Civil Rights

LaRose uses state newsletter to promote Senate campaign

BY: - October 30, 2023

Frustrated former employees told the press that in their office “everything revolved around” Secretary of State Frank LaRose’s run for U.S. Senate. Now LaRose appears to be using the taxpayer-funded office’s newsletter in that campaign. As a state official, LaRose isn’t supposed to use state resources in his political campaigns. And as secretary of state, […]

Medical students: Strict abortion limits will drive doctors away from Ohio

BY: - October 20, 2023

A chorus of medical students and other future health professionals is trying to get the word out that re-enactment of harsh abortion restrictions will erode their numbers in Ohio, which already suffer from one of greatest numbers of care deserts in the country.  More than 500 students of the health professions attending Ohio universities signed […]

House Democrats seek to codify both same-sex and interracial marriage in Ohio

BY: - October 18, 2023

Democrats in the Ohio House want to change state law to bring it in line with federal legislation and court cases that legalized same-sex and interracial marriage. They are seeking the change to “create parity” in marriage law, but also for fear court precedent might be on the chopping block in the future. The bill, […]

Does Sec. of State LaRose have no Senate campaign HQ, or is it where he’s moving his state office?

BY: - October 17, 2023

Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose last week flatly refused to answer questions about whether he’s campaigning for a seat in the U.S. Senate from the same building where he’s moving his state offices. If he is, it raises questions about whether the state’s top elections officer will be blurring his duty to run a […]

After being freed once, Ohio man languishes on death row

BY: - October 13, 2023

Tony Apanovitch and his supporters are adamant: He’s innocent and there’s DNA evidence to prove it. That evidence is in addition to doubts about Apanovitch’s conviction raised by a state Supreme Court Justice before the existence of the DNA came to light.  In fact, doubts about his conviction are so compelling that a trial court judge […]

Ohio Ballot Board approves anti-gerrymandering amendment. Proposal to go forward

BY: - October 12, 2023

Activists who hope to pass an anti-gerrymandering amendment to the Ohio Constitution can now begin gathering the nearly half-million signatures on the need to get the measure on the November 2024 ballot after the amendment was approved as a single issue by the Ohio Ballot Board Thursday. Without much ceremony, the board unanimously agreed that […]

Veranda L'Ni performing in the Cleveland Drag Showcase. (Photo by Porch Porch Productions.)

Drag queens grateful after Ohio Supreme Court removes performance ban from ballot

BY: - October 11, 2023

Ohio drag queens are thanking the Ohio Supreme Court for removing a proposal from city of Bellefontaine ballots that would ban public performances. Drag is more than just performance art for Cleveland drag queen Veranda L’Ni — it’s also community. “It’s the most creative art form in the world — we get to change our […]

Despite plaintiffs’ claims that medication abortion is dangerous, data from more than two decades of mifepristone uses indicate a generally low rate of adverse events and few deaths, according to the FDA. (Getty Images)

In Ohio, Black women get abortions at a much higher rate

BY: - October 9, 2023

There are six times as many white women as Black women in Ohio. Yet last year, Black women had more abortions.  The wild disparity and other data in the most recent state abortion report suggest that economics plays a huge role in women’s decisions about whether to abort a pregnancy. The economic impacts of pregnancy […]

A CVS store. Photo by Lynne Terry, Oregon Capital Chronicle, States Newsroom.

Pharmacies file antitrust suit against massive drug middleman

BY: - October 3, 2023

A class-action suit has been filed in federal court on behalf of community pharmacies claiming that health giant CVS has used its dominance as a drug middleman to force pharmacies to pay large, after-the-fact fees in Medicare transactions.  The suit was filed last week in Seattle on behalf of Osterhaus Pharmacy, which until last year […]

After two rejections, is Ohio attorney general slow-walking anti-gerrymandering amendment?

BY: - September 27, 2023

One might think that a movement associated with a former state Supreme Court chief justice could draft a petition summary that passes legal muster. But twice already, Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost has rejected summaries of a petition to put an anti-gerrymandering amendment on Ohio’s November 2024 ballot. So far, nobody’s explicitly accusing Yost of […]

Deportation proceedings at a record clip, but far outstrip court capacity

BY: - September 26, 2023

The number of deportation proceedings against undocumented immigrants set a record for August, but the increases only highlighted the fact that backlogged immigration courts are unable to handle them, according to an analysis released last week. Despite dystopian claims about the southwestern border made by some politicians, many undocumented immigrants are not in the United […]

Analysis: Paying to warm the planet. Corrupt utility law forces Ohioans to make climate worse

BY: - September 19, 2023

It seems crazy that people would be forced to pay to make themselves and their planet sicker. But thanks to a crooked utility law that the Ohio General Assembly refuses to repeal, that’s just what’s happening in the Buckeye State. The notion that rising greenhouse gasses could warm the planet goes back at least to […]