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Tag: Ohio Capital Journal

Joe Biden diagnosed with a ‘more aggressive form’ of prostate cancer

President Joe Biden delivers his farewell address to the nation from the Oval Office of the White House on Jan. 15, 2025, in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Mandel Ngan – Pool/Getty Images)

By: Jane Norman – Ohio Capital Journal

WASHINGTON — Former President Joe Biden has been diagnosed with “a more aggressive form” of prostate cancer, according to a statement from his office on Sunday.

The statement said Biden, 82, last week was seen for a new finding of a prostate nodule after experiencing increasing urinary symptoms. “On Friday, he was diagnosed with prostate cancer, characterized by a Gleason score of 9 (Grade group 5) with metastasis to the bone,” the statement said.

“While this represents a more aggressive form of the disease, the cancer appears to be hormone-sensitive which allows for effective management,” it continued. “The President and his family are reviewing treatment options with his physicians.”

The New York Times had reported on May 12 that a few days earlier, a “small nodule” was discovered on Biden’s prostate that required “further evaluation,” according to a spokesman.

According to the National Cancer Institute, prostate cancer is slow-growing, the second leading cause of cancer death among men in the United States and the most common cancer.

‘Joe is a fighter’

Statements of support immediately began pouring in on Sunday as word spread of the diagnosis.

“Doug and I are saddened to learn of President Biden’s prostate cancer diagnosis,” his former vice president and the 2024 Democratic nominee, Kamala Harris, said on X. “We are keeping him, Dr. Biden, and their entire family in our hearts and prayers during this time. Joe is a fighter — and I know he will face this challenge with the same strength, resilience, and optimism that have always defined his life and leadership. We are hopeful for a full and speedy recovery.”

“Melania and I are saddened to hear about Joe Biden’s recent medical diagnosis,” President Donald Trump wrote on social media. “We extend our warmest and best wishes to Jill and the family, and we wish Joe a fast and successful recovery.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, a Democrat who was the party’s vice presidential candidate after Biden dropped out of the race and Harris took his place at the top of the ticket, said on X that Biden was “a truly decent man and a friend.”

“Gwen and I are praying for President Biden and his family,” he wrote.

“I am saddened to hear of President Biden’s cancer diagnosis and am wishing him and his family well as he begins treatment,” Maine Republican Sen. Susan Collins wrote on X.

Pete Buttigieg, the former South Bend, Indiana, mayor who served as Biden’s Transportation secretary after running against Biden, Harris and others in the 2020 Democratic presidential primary, said Biden “is a man of deep faith and extraordinary resilience.”

“Chasten and I are keeping him, and the entire Biden family, in our prayers for strength and healing,” Buttigieg wrote on X.

“Joe has been a fighter his whole life. He will prevail. Sending Dr. Jill Biden and their family my absolute support,” Democratic Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania posted on X.

“This is very sad news. Praying for his recovery,” GOP Florida Rep. Anna Paulina Luna said on X. “We are rooting for President Biden in this fight!” former Florida U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz wrote, reposting Luna’s post.

Age a factor in presidential race

Biden’s doctors said he was fit and healthy enough to be president after evaluations in February, 2024.

“President Biden is a healthy, active, robust 81-year-old male, who remains fit to successfully execute the duties of the Presidency,” Dr. Kevin C. O’Connor wrote.

But by that summer, Biden’s deteriorating state — though not connected to the diagnosis disclosed Sunday — would force him out of his reelection bid.

Biden dropped out of the race for the presidency on July 21, 2024, creating an unprecedented vacancy atop the Democratic ticket one month before he was scheduled to officially accept his party’s nomination. He endorsed Harris to take his place as the Democratic nominee, and she was nominated by Democrats but lost the election to Trump.

Biden’s withdrawal came after a weeks-long pressure campaign from party insiders following a disastrous June 27, 2024, debate performance against GOP candidate Trump and rising criticism that he could not mount a winning campaign against the man he had defeated in 2020. Biden appeared frail and confused at several points during the debate, leading to worries he was no longer up to the task of governing.

After leaving the White House on Jan. 20, Biden kept a low profile and did not make public remarks until April 15, when he criticized the current administration for cutting thousands of employees at the Social Security Administration and rebutted those who have questioned the program’s relevance.

“In fewer than 100 days, this new administration has done so much damage and so much destruction. It’s kind of breathtaking it could happen that soon,” Biden said. “They’ve taken a hatchet to the Social Security Administration, pushing 7,000 employees — 7,000 — out the door in that time, including the most seasoned career officials.”

Book publication

In more recent days, the publication of a book by two political reporters, CNN’s Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson of Axios, sparked controversy by its claims that those in Biden’s inner circle worked to keep his cognitive decline from public view.

Titled “Original Sin,” the book — based on interviews with what the authors said were more than 200 people, mostly Democratic insiders — included new details about the presidency, such as Biden apparently failing to recognize movie star George Clooney at a fundraiser in June 2024 in Los Angeles. Biden’s decline was such in 2023 and 2024 that use of a wheelchair was discussed, if he was reelected, the book reported.

Just Friday, the White House released audio of an interview of Biden by Department of Justice special counsel Robert Hur who issued a lengthy report concluding that while President Joe Biden “willfully retained” classified materials following his time as vice president, he would not be charged with a crime.

Hur wrote in the 388-page February 2024 report that prosecutors considered “that, at trial, Mr. Biden would likely present himself to a jury, as he did during our interview of him, as a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.”

Jacob Fischler contributed to this report.

Jane Norman

As the Washington Bureau Chief of States Newsroom, Jane directs national coverage, managing staff and freelance reporters in the nation’s capital and assigning and editing state-specific daily and enterprise stories. Jane is a veteran of more than three decades in journalism.

Ohio Capital Journal is part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.

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May 21, 2025
Ohio property tax repeal campaign preparing to collect signatures

Ballot petition signature collection. Photo by WEWS.

By: Nick Evans – Ohio Capital Journal

In a short meeting, the Ohio Ballot Board signed off on a proposed constitutional amendment abolishing property taxes in the state. The only question before the board was whether the proposal contains one or multiple amendments.

Supporters contend lawmakers have been unwilling or unable to make significant enough changes as property taxes climb. But critics warn eliminating that revenue stream could cripple important services like schools and first responders.

Campaign reaction

GET THE MORNING HEADLINES.

The day after the ballot board meeting, Beth Blackmarr described her mood as ‘busy.’

“Busy, busy, busy,” she said, “I mean, here we go — we’ve got to hit the ground running.”

Blackmarr is part of the organization Citizens for Property Tax Reform which is leading the repeal campaign. With the ballot board’s decision, the group is now able to start gathering signatures to appear on the ballot.

To go before voters, they’ll need 10% of the electoral turnout from the last governor’s race (just shy of 415,000). Additionally, in 44 of Ohio’s counties, they’ll need signatures from at least 5% of the governor’s race turnout. In practice, campaigns turn in hundreds of thousands more signatures than necessary to make up for any rejections.

Blackmarr said they want to start collecting “as soon as humanly possible,” and work could begin as early as next week. Asked whether they’d work with paid circulators, she just laughed.

“Many of us are youthful at heart, but senior citizens that are just really working out of our pockets,” she said. “There’s no big money backing this at all. It’s all volunteer.”

The merits

Blackmarr argued Ohio’s current property tax system is broken. She points to other states like New Jersey and Texas that have far more generous initiatives to keep seniors, vets and the disabled in their homes.

“You can’t have senior citizens who have paid for their homes — fully paid for — having to move out because they can’t afford property tax,” she insisted.

Blackmarr contends those kinds of protections are low-hanging fruit. Lawmakers have had continual warnings and “ample opportunity” to act. Instead, she argued, they’ve dithered with changes at the margins.

“I suspect it’s because they built a wobbly tower of property tax law over these decades,” she said, “and they’re afraid to pull one of the blocks out, because they’re afraid the whole thing’s gonna come tumbling down.”

That ‘tumbling down’ is exactly the concern many critics voice about the plan. The most recent annual report from the Ohio Department of Taxation puts 2023 property tax collections at about $18.5 billion. That’s an enormous amount of funding to just disappear. It’s roughly double the amount reported for state income taxes, and a billion more than Ohio’s sales and use tax.

Spread evenly, it would cost every single Ohioan more than $1,500 to make up that gap in funding.

Blackmarr argued repeal will just force lawmakers “to come up with an alternative.” But that’s a big ask — particularly for Republicans allergic to tax increases.

Still she’s right about dramatic increases in property taxes. The same Department of Taxation report shows assessed values climbing almost 40% in five years while tax collections have risen more than 21%.

Legislature’s role

In a statement following the ballot board decision, House minority leader Allison Russo said the proposal “clearly demonstrates frustration by Ohioans on this issue” and blamed lawmakers for failing to act.

“However, this particular initiative concerns me because while it eliminates the property tax, it doesn’t explain how we’ll replace the funds that support police, fire departments, public education, and other critical services,” she said.

Russo argued Democrats have signed on to bipartisan legislation providing direct relief but Republican leaders haven’t prioritized those bills.

Blackmarr acknowledged that as their campaign gains steam, pressure will grow on lawmakers to pass legislation or propose their own ballot measure to undercut their efforts.

“At the end of the day it goes to the voters,” she said. “They have to make the decision for themselves.”

And if lawmakers’ intervention means voters have to choose between competing visions, that’s just fine with Blackmarr.

“Wouldn’t that be nice, you know?” she said.

Follow Ohio Capital Journal Reporter Nick Evans on X or on Bluesky.

Nick Evans

Nick Evans has spent the past seven years reporting for NPR member stations in Florida and Ohio. He got his start in Tallahassee, covering issues like redistricting, same sex marriage and medical marijuana. Since arriving in Columbus in 2018, he has covered everything from city council to football. His work on Ohio politics and local policing have been featured numerous times on NPR.

Ohio Capital Journal is part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.

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May 16, 2025
Backers urge Ohio lawmakers to pass AI restrictions

State Sen. Louis Blessing, III, R-Colerain Township (Photo by Graham Stokes for Ohio Capital Journal. Republish photo only with original article.)

The measure focuses on prohibiting deepfake child pornography but also require watermarks and punishes AI identity fraud

By: Nick Evans – Ohio Capital Journal

Ohio senators heard from supporters Wednesday of a proposal establishing guardrails around media produced with artificial intelligence. The proposal would prohibit the use of AI to create deepfake porn — particularly involving minors. But with provisions requiring watermarks and punishing identity fraud, the bill’s impact could extend far beyond the creation of pornography.

Senate bill 163

The bill’s sponsors, state Sens. Louis Blessing, R-Colerain Twp., and Terry Johnson, R-McDermott, argue the restrictions will “prevent potentially harmful uses” of an emerging technology while protecting Ohioans “safety and privacy.”

GET THE MORNING HEADLINES.

The bill goes after AI-generated child porn by expanding the definition of obscenity to include an “artificially generated depiction.” Blessing explained “current laws against child sexual abuse material require an actual real photo of a child to be able to prosecute someone.”

“With AI not being a real photo,” he added, “this leads to issues of prosecuting someone generating these photos. Senate bill 163 will give attorneys the ability to prosecute these people.”

The sponsors argue AI can also be used to engage in fraud for financial, political and reputational purposes. So, the proposal extends identity fraud statutes to include a “replica” of an individual’s voice or likeness. It prohibits the use of a replica persona to defraud, damage a person’s reputation, or depict a person in a state of nudity or engaged in a sexual act.

Beyond its prohibitions, the bill aims to get ahead of deceptive uses by requiring any media created with artificial intelligence to include a watermark identifying it as such. Removal of a watermark is subject to a civil lawsuit for damages, and anyone who removes a watermark faces the presumption that they caused the alleged harm.

Proponents’ testimony

Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost praised the measure’s “three-pronged approach.” He argued the watermark requirement “would provide a minimum level of transparency and notice” when an individual encounters AI-generated content.

Speaking about the bill’s identity fraud provisions, Yost brought up a case from his time as state auditor. A scammer successfully mimicked a school district’s email system and then sent a fake funds transfer request to the accounts payable department posing as the district’s financial controller. Best practice, Yost said, would be to call the sender for confirmation.

“But now, in the era of deepfakes with audio,” Yost explained, “you can send that fake email, call up (accounts payable) using the controller’s voice and say, ‘Hey, I just sent you an email asking you to do a wire transfer. This is really important. We need to move it. I wanted to follow up with phone calls so you didn’t have any questions.’”

As for the restrictions on child sexual abuse material, Yost urged lawmakers ensure “these powerful tools are not used for evil,” and added that “these are the kinds of things that keep me up at night.”

Sen. Kent Smith, D-Euclid, pressed Yost on how useful state legislation can be when it comes to addressing a “borderless” crime.

Yost acknowledged he’d prefer to see federals laws and even international treaties governing the use of AI-generated images. But “possession or use within Ohio can still be proscribed by this body and it ought to be.” He added that one way to push Congress to act is for states to pass an array of legislation.

Lou Tobin, speaking on behalf of the Ohio Prosecuting Attorneys Association, noted many states have passed bills to prohibit AI-generated child sexual abuse material or CSAM.

“As of last month,” he said, “Thirty-eight states, including every state surrounding Ohio, have enacted laws that criminalize the creation, possession and distribution of artificially generated CSAM.”

But while many states have taken action, it’s not clear those laws will hold up in court.

“I think a federal district court has found one of these statutes to be in violation of the Ashcroft decision,” Tobin told lawmakers. “The Ashcroft decision was a U.S. Supreme Court decision from the early 2000s that said you could not criminalize artificially generated images of child pornography because there wasn’t a real victim.”

In February, a federal judge in Wisconsin threw out one charge related to possession of “virtual child pornography,” but allowed three others to go forward. Prosecutors in that case have appealed the decision to dismiss the charge.

Tobin explained his office and the AG’s worked with state lawmakers to narrowly tailor S.B. 163 bill to avoid problems with the First Amendment. Regardless of how the case in Wisconsin or others play out, Tobin agued, “We think that’s a fight worth having.”

Follow Ohio Capital Journal Reporter Nick Evans on X or on Bluesky.

Nick Evans

Nick Evans has spent the past seven years reporting for NPR member stations in Florida and Ohio. He got his start in Tallahassee, covering issues like redistricting, same sex marriage and medical marijuana. Since arriving in Columbus in 2018, he has covered everything from city council to football. His work on Ohio politics and local policing have been featured numerous times on NPR.

Ohio Capital Journal is part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.

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May 11, 2025
Study: Ohio among hardest hit if Congress, Trump cut Medicaid

A poll released Thursday, May 1 showed 76% of Americans oppose cuts to Medicaid. (Photo via Getty Images)

By: Marty Schladen – Ohio Capital Journal

Ohio is among five states whose economies will be most harmed if huge proposed Medicaid cuts become reality, the Commonwealth Fund said in an explainer this week.

Medicaid, the federal-state health insurer for low-income Americans, covers nearly 3 million Ohioans. That’s about a quarter of the state’s population.

Particularly in states such as Ohio, Medicaid covers large numbers of working people. That’s because in 2014 the state opted to expand eligibility to people making 138% or less of federal poverty guidelines. For a family of four, that’s $43,000 a year.

GET THE MORNING HEADLINES.

About 770,000 Ohioans are covered by expanded Medicaid — a group for which rates of uninsurance have dropped by 62% since 2012, according to the Health Policy Institute of Ohio.

A draft budget making its way through the U.S. House of Representatives would cut federal spending — the primary source of Medicaid money — by $880 billion over 10 years. KFF reported that such a move would require a 29% increase in state spending to maintain the same level of coverage.

The federal government currently covers 90% of the cost of Ohio’s expended Medicaid. In his draft of the state budget, Gov. Mike DeWine included a provision saying that if the feds cut that, the state would end coverage of the 770,000 Ohioans in the expansion group.

In the report it released this week, the Commonwealth Fund said such cuts would harm state economies, with Ohio’s high among them. It said “the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) would decrease by $95 billion and tax revenue would decrease by $7 billion. The states likely to face the most significant economic losses include California, New York, Texas, Pennsylvania, and Ohio.”

One reason for the losses, the explainer said, is that each dollar in Medicaid spending creates a greater value to the overall economy.

“Medicaid investment is shown to have a “multiplier effect,” meaning that every dollar spent generates over a dollar’s worth of economic activity,” it said. “Medicaid drives employment in the health care sector; generates state and local tax revenue; and saves money for enrollees, allowing them to spend more on items other than health care.”

Medicaid spending also bolsters the economy by making more people healthy enough to work. Research in Ohio and across the country has shown that workforce participation is greater in states that expanded Medicaid, the Georgetown University McCourt School of Public Policy reported in 2023.

The economic benefits of Medicaid spending are manifold, the Commonwealth Fund report said.

“Medicaid coverage helps lift enrollees out of poverty — more effectively, in fact, than federal tax credits,” it said. “In states that have expanded Medicaid, enrollees have benefited from reductions in income inequality, evictions, and bankruptcies, as well as improvements in credit scores. One study found that less than two years after Michigan expanded Medicaid, the average amount of medical bills in collections for enrollees had dropped by over $500, enrollees were 11% less likely to be evicted, and they were 13% less likely to overdraw their credit cards than before expansion.”

Marty Schladen

Marty Schladen has been a reporter for decades, working in Indiana, Texas and other places before returning to his native Ohio to work at The Columbus Dispatch in 2017. He’s won state and national journalism awards for investigations into utility regulation, public corruption, the environment, prescription drug spending and other matters.

Ohio Capital Journal is part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.

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May 9, 2025
Ohio House lawmakers introduce companion bill that would ban DEI in K-12 schools

(Photo by Michael Loccisano/Getty Images)

By: Megan Henry – Ohio Capital Journal

Ohio House Republicans are trying to ban diversity and inclusion in K-12 schools.

House Reps. Beth Lear, R-Galena, and Josh Williams, R-Sylvania Township, recently introduced House Bill 155. This is a companion bill to Ohio Senate Bill 113, which has had two hearings so far in the Senate Education Committee.

GET THE MORNING HEADLINES.

Both bills would require every local board of education in the state to adopt a policy that would end any current diversity and inclusion offices or departments and ban any diversity, equity, and inclusion orientation or training. It would also prevent the creation of any new such offices or departments and using DEI in job descriptions.

Lear and Williams recently gave sponsor testimony on their bill to the Ohio House Education Committee.

“The increasing incorporation of DEI programs has shifted the focus from educational fundamentals to ideological indoctrination,” Lear said. “These initiatives prioritize identity over ability, promote racial preferences over fairness, and undermine the principle of equal opportunity for all students.”

The pair of Republican lawmakers argued banning DEI would cause less division among students.

“Through legislation like this, we hope to cultivate an educational environment that promotes unity and harmony among students, focusing on our commonalities rather than differences,” Williams said. “By treating all of our students and staff the same, we can allow our educators to focus on core academic subjects and ensure high-quality outcomes for every student in Ohio.”

Education committee members — on both sides of the aisle — peppered the lawmakers with questions for about 40 minutes.

“DEI is toxic,” said state Rep. Kevin Ritter, R-Marietta. “The sooner it’s out of our schools, the better. With that in mind, prohibition without consequences is meaningless.”

Lear said they plan on adding enforcement measures to the bill in the coming weeks through an amendment.

Some of the Democratic lawmakers pointed out how the bill doesn’t define DEI.

“How is a school supposed to figure out what that means?” state Rep. Phil Robinson, Jr., D-Solon, asked.

Williams said he wouldn’t give a narrow definition of DEI.

“The easiest way to answer that is to teach the subjects you are supposed to teach,” Williams said when Robinson pressed him on the question. “You don’t need to infuse DEI into the curriculum.”

State Rep. Sean Brennan, D-Parma, continued to ask for a definition of DEI.

“If we don’t define what DEI is, how can we expect teachers to not mistakenly break the law?” he asked.

Williams said it would ultimately be up to the individual school boards to come up with a policy.

“We’re not trying to make a cookie-cutter system,” he said.

This bill comes as two federal lawsuits by the ACLU and the National Education Association are challenging the Trump administration’s attempt to ban DEI programs in K-12 schools.

“How do you craft legislation when it’s a little bit unclear right now from the federal government where things stand?” asked state Rep. Beryl Brown Piccolantonio, D-Gahanna.

Williams, who is a lawyer, said he knows lawsuits can take a while and is “not willing to allow school districts to continue to indoctrinate children for the next four to six years while those lawsuits pend, just because somebody wanted to file a lawsuit.”

Follow Capital Journal Reporter Megan Henry on Bluesky.

Megan Henry

Megan Henry is a reporter for the Ohio Capital Journal and has spent the past five years reporting in Ohio on various topics including education, healthcare, business and crime. She previously worked at The Columbus Dispatch, part of the USA Today Network.

Ohio Capital Journal is part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.

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May 8, 2025
Ohio housing advocates want lawmakers to nix budget language that alters affordable housing funding

Stock photo from Getty Images.

By: Megan Henry – Ohio Capital Journal

Housing advocates are urging Ohio senators to remove an amendment from the state’s two-year operating budget that would significantly affect a source of funding for local homelessness and affordable housing programs.

The Ohio House added language to their version of the budget that would change the Ohio Housing Trust Fund. The Ohio Senate is currently working on the budget and will send it back to Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, who must sign it into law by June 30.

GET THE MORNING HEADLINES.

“The Ohio Housing Trust Fund is the primary source of state funding for local homelessness, emergency home repair and affordable housing development,” the Coalition on Homelessness and Housing in Ohio’s executive director Amy Riegel said during a press conference Thursday. “We see that making any type of change and overhauling it would be drastic and would make huge ripple impacts across the state.”

The trust fund was created in 1991 and is administered by the Ohio Department of Development. It is funded by a portion of the fees collected by county recorders, with half of the fees staying with the county and the other half going back to the fund — which requires at least 50% of the funds be spent in non-urban areas.

The House budget proposal would remove the requirement for county recorders to send the state Department of Development money to reallocate the funds, making it less effective across the state.

“This would leave counties with only the funds that they are able to collect, which creates a drastic impact on communities where they might not be collecting as many revenues as other counties,” Riegel said. “Shifting to a county-by-county approach will negatively impact folks who are struggling to just keep her roof over their heads.”

Robert Bender, CEO of the Provident Companies, is concerned counties could lose their leveraging ability and wouldn’t have the capacity to administer funds.

“We have an easy solution: just don’t mess with it,” he said. “This is really elected officials who don’t have enough information trying to tinker with something to make it better when it’s going to make it worse.”

The Housing Trust Fund provided emergency shelter for more than 27,000 Ohioans last year, Riegel said.

“That’s just one year,” Riegel said. “Multiply that by the last 23 years, and you can see this has a huge impact across our state.”

Housing advocates asked House lawmakers why the amendment was added, but Riegel said the rationale behind it remains unclear. Now, they are talking to Ohio senators about trying to remove the amendment.

“We have heard from many of them that they do support removing the language … however, it is the decision of the entire body of how to move forward,” Riegel said.

Habitat for Humanity of Ohio’s Executive Director Ryan Miller said they serve primarily populations of people who have paid off their homes, are living on fixed incomes and dealing with health issues.

“They have no other option, and we must keep the current funding structure in place to let them live in dignity and peace,” he said.

The trust fund is one of the most effective tools to reduce homelessness, said Becky Eddy, chief community development officer for the Integrated Services for Behavioral Health.

“The current regional approach isn’t broken,” she said. “Shifting to a fractured county-by-county model would slow things down, drive the administrative costs and ultimately increase homelessness across the state.”

Follow Capital Journal Reporter Megan Henry on Bluesky.

Megan Henry

Megan Henry is a reporter for the Ohio Capital Journal and has spent the past five years reporting in Ohio on various topics including education, healthcare, business and crime. She previously worked at The Columbus Dispatch, part of the USA Today Network.

Ohio Capital Journal is part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.

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May 3, 2025
Ohio’s HB 6 utility scandal gets true-crime treatment in HBO film

Former Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder gives the thumbs up as he enters a federal courthouse in Cincinnati. (Photo from WEWS.)

By: Kathiann M. Kowalski, Canary Media and Dan Haugen, Canary Media – Ohio Capital Journal

This story was originally published by Canary Media.

One of the largest utility scandals in U.S. history has remained largely unknown outside Ohio — until now.

Last week, HBO released a documentary that covers the long, sordid saga, which led to the federal criminal convictions of a former speaker of the Ohio House of Representatives and a former head of the Ohio Republican Party.

“The Dark Money Game: Ohio Confidential” follows the story of how utility companies used roughly $60 million in bribes to public officials to secure more than $1.5 billion in ratepayer subsidies for aging, uneconomical coal and nuclear plants.

Canary Media contributing reporter Kathiann Kowalski has spent more than a decade covering the House Bill 6 saga and Ohio utilities’ other efforts to get ratepayer-funded bailouts. Dan Haugen, a senior editor at Canary Media, recently spoke with Kowalski about her reactions to the new film.

The following transcript has been edited slightly for length and clarity.

Haugen: So, you watched this new HBO documentary “Ohio Confidential” the other day. What about it is still on your mind today?

Kowalski: I was struck by the focus they used of how dark money and gerrymandering undermined voters’ will in the wake of a 2010 Supreme Court case that opened the door for unlimited corporate spending on political campaigns, subject to few conditions.

Haugen: Was there any factual information that wasn’t previously reported by you or others?

Kowalski: A lot of it was very familiar, given the fact that I had read through most of the exhibits, read Neil Clark’s book, gone to part of the trial, and been following this for years. There was an interesting scene where they were able to get footage of the FBI observing a private detective that former Ohio GOP Chair Matt Borges and company had apparently retained to follow Tyler Fehrman, who was a witness in the federal criminal case.

Haugen: Did the film change your understanding of the HB 6 story in any way?

Kowalski: They did a decent job connecting some dots. I had not thought through how former Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder’s actions also enabled a far-right coalition in the Legislature to push through an anti-abortion law in 2019. It gave me a broader perspective on the anti-democracy angle of the public corruption, but my understanding of the basic story did not change.

Haugen: Where did the abortion legislation appear on the timeline?

Kowalski: The way that the filmmaker presents it is that once Householder helped these people get the anti-abortion legislation passed, he then had people who felt they owed him something. I looked at the timing, and Gov. Mike DeWine signed the anti-abortion legislation the day before House Bill 6 was introduced.

Haugen: One of the biggest unknowns still today is what, if any, role the governor’s office had in all this. You and others have reported on a December 2018 dinner with FirstEnergy executives, DeWine, and Jon Husted, just weeks before the latter two took office as governor and lieutenant governor. Neither has been charged nor accused of any wrongdoing. Does the film shed any new light on their connections?

Kowalski: The filmmakers include an allegation of $5 million going from FirstEnergy to help elect DeWine. And they note a disclaimer from DeWine’s office that it was all within the confines of what was allowed under the law. That’s basically about all they did. It was not a deep dive into the governor’s actions or Husted, who was recently appointed to fill Vice President JD Vance’s U.S. Senate seat. I think maybe they wanted to keep their story tightly focused on the legislature and what has been proven in the first federal criminal case. That also avoids having to include more disclaimers about how nothing’s been proven against others, everybody denies wrongdoing, etc., etc.

Haugen: So is this something you would recommend that your readers watch?

Kowalski: Yes. It’s compelling storytelling. It does a good job of explaining things in plain terms. There’s a limited cast of characters, and you can follow the story. If House Bill 6 is new to you, it’s definitely worth watching. And it’s certainly important now as we’re looking at not only the continued use of dark money in politics through either nonprofits or limited liability corporations, but also, with technology, likely more ways to cover up potential bribes. So, yes, people should be aware of this.

________________

Kathiann M. Kowalski, Canary Media

Kathiann M. Kowalski is a contributing reporter at Canary Media who covers Ohio. She reports on energy, science, and policy issues and is the author of 25 books. In addition to her journalism career, Kathi is an alumna of Harvard Law School and has spent 15 years practicing law. She is a member of the Society of Environmental Journalists, the National Association of Science Writers, and the Society of Professional Journalists.

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Dan Haugen, Canary Media

Dan Haugen is a senior editor at Canary Media. He joined Canary Media as part of its 2025 merger with the Energy News Network, where he was managing editor and oversaw state and local reporting on clean energy policy. He previously worked as a newspaper reporter, freelance writer, and watchdog editor at a Gannett-owned newsroom in South Dakota. He currently lives with his wife and two kids in Minneapolis, where he enjoys reading books, collecting vinyl, and watching baseball.

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May 2, 2025
Ohio Senate committee advances energy compromise

Getty Images

By: Nick Evans – Ohio Capital Journal

With a final few tweaks, Ohio senators advanced a major piece of energy legislation.

The Senate Energy Committee vote was unanimous. With both chambers in session Wednesday, it’s likely lawmakers could sign off on the legislation and send it along to the governor.

The most substantive change had to do with the Public Utility Commission of Ohio clock — it moved from 320 days to 360. Lawmakers are putting a ceiling on PUCO deliberations because they want rate cases to move more quickly.

GET THE MORNING HEADLINES.

After Tuesday’s hearing, state Sen. Bill Reineke, R-Tiffin, connected the longer shot clock to broader changes in the ratemaking process. Utilities must come before the PUCO every three years, and they’ll be able to set rates in three-year increments with annual “true-ups” to reflect the companies’ actual balance sheet. Reineke explained the longer timeline will give regulators a bit of breathing room.

Final testimony

Before lawmakers put the bill to a vote, Ohio Consumers’ Counsel Maureen Willis made a final bid to remove a provision on consumer refunds. Under the changes, bill payers could receive refunds after the Supreme Court determines a charge was unwarranted, but any payments prior to that decision would be out of reach.

Willis explained her office in the middle of a case against Dayton-area AES Ohio which could yield more than $300 in refunds per customer.

“If HB 15 becomes law as written AES’s half a million consumers would lose that refund opportunity that has been in the making since 2019,” she said.

The final version of the bill also left out a passage subjecting more power line projects to state oversight. Willis called that omission “disappointing.”

“No one is reviewing these projects,” she argued. “Not the Ohio Power Siting Board, not the PUCO and not (the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission). Ohio consumers, your constituents, pay 100% of those costs through transmission riders.”

Rebecca Mellino from the Nature Conservancy praised lawmakers for repealing a controversial coal subsidy approved as part of 2019’s HB 6 but argued “Ohio lags far behind neighboring states” when it comes to renewable energy. She suggested provisions encouraging brownfield redevelopment could offer an opportunity for renewable energy investment.

Bigger picture

The core incentive for new energy production is a reduction in tangible personal property taxes — levied on things like machinery and equipment. But while lawmakers attempt to boost energy production with a tax cut, they’re also trying to find reductions in property taxes. Energy committee chairman, Sen. Brian Chavez, R-Marietta, insisted the reductions won’t undermine services.

“We’re not changing any taxes that are in effect right now,” he explained. “So any taxes from power plants that are in place will stay in place as they depreciate out — this is only on new generation.”

Sen. Kent Smith, D-Euclid, argued the tax break is an important cue to companies. When lawmakers passed HB 6, he said, they subsidized coal and nuclear facilities.

“It was not just putting your thumb on the scale,” he said, “I mean, it wreaked havoc in natural gas generation.” With the current bill, lawmakers will remove the last of those subsidies.

“So we’ve sort of restored capitalism in the energy generation space,” Smith argued. “And by reducing the tangible personal property percentage, hopefully that sends a signal.”

Still, there’s little Ohio’s legislation can do to address lawmakers’ central concern about power demand outstripping supply. The 13-state power network PJM has a substantial backlog of power plants that want to connect to the grid, and large-scale consumers like data centers are pushing demand for power higher.

“That’s why we focused on behind the meter generation,” Chavez said, “so that any new industry that comes into Ohio is not adding additional strain on the existing grid.”

Behind the meter generation involves building a bespoke power plant directly connected to a given business.

“PJM is aware of the concerns that are out there. They’re hearing that from all 13 states,” Chavez added. “They are on our list. We’re going to go talk to them in the fall, and we’re going to have some frank conversations with them to see how we can partner to get through this.”

Follow Ohio Capital Journal Reporter Nick Evans on X or on Bluesky.

Nick Evans

Nick Evans has spent the past seven years reporting for NPR member stations in Florida and Ohio. He got his start in Tallahassee, covering issues like redistricting, same sex marriage and medical marijuana. Since arriving in Columbus in 2018, he has covered everything from city council to football. His work on Ohio politics and local policing have been featured numerous times on NPR.

Ohio Capital Journal is part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.

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May 1, 2025
House budget document will hurt Ohioans

Ohio House Speaker Matt Huffman. (Photo by Morgan Trau, WEWS.)

by Marilou Johanek – Ohio Capital Journal

Just as Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) was never really about improving government efficiency – quite the opposite, in fact – the 5,000-plus page biennial budget rewrite the Ohio House slapped together and sent to the Ohio Senate was never really about improving the common good of everyday Ohioans.

It was about advancing the hard-right priorities of powerful politicians who answer to big money – not constituents in gerrymandered voting districts.

Yet even for the supremely arrogant kingpin of state government, Ohio House Speaker Matt Huffman, the budget bill passed out of the General Assembly’s lower chamber on April 9 was beyond the pale in cruelty and cunning.

It is the Ohio version of Project 2025 with all the unsparing, exacting hallmarks of the Trumpian blueprint, recklessly destroying federal institutions and agencies that, however imperfectly, protect, serve and promote the welfare of we, the people.

But that’s the MAGA nihilistic way and Ohio Republicans are doing their part in tearing down what made Ohio great. Huffman, the Lima Republican who runs the state under the one party rule he rigged with unconstitutional redistricting, is in the catbird seat calling the shots. The speaker (and former Ohio Senate president) lords over the GOP supermajority in the Ohio House while his political protégé, Ohio Senate President Rob McColley, accommodates the boss.

Huffman, who once said the quiet part out loud about GOP gerrymandering (“We can kind of do what we want”), now has a straight runway to enact his blueprint on Ohioans whether they like it or not. I suspect his budget proposal will survive, largely intact, with the House caucus he controls and the one he led with an iron fist for four years in the Senate.

Local public schools, public libraries, clean drinking initiatives, lead poisoning prevention, pediatric cancer funding, home visits for new mothers, food assistance programs and health care coverage for the poor are all on the chopping block in Huffman’s House Bill 96.

What wasn’t on his slash-and-burn budget list were government handouts (taxpayer-funded vouchers) to upper-income private school families. But doling out unlimited government subsidies to the affluent, whose darlings are already attending and affording elite high schools and religious institutions, is Huffman’s thing.

He is on a crusade to shower hundreds of millions of public education dollars on unaccountable private and predominantly religious schools – despite clear prohibitions against such a diversion of public money in the Ohio Constitution.

“No religious or other sect, or sects, shall ever have any exclusive right to, or control of, any part of the school funds of this state,” the state constitution reads.

But Huffman has defied the state constitution before with impunity (on gerrymandering) and did so again by ramrodding his universal voucher bonanza through the legislature for everyone, regardless of income. Never mind that the giant state giveaway – to offset private school costs for the well-off – blew a $1 billion dollar hole in the general revenue budget its first year.

Never mind that public schools in the state, forever cash-strapped and dependent on tapped out property owners, labored under an unequal, inadequate school funding formula (ruled unconstitutional by the Ohio Supreme Court) for 26 years before a bipartisan coalition agreed to a phased-in funding solution over six years. The final two-year phase was expected to be fully funded in the current biennial budget negotiations.

Not under Huffman. Not in a state where the Republican lock on power is absolute and the Statehouse heavyweight has free, unchecked rein to flout the law and grossly defund the public schools that educate the vast majority of Ohio students (approximately 1.6 million) while greatly expanding appropriations for private school tuitions, homeschooling expenses and even unchartered, nonpublic schools with deeply held religious beliefs that are virtually unregulated by the state!

Funding for the “thorough and efficient system of common schools” state government is constitutionally obligated to secure – and that would have been secured under the Fair School Funding Plan from 2021 – shrank by over $400 million. House Republicans added insult to injury by robbing fiscally prudent school districts of surplus revenue for future planning to give uneven, one-time property tax relief in some districts and not others. They also ensured that property tax owners will face more school levies from local districts forced to deplete that surplus operating revenue. Sound policymaking (or genuine property tax relief) this is not.

But it is a gut punch to public schools, just as a $100 million reduction in funding to Ohio’s public libraries is, or cutting over $22 million from the Help Me Grow program is for in-home visits to newborn babies to mitigate the state’s infant mortality problem. But Matt Huffman’s Ohio-centric Project 2025 is also a kick in the teeth to democratic self-governance.

Last budget go-around Republican lawmakers stripped the Ohio Board of Education of most of its power and gave it to the governor. This two-year budget proposes cutting all 11 elected members of the board and shrinking the gubernatorial appointments from nine to five. This is Matt Huffman removing voters entirely from state education policy as he engineers total opaque privatization of Ohio schools.

How is silencing the electorate improving the common good?

Marilou Johanek is a veteran Ohio print and broadcast journalist who has covered state and national politics as a longtime newspaper editorial writer and columnist.

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Apr 30, 2025
Ohio University to close Pride Center, Women’s Center and Multicultural Center due to new law

Alumni Gateway at Ohio University in Athens, Ohio. (Stock photo from Getty Images.)

By: Megan Henry – Ohio Capital Journal

Ohio University will close the Pride Center, the Women’s Center and the Multicultural Center in response to a new higher education law banning diversity efforts that takes effect this summer, the university president announced Tuesday.

OU will sunset the Division of Diversity and Inclusion — which includes those three centers — “over the next several weeks,” Ohio University President Lori Stewart Gonzalez said in a statement.

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There is no definitive date for when the division or the centers will close, but the centers will not be open beyond when the law takes effect on June 23, according to university spokesperson Dan Pittman.

“Work managed by the division that remains within the law will be moved to other areas of the university,” the university said.

State Sen. Jerry Cirino, R-Kirtland, introduced Senate Bill 1 at the end of January, it quickly passed both chambers and Gov. Mike DeWine signed it into law on March 28. Youngstown State University faculty are trying to get a referendum on the November ballot to block S.B. 1. The law affects Ohio’s public universities and community colleges.

The new law will also prohibit faculty strikes, regulate classroom discussion of “controversial” topics, create post-tenure reviews, put diversity scholarships at risk, create a retrenchment provision that blocks unions from negotiating on tenure, shorten university board of trustees terms from nine years down to six years, and require students take an American history course, among other things.

“We must continue to ensure every person we invite to be a part of our university community finds their place here and develops connections,” Gonzalez said in her letter to the university. “Without forgetting that essential commitment, we must also follow the law.”

All employee positions within the Division of Diversity and Inclusion will be eliminated. The three centers have eight full-time staffers, according to their websites. The centers also have student workers.

“Employees will continue in their current roles for the next several weeks and will be given the opportunity to interview for any open university position for which they apply and meet minimum qualifications,” Gonzalez said.

Employees who don’t continue to work at OU will receive full separation benefits, according to the university.

Support for the university’s Templeton, Urban, Appalachian, and Margaret Boyd Scholars programs will move under the Honors Tutorial College.

Ohio University’s Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine’s Office of Inclusion will also close because of the new law.

The university said it will be reaching out to students, faculty and staff for their input on inclusion and belonging moving forward.

“I want to be clear that the task ahead for all of us is not to look for ways to recreate the same approaches under a different name,” Gonzalez said. “Rather, the charge is to invent something new that meets the moment and delivers results for our students.”

The Capital Journal previously reported on how OU student Audrey Ansel has been preparing for Ohio University’s Pride Center to likely close as a result of the law.

This comes as Ohio’s public universities are in the midst of figuring out how the controversial law affects them. The University of Toledo recently announced they are suspending nine undergraduate programs in response to S.B. 1.

Follow Capital Journal Reporter Megan Henry on Bluesky.

Megan Henry

Megan Henry is a reporter for the Ohio Capital Journal and has spent the past five years reporting in Ohio on various topics including education, healthcare, business and crime. She previously worked at The Columbus Dispatch, part of the USA Today Network.

Ohio Capital Journal is part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.

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Apr 30, 2025