Ohio plans to spend more than $120 million in taxpayer funds on water infrastructure projects around the state.
The grants, which are part of the sixth round of Ohio Broadband, Utilities, and Infrastructure for Local Development Success grants, will be awarded to 59 of the state’s 88 counties.
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More than $40 million in state and local taxpayer money is expected to be spent creating Ohio’s first Innovation Hub.
Gov. Mike DeWine recently announced the collaboration, which officials say will enhance northwest Ohio’s position as a global leader in glass science, engineering, technology and production.
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Getting immunizations in Ohio is closer to getting a little easier.
Pharmacy technicians and registered pharmacy technicians could soon be able to administer immunizations around the state, servicing children as young as 5 years old.
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Burnouts, doughnuts and stunt driving activities becoming increasingly popular on Ohio roadways could soon carry stiffer penalties.
Also, under legislation recently passed by the Ohio House and Senate, blocking roads or interrupting the regular flow of traffic for street racing would be illegal.
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Opponents of foreign funding of U.S. ballot measures expect momentum at both the federal level and in states.
In May, the House Administration Committee advanced a bill to amend federal election law to prevent foreign nationals from contributing to ballot initiatives by closing a loophole, since federal law and most state laws prohibit foreign contributions to candidates. The bill, with bipartisan support, is headed to the House floor for a vote.
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The Ohio Department of Transportation says it needs nearly $2 billion to slow the growth of commute times and make a stretch of highway in one of the state’s fastest-growing counties safer.
Delaware County’s population has more than doubled in more than 20 years and increased by more than 15,000 people in the last three years. That growth has pushed a 23-mile area of U.S. Highway 23 north of Columbus to 30% over its capacity.
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A concurrence from the House of Representatives is all that stands in the way of reinforcing Ohio hospital requirements to provide transparency in pricing.
Both the Senate and House passed slightly different versions of House Bill 49, which requires hospitals to comply with the federal price transparency law. This includes maintaining and making a public list of standard charges for services a patient can schedule in advance.
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An Ohio lawmaker is looking for support to return land in western Ohio to formerly enslaved people denied to them during the Civil War.
In a letter to Republican Gov. Mike DeWine and other state agencies and elected officials, Rep. Dontavius Jarrells, D-Columbus, wants the governor to support exploring all options to address what Jarrells calls the historical injustice faced by the Randolph Freedpeople.
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Nearly $30 million in taxpayer-funded grants are going to 17 Ohio local organizations to grow access to affordable housing across the state.
The money is the first round of the state’s new Welcome Home Ohio program, which is expected to spend $100 million over two years to help landbanks buy, rehabilitate or build residential properties for income-eligible people.
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Ohio lawmakers will return to Columbus on Tuesday, attempting to pass legislation securing President Joe Biden’s name on the November ballot.
Gov. Mike DeWine called for a special session late Thursday. In a brief press conference, the Republican governor was perturbed, saying it was “ridiculous” that legislation hadn’t passed earlier.
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Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose is joining the investigation of the State Teachers Retirement System.
Shortly after Attorney General Dave Yost launched a wide-sweeping investigation into the $90 billion fund for 500,000 current and former teachers, LaRose said his Public Integrity Unit is stepping up its look into potential campaign finance violations.
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Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine will have to settle for school districts establishing respective cellphone policies rather than the state limiting use for students during the school day.
In his State of the State address last month, DeWine called on lawmakers to establish statewide cellphone restrictions. Instead, the legislature passed a bill that would require districts to come up with policies.
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Gov. Mike DeWine’s push to ban cell phones in Ohio classrooms is meeting resistance from Republicans and Democrats.
In last week’s State of the State address, DeWine called cell phones a major distraction in state schools and asked lawmakers to develop legislation that would eliminate the usage in most classroom settings.
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State and federal officials are awaiting President Joe Biden’s disaster declaration to help recovery from tornadoes and severe storms that impacted 11 counties in mid-March.
Gov. Mike DeWine, along with Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown and Republican Sen. J.D. Vance, wrote asking for a FEMA presidential disaster declaration to open federal aid for those impacted not already reimbursed by other government programs or private insurance.
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Law enforcement agencies in Ohio can now be certified in the state’s new standards for professional excellence by meeting nearly three dozen standards established to entrust public confidence, accountability and integrity.
Gov. Mike DeWine recently signed an executive order for the new Law Enforcement Accreditation Program established by the Ohio Collaborative Community-Police Advisory Board.
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Ohio plans to spread more than $120 million of taxpayer money over 13 counties for road projects, with $15 million spent to expand bus rapid transit in Columbus.
The new construction funding list from the Transportation Review Advisory Council includes $21 million for new construction, $35.5 million in additional construction, $33.4 million in new money for preliminary engineering, and another $28.4 million for more funding for development projects.
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Ohio Democratic lawmakers want the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate Republican Gov. Mike DeWine and Republican Lt. Gov. Jon Husted after news reports questioned the administration’s actions after the House Bill 6 scandal came to light.
At a Thursday news conference, State House Minority Leader Allison Russo, D-Upper Arlington, said the suggestion is that the administration did nothing when possibly criminal activity came to light.
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Nearly 400 transit programs across the state will share more than $100 million in taxpayer funds for various projects to support public transportation.
Gov. Mike DeWine announced $106 million for 383 different projects through seven grant programs focusing on workforce mobility, senior citizens, special needs transportation, rural transit and busing.
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Ohio plans to funnel $85 million in federal taxpayer dollars to its Appalachian region to develop new community innovation centers to help with education, behavioral health care and jobs.
The money is available for K-12 school districts, joint vocational school districts, regional councils of government or other political subdivisions in the state’s 32-county Appalachian region.
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Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine and the NCAA want to stop gamblers from placing bets on individual performances in college games – called “proposition bets” (prop bets) – hoping it will stop online threats and harassment.
In a letter to the Ohio Casino Control Commission, NCAA President Charlie Baker asked for collegiate prop bets to be removed from the legal bets that can be placed in the state. That move triggered a public comment period for operators to comment on rule changes before a change can occur.
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In the wake of Alabama carrying out a death sentence with the use of nitrogen gas, Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost and some lawmakers want to kick start the state’s death penalty that has been stalled since 2019.
At a news conference Tuesday, Rep. Brian Stewart, R-Ashville, said nitrogen has been made available following the Alabama execution and plans to introduce legislation to make it available in Ohio.
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Ohio journalist and entrepreneur Jack Windsor joined host Michael Patrick Leahy on Monday’s episode of The Tennessee Star Report to discuss the connections and divides behind the shocking decision by Governor Mike DeWine to veto measure that would prohibit genital mutilation of children and transgender males competing in girls’ sports. Windsor unveils the deep ties between the Buckeye State governor and the “medical industrial complex,” and how this particular veto – perhaps unbeknownst to DeWine – could influence the 2024 elections in Ohio. The Ohio Press Network journalist then breaks down the hotly contested republican nomination race for U.S. Senate to see who will face long time incumbent Sherrod Brown. TRANSCRIPT Michael Patrick Leahy: 12:33 p.m., broadcasting live from our studios in downtown Nashville on Monday, January 1st, 2024. We are broadcasting live. We’re the only talk station talk show in Nashville broadcasting live today. Another hard worker is our very good friend formerly with The Ohio Star now with the Ohio Press Network and the host of his own program in Columbus Ohio, our good friend, Mr. Jack Windsor. Jack, thanks for joining us. Jack Windsor: Michael, it’s great to be with you. Happy New Year. And thanks for allowing…
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Ohio Republican Gov. Mike DeWine went against his own party on Friday and vetoed a bill that would have banned gender-affirming treatments for minors and kept transgender athletes out of women’s sports.
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Ohio plans to give $750 million in taxpayer funds to communities around the state to grow the number of project-ready economic development sites.
The money, included in the state budget signed in July, can be used for one-time local infrastructure costs necessary to prepare sites for future projects.
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Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine plans to include the health of the state’s large rivers in the ongoing H2Ohio program aimed at water efforts.
Since 2019, H2Ohio has predominantly worked on water infrastructure in low-income areas, wetland creation and reducing algal blooms. Now the program will expand to research PFAS contamination, remove eroding dams, conserve forest buffers and more.
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Ohio plans to build two dozen fast electric vehicle charging stations after it became the first state to open a charger funded by the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure program.
The announcements come as car dealers across the country told President Joe Biden electric vehicles continue to stack up on car lots, as previously reported by The Center Square.
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Ohio plans to give another $175 million in taxpayer money to communities around the state to clean up contaminated properties and get them ready for use again.
The new money adds to the $350 million the state handed out for 313 projects in 83 counties earlier this year. Gov. Mike DeWine says it gives sites a second chance at life.
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As the push continues to transition to electric vehicles around Ohio and the country, state lawmakers want consumers to have a choice.
Senate passage and a signature from Gov. Mike DeWine are all that’s needed to stop the state from signing on to or taking steps to mandate emissions standards through emergency protocols established in the Clean Air Act of 1970.
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Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine planned to move ahead Monday afternoon with moving control of the state’s education system from the school board to his office.
In July, DeWine signed the state’s two-year budget, which included legislation to transfer the duties of the majority-elected state board to the new cabinet-level Ohio Department of Education and Workforce.
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Gov. Mike DeWine praised a plan by a Columbus-based policy group that calls for a state-based immigration policy to allow Ohio to attract legal immigrants to fill a growing need in the high-tech labor force.
The Buckeye Institute recently released a report on how a state-based visa program could impact what it called urgent problems in the high-tech job market. That followed the group’s plan to upskill and reskill Ohio workers to meet labor shortages.
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Officials in Texas and Michigan said they were not informed before their states received shipments of contaminated water and soil from East Palestine, Ohio, where a train derailed with toxic chemicals and caused a public health and environmental crisis earlier this month.
Norfolk Southern, the rail company leading cleanup efforts after its train carrying vinyl chloride derailed Feb. 3, had contracted with licensed waste disposal facilities in Texas and Michigan to dispose of hazardous waste from the Ohio derailment, Gov. Mike DeWine (R-Ohio) said Saturday.
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Ohio Governor Mike DeWine responded on Friday to a viral video tweeted by U.S. Senator JD Vance (R-OH) that showed a “chemical rainbow” in a creek near the location of a railway crash two weeks ago that released harmful chemicals into the environment in East Palestine, Ohio.
“I know that there’s been some video played on TV circulating of visible contamination in one of the local waterways. A section of Sulfur Run that is very near the crash site remains severely contaminated. We knew this. We know this. It’s going to take a while to remediate this,” DeWine said at a press conference where he gave an update on local environmental testing and cleanup operations.
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Black Rock owns more than 6 percent of Norfolk Southern Railway, the huge railway company whose train derailed in East Palestine, Ohio on February 3, causing what many are describing as an ecological and health disaster for residents of Ohio and nearby Pennsylvania.
Fintel.io reports that as of February 16, 2023, Black Rock owns 6.8 percent of Norfolk Southern Railway.
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Ohio colleges and universities could soon be required to develop a policy that would provide religious accommodations for students following the General Assembly’s passage of bipartisan legislation.
The Testing Your Faith Act, which now heads to Gov. Mike DeWine, also prohibits institutions of higher learning from imposing academic penalties on students due to an absence under the policy.
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With only a week left until the midterm election and early voting well underway Ohioans can access, review, and mark their selections on a sample ballot prior to election day.
The November 8th election is a midterm, so a number of federal, state, and local candidates will be on the ballot as well as two important statewide issues.
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Safety and security at religious institutions, chartered nonpublic schools, licensed preschools and nonprofit organizations throughout Ohio will share $6 million in grant funding, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine announced.
The money, included in the state’s operating budget signed into law in July and administered by the Ohio Safety and Security Grant Program, is part of more than $12 million given to state schools and institutions since 2019 to help with safety and security.
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Ohio officials are expected to return to court in Hamilton County for a hearing Oct. 7 after a judge extended a ban on the state’s fetal heartbeat bill for another 14 days.
The decision continues to allow abortions in the state through 20 weeks, pausing a state law that stopped most abortions after the first fetal heartbeat is detected, which is usually around six weeks. The law, signed by Gov. Mike DeWine in April 2019, went into effect when the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade earlier this year.
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Ohio plans to spend an additional $51 million to renovate and build jails across the state in an effort, Gov. Mike DeWine says, to create environments that reduce recidivism.
The money comes on top of $45 million the state handed out a year ago to six local jails for major construction projects. Also, another $5 million went to smaller projects at six other sites.
“Our continued investment in Ohio’s local jails is a public safety investment that benefits everyone involved,” DeWine said. “This funding will go a long way toward creating safer and more secure jails for Ohio’s communities.”
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Ohio plans to spend more than $2 million to help Ohio college students with disabilities, Gov. Mike DeWine announced.
The money, which is part of the Opportunities for Ohioans with Disabilities College2Careers program, will be divided into $1,000 grants that may be used for tuition or other educational expenses during the 2022-2023 school year. Students must be participating in OOD services to be eligible.
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Ohio and Kentucky made a second request to a second federal grant program to cover the $1.66 billion needed to replace an Ohio River bridge that connects the two states at Cincinnati.
The second ask follows a May request for the 8-mile Brent Spence Bridge Corridor project from the Western Hills Viaduct in the Cincinnati area of Ohio to Dixie Highway in Kentucky. The May request is still pending.
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More than 1,000 Ohio schools in 81 of 88 counties will share $47 million in the state’s push to promote school safety, part of a response to a shooting at a Texas elementary school in May.
Gov. Mike DeWine said Tuesday grants of up to $50,000 will be used to cover expenses for security cameras, public address systems, automatic door locks, visitor badging systems, and exterior lighting.
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Seven new industry projects are expected to create nearly 700 new jobs and retain more than 3,000 across Ohio, according to Gov. Mike DeWine.
The projects, which the state says are expected to result in more than $39 million in new payroll out of $51.8 million in new investments, all received approval from the Ohio Tax Credit Authority for incentives.
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The governors of Kentucky and Ohio announced an update on Friday to the proposed Brent Spence Bridge corridor project designed to improve interstate traffic between Cincinnati and its Northern Kentucky suburbs.
Those changes are not expected to impact the cost or timeline of the project, which has been on the wishlist of both states for years.
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Law enforcement agencies and courts throughout Ohio can now be part of a new statewide criminal justice database that Gov. Mike DeWine believes will lead to better public protection and help stop the illegal purchase of firearms.
DeWine said Ohio’s new eWarrants system, which he officially announced the launch of late Wednesday, should improve the accuracy of state and federal background checks and streamline the process to fire warrants and protection orders.
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Ohio school boards can put armed teachers in classrooms with one day of training, rather than the previously required month, after Gov. Mike DeWine signed a bill in response to an Ohio Supreme Court decision.
The court’s ruling mandated teachers complete the state’s 700 hours of basic peace officer education before legally being required to carry a fireman in a school. House Bill 99 dictates a maximum of 24 hours of training, but local boards can require more.
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Ohio’s Constitutional Carry law, signed by Gov. Mike DeWine (R) in March, took effect Monday.
The law allows Ohioans to carry concealed firearms without a permit, making the Buckeye State the twenty-third state in the union to implement such laws.
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Ohio GOP Gov. Mike DeWine signed a bill Monday making it easier for teachers to carry guns in schools, capping the required training to no more than 24 hours.
Teachers and other school employees previously were required to complete the same basic training as law enforcement, which took over 700 hours.
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Ohio solar manufacturers want to be on equal footing with foreign competition, and Gov. Mike DeWine is pushing President Joe Biden not to give other countries an “unfair advantage” over American businesses.
In a letter to Biden, DeWine called a decision this week to ban new tariffs for two years on solar panels imported from Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand and the Socialist Republic of Vietnam a mistake and nod to China.
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In a marathon session before its summer recess, the Ohio General Assembly passed a series of bills aimed at school safety, including one that makes it easier for local school boards to arm teachers.
Gov. Mike DeWine said he would sign them all.
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Former businessman, congressman and gubernatorial candidate Jim Renacci blasted Ohio’s Lieutenant Governor in a press release after it was reported Monday that Lt. Gov. John Husted took a paid position on the board of Heartland BancCorp.
“Ohio taxpayers are struggling everyday to make ends meet. With rising food prices and costs increasing at the gasoline pumps this move by a public official is unacceptable, a conflict of interest, but even worse unethical,” Renacci said. “No legal opinion can make any Ohioan believe that there are not conflicts between the sitting Lt. Governor and him being paid to be on a community bank board in Ohio. As a Board Member on several public companies and once on a bank board this should never be allowed to occur. Maybe the Lt. Governor can also fill one of the positions on the First Energy board? This is why Republicans have lost faith in their Republican leadership. We deserve better.”
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