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Race is a big factor in Ohio police killings
According to CNN, police shot and killed about 1,000 people in the United States in 2018. Compare this to Germany, where police shot and killed 11 people, Sweden, where police shot and killed six people, the U.K., where police shot and killed three people, and New Zealand, where police shot and killed a whopping one […]
There is no script for reopening Ohio
Ohio is opening back up. While our state garnered national and international praise for its initial handling of the coronavirus crisis, we have experienced some notable bumps in the road on the way towards reopening ranging from crowded patios that skirt rules in place to questionable definitions of “mass gathering” that seem to make such […]
A “new normal” for commuting?
People are driving a lot less in Ohio these days. A report from the Ohio Department of Transportation suggested there have been a little more than half as many cars on the road as usual statewide since implementation of strict social distancing measures in March. This is good for many Ohioans, and not just because […]
The risk/reward tightrope of opening Ohio
Today, non-emergency medical procedures become allowable under Ohio’s adjusted stay-at-home order. This will be the first of many steps to lift social distancing restrictions and create a new normal for life in the state of Ohio. On Monday, construction, manufacturing, and distribution operations will resume. On May 12, retailers and service companies will be allowed […]
Impending recession puts state in budget squeeze
Social distancing has its benefits. Most economists who have analyzed these policies seem to think the benefits gained in lives saved outweigh the costs they exact in economic damage using standard valuation techniques. Nonetheless, the costs are substantial. Last week, the Congressional Budget Office released projections that the United State gross domestic product will fall […]
The coronavirus response among Ohio’s neighbors
Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine’s leadership during the coronavirus pandemic has garnered national attention, particularly in contrast to President Donald Trump’s mixed messages and slow response as the pandemic has unfurled nationally. DeWine has taken swift action to close schools, ban large gatherings, close businesses, and even this week to go as far as to defy […]
What Ohio can do to fight coronavirus
Last week, Nancy Messonnier, Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, released a statement on coronavirus’s likely spread to the United States, saying that “It’s not a question of ‘if,’ but rather a question of ‘when’ and how many people in this country will have severe […]
Saving Lake Erie from farm fertilizer runoff: Ohio’s options
Last week, the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency announced via its draft 2020 water quality report that it will be developing a limit on the amount of phosphorus that can be dumped into the Lake Erie watershed. This was a big announcement for Lake Erie. Four years ago, Ohio signed a pact with Ontario and Michigan […]
The fiscal cost of Ohio’s death penalty
In the spring of 2015, I was living in Omaha, Nebraska, and my friends and I, being the political junkies we are, were all watching as the Nebraska legislature voted one by one to override the governor’s veto to end the use of the death penalty in the state. It wasn’t the problem of potential […]
How local governments can create high-paying jobs for residents
How do local governments create living wage and high-paying jobs for residents of neighborhoods of concentrated poverty? One tool we have are business incentives, or, as leading national business incentive economist Timothy Bartik describes them, “tax breaks, cash grants/loans, or services that are (1) targeted at an individual firm, or some industry or group of […]