Gase Literacy Fund, which supports Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library for children living in Tiffin’s 44883 ZIP code.

More than 1,000 local children receive a free book each month through the program, according to event organizers.

The Tiffin Community Foundation will match donations collected during Dolly Day, doubling the impact of contributions made during the event.

Attendees can also bring gently used books for “Trunk to Read,” an effort sponsored by the Ritz Players. Donated books will be distributed to organizations in need.

Dolly Day organizers said the celebration is intended to highlight kindness, creativity, literacy and giving back — themes associated with Parton’s decades of charitable work.

The event begins at 4 p.m. Friday, Sept. 25, at City Lot 6 in Tiffin.

Originally published on TiffinOhio.net.

“I am calling for an emergency gas tax holiday to offer Ohio’s working families some relief,” Acton said in a statement released Sunday.

AAA reported Monday that regular gasoline was averaging $4.52 per gallon across Ohio, while diesel had climbed to $6.77 — the highest statewide diesel average AAA has recorded.

Those prices are being felt in Northwest Ohio as well. AAA’s Ohio data showed the Toledo-area average at about $4.52 for regular gasoline and $6.76 for diesel on Monday.

A year ago, Ohio’s statewide averages were about $3.04 for regular gasoline and $3.70 for diesel, according to AAA.

“Ohioans are hurting,” Acton said. “I’m hearing stories of folks who are unable to get to work or go to the doctor because they can’t afford to fill up their tank.”

Ohio charges 38.5 cents per gallon

Ohio currently imposes a state tax of 38.5 cents on every gallon of gasoline and 47 cents on diesel and most other motor fuels, according to state law.

That means a 15-gallon gasoline purchase includes $5.78 in Ohio gasoline taxes before accounting for the separate federal gas tax.

The current state rates date to 2019, when Gov. Mike DeWine signed House Bill 62. The transportation budget increased Ohio’s gasoline tax by 10.5 cents per gallon and its diesel tax by 19 cents.

The additional revenue was projected at the time to generate roughly $865 million annually for state and local transportation infrastructure, according to the Ohio Legislative Service Commission.

State law dedicates motor-fuel tax revenue to roads, bridges and related transportation expenses.

Acton said Ohio could provide temporary relief “without compromising on investing in our infrastructure.”

Fuel prices have climbed rapidly

The proposal comes as Ohio fuel prices have risen rapidly in recent weeks amid turmoil in global oil markets and regional refinery issues.

AAA’s statewide gasoline average stood at $4.16 just one week ago before climbing to about $4.52 Monday. Diesel rose from about $6.11 to $6.77 over the same period.

Prices are also moving in the opposite direction from their usual seasonal pattern. Gasoline demand typically falls and prices ease after the summer driving season, but international oil-market disruptions have kept upward pressure on fuel costs.

The gas tax proposal adds another piece to Acton’s broader campaign focus on household expenses. As TiffinOhio.net previously reported, Acton has proposed refundable tax credits and other measures as part of an affordability agenda aimed at working Ohio households.

Acton faces Republican Vivek Ramaswamy in the Nov. 3 election for governor.

Originally published on TiffinOhio.net.

Fairshake, the powerful crypto-backed super PAC, has committed $30 million to opposing Brown in his race against Republican U.S. Sen. Jon Husted, according to Punchbowl News and CoinDesk.

The spending is Fairshake’s largest commitment against any single candidate in the 2026 midterms.

It also marks the second time in two elections that the crypto industry has poured tens of millions of dollars into keeping Brown out of the Senate.

In 2024, Fairshake’s network spent roughly $40 million helping Republican Bernie Moreno defeat Brown, who was then chairman of the Senate Banking Committee and one of the industry’s most prominent critics.

Now Brown is attempting a comeback against Husted — and the crypto money is back.

The new $30 million commitment comes just six days after the Senate dealt the industry a major defeat by refusing to advance the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act, the crypto industry’s biggest legislative priority.

Crypto bill dies in Senate

On Sept. 15, senators voted 49-50 against invoking cloture on the motion to proceed to the CLARITY Act, according to the official Senate roll call.

The legislation needed 60 votes to advance.

Every Democrat who voted opposed moving forward with the bill. Four Republicans — Susan Collins of Maine, Josh Hawley of Missouri, Jerry Moran of Kansas and Thom Tillis of North Carolina — also voted no. Democratic Sen. Chris Coons of Delaware did not vote.

Democrats had demanded stronger restrictions surrounding President Donald Trump’s extensive financial interests in cryptocurrency, while some Republicans also raised objections to provisions involving banks and stablecoins.

The bill would have established a broad federal framework governing digital assets and divided regulatory authority between the Securities and Exchange Commission and Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

The vote was a major setback for an industry that has spent heavily in federal elections trying to elect lawmakers favorable to its policy agenda.

Fairshake’s move against Brown followed less than a week later.

Crypto industry already spent $40M against Brown

This is familiar territory in Ohio.

As TiffinOhio.net previously reported, cryptocurrency interests spent roughly $40 million in 2024 to help Moreno defeat Brown.

The ads funded by the crypto network largely focused on conventional political issues rather than cryptocurrency itself.

The strategy worked. Moreno defeated Brown 50% to 47%, ending Brown’s three terms in the Senate.

Brown had chaired the Senate Banking Committee, putting him in a powerful position over cryptocurrency regulation. The industry viewed him as a major obstacle to legislation it wanted passed.

Brown has taken a more conciliatory position toward cryptocurrency during his 2026 comeback campaign.

Earlier this year, Brown campaign manager Patrick Eisenhauer told TiffinOhio.net that Brown “recognizes that cryptocurrency is a part of America’s economy” and would “keep an open mind” while seeking protections for consumers.

That shift has not stopped the industry from targeting him again.

Fairshake still has a massive war chest

Fairshake is backed by some of the biggest names in cryptocurrency, including Coinbase, Ripple Labs and venture-capital firm Andreessen Horowitz.

Federal Election Commission records show Fairshake had raised more than $137 million during the current election cycle through July 31 and had nearly $113 million in cash on hand at the end of that reporting period.

Even after committing $30 million against Brown, a Fairshake spokesman told CoinDesk that the group still has more than $90 million available for the final weeks of the election.

Brown’s campaign responded Monday by tying the spending directly to Husted.

“Jon Husted’s for sale and the billionaires and corporations pouring millions into this race know it,” Eisenhauer said.

The $30 million arrives as outside money is already flooding Ohio’s Senate race.

Reuters reported last week that the Husted-Brown contest had already attracted about $298 million in advertising spending, putting it on track to rank among the most expensive Senate races of the midterm cycle.

The winner of the Nov. 3 special election will serve the remainder of the Senate term vacated when JD Vance became vice president.

Originally published on TiffinOhio.net.

The money came from Richard Iott, the former Republican congressional candidate whose 2010 campaign was rocked after photographs surfaced showing him dressed in the uniform of Nazi Germany’s Waffen-SS.

Ohio campaign-finance records show Iott gave $5,000 to Jon Husted for Ohio on March 20, 2017, while Husted was running for governor.

After Husted ended that campaign and joined Mike DeWine’s ticket as his candidate for lieutenant governor, Iott gave another $5,000 to Mike DeWine for Ohio on May 30, 2018.

Both contributions came years after Iott’s Nazi SS reenactments had become national news.

The contributions take on new relevance after Husted’s current U.S. Senate campaign fired political director Stephen Woytek earlier this month when The Washington Post uncovered Nazi-related material in his publicly accessible social media history.

As TiffinOhio.net previously reported, Woytek had used a photograph of actual Nazi SS soldiers as his Facebook profile picture. The Post also found photographs appearing to show Woytek wearing an SS uniform during a 2018 reenactment.

The newspaper also found a Spotify account bearing Woytek’s name and photograph with a playlist celebrating Rhodesia, the former white-minority-ruled state that has become a symbol among white supremacists. Songs had been added to the playlist as recently as August.

Husted’s campaign fired Woytek after The Post contacted it about the material. The campaign did not answer the newspaper’s questions about whether or how Woytek’s social media history had been vetted before he was hired.

Woytek denied racist or antisemitic beliefs and said his interest in Nazi Germany was related to historical reenactment.

Days later, Husted addressed the controversy himself.

In a Sept. 16 interview, Husted said Woytek had been “highly recommended” and emphasized his military service before describing the Nazi-related images as part of Woytek’s reenactment hobby.

“He’s a lieutenant in the National Guard, and he does war reenactments,” Husted said, adding that some of the photos “gave a very bad impression of where he might have been ideologically.”

Iott’s Nazi SS reenactments were already national news

Iott offered a similar historical-reenactment explanation when his own participation in Nazi SS reenactments became public in 2010.

Iott was then the Republican nominee for Congress against U.S. Rep. Marcy Kaptur in Northwest Ohio’s 9th District.

CBS News reported that Iott had participated in a group called Wiking, which reenacted the 5th SS Panzer Division Wiking, an actual Waffen-SS division that fought on Nazi Germany’s Eastern Front.

Iott confirmed his involvement with the group and denied believing in Nazi ideology, calling it “purely historical interest in World War II.”

But Iott also defended wearing the uniform. Asked whether it was wrong to dress as a Nazi soldier, he told the Associated Press that he saw nothing wrong with doing so in the context of historical reenactment.

The controversy became serious enough that prominent Republicans publicly distanced themselves from Iott. The Republican Jewish Coalition said he lacked the judgment expected of lawmakers, the National Republican Congressional Committee removed him from its Young Guns program and then-House Republican Whip Eric Cantor publicly repudiated his conduct, according to CBS News. :contentReference[oaicite:2]{index=2}

That was in October 2010.

Husted’s gubernatorial campaign accepted Iott’s $5,000 contribution in March 2017.

The DeWine-Husted campaign accepted another $5,000 from him the following year.

Husted now serves on Senate antisemitism task force

Husted is now a member of the Senate Bipartisan Task Force for Combating Antisemitism.

When he joined the task force in April, Husted said, “Antisemitism has no place in our country or anywhere in the world.” :contentReference[oaicite:3]{index=3}

Five months later, journalists uncovered the Nazi-related material tied to his political director, and Husted fired him after The Washington Post contacted the campaign.

And years before that, campaigns supporting Husted had accepted $10,000 from Iott after his own Nazi SS reenactments were already a matter of national public record.

Iott has continued contributing to Republican candidates. In February, TiffinOhio.net reported that Vivek Ramaswamy’s gubernatorial campaign accepted a $500 contribution from Iott. :contentReference[oaicite:4]{index=4}

Originally published on TiffinOhio.net.

The House has overwhelmingly passed legislation forcing state regulators to consider requirements that data centers absorb the cost of the electricity they use. 

But there’s more to be done, say data center critics, and they’re finding there is no easy or even obvious answer about what to do next.

Leave it to state and local governments to decide whether and how the centers should function? Should their size be restricted? Should they be banned altogether?

The future of data centers has become a flashpoint in this year’s congressional races. It’s woven into the debate about affordability, artificial intelligence and corporate influence on government.

“People see big energy cost increases and say data centers must be the reason,” said Daniel Birdsong, senior lecturer in political science at the University of Dayton.

Before leaving Washington for an extended recess not due to end until after the election, the House voted Wednesday 417-3 on a bill that requires states to consider having data centers using large amounts of electricity pay the full additional cost of that generation, as well as transmission and distribution upgrades that are needed.

Obstacles to action

The vote was only a prologue for action. There’s no clear next chapter, as skepticism is coming from critics at the White House and among progressives.

The biggest obstacle appears to be President Donald Trump.

“The people that say AI is going to destroy the World, and that Data Centers are bad for your neighborhood, are the same people that said, just a short time ago, that the World would be extinguished by ‘Climate Change,’” he said on his Truth Social site Monday.

“That HOAX never worked out for them, and now they’re on to the next one. These people are Revolutionaries, but Revolutionaries for a Bad and Evil Cause. Soon you’ll find out they’re working for people that do not have the best interests of the United States in mind!”

Senate leaders have not said how or if they’ll take up the House bill, or any other data center legislation.

Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., the Senate’s second-ranking Democrat, was not optimistic.

“There aren’t many alternatives to a president who thinks this is a wonderful asset and communities who think just the opposite,” he said.

The lawmakers know this much: Their constituents don’t like data centers. 

“I’ve never seen people come together across the political spectrum like I have the last few months on concerns about big tech, concerns around AI, concerns around data center development,” said Rep. Chris Pappas, D-N.H.

A national University of Massachusetts Amherst Poll released this week showed just 11% said they backed the construction of the data centers in their local area. Sixty-five percent were opposed, and about half said they were strongly opposed.

“Opposition to AI data centers has emerged as one of these rare areas of consensus,” said poll director Tatishe Nteta.

The political divide

Solutions tend to fall along three very general lines: A complete ban or moratorium; giving state and local governments more tools to regulate the centers; and withdrawing federal support.

Putting pressure on utility companies appears to have the most legislative traction. Rep. Rob Latta, R-Ohio, chairman of the House Energy Subcommittee, found the House-passed legislation would protect consumers from runaway center-inspired utility rates.

The bill, he said, “protects American ratepayers from being forced to cover the cost of energy infrastructure upgrades needed to support data centers.”

Rep. Kathy Castor, D-Fla., one of the bill’s lead sponsors, saw the measure as help for constituents facing affordability issues. “Data centers cannot come at a cost to neighbors who are already facing high grocery, gas, utility, health care and housing costs,” she said.

At the Edison Electric Institute, which represents the nation’s investor-owned electric companies, Drew Maloney, president and CEO, said in a statement that he appreciated Congress’ work and that EEI’s members “will continue working in lockstep to ensure large customers cover the costs of the energy infrastructure they use, and communities have a strong voice from the beginning of the planning process.”  

But some environmental activists saw big flaws in the bill.

“With only a weak directive to states to voluntarily consider adopting cost protections against the energy costs of data centers for ratepayers, state regulators could ultimately choose to ignore this bill,” said Sara Chieffo, senior vice president for government affairs at the League of Conservation Voters. 

A report last year from the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory found that in 2023, data centers used roughly 4.4% of total electricity in this country. It forecast that the figure could double or triple by 2028 to meet the needs of more data, notably from artificial intelligence.

Consumers’ costs are generally figured by how much it costs to generate and deliver electricity. State and local regulators usually set those rates.

Looking ahead 

While the House bill had strong Democratic support, many in the party wanted to go further.

“It’s a step forward,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-New York, told reporters when asked about the House bill. “But more needs to be done.”

That could include some sort of ban, or at least a moratorium, on building more centers, an approach favored by many Democratic progressives.

“Communities should have the right to say ‘no’ to a data center being shoved down their throats,” Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., told colleagues in a floor speech. 

In the Senate, some Democrats sent a strong signal that they wanted to do more than the House bill provided.

The bill “does nothing to meaningfully address the rising costs of AI data center development. Instead, it relies on a voluntary framework that does not require AI data centers to pay the full cost of the energy they consume or the strain they place on the grid,” said Sen. Martin Heinrich of New Mexico, top Democrat on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.

“We need legislation that makes AI data centers pay their fair share and actually protects families,” he said. 

Among this week’s efforts was new legislation from a group of House Democrats to end certain currently available federal tax incentives available to data centers.

“Tax cuts need to go to families, not data centers. We absolutely should not cut healthcare and food assistance for children and seniors to pay for tax giveaways to corporations,” said Rep. Kristen McDonald Rivet, D-Mich., one of the bill’s lead sponsors, at a Capitol Hill press conference.

“Why incentivize this right now?” asked Rep. Don Davis, D-N.C., another top sponsor.

Political fallout

Find a close House or Senate race and chances are good there’s a brawl between candidates over who can best deal with the data center issue.

In Ohio, Sen. Jon Husted, a Republican, is in a close battle with former Sen. Sherrod Brown, a Democrat.

Husted is the lead sponsor of the Senate ratepayer protection bill. Husted tried to get the Senate to consider the measure Thursday but it was blocked by Heinrich.

Asked why he doesn’t support a ban, Husted said, “Whether you want a data center should be a local decision. What we should do is protect the ratepayers from bearing the burden of the cost of building the electricity those data centers use.”

Husted is in a difficult position, Birdsong said, because his call for limits on data centers “puts him at odds with Trump.”

Close House races have similar fights. In Michigan, Rep. Tom Barrett, a Republican, is campaigning as the voice of the consumer.

One way to deal with data centers, he said, is by “stopping federal overreach and preventing the secrecy pledges that have plagued Michigan and undermined the power of local residents.”

The House, though, left Washington and won’t be back voting until a lame-duck session starting Nov. 8, sparking outrage from Democrats.

“That means ZERO votes on lowering costs, ending corruption, addressing AI, or responding to the Iran war before Election Day,” tweeted Rep. Johnny Olszewski Jr., D-Md. 

The Senate’s scheduled to be around through September, but there’s no sign it will take a close look at the data center issue. The big hope is that it will continue to be discussed back home and lawmakers will return ready to act or at least debate.

“We have to understand, ‘What’s the real implication here?’” Davis said.

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

Originally published on TiffinOhio.net.

The administration sought to dismiss the case brought against President Donald Trump’s negotiated settlement terms to drop his $10 billion lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service for a years-old grievance over leaked tax returns. 

The settlement, brokered by the DOJ and Department of Treasury and met by heated opposition even from Republicans, established a massive taxpayer-funded settlement fund to pay “victims of lawfare.” It also included retroactive relief from tax audits and enforcement for Trump, his sons Don Jr. and Eric, and the Trump Organization.

Critics of the fund asserted the likelihood that violent participants who assaulted police during the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol could reap a reward from the pot of money.

The administration maintains the fund never became operational and that the case is moot, though it refused to provide a sworn statement requested by the court saying as much.  Attorney General Todd Blanche testified at his July 15 confirmation hearing that the fund is “dead” and “never started.”

30 days to produce documents

On Friday, Judge Leonie Brinkema at the U.S. District Court in the Eastern District of Virginia overruled the government’s objection to producing evidence and gave DOJ 30 days to produce documents potentially revealing who structured the deal. 

The “real concern,” she said is “this concept of taxpayer money being used to promote political viewpoints.”

“I think the fund now is gone, but is there a functional equivalent?” she asked, noting violators of federal laws that the administration opposes, like protections for abortion clinic clients, could be paid from a DOJ judgment fund.

Plaintiffs, including individuals and interest groups, sued the DOJ, Blanche and Treasury officials, including Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and IRS CEO Frank Bisignano.

Among the numerous plaintiffs are Andrew Floyd, a former assistant U.S. attorney who alleges he was fired for prosecuting Jan. 6 defendants, and the nonprofit National Abortion Federation, which represents abortion providers and advocates for abortion access.

Pooja Boisture, counsel for the plaintiffs, argued Friday the fund is “discriminatory.”

“This fund was designed to reward and give credence to election deniers and violators of the FACE Act,” she said, referring to the 1994 law that penalizes violence or threats from protesters against those entering to abortion clinics.

In response to a request for comment on Friday’s hearing, a DOJ spokesperson said, “The Department is confident that the court lacks jurisdiction over this lawsuit against the (anti-weaponization fund), which never started and isn’t moving forward.”

Constitutional question

The plaintiffs also allege the tax immunity arrangement for Trump, his sons and private conglomerate amounts to an unfair gain or advantage for the president, therefore violating the Constitution’s emoluments clause.

The National Treasury Employees Union is also party to the suit and brought the claim of an emoluments violation, as well as allegations of injury to tax auditors who may have been told to stop any audits of Trump.

“These members have no good options: If they comply with a request to terminate audits, they violate their oath of office; and if they refuse to comply, they will likely face retaliation for insubordination,” the union argued in a court filing.

The plaintiffs allege the president has ongoing audits that will be terminated under the immunity deal. 

Lisa Newman, attorney for the legal advocacy group Democracy Forward that is representing the plaintiffs, also told Brinkema, “We do plead that the president was participating in negotiation of the settlement.”

Newman referred to public reporting by The New York Times on May 19 that a loss in an IRS audit of Trump’s previous tax returns could cost him roughly $100 million.

Andrew Block, senior counsel for the Justice Department, told Brinkema he’s “not aware there are or (are) not” audits of the president’s tax returns from that period of time.

“It is speculation to say … that there was an improper request,” he said.

Brinkema shot back that Trump’s underlying $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS is “unique.”

“The plaintiff is absolutely controlling the defendants” who are at risk of being fired by the president on “a whim,” she said.

Settlement ‘castrated’ by judge

Brinkema said the Florida federal judge in Trump’s IRS case “castrated” the settlement in a July 13 order, adding the president’s underlying lawsuit against the nation’s tax enforcement agency is “extraordinarily relevant” to the lawsuit before her.

Judge Kathleen Williams for the  U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, where Trump filed his lawsuit, wrote in a 56-page order that “No sitting President has ever sued federal agencies completely subject to his control for monetary benefits, or any benefits that inure to him, his family, and associates.” 

“The failure of any attorney in this case to address, on this docket, the relationship of this Article II proscription with the benefits conferred by the ‘settlement’ is a glaring omission that speaks to the control of the Lead Plaintiff,” Williams wrote.

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

Originally published on TiffinOhio.net.

The suit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia is the second this month, following comments from top Trump officials citing a federal policy to allow ICE officers to enter polling locations in certain circumstances to conduct immigration enforcement.

The groups argue the policy violates the federal law that prohibits “armed men” at election sites, and also causes voter intimidation, which is barred under the Voting Rights Act.

Under federal law, “troops” or “armed men” are allowed at polling locations only if “such force be necessary to repel armed enemies of the United States.” And the section of the Voting Rights Act the groups cite prohibits “intimidation,” “threats,” or “coercion” against a person for voting or attempting to vote.

“The result is predictable: voters across the country—particularly Black, Latino, and Asian voters, naturalized citizens, and members of mixed-status families—are afraid to vote, help others vote, and participate in civic life,” according to the suit. 

Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin earlier this month noted that agents could conduct immigration enforcement at polling places. And before U.S. senators this week, FBI Director Kash Patel did not rule out sending FBI agents to polling locations, but said officers would “follow the law.”

The Department of Justice dismissed the idea that officers would be sent to polling locations. 

“The DOJ has never said it would send federal law enforcement to polling locations,” a DOJ spokesperson said in a statement to States Newsroom. “Any suggestion otherwise is fearmongering.”

In a statement to States Newsroom, a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security said those “who are here legally and are not breaking other laws have nothing to fear.”

“Allegations that DHS law enforcement engages in ‘racial profiling’ are disgusting, reckless, and categorically FALSE,” the spokesperson said. “What makes someone a target for immigration enforcement is if they are illegally in the U.S.—NOT their skin color, race, or ethnicity.”

The DHS spokesperson added that ICE was not planning any operations that targeted polling locations. 

NAACP among groups suing

“We reject this administration’s attempt to desecrate our polling sites by converting them into militarized zones through the unlawful deployment of ICE or any other federal agent,” Kristen Clarke, the NAACP’s general counsel, said in a statement. 

NAACP is one of nine groups that filed suit. The rest are Mi Familia en Accion, Asian Pacific American Advocates, the National Urban League, Minnesota 8, the Service Employees International Union, the American Federation of Teachers, the International Union of Painters and the United Food and Commercial Workers International.

“Turning the fundamental right of exercising our vote into a high-stakes encounter with the militarized strong arm of the current administration isn’t protection and it isn’t oversight; it’s disenfranchisement, period,” Clarke said. “The NAACP calls on the court to reject this blatant attempt by federal officials to obstruct our elections through tactics pulled straight from the Jim Crow playbook.” 

The nine groups are represented by the Legal Defense Fund, the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund, the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU Law, LatinoJustice PRLDEF, the National Immigration Law Center, Protect Democracy and the Democracy Defenders Fund. 

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

Originally published on TiffinOhio.net.

Childcare is among the issues Ohioans have seen as a struggle for years when it comes to access and cost, and something the legislature has been attempting to navigate as well.

“When families are talking about the cost of living, we can’t separate childcare from groceries, housing, transportation, utilities, even gas,” said Tami Lunan, director of the childcare-focused Caring Economy Organizing Project within the Ohio Organizing Collaborative.

“When you start to layer in all those costs, you create a harsher reality for parents who are trying to stay in the workforce.”

Researchers and advocates in Ohio and the U.S. have been watching the childcare industry as it’s developed, and the cracks in the system brought on by funding gaps and workforce shortages. They recognize the immense need for a childcare system that works for families and for the businesses themselves.

Ohio-specific polling commissioned by advocacy group Groundwork Ohio and the national early childhood advocacy group First Five Years Fund, showed “significant agreement across party lines about the problem.”

The polling, released at the end of August, showed 64% of Ohio voters saw lowering the cost of living as one of the most important issues facing the state.

“Ohio’s next governor and legislature cannot control every cost putting pressure on working families,” the polling report stated. “Childcare is different. State policy can make a difference in what families pay, whether they can find care and whether parents can work.”

Ohio voters of all parties agree that quality childcare “is a crisis or a major problem,” with 76% of all voters agreeing to that statement.

Of those polled, 62% of Republicans found the childcare crisis to be a major problem, along with 78% of independents, and 94% of Democrats.

Of the voters who were parents paying for childcare, half of them said childcare costs “prevent them from saving money or getting ahead financially,” according to the polling, with more than a third of parents polled cutting back on other “household essentials” to afford childcare.

One in five Ohioans said they are delaying having children because of the cost.

The economic strength of a sturdy childcare industry was appealing to most voters polled, with 74% of voters agreeing that “increasing access to high-quality childcare will strengthen Ohio’s economy and workforce.”

“Ohio is working hard to attract employers, grow its economy, and fill available jobs,” the researchers stated. “Workers need somewhere safe and reliable for their children to go while they work. Childcare has to be part of that economic strategy.”

First Five Years Fund also recently released national polling taken in July of this year, which showed 82% of voters listed childcare as part of the “affordability crisis,” with nearly 40% saying their ability to work is impacted by decisions related to childcare.

The polling was consistent with previous surveys done by the group in January, when 80% of voters said the “inability of working parents to find affordable childcare is a ‘state of crisis’ or a ‘major problem.’”

The issue spanned partisan groups nationwide similar to the Ohio numbers, with 94% of Democrats agreeing childcare was in crisis, along with 81% of independent voters, and 65% who identified as Republicans.

The fund found a 29% increase in childcare prices between 2020 and 2024 “due to increased operational costs and competing wages from other service sectors,” an increase of more than 7% over the the prices of other goods and services.

The average cost of childcare in the U.S. is $13,000 per year, or more than $1,000 a month, according to the First Five Years Fund research.

Ohio’s average was similar to the national average, according to the research, at $13,780 per year.

Eligibility for the Publicly Funded Child Care program in Ohio currently goes up to 145% of the federal poverty line, a level the state has maintained in the state operating budget despite calls from childcare advocates to raise the line to 160%, if not 200% for all Ohio children.

With the level staying at 145%, Ohio has one of the lowest eligibility limits in the country.

The state budget did include other options, like the Child Care Cred Program, a measure to share the costs of childcare between participating businesses, its employees in need of childcare, and the state.

The Child Care Choice Voucher Program was also funded with $50 million from the federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families block grant, allowing for more access to childcare to those who fall outside the Publicly Funded Child Care limits.

In Ohio, First Five Years Fund identified a 13% gap in supply of childcare services, with decreases in the number of licensed childcare centers and family childcare homes in the state.

The gap exists as Ohio has more than 800,000 children aged five and under, with 67% of those children in households where all parents are working.

The fact that Ohio changed how Publicly Funded Child Care providers are paid is having a major impact on the ability for parents to get childcare and for facilities to stay afloat, according to Lunan.

Payment by the state for PFCC providers is dependent on the number of hours of childcare they provide in a week, from the lower “hourly” category, to the highest, full-time childcare.

In the most recent state operating budget, the Ohio General Assembly changed the payment categories for PFCC providers, so payment made in the “hourly” category comes from 10 hours or less of childcare.

The change raised the threshold of payments in that category from the previous state threshold of seven hours or less.

Budget documents said the modified categories meant there  “would likely be a reduction in payments,” something Lunan and other childcare advocates agreed with, saying it would “negatively impact an entire industry.”

Part-time childcare is now considered any time between 10 and 33 hours per week, and full-time childcare is considered 33 hours or more of weekly childcare.

“That one change has had such a huge impact on who has access to care, is it affordable, and then it’s also really impacting the providers, because there are a lot of centers who are closing,” Lunan said.

Statewide research group Policy Matters Ohio said with nearly one in three Ohioans living in a childcare desert, workforce shortages are the difference between access to childcare and closed doors.

“Even where childcare centers are easy to access, many are operating at less than their full capacity because of this workforce shortage,” Heather Smith, researcher for the organization, wrote in a report.

The First Five Years Fund report recommended prioritizing federal funding to the Child Care & Development Block Grant, and also to Head Start programs and childcare tax credits nationwide to bring much needed support.

Groundwork Ohio, Lunan and Smith see other things the state can be doing, including support from the newest governor, whoever that may be, to increase eligibility for Publicly Funded Child Care and push to fill childcare funding gaps.

There’s also a bill currently active in the Ohio General Assembly that would give free childcare to those who work in the childcare sector.

Ohio House Bill 484 is a Republican-sponsored bill that would establish a pilot program under the Ohio Department of Children and Youth, providing Publicly Funded Child Care to employees of childcare facilities, regardless of income level.

The bill would use $20 million in state funds toward the pilot.

“Passing this legislation would not only provide current childcare workers with necessary financial relief … it would also draw more workers to the sector,” Smith said in a Policy Matters report on the bill.

H.B. 484 was introduced nearly a year ago, and has since been referred and re-referred to House committees. It currently sits in the House Finance Committee.

While the bill is led by members of the supermajority GOP in the General Assembly, it’s unclear whether the bill will be brought up before the end of the year.

After the November election, the legislature will start its “lame duck” session, in which the General Assembly must wrap up any priority business by the end of December.

Any measures not passed before that date will have to be reintroduced and start the process again in the new year, with a new General Assembly.

Lunan sees all the options as part of the values the state should hold to develop a new generation of Ohioans.

“We actually are responsible for children developing into good citizens, and good stewards of our state, and when we invest in those dollars up front, we know that the impact will be felt years down the line,” Lunan said.

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

Originally published on TiffinOhio.net.

Six contractors from Monroe Drilling Operations LLC were plugging an abandoned well in Washington County inside Wayne National Forest when natural gas and crude oil ignited at the site on Aug 25, 2025. 

Chris Pinkerton and Chris Starkey later died from injuries they sustained in the explosion. Pinkerton died Dec. 14 and Starkey died Oct. 3. 

Chazz Bates filed a lawsuit last month in the Washington County Court of Common Pleas against Monroe Drilling Operations LLC and Formation Cementing Inc. in Zanesville, “alleging their safety failures caused the blast,” according to Bates’ attorneys from Cooper Elliott.

Bates “suffered serious burn injuries” and was treated at the Ohio State Medical Center Burn Unit, according to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources investigation report. 

The well the workers were trying to plug was through the Ohio’s Orphan Well program and ODNR’s investigation concluded there were “several site safety issues” and “several well control issues.” 

“Upon review of the facts surrounding the incident, the Division (of Oil and Gas Resources Management) has determined the cause of the explosion to be improper implementation of primary and secondary well control barriers by Monroe Drilling on an orphan well with unknown casing integrity and wellbore conditions,” according to ODNR’s investigation report. 

Orphan wells 

An orphan well is an abandoned oil and gas well that has no owner, meaning no one is able to properly plug the well. Many of these wells are more than 100 years old and the original owner has died, companies have gone out of business or records are incomplete. Orphan wells are scored on a risk basis and the highest risk wells are plugged first. 

Ohio’s Orphan Well Program has plugged more than 4,100 abandoned wells since launching in 1977. 

The number of wells plugged in Ohio in recent years, according to the ODNR. 

• 2025: 480

• 2024: 412

• 2023: 323 

• 2022: 176

• 2021: 144 

• 2020: 150 

• 2019: 92

• 2018: 51 

• 2017: 19

• 2016: 7 

• 2015: 7 

Columbiana County had the most wells plugged last year with 63, followed by Washington County with 42, according to ODNR.

An Ohio law was enacted in 2018 that requires the state department of natural resources to spend 30% of the state’s Oil and Gas Well Fund on plugging orphan wells. 

Prior to the law going into effect, ODNR had to spend only 14% of their budget on plugging wells. 

The Division of Oil and Gas Resources Management spent $55.43 million in state funds and $6.7 million in federal funds to plug orphan wells in 2025, according to ODNR. 

ODNR will sometimes uses drones to help locate orphan wells. 

“The drone program is supported by multiple, contracted well-locating consultants that fly drone-based magnetometers to locate and verify unknown wells,” said Rural Action Watersheds Program Director Matt Ledford. 

Rural Action has worked with ODNR’s Division of Oil and Gas Resources Management since 2024 as a landowner liaison between the division and property owners where orphan wells are located, Ledford said. 

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

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

Originally published on TiffinOhio.net.

Indeed, his two terms of transferring state wealth to private companies may, in retrospect, define his time in office. In addition to the tech deals that limit the state from reining in the data centers that a growing majority of Ohioans hate, Kasich’s legacy is a litany of pro-corporate/anti-taxpayer blunders:

• Offering $400 million Ohio dollars in 2011 to lure the dying Sears retail giant from a massive suburban campus in the distant Chicago suburbs to a new, sprawling rural campus somewhere in Ohio. This was unlikely to happen, but its shows intellectual bankruptcy of Kasich’s economic strategy. (The $400 million offer, incidentally, equaled the amount of federal funding Kasich rejected for a Cleveland-Columbus-Dayton-Cincinnati passenger rail system.)  

• Selling off farms, equipment, facilities, and livestock at 11 Ohio prisons in 2017 – when the Department of Rehabilitation and Correction was in the middle of a $9 million expansion and improvement of those facilities. Among the assets auctioned off at “fire-sale” prices were 12,500 acres of farmland, 2,300 head of beef cattle and 1,000 dairy cows.

• Creating JobsOhio and funding it with the taxpayer dollars that had supported the wildly popular Clean Ohio program.

In fact, the ham-handed and foolish Sears and prison-farm plans pale in comparison to the one-two punch of creating JobsOhio and gutting the Clean Ohio Fund in 2011.

Through creation of JobsOhio and putting state liquor proceeds into the hands of a private company, the Kasich administration did more than an end-run around the state constitution and privatizing public assets. The arguably worst facet of privatizing economic development was, ironically, Kasich’s dismantling of what was perhaps the greatest economic-development program in the state’s history – Clean Ohio.

For about 10 years, Ohio’s liquor proceeds funded the brownfield-cleanup portion of Clean Ohio – a popular urban and rural environmental cleanup program created through a constitutional ballot issue overwhelmingly approved by voters in 2000 and renewed and revised in 2008. The Clean Ohio program was a four-pronged, bipartisan, urban and rural, multifaceted statewide environmental program that sold $400 million in bonds to: 

• expand and support parks, open space, wetlands, and natural areas facing threats; 

• provide grants to farm owners who place easements on fields to perpetually preserve farmland through an Ohio Department of Agriculture program; 

• maintain and expand recreational trails throughout the state;

• and, in the biggest part of the program, clean up urban brownfields and turn them back into profitable, tax-generating properties in Ohio cities. 

Originally proposed by former Republican Gov. Robert Taft in 1999, the program was created in 2000 upon passage of Issue 1, with 57.4 percent support by Ohio voters. In 2008, Democratic Gov. Ted Strickland led the campaign to renew Clean Ohio – and it was overwhelmingly passed in all 88 counties by 70 percent of Ohio voters in a big-turnout presidential-election year.

But after Kasich became governor in 2011 and hatched his JobsOhio scheme, Clean Ohio was disemboweled.

The $100 million each year over four years was split evenly between urban brownfields ($50 million) and rural greenfields ($50 million, broken into $25 million for open space and $12.5 million each for farmland and trails). Bonds for the projects on the green side were repaid through general state revenues; the brownfield bonds were backed by state liquor profits.

The key to the brownfield remediation was a laser focus on cleanup of contaminated industrial sites rather than pointing fingers and assessing blame. Typically, developers with new plans for defunct industrial sites would seek a Clean Ohio grant and then work with environmental specialists on the long process of remediation and eventual redevelopment in Ohio’s cities. 

This came at a time when industrial sites across the country were tied up in courts for decades. The sites typically had changed hands several times over the decades, and contamination often went back a century or more. In many cases, the dumping of toxic waste began well before laws were enacted to prevent such dumping. Every dollar spent on litigation to assign blame for the pollution was a dollar less to clean up the mess.

The liquor-backed bonds allowed for sites to be cleaned and redeveloped into profitable and tax-generating properties without waiting on the courts. The program was recognized nationally for its scope and innovation.

Clean Ohio thus thrived through three administrations, two governors and two political parties. It led to hundreds of millions of dollars for projects in all 88 Ohio counties and won bipartisan support at the local and state levels. The $400 million for the Brownfields program alone led to cleanup of 7,600 acres of contaminated sites, and, according to the Greater Ohio Policy Center, “placed Ohio as a national leader in brownfields redevelopment.”

Greater Ohio analyzed 21 brownfield projects between 2003 and 2012, and found they “resulted in a net positive value for the state’s investment, producing $1.16 billion in one-time contributions and $1.4 billion in annual contributions to the state GDP.” They also added $55 million state and local taxes. And that doesn’t include the number of jobs for the remediation itself and the new neighborhoods and buildings that were constructed on former brownfield sites.

It wasn’t until 2021 that Clean Ohio got back to some semblance of its original self and re-established the grant program. But that came after almost a decade uncertainty and a significant decline in grants while JobsOhio runs around ready to offer subsidies and take credit for companies making a footprint in Ohio.

Brian Williams is a freelance writer.

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

Originally published on TiffinOhio.net.

Across Ohio and the country, thousands of adults are also preparing for the start of a new academic year. Many are balancing full-time jobs, raising families, or changing careers. Others are taking the next step toward becoming teachers, answering a need that extends well beyond the classroom and into the future of our communities.

Back-to-school season is a reminder that learning doesn’t end with high school or college graduation. In today’s workforce, education has become a lifelong endeavor, with adults returning to school to build new skills, pursue meaningful careers and create better opportunities for themselves and their families.

For many, that journey begins with a desire to make a difference. Teacher shortages continue to affect schools in Ohio and across the country, leaving districts searching for qualified educators while student needs continue to grow. At the same time, many working adults are looking for careers that offer purpose, stability and the chance to have a lasting impact. Taken together, those two realities create an important opportunity: supporting more adults as they pursue careers in education.

Of course, becoming a teacher isn’t always a straightforward decision. Many aspiring educators already have careers, mortgages, children or other responsibilities that make returning to a traditional college campus difficult. Those would-be educators have what it takes in terms of personal motivation and ability. The challenge, more often than not, is finding an education model that fits into an already-full life.

That’s why flexibility has become one of the most important ingredients in expanding our future educator pipeline. Online, competency-based education has helped make earning a degree more accessible for working adults by allowing students to learn when and where it works best for them while progressing at a pace that reflects what they already know. Removing barriers like rigid schedules or geographic limitations can make the difference between someone putting their career aspirations on hold and taking the next step toward the classroom.

And as we work to fill the pipeline, the more inspired educators of different backgrounds we can bring into the classroom, the better. When students see themselves reflected in their teachers, it shapes how they experience school. It can influence their sense of belonging, their confidence, and how they envision their own futures. For some students, feeling understood by their teacher can be the difference between disengaging and leaning in. It can also shape whether they ever consider teaching as a possible career themselves.

Just as importantly, today’s educators are entering a profession that continues to evolve. Teachers are expected to integrate new technologies, personalize instruction and prepare students for careers that may not even exist yet. The ability to learn flexibly and continuously is just as important for educators as it is for the students they teach.

While children are preparing for a new year of learning, adults across Ohio are making the equally important decision to invest in themselves, and to become the teachers who will inspire the next generation. By expanding access to practical, career-connected pathways, we can help more aspiring educators turn their goals into reality and ensure that tomorrow’s classrooms are led by the skilled, passionate teachers our students deserve.

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

Originally published on TiffinOhio.net.

“This is the most consequential election of our lifetime,” said U.S. Rep. Gregory Meeks, a New York Democrat. “So the message is: If you’re concerned about the Supreme Court, get out and vote. If you’re concerned about making sure we’re taking care of the poor and the children, get out and vote.”

Meeks was part of a panel that assessed the last 18 months, finding that “Black America” hangs in the balance against the Trump administration’s push to limit voting by mail, changing who and what counts in the U.S. Census and dismantling various federal agencies.  

President Donald Trump has demanded that Congress pass the SAVE America Act, which would require additional documents, such as passports and birth certificates, to register to vote and cast a ballot. Trump also issued an executive order pushing limits on vote-by-mail that would have required specific designs for ballots and mandated that states collect certain information from voters.

Democratic-led states and voting rights groups sued, warning the change could disenfranchise 50 million voters set to receive ballots for this fall’s midterm elections. Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court blocked Trump’s plan.

Janai Nelson, president and director-counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, said one necessary change is Supreme Court reform.

Earlier this year, the nation’s highest court ruled 6-3 in Callais v. Louisiana that the state’s use of race-based redistricting amounted to an “unconstitutional racial gerrymander.”

State lawmakers had drawn maps that created a second majority-Black congressional district represented by Cleo Fields, a Baton Rouge Democrat who is not seeking re-election. After the court decision, the GOP-controlled legislature revised Fields’ district to favor a Republican, leaving Louisiana with one Black-majority district out of six. The state’s Black population is around 30%.

“For the longest time, people who want to advance the extremist agenda have had their eyes on the Supreme Court,” said Nelson, who argued the Callais case before the Supreme Court, in support of Black representation. “The Supreme Court is the highest court in the land. It dictates the law. It can strike down legislation. It is a powerful arm of government.”

Fallout from the Callais decision prompted Republican majorities in several Southern states to reshape congressional districts to make them less favorable to minority voters in the midterm elections. Analysts have said possibly 20 of the Congressional Black Caucus’ 62 members could lose their seats this fall.

Among those affected is Rep. Shomari Figures, an Alabama Democrat. The Alabama Legislature redrew Figures’ district to decrease the Black voting age population from nearly 49% to 39%.

Figures talked about the real-life  impact on Black communities without representation.

He said 88% of people in his state graduate from a public high school. But a school voucher program called the CHOOSE Act grants $7,000 tax credits that can be used for private school tuition. Nearly 14,000 of the 24,000 granted awards planned to enroll in private school last year.

Figures said he represents one of the worst congressional districts in the country when it comes to healthcare: 1 in 5 people is diabetic.

“That’s why it is vital that we continue to push back against these redistricting efforts, against the gerrymandering efforts that we’re seeing across the country,” he said.

Black policy playbook

Conference attendees also received a copy or a digital version of  “Forward Together: The Black Policy Playbook for An Equitable America.”

The report, developed by the caucus foundation and the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, covers eight policy areas from voting rights and civic engagement to education, immigration and technology.

Recommendations included: Requiring federal funding to states to modernize voter registration systems, voter education and protections against discriminatory election practices; and requiring the U.S. Treasury Department to develop a fair lending oversight program that’s consistent with other federal financial regulators.

“When we talk about economic mobility, when we talk about creating sustainability, we have to shift from the politics of the self [and] back to the politics of the community. That is the only way we survive,” said Alphonso David, president & CEO of Global Black Economic Forum.

This story was originally produced by Maryland Matters, 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.

Police identified the man Monday as Gaspar G. Hinojosa, a Fremont resident.

Norfolk Southern reported Sunday that a pedestrian had been struck by a train on the railroad trestle adjacent to the Miles Newton Bridge. Emergency crews responded to the area and began searching for the person.

Responders located Hinojosa deceased in the Sandusky River at approximately 3 p.m.

“Preliminary findings indicate that Mr. Hinojosa was struck by the train while walking on the trestle,” Fremont Police Chief Derek Wensinger said in an updated media release Monday.

The Fremont Police and Fire departments, Sandusky County Sheriff’s Office, Ballville Township Fire Department, Harris-Elmore Fire Department hovercraft, Sandusky Township Fire Department and Sandusky County Drone Team were involved in the response.

The Ottawa County Water Rescue/Dive Team and Toledo Fire Department Special Operations team were also dispatched but were canceled while en route, according to police.

The incident remains under investigation while authorities await reports from the Sandusky County Coroner.

Originally published on TiffinOhio.net.

As a South-Western City Schools board member, D’Angelo voted in 2024 to give attorney Omar Tarazi a $9,000-a-month contract one week after he publicly touted the value of helping school boards through privileged advice “without necessarily being in the public sphere.”

By then, Tarazi had already billed the district $78,016.18 for legal work. Another $39,130 in superintendent-search expenses had been invoiced through him on behalf of K-12 Business Consulting.

D’Angelo, now the Republican candidate for Ohio House District 10, has made government transparency part of her Statehouse campaign.

Under a section of her website titled “State Transparency,” D’Angelo promises to bring a “mom’s eye” to the state budget and demand that “every dollar spent is visible and every legislative decision is made in the light of day.”

Tarazi touted advice outside ‘the public sphere’

Tarazi made his comments July 15, 2024, while seeking legal work from another Ohio school district.

During a presentation to the Big Walnut Local Schools Board of Education, Tarazi explained what he considered one of the principal benefits of having an attorney work directly with a school board.

“The main value that lawyers provide is being able to give attorney-client privileged, clear advice,” Tarazi said, according to NBC4 reporting, adding that counsel could “really help guide a board without necessarily being in the public sphere.”

Tarazi also told Big Walnut board members they could contact him “day or night” for independent, confidential guidance.

Seven days later, South-Western’s board held a special meeting to vote on a formal contract with Tarazi.

D’Angelo joined board members Chris Boso and Julie Liskany in approving the agreement. Camille Peterson voted no. Kelli Martindale was absent.

The contract paid Tarazi a flat $9,000 per month for routine services from July 22 through the end of 2024, with an option for a one-year renewal. It also allowed him to bill $300 per hour for non-routine work.

The Westside Messenger reported that Peterson cited her “lack of involvement in a board decision to solicit the legal services of Tarazi” as one reason she opposed the contract.

Peterson also questioned the cost.

“I do question if we are honestly being financially responsible with the district and taxpayers’ funds when we are voting on a contract for this purpose or expense,” she said.

More than $78,000 in legal bills before contract

Tarazi’s relationship with South-Western did not begin with the $9,000 monthly contract.

Before the July 22 vote, NBC4 reported three periods of legal billing from Tarazi:

• $23,823 from Jan. 22 through March 1;

• $22,932 from March 2 through March 25; and

• $31,261.18 from March 26 through July 3.

Combined, Tarazi billed $78,016.18 for legal work before receiving the monthly contract.

The descriptions of Tarazi’s work on itemized invoices released to NBC4 were completely redacted. Tarazi cited attorney-client privilege when declining to describe the legal services he provided.

The money flowing through Tarazi’s invoices went beyond his own legal work.

NBC4 reported that South-Western also received two superintendent-search charges through Tarazi: $22,980 on March 26 and $16,150 on May 24.

Those charges totaled $39,130 and were invoiced through Tarazi on behalf of K-12 Business Consulting, the company conducting the district’s superintendent search.

Combined with Tarazi’s legal billing, more than $117,000 in charges had been associated with his invoices before D’Angelo and two other board members approved his $9,000 monthly contract.

D’Angelo now campaigns on transparency

Two years later, D’Angelo is running for the Ohio House with transparency as part of her campaign platform.

Her pledge that “every dollar spent is visible” comes after her vote to formalize Tarazi’s contract following more than $78,000 in legal bills whose descriptions were redacted when released by the district.

Her pledge that government decisions be made “in the light of day” also comes after she voted for Tarazi’s contract seven days after he publicly described the ability to provide privileged guidance outside the public sphere as a benefit of school-board counsel.

D’Angelo is challenging Democratic state Rep. Mark Sigrist in Ohio House District 10 this November.

Originally published on TiffinOhio.net.

Coalition of Patriots II, a northwest Ohio group that identifies as constitutional conservative, accused Click Saturday of being “vindictive” and attempting to undermine an Oct. 1 event the group says it arranged with Ramaswamy for approximately 110 people.

Click has now announced his own Ramaswamy event in Tiffin on the same evening — beginning just one hour earlier.

“Please join us and help spread the word! I’m looking forward to bringing Vivek Ramaswamy to the 88th District for a Tiffin Town Hall!” Click wrote in a Facebook post promoting the event.

The accompanying advertisement lists the town hall for 5:30 p.m. Oct. 1 at the Marion Center at Tiffin University, 155 Miami St. It says the event is sponsored by Click and the Seneca County Republican Central Committee.

Coalition of Patriots II says its invitation-only question-and-answer event with Ramaswamy begins at 6:30 p.m. — exactly one hour after Click’s town hall is scheduled to begin.

The group says its event was arranged first, that Click was not invited and that Click sought his own Ramaswamy appearance after learning about the gathering.

Group says Click tried to undermine its event

Coalition of Patriots II tied the dispute directly to the bitter Republican primary that nearly cost Click his seat earlier this year.

“During the primary season several constitutional conservative groups didn’t agree with Rep. Click’s recent voting record and supported his Republican opponent Eric Watson,” the group said in a statement provided to TiffinOhio.net. “These individuals worked hard to get Mr. Watson’s message out and nearly upset Rep. Click’s third term efforts.”

The group accused Click of responding to those disagreements with personal attacks rather than attempting to repair relationships with conservatives who opposed him.

“Instead of trying to understand and address the differences Rep. Click followed his past antics of name calling, which seems to be a strategy of his,” the group wrote. “He tries to publicly tarnish the reputations of those who disagree with him.”

That fight, the group says, has now spilled into the fall campaign.

Coalition of Patriots II said a constitutional conservative grassroots group arranged for Ramaswamy to attend the Oct. 1 question-and-answer session with approximately 110 voters.

Click was not invited, according to the group.

“When Rep. Click learned he was not one of the invited, he then attempted to undermine the conservative groups meeting by trying to schedule his own meeting with the candidate the same evening,” the group wrote.

Click subsequently announced the 5:30 p.m. Ramaswamy town hall at Tiffin University.

The Coalition’s event is scheduled for 6:30 p.m.

“So a constitutional conservative group of people who wanted to hear Mr. Ramaswamy speak, scheduled an event and because of the vindictiveness of Rep. Click he tried to sabotage that event,” the group wrote.

The group said the approximately 110 people invited to its gathering were prepared to become active Ramaswamy supporters if they liked what they heard.

“What Rep. Click did was not done to move the Republican Party or its candidates forward, but was to satisfy a grudge he holds against those who oppose him,” the group wrote. “That is how he wields the power of politics.”

Despite Click’s newly announced town hall, the Coalition says Ramaswamy is still attending its event.

“Despite all of Rep. Click’s efforts, Mr. Ramaswamy is still attending the conservative groups event,” it wrote.

The two announced appearances are scheduled only an hour apart. Click’s advertisement lists a 5:30 p.m. start time but does not give an ending time.

Click escaped his primary by 599 votes

The fight follows a Republican primary in which Click came within 599 votes of losing the nomination to first-time challenger Eric Watson.

Click defeated Watson 6,859 to 6,260 — 52.28% to 47.72% — out of 13,119 Republican votes cast across Seneca and Sandusky counties.

Click also lost Seneca County to Watson, surviving only after a stronger showing in his home county of Sandusky.

Nearly 48% of Republican primary voters in the district voted for Watson instead of the three-term incumbent.

The primary also exposed a wider rupture between Click and organizations on his political right.

Ohio Gun Owners backed Watson and initially gave Click a C-minus rating before later downgrading him to an F. End Abortion Ohio also endorsed Watson after Click declined to complete its candidate survey.

Click did not quietly disagree with the groups.

In March, Click called End Abortion Ohio “clowns” after the organization endorsed Watson and said he would refuse its endorsement “under any condition.”

Click also called Ohio Gun Owners leader Chris Dorr a “fraud” amid their fight over gun legislation.

The primary did not end the feud.

Watson later refused to endorse Click, even after the two met following the election. Watson said their meeting failed to resolve disagreements over issues including data centers and digital identification.

The same conservative rupture that nearly cost Click the Republican nomination is still visible months later.

Ramaswamy has been pulled into the feud before

This is not the first time Ramaswamy has become part of the fight between Click and conservatives challenging him from the right.

During the primary, Click temporarily disappeared from a list of legislative endorsements on Ramaswamy’s campaign website.

Watson seized on the removal, calling Click “a liability” to the Republican ticket. Click was later restored to the endorsement page.

Now Ramaswamy is again at the center of a dispute involving Click and conservative activists who remain angry months after the primary.

Coalition of Patriots II closed its Saturday statement with a direct attack on Click’s representation of the district.

“Because of this and similar past behavior is Rep. Click suitable or worthy to represent the people of Seneca and Sandusky Counties?” the group wrote. “Clearly he is not!!”

Click is seeking a fourth and final term representing Ohio House District 88, which includes all of Seneca and Sandusky counties. He faces Democrat Aaron Jones of Tiffin in the Nov. 3 general election.

Five months after Click escaped the Republican primary by 599 votes, the conservative revolt that nearly cost him the nomination has not gone away.

Originally published on TiffinOhio.net.

Campaign-finance records reviewed by TiffinOhio.net show Conrad Geis, president of Geis Companies, contributed $6,588.89 to Workman’s campaign on May 5.

Transparency USA lists Geis as Workman’s second-largest contributor in the current campaign cycle, behind only Howard Rich.

Before making the contribution, Geis Construction had already asked Shalersville Township trustees to lift the township’s data center moratorium so vacant land at the company’s Turnpike Commerce Center could be marketed for data center development. Trustees rejected the request and extended the moratorium.

Shalersville is part of Workman’s 72nd Ohio House District.

Eight days after Geis contributed to Workman, she announced her appointment to the newly created Joint Data Center Committee on May 13.

The panel was created to examine the economic, environmental, energy and security impacts of Ohio’s expanding data center industry and hear from industry representatives, local governments and affected communities.

Workman was already sponsoring legislation regulating new data centers.

She and Republican state Rep. Steve Demetriou introduced House Bill 710 on Feb. 24.

The bill would prohibit state and local governments from awarding economic-development assistance to new data centers, restrict construction on certain properties, prohibit eminent domain for new data centers and require developers to bear electricity-system costs attributable to their projects rather than shifting those costs to other customers.

The Legislative Service Commission analysis says the bill would require developers to cover generation, transmission, distribution, capacity, congestion and other electricity costs attributable to new data centers.

When announcing the legislation, Workman said Ohio should not pursue development that “increases utility costs, or shifts infrastructure expenses onto working families and small businesses.”

Geis also gave money to Workman’s HB 710 co-sponsor.

Campaign-finance records reviewed by TiffinOhio.net show Geis contributed $16,615.66 to Demetriou on May 5 — the same day he gave $6,588.89 to Workman.

Together, Geis gave the two primary sponsors of HB 710 $23,204.55 in a single day.

On May 19, Workman and Demetriou testified in favor of HB 710 before the House General Government Committee.

Geis-backed project could include 15 buildings

On May 27, News 5 Cleveland reported that Singapore-based Bitdeer had a contract to purchase roughly 257 acres at the Geis-developed Turnpike Commerce Center in Shalersville.

The proposed campus could include 15 buildings, begin with approximately 150 megawatts of power capacity and eventually grow to as much as 750 megawatts. Bitdeer estimated construction costs exceeding $300 million before equipment.

Workman attended a May 29 informational event on the project where hundreds of Portage County residents gathered and protesters demonstrated outside.

At the event, Workman told News 5 she had not taken a position on the Bitdeer proposal and said questions involving water, electricity, cost shifting and tax benefits deserved scrutiny.

Geis told the outlet that “responsible data center development can be done.”

Bitdeer has said it is not seeking tax breaks for the Shalersville project. The project also remains subject to the township’s data center moratorium and had not received local approval when developers presented it publicly.

Geis is Workman’s second-largest campaign contributor. His company is pursuing a major data center development in her district, while Workman co-sponsors legislation regulating new data centers and serves on the General Assembly’s data center panel.

Workman is seeking reelection this November against Democrat Jeff Clapper and Libertarian Michael Fricke.

Originally published on TiffinOhio.net.

The record comes as Dovilla campaigns against what a new Republican television advertisement calls “free rides for data centers.”

“His next fight: no more free rides for data centers,” a narrator says in the new advertisement, paid for by the Ohio House Republican Organizational Committee, or OHROC.

Dovilla voted for Ohio’s data center tax break

Dovilla, who served in the Ohio House from 2011 through 2016 before returning in 2025, was a co-sponsor of House Bill 153, Ohio’s 2011-12 operating budget.

The final budget created Ohio Revised Code Section 122.175, authorizing the Ohio Tax Credit Authority to grant full or partial sales- and use-tax exemptions for equipment purchased for qualifying computer data centers.

Qualifying projects were required to make at least $100 million in capital investment and maintain at least $5 million in annual payroll. The exemption covered computer data center equipment along with cooling systems, electrical equipment and certain construction materials.

An Ohio Legislative Service Commission analysis detailed the new exemption and its eligibility requirements. LSC estimated that the provision could reduce state sales-tax receipts by “several millions of dollars.”

Dovilla voted yes on final passage of HB 153 on June 29, 2011. The bill became law and established Ohio’s computer data center sales-tax exemption.

Dovilla voted for major expansion of the tax break

Two years later, Dovilla backed another state budget that substantially expanded eligibility for the exemption.

Dovilla was a co-sponsor of House Bill 59, Ohio’s 2013-14 operating budget.

The final legislation cut the required annual payroll for a qualifying data center from $5 million to $1.5 million — a 70% reduction.

It also allowed multiple businesses operating at the same data center to combine their investment and payroll totals to qualify, gave businesses additional time to reach the payroll threshold and expanded eligibility to certain companies leasing facilities to data center operators.

The LSC analysis detailed the reduced payroll requirement and other changes to the exemption. LSC said the expansion could decrease state and local sales- and use-tax revenue.

Dovilla again voted yes on the final version of HB 59 on June 27, 2013. The measure passed the House 53-44 and became law.

Dovilla directly co-sponsored another data center tax measure

In 2014, Dovilla directly co-sponsored legislation changing the qualification rules for the data center exemption.

Dovilla was a House co-sponsor of Senate Bill 243, which gave certain projects additional time to make the $100 million capital investment required to qualify for the sales- and use-tax exemption.

The Ohio Legislature’s official description of SB 243 says the measure would “temporarily allow computer data centers more time to make the required capital investment” needed to qualify for the exemption.

SB 243 became law.

Dovilla’s legislative record spans three separate actions on the incentive: he voted for the 2011 budget that established the exemption, voted for the 2013 budget that cut its payroll requirement from $5 million to $1.5 million and directly co-sponsored the 2014 legislation giving some projects longer to meet the required investment threshold.

Current data center lobbyists gave Dovilla $2,800

Dovilla has also received $2,800 from two lobbyists who are now registered to represent QTS Data Centers.

Ohio campaign finance records reviewed by TiffinOhio.net show Andrew Minton and William “Bill” Byers of Columbus lobbying firm Byers Minton & Associates each contributed $1,400 to Dovilla during 2025 and 2026.

Each gave Dovilla $150 on March 31, 2025; $500 on June 10, 2025; $500 on Oct. 3, 2025; and $250 on March 27, 2026.

State lobbying records currently list both Minton and Byers as registered lobbying agents for QTS Data Centers.

QTS is pursuing billions of dollars in data center development in Ohio.

In May, QTS and the city of Van Wert announced plans for a northwest Ohio data center campus expected to involve approximately $10 billion in capital investment, according to the company’s project announcement. QTS said the proposed Van Wert campus would create more than 1,500 construction jobs and approximately 200 permanent company positions.

The company also operates data center campuses in New Albany.

Dovilla’s campaign also received $500 on March 31, 2025 from Vorys Sater Seymour and Pease LLP Advocates for Effective Government, the law firm’s political committee.

Vorys has extensive business involving data center development. The firm said in a 2025 announcement that it assisted Vantage Data Centers with a more than $2 billion hyperscale data center campus in New Albany.

Vorys said its work for Vantage included economic-development incentives, state and local taxation, land acquisition, zoning, construction, energy, environmental matters and financing. Its government-relations affiliate, Vorys Advisors, also represented Vantage in connection with the project.

Dovilla now campaigns against data center ‘free rides’

Dovilla now opposes the data center subsidies contained in legislation he previously supported.

On March 18, Dovilla voted for House Bill 646, legislation establishing the Ohio Data Center Study Commission.

“I have heard from constituents across our district with a wide range of questions about data center development, including impacts on energy demand, land use, and local infrastructure,” Dovilla said at the time.

In May, Gov. Mike DeWine ordered the Ohio Tax Credit Authority to freeze consideration of new data center tax exemptions while lawmakers studied the industry’s effects.

Dovilla called DeWine’s action “too little, too late”, according to the Ohio Public Radio and Television Statehouse News Bureau.

His new OHROC-funded advertisement now tells voters that his “next fight” will be “no more free rides for data centers.”

Dovilla faces Democrat Megan Coy in November

Dovilla is seeking another term in Ohio House District 17 against Democrat Megan Coy, a registered nurse and Olmsted Falls councilwoman.

The Cuyahoga County Board of Elections lists Coy and Dovilla as the two candidates for House District 17 in the Nov. 3 general election.

Originally published on TiffinOhio.net.

There are currently 240 active or under construction data centers in the state. The facilities, which provide the computing power needed to train and run AI systems, use large amounts of electricity and water and have been blamed for rising utility costs.

A recent New York Times/Siena poll found that 61% of Americans oppose building data centers in their communities. This backlash has made data center policy a major issue in the upcoming elections.

Husted has held multiple political offices in Ohio since 2001. He was appointed to the U.S. Senate last year to fill the seat vacated by Vice President JD Vance.

A review of campaign finance records spanning Husted’s career indicates that he has received $631,284 from companies that own and operate data centers, employees who work for those companies, and lobbyists who represent those companies’ interests. This includes individuals associated with Amazon, Google, and Microsoft.

As lieutenant governor from 2019 to 2025, Husted pushed to expand the use of AI in state and local government, including in public schools. This made Ohio a hotbed for the AI industry and accelerated the construction of data centers across the state.

Signal Ohio reports that Ohio data centers received $2.5 billion in state and local tax incentives between 2017 and 2024. This includes a sales tax exemption for data centers that Husted personally championed. The exemption helped pave the way for a Google-run data center in New Albany.

In the Senate, Husted supported the sweeping One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBB), which significantly expanded federal tax incentives for data centers. House and Senate Democrats are now pushing to repeal those incentives.

One of Husted’s first hires as a senator was senior advisor Sean Dunn, an Ohio-based lobbyist who had done work on behalf of Meta, another data center giant. The Washington Sun reported in June that Dunn continued to work as a lobbyist while employed by Husted.

Dunn has personally donated more than $94,000 to Husted’s various campaigns.

Husted is seeking his first full U.S. Senate term this year. His Democratic opponent, former Sen. Sherrod Brown, has put out multiple ads criticizing Husted’s data center record. Brown has endorsed legislation that would require data centers to pay the full cost of their utilities.

Originally published on TiffinOhio.net.

Introduced in the Ohio General Assembly in 2019, House Bill 6 created a more than $1 billion bailout by ratepayers of two coal plants and the aging Davis-Besse and Perry nuclear power plants. FirstEnergy’s former CEO Chuck Jones and former Senior Vice President of External Affairs Michael Dowling are accused of racketeering in helping to arrange more than $60 million in bribes from FirstEnergy to former Republican Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder and his political allies, including former Public Utilities Commission of Ohio Chair Sam Randazzo, to ensure the bill’s passage. 

The bill required residential customers to pay an additional surcharge of $1.30 to $1.50 each month, depending on which company owned their utility.

In December 2020, a judge blocked the nuclear plant bailout portion of the law. In March 2021, Gov. Mark DeWine signed a bill into law that repealed those provisions and refunded $26 million to consumers. A final repeal of coal plant subsidies wasn’t achieved until 2025, as part of a larger energy reform bill. Renewable energy mandates repealed by House Bill 6 have yet to be reenacted. 

In January, the company agreed to pay an additional $275 million in restitution and refunds to customers of its three electric utilities: Ohio Edison, the Illuminating Company, and Toledo Edison. The company said the average residential customer would receive roughly $65 in bill credits over three months, and that $20 million would support low-income bill assistance, weatherization and energy-efficiency initiatives.

In April, FirstEnergy asked the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio to approve a rate increase at each of its three operating utilities, which would add between $4.26 and $5.30 to ratepayers’ monthly bills in the first year. That increase would double in the second year and triple in the third.

The company says it plans to spend $800 million per year on distribution system upgrades, including poles and wires, and an additional $83 million each year for tree trimming. FirstEnergy’s customers were among state residents who saw their monthly bills increase 10% to 35% in January 2025, a period during which the rapid growth of data centers drove energy demand, according to the Ohio Consumers’ Counsel. The company is now asking federal regulators to ensure data centers, not residential customers, pay the bill for raising their transmission interconnection costs. 

J.P. Blackwood, a spokesperson for the Ohio Consumers’ Counsel, said families are still “ticked off” at FirstEnergy’s past behavior, but he hears more concern about today’s rising costs.

Blackwood said the proposed monthly rate increases may not seem like much, but they’re enough to derail a struggling family’s budget. He said he thinks FirstEnergy has a desire to provide affordable electricity, but there are too many incentives to charge too much. He said that it’s easy for companies to focus on their shareholders, but that it’s also important to focus on the customers.

“We’re hoping that this case will resolve in a way that makes sure that consumers who are struggling have good access to bill payment assistance, and that rates are affordable, and that data centers and other large-load providers are paying for the costs they cause,” he said.

Originally published on TiffinOhio.net.

Home heating costs are anticipated to rise by almost 9% this winter, according to a recent analysis from the National Energy Assistance Directors Association, a policy organization composed of state directors of low-income energy assistance programs. The analysis predicted households would spend an additional $1,030 on average for heating this winter, up $82 over the year prior.

The organization attributed the higher prices to higher electricity and heating oil costs.

Across the United States, more than 275 electric and natural gas utilities have increased rates, received approval for increases, or proposed increases since 2025, with potential added costs to customers exceeding $101 billion through 2028, NEADA reported.

Heating oil costs were $3.68 per gallon from October through December 2025, federal data shows. After Trump launched military attacks in Iran in late February and Iran began blocking oil shipments through the Strait of Hormuz, heating oil costs are expected to climb to $5.66 per gallon during the same time period this year.

“This is a warning that too many families are entering winter with no room left in their budgets,” said Mark Wolfe, executive director of NEADA, in a Sept. 14 press release. “They have already experienced record high summer cooling costs and now they are facing home heating costs that are rising more than twice the rate of inflation.”

As costs grow and temperatures begin to drop, the group expressed concern over the possibility that households that can’t pay their bills could be disconnected from utilities. It reported that, in 2024, utilities disconnected electric service approximately 13.4 million times and natural gas service approximately 1.7 million times for nonpayment.

The greatest impact will be felt by heating oil customers, whose bills are projected to increase by roughly 31% this winter. In the winter of 2023–2024, about 4.79 million American households used heating oil as their primary heating source, with about 82% of those households in the Northeastern states, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

Families that rely on electric heating and propane are projected to see costs rise by 9%, while households using natural gas are expected to see heating costs increase by about 6% percent.

Overall, energy costs have increased roughly 24% since the winter of 2021-22.

The National Energy Assistance Directors Association said winter heating costs may be mitigated by this year’s El Niño, a natural weather phenomenon that brings with it unusually warmer winter temperatures and could reduce the amount of energy households need to heat their homes.

Originally published on TiffinOhio.net.

Meanwhile, 23 communities have effectively banned data centers, with at least 23 more across seven counties considering similar proposals. Many villages and small townships do not publish ordinances or meeting minutes online, making the true count likely even higher as more developments happen every day.

A moratorium is a temporary pause, usually on new construction in the case of data centers. While a permanent ban can require a lengthy zoning process only available to some communities, any municipality or township can pass a moratorium.

A Bowling Green State University poll released Wednesday found that 78% of Ohioans support data center moratoriums until more information can be gathered about their effects. Seventy-five percent oppose construction in their local communities, and 63% are against construction elsewhere in Ohio.

Berea Mayor Cyril Kleem said his city’s one-year moratorium didn’t mean the local government was in favor of data centers or against them.

“We get so much information, particularly through social media. I don’t know if it’s always accurate, so we just wanted to take our time to look at it,” he said.

The data center industry responds

A lobbying group that represents major data center companies funded ads touting the benefits of data centers in seven states, including Ohio. Five of the state’s biggest data center developers announced donations to a program that helps Ohioans cover their utility bills in late August.

The push comes as data centers have become politically toxic ahead of the November midterms. While only 9% of Ohioans in the BGSU poll listed data centers as the most important political issue for them, 47% said a candidate’s stance on data centers is very or extremely important to their vote in November.

A leaked memo from Republicans’ main campaign committee first reported by Axios warned that data centers could be the deciding factor against Ohio Republican U.S. Sen. Jon Husted if developers don’t explain “who benefits, who pays, and why a community should want one.”

Capital University finance and economics professor Saurav Roychoudhury studies the economic impact of data centers on Ohio communities. Developers used to prioritize sites that were close to power and water sources, and tax incentives encouraged big names to choose Ohio, he said.

“Because there are these hyperscalers coming in, it puts Ohio onto the map,” he said. “If Amazon, Meta, and Google are all operating in Ohio … it’s a good place to do business.”

Now, Ohio’s state tax incentives for data centers are on hiatus, and politicians on both sides of the aisle are pushing to make that permanent. Many newer data centers also use water more efficiently, he added.

A new priority second to power generation has emerged: what Roychoudhury called “de-risked land.” Those are sites where developers are less likely to face community opposition or zoning issues, he said, as they try to get data centers online as soon as possible.

“Speed to market is essential,” he said. “If you are having moratoriums for six months or up to a year, and then you decide what will happen, some of these developers will just look somewhere else where it’s a little bit more friendly.”

Some developers dropped plans to build data centers after local communities proposed moratoriums, and others have persevered. Urbana, Lordstown, and Commercial Point are facing lawsuits from developers who claim that local officials collaborated on plans for potential sites before changing course and passing moratoriums.

What can communities do during a moratorium?

Moratoriums can be good for development if communities use the time to set clear rules and build public trust, Roychoudhury added. Massillon lifted its moratorium early after passing new zoning regulations for data centers.

State and federal lawmakers have floated several ideas to rein in data centers, and candidates in Ohio’s governor and U.S. Senate races outlined plans to regulate them if elected.

So far, little has been passed into law. At the federal level, environmental regulations for data centers and the plants that power them are getting rolled back. An amendment to the state’s 2025 budget bill that received little attention when it first passed is now a roadblock against community referendums on zoning for “any property involved in a megaproject.”

Still, local governments have full control over approving data center buildings, said Michael McGovern, the president of progressive policy organization Innovation Ohio.

Findlay, which is under a moratorium until April, is considering what the director of the Hancock Regional Planning Commission called the most complex ordinance he has ever written. In addition to setbacks and noise limits, which are fairly common in data center zoning regulations, the proposal would require third-party technical reports at the developer’s expense and a case-by-case cap on electrical demand.

Communities can also require workers to be hired from the local area, McGovern said, and demand proof of a contract signed by a developer and utility company that makes the developer pay for any new electrical infrastructure.

Developers could also do more to increase transparency, Roychoudhury added. They could create data dashboards where residents can monitor data centers’ energy efficiency and provide notice before turning on emergency generators, he said.

He emphasized that data center developers have to be committed to building long-term relationships in order to gain acceptance from local communities. Otherwise, he said a lack of information and a breakdown in public trust are driving the rise in moratoriums.

“If more of those moratoriums turn into outright bans, you’ll see many of the developers will move out of Ohio,” Roychoudhury said.

Will moratoriums become permanent bans?

Voters in four Ohio cities with active moratoriums will decide whether to ban data centers permanently this November.

Sunbury resident Trey Dockendorf said he helped gather signatures for a local ban on data centers that draw over 25 megawatts of power per month, even though the city is under a moratorium until January.

Amazon Web Services announced plans to build a data center in Sunbury in November 2024. The city commissioned two independent consultants to help develop zoning and land use regulations for data centers, but Dockendorf said he worried any regulations would be ineffective.

“A tiny municipality like Sunbury might not be able to afford the logistical and equipment costs to measure certain kinds of sound waves or pollution,” he said. “We didn’t feel like there was a way to regulate it correctly.”

Townships in multiple counties are coordinating with regional planning commissions to create uniform data center regulations, and in many cases, ban them. These are usually passed as amendments to local zoning resolutions, which require a monthslong process that includes a public hearing.

Zoning across Ohio’s townships vary widely, and many in southern and eastern Ohio don’t have zoning resolutions at all. For some, zoning is governed at the county level; Butler County passed a six-month moratorium for six of its 13 townships, and Fayette County is considering a one-year moratorium for eight of its 10 townships.

Data centers are getting banned en masse in nearby Logan, Union, and Champaign counties, where nearly all townships control their own zoning. The Logan-Union-Champaign Regional Planning Commission, which provides feedback to townships that want to change their zoning codes, reviewed 28 nearly identical data center bans from April to September.

There are 43 townships across the three counties combined. The proposals would define data centers in the zoning code without specifying a use, effectively prohibiting them.

In Knox County to the east, at least four townships have proposed some kind of ban, whether by designating anything left out of a zoning resolution as prohibited or an explicit ban against data centers.

Marta Hill represents Liberty Township at the Knox County Regional Planning Commission and said township officials heard many concerns from residents about data centers. The county borders Licking and Delaware counties, both of which have data centers in development.

The township passed a resolution explicitly prohibiting data centers Sept. 3 because township officials wanted it to be clear that they weren’t welcome, Hill said.

“Until there are regulations, why would we want to permit something in here that’s not regulated?” she said.

Union County’s Jerome Township was one of the first in the state to pass a data center moratorium in September 2025, but today, it’s one of six townships in the county that has not proposed a ban. Its moratorium expired in June, and data centers are now in development under new land use restrictions passed in March.

A September 2025 report that Roychoudhury conducted for the Ohio Chamber of Commerce opened by stating that data centers have brought around $40 billion of investment to the state. Over 125 moratoriums and around a dozen bans later, that level of investment has proven to be an underestimate, he said.

“I think (data center development) is still possible in Ohio,” Roychoudhury said. “It’s growing despite the pushback.”

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

Originally published on TiffinOhio.net.

Cincinnati-based Kroger is the third-largest grocery chain by sales in the United States. It has been accused of using its size to avoid competition and to use other tactics to drive up prices.

For example, in a 2024 trial to block a proposed merger with Albertson’s, the Federal Trade Commission presented testimony from a Kroger executive who said the company hiked the price of milk and eggs above the rate of inflation.

The case also involved testimony from a former employee who accused Kroger of jacking up prices in neighborhoods where it didn’t have much competition.

Last May, the Center for Responsible Food Business, a nonprofit that advocates ethical practices in the food industry, launched a campaign, Kroger’s Pricing Problem. 

As part of it, the group compiled reports from government inspections of Kroger stores to see if prices on the shelves were what customers were charged at the register.

It “obtained government records covering 389 price inspections at 101 Kroger stores across nine Ohio jurisdictions between 2022 and mid-2026.”

Of those, 15% failed, and 474 were overcharges compared to 170 undercharges — nearly a three-to-one ratio. In Butler County, half of the stores failed, the report said.

It added that minorities and seniors seemed particularly likely to be victims of incorrect pricing.

“One Kroger on Siebenthaler Avenue in Dayton, for example, failed three separate government price inspections, and complaints in the same records allege ‘senior abuse’ over the storeʼs pricing,” the report said.

“According to U.S. Census Bureau survey data, the storeʼs ZIP code is 77% Black, and one in four of its residents lives below the poverty line.”

Asked about the report, a Kroger spokesperson said the company places a priority on getting prices right. 

“Our customers know that Kroger associates work hard every day to provide great service and value,” the spokesperson said in an email. “Across millions of transactions in Ohio, we take pricing accuracy seriously and work quickly to correct any issue when it is brought to our attention.” 

The spokesperson added that the Center for Responsible Food Business cherry picked data and customer comments.

“This misleading report combines selective data with unverified claims and does not accurately reflect the experience of customers in our stores every day,” the email said.

Some who identified themselves as Kroger workers told the Center for Responsible Food Business that understaffing made accurate pricing nearly impossible.

“I work at Kroger and the problem with items ringing up wrong is because they cut hours they donʼt have enough people doing tags, meaning when a new ad comes out they have to take down the old ones and they (the company) only gives you 1 maybe 2 people to do the WHOLE STORE in 8 hrs,” a person identifying as a Kroger worker in Texas wrote as part of the group’s survey.

As part of its campaign, the group solicited complaints through TV ads and an online porthole.

“We’re tired of getting ripped off at the register,” the appeal said. “Aren’t you? Tell us your story.”

Many of the responses were from people who said that when they double-checked, they weren’t charged the price that was advertised.

“Among the most common grievances in the submission dataset is that the price on the shelf, in the weekly ad, or on a digital coupon is not the price charged at the register,” the report said. “Five hundred fifty seven testimonials (29%) describe this issue.”

It added, “These counts should be read as a floor rather than an estimate of prevalence. A shopper who does not compare the shelf price to the receipt has no way of knowing an overcharge occurred, and most shoppers do not make that comparison on a routine basis.”

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

Originally published on TiffinOhio.net.

The BLM auctioned off 40 parcels in Monroe and Washington counties totaling 2,776 acres in Wayne National Forest for $11.09 million during a quarterly oil and gas lease sale. 

“Leasing is the first step in the process to develop federal oil and gas resources,” BLM said in a statement. 

“The BLM ensures oil and gas development meets the requirements set forth by the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 and other applicable legal authorities. Oil and gas leases are awarded for a term of 10 years and as long thereafter as there is production of oil and gas in paying quantities.” 

These are the companies that are leasing the parcels:

• Pennsylvania-based Apex Energy Operating III LLC leased 25 parcels for $7.97 million. 

• Texas-based R&R Royalty LTD leased six parcels for $864,234.

• Oklahoma-based Gulfport Appalachia LLC leased five parcels for $1.98 million. 

• Texas-based Texas Independent Exploration Limited leased three parcels for $241,559. 

• Pennsylvania-based Ohio Gasco LLC leased one parcel for $25,769. 

The BLM scoped out the parcels in January and announced the auction in July. 

Fracking is the process of injecting liquid into the ground at a high pressure to extract oil or gas.

Nathan Johnson, senior attorney for the Ohio Environmental Council, said the lease sale violates important environmental laws meant to protect endangered wildlife and the quality of the environment.

“The Wayne is Ohio’s only National Forest and one of the state’s best places for outdoor recreation,” Johnson said. “Fracking the Wayne will pollute the air, harm local streams, and industrialize the landscape. We are preparing to challenge yesterday’s leasing in federal court.”

The Wayne National Forest was established in 1935 and totals 244,000 acres spanning 12 counties with three units in Athens, Ironton, and Marietta in Southeast Ohio.

More than 200,000 people visit Wayne National Forest annually, which is known for its hiking, biking, horseback riding trails, and off-road vehicle trails.

Spending by visitors to the Wayne National Forest is about $7.4 million annually, according to the United States Forest Service. 

This is the first lease sale in Wayne National Forest since March 2017 when 20 parcels in Monroe County were auctioned off.  

A national forest is managed by the U.S. Forest Service under the Department of Agriculture and blends conservation with public service and resource extraction like logging and mining. 

Wayne National Forest already has 1,200 conventional wells, but the BLM predicts new wells drilled in the Wayne will be horizontal, hydraulic fracturing natural-gas wells. 

There were approximately 2,000 incidents associated with oil and gas wells in Ohio from 2015-2023 — including 98 incidents in Monroe County and 85 incidents in Washington counties, according to FracTracker Alliance, a nonprofit that collects data on fracking pipelines. 

Washington County residents have been raising concerns that injection wells leaking brine waste could contaminate Marietta’s drinking water. 

Evidence shows increased exposure to fracking impacts health, in particular children’s health, including low birth weight, preterm births, congenital anomalies, and asthma, according to Yale School of Medicine. 

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.

Property tax exemptions are a significant tool that can have a big impact on local government budgets. When evaluating whether prohibiting property tax exemptions for data centers are a good idea, it’s worth asking a few key questions that I like to ask about a range of policy issues: does it work, does it help, and who does it impact?

Okay, first, “does it work.”

The point of a property tax exemption is to give an incentive for a company to develop a project at a given site.

While older literature on economic development incentives says that only about 2-25% of economic development projects make their decisions based on incentives, newer studies that focus specifically on data center incentives imply this number could be closer to 33% for data centers.

While my inclination was to think that property tax incentives would follow the path of past incentive programs, recent analyses of data centers seem to be saying otherwise.

Now for “are they good.”

There are a few questions we need to answer for this. One is this: what is the opportunity cost of a property tax exemption?

Exempting a data center from property taxes means less money available for schools, county government, townships, and municipalities.

Even if data centers are highly sensitive to exemptions and one-third of them change decisions based on these incentives, this could still mean hundreds of millions of dollars in public funds left on the table for the two-thirds of data centers that aren’t making decisions based on incentives.

Another consideration is what the real social impact is of attracting data centers.

We know data center construction leads to more construction spending, wages, and capital investment.

So do subsidies for sports stadiums, but the economic consensus is that these subsidies are an economic development shell game rather than creation of new economic value.

Data centers could be similar: they could just displace other economic development that is bound to happen on its own.

Further social impacts that need investigation center on utility costs and environmental and public health.

Energy-heavy data centers will either drive up electricity costs and water costs and lead to burning of fossil fuels if they pull energy from the grid and water from public water systems or lead to construction of new gas-fired power plants if their energy generation is pushed behind the meter.

This will lead to higher carbon emissions and the degradation of air quality and associated asthma and lung disease that comes with emission of NOx, PM2.5, and SO2 into the air.

Lastly, the question of “who benefits” matters here.

Much of the benefits of data center construction will accrue to investors and data users who live outside of the state.

Carbon emission costs will generally be felt by people across the world as they exacerbate climate change.

On the other hand, both economic development benefits like jobs and public health costs like asthma and lung disease will be felt by local communities.

A final consideration is this: the state tends to give local communities wide range to use economic development incentives because different localities have different challenges when it comes to economic development.

A total ban on property tax exemptions for these purposes would potentially cut some communities off from economic development that could help them. 

But data centers are a big deal. It may be that making this policy at the state level is the most straightforward way to regulate an industry that is changing rapidly in the buckeye state.

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

Originally published on TiffinOhio.net.

While the tools have changed, the purpose remains the same: to chill independent thought, free speech, and dissent, bringing our country closer to 1984.

Millions of Americans are being watched as the U.S. ramps up mass surveillance with help from AI, data brokers, and partnerships with private tech companies.

Immigrants, people seeking reproductive health care, and activists are among the most intensely monitored, but tech like Flock cameras has brought the issue into communities across the country.

That includes people in Ohio — one of the most heavily surveilled states in the country, with 62.4 cameras for every 100,000 residents as of Aug. 17.

And the debate over these cameras in Ohio, which has drawn significant interest from locals as well as officials, reflects growing concerns nationally.

According to the ACLU, police departments have increasingly deployed automated license plate readers (ALPRs) powered by AI to track drivers “without a warrant, probable cause, or even reasonable suspicion of wrongdoing.” And they’re doing this with little to no oversight or regulation.

Flock Safety is one of the largest ALPR vendors in the U.S. Their solar-powered, teardrop-shaped cameras capture images of all passing vehicles, storing the car’s make, model, and other identifying features. Any law enforcement agency with a Flock contract can access the company’s nationwide database without a warrant.

Flock cameras also track people. Their “FreeForm search” feature has allowed police departments to search the database using phrases like “male with tattoos” and “person on skateboard,” according to data reviewed by 404 Media.

DeFlock, an open-source project that maps license plate readers, has identified over 128,000 ALPRs in the U.S. Even my small town of around 20,000 people in Southern California has at least 35 ALPRs, most of them Flock cameras.

No independent research has shown that ALPRs can reduce crime. But there’s mounting evidence of the technology’s alarmingly high error rate. An analysis by the Roseville, California police department found that 71 percent of Flock’s alerts to the Roseville police incorrectly flagged vehicles as stolen or used in a felony.

Far from promoting “public safety,” the tech has led to wrongful arrests, profiling, and countless other abuses.

Flock reportedly has shared license plate data with federal authorities, including ICE. Among other cities, Los Angeles recently suspended their use of Flock cameras amid mounting privacy concerns over who controls the data and how it’s shared.

Court records obtained by the Electronic Frontier Foundation show that Texas deputies searched 83,000 Flock cameras nationwide to track a Texas woman across state lines because she allegedly “had an abortion.” In Dunwoody, Georgia, a public records request revealed Flock employees accessing cameras in children’s spaces at a community center as part of sales demonstrations.

Other reporting has found cops repeatedly misusing the Flock system to stalk exes.

More communities are organizing and fighting back against this unregulated AI technology. As a result, at least 100 cities have now rejected ALPRs, most of them Flock cameras. But Flock is only one cog in the machine. Cities can easily replace their Flock cameras with those from competitors like Axon, Motorola Solutions, or Genetec, as some have already done.

Mass surveillance remains the fundamental problem. Ever more companies collect our data through cellular networks, facial recognition, surveillance cameras, and ALPRs, among other sources.

The U.S. government, in turn, purchases massive amounts of our data from commercial data brokers without obtaining warrants — bypassing our Fourth Amendment rights against unreasonable searches and seizures. In tandem, multiple federal agencies now have sweeping access to Americans’ sensitive personal data through systems built by Big Tech company Palantir, following President Trump’s 2025 executive order that expanded data sharing across agencies.

This metastasizing mass surveillance state — what George Orwell called “Big Brother” in 1984 — is eroding our privacy, freedom, and Constitution.

As more communities wake up to the danger, the solution isn’t trading one brand of camera for another. We need oversight and regulation of the entire surveillance industry, as well as the government agencies that rely on it.

OtherWords columnist Farrah Hassen, J.D., is a writer, policy analyst, and educator. This op-ed was distributed by OtherWords.org.

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

Originally published on TiffinOhio.net.

Beer, gasoline, and barbecue goods are all more expensive than last year, as are tickets to attend football games. The report attributes the rise to multiple Trump administration policies, including tariffs and failing to address inflation.

Inflation was already driving up beer and soda prices before President Donald Trump increased tariffs on Canadian aluminum this month. A tariff is essentially a tax on an imported good that is paid by the American importer. The additional cost is often passed on to consumers in the form of price hikes.

About 70% of the aluminum imported to the United States comes from Canada, and much of it is used to make beer and soda cans. The report says beer prices are up 3% from last year and are likely to keep rising in the months ahead.

Popular tailgating foods are also getting more expensive. Ground beef is up to $6.99 a pound, a 24% increase since Trump returned to the White House 19 months ago. The price for a 12-pack of hot dogs has increased by 6.3% in the last year alone. Popular grilling vegetables like mushrooms, peppers, onions, and zucchini are more expensive as well.

Getting to the game comes with its own headaches. The average nationwide price for a gallon of gasoline was $4.15 as of Labor Day. Fuel prices have been steadily climbing as a result of the war in Iran.

Propane prices have increased by 11% since the war began.

The average cost for a family of four to attend a professional football game jumped from $1,339 in 2025 to $1,475 in 2026. This figure includes tickets, parking, and concessions. The price to attend a college football game has consistently increased year over year.

The report draws a clear conclusion: “There’s no question Donald Trump’s tariffs and economic agenda are driving up the cost of America’s favorite fall tradition.”

Originally published on TiffinOhio.net.

Stidham became the Republican nominee after incumbent state Rep. D.J. Swearingen withdrew from the race following the May primary, triggering an Ohio law that gives a district committee of Republican Party officials from Erie, Ottawa and Huron counties the power to choose a replacement candidate.

In a proposed answer filed Thursday with his motion to intervene in the case challenging his nomination, Stidham admits that the district committee selected him and that he “participated in the District Committee meeting and voted in favor of his selection,” while maintaining that Ohio law allowed him to do so.

The committee selected Stidham 4-2. Had Stidham abstained and every other vote remained unchanged, he still would have prevailed 3-2. His own vote was not mathematically necessary to secure the nomination.

But the filing removes any remaining uncertainty about his role in the selection: Stidham was simultaneously a candidate for the House seat and one of the six Republican officials deciding who would receive the nomination, participated in the committee meeting and ultimately cast a vote for himself.

Ottawa County Republican Party Secretary Toni DeLuca, another member of the six-person committee, previously said Stidham left while the other candidates made their presentations but returned for the committee’s deliberations.

“I found it odd that a candidate for a position was given the right to deliberate on other candidates,” DeLuca wrote after the selection.

And while the committee deliberated inside, Erie County Board of Elections member MaryAnn Groot says she was outside trying to get in.

Groot says she was told the meeting was closed

The unusual selection process began after Swearingen formally withdrew Aug. 4, leaving Republicans only days to fill the vacancy on the general-election ballot.

Under Ohio Revised Code 3513.31(B), when a party nominee withdraws from a legislative district covering multiple counties, the replacement can be selected by a district committee consisting of the chairperson and secretary of the party’s county central committee in each county within the district.

House District 89 includes Erie and Ottawa counties and part of Huron County, producing a six-member Republican committee.

Stidham held one of those six seats because he chaired the Erie County Republican Party. He was also one of the Republicans seeking Swearingen’s nomination.

In a sworn affidavit, Groot said she arrived at the Erie County administrative building at the scheduled time of the Aug. 10 committee meeting and told two Republican elections board members who were present that she believed the meeting was required to be open to the public.

“I was told by the two Republican board members that the meeting was a closed meeting, not an open meeting,” Groot wrote.

She said she was directed to a nearby room to wait for the result.

Stidham’s proposed Supreme Court answer denies the paragraph of the amended complaint containing Groot’s account, but does not specify which portion of the paragraph he disputes.

The committee ultimately selected Stidham 4-2.

Nine days later, the fight over whether that process complied with Ohio law had landed on Secretary of State Frank LaRose’s desk.

Arguments arrived. LaRose attended the Republican event. He ruled the next day.

The new Supreme Court filings establish a tight chronology surrounding LaRose’s decision to certify Stidham.

The amended complaint states that the parties’ final written arguments in the certification dispute were submitted to LaRose’s office on or about Aug. 19.

LaRose admits that allegation.

That same day, LaRose attended an Erie County Republican women’s event at the Sandusky Yacht Club.

LaRose now confirms that as well.

On Aug. 20, one day later, LaRose broke a 2-2 Erie County Board of Elections tie and certified Stidham as the Republican nominee for House District 89.

LaRose admits that allegation, too.

The sequence is therefore established in LaRose’s own Supreme Court answer: final arguments in the Stidham dispute reached his office Aug. 19, LaRose attended the Erie County Republican women’s event that day, and he ruled in favor of Stidham’s certification Aug. 20.

TiffinOhio.net first reported Aug. 19 that LaRose was appearing as the featured guest at the event while his office was receiving the final arguments in the Stidham dispute.

The invitation obtained by TiffinOhio.net advertised an “America’s 250th Birthday Bash” at the Sandusky Yacht Club and said the event was being held “in support of our Erie County candidates.” Admission was $50 per person, with sponsorship packages ranging from $250 to $1,000.

At the time, Stidham was not only the disputed House candidate but chairman of the Erie County Republican Party.

Stidham’s answer: “Deny”

The contrast between Stidham’s filing and LaRose’s filing is particularly notable on the Aug. 19 event.

Stidham admits that the final written arguments were submitted to LaRose’s office on Aug. 19.

The next paragraph of the amended complaint states: “On the same day, Secretary LaRose attended an Erie County fundraiser hosted by the Erie County Republican Party.”

Stidham’s entire response to that paragraph is one word:

“Deny.”

He then admits the central fact in the next paragraph: LaRose broke the elections board tie in favor of his certification on Aug. 20.

LaRose’s own filing provides an explanation that Stidham’s does not.

LaRose also formally denies the fundraiser paragraph as written, but immediately adds: “Respondent LaRose attended an event held by the Erie County Women’s Republican Club on August 19, 2026.”

The distinction is who hosted the event. Koebel’s amended complaint describes it as an Erie County Republican Party fundraiser. LaRose identifies the host as the Erie County Republican women’s organization.

That distinction is consistent with TiffinOhio.net’s contemporaneous reporting. The invitation identified the Erie County Republican Women’s Club as the organization behind the event, rather than the county Republican Party itself.

The organizations are separate, but their leadership overlapped. Public promotion for the fundraiser identified Melissa Pelletier as president of the women’s club, while the Erie County Republican Party listed Pelletier as its secretary. The invitation also expressly described the event as being held “in support of our Erie County candidates.”

TiffinOhio.net asked Stidham attorney W. Stuart Dornette before publication whether Stidham was denying that LaRose attended the Aug. 19 event or instead disputing the amended complaint’s identification of the organization that hosted it.

TiffinOhio.net separately asked attorneys representing LaRose whether the pending Stidham certification dispute was discussed with Stidham or anyone else at the event.

Neither responded directly to those questions by TiffinOhio.net’s 5 p.m. Thursday deadline.

LaRose’s subsequent court filing independently confirms that he attended the Aug. 19 Republican women’s event. It does not address whether the pending Stidham matter was discussed there.

A 2-2 elections board split put the decision in LaRose’s hands

The Aug. 10 committee vote did not automatically end the dispute.

Four days later, the Erie County Board of Elections met to consider Stidham’s certification.

Republican board members John Adams and Gary Smith voted in favor of certification. Democratic members Edward Leonard and Groot voted against it, producing a 2-2 deadlock.

Leonard and Groot raised objections to the closed committee meeting and Stidham’s participation in the process that selected him.

Under Ohio law, a tie or disagreement by a county elections board is submitted to the secretary of state for resolution.

That made LaRose the official responsible for deciding whether Stidham would be certified.

The parties submitted their final written arguments Aug. 19. LaRose attended the Republican women’s event later that day and issued his decision Aug. 20, breaking the tie in favor of Stidham.

LaRose rejected the objection based on Ohio’s Open Meetings Act, writing that the certification proceeding was “not the proper forum for an extra-judicial expansion of Ohio’s open meetings laws beyond their established statutory application.”

What the filings establish — and what they do not

Neither the lawsuit nor the new filings establish that Stidham’s vote for himself was unlawful.

Koebel’s amended complaint expressly states that Stidham “was not legally prohibited from participating in deliberations or voting on a nomination in which he was personally interested” and does not contend that his participation or vote was itself illegal.

Stidham similarly argues that no conflict-of-interest rule, recusal requirement or statutory prohibition prevented him from participating or voting.

His own vote also did not provide the winning margin. The committee selected him 4-2, meaning the same remaining votes would have produced a 3-2 result had Stidham abstained.

The lawsuit instead focuses on what happened around that vote: whether a committee created and empowered by state election law to place a replacement nominee on the general-election ballot was required to conduct its deliberations publicly.

Koebel argues that although political party officials ordinarily conduct private internal party business, they were exercising authority delegated by the state when they selected a replacement candidate under R.C. 3513.31(B), bringing that limited function within Ohio’s Open Meetings Act.

Stidham and LaRose reject that interpretation.

Stidham argues that choosing a replacement Republican nominee remained a “core associational function” of the political party and that the district committee therefore was not a public body subject to the Open Meetings Act.

The statute itself establishes the committee’s membership, notice requirements, quorum, voting threshold and certification procedure, but does not expressly state whether the meeting must be open to the public. :contentReference[oaicite:0]{index=0}

LaRose event attendance is not alleged to be an ethics violation

Koebel’s lawsuit also does not allege that LaRose committed an ethics violation merely by attending the Aug. 19 Republican event.

The amended complaint instead argues that the timing created an appearance concern because LaRose was serving as the statutory tiebreaker in a dispute involving the chairman of the Erie County Republican Party.

LaRose’s filing does not address whether he spoke with Stidham at the event or whether the pending certification dispute was discussed.

His answer maintains that his eventual decision was consistent with Ohio law and asks the Supreme Court to dismiss Koebel’s claims.

Stidham moves to personally join the case

Stidham has now asked the Ohio Supreme Court for permission to intervene as a respondent rather than leaving LaRose and the Erie County Board of Elections to defend the certification without him.

His attorneys argue that Stidham has a direct interest because the lawsuit seeks to remove him from the Nov. 3 ballot and that the government respondents do not fully represent his personal interest in remaining a candidate.

The motion says the litigation is diverting Stidham’s campaign time and resources and has placed a “cloud over the candidacy” as the election approaches.

Stidham’s proposed answer asks the court to reject Koebel’s challenge and dismiss the case.

Among his defenses, Stidham argues that Koebel waited too long to sue.

LaRose issued his tie-breaking decision Aug. 20. Koebel, a Port Clinton resident and former Ottawa County commissioner, filed the Supreme Court action Sept. 14.

Stidham argues that the approximately three-and-a-half-week delay created the urgency Koebel now cites and prejudiced his campaign as ballots and early voting approach.

LaRose raises similar defenses, including standing, delay and his contention that the Aug. 20 certification decision complied with applicable law.

The elections board remains divided

The Erie County Board of Elections’ own Supreme Court answer reflects the same 2-2 division that sent the certification dispute to LaRose.

The board admits Stidham was selected as the replacement Republican nominee but says it lacks sufficient information to admit or deny several allegations about what occurred during the Aug. 10 committee meeting.

On a number of the lawsuit’s central legal claims, the board says it cannot take a unified position because its four members divided evenly over Stidham’s certification.

The board likewise says it lacks sufficient knowledge to admit the amended complaint’s allegation concerning LaRose’s Aug. 19 Republican event appearance.

LaRose’s own filing, however, now confirms his attendance.

Supreme Court case is moving quickly

Koebel is asking the Ohio Supreme Court to direct LaRose to deny Stidham’s certification and order the Erie County Board of Elections not to place him on the Nov. 3 ballot.

Alternatively, he wants the matter returned to the elections board with instructions to investigate whether the requirements governing the replacement nomination were satisfied.

The Supreme Court has treated the case as an expedited election matter and imposed compressed filing deadlines as the general election approaches.

The court has not ruled that Stidham’s nomination violated Ohio law, nor has it ordered his removal from the ballot.

What the new filings do settle are several of the underlying facts that previously surrounded the dispute: Stidham, the Erie County Republican chairman and a candidate for the nomination, participated in the committee meeting and voted for himself; his vote was not mathematically necessary to the 4-2 result; Groot says she arrived at the meeting and was told it was closed; final arguments in the certification dispute reached LaRose’s office Aug. 19; LaRose attended the Erie County Republican women’s event that same day; and LaRose broke the tie in Stidham’s favor the following day.

The question now before the Ohio Supreme Court is whether the process that produced Stidham’s nomination complied with the requirements of Ohio law.

Originally published on TiffinOhio.net.

The source told TiffinOhio.net that Ramaswamy and McColley do not get along and described a campaign in which Ramaswamy and his inner circle hold tight control over strategy, messaging, scheduling and spending while McColley’s team is frequently left on the outside.

The account independently corroborates the central allegations TiffinOhio.net reported in June, when an anonymous Republican operative speaking to Ohio politics outlet The Rooster said Ramaswamy had sidelined McColley from his own campaign.

At the time, TiffinOhio.net could not independently verify The Rooster’s account.

It can now.

The source speaking directly to TiffinOhio.net confirmed that McColley and his operation have been frustrated by their treatment within the Ramaswamy campaign and said the tension between the two candidates is real.

McColley’s senior aides have been left out of high-level campaign discussions, the source said, while Ramaswamy’s team exercises control over major strategic decisions.

McColley has also had little say in the campaign’s messaging operation, according to the source, leaving his team to deal with policy announcements and rhetorical shifts after decisions have already been made by Ramaswamy’s side of the ticket.

The arrangement has generated resentment inside McColley’s camp.

The source said the Senate president expected to play a considerably larger role when he agreed to join the ticket and has become frustrated with the reality of serving as Ramaswamy’s running mate.

A ‘governing partner’ who isn’t being treated like one

That is a dramatically different relationship from the one Ramaswamy advertised when he selected McColley as his running mate on Jan. 7.

“I’m an entrepreneur, not a politician, and selected Rob to be a governing partner who can help advance our ambitious legislative agenda,” Ramaswamy said in announcing the pick.

McColley embraced the arrangement publicly.

“I’m honored to help execute his vision,” McColley said at the time.

The pairing made political sense on paper.

Ramaswamy has never held elected office. McColley has spent more than a decade in the Ohio General Assembly and was unanimously elected president of the Ohio Senate in January 2025, giving him control of one of the two legislative chambers a Ramaswamy administration would need to move its agenda through Columbus.

Ohio Republican Party Chairman Alex Triantafilou praised the arrangement in January specifically because of McColley’s Statehouse experience, saying Ramaswamy was gaining “a young yet highly seasoned legislator who knows how to get things done in Columbus.”

Behind the scenes, however, the partnership has not developed that way, according to TiffinOhio.net’s source.

Rather than functioning as the campaign’s No. 2 decision-maker, McColley has been treated more like a supporting player in an operation centered overwhelmingly around Ramaswamy.

The warnings started months ago

The signs of friction first spilled into public view this summer.

On June 30, TiffinOhio.net reported on claims from a Republican operative who told The Rooster that McColley’s aides had been shut out of weekly strategy and scheduling calls, excluded from messaging decisions and left out of planning for major rallies and donor events.

The operative said spending decisions were being made by Ramaswamy’s inner circle and claimed McColley’s team sometimes learned about major campaign activity through public announcements rather than internally.

The report also said McColley had pushed to have his name added to campaign yard signs and other materials but remained largely absent from the campaign’s branding.

Those claims were significant at the time but rested on The Rooster’s anonymous source.

The new account provided directly to TiffinOhio.net comes from a separate source with direct knowledge of McColley’s operation and confirms the broader picture: McColley is frustrated, his team has been sidelined and the relationship between the two men is not the close partnership voters were sold in January.

McColley is still campaigning with him

The internal tension has not resulted in a public break.

McColley continues to campaign as Ramaswamy’s running mate and appears both independently and alongside him at public events.

The campaign’s public schedule lists McColley for a Sept. 18 appearance at the Williams County Fair and then alongside Ramaswamy later that evening at a Glass City Town Hall.

He was also included in a Sept. 1 fundraiser at the Bratenahl home of Cleveland Browns owners Jimmy and Dee Haslam, an event previously reported by TiffinOhio.net where fundraising targets reached as high as $100,000 for event chairs.

But sharing a stage or appearing on the same invitation is not the same thing as sharing control of the campaign.

The source described the problem as one of power: McColley remains the candidate for lieutenant governor and performs the public duties expected of a running mate, but Ramaswamy’s operation controls the decisions that determine where the campaign goes and what it says when it gets there.

Ramaswamy is running against a Statehouse McColley helps lead

The strained relationship also comes as Ramaswamy increasingly campaigns as an outsider promising to overhaul a state government run by leaders from his own party — including his running mate.

TiffinOhio.net reported Sunday that Ramaswamy is running on sweeping changes to Ohio’s property taxes, electric bills, Medicaid system, universities, data-center policies and state bureaucracy after Republicans have controlled the governor’s office and both chambers of the General Assembly continuously since 2011.

McColley is not removed from that governing structure. He leads the Ohio Senate.

That has already created policy contradictions inside the ticket.

When Ramaswamy unveiled a plan in May to crack down on Medicaid waste and fraud, McColley stood beside him even though the state budget produced under McColley’s Senate presidency had abolished Ohio’s Joint Medicaid Oversight Committee, the bipartisan legislative panel created specifically to oversee the massive program.

Ramaswamy has also promised changes to data-center policy, property taxes and other areas shaped for years by the Republican-controlled legislature McColley now helps lead.

That puts McColley in an unusual position: publicly campaigning alongside a candidate promising to disrupt Columbus while privately frustrated with how little influence he has inside that candidate’s campaign, according to the source.

Ramaswamy campaign doesn’t respond

TiffinOhio.net contacted Ramaswamy’s campaign seeking comment on the account and asked whether McColley and his senior aides participate in the campaign’s regular strategy discussions, whether McColley has input into spending and messaging decisions and whether the campaign disputes that the relationship between Ramaswamy and McColley has become strained.

The campaign did not respond to requests for comment before publication.

Neither Ramaswamy nor McColley has publicly acknowledged problems in their relationship.

Publicly, they remain the Republican ticket for governor and lieutenant governor.

Privately, the picture described from inside McColley’s operation is far different: two candidates who do not get along, a Senate president resentful over his treatment, and a “governing partner” who has found himself boxed out of some of the campaign’s biggest decisions.

Originally published on TiffinOhio.net.

A handful of out-of-state oil and gas companies paid $11 million to the federal government as a lease payment to allow them to frack for natural gas in the Wayne National Forest, the only national forest in Ohio.

Drillers from Oklahoma, Pennsylvania and Texas all won bids for some of the 41 plots that were sold Tuesday, the culmination of about a decade of work from three presidents to expand oil and gas exploration in the forest and litigation from environmentalists trying to block it. 

The sale spans nearly 2,800 acres of forestland. Both the signing bonuses and royalty payments will be split between the federal government and the state. 

As the U.S. Bureau of Land Management said Wednesday announcing the sales of leases all over the country, legislation championed by President Donald Trump lowered the legal minimum of those royalty payments from 16.67% to 12.5%. That makes the leases that much more favorable to the industry than the public, the ostensible landowner. 

“[This] reduces the cost of doing business on public lands, making oil and gas development more economically attractive to industry,” the agency said in a statement. “This is expected to spur additional leasing and drilling activity, which in turn supports increased domestic energy production and strengthens U.S. energy security.”

Finalizing leasing in the Wayne has been part of the Trump administration’s aggressive pursuit of opening new public lands to the oil and gas industry while easing some of the rules around bond requirements, public comments and timelines around the lease sales. 

Thousands protested the lease sale

Environmentalists typically oppose lease sales of public lands to oil and gas companies for two reasons. For one, the drilling and extraction itself can harm plants and wildlife in the protected areas – the Center for Biological Diversity raised this issue for years in court to stall the lease sale. They also say they make governments financially dependent on fossil fuels, complicating the transition to a renewable-energy-dependent grid. 

More than 3,650 people filed letters of protest with the federal government over the sale. 

Wendy Park, an attorney with the Center for Biological Diversity, said in an interview that while further legal action remains on the table, it would be a steep ask for a judge to intervene in some way so late in the process. She said it’s “outrageous” that the federal government would allow a few corporations to prosper at the expense of Ohio’s air, water and local endangered species in the forest.

“Thousands of Ohioans spoke out,” she said. “Unfortunately, the federal government blew them off.” 

Drilling for oil and natural gas in Wayne goes back to the mid-20th century. However, the new leases call for “unconventional” drilling, more commonly referred to as fracking. This entails operators drilling thousands of feet downward – much deeper than “conventional” wells – before turning 90 degrees and reaching laterally. Then a mixture of water, sand and chemicals is injected at high pressure to force the gas out at the surface. Operators are left to dispose of the millions of gallons of liquid waste. 

While the lease sales are final, the companies still must obtain permits from the U.S. BLM before they can begin drilling. 

Wayne is unique in that it’s not one contiguous plot of land but more like three separate swaths around southeast Ohio. The leases for sale sit near Marietta, Ohio, and Parkersburg, West Virginia.

The federal action mirrors that of the state government. Republicans at the General Assembly and governor’s office over the past few years built a legal apparatus allowing the state to lease out 22,000 acres of its state parks and wildlife reserves to out-of-state oil and gas companies. 

The new leasees are Gulfport Appalachia, of Oklahoma, Apex Energy, of Pennsylvania, Magnum Producing, of Texas, Texas Independent Exploration, and OhioGasCo, of Pennsylvania.

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

Originally published on TiffinOhio.net.

The central bank’s Federal Open Market Committee voted 12-0 to increase its benchmark interest rate by a quarter of a percentage point, reaching the new range from 3.75% to 4% and making the cost of borrowing more expensive for Americans.

The committee released an upbeat statement touting economic growth at “a solid pace.”

“While uncertainty remains elevated owing, in part, to geopolitical developments, domestic spending has been resilient. Productivity growth is strong, and capital investment is robust. Job gains have kept pace with the workforce, and the unemployment rate has changed little,” according to the statement released Wednesday afternoon.

“Inflation remains elevated. Today’s policy action will support a timelier return to the Committee’s 2 percent goal. The Committee will deliver price stability,” the statement continued.

Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh, four months into his tenure, described Wednesday’s unanimous decision to raise rates as “sober.”

“The plain fact is that inflation is too high, and has been for too long,” Warsh said during a press conference following the Fed’s meeting.

“This summer’s inflation readings do not tell me that underlying trends have meaningfully improved. … Too many categories are still posting increases above 3 percent on both a six and 12-month basis,” Warsh said.

Trump campaign for lower rates

President Donald Trump publicly pressured and name-called Warsh’s predecessor Jerome Powell for months for not lowering interest rates. 

The public attacks escalated into a federal probe of Powell and the Fed for costly renovations at the Fed’s headquarters in Washington. The administration eventually dropped the investigation.

Trump criticized the rate increase on his Truth Social platform Wednesday afternoon, saying the U.S. rates “should be 1%, or less, because we are the Best Credit in the World — BY FAR.”

“Our Country is BOOMING with new Investment! If we stopped Trading with every country that we have a Deficit with, which is most of them, we would make, at least, 1.5 Trillion Dollars a year. The word “Deficit” is nothing more than a fancy word for LOSS. We are “carrying” almost every country in the World, and that cannot go on any longer. LOWER THE INTEREST RATES FOR THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, AND FAST!,” he wrote.

Warsh declined to answer questions from reporters about Trump’s previous calls for lower interest rates.

“Part of the independence of the Federal Reserve is we stay in our lane,” Warsh said.

The interest hike comes less than a week after the government’s latest consumer price index revealed the cost of food, energy, housing and other goods and services rose 0.4% from July to August. The cost of all items over the past year has risen 3.4%.

Rep. Jason Smith, the Republican chair of the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee, criticized the decision, saying in a statement that “interest rates should be coming down, not going up.”

The Missouri Republican praised the Trump-led “big beautiful bill” tax law passed last summer for delivering “larger paychecks” to Americans, and he blamed former President Joe Biden for past higher inflation.

“After years of elevated borrowing costs, a rate increase is the opposite of the relief families and small businesses need. As President Trump works to restore stability in the Middle East and bring down energy prices, the Fed should recognize the progress,” Smith said in a written statement Wednesday afternoon. 

Soaring gas prices

Spiking energy prices caused by the war in Iran were the main driver behind higher costs. Gasoline alone rose 3.9% over the month of August. 

As of Wednesday, Americans were paying an average of nearly $4.37 a gallon at the pump, according to AAA. Diesel prices reached a record high of $6.31.

The price of a barrel of oil surged above $100 in recent days, including Wednesday afternoon, when it reached $105, as fighting flared in the Middle East. 

The United States and Iran continue launching rockets in the Strait of Hormuz, where one-fifth of the world’s petroleum traveled prior to the war. U.S. Central Command claimed Sept. 8 that it “destroyed” five Iranian crude oil carriers as part of its naval blockade aimed at damaging Iran’s economy.

The conflict spilled over in July into another key waterway for Saudi Arabian oil exports. Iran-backed Houthi rebels restarted an assault on commercial vessels in the Red Sea for the first time since 2024, and are fighting for control of the Bab al-Mandab strait. The group also directly struck targets in Saudi Arabia, a U.S. ally, beginning in July, and is threatening more strikes, according to Houthi spokesman Yahya Saree. The United Nations Security Council is warning of the likelihood of a humanitarian crisis. 

When asked by a reporter at Wednesday’s press conference how incremental rate hikes will help when geopolitical events do not show signs of improvement, Warsh said the Fed “cannot affect any individual price, whether it be oil prices, whether it be foodstuffs at the grocery store.”

“But what we can do and will do is ensure that any change in relative prices don’t broaden out, don’t have second and third order effects on the economy. That’s what we’re tasked to do, and that’s what we will do,” Warsh said.

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

Originally published on TiffinOhio.net.

Seven Republicans broke ranks and joined all Democrats to pass a War Powers Resolution sponsored by Rep. Seth Moulton, a Massachusetts Democrat. Tuesday’s vote marked the third time since June that the House passed a measure to curb Trump’s military powers in Iran. The war has dragged on for over half a year.

The vote came as diesel prices reached a record high of $6.31 per gallon in the United States, and gas hovered at an average of nearly $4.37 a gallon Wednesday, according to AAA. 

Global oil markets have been rocked since Iranian officials effectively shut the Strait of Hormuz, a major petroleum trade route. The conflict has since expanded, and Iranian-backed Houthi rebels are slowing traffic through another major trade passage, the Bab-al Mandab Strait.

The resolution passed, 220-204, despite Republicans’ narrow majority in the chamber. GOP House members who voted for the Iran War Powers Resolution for the first time included Zach Nunn and Marianette Miller-Meeks of Iowa, and Nancy Mace of South Carolina.

Nunn and Miller-Meeks both face tough reelection bids in Iowa. The Cook Political Report with Amy Walter rates both races as “toss-ups.”

Mace lost her South Carolina gubernatorial primary bid in June and is not seeking reelection to the House.

‘Open-ended war’

Nunn posted on social media Tuesday that, as a U.S. Air Force veteran who flew missions in the Middle East, he could not support “another open-ended war,” though he still believes the Islamic Republic “must be held accountable for killing Americans, supporting terrorism, threatening the Strait of Hormuz, and pursuing nuclear weapons.” 

Presidents have a 60-day period to pursue military action with congressional approval, but that window has passed, he added.

“Iowa has already paid a devastating price, including two service members killed by an Iranian drone in Kuwait,” Nunn wrote on X late Tuesday night. “Congress owes them, their families, and every American in uniform clear objectives and constitutional oversight. … We can defend Americans, pressure Iran, and pursue peace while ensuring Congress fulfills its constitutional responsibility.” 

Miller-Meeks posted Wednesday morning that with her 24 years served in the Army, she remains skeptical of Trump’s actions in Iran. 

“I said it in March: the mission had to stay focused and limited, because Americans do not want another forever war. I will not vote to keep our soldiers in an open-ended war, with Iowans paying too much at the pump,” Miller-Meeks wrote on X.

“The Iranian regime and its nuclear ambitions have been defanged,” she continued. “The President needs to present a plan to Congress and the American people for how this ends so we can focus on bringing our soldiers home and lowering prices.”

Third House vote

Nunn, Miller-Meeks and Mace joined House Republican Reps. Thomas Massie of Kentucky, Tom Barrett of Michigan, Warren Davidson of Ohio, and Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania, who have now each voted three times to rein in Trump’s actions in the Iran conflict. Massie voted yes an additional time in April, but the measure failed to pass the House then.

Massie on Tuesday introduced eight articles of impeachment against Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth for his handling of the war in Iran.

The Trump administration maintains War Powers Resolutions are unconstitutional and has dismissed the measures passed in both chambers. Similar War Powers Resolutions to stop Trump’s hostilities in Iran cleared procedural votes in the Senate in May and June. The Senate has voted on such measures 13 times.

Congress overrode a veto from President Richard Nixon to enact the War Powers Resolution statute, at the time aimed at reining in Nixon’s actions in Vietnam.

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

Originally published on TiffinOhio.net.

UnitedHealth then used inside information to trick employers into thinking the Chamber plan was being terminated, said the suit, which was filed on Sept. 1 in federal court in Columbus. And then the company wouldn’t allow the Chamber access to its own information, it said.

“Meanwhile, United withheld the Chamber Program’s own information from it so the Chamber Program could not respond to and compete with United’s improper actions,” the lawsuit said.

The lawsuit comes a little more than a year after the Chamber sided with UnitedHealth and two other health conglomerates and against legislation demanded by Ohio’s independent and small-chain pharmacies.

UnitedHealth Group didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

A July 9 letter from a regional UnitedHealth executive to Chamber leaders that is part of the court file indicates that the company plans to fight the suit.

“United rejects the allegations and conclusions contained in (a letter from the Chamber), including the assertion that United has acted improperly with respect to Trust Proprietary Business Information…,” said the letter, from Kurt Lewis, United’s CEO for Ohio, Kentucky, and Indiana. 

UnitedHealth Group is now the third-largest corporation by revenue in the United States.

It owns the nation’s largest health insurer, it’s the largest owner of doctors’ offices, and it owns the third-largest prescription middleman. 

UnitedHealth also offers ancillary services, such as being a “third party administrator,” handling things like claims processing and billing for employee benefit plans other than United’s.

The Ohio Chamber Health Benefit Program offers a group plan that is attractive to small businesses, and about 20% of the association’s members participate, the suit said.

It hired United HealthCare Services Inc. — a part of UnitedHealth Group — to be its third party administrator.

Even though its contract runs through the end of this year, United stopped providing those services and started offering its own insurance to the Chamber’s member businesses that participated, the lawsuit said. 

“United used (and continues to use) the access it had to Chamber Program information, Participating Employers, and their brokers, to divert Chamber Program Participating Employers from the Plaintiffs’ health benefit offerings to United’s own health benefit offerings,” the suit said.

“United even co-opted the Chamber Program’s logo, name, and branding on United’s own website and marketing materials to Chamber Program member and brokers, confusing them into believing United products were Chamber Program products and that United spoke for the Chamber Program.”

The lawsuit accuses United of nine separate improprieties, including violations of the state’s Deceptive Trade Practices Act, false advertising, breach of contract, and breach of fiduciary duty. 

The suit asks the court to enjoin United from doing what the Chamber accuses it of, and for compensatory and punitive damages.

UnitedHealth owns a huge piece of several different parts of the healthcare marketplace. Antitrust activists say such “vertical integration” creates a motive for such health conglomerate to drive up prices by giving its own businesses an advantage over those of its competitors.

CVS Health and Cigna-Express Scripts face similar accusations.

In Ohio and elsewhere, independent and small-chain pharmacists have long accused the companies of using their drug-middleman operations to drive them out of business, and they’ve closed in droves over the past decade.

But last year, as Ohio pharmacists clamored for measures to limit the power of conglomerates — including United — to control what they were paid for drugs, the Chamber sided with the conglomerates.

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 uses 1 to 5 star ratings in half increments based on six categories: achievement (25% weight toward overall rating), progress (25%), early literacy (12.5%), gap closing (12.5%), graduation (12.5%), and college, career, workforce, and military readiness (12.5%). 

The state switched away from using the A-F letter grade system to star ratings back in 2021. 

• 61 districts earned 5 stars — meaning these districts significantly exceed state standards

• 92 districts earned 4.5 stars — exceeds state standards

• 160 districts earned 4 stars — exceeds state standards

• 145 districts  earned 3.5 stars — meets state standards

• 111 districts earned 3 stars — meets state standards

• 32 districts earned 2.5 stars — needs support to meet state standards

• 6 districts earned 2 stars — needs support to meet state standards

No district earned below 2 stars. 

Canton City Schools, Dayton Public Schools, Lima City Schools, Middletown City Schools, Toledo Public Schools, and Trimble Local Schools each earned 2 stars. 

Click here to find out how your local school district performed on the state report cards for the 2025-26 school year. 

Columbus City Schools — the state’s largest district with about 45,000 students — earned 2.5 stars overall, an improvement from last year’s 2 stars. 

Cincinnati Public Schools earned 3 stars overall and Cleveland Metropolitan School District received 2.5 stars overall.  

“While we know there is more work to do to improve achievement, our proficiency gains and continued student growth show we are moving in the right direction,” Cleveland Metropolitan School District CEO Warren G. Morgan II said in a statement. 

Statewide data

English language arts proficiency reached a statewide five-year high of 62.2%, up from 60.4% during the 2024-25 school year. 

Ohio school districts are required to teach the science of reading, which incorporates phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension.  

“We know the science of reading is the best method we have for teaching children of all abilities how to read,” Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine said in a statement. 

“A change of this scale takes time and persistence from teachers and students, but when you look at this year’s state report cards and see what has been done in a relatively short amount of time, it is a tremendous accomplishment.”

ODEW Director Stephen Dackin also praised Ohio’s literacy results. 

“Raising literacy achievement is foundational to everything we want for Ohio students,” Dackin said in a statement.

“The ability to read proficiently opens doors to success in mathematics, postsecondary education, careers, and life beyond the classroom.”

Math proficiency also reached a five-year statewide high with 56.4%, up from 55.3% during the 2024-25 school year. 

Ohio’s four-year graduation had a minor increase to 88.8%, compared to last year’s 88.3%, according to the report card.

The statewide chronic absenteeism rate — missing 10% or more of school hours for any reason — dropped to 23.9%, according to the report card. The chronic absenteeism rate was 25.1% last year and 30.2% during the 2021-22 school year. 

“Widespread absenteeism continues to undermine academic improvement, particularly in Ohio’s highest-need communities,” Aaron Churchill, Ohio Research Director at the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, said in a statement.

“At its current rate of improvement, Ohio will return to pre-pandemic chronic absenteeism rates sometime during the 2030s. That is unacceptable. State policymakers must take more aggressive steps, including a stronger report-card mechanism, to ensure daily attendance.”

Ohio saw a slight dip in the number of students experiencing homelessness — going from 26,292 students during the 2024-25 school year to 24,609 students in the 2025-26 school year.

Southern Local Schools in Meigs County had the highest percentage of students experiencing homelessness with 15.8%, followed by Nordonia Hills City Schools in Summit County with 10.5%. 

The state report card also lists the number of students in each district that used one of five private school scholarships for the 2025-26 school year— the Autism Scholarship Program, the Jon Peterson Special Needs Scholarship Program, the Cleveland Scholarship, the Education Choice Scholarship, and the Educational Choice Expansion Scholarship Program. 

Ohio lawmakers expanded the Education Choice-Expansion eligibility to 450% of the poverty line through the 2023 state budget — creating near-universal school vouchers. K-8 students can receive a $6,166 scholarship and high schoolers can receive a $8,408 scholarship in state funding under the expansion.

Cleveland Schools had 7,893 EdChoice and Cleveland Scholarship students, and 24 EdChoice Expansion students in 2025-26. 

Columbus City Schools had 7,298 EdChoice students and 1,781 EdChoice Expansion students in 2025-26. 

Cincinnati Public Schools had 6,796 EdChoice students and 1,635 EdChoice Expansion students in 2025-26.  

Northwest Local Schools in Hamilton County had the most EdChoice Expansion students during the 2025-26 school year with 2,629 students, followed by Oak Hills Local Schools in Hamilton County with 2,615 students and Parma City Schools in Cuyahoga County with 2,613 students. 

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.

“As Ohio goes, so goes the nation,” was the old saying. 

We were the quintessential battleground state until we weren’t. That streak ended in 2020 when Donald Trump won Ohio but lost the presidency.

The Buckeye State went from purple to firmly in the GOP gerrymandered camp. Republicans have supermajorities in the state legislature and have locked down all statewide offices for years. Democrats hold a permanent minority status. 

But 2026 polls suggest the minority party in Ohio suddenly has a 50-50 chance at winning not only a U.S. Senate seat, but also the governorship — which Dems have only managed to snag once, for one term, since 1991. They could even pick up a U.S. House seat or two.

In eight weeks, we’ll find out whether Ohio swings or reverts to status quo. But the extraordinary tightness of its two marquee races for Senate and governor has certainly piqued national interest.

Could a Midwest Republican stronghold, in which elections have preordained outcomes, actually be in play for the midterms?

Is a state that Trump won three times (with higher succeeding vote percentages in each presidential election) be a surprise barometer of a shifting electorate in 2026? 

Just two years ago, over 55% of Ohioans voted for a convicted felon with standing criminal indictments for conspiring to overturn the decision of voters in 2020 and for pilfering classified documents when he left the White House and resisting government attempts to retrieve them.

A majority of Ohio voters were willing to look past all that in exchange for Trump’s grandiose promises of peace and prosperity.

They were being crushed by the cost of living and trusted a reality TV star — who played a successful tycoon despite his real-life business failures and bankruptcies — to bring tangible relief.

Never mind that Trump’s first term as president ended with a severe economic crash, worsened by his extreme mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic.

In 2024, more than 3 million Ohioans believed his fanciful pledges to lower gasoline prices below $2 a gallon, reduce the price of electricity, groceries and cars, cut new home costs in half, unleash historic levels of economic growth, and end inflation on Day One.

But 19 months into Trump 2.0, the economy is slowing, inflation has caught up with paychecks, gas prices are surging, electricity prices are hitting new highs, overall grocery prices are more expensive.

Exacerbating everything are the punishing global trade wars Trump started, including his recent hissy fit tariff offensive with Canada, along with the enormously costly, ongoing war of choice with Iran he launched in late February.

The national debt, under Trump and his Middle East quagmire, has surpassed $40 trillion.

Incredibly, the man who campaigned on slashing spending and cutting costs for everyday Americans (and did the opposite) is now promising midterm voters money if they give him two more years of unchecked power with the same Republican majority in Congress that enabled this wrecking ball.

Question is, are Ohio voters willing to again look past their financial pain (because of Trump’s policies) in exchange for a preposterous bribe they trust he’ll deliver? 

Pollsters say voters are fickle — and they are — but two months before the midterms they are also mad as hell.

Gasoline prices keep climbing. At this writing, Ohioans are paying $4.16 per gallon, on average, to fill up their tanks. Diesel has soared to around $6.11 in the state. (That means any trucked in product from groceries to retail will cost you more).

Ohio farmers might as well throw up their hands. They are facing intense financial pressure from a combination of soaring diesel and fertilizer costs due to Trump’s war and millions of dollars in losses driven by his tariff policies.

Add to that ballooning tab record high electric bills in Ohio, a jump in ACA health insurance premiums for those still enrolled in Affordable Care Act marketplaces after congressional Republicans let cost-saving subsidies expire — doubling premiums for half a million Ohioans.

Nearly a third of them dropped coverage, the biggest enrollment cliff in the country.

Right after the midterms, hundreds of thousands of low-income Ohioans could also lose their health care coverage under Medicaid due to new federal rules and funding cuts enacted in Trump’s so-called One Big Beautiful Bill. 

That rob-from-the-poor-to-give-trillions-in-tax-cuts-to-the-rich legislation, supported by every Ohio Republican in Congress, also made the largest cuts ever in the federal food stamp program — mainly used by children, seniors, those with disabilities.

Ohioans are going hungry as a result. Some 100,000 have lost vital help just to put food on the table. Food assistance funding has been shifted onto states regardless of their ability to pay.

SNAP policy analysts expect Ohio will have to come up with about $160 million to provide what the Trump/Republican bill won’t.

To many in the state struggling to feed their families, filling up half a tank, drowning in exponentially mounting costs from rent to utilities and out-of-pocket medical, it feels like Trump’s vaunted “golden age” missed Ohio. And people have no patience for empty platitudes when they’re broke. 

They are sick and tired of the same old same old amounting to nothing.

Will their palpable frustration turn a reliably red state purple again on Nov. 3?

Who knows? But marquee toss-up races in Ohio could be a bellwether on the economy and an unpopular president. 

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

Originally published on TiffinOhio.net.

Whew. That’s got to be good news. Maybe this entity hell-bent on wrecking public education can use the recess time for some needed reflection amid the havoc they’ve wreaked on Ohio schools. 

While some researchers believe the observation that “No man’s life, liberty, or property are safe while the legislature is in session” is wrongly attributed to Mark Twain, the quotation does sum up strong feelings about how public education has been weakened by the denizens who work part-time at Broad & High Sts. in Columbus.

But weakened might not be the right word choice to describe the current state of public education. Alas, we should be thankful that legislators work part-time.

The extent of that damage to the public’s schools is manifold and can be traced back to 1997, when the original charter school legislation was enacted as a “pilot program” centered on Lucas County. 

What is it about pilot programs created by the Ohio legislature that seem to be on autopilot as they continually expand, whether they are needed or not?

The history of the growth of educational vouchers has followed the same pattern, where today there is no income cap on eligibility for tuition support at the state’s private and religious schools.

Enough is too much. 

It’s past time for the legislature to hit the pause button.

Indeed, the moment has arrived when the legislature and its leadership must face the stark reality that in the next FY2026-FY2027 budget, the bill for charters and universal vouchers combined is approaching $4 billion, with the various voucher programs alone representing $2.4 billion of the total. 

With this amount of scare resources being redirected from the state budget, the public is seeing the strain, as more than 120 school districts — 20% of the state total — have been forced to trim their budgets to address the declining amount of state support for public education.

A look at a few statements made by the legislative leadership provides insight into how the state entered into such a situation affecting essential services, particularly public education, and the mindset that blames public schools for being mired in fiscal troubles.

Here are two examples.

Ohio House Speaker Matt Huffman, a major cheerleader for educational vouchers to fund non-public schools, made a statement in 2025 that contradicts the clear intent of the state’s foundational document.

“The Ohio Constitution is unique. It’s the only state constitution in the United States that requires the funding of religious education by the state,” he claimed.

Never mind that the constitution in Article VI, Section 2 states in part that “… no religious or other sect, or sects, shall ever have any exclusive right to, or control of, any part of the school funds of this state.”

Another example of the legislature’s anti-public education mindset comes from Ohio Senate Education Committee Chair Andrew Brenner, another long-time foe of public education.

In addition to taking campaign contributions from a notorious charter school operator, Brenner is famously known for his 2014 remark that public schools are a form of “socialism.” 

Recently, Brenner gained notice for asserting that rural schools are struggling “because urban school systems [are] spending too much money inefficiently.”

That was an all-too-obvious deflection from the real issue — the strain on the state budget caused by the unconstitutional diversion of billions of public funds to support private and religious schools through the universal voucher program.

But Huffman and Brenner are merely the most prominent representatives of Republican school privatization zealots.

Their allies are ever ready to tow the party line when it comes to ignoring the needs of public education while they also ignore the clear language of the state constitution in its declaration that no school funds shall be controlled by sectarian schools, which constitute about 70% of the 1,300 private schools in the state.

While Brenner lost renomination in the May primary and will not be returning for a new term in January, he still has an opportunity along with Huffman and the Republican caucus to reflect on the damage inflicted on public education and consider some remedies that can be advanced during the session to be convened after the November elections.

These two suggestions will certainly not address the fiscal crisis facing public education but are offered as suggestions to initiate a soul-searching discussion in the new legislature about repairing the foundational damage to public education.

Instead, these proposals will address a flaw in state law regarding the qualifications of charter school governing board members as well as needed curriculum enhancement to respond to positive student personal development. 

These ideas are considered first-steps in a repair process for public education as well as a test for the legislature to begin acting in good faith to address the damage done to the state’s public schools as part of its privatization initiatives.

Character Education. Brenner is known for his promotion of cursive writing for inclusion in the state’s language arts model curriculum in 2019.

Today, in the present national political climate of gerrymandering, shrill and dishonest speech by elected officials, including false claims of widespread voter fraud and disrespect for recent immigrants, we encourage Brenner and his colleagues to sponsor legislation that incorporates the elements of caring, honesty, integrity, respect, trustworthiness, and citizenship into state curriculum models. 

These traits are elements of the Six Pillars of Character, as defined by Character Counts, a national organization centered on positive youth development.

Sadly, our scandal-prone current national leadership has made the topic of positive character development in youth to be a major imperative for incorporation in those “socialist” public schools Brenner disdains.

We would expect that character education and positive youth development would be as important on Brenner’s Senate education committee agenda as cursive writing was seven years ago. 

Citizenship. How ironic that citizenship is listed as a pillar of character.

As defined by Character Counts, citizenship involves staying informed, protecting the environment, working to improve your home, school, and community, and protecting the rights and safety of others through good choices and positive action. 

An added dimension of citizenship is being a “qualified voter.”

The Ohio School Boards Association defines a qualified voter as an individual who is eligible to run for office and serve as a member of a school district board of education. 

Unfortunately, Ohio law does not require a charter school governing board member to be a “qualified voter,” viz., a U.S. citizen, yet these entities are referred to as “public charter schools.” 

We suggest that the legislative leadership immediately act to ensure that charter school governing board members are qualified voters, citizens of the United States, as required for elected school board members. 

After all, proponents pointedly refer to these entities as “public” charter schools, supported by public funds. 

How is it that the Republican Party, the champion of charter schools and enabler of Donald Trump’s aggressive immigration and deportation policies, not in favor of requiring charter school governing board members to be American citizens?

Why shouldn’t the requirements for any “public” charter school board member be the same as those for a public school district board member, viz., a qualified voter?

Surely, these requirements for charter school board members might inject a more positive image for these mostly unregulated entities that are publicly funded but privately managed.

For example, our neighbors Michigan and West Virginia have specific citizenship and residency requirements for charter school governing boards, and Brenner should make such legislation a fast-track priority in the final days of his legislative tenure and in light of continuing concerns about charter school governance and accountability. 

With these two specific suggestions for action, we look for a signal from the legislative leadership during recess about the importance of character education in our schools as well as requiring charter school board members to be qualified voters who hold citizenship status, an idea that even Donald Trump would probably not oppose. 

Members of the Ohio General Assembly, what say ye, what say ye all?

It’s time for all members to consider their legacies during the last legislative session and act proactively in this time of national upheaval.

P.S. Mark Twain also did not say that “Politicians are like diapers, they need to be changed often and for the same reasons.”

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

Originally published on TiffinOhio.net.

Auditions for American History in 60 and Vote will run from 5:30 to 8 p.m. both days in The National Theatre at The Ritz. Performances are scheduled for Nov. 19 through Nov. 22.

The student-run theatre group is open to area teenagers ages 13 to 18, and no previous theatre experience is required.

Auditions will consist of a dry read using materials provided at the theatre. Participants should enter through the double glass doors along Riverside Drive.

Students who want to participate without appearing on stage can also get involved through backstage opportunities in a variety of production areas.

Questions can be directed to Mika Gibson at mika@ritztheatre.org.

American History in 60 and Vote are presented through special arrangement with Dramallama.

Originally published on TiffinOhio.net.

The Sept. 19 event at 125 E. Market St. is part of a broader weekend of similar events being held across Ohio and other states from Sept. 18 through Sept. 20. Organizers of the broader Block Party for Democracy effort describe the events as locally hosted gatherings centered on civic participation, art and voter engagement.

This year’s theme is “Ready, Set, VOTE!” with activities divided into three areas.

In the “Ready” area, attendees will be able to decorate bandanas and signs for dogs, design personal flags, contribute to a collaborative community art project and decorate rocks and bird-themed crafts intended to be shared with others.

The “Set” area will feature hands-on civics games developed by Democracy Lab. Voting-age participants will be able to earn “Democracy Dollars” through the activities and redeem them for prizes.

The “VOTE!” area will provide election-related assistance and resources. Organizers said representatives from the League of Women Voters will be on site to assist attendees with voter registration and provide access to other voting-related resources.

The League of Women Voters of the Tiffin Area describes itself as a nonpartisan organization and lists voter registration and voter education among its local services.

Organizers said the event is intended to reach people who may not typically participate in rallies, canvassing or other traditional forms of political engagement.

“We believe joy is one of the most powerful organizing tools we have,” Brady Dindia, co-leader of Indivisible Next 2sday Arts, said in a statement. “Block Parties for Democracy are designed to welcome the people who wouldn’t come to a rally or open the door for a canvasser, but who will show up for a fun, community gathering.”

Dindia said organizers want attendees to leave having created something, learned something and made sure they are prepared to participate in the upcoming election.

The Block Party for Democracy format was first used in September 2025 at Walter Stinson Park in University Heights, followed by another event in February 2026 in Rocky River. Organizers have since expanded the concept, with local groups hosting their own versions during this weekend’s coordinated series of events.

Activities planned for Tiffin also include a playground, coloring table, crafts, selfie booths and a voting-themed area for children.

“The hope and vision is not just one party in one city, but a growing, repeatable model that any community can pick up — an event that is welcoming and fun, and inspires people to take an active role in our voting process,” said Mariamne Ingalls, co-leader of Indivisible Next 2sday Arts.

Event details

Block Party for Democracy — Ready, Set, VOTE!

Saturday, Sept. 19, 2026

Tiffin Community Kitchen

125 E. Market St., Tiffin

Seneca County Indivisible describes itself as a Tiffin-based organization focused on elections and civic participation that also works with national Indivisible campaigns.

Originally published on TiffinOhio.net.

The ad features voters from Ohio’s 7th District deriding Democrat Brian Poindexter as a “socialist” for supporting “higher taxes” and “government-run health care,” but neither of these are positions that Poindexter has actually taken.

The ad sources the health care claim to an August town hall event where Poindexter was asked how he would vote on a Medicare for All bill. Poindexter said he wants universal health coverage, but was clear he would not support any legislation without understanding how it affects Ohioans.

“If it’s just like Medicare for all starting tomorrow and it’s just like instituted and now we got to figure it out on a whim,” Poindexter said, “I don’t know if I could support that.”

Poindexter gave a similar statement to The Atlantic, which reported in July that he “wants to work toward Medicare for All … but he does not support adopting a single-payer health-care system immediately.”

The claim that Poindexter wants higher taxes is even more dubious. The ad partially sources it to a new tax levy that Poindexter endorsed in 2020 as a member of the Brook Park City Council. Nearly 60% of voters in Cuyahoga County voted to enact the levy, which cost most households less than $3 a month and enabled the County Public Library to continue offering services during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The ad also cites a similar circumstance in 2023 where Poindexter voted to allow the renewal of a tax levy to appear on a citywide ballot. More than 63% of voters approved levy’s renewal, which supported the Southwest General Health Center.

Ironically, the Southwest General Health Center is now at risk of losing $4.5 million because of Medicaid cuts in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, a law Miller supported.

Miller was decisively elected to Congress in 2022 and reelected in 2024. He is considered more vulnerable this year, partially because of domestic abuse allegations from his ex-wife.

A Bedrock Polling survey of 866 likely voters found Poindexter leading Miller by eight percentage points.

Originally published on TiffinOhio.net.

Joyce Rosely, Strive Asset Management’s former executive vice president and co-head of institutional sales and distribution, alleges she warned company leaders in early 2023 that then-Chief Operating Officer Ben Pham was aggressively pursuing a newly hired subordinate.

Rosely says she was told to keep watching the situation, was rebuffed when she raised the concern with other senior leaders and was fired about two months later.

The allegation is contained in the same lawsuit that TiffinOhio.net examined earlier this month, after a federal judge refused to dismiss separate whistleblower claims against Ramaswamy alleging he pressured employees to violate securities laws and participated in retaliating against Rosely after she objected.

The sexual harassment allegation itself is directed at Pham, not Ramaswamy. Rosely does not accuse Ramaswamy of sexually harassing anyone.

But her court filings describe the harassment complaint as one of two major disputes she says erupted between her and Strive leadership in the months before the company terminated her.

Rosely says she warned Strive about executive’s conduct

Strive hired Rosely in August 2022.

By January 2023, according to the lawsuit, fellow Strive executive Jeff Nye told Rosely that a newly hired female employee had disclosed that Pham was romantically pursuing her in an “aggressive manner.”

Rosely said she had traveled with Pham and the employee and personally witnessed interactions between them that she found “very uncomfortable to observe.”

She took the concern to Laura Brady, Strive’s head of people strategy.

According to Rosely, Brady instructed her to “keep an eye on them and report back.”

Rosely alleges, however, that neither Brady nor anyone else acting for Strive did anything to stop what her complaint characterized as Pham “pressuring a newly-hired subordinate into a sexual relationship.”

She then confronted Pham herself, asking why the subordinate was repeatedly traveling with him unnecessarily, according to the complaint.

Pham allegedly told her to mind her own business.

Rosely also raised the situation with Strive co-founder Anson Frericks.

According to her filing, Frericks told her it was “none of his business.”

Two months later, Strive fired her

On March 21, 2023, Frericks and Brady terminated Rosely.

Rosely alleges she received no prior notice or warning and was told Strive was “reorganizing” and there was “no longer a position” for her.

Three other senior employees — Nye, John Phillips and J.P. Towey — were terminated the same day.

Rosely later sued Strive, Frericks and Ramaswamy, arguing in part that her firing constituted retaliation for raising the harassment concern.

Her lawsuit also alleges something separate and potentially more consequential for Ramaswamy personally: that Ramaswamy and Frericks repeatedly pressured her to violate securities laws and that she and Nye were fired after objecting.

Those allegations became the focus of a lengthy federal court battle over whether the case could proceed.

Ramaswamy discussed the firings the next day, lawsuit says

Although Ramaswamy announced in February 2023 that he was stepping away from Strive to run for president, Rosely alleges he remained involved with the company.

The day after the firings, according to her complaint, Ramaswamy appeared at Strive’s Dublin, Ohio, headquarters and discussed the terminations with employees.

“We had to do this,” Rosely alleges Ramaswamy told them.

Rosely has pointed to that statement as part of her allegation that Ramaswamy participated in the decision to terminate her.

Ramaswamy’s attorneys have disputed that conclusion, arguing that Rosely failed to establish that he was personally involved in firing her.

But on Aug. 25, U.S. District Judge Julien Xavier Neals refused to dismiss Rosely’s separate whistleblower claim against Ramaswamy.

The judge pointed to allegations that Ramaswamy supervised Rosely, directed her to engage in conduct she believed violated securities laws, received her objections and participated in the decision to fire her.

“Taking her allegations as true, Plaintiff sufficiently states a CEPA claim against Ramaswamy,” Neals wrote.

The decision came at the motion-to-dismiss stage, when courts generally accept well-pleaded factual allegations as true for purposes of determining whether a claim may proceed. It was not a finding that Rosely’s allegations were proven.

Judge dismissed harassment-retaliation claim — but left door open

Rosely did not prevail on every part of her lawsuit.

Neals dismissed three claims on Aug. 25, including Rosely’s claim under the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination alleging she was retaliated against for reporting the alleged harassment.

The court found that Rosely had not alleged enough facts connecting that particular complaint to her firing.

A federal magistrate judge had previously concluded that Rosely relied largely on the roughly two-month period between reporting the alleged conduct and being terminated, without enough additional factual allegations to establish causation.

Neals dismissed that claim without prejudice, meaning Rosely was permitted to amend it rather than permanently barred from pursuing the theory.

The judge also dismissed her age-discrimination claim and a related individual-liability claim without prejudice.

Two other counts survived: Rosely’s whistleblower-retaliation claim against Strive under New Jersey’s Conscientious Employee Protection Act and the count seeking to hold Ramaswamy and Frericks individually liable for that alleged retaliation.

Those surviving claims center primarily on the securities-law allegations rather than the harassment complaint.

Executive accused by Rosely is now Strive’s CFO and a director

Pham, the executive at the center of Rosely’s harassment allegations, remained with Strive.

Federal securities filings show Pham was Strive’s first executive officer and employee, became chief operating officer in November 2022 and was promoted to chief financial officer in July 2024.

He joined Strive’s board of directors in September 2025 and remains identified in 2026 SEC filings as both the company’s chief financial officer and a director.

Before joining Strive, Pham worked at Ramaswamy’s biotechnology company Roivant Sciences and served as Ramaswamy’s chief of staff, according to Strive’s SEC disclosures.

Ramaswamy also continues to have a substantial financial connection to the company he co-founded.

In an Aug. 26 filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Ramaswamy reported beneficial ownership of approximately 5.69 million Strive shares, representing 6.6% of the class covered by the filing.

Strive said Rosely underperformed

When Rosely’s allegations first became national news in 2023, Ramaswamy and Strive rejected her account.

Attorneys for Ramaswamy attacked the lawsuit as containing “bare accusations” without sufficient direct or circumstantial evidence and sought to have the case dismissed or moved from New Jersey to Ohio.

Strive told the Daily Mail at the time that Rosely’s allegations reflected a “fundamental misunderstanding” of the company’s business practices by an employee who “underperformed in her role.”

The company said it would “vigorously defend itself in court.”

Ramaswamy, Strive and Frericks have continued to dispute Rosely’s account in federal court, portraying the March 2023 terminations as a legitimate company reorganization rather than retaliation.

Neals last month rejected their effort to move the lawsuit to Ohio and rejected their attempt to dismiss its central whistleblower claims.

The result leaves an unusual split as the litigation moves forward.

The claim specifically alleging Rosely was fired for reporting the alleged sexual harassment was dismissed without prejudice and can be amended.

But the broader lawsuit remains alive.

And Ramaswamy, now the Republican nominee for governor of Ohio, remains personally in a federal case brought by a former executive who says Strive leaders ignored her warning about alleged sexual harassment, pressured her to cross securities-law lines and fired her after she objected.

Originally published on TiffinOhio.net.

The ongoing bombing campaign, which President Donald Trump launched alongside the Israeli government in February, has also significantly reduced American military weapons stockpiles, according to the analysis.

CBO Director Phillip L. Swagel wrote in a letter accompanying the report that “the main opportunity cost of the conflict thus far has been the large expenditure of missile defense interceptors, which will leave the United States with a reduced inventory of interceptors for several years. 

“The shortfall would become especially problematic if a conflict arose with an opponent whose arsenal included large numbers of ballistic and cruise missiles.”

Swagel noted in the letter that because the Defense Department “did not respond to CBO’s requests for information” the report “relied on government databases and public reports.”

“As a result, CBO’s estimates are subject to considerable uncertainty,” he wrote.

In addition to the direct costs, CBO expects the war to increase inflation in the first quarter of 2027 by 0.5 percentage points due to the rise in energy prices, predominantly caused by increased danger and difficulty navigating the Strait of Hormuz.

“CBO’s analysis does not assign financial costs to U.S. military personnel killed or injured in the conflict, nor does it include longer-term costs associated with future increases in outlays for veterans’ health care and disability compensation,” Swagel wrote. “It also does not include costs that could emerge in the future if ships, aircraft, and other equipment need repairs or additional maintenance as a result of their use in the conflict.”

Boyle request for numbers

The analysis stems from a request House Budget Committee ranking member Brendan Boyle submitted to CBO in March. 

The Pennsylvania Democrat wrote in a statement released Tuesday that the “disastrous war in Iran has already taken the lives of brave American servicemembers and left others wounded.”

“Beyond that human toll, this nonpartisan CBO report makes clear that the war has also cost American taxpayers tens of billions of dollars and counting, while continuing to drive up costs,” Boyle added. “Donald Trump and Republicans have spent years telling Americans that we cannot afford to help families here at home, but apparently they can find tens of billions of dollars, and potentially much more, for a reckless war that is leaving Americans to pay the price.”

Inspectors general report

The CBO report differs somewhat from a report released earlier this week by inspectors general from the departments of Defense and State as well as the U.S. Agency for International Development. 

That report estimated the war cost at $33.4 billion through June 29, though it didn’t include any costs since then. 

Neither report includes the cost of damaged military infrastructure, with Swagel writing it was “unable to estimate the cost of damage to U.S. bases and facilities in the Middle East for two reasons. 

“First, DoD has not provided CBO with information about the value of damaged or destroyed equipment and property. Second, the extent of repairs or rebuilding that DoD plans to undertake is unclear. And even if the bases were fully repaired or rebuilt, a portion of the costs of doing so could be paid by host nations.”

The inspectors general wrote their report “did not include the cost of military construction for damaged infrastructure in its estimate because the DoW has not determined what its future posture will be in the region, how it will construct its bases, and what percentage of the construction costs Allies and partners will contribute.”

Administration pleads for more war funding

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth testified before the Senate Appropriations Committee in July that without extra money from Congress, the department would “face critical shortfalls that threaten” its ability to “pay our service members, rapidly replenish equipment and munitions, and sustain vital operations without disruption.”

The Trump administration asked Congress in June to provide $87.6 billion in emergency funding for the war as well as other expenses not covered in annual government spending bills. 

That supplemental request proposed $67.15 billion for the Defense Department, $3.36 billion for the State Department, $2.03 billion for the U.S. Coast Guard, $40.26 million for the FBI, $36.18 million for the Treasury Department’s office of terrorism and financial intelligence and $13.1 million for the Homeland Security Department’s operations and support account that was part of a “classified request.”

Congress has not yet approved the additional spending and isn’t likely to this month before both chambers return to the campaign trail ahead of November’s midterm elections. 

The inspectors general wrote in their report that because lawmakers have not provided dedicated funding for the Iran war that the Defense Department has “used base budget funds that otherwise would be used for standard operational activities, such as planned training and maintenance activities.”

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

Originally published on TiffinOhio.net.

With the November midterm elections fast approaching and the parties jockeying for control of Congress, several Democratic senators wanted assurance from Patel, under oath, that the FBI would not send agents into polling places.

“Do you pledge that you will not, in any way, interfere in the will of the American people when they go to the polls in November?” Sen. Peter Welch, a Vermont Democrat, asked.

“I pledge unequivocally that I will not participate in your charade of lies,” Patel told Welch.

Patel in addition faced questions during the five-hour hearing from members of the Judiciary Committee about recent changes to the agency’s hiring requirements, an ongoing probe into 2020 election ballots seized in Georgia, and how the FBI plans to handle crimes committed by AI agents. 

‘We have a lackey here’

A boiling point came when Booker spoke beyond his allotted time and name-called Patel a “thug” who “wouldn’t qualify” to be an FBI special agent. 

Booker accused Patel of not answering questions about whether the agency was improperly targeting journalists. The FBI subpoenaed multiple New York Times reporters in July after the outlet published accounts of security deficiencies on President Donald Trump’s new Qatari-donated jet now used as Air Force One. The DOJ dropped the subpoenas later that month after a federal judge pressured the agency.

“My concluding remark is we don’t have an FBI director. We have a lackey here who is using government, and frankly, he’s not even a good lackey. He’s an incompetent lackey. He’s like an 18-year-old kid who wants to join a fraternity that he could never be a member of, doing keg stands and chugging with friends,” Booker said, before continuing the exchange for roughly four minutes more.

“Are you ready to shut up?” Grassley, of Iowa, asked Booker with a raised voice.

Patel brushed off Grassley’s offer during the exchange to respond to Booker.

“I don’t have much to say. This guy called me a thug. It’s kind of ironic. He’s running for president of the United States. He just got his 20-second ad campaign,” Patel said. “Next.”

Booker told NBC News’ “Meet the Press with Kristen Welker” in March that he’s “definitely not ruling out” a presidential run in 2028.

Grassley thanked Patel for “putting up with what you had to put up with.”

“And I’m sorry I couldn’t control some of them more than I already did,” he said.

Democratic probes promised

Sen. Adam Schiff, a California Democrat, warned a Democratic-led Congress would investigate the FBI’s actions under Patel’s leadership. 

That includes the alleged firing of agents who worked on investigations of the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol attack and President Donald Trump’s alleged hoarding of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago following his first term.

“The FBI is being sued for wrongful termination. I will remind you, director, because you probably need reminding, that while this Congress is not going to investigate the wrongful termination of potentially hundreds of agents for working on properly predicated investigations, the next Congress will,” Schiff said.

The panel’s Republicans praised Patel for his record at the agency.

Patel said his agency “has made America safer than it’s ever been.”

“Across six America 250 events and this year’s World Cup alone, we welcomed over 12 million visitors to the United States to attend these events. Not one single incident occurred at any single one of these events,” he said during his opening remarks.

Bizarre exchange over FBI hiring

One topic that drew scrutiny from both sides of the aisle was a recent reported change at the FBI that lifted previous disqualifying behavior for special agent recruits, including theft from employers, prostitution and bestiality.

Sen. John Kennedy, a Louisiana Republican, said he understands “the game” of Democrats broaching the subject of bestiality to “make you look bad,” but said he was also “trying to get to the bottom of this.”

In a bizarre and unexpected exchange for a Senate hearing, Kennedy asked hypothetically, “If ‘Joe’ participated in bestiality, not as the animal, but as the human, don’t you think he ought to be disqualified?” 

“If he voluntarily did it, sure,” Patel said.

Kennedy interrupted, “Okay, how do you involuntarily do that?”

Patel said some people are trafficked and forced into “degrading acts of all kind,” but later want to join the FBI.

“But you’re not telling us today that if a human being (voluntarily) had sex with an animal that they can still be an FBI agent?” Kennedy asked.

“No,” Patel responded.

“In fact, they ought to be in jail, right?” Kennedy shot back.

“They all are,” Patel said.

“Yea, well, okay,” Kennedy said.

FBI at polling locations

On the topic of an FBI presence at the polls on Nov. 3, Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., told Patel he was “dissatisfied that you are unable to give us an unequivocal, clear, unambiguous commitment that the FBI will be kept out of election interference.”

“You are involved in seven voter-related subpoenas issued to the Nevada Secretary of State’s office, you were involved in seizure of election records from Fulton County, Georgia. Clearly, the FBI has been involved in possible election interference,” Blumenthal said.

FBI agents seized 2020 presidential election ballots in Fulton County in January.

The Trump administration served voter-related subpoenas earlier this month in Nevada.

Welch told Patel he’s concerned about what he’s “willing to do for the president in this year’s midterm elections that the president is already saying are going to be rigged if he loses.”

Moments later Welch asked, “Last month, Congressman and Michigan gubernatorial candidate John James said to podcaster Benny Johnson, quote, ‘I’ve already had a good conversation with my friend Kash Patel, who has said already that the FBI will have a presence leading up to Election Day in Michigan, in both West Michigan and Southeast Michigan.’ Is that true?”

“We have an election crimes community coordinator in all 56 field offices, so you bet we’re going to have them there and manning the posts for election interference,” Patel said.

The exchange continued for several minutes, growing more contentious, as Welch pressed for an answer and Patel said he would not take part in a “charade of lies.”

“Then why are you being such a panderer to President Trump, who’s still claiming that he won the 2020 election, and who has said the only way Democrats can win in 2026 is if they cheat. Do you believe that?” Welch replied.

“I believe in the rule of law. … I want to know how your wealth increased 4,000% since you became a United States senator?” Patel shot back.

“Let’s knock it off,” Sen. John Cornyn, a Texas Republican, chimed in after taking over the hearing for Grassley.

AI hacking

Sen. Josh Hawley, who has shown skepticism of the skyrocketing growth of artificial intelligence, used part of his time to ask how the FBI will handle illegal hacking incidents by AI agents.

Several incidents this summer involved AI agents hacking into other systems, including OpenAI agents that broke into tech company Hugging Face, without explicit instructions to do so.

The recent explosive development of AI has dominated headlines and conversations on Capitol Hill in recent days after top tech executives warned development was moving too quickly to adhere to safety guardrails. Congress has yet to pass overarching AI regulations.

“What’s the role here for the bureau? How, how do you wrap your head around these kind of crimes?” asked Hawley, a Missouri Republican.

“This is a great question. It’s literally the new frontier, and nobody’s really talking about it, so thank you. So a couple things: The president has issued his AI directive on what the government can and can’t use, and that’s the right first step because you don’t want 77 different large language models,” Patel said.

The FBI, he said, has reviewed 140 “test case models” to measure their capabilities and “make sure they are cooperating and following underlying federal statutes.”

“What we need to do on a resource basis is go after the people that created these models that are going rogue,” Patel said.

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

Originally published on TiffinOhio.net.

“Senators elected this fall will be in office in 2032 when Social Security recipients will face immediate 22% cuts, so all candidates should be putting forth solutions in this campaign to prevent this catastrophic result,” said Michael A. Peterson, CEO of the Peterson Foundation. “The good news indicated by this survey is that voters want this problem addressed, and there is strong bipartisan support for many available solutions that would sustain this essential program.” 

Ninety-one percent of those surveyed said they support changes to Social Security “to prevent automatic benefit cuts,” while 85% said “it is more important than ever for lawmakers to fix” the program, given the sharp increase in the cost of living.

The poll focused on voters in the swing states of Georgia, Michigan, North Carolina, Ohio and Texas, elevating Social Security as a campaign issue with less than two months until voting ends on Nov. 3. 

Seventy-two percent of those in the poll said they would support Congress instituting a 1% tax on income above $184,500 to bolster funding for Social Security. The law currently requires people to pay a 6.2% tax up to that annual income level but no Social Security taxes after. 

About two-thirds said they would support lawmakers placing a $100,000 limit on annual Social Security benefits for a retired couple. 

Gradually increasing the retirement age wasn’t nearly as popular, with 52% of those surveyed opposed to the possibility that lawmakers would “phase in a small gradual increase in the retirement age for younger Americans.”

Sixty-eight percent of those polled didn’t support the idea that Congress could borrow more to offset the upcoming benefit cut.

The online poll, conducted by Global Strategy Group and North Star Opinion Research, surveyed 2,500 registered voters between Aug. 20 and Aug. 27. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.4 percentage points.

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

Originally published on TiffinOhio.net.

Ohio state Sen. Jerry Cirino, R-Kirtland, spoke on a panel about civics centers last week at an Education Writers Association conference at Howard University in Washington, D.C.

Inside Higher Ed reporter Ryan Quinn moderated the discussion which also included George Washington University Law School Professor Mary Anne Franks and Arizona State University Professor Paul Carrese.

A dozen states have civics centers across 17 college campuses. Ohio’s five civics centers were created by supermajority Republican lawmakers through the state’s two-year budget in 2023 for $24 million.

“Ohio is not the first or the second to come up with these centers, but we took what some other states were doing very early, and we injected some steroids into it,” Cirino said. 

Ohio’s five civics centers are at Ohio State University, the University of Toledo, Miami University, Wright State University, and Cleveland State University.

“The statute charges these centers with advancing teaching and research related to the historical ideas, traditions, and texts that have shaped the American constitutional order and society,” Cirino said.

“It’s not about forcing some belief down anybody’s throat, no indoctrination. It’s about having an open debate, open discussion about different sides of issues. … It’s to make sure that we are studying things in an objective fashion. Let’s let the students decide what they want to believe.” 

Franks, who is on Uncivil Collective’s Advisory Board which has spoken out against university civics centers, questioned the need for civics centers. 

“We’re talking about government mandated centers for education, we’re talking about millions of dollars of public funds. … I think it really is worth getting a very clear answer to what is the problem we’re trying to solve,” she said. 

“The state is not the answer to whatever balance you want to have in higher education. The state should not be dictating their education.”

In 2023, only 13% of eighth graders were proficient in history and 22% were proficient in civics, according to the National Assessment of Educational Progress. 

“Anywhere from 25-30% of students in most surveys that I read can’t answer basic questions about America’s founding and its history,” Cirino said. 

“It’s just about knowing America’s civics history and the good, the bad, and the ugly. We have all three certainly in our history.”

College students lacking knowledge about civics education is nothing new, Franks said. 

The New York Times reported in 1943 that college freshmen across the country showed an “ignorance of U.S. history” and only 6% of the 7,000 students surveyed could name the 13 original states. 

Cirino argued there is a leftward tilt in higher education. 

“We should be a little bit more neutral and make sure that the coursework in the syllabi are developed to present different alternative views of different things. … Let the student decide which one they are attracted to, which one they think works, which one historically has been more effective.” 

Franks said professors are not indoctrinating students. 

“Why do you think that the way that someone votes has anything to do with the way that someone teaches? … I can’t even get my students to read the syllabus. I am not shaping (their) beliefs.” 

Arizona State University created the first state-funded university civics center in 2016 with the School of Civic and Economic Thought and Leadership opening in 2017.

ASU’s center developed a master’s degree, hosts public speakers, and engages with the state’s K-12 teachers through professional development workshops.

“Educators always believe that more education will help everything. So, if you have a restoration of focus on (civics education), it’s going to be good for our civic culture, especially now in America,” said Carrese, who served as the center’s founding director from 2016-2023. 

Cirino introduced Ohio Senate Bill 461 over the summer which would give the centers’ directors the sole authority to hire faculty and staff, as well as determine their rank, salary, and tenure. It would also make it so the centers would receive all tuition and revenue from the courses it offers. 

However, less than 1% of Ohio State students enrolled in the university’s Chase Center for Civics, Culture and Society in 2025, according to state data.

“We’re going to be looking at the number of students enrolled, but … new programs take some time to build up,” Cirino said. 

He has proposed new legislation to mandate attendance for the centers.

He hopes Ohio’s civics centers don’t become silos on campus. 

“We wanted to have independence to a certain extent because otherwise, we would have faculty senates deciding who’s going to be teaching these courses and what the curricula are, and we had significant evidence to suggest to us that that would not be a wise thing to do,” Cirino said. 

Cirino also authored S.B. 1 which bans diversity efforts, regulates classroom discussion, prohibits faculty strikes, creates post-tenure reviews, creates a retrenchment provision that blocks unions from negotiating on tenure, and requires students take an American civic literacy course as a graduation requirement.

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

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

Originally published on TiffinOhio.net.

The automated license plate readers have spread rapidly through state and local law enforcement agencies as a powerful tool for finding suspects.

The public backlash has grown just as quickly.

In addition to Americans’ abiding unease with government surveillance, critics point to news investigations which uncovered eye-opening examples of police abuse of the Flock database.

A bipartisan group of Ohio lawmakers want the state’s transportation agency to rescind Flock permits. One of them is filing legislation to prohibit government agencies from deploying cameras or accessing the database without first getting a warrant.

Faber’s plan

Keith Faber, the GOP candidate for Ohio AG in November, wants to punish misuse without losing access to a critical investigatory tool.

“Flock cameras can help Ohio police recover stolen cars, find missing kids, and catch violent criminals,” Faber said in a press release. “But that data exists to solve crimes. If someone abuses it to violate the Constitutional rights of law-abiding Ohioans, that should be a crime, the same as misusing any other sensitive law enforcement database.”

If elected, Faber is promising to work with lawmakers to make abuse of the Flock database a felony. In a video on social media he explained it’s already a felony under Ohio law to misuse of state’s central law enforcement database, known as LEADS.

“As your attorney general, I’ll work with the legislature to pass legislation and get Flock and similar data that same protection,” Faber sad. “Use it to solve a crime or protect the public, and you’re doing your job. Abuse it or violate someone’s constitutional rights, and you’ve committed a felony. That goes for everyone, badge or no badge.”

There’s no guarantee that lawmakers will agree with his idea, but Faber expressed confidence that “the legislature would be very receptive to a request from the attorney general to try and put a belt and suspenders around a law enforcement tool that could be abused to spy on Ohioans.”

Is there some other existing statute the attorney general could use to pursue bad actors if lawmakers don’t act? Faber says maybe, but Ohioans would be better served with a straightforward amendment to existing law.

John Kulewicz, the Democratic nominee for attorney general, doesn’t think Faber’s plan goes far enough.

“I have been advocating for the General Assembly to adopt a wide-ranging data privacy law that limits the use of personal data companies can collect,” Kulewicz said in a statement.

Because Flock is a private company, he worries the data it collects could eventually wind up in the hands of third parties.

“We are constantly tracked, not just by our license plates, but also by our digital footprint,” Kulewicz said. “Any legislation should limit the collection and use of personal data and ban the misuse of any collected data, especially by modern algorithmic decision-makers.”

Balancing act

Ohio state Rep. Levi Dean, R-Xenia, is deeply skeptical of Flock’s license plate reader network. He’s currently filing a bill that would restrict “government entities” from deploying cameras, require warrants before gaining access, and prohibit the sale of surveillance data.

“Flock cameras and automatic license plate readers can be valuable tools,” Dean said in a press release. “But a tool that can track the movements of innocent Americans can also be abused in the wrong hands.”

“Think about what the widespread use of these systems could have meant during lockdown orders,” he added.

Dean wants law enforcement to have “the tools they need,” but he insisted the principles behind The Fourth Amendment have not changed.

“Government power must have limits,” he said. “We don’t have to choose between catching criminals and protecting our constitutional rights. We can do both.”

Oddly enough, “we can do both” has become a familiar formula among public officials defending the program.

Faber, for instance, said under his proposal, “Police keep a tool that catches criminals. Citizens keep their privacy. In Ohio, I’m sure we can do both.”

But insisting that middle path exists is a lot easier than finding it.

Late last month, as Columbus Mayor Andrew Ginther announced new safeguards and oversight for the city’s Flock program, he argued the city could protect citizens privacy while continuing to utilize the camera network. A week later he reversed course and paused the program. A USA Today report revealed one Columbus Police officer conducted 272 searches for a single license plate over the course of a year.

More recently, the city of Reynoldsburg ended its Flock program outright. In a video posted to Facebook, Mayor Joe Begeny referred to their own examples of alleged misuse, but he declined to elaborate because investigations are ongoing.

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

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

Originally published on TiffinOhio.net.

Now comes the harder part: making those policies useful as students and teachers return to classrooms.

The state’s model policy points districts in the right direction. It calls for clear rules on student and staff use, privacy, ethics, third-party tools, teacher practices, and the effect of AI on learning objectives and assessment.

Those categories matter. But a policy can satisfy every category and still leave teachers with the central classroom problem unanswered: how can they tell whether AI helped a student learn, or simply helped a student produce?

Ohio should add a proof-of-learning standard to the next phase of implementation.

When AI materially contributes to a graded assignment, students should provide a brief explanation of four things: what they asked the system to do, what they changed or rejected, what they independently verified, and what they can now explain or perform without the tool.

The standard should stay narrow. It should not turn spellcheck, autocomplete, or routine formatting into a disclosure exercise. It should apply when AI materially shapes the reasoning, research, writing, code, design, or conclusions submitted for evaluation.

This approach fits the concern Ohio has already identified. The model policy specifically asks districts to consider how AI affects student learning objectives and assessment.

A proof-of-learning note turns that broad principle into something a teacher can actually use. Instead of trying to infer understanding from polished output alone, the teacher gets a small window into the student’s judgment.

That matters because generative AI can make weak understanding look deceptively strong. A student can receive a fluent answer before learning enough to recognize a bad premise, a fabricated source, or a shallow explanation.

The risk grows when schools focus mainly on detecting whether AI was used. Detection turns the classroom into a contest over concealment. Learning requires a different question: what intellectual work did the student still do?

A four-part note can answer that question without requiring surveillance. A history student might explain that an AI system suggested three causes for an event, but the student rejected one after reading the assigned sources.

A computer science student might note that generated code failed an edge case and describe the fix. A career-technical student could show how an AI-generated procedure changed after comparison with a safety standard or equipment manual. The evidence lies in the student’s decisions, not in a screenshot of a chat log.

The Ohio Capital Journal reported in May that broader efforts to regulate artificial intelligence in Ohio had stalled amid uncertainty over what the state could enforce.

Schools present a different situation. Ohio has already acted. The legislature set the policy deadline, the Department of Education and Workforce produced a model, and districts now have implementation authority.

That makes education a practical place to establish a workable norm of human accountability while larger AI debates continue.

The standard would also help prepare students for work. Employers increasingly expect workers to use AI, but employers still need people who can catch errors, protect confidential information, recognize when a task should stay human, and take responsibility for the result.

Students who practice documenting those decisions will enter the workforce with a more valuable skill than prompt fluency. They will know how to supervise a machine.

Districts should avoid turning the standard into a paperwork burden. The Department of Education and Workforce could publish a one-page set of examples showing when a proof-of-learning note is appropriate and when it is unnecessary.

Teachers could adapt the four questions to their subjects. Districts could test the approach in a limited number of courses during the fall, then compare student work and teacher feedback before expanding it.

Schools should also protect privacy. Students should never have to submit full prompt histories or sensitive information to prove responsible use. The state model already emphasizes privacy and personally identifiable information.

A proof-of-learning note should record human decisions, not create a new archive of student conversations with AI systems.

The July deadline forced Ohio schools to write rules. The start of the school year will test whether those rules improve learning.

Ohio can make them more useful by asking students for evidence of judgment whenever AI plays a meaningful role in their work. The goal should be simple: students may learn with powerful tools, but they must still be able to show the thinking that belongs to them.

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

Originally published on TiffinOhio.net.

“They used the word affordability. Right? It’s fake. They are so fake, because it was them that caused the affordability, to use their word, crisis,” Trump said in a speech. “And I’m bringing the prices way down, way, way down. They caused the price, but we’re fixing it. We’re fixing it.”

During the 2024 presidential campaign, Trump repeatedly promised that he would immediately end inflation and lower consumer prices if returned to the White House.

“We have an inflation crisis that is making life unaffordable, ravaging the incomes of working and low-income families, and crushing our people,” he said in his 2024 Republican National Convention nomination acceptance speech, according to a transcript published by NBC News. “I will end the devastating Inflation Crisis immediately, bring down interest rates, and lower the cost of energy—we will drill, baby, drill, which will lead to a large-scale decline in prices.”

Instead, Trump imposed tariffs in 2025 on most imported goods and services, which caused higher retail prices. 

In February, Trump launched military attacks on Iran. Iran responded by blocking oil tankers and other ships from traveling through the Strait of Hormuz, a key passageway used to transport exported goods from the Middle East, leading to higher gasoline prices in the United States. 

According to AAA data, the national average price of a gallon of gasoline on Sept. 14 was more than $4.31, compared to $3.12 on the day Trump returned to the White House in January 2025, an increase of more than 38%.

“As the President has repeatedly noted, the hoax is Democrats trying to pounce on inflation despite creating this mess in the first place by abetting Joe Biden’s generational inflation crisis,” a White House spokesperson said in an emailed statement. “Putting an end to Joe Biden’s inflation crisis has been a Day One priority for President Trump, and the August CPI report reinforces how the Trump administration’s targeted policy interventions are delivering with dramatic month-over-month price reductions for beef, prescription drugs, and car insurance. These policies are having a lasting impact for everyday Americans, and the President remains committed to delivering more economic relief as energy supplies increase and markets stabilize.” 

A Harris Poll, conducted for the Guardian and released in July, found that 95% of Americans think the nation is experiencing an affordability crisis, and 57% believe the economy is getting worse.

Originally published on TiffinOhio.net.

Why did Gary Click leave so quietly?

Click says he stopped serving as lead pastor at the end of March 2025 and became pastor emeritus, an honorary position that freed him from the church’s day-to-day responsibilities.

But there was no publicly identified announcement of the change at the time. Click’s constituents were not told through his legislative office or campaign that the pastor-turned-lawmaker had left the position that had been central to his public identity for nearly two decades.

And Fremont Baptist Temple’s own website continued presenting Click as its pastor for nearly 11 months after he says he stepped down.

When TiffinOhio.net first reported the departure in February, Click disputed the characterization that he had left quietly.

“Actually, it was very public. You just missed it,” Click wrote on X after the story was shared by Ohio political blog Plunderbund.

But when Plunderbund asked Click to identify the public announcement, no response pointing to one was identified.

Seven months later, no contemporaneous public announcement from March 2025 has surfaced.

A 19-year tenure ended with little public notice

Click became pastor of Fremont Baptist Temple in 2006 and remained there while launching his political career.

His ministry was not a peripheral part of the biography he presented to voters.

When Click entered the Ohio House in January 2021, his official legislative announcement highlighted his position as pastor of Fremont Baptist Temple, his more than 30 years in ministry and his work lobbying Congress on behalf of churches and Christian schools.

Click also delivered the opening prayer during the House session on the day he was sworn in.

His current Ohio House biography now says he served Fremont Baptist Temple “through 2025” before stepping down and assuming the honorary title of pastor emeritus.

But when that transition actually occurred in March 2025, there was little outward indication that Click’s 19-year tenure running the church had ended.

TiffinOhio.net discovered the change nearly a year later after Click’s Ohio House biography had been revised. At that point, Fremont Baptist Temple’s website was still listing Click in active pastoral leadership.

Church members knew. The broader public apparently did not.

Click later discussed the transition in an interview with the Advertiser-Tribune after TiffinOhio.net’s report.

Rick Ash, who succeeded Click as pastor, told the newspaper that the change had been discussed with the church’s deacons and advisory council before being presented to the congregation, which overwhelmingly approved the transition.

That establishes that the change was known and handled internally at Fremont Baptist Temple.

It does not explain Click’s assertion that the transition had been “very public.”

No public announcement from Click, his campaign or his legislative office has been identified from the time of the transition. No contemporaneous church announcement circulated outside the congregation has surfaced either.

And even the church’s website did not reflect the change for months.

Fremont Baptist Temple updated its public leadership page only after TiffinOhio.net reported the discrepancy in February, changing the site to identify Ash as pastor and Click as pastor emeritus.

Click says the change gave him freedom to travel

Click has explained what the new arrangement allowed him to do.

In his February interview, Click said relinquishing day-to-day responsibility for Fremont Baptist Temple gave him greater freedom to travel and preach elsewhere.

He said he had spoken in California, Colorado and Alabama, as well as communities throughout Ohio, on what he described as the “justice and biblical role of Christians in civil government.”

Click also said he had filed paperwork to create a nonprofit ministry called “We the Church.”

His travel and involvement with Christian political organizations have since become a more visible part of his public profile. TiffinOhio.net reported in August that Click had been building an increasingly national political and religious network while retaining the honorary pastor emeritus title at Fremont Baptist Temple.

That provides an explanation for what Click wanted to do once he was no longer responsible for running the church.

It leaves a different question unresolved: why a major change in the life of a politician who had repeatedly presented himself to voters as a working pastor received so little public notice when it happened.

The question follows Click into the fall campaign

The issue is resurfacing at a politically consequential moment for Click.

The three-term Republican represents all of Seneca and Sandusky counties in Ohio House District 88 and is seeking a fourth term this November.

Click narrowly survived a Republican primary challenge from Eric Watson in May, winning 6,859 votes to Watson’s 6,260 — a margin of 599 votes. Watson carried Seneca County while Click’s advantage in Sandusky County supplied his districtwide victory.

Click now faces Democrat Aaron Jones of Tiffin in the Nov. 3 general election.

As campaigning intensifies across the district, Click’s departure from Fremont Baptist Temple stands apart from an ordinary career change because of how closely he has tied his religious identity to his political career.

His official biographies emphasized his ministry. He has chaired the Ohio Christian Legislators Caucus. Religion has figured prominently in his legislative work on education, abortion, gender and the role of Christianity in government.

Click himself continues to use the honorific “Pastor” and remains pastor emeritus at Fremont Baptist Temple.

There is no public evidence that Click was removed by the church or forced to resign, and the available record does not establish misconduct as the reason for his departure.

But the public record does establish an unusual sequence.

Click says he stepped down at the end of March 2025 after 19 years as pastor. No contemporaneous public announcement has been identified. The church’s website continued presenting him as pastor for nearly another year. When the departure was reported, Click insisted it had been “very public.” He did not identify the announcement when challenged to do so. The church website was then updated.

Click has since explained why his new pastor emeritus role benefits his broader ministry.

What remains unclear is why the end of his 19-year tenure leading Fremont Baptist Temple was handled so quietly in the first place.

Originally published on TiffinOhio.net.

Acton issued the challenge Tuesday as Ohio’s rapidly expanding data-center industry becomes an increasingly central issue in the governor’s race.

“I will not allow special interests, corporations, or billionaires to buy my state,” Acton said. “I am calling on Vivek Ramaswamy to sell his individual stock and commit to not investing in data centers.”

Acton added that she does not own individual stocks and pledged not to “invest in or possess individual stocks” while serving as governor.

She then took direct aim at Ramaswamy’s extensive investment portfolio.

“Meanwhile, Vivek Ramaswamy has personally invested millions of dollars in data centers,” Acton said. “If elected, he would continue to sell Ohio out. Ohioans deserve a governor who cares about making their lives better, not a billionaire who is only out for himself.”

The attack comes just days after News 5 Cleveland examined both candidates’ financial disclosures and asked whether they would divest from investments connected to the data-center industry.

Ramaswamy did not respond to the station’s divestment question before its story was published. Acton’s campaign responded after the television report aired, saying she did not own individual stocks and would not invest in or possess them as governor.

Ramaswamy’s holdings reach across the data-center economy

Ramaswamy’s financial exposure to the industry is substantially broader.

TiffinOhio.net reported in May that Ramaswamy’s financial disclosures include investments throughout the data-center supply chain, including NVIDIA, Microsoft and Amazon, along with industrial real estate companies and an infrastructure fund with exposure to digital infrastructure.

Ramaswamy has held NVIDIA stock directly and through the Strive U.S. Semiconductor ETF, a fund he helped launch through the asset-management company he founded. His 2023 federal financial disclosure valued his stake in that semiconductor fund at between $1 million and $5 million.

Microsoft and Amazon are among the largest cloud-computing and data-center operators in the world, while NVIDIA produces the chips powering the artificial-intelligence infrastructure boom.

Ramaswamy has also disclosed investments in Prologis, Plymouth Industrial REIT, Rexford Industrial Realty and Terreno Realty, as well as a global infrastructure fund with exposure to digital infrastructure.

Those disclosures establish millions of dollars in investments connected to the broader data-center economy, although Acton’s description of Ramaswamy as having personally invested “millions of dollars in data centers” is broader than what the disclosures themselves show. The records document investments in companies and funds tied to the industry, rather than millions of dollars directly invested in individual Ohio data-center projects.

The next governor will have enormous influence over the industry

The financial question matters because Ohio’s next governor will wield significant power over how the data-center boom develops.

The governor appoints all nine members of the JobsOhio board, which plays a central role in negotiating economic-development incentives. The governor also appoints members of the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio, which regulates electric utilities and has already adopted special rules governing massive data-center electricity loads.

The administration also has influence over the Ohio Tax Credit Authority, which administers economic-development incentives at a time when lawmakers are reconsidering the enormous cost of tax breaks granted to data centers.

Ramaswamy has repeatedly supported continued data-center development in Ohio.

As TiffinOhio.net reported last week, he was recorded at least 10 times in 2025 calling Ohio’s emerging data-center boom good, great or something the state should welcome.

“We’ve got AI data centers moving to our state. That’s a good thing. It’s a good thing,” Ramaswamy said during one March 2025 appearance.

At another event, he said AI data centers and Bitcoin mining firms were industries “all of which I want in the state.”

Ramaswamy has since adopted a more restrictive position as opposition to hyperscale data centers has spread across Ohio. His current plan would temporarily stop new projects until lawmakers enact rules requiring developers to provide electricity or compensation to nearby residents, pay full property taxes and meet environmental and farmland protections.

Projects meeting those requirements would still be permitted to move forward.

Acton turns the conflict-of-interest question directly on Ramaswamy

Acton has also called for conditions on new data centers, arguing developers should bear the infrastructure costs associated with their enormous electricity demand rather than shifting those expenses onto residential customers.

Her newest pledge goes further by making personal financial interests part of the argument.

Instead of simply promising restrictions on the companies seeking approval from state government, Acton is now arguing that the governor should not personally own individual stocks that could rise or fall based on decisions made by the administration.

Ramaswamy has not publicly committed to divesting from his data-center-related holdings.

The issue is likely to remain prominent through the Nov. 3 election as Ohio faces a historic wave of proposed data-center construction and an escalating fight over who pays for the electricity, transmission infrastructure, tax incentives and other costs that come with it.

Originally published on TiffinOhio.net.

The court on Monday placed the case on an expedited election schedule, ordering the respondents to answer the complaint by 4 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 17, and barring requests for extensions.

The case, State ex rel. Koebel v. Erie County Board of Elections, was filed by former Ottawa County Commissioner Carl Koebel and asks the state’s highest court to overturn the certification that put Stidham on the Nov. 3 ballot.

The lawsuit puts before the Supreme Court the same dispute that deadlocked the Erie County Board of Elections 2-2 in August: whether the Republican committee that selected Stidham could legally conduct the selection behind closed doors and whether Stidham could participate in deliberations and vote in a process in which he was himself a candidate.

Stidham, the Erie County treasurer and chairman of the Erie County Republican Party, was one of three Republicans seeking the nomination after state Rep. D.J. Swearingen withdrew from the ballot Aug. 4.

He was also one of just six people empowered by state law to choose Swearingen’s replacement.

Under Ohio Revised Code 3513.31, a vacancy involving a legislative district spanning multiple counties is filled by a district committee consisting of the chairperson and secretary of each county party organization within the district. House District 89 includes Erie and Ottawa counties and part of Huron County, giving the committee six members.

The committee met Aug. 10 and selected Stidham by a 4-2 vote.

As TiffinOhio.net previously reported, Stidham left the room while competing candidates made their presentations but returned for the committee’s deliberations and participated in the vote.

Ottawa County Republican Party Secretary Toni DeLuca, one of the six committee members, publicly criticized the process afterward.

“The Chair of Erie County, Caleb Stidham, was asked to leave when other candidates spoke,” DeLuca wrote. “However, he joined the committee for deliberations. I found it odd that a candidate for a position was given the right to deliberate on other candidates.”

DeLuca described it as “a flawed process that allows a candidate to vote for himself on a committee of 6 people.”

Meeting was closed to the public

The Aug. 10 selection meeting was not open to the public.

MaryAnn Groot, a Democratic member of the Erie County Board of Elections, said in an affidavit submitted during the subsequent certification dispute that she went to the building where the selection was taking place and told Republican elections board members there that she believed the meeting was required to be public.

Groot said she was told it was a closed meeting and was directed to wait elsewhere.

When the nomination later came before the Erie County Board of Elections for certification, Democratic members Edward J. Leonard and Groot voted against putting Stidham on the ballot. Republicans John C. Adams and Gary L. Smith voted to certify him.

Leonard argued that the committee was not merely conducting internal Republican Party business because Ohio law had given it the power to determine who would replace a candidate previously nominated by voters and whose name would appear on the general election ballot.

“After reviewing the circumstances of the Republican District Committee meeting at which Caleb Stidham was selected, I have concluded that the meeting was not conducted in accordance with Ohio law,” Leonard wrote in a statement before the Aug. 14 vote.

He argued the meeting should have been public and that Stidham should not have participated in the deliberations or vote involving his own candidacy.

The 2-2 split sent the dispute to LaRose under state law.

LaRose certified Stidham

LaRose broke the tie Aug. 20 in Stidham’s favor, clearing the way for him to appear on the November ballot.

LaRose rejected the argument that the closed meeting prevented Stidham from being certified.

“Respectfully, this certification vote is not the proper forum for an extra-judicial expansion of Ohio’s open meetings laws beyond their established statutory application,” LaRose wrote in his decision.

Stidham has also rejected accusations that his participation presented a conflict of interest.

“There seems to be some confusion; there is no conflict of interest because I did not lead or chair the meeting that selected me as the candidate,” Stidham told NBC4 in August.

Huron County Republican Chairman Sven Stahl chaired the selection meeting because Stidham was a candidate. Stidham nevertheless participated in the committee’s deliberations and vote.

Ohio’s vacancy statute does not expressly require a committee member who is seeking the nomination to abstain, and it does not expressly state that the committee’s meeting must be open to the public. Whether other provisions of Ohio law required an open meeting is now part of the dispute before the Supreme Court.

Lawsuit asks court to block certification

Koebel’s lawsuit argues that the Republican district committee was exercising authority created by state law that directly determined whose name would appear on an election ballot and therefore could not carry out that function through closed deliberations.

The petition further argues that election officials should not certify a replacement nominee when there is evidence that the process used to make the selection failed to comply with Ohio law.

“This case is not about who the Republican Party should have selected as its nominee. It is about whether the process required by Ohio law was followed,” attorney Gina R. Grandillo, who represents Koebel, said in a statement.

“When a political committee is exercising statutory authority that determines whose name will appear on the ballot, the public has a legitimate interest in ensuring that process is lawful and transparent,” Grandillo said. “We are asking the Supreme Court to review what occurred and determine whether this certification can legally stand.”

Christopher E. Liebold, who is representing Koebel with Grandillo, said the approaching election makes a quick decision necessary.

“Ohio’s election laws establish a process for filling a vacancy on the ballot, and those requirements matter,” Liebold said. “Voters deserve confidence that candidates are placed on the ballot through a process that complies with the law.”

The lawsuit asks the Supreme Court to order LaRose to deny Stidham’s certification and direct the Erie County Board of Elections not to place him on the ballot.

Alternatively, Koebel asks the court to return the matter to the elections board with instructions to investigate whether the replacement selection complied with Ohio law.

Supreme Court accelerates case

The Supreme Court’s Sept. 14 order makes clear that the dispute will move quickly.

The court ordered the Erie County Board of Elections and LaRose to answer by 4 p.m. Thursday and directed all remaining filings to proceed under the court’s expedited election-case rules.

It also prohibited either side from requesting additional time, directing the clerk not to accept requests or agreements seeking extensions.

The court has not ruled on Koebel’s claims or determined that the Republican committee’s selection of Stidham violated Ohio law.

Stidham is currently the Republican nominee against Democrat Easton Retzke in the Nov. 3 election. Former Republican state Rep. Steve Kraus is also running as a write-in candidate.

Originally published on TiffinOhio.net.

When the purple lights turn on, the robots have taken the big rig’s wheel. 

Over flat highways and rolling rural hills, a small fleet of passenger vehicles and tractor-trailers have been learning to drive on Ohio’s roads for years now. But for the first time this summer – though on semi-private roads – some don’t have human drivers present. 

These first deployments of autonomous trucks and cars, backed by artificial intelligence and a suite of lidar (similar to radar, but using light instead of radio waves) and camera technology, are limited in scope. The trucks are festooned with purple lights, which the truck’s operators say will send a clear signal of an autonomous driving mode to law enforcement without advertising their status to anyone looking to stress test it. 

Ohioans are unlikely to see them in the wild just yet. But they could be early indications of a significant shift away from human beings controlling our cars. 

The state currently only allows fully self-driving cars on the road for testing and research. In most self-driving deployments in Ohio, a human sits behind the wheel ready to take over, especially in more complicated driving environments such as construction zones or during bad weather.  

A full rollout of self-driving cars and trucks would require a change in state law. But at least one company trying to build out a self-driving workforce says its products are ready and they’re only waiting on the law and the public to catch up. 

Driverless truck technology ‘ready,’ says one Ohio company

Autonomous vehicle testing is led by DriveOhio, an office in the Ohio Department of Transportation. Gov. John Kasich created the office via executive order in 2018, and it has carried on since. 

Farthest along in the local automation race is Ease Logistics, a Dublin, Ohio, company that’s mostly an old fashioned freight brokerage that’s dabbling in autonomous trucking. Over the past few years, the company has tested “platooning” mode in its trucks, with the underlying technology coming from Kratos Defense of California. The term refers to one platooned vehicle following another and mimicing its behavior while analyzing its own camera and lidar feeds to maneuver. 

In 2022, a fleet of both trucks and cars spanned thousands of miles of rural and windy roads in Vinton and Athens counties with both automated and platooning technologies. A state report of company data noted more success with the trucks than cars, which required more frequent driver engagements and struggled to predict other drivers’ behavior. 

More recently, Ease trucks accrued 3,000 miles in platooning mode with a human backup driver present, according to data submitted to DriveOhio this summer, not counting the human-engaged miles on the interstate. 

While there were a handful of what are known as “excessive braking events” – the company and DriveOhio haven’t yet analyzed all the data – there were no crashes in platooning mode on I-70, and Chief Administrative Officer Abbi Fallia is bullish on the future. 

“The Kratos technology could be ready. It is ready. It could be automated,” she said in an interview. “We could automate that and take the second driver out of the cab. So we’re there. It’s more of a regulation thing than a capability thing.”

And at the company’s warehouses in Marysville, the trucks drive themselves, by themselves – with tech from Einride, a Swedish company. 

Rather than tractor-trailers, Ease’s fully self-driving vehicles look more like shoeboxes than trucks. At modest speeds of 15 mph, the all-electric haulers shuttle a short loop on quasi-private roads within a corporate park. But they carry real cargo. And Falli is eager to expand its testing onto a nearby 45 mph roadway, or even U.S. 33. 

Truckers have fought autonomous driving in other states

The self-driving truck industry is most developed in mild weather states in the Southwest. But Ease is hoping its technology can learn the nuances of driving in variable midwestern weather like hail or heavy rain. 

Company data indicates the platooning mode is making its trucks more fuel efficient. Down the line, Fallia thinks the trucks could produce “efficiencies” for truckers. For instance, two drivers could tag-team a route hauling two trucks, one leading and the other napping or doing administrative work while platoon mode handles the driving.

There’s also a reasonable risk of eliminating at least some trucking jobs. Self-driving technology doesn’t need sleep, meals or pay and will happily drive at night when the roads are less crowded. 

The Teamsters union, which represents truck drivers, last month sued to block a California law allowing self-driving trucks on roadways. The union has fought permissive laws in other states. 

“Self-driving trucks are an existential threat to the livelihoods of Teamsters members in California who deliver food and other essentials and are a crucial economic engine for the state,” the union said in a statement announcing the lawsuit. 

Hurdles remain, according to Breanna Badanes, a spokeswoman for DriveOhio in an interview. Some systems struggled with work zones, which aren’t always marked in a standardized way with signage positioned for cameras to read. And spotty cell or satellite signals can cause platooning to disengage. 

“We’re still a ways off from being able to remove that second driver from the driver’s seat,” she said. “The technology is getting there, but it’s not there yet.”

Other companies are testing in Ohio as well. Kodiak AI, a California company, says it’s planning its “driverless launch” in Texas by the end of the year. And this spring, the company put on a demonstration for DriveOhio with Level 4 autonomy, meaning no driver present. 

Scenarios demonstrated included navigating construction zones, merging onto highways, passing slower vehicles, yielding to disabled vehicles, and responding to unexpected pedestrian crossings.

“We do envision our driverless technology scaling broadly in the years ahead,” said Kodiak spokesman Pete Bigelow. “We believe it will bring improved safety to roads across the United States and keep freight moving reliably and efficiently.”

There are no autonomous passenger vehicles currently on the road, but Waymo, which has robotaxis on the streets in several Southwestern states, recently told Cincinnati news outlets that it has begun high definition mapping of some of the roadways there. 

Are driverless vehicles safe?

No crashes have been reported in any DriveOhio deployments, according to Badanes. 

A final report on Ease’s Southeast Ohio deployments notes six “excess braking” events. And Fallia estimated a similar amount for the I-70 deployment. 

Companies are hoping computers will mitigate human errors in driving like distraction or dozing off.

It’s unclear for now whether the automated trucks are any safer than the human-driven ones, according to David Kidd, a Vice President for Vehicle Research at the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, a nonprofit funded by insurers that evaluates vehicle and roadway policy.

Preliminary research is starting to show that robo-taxis are crashing less than human drivers in the same area, he said. For instance, using self-reported data from Waymo of its self-driving, IIHS analysis found they crashed at a 68% lower rate. 

That said, it’s too soon to tell with trucks. And just because autonomous cars are safer doesn’t mean trucks are. Truck drivers’ working hours are limited and must undergo higher training requirements than regular drivers. And large trucks can do far more damage than much lighter cars at the same speeds. 

Kidd pointed out there’s an important check in the system. Widespread deployment of autonomous vehicles requires both political and public support. The industry, he said, will need to prove itself to succeed. 

“It may feel like the wild, wild west when it comes to regulation, the types of information these companies have to report, or the extent to which they have to prove themselves,” he said. “But you have to remember that these companies, if they don’t earn the trust of the public or demonstrate safe driving behavior or a safety-first attitude, then they’re not going to survive.”

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

Originally published on TiffinOhio.net.