A $6 billion spending bill that Ohio Governor Mike DeWine (R) signed on Friday expands a program assisting parents and guardians with supplemental education purchases.
The ACE Educational Savings Account program previously bestowed a $500 credit on families seeking to purchase enrichment materials or services to help their children get past the learning setbacks caused by the COVID-19 school shutdowns. The new legislation raises the credit to $1,000.
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Calling the language too broad, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine vetoed a bill that would allow the governor and General Assembly to retain special counsel and moved the venue for an appeal from an agency order.
The move came in a Tuesday afternoon announcement that included details of three bills signed into law. Since Sunday, DeWine has signed 23 new laws.
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Ohio Governor Mike DeWine (R) on Sunday signed legislation allowing Ohioans who acquired occupational licenses in other states to utilize their credentials in the Buckeye State.
Eighteen states, including neighboring Pennsylvania, already recognize occupational licenses that their residents received elsewhere. For years, a coalition of free-market organizations, including the Columbus-based Buckeye Institute, have urged Ohio lawmakers to adopt the same policy to ease burdens on workers and make the state more economically competitive.
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Gov. Mike DeWine has a day left to decide on a bill to stop California emission standards from coming to Ohio.
The same bill, though, also allows natural gas companies to pass on more costs to consumers through a last-minute amendment.
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Pennsylvania state senators are asking other lawmakers to support an upcoming bill to let nonpartisan voters participate in primaries.
State Senators Daniel LaughlinTwo (R-Erie) and Lisa Boscola (D-Bethlehem) proposed legislation permitting all state residents whose voter registrations reflect no party affiliation to cast a ballot in either the GOP or Democratic nomination contests. The senators cite 2021 data from the commonwealth indicating that 1,233,748 Pennsylvanians are registered to vote but choose to identify with neither of the two major parties. Since 2017, that number has increased by 51,816.
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Ohio continues to lag behind the rest of the United States in terms of employment according to a report released Friday by the state Department of Job and Family Services.
The data showed unemployment in the Buckeye State remained at 4.2 percent in November, the same as the prior month’s level and a half a point behind the nationwide 3.7-percent rate.
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Advocates for occupational licensing reform successfully urged an Ohio House panel on Tuesday to unanimously pass a Senate bill to recognize professional certifications awarded by other states.
Eighteen states, varied in their politics and geography, already recognize out-of-state licenses for most professions, including neighboring Pennsylvania. These universal-recognition laws all require the licensee to have current permission to work in his or her state and have no pending professional disciplinary matters or disqualifying criminal records. Licensees remain subject to any fees or testing required by their adopted states.
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The Ohio Elections Commission (OEC) announced last week it will hold a hearing on Thursday, January 5, 2023 to review evidence against former gubernatorial candidate Joe Blystone concerning alleged campaign-finance violations.
Charges against the Republican former hopeful include failure to report contributions from small-dollar backers and breach of rules regarding corporate donations. The onetime candidate was engaged in negotiations with Commission Executive Director Philip Richter, but some GOP members of the commission, including D. Michael Crites and Christina Hagan, reportedly insisted on continuing the probe to achieve full accountability.
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The Ohio State Senate this week passed a bill deeming natural gas a form of “green energy” and eased the leasing of state lands by fossil-fuel companies.
Sponsored by state Representative J. Kyle Koehler (R-Springfield), the measure’s main feature is an unrelated agricultural policy reducing the minimum number of poultry chicks that can be sold or transferred in Ohio from six to three. Lawmakers embraced that change based on the advice of the poultry industry and that of adults supervising children in 4-H agriculture programs who want to make smaller purchases for their farm projects.
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A coalition of free-market associations sent an open letter on Tuesday to Ohio’s state lawmakers encouraging them to enact universal occupational license recognition, meaning the Buckeye State would honor professional certifications issued in other states.
Message signers included leaders of Americans for Prosperity-Ohio, the Buckeye Institute, the Goldwater Institute, the National Taxpayers Union and Americans for Tax Reform. The organizations observed that the state’s population is declining and that it will continue to do so if pro-market reforms aren’t made to attract new workers, including universal license recognition. Numerous states, including Arizona and North Carolina, generally accept credentials obtained elsewhere by people moving into those states.
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In the view of an Ohio conservative think tank, the Buckeye State should enact a bill the House passed, and the Senate is now considering to pare back licensure burdens for many professionals.
Greg R. Lawson, a research fellow at the Columbus-based Buckeye Institute, testified this week before the Ohio Senate Workforce and Higher Education Committee in favor of the bill. He added he believes the state should pursue further reform even after the legislation passes the Senate and receives Governor Mike DeWine’s signature.
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Thirty-three higher-education institutions across the Buckeye State will get $5 million in total for safety related enhancements, Governor Mike DeWine (R-OH) announced this week.
The allocations from the state’s 2022 Campus Safety Program will largely fund equipment such as metal detectors, alarms, loudspeakers, security cameras and lock technology. Schools getting the largest amounts include the University of Akron ($422,630), Kent State University ($387,567), Terra State Community College ($338,598), Bowling Green State University ($278.075.63) and Washington State Community College ($226,345.90).
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Governor Mike DeWine (R-OH) this weekend welcomed an announcement by Air Force Maj. Gen. John C. Harris Jr. that the Air Force is formally designating the 179th Airlift Wing in Mansfield as the first wing of its cybersecurity mission.
The Air Force and the National Guard Bureau made the designation after analyzing the possibility for the past year. In August 2021, the Air Force publicized its assessment that the north-central Ohio wing was the frontrunner to become the initial cyberspace-mission site. The new mission will be oriented toward protecting aircraft and weaponry software systems from attacks and other risks. It will bring in 175 new high-technology staff positions which DeWine touted as an important step in making the Buckeye State a more high-profile venue for the science, mathematical, engineering and cybertechnology fields.
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Death-penalty abolitionists in Ohio this week are organizing a campaign to persuade lawmakers to end capital punishment in their State.
The nonprofit No Death Penalty Ohio is hosting letter-writing parties in various cities throughout the week in support of a state House bill and an identical state Senate bill to ban executions. While Republicans often support capital punishment and control both legislative chambers, the bills have some GOP support. State Senator Stephen Huffman (R-Dayton) is cosponsoring the Senate measure alongside Senator Nickie Antonio (D-Lakewood) while Representative Jean Schmidt (R-Loveland) is spearheading the House legislation with Representative Adam Miller (D-Columbus).
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Advocates on both sides of the abortion debate see Ohio’s elections earlier this week as reason to seek change.
In 2019, Republican Governor Mike DeWine signed the Heartbeat Act to protect unborn life in cases when doctors can detect a fetal heartbeat. The act’s fate is now tied up in the courts but pro-lifers have reason for optimism that the law will be upheld as Republicans maintained control of the Ohio Supreme Court by sweeping the judicial elections this year.
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With mere hours to go before the 2022 midterm election, polls are showing Ohio Republican Senate candidate J.D. Vance blow past his Democratic rival Tim Ryan, even as Ryan still claims the race is a “dead heat.”
In a late Sunday night Twitter post, Ryan cites a survey result showing both candidates with 46 percent support among voters.
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A poll released this weekend by the data company Cygnal shows Ohio Republican candidates for governor and U.S. Senate widening their leads against their Democratic opponents.
The survey of 1,776 likely voters shows J.D. Vance, the author, attorney and venture capitalist running to succeed retiring Republican Senator Rob Portman, with a 4.6-percent lead over Democratic Congressman Tim Ryan (D-OH-13). Among those polled, 9.2 percent said they were undecided.
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Data from two new surveys have contributed to a slightly widening lead for Republican J.D. Vance in his Ohio Senate campaign against U.S. Representative Tim Ryan (D-OH-13).
One of the polls comes from the Democrat-aligned group Data for Progress, which finds that Vance has garnered 49 percent of the 1,016 likely voters with whom the organization spoke.
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Ohio’s Republican state legislators are in the process of appealing a state Supreme Court ruling on congressional redistricting to the U.S. Supreme Court.
The state’s high court has repeatedly ruled against maps created by Ohio’s Redistricting Commission. Despite the GOP having a one-seat majority, Chief Justice Maureen O’Connor (R) has sided with the Democrats in redistricting cases. (O’Connor, who is 71, is retiring from the court after this year.)
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by Debra Heine Republican author and lawyer J.D. Vance leads Democrat Rep. Tim Ryan 46 percent to 44 percent in the U.S. Senate race in Ohio, according to GOP polling firm Cygnal. The survey of likely general election voters in Ohio also gave Republican Governor Mike DeWine a strong lead in the gubernatorial race, and Ohio Republicans leading in the races for Secretary of State, and Attorney General. Additionally, the poll showed that a near majority of Ohio voters (49.2) have a very unfavorably opinion of the job Joe Biden is doing. Overall, 57.2 percent of Ohioans disapproved of Biden’s job performance, the survey found. Vance did best among male voters, while Ryan performed best among female voters. Republican Governor Mike DeWine has a powerful +22 lead over Lt. Governor Jon Husted on the Gubernatorial ballot (56.9 percent to 34.6 percent) in the Cygnal poll. The survey also found that Republicans have a +6 advantage over Democrats (49.9 percent to 43.8 percent) on the generic congressional ballot in the state. Another 6.3 percent of likely voters were unsure of which party they preferred. Significantly, the poll found that most Ohioans are pessimistic about the direction of the country, with 63.8 percent…
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On Friday, the Hamilton County Court of Common Pleas sided with Ohio abortionists in granting a preliminary injunction against a law forbidding termination of pregnancies in cases when the unborn child has a detectible heartbeat.
Governor Mike DeWine (R) signed the Heartbeat Act in 2019, though the statute could only take effect after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned its 1973 Roe v. Wade decision this June. Judge Christian Jenkins (D) placed a freeze on the law pending a determination. The state of Ohio is expected to appeal the injunction.
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Pro-abortion Ohio state representatives are following up the anti-abortion Ohio March for Life that occurred earlier this week by championing a bill to codify rights established by the obsolete Roe v. Wade decision.
Representatives Michele Lepore-Hagan (D-Youngstown) and Jessica Miranda (D-Forest Park) introduced the policy in May and it has yet to receive committee consideration, let alone a vote of the House chamber. The bill lacks sufficient time for passage and both the GOP-controlled legislature and pro-life Governor Mike DeWine (R) are poised to reject it if they remain in power. But in a year when Democrats face an uphill fight in the Buckeye State, the party is investing much hope in abortion advocacy to better its electoral fortunes.
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Pro-lifers who marched on Ohio State Capitol Square in Columbus on Wednesday had some cause for celebration in light of the June Dobbs decision by the U.S. Supreme Court. But marchers also had much to lament, including an increase in the number of abortions performed in the Buckeye State.
According to the Ohio Department of Health’s recent report titled “Induced Abortions in Ohio, 2021,” deliberate killing of unborn children via surgery or medication rose seven percent from 2020 to the following year. In total, 21,813 pregnancies were so terminated in the state in 2021, 95 percent of those terminations obtained by women who reside in Ohio.
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Governor Mike DeWine (R) announced this week that a new $12.3 million funding package would go to local law enforcement agencies to address violent crime, with Cleveland and Cuyahoga County getting two-thirds of those funds.
Nearly $1 million will go to the Cuyahoga County Prosecutor’s office, mainly to hire three new staff attorneys to help the jurisdiction make headway in its backlog of sexual and domestic violence cases. The Cleveland Division of police, the Cleveland State University Police Department and the Cuyahoga County Sheriff’s Office will meanwhile receive an approximate total of $6.5 million, largely to enhance police-officer pay. Euclid’s Police Department will also get $107,000, for technological improvements.
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Governor Mike DeWine (R) on Friday announced a plan to expand a number of social services in Ohio, including an increase in eligibility for Medicaid for pregnant women and children whose families make up to three times the federal poverty level.
The policy enlarges upon his Bold Beginning Initiative, which has already spent about $1 billion on services to expectant families. The broadening of Medicaid would make the program available to single expectant mothers earning up to $54,930 annually and to families of three earning as much as $69,090 per year. Legislative approval would need to occur for this measure to take effect.
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Republican candidates for Ohio governor and U.S. Senate each have declined to participate in debates scheduled by the Ohio Debate Commission for next month in Akron.
Gov. Mike DeWine and Senate candidate J.D. Vance turned down the invitation by the ODC for the Oct. 10 and 12 debates with Democratic candidates Nan Whaley and Tim Ryan, respectively, the commission announced Wednesday.
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Hamilton County Court of Common Pleas Judge Christian Jenkins (D) this week indicated he will extend his hold on a significant Ohio abortion-restricting law for two additional weeks.
Jenkins’s decision prolongs the effect of a decision he made last week to obstruct the Heartbeat Act’s implementation, with the initial freeze to last two weeks. The state General Assembly passed and Governor Mike DeWine (R) signed the bill (SB 23) in 2019. The legislation, which prohibits aborting unborn children who have detectable heartbeats, could not take effect until this year after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion nationwide.
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Hamilton County Common Pleas Court Judge Christian A. Jenkins this week imposed a two-week suspension on the Ohio law banning abortions for women whose unborn children have detectable heartbeats.
Effectively, the statute, known as the “Heartbeat Law,” generally prohibits terminating pregnancies that have gone on for longer than six weeks. Governor Mike DeWine (R) signed the legislation in 2019 but agencies could not enforce it until this year after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision which legalized abortion nationwide.
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Ohio Governor Mike DeWine’s announcement last week that Fitch Ratings upgraded the state’s credit rating from AA+ to AAA elicited both praise and caution from the Columbus-based Buckeye Institute.
Greg Lawson, research fellow at the center-right think tank, called the budgetary management to which state officials ascribed Fitch’s decision on Ohio’s long-term issuer default rating (IDR) “a mixed bag.” (The state has also seen its general-obligation bond rating rise from AA+ to AAA, its appropriation-backed bonds move to AA+ from AA, the Ohio School District Credit Enhancement Program Rating go to AA+ from AA and the Ohio Department of Transportation’s Portsmouth Bypass project obligations rating move to A+ from AA-.)
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Ohio Republican Party (ORP) Chairman Bob Paduchik will hold onto his job until at least January, the party having decided on Friday at their meeting in the Columbus suburbs to refrain from voting on its officers until next year.
The question of whether the ORP could legitimately defer its executive-board elections until its January gathering has been a controversial one. This week, the national law firm Thompson Hine issued a legal opinion stating that, because the Ohio Revised Code requires the “members-elect” of both parties’ state committees to vote on their officers, those elections had to take place on September 9. The assessment reasoned that because those elected in August to serve on the committee would be sworn in at the autumn meeting, none would remain members-elect in January.
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Former President Donald Trump this week endorsed Ohio Republican Governor Mike DeWine’s reelection bid against Democratic former Dayton Mayor Nan Whaley.
“… We have an outstanding person running, Mike DeWine, who quietly, but professionally and patriotically, goes about doing his job, and really well,” the former chief executive said in a statement. “Running alongside his very talented and loyal Lieutenant Governor, Jon Husted, Ohio has been in strong hands with the Economy ‘roaring,’ especially in the four years that I was President.”
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Responding to major learning loss suffered by Ohio students as a result of the school closures following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Columbus-based Buckeye Institute recommended policy solutions this week to help students regain what the education system did not provide.
On March 30, 2020, Republican Governor Mike DeWine ordered all in-person K-12 schooling closed throughout the state for the remainder of that school year. Students instead participated in “virtual classrooms” wherein they would watch their teachers’ instructions online. During the 2020-21 school year, many school districts continued to keep school buildings closed at least part-time.
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Abortion provider Planned Parenthood and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Ohio filed litigation in the Hamilton County Court of Common Pleas on Friday to kill Senate Bill 23, the Ohio law banning abortion after the unborn child has a detectable heartbeat.
Lawmakers passed and Republican Governor Mike DeWine signed that statute in 2019, though it only took effect this year after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision. Although the high court refused to uphold that ruling’s stipulation that the federal Constitution bestows right to terminate a pregnancy — while mentioning neither pregnancy nor abortion — the abortion advocates argue that the Ohio Constitution — also silent on abortion — still grants that right.
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Former Ohio Republican Congressman Jim Renacci has a hopeful outlook for conservatism in the Buckeye-State, though he expects progress to require serious toil and soul-searching as well as new leadership.
Renacci, who represented the 16th U.S. House District southwest of Cleveland and now chairs American Greatness PAC, spoke with The Ohio Star recently about the forum series his organization is commencing on September 15 in the Akron area and about other upcoming milestones for Ohio’s center-right movement.
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Tax dollars are funding more than $733 million in substance abuse education, prevention and treatment in Ohio, according to a report from Gov. Mike DeWine.
Recovery Ohio 2021 Annual Review details spending on at least 47 projects related to education, workforce development, prevention, harm reduction, treatment, public safety, and data and technology.
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On Wednesday, the Ohio Democratic Party (ODP) released new records pertaining to the FirstEnergy scandal, indicating that Governor Mike DeWine (R) frequently spoke with a “risk communications team” as well as attorneys including Ohio Attorney General David Yost (R) concerning the issue.
Jeff Crossman and Taylor Sappington, respectively Democratic candidates for Ohio attorney general and Ohio Auditor, are also publicizing these documents via their campaign websites to underscore what their party suggests is increasing evidence of culpability on DeWine’s part. (Crossman will face Yost in this November’s election; Sappington is running against incumbent Auditor Keith Faber.)
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A dozen meat producers across Ohio will share $3 million to help ease food chain issues, according to Gov. Mike DeWine.
The grants follow two other rounds for grants, the first for $10 million and the second for $15 million, already distributed to producers throughout the state this summer.
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State Rep. Chris Quinn (R-PA-Media) this week testified before legislative colleagues in favor of his bill to open Pennsylvania primaries to voters who choose not to affiliate with a political party.
About 1.2 million voters in Pennsylvania decline to register as members of either major party and over 740,000 consider themselves nonpartisan or independent. Quinn said he finds it troubling that current law requires many taxpayers to fund GOP and Democratic primaries while excluding those independents from participation in nominating elections.
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During a visit to the Whitehall Police Department this week, Gov. Mike DeWine (R) indicated he will expand funding for the Ohio Violent Crime Reduction Grant Program from $58 million to $100 million, citing a nationwide spike in violence.
According to data from the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s 2011 and 2020 Uniform Crime Reports, homicides in the Buckeye State rose sharply in the decade between those years. Five hundred murders occurred in Ohio in 2011 and 820 took place in 2020. Regional figures also show violence worsening, with one poll of Franklin County police chiefs showing that aggravated assault increased by 36 percent in that jurisdiction between 2020 and 2021.
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Text messages between FirstEnergy Corp. executives indicate Ohio Lieutenant Governor John Husted (R) had discussions with company officials related to the scandal-plagued House Bill 6, according to a motion filed with the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio.
In July 2019, Governor Mike DeWine (R) signed that measure into law, bailing out the FirstEnergy-operated Perry and Davis-Besse nuclear power plants to $1.3 billion. Federal attorneys have since accused numerous political bigwigs, including former Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder, of partaking in a $61 million bribery scheme to enact the bill. The company has itself been smacked with a $230 million fine for its part in the scandal.
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Ohio plans to spend $1.2 million to try to stop youngsters from escaping the Department of Youth Services parole supervision and quickly find them if they do, Gov. Mike DeWine announced Friday afternoon as part of another $5.7 million in law enforcement funding.
The money, coming from the state general fund and the federal American Rescue Plan Act, is expected to be used by DYS to develop the new Community Intervention and Intelligence Unit. It will work with local law enforcement to find and reengage with youth who have active warrants not abiding by terms of parole.
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Ohio Governor Mike DeWine signed a proclamation declaring August 9 as honorary “Dolly Parton Day” to commemorate the success of Parton’s Imagination Library of Ohio.
Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library of Ohio mails kids one book each month until their fifth birthday, 60 books. All kids in Ohio are eligible, and this program is available at no cost to families.
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Ohio police agencies will soon be eligible to receive $5 million in new funding for body cameras and related equipment, according to Gov. Mike DeWine (R).
Many law-enforcement organizations in the Buckeye State have wanted to equip their officers with video recorders but costs have reportedly proved prohibitive for many localities. This led DeWine to launch the Ohio Body-Worn Camera Grant Program which awarded its first $4.7 million in January.
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Planned Parenthood Advocates of Ohio announced this week they are working to place a state constitutional amendment protecting abortion rights on the election ballot in Ohio.
The prospective effort comes as abortion proponents’ confidence surges after Kansas voters rejected a constitutional amendment that would have stipulated that the Kansas Constitution does not contain the right to terminate a pregnancy failed by a vote of 59 percent to 41 percent.
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Ohio’s largest utility company does not want the Public Utility Commission of Ohio to conduct an independent, outside investigation into summer power outages, despite calls from consumer groups.
AEP Ohio, which serves about 1.5 million residential and commercial customers in central, southeast and northwest Ohio, said in a response filed to a recent motion that an independent investigation would be an expensive, time-consuming litigious process while the PUCO is conducting its investigation.
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Ohio Democratic gubernatorial candidate Nan Whaley this weekend took to Twitter to promote an energy plan for the Buckeye State that excludes fossil-fuel production in favor of renewables.
“Check out mine and [running mate Cheryl Stephens’s] energy plan…,” she wrote. “1. Reform the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio (PUCO) so consumer interests are at its core; 2. Spur innovation & create good-paying, union jobs in clean energy; 3. Build climate resilient communities.”
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Ohio Republican Party (ORP) Committeeman Dave Johnson dropped his lawsuit against the Ohio Republican PAC (Political Action Committee) on Thursday, giving the latter group a major win as they advocate for conservative Republican State Central Committee candidates across the Buckeye State.
Johnson, who represents the ORP’s 33rd district, is running for reelection to that seat against Rick Barron who has the Ohio Republican PAC’s endorsement. Johnson sued the PAC and its affiliates in Mahoning, Carroll and Columbiana counties for conducting what he called a “sham” operation designed to mislead voters into believing that Barron had the ORP’s support. The ORP itself has not issued endorsements for State Central Committee this year.
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Gov. Mike DeWine (R-OH) announced Friday that numerous local law-enforcement departments will receive a total of $3.5 million for anti-trafficking efforts and other anti-crime initiatives, with the cities of Toledo and Cortland receiving significant grants.
The money comes in the fifth round of allocations from the Crime Reduction Grant Program, a project created last year that has disbursed $23 million to 83 agencies across the Buckeye State so far.
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The Fraternal Order of Police of Ohio (FOP) announced a new round of endorsements for candidates running in the November general election.
The endorsements, which feature several GOP members, were based on their level of support, according to a release from the group posted on social media.
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Video footage of a rally in North Lima, Ohio, on Sunday shows Frederick “Sam” Johnson standing with Ohio Republican State Central Committee candidate Rick Barron and denouncing Barron’s opponent, Sam’s own cousin David Johnson.
David Johnson is the incumbent State Central Committeeman in the 33rd district (Columbiana and Mahoning counties) and also serves as Ohio Republican Party (ORP) treasurer. He and Barron will compete for the August 2 special primary committee seat.
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