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Alcohol abuse still a public health problem in Ohio
In 2020, early in the pandemic, Gov. Mike DeWine was the talk of the country, earning national praise for his public health efforts to slow the spread of coronavirus. At the same time that the DeWine administration was effectively shutting down a third of the economy to slow the spread of the virus, it counterintuitively […]
Clean energy is about more than just climate change
Imagine for a moment that climate change wasn’t happening. That the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change hadn’t determined major inevitable and irreversible climate changes are likely on the horizon due to release of greenhouse gases. Would our transition past coal to a new energy economy still make sense? According to a new working paper by […]
What can Ohio do to fight PTSD?
If you are interested in the world of public health, you may have heard the growing conversation around adverse childhood experiences (ACEs)—traumatic events in childhood that have health and economic impacts that ripple into adulthood. According to the Health Policy Institute of Ohio nearly two-thirds of Ohio adults reported exposure to ACEs in 2015. This […]
Landmark federal climate bill could change Ohio’s energy landscape
On Sunday, the U.S. Senate passed the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, a bill that will reduce spending while at the same time offering nearly $370 billion in new initiatives to fight climate change. While Ohio has many options for mandating clean power and pricing carbon that will reduce carbon emissions, the Inflation Reduction Act […]
How can cities reduce pedestrian deaths?
Smart Growth America’s 2022 “Dangerous by Design” report highlights the growing trend of pedestrian deaths in cities and states across the U.S. Overall, Ohio does pretty well in this report compared to other states, with only 1.18 pedestrian deaths per 100,000 people, putting it in the top half of states for safe streets. Unfortunately, the […]
What if anti-abortion activists really wanted to reduce abortion rates?
The U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark decision to strike down the right to family privacy around abortion care has cleared the way for Ohio’s six-week ban on legal abortion. Since about 1 in 3 women do not realize they are pregnant until six weeks or later, this bill effectively bans legal abortion care for a large […]
Ohio’s pandemic recovery lags the country’s
Last week, the Brookings Institution released an analysis of the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on Ohio’s metropolitan areas. Looking at the two years from February 2020 to March 2022, the analysis tracks 192 U.S. metro areas’ economic trajectory from the beginning of the pandemic until the spring of 2022. Included in the analysis […]
How can rural Ohio build a tech workforce?
Last month, the Center on Rural Innovation released a report on the rural tech workforce in America. The report was designed well, combining original surveys of rural adults and employers with a broad labor market dataset and an extensive interview battery to draw insights into what America’s rural tech workforce looks like. What I found […]
Formula shortage exposes familiar weakness in our safety net
Last week, the Ohio Department of Health requested that the U.S. Department of Agriculture and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services allow greater flexibility in its social assistance programs around baby formula. The program the Ohio Department of Health is most interested in is the Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) program, one of the […]
Overturning Roe would undo women’s health, education, and economic progress
The world shook last week when Politico releases a draft opinion suggesting Roe v. Wade would soon be overturned. Since President Trump installed three new Supreme Court justices on the bench, court watchers have thought the right to privacy and bodily autonomy were at risk. Now we may see a world where protection of that […]
Ending extreme poverty in Ohio would be the state’s 16th-largest tax write-off
Often in state government, policymakers are chipping away at the margins of public policy. Legislation is usually aimed toward tweaking small technocratic problems to try to deliver services better or fighting culture war battles to score points with interest groups. Too often these policies do little to nothing to help people. So what would it […]
Ohio can measure ‘genuine progress’ over pandemic losses
The 2020s have been a tumultuous time for Ohio’s economy. The shock of quickly closing the economy to stave off the overcrowding of hospitals has been followed by two years of hesitancy for state residents to shop, eat out and engage in public life. This tumult was captured in state Gross Domestic Product (GDP) numbers. […]