A group of Ohioans wants to try yet again to change the state’s Constitution to permit lawsuits against government employees.
The amendment, aiming for the November 2024 presidential election, looks to add a Section 22 to Article I of the Ohio Constitution in order to end qualified immunity being used to protect state employees, including but not limited to law enforcement officers, against civil lawsuits.
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Two Republican Ohio state representatives introduced legislation to allow students to attend extracurricular activities during and after their time in school.
House Bill (HB) 135, sponsored by State Representatives Rodney Creech (pictured above, right) (R-West Alexandria) and Thomas Hall (R-Madison Township) (pictured above, left), looks to require excused absences from schools for 4-H and Future Farmers of America (FFA) activities.
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Two Republican Ohio lawmakers have introduced a bill into the Ohio House of Representatives to require local school districts to include over-the-counter medications in their school medication policies.
House Bill (HB) 70, sponsored by State Representatives Sarah Fowler Arthur (R-Ashtabula) and Jennifer Gross (R-West Chester), looks to patch an oversight in existing policies by requiring every school to request parental permission before administering over-the-counter medications to children.
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The Ohio Supreme Court announced on Thursday it set a hearing date for oral arguments in a case challenging a Hamilton County judge’s decision to put Ohio’s Heartbeat abortion ban on hold.
Ohio’s highest court will hear 15-minute arguments from both sides on the case on September 27th, almost a year after Democratic Hamilton County Judge Christian Jenkins issued a preliminary injunction that put the Heartbeat Law on hold while he considers arguments in a lawsuit filed by pro-abortion activists.
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Norfolk Southern has agreed to enhance safety measures for workers cleaning up the site of its February derailment and chemical spill in East Palestine, Ohio.
On Wednesday, the U.S. Department of Labor announced that the rail giant entered into an agreement with the federal government and the Teamsters’ rail maintenance worker division to enhance working conditions and crew training after federal inspectors discovered the company had broken a number of regulations, including not requiring or enforcing the use of protective gear.
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Following the defeat of Ohio State Issue 1 on Tuesday, Ohio Lawmakers in the House and Senate voiced their opinions.
Issue 1, if approved by voters, would have mandated a 60 percent approval percentage for any future constitutional amendments, call for signatures from all 88 counties, and do away with the opportunity to “cure” petitions by collecting additional signatures if necessary.
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Ohio Governor Mike DeWine announced he is nominating Kara Wente as the new Ohio Department of Children and Youth director.
Prior to this nomination, Wente (pictured above) worked as the governor’s Children’s Initiative director since January 2023. Wente served as the chief operating officer of Future Ready Columbus before her hire.
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A Catholic trade college plans to enroll students starting in fall of 2024, but said it continues to train people interested in learning craftsmanship while it works through the regulatory process and other hurdles.
The College of St. Joseph the Worker in Steubenville, Ohio is “shifting the start date back so that we can finish the state approval process,” Alex Renn, the school’s communications director, told The College Fix via email.
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After a long campaign season for and against Ohio State Issue 1 to raise the threshold to amend the state constitution, voting numbers from county boards of elections are pouring in and being added to the unofficial results on the Ohio Secretary of States Website.
As of 10:00 pm on election day, the trending unofficial outcome is that voters have defeated Ohio State Issue 1.
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A federal judge in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio dismissed a lawsuit on Monday challenging Bethel Local School District’s policy to permit students to use bathrooms according to their gender identity rather than their biological sex.
The Bethel School board adopted a new policy last January that allowed students to use bathroom facilities according to their gender identity. Before the policy change, transgender students predominantly utilized a gender-neutral bathroom.
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Ohio Governor Mike DeWine announced Monday that he named Giles Allen as his new director of Legislative Affairs.
Allen (pictured above), who is DeWine’s former deputy director of Legislative Affairs, will replace former director of Legislative Affairs Aaron Crooks, who Lt. Governor Jon Husted recently named as his chief of staff.
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National pro-life leader and former Planned Parenthood director Abby Johnson spelled out Sunday what could await pregnant teens in Ohio should a proposed constitutional amendment allow them to obtain abortions without parental consent.
Johnson spoke to a large crowd at a Rosary Rally, organized by Catholics for Catholics, to encourage Ohioans to vote “yes” on Issue 1 on Tuesday.
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Oberlin College sued its insurers for refusal to pay the $36.6 million in damages the liberal school paid to end a six-year legal battle after it defamed a local bakery as “racist” after a store employee chased out of the store several black individuals who stole wine.
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On Monday, Republican businessman and candidate for U.S. Senate Bernie Moreno and Arizona Republican politician and former candidate for Arizona Governor Kari Lake rallied Republicans to vote in support of Ohio State Issue on August 8th.
Moreno and Lake attended a county Republican rally in Cleveland in support of Ohio State Issue 1 to raise the threshold to amend the state constitution. They spoke to hundreds of voters at the Get Out the Vote Rise and Shine Rally at the Strongsville GOP in Parma.
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On Sunday, Arizona Republican politician and former candidate for Arizona Governor Kari Lake announced her endorsement for Republican businessman Bernie Moreno in his run for U.S. Senate against Ohio Democratic U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH) in 2024.
Lake made the announcement at a county Republican rally north of Columbus that she attended along with Moreno, Lt. Governor Jon Husted, and U.S. Representative Jim Jordan (R-OH-04) in support of Ohio State Issue 1 to raise the threshold to amend the state constitution. Lake spoke to about 500 people at the Union County Republican Party Summer Farm Fest in Marysville.
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This week, the Biden Department of (in)Justice has, once again, displayed that they will stop at nothing to try to ruin the life and reputation of Donald Trump. It’s a disgrace. It’s a spectacle that belies its purpose: the Left’s palpable fear of facing Trump in the 2024 general election.
Even the numbers bear this out. A poll from Harvard/Harris just last week had President Trump dominating the GOP primary, and beating both Biden and Harris in a head-to-head matchup. Is it any coincidence that this poll proceeded additional bogus legal action from the DOJ?
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Why are the most radical groups in America, from BLM to the ACLU, suddenly so enthused about politics in Ohio?
After all, Ohio is a generally traditional, center-right state. But these leftists now seek to abuse the process of representative government in Ohio by compelling binding state constitutional referendums in lower turnout election cycles to inflict liberal policies that would never survive the normal lawmaking process.
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A Republican Ohio lawmaker introduced a bill into the Ohio House of Representatives that aims to permit public schools statewide to employ chaplains to provide support services and programs for students.
House Bill (HB) 240 sponsored by State Representative Reggie Stoltzfus (R-Paris Twp.) would allow chaplains to serve as paid employees or volunteers in public schools without having to obtain a license from the state board of education.
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The Conservative Political Action Coalition (CPAC), the nation’s oldest conservative grassroots organization, appointed Ohio State Representative Brett Hillyer (R-Uhrichsville) to serve on its National Prosecutors and Law Enforcement Advisory Council.
The press release details that in this position, Hillyer (pictured above) will work with other council members to develop best practices and policy recommendations to boost public safety through conservative justice system reforms.
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A group of marijuana legalization activists delivered thousands of 6,545 additional signatures on Wednesday to the Ohio Secretary of State‘s Office in an attempt to put an initiative to legalize the purchase and sale of marijuana by Ohio residents aged 21 and older on the ballot in November. This follows the Ohio Secretary of State’s Office ruling last week that the original petitions submitted by The Coalition to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol did not contain enough valid signatures to be put on the November ballot. The coalition needed to gather over 124,046 signatures by July 5th to qualify for this November’s ballot. The group submitted 222,198 signatures to the secretary of state’s office before the deadline; however, the secretary of state’s office ruled that only 123,367 were valid signatures. Although the measure fell short, the coalition had 10 additional days to get the few hundred valid signatures needed to put them over the top and refile to get on the November ballot. Boards of elections have eight days after receiving new petitions to verify signatures. After everything is verified, Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose‘s Office will verify everything and state whether it meets the requirements to appear on the…
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An organization of faithful Catholics has drawn the nation’s top Catholic speakers to its Ohio prayer rally Sunday to “save children from abortion up to birth and genital mutilation without parental consent,” as allowed by the proposed ballot amendment to the state constitution known as Issue 1.
Catholics for Catholics, a group that helped organize the Los Angeles Dodgers prayer rally to protest the club’s decision to honor the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, an anti-Catholic group of queer and transgender “nuns,” has now orchestrated the “Rosary Rally” that seeks to defeat “the diabolical effort to codify abortion-on-demand and genital mutilation in the Ohio State constitution.”
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Ohio Governor Mike DeWine announced Wednesday that the state is awarding over $35 million in retention incentives to thousands of Ohio first responders in recognition of their dedication to public safety and ongoing commitment to public service.
Over 10,000 law enforcement officers, firefighters, and EMS personnel from 309 agencies will receive the retention incentives totaling over $35 million as part of the Ohio First Responder Recruitment, Retention, and Resilience Program, which DeWine created last year to address first responder burnout caused by under-staffing and overall job stress.
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A group of pro-life advocates has filed a lawsuit requesting that the Ohio Supreme Court block a proposal that aims to enshrine abortion into the state constitution.
The Ohioans for Reproductive Freedom, a coalition of radical pro-abortion activists that includes Planned Parenthood, Pro-Choice Ohio, the Abortion Fund of Ohio, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Ohio, along with the Ohio Physicians for Reproductive Rights has proposed “The Right to Reproductive Freedom with Protections for Health and Safety” which would add a Section 22 to Article 1 of the state constitution.
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Ohio Lt. Governor Jon Husted announced on Tuesday that he named Aaron Crooks, former director of Legislative Affairs for Governor Mike DeWine, to serve as his new chief of staff.
Crooks, of Upper Arlington, has served as DeWine’s director of legislative affairs since 2021. As director of legislative affairs, he oversaw the development and promotion of the administration’s legislative agenda with the General Assembly and other stakeholders in that capacity. He worked for CareSource, OhioHealth, and the Office of Health Transformation before joining the DeWine-Husted administration. In 2002, he took a position with the Ohio Senate.
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Newly declared candidate for the U.S. Senate, Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose, called on Monday to his GOP Senate challengers to help support Ohio State Issue 1 in the final days before the August 8th special election to vote on it.
Issue 1, if approved by voters, would mandate a 60 percent approval percentage for any future constitutional amendments, call for signatures from all 88 counties, and do away with the opportunity to “cure” petitions by collecting additional signatures if necessary.
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A bipartisan group of Ohio lawmakers is urging the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to eliminate the federal program known as E-Check in northeast Ohio.
The group of 11 state lawmakers sent a letter to Ohio EPA director Anne Vogel urging her to eliminate the federal program within the state which requires northeast Ohioans living within Cuyahoga, Geauga, Lake, Lorain, Medina, Portage, and Summit counties to get their vehicles tested every two years to pass regulatory emissions requirements.
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A political candidate looking to secure Ohio’s 9th Congressional District from U.S. Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur (D-OH-09) has ended his 2024 run.
Ohio Republican and former mayor of Walbridge, Dan Wilczynski, has officially dropped out of the race to unseat Congresswoman Kaptur in 2024 who is currently serving her 21st term in Congress.
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Ohio Republican lawmakers are calling out Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb for encouraging voters to vote against Ohio State Issue 1 so that it’s easier for Democrats to place gun control measures into the state constitution.
Issue 1, if approved by voters, would mandate a 60 percent approval percentage for any future constitutional amendments, call for signatures from all 88 counties, and do away with the opportunity to “cure” petitions by collecting additional signatures if necessary.
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Two Republican Ohio lawmakers introduced a resolution to the Ohio House of Representatives to urge the United States Congress to preserve the United States Armed Forces’ dominance and increase military enlistment.
The Restoration of America’s Readiness (ROAR) Resolution, sponsored by State Representatives Jennifer Gross (pictured above, right) (R-West Chester) and Bernie Willis (R-Springfield) (pictured above, left), looks to express Ohio’s desire to Congress to preserve the United States Armed Forces’ authority globally and to encourage Ohioans to enlist in military service.
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Ohio’s largest Christian public policy organization has purchased the former Columbus Dispatch newspaper facility directly across from the Ohio Statehouse to expand its efforts to advocate for and protect children and families across the state.
The press release details that the Center for Christian Virtue (CCV) purchased the 30,000-square-foot, five-story building on Broad Street through an affiliated organization Gannett News the owners of The Columbus Dispatch for $1.1 million.
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Ohio Governor Mike DeWine announced the appointment of Republican attorney Chris Berhalter to the Belmont County Court of Common Pleas General and Domestic Relations Division serving the community of Belmont County.
Judge-designee Berhalter (pictured above), of Martins Ferry, has served as Belmont County Court Judge Northern Division since 2014. Before that, he began his law career in 1996 at Sommer, Librati, & Berhalter. He became a partner in the firm in 2000. Voters then elected him as Belmont County Prosecuting Attorney, where he served for 10 years.
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State and federal officials continue to monitor the impact of the Norfolk Southern train derailment on the Ohio-Pennsylvania border, but independent scientists worry that indoor air quality has been ignored.
The lack of transparency, too, has made it harder to build and maintain public trust.
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Ohio Governor Mike DeWine announced on Tuesday the appointment of Republican attorney Michael DeLeone to the Lake County Court of Common Pleas Juvenile Division serving the community of Lake County.
Judge-designee DeLeone will take the seat formerly held by Judge Karen Lawson who passed away in February. The judge-designee will assume office on August 14th, 2023. DeLeone will serve the remainder of the unfinished term and needs to run for election in November 2024 to retain the seat for a subsequent term.
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The Ohio Secretary of State’s Office certified on Tuesday the petitions submitted by a coalition of pro-abortion activists who want Ohioans to vote in November on a proposed amendment that would enshrine abortion into the state Constitution.
The Ohioans for Reproductive Freedom, a coalition of radical pro-abortion activists that includes Planned Parenthood, Pro-Choice Ohio, the Abortion Fund of Ohio, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Ohio, along with the Ohio Physicians for Reproductive Rights, proposed “The Right to Reproductive Freedom with Protections for Health and Safety” which would add a Section 22 to Article 1 of the state Constitution.
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On Tuesday, the Ohio Secretary of State’s office ruled that the petitions submitted by a coalition to legalize the purchase and sale of marijuana by Ohio residents aged 21 and older did not collect enough valid signatures to be put on the November ballot.
The Coalition to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol has proposed an initiative to impose a 10 percent tax on the sale of all cannabis products, permit adults to grow up to six plants per person or 12 per household, and legalize the possession, purchase, and sale of marijuana by Ohio residents aged 21 and older.
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Newly declared candidate for the U.S. Senate, Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose, announced his official endorsement of former President and current presidential candidate Donald Trump in his run for United States President in 2024.
On Monday, LaRose released a statement officially giving his endorsement of Trump.
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Ohio Governor Mike DeWine announced on Monday that Ohio is awarding over $26 million in grant funding to support accelerated learning for Ohio students.
Six high-quality tutoring vendors across the state will receive grant funding totaling over $26 million as part of the Governor’s Emergency Education Relief to provide tutoring services across the state at no cost to schools and districts.
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On Monday, former State Representative from Defiance and current candidate for Ohio’s 9th Congressional district in 2024 Craig Riedel received endorsements from four Republican members of the U.S. House leadership.
Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy (R-CA-20), House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA-01), Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-MN-06), and House Republican Conference Chair Elise Stefanik (R-NY-21) all vocalized their support for Riedel’s run for the House to unseat U.S. Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur (D-OH-09) who is currently serving her 21st term in Congress.
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Vote Yes Ohio, the official campaign to protect the state constitution has launched a new digital advertisement supporting Ohio State Issue 1 and highlighting the need to protect the state constitution from special interest groups.
The ad, titled “We The People,” is the first 30-second advertisement released by Vote Yes Ohio aimed at informing voters of the need to raise the threshold of the state constitution by voting yes on Issue 1 during the August 8th special election.
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A Republican Ohio lawmaker introduced a bill into the Ohio Senate to prohibit the use of ranked-choice voting, also known as instant runoff voting, in the state.
Senate Bill (SB) 137, sponsored by State Senator Theresa Gavarone (R-Bowling Green), would prohibit ranked choice voting in all elections in Ohio except for those conducted in municipalities or chartered counties.
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Two Republican Ohio Lawmakers have introduced a bill into the Ohio House of Representatives that aims to prohibit adult cabaret performances in front of children.
House Bill (HB) 245 sponsored by State Representatives Angela King (R-Celina) and Josh Williams (R-Sylvania) looks to ban “adult cabaret performances” outside of venues specifically for adult cabarets.
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Former State Representative from Defiance and current candidate for Ohio’s 9th Congressional district in 2024 Craig Riedel has outraised U.S. Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur (D-OH-09), who is currently in that seat, in the second quarter fundraising by roughly $177,000.
According to Riedel, he has raised $537,951 in the second quarter of fundraising compared to Kaptur’s $360,540 a difference of $177,411.
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Newly declared candidate for the U.S. Senate, Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose, widened his lead in the race to unseat Ohio Democratic U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH) in 2024 in a new poll conducted by Louisiana-based Causeway Solutions for Leadership for Ohio Fund.
The poll obtained by the Washington Examiner details that among Republican primary voters surveyed, LaRose is leading the three-way race by 17 points up from a 13-point advantage in a previous statewide survey conducted in May.
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Ohio Republican politician and businessman Bernie Moreno says that another potential indictment against former President and 2024 presidential candidate Donald Trump is “nothing more than another vile attempt by Team Biden to target their leading political opponent.”
According to a statement from President Trump on Tuesday, he received a letter from the Department of Justice (DOJ) indicating he will be arrested and indicated for the events surrounding the January 6th, 2021 riot at the Capital.
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Ohio State Representative Bob Young (R-Green) said there has been “inaccurate and unfair speculation” regarding an incident that allegedly occurred earlier this month resulting in domestic violence charges.
“Following the unfortunate events of July 7th, there has been some inaccurate and unfair speculation on social media and elsewhere. This is a case that’s in the courts now, so I can’t talk about the details. However, I can say this: no one is above the law, and that includes me. I expect to be treated in the same way as any other Summit County resident would be in a similar circumstance. I ask fair-minded people for grace to allow my family and I to deal with this privately and to reserve judgment until all the facts can be brought to light,” Young said.
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Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost announced Monday that increased support and additional resources are now available to victims of human trafficking in Ohio.
The Attorney General’s Human Trafficking Commission has launched the Human Trafficking Victim Services Directory, which contains Ohio-based services and resources for human trafficking victims.
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On Tuesday morning Alex Triantafilou, the head of the Ohio Republican Party responded to the announcement that Ohio-born singer-songwriter John Legend is rallying with Democrats against State Issue 1 calling it an attempt to “trick ordinary people.”
This follows a Democratic-backed group One Person One Vote announcing that Legend would attend their Cincinnati rally on Tuesday afternoon to encourage attendees to vote against Issue 1 during the state’s special election on August 8th.
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Cincinnati voters are to decide in November whether the city can sell a city-owned rail line for over $1.6 billion to Norfolk Southern, the same company that caused the toxic disaster in East Palestine earlier this year.
The Cincinnati Southern Railway Board of Trustees unanimously voted to place the proposed sale of the rail line on the November 7th ballot.
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Ohio higher education employees “will face personal risk” if they violate the Supreme Court ban on considering race during admissions, state Attorney General Dave Yost wrote in a recent letter.
His office won’t be able to protect public colleges and universities if they act counter to the ruling, Yost wrote, according to The Columbus Dispatch.
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Ohio Governor Mike DeWine and Lt. Governor Jon Husted announced that CyberOhio is now to provide free services to local governments to improve their preparedness and resilience towards cybersecurity threats.
Local governments will be guided through three levels of cybersecurity preparedness by the new Ohio Persistent Cyber Improvement (O-PCI) program. Each level of cybersecurity advancement will include five steps: education, training, exercise, mentoring, and improvement.
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