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Ohio House Speaker leans into ‘medical freedom’
The Republican Speaker of the Ohio House, under mounting pressure from the nascent anti-vaccination movement within the GOP, said his caucus is soon to unveil consensus legislation to ban vaccine mandates. Speaker Bob Cupp, R-Lima, said to reporters Wednesday that House leadership is in the “final stages” of putting together a bill to erect legal […]
Energy efficiency bill gets bipartisan push
An Ohio House committee began its work Wednesday on legislation designed to incentivize utility companies to boost the energy efficiency of their customers’ homes. House Bill 389, a bipartisan effort backed by several large Ohio utilities and environmental advocates alike, would restore some components of Ohio’s energy efficiency law, which was gutted by 2019 legislation […]
Ohio House GOP bill would ban vaccine mandates and shield COVID-19 spreaders from lawsuits
An Ohio House Republican proposed legislation Monday that would shield COVID-19 spreaders from lawsuits and ban vaccine mandates for primary education and college students. Rep. Kyle Koehler, R-Springfield, introduced the bill as people infected with the hyper transmissible delta variant crowd area hospitals and Ohio’s vaccination rate sags far below the national average. House Bill […]
COVID-19 hospitalizations climb; vaccination rate trickles
An average of more than 6,400 Ohioans continue to contract COVID-19 per day, according to data from the state health department. The recent surge of cases is driven by children aged 18 and below, who comprise nearly 3 in 10 infections statewide. Nearly 3,700 Ohioans are currently hospitalized with COVID-19, according to data from the […]
Ohio Medical Board renews license of doc who claims vaccines make you magnetic
They’re forcing freedom loving Americans to choose between injection of a “deadly” vaccine or testing those who will not comply via torturing them with nasal swabs looking for a “virus that, by some claims, doesn’t even exist.” This claim, equal parts baseless and conspiratorial, appears on a website that solicited funds to the address of […]
GOP Ohio senator fought to repeal corrupt law; party leaders drew him out of his district
New lines drawn by state GOP leaders ousted Sen. Mark Romanchuk, a Republican from Richland County, from the district that elected him to his seat in 2020. Since the indictment of the former speaker of the House last summer and subsequent guilty pleas from four alleged co-conspirators, Romanchuk has led the charge among Ohio Republicans […]
History Thursday: When the Supreme Court said yes to vaccine mandates
The vaccine mandate debate may be rejuvenated, but it’s hardly new. The U.S. Supreme Court answered the can-they-do-that question more than 115 years ago. In an era when infectious diseases killed more Americans than any other cause of death, smallpox was ripping through Cambridge, Massachusetts. State lawmakers passed a statute allowing local boards of health, […]
Ratepayers spent $166 million and counting bailing out coal plants under law that passed via bribes
Despite several plea deals with federal prosecutors regarding bribery on a massive scale to pass legislation providing a windfall to nuclear and coal companies, Ohio utility customers continue to fund bailouts of failing coal-fired power plants in Ohio and Indiana. In the first half of 2021, Ohio utility customers paid $51 million to subsidize the […]
Fewer than 1 in 2 vaccinated against COVID-19 in most Ohio counties
In 66 of Ohio’s 88 counties, fewer than 1 in 2 residents have received at least one dose of vaccination against COVID-19, which has killed more than 661,000 Americans since the pandemic began. The low vaccination coverage, found via an analysis of state data from Sunday, indicates vast swaths of the state remain vulnerable to […]
NAACP, Democrats file lawsuit over new “stand your ground” law
Two Democratic lawmakers and the NAACP filed a lawsuit Thursday seeking to overturn a recently passed “stand your ground” law, which removes Ohioans’ legal duty to try to retreat before responding to a perceived attack with deadly force. The legislation passed in the dying hours of the previous General Assembly often known as the “lame […]
Ohio kids’ COVID-19 cases overtake other age groups
Ohioans 19 and younger are now driving the state’s COVID-19 pandemic, comprising a larger share of cases than any other age group. Roughly one in three people who have contracted COVID-19 this month are 18 or younger, according to an analysis of state data. Those aged 20-29 are the next most prevalent cohort, comprising 16% […]
FBI suspected Dayton Mayor Whaley of bribery in 2014, court documents show
The FBI suspected Dayton Mayor and Democratic gubernatorial candidate Nan Whaley in 2014 of accepting cash bribes from a city contractor, according to unsealed search warrant applications filed in federal court. Whaley was not charged with any crime and the U.S. Department of Justice has closed the investigation. The warrants detail sworn statements from FBI […]