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Black state lawmakers take aim at Vance over comments likening abortion to slavery
A month out from the Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade, Ohio Democrats are doing their best to keep abortion on voters’ minds. The Ohio Legislative Black Caucus is criticizing Republican U.S. Senate nominee J.D. Vance over comments likening the impact of slavery to that of abortion. In an interview with the Catholic Current […]
Ohio Democratic representatives file ‘joint’ bill to legalize recreational weed on 4/20
The following article was originally published on News5Cleveland.com and is published in the Ohio Capital Journal under a content-sharing agreement. Unlike other OCJ articles, it is not available for free republication by other news outlets as it is owned by WEWS in Cleveland. April 20 — or World Weed Day — was the perfect […]
Dontavius Jarrells is ready for the Ohio Statehouse
Dontavius Jarrells believes every person has a defining moment in their life that makes them who they are. His own moment came in middle school. Back then, Jarrells rode along three public bus routes to get from his Hough neighborhood in East Cleveland to the Garrett Morgan School of Science across town. Jarrells dragged his […]
Mailbag: We might not know who won Ohio on Election Day. Here’s why.
There is Supreme Court confirmation drama underway in Washington, D.C., but the necessity of reading the Ohio Capital Journal is a well-established super-precedent. It’s time for the Mailbag: Got a question about Ohio politics or the elections? Send them to [email protected] or tweet them to @tylerjoelb. Do mail-in votes and in-person early votes both start […]
Mailbag: DeWine impeachment, legalized cannabis and local news coverage
The first clue came last Sunday evening. “Big News OHIO,” State Rep. Nino Vitale posted to his Facebook page. “9 am Tomorrow Right Here.” His large social media following got excited. Some thought Vitale was announcing a run for governor. Others presumed it had something to do with Gov. Mike DeWine; Vitale has been on […]
FirstEnergy money flowed to Ohio politicians who supported Householder-backed HB6
FirstEnergy Solutions said it needed a government bailout to continue operating. It still had hundreds of thousands of dollars available to donate to Ohio politicians. The Akron-based energy company spent years working toward what would become House Bill 6 — passed by the Republican-controlled state legislature and signed by Gov. Mike DeWine in the summer […]
After 700,000 Ohioans file for unemployment, GOP lawmakers fear whether they’ll get off it
A group of Ohio lawmakers heard one breathtaking statistic after another: of restaurants closing for good, of hotels having record low occupancy, of a logjam of Ohioans being forced to seek out unemployment benefits after having lost their jobs. Hearing all that, several Republican members of the Ohio House Economic Recovery Task Force focused their […]
Some lawmakers itching to reopen economy as COVID-19 cases keep climbing
It was only minutes after state legislators ended their Zoom conference meeting, with many urging a swift reopening of the economy, that the Ohio Department of Health announced a new slate of virus deaths and illnesses. Fifteen more Ohioans had died in the prior 24 hours. An additional 363 people were confirmed to have the […]