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affordability

Several Cities Expand Subsidized Preschool But Fees Remain Out of Reach for Most Middle Class Ohioans

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After her son couldn’t qualify for a local Head Start program because of the family’s annual income, Lynsi McKinney needed new options. McKinney, a stay-at-home mom in Southeast Ohio, eventually connected with a private, Christian school for 4 and 5-year-olds. But the family felt squeezed by the hefty price tag. “If money wasn’t an issue, we would continue sending him to a private Christian school,” McKinney said. “We fell in love with the educational opportunities and with the Christian background.”

By the end of the first year, she was impressed by the progress her son was making — he was able to recognize every letter in the alphabet and had basic counting and geography skills.

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How has Ohio Stepped Up Measures to Combat Sexual Violence?

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For one Ohio trafficking victim, the opening of the accredited rape crisis center at the YWCA Dayton last year proved crucial to quelling her inner demons, which lingered long after the physical pain subsided. For years, her abuser raped and beat her daily. She must never tell anyone, he threatened, because it would “open Pandora’s box.” Discussing her ordeal in counseling made her feel like it would open that box of monsters and shadows. Her counselor, however, reminded her that the bottom or Pandora’s box held the light of hope. In her private sessions, he taught her to visualize walking down a hallway and opening doors to seek that light and the letters to spell the word “hope” in each room she imagined.

Seniors

Ohio’s Guardianship Laws Leave Seniors Vulnerable to Abuse

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Ohio has struggled to care for vulnerable seniors, and it’s getting worse. The state’s probate courts are responsible for creating and monitoring guardianships of the frail elderly, balancing freedom and protection. They are already strained. And yet, between 2010 and 2030, the number of Ohioans over 65 is projected to rise by half, from 1.6 million to 2.4 million. Over the next seven years the number of Alzheimer’s patients in the state is projected to rise by 13.6 percent.

anonymous donors

Q&A: Experts Discuss How to Find Undisclosed Campaign Donors

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On Tuesday, a panel of top researchers, policy experts, and legal minds discussed lessons learned from the 2018 election and how groups- both liberal and conservative- have gotten better at hiding the source of campaign messages. (See video below.)

PANEL 1: Following dark money trail through 2020

Michael Beckel, Issue One, Manager of Research, Investigations and Policy AnalysisBio: Michael’s latest project, “Dark Money Illuminated” revealed that 75% of dark money spending since Citizens United came from just 15 dark money groups. Before joining Issue One in March 2017, Michael spent roughly a decade as an award-winning journalist following the money in politics, including stints at the Center for Public Integrity and Center for Responsive Politics. Anna Massoglia, The Center for Responsive Politics, Nonprofits and FARA ResearcherBio: Anna researches foreign influence and dark money in politics for the Center for Responsive Politics, working on the OpenSecrets’ Foreign Lobby Watch project, dark money database and FCC political advertising database. Anna holds a J.D. from the University of the District of Columbia and worked previously at Bloomberg BNA.

Uncategorized

How do the issues affect Ohio voter choices?

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Ahead of the election this week, Eye on Ohio took a quick look at how major issues could sway voters still on the fence. “Even though the election is Tuesday, there are still a lot of undecided voters. We are fairly certain that Democrat Sherrod Brown will win the U.S. Senate race in Ohio, but most of the races (e.g., the governor’s race and the down-ballot races) are toss-ups,” said Dr. Lauren Copeland, Associate Director of the Community Research Institute at Baldwin Wallace University, who has used survey data in her research since 2009.  “The outcome of the gubernatorial race will hinge on turnout and how late deciders break. If history is any guide, Cordray might be able to ride Brown’s coattails to the finish line because the same party tends to win the subernatorial and the senate races.” But Copeland cautioned against accepting polls as the whole picture.

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Surprise Supreme Court Reaction to Ohio Controversy Prompts More Campaign Disclosures Nationally Right Before the Election

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A look at the 12 groups who haven’t disclosed their donors in state elections; The 501(c)(4) with no trace
The identities of many political donors can no longer be hidden behind a nonprofit shield, a D.C. Circuit judge recently ruled, in a case that started in Ohio. The Supreme Court’s decision not to issue an emergency stay on that ruling sent election groups around the country scrambling to comply with new disclosure rules just weeks before Nov. 6. After Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown faced a $6 million attack campaign funded by anonymous donors in 2012, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington complained to the FEC that Crossroads GPS, an major conservative nonprofit, should have to disclose their donors. When the FEC dismissed their complaint, they sued in 2016.

Environment

Q & A: Why is Lake Erie’s algae bloom growing again?

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GIBRALTAR ISLAND, Ohio  — Four years ago, Lake Erie algae wreaked havoc on the Toledo water system, affecting 400,000 residents in Ohio and Southeast Michigan. Known as harmful algal blooms, the deep green ooze grows by the mile each year, fed by phosphorus-rich runoff from farm fields. Though not always toxic, the eyesores gunk up beaches, choke marine life, and became far more serious in August 2014. That’s when Toledo’s water system sucked up cyanobacteria (known as blue-green algae, though it’s technically not algae) and contaminated drinking water with microcystin, a toxin that can cause liver and kidney damage. The scare prompted residents to rely on bottled water for three days and cost about $65 million, mostly in lost tax revenue and tourism.

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Ohio Attorney General faces legal action after Eye on Ohio story

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Columbus— A new complaint before the Ohio Elections Commission alleges that the Ohio Attorney General’s practice of hiring debt subcontractors violates state law. J. Whitfield Larrabee, a left-leaning activist, filed the complaint Thursday, citing a recent article by the Ohio Center for Investigative Journalism as exhibit A. The article noted that under current Republican Attorney General Mike DeWine, and his Democratic predecessor Richard Cordray, large campaign contributors were much more likely to get large collections contracts. Both DeWine and Cordray are currently running for governor. Larrabee alleged, in his 27-page brief, that “DeWine’s scheme to economically coerce contractors to make campaign contributions amounts to extortion, fraud and racketeering in violation of Ohio and federal law.”

DeWine’s campaign spokesman, Joshua Eck, said in response: “This is nothing more than political grandstanding by a Massachusetts liberal. This complaint is frivolous and will go nowhere.”

Larrabee practices employment and health law from his suburban Boston office.

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Where did ~$250 million go? Rate hike funds still unaccounted for in FirstEnergy Bankruptcy

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Ohio ratepayers have paid FirstEnergy’s utilities roughly a quarter of a billion dollars since January 2017 under a distribution modernization rider. Now, critics say FirstEnergy is stalling on saying just what it’s doing with that money, which regulators approved without any requirements that it pay for specific projects. The mandate for consumers to pay the rider is currently on appeal before the Supreme Court of Ohio. Meanwhile, FirstEnergy’s utilities have been collecting the $168 million per year, and regulators could renew the charge for another two years after 2019. “To date, FirstEnergy has stymied the efforts of the state-designated advocate of its consumers to discover information about its subsidy charges,” Ohio Consumers’ Counsel Bruce Weston and assistant counsel Zachary Woltz said in a July 13 brief.