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Eye on Ohio Launches Project to Combat Misinformation and Disinformation on the Internet
Shana Black, Eye on Ohio’s First Draft Fellow. On Thursday, a Cleveland man tweeted a picture saying that that local residents had taken to the streets to end COVID-19. The internet launched a vitriolic response, condemning the city for further spreading the disease. But no one, in fact, had marched. The tweet came from a…
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Dark Money Dominated Ohio’s Nuclear Subsidy Saga
FirstEnergy Solutions paid nearly $2 million to at least one group, but most other data remains hidden. By Kathiann M. Kowalski After-the-fact filings show that FirstEnergy’s generation subsidiary paid nearly $2 million to Generation Now, one of the special interest groups that orchestrated ads, political donations and other efforts behind Ohio’s nuclear and coal bailout.…
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Campaign contributions pay off for Ohio utilities and coal interests
Nuclear and coal bailout is the latest in a line of favorable policy actions that shield noncompetitive plants from competition. By Kathiann M. Kowalski Utility, nuclear and coal interests are big players in Ohio politics, giving about $3 million to Ohio political campaigns in 2018, according to data from the National Institute on Money in…
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Taxpayers Lose Out on at Least $11.25 Million, Homeowners and Banks Lose up to $80 Million in Little-known Foreclosure Process That Skips Sheriff’s Sales
This story was funded by a grant from the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting By Ashton Nichols, Samantha Raudins, Lukas Udstuen and Lucia Walinchus For years, Elliot Feltner’s father-in-law operated an auto body shop in Cleveland. Later in life, a stroke debilitated the old mechanic, and his care proved a heavy burden for Feltner’s wife,…
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Ohio Supreme Court Deals Blow to Sales Designed to Take Advantage of a Property Tax Loophole
On Thursday, the Ohio Supreme Court ruled that evidence of a commercial real estate transaction depends on the intent of the parties and the building transferred, not the structure of the sale. The court invalidated the “drop LLC” sale of 4121 Palmer Park Circle East, which would have deprived public coffers of about $273,000 a…
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Investigation: Blacks, black neighborhoods most likely to be traffic stop targets in Ohio’s 3 biggest cities
Investigation: Blacks, black neighborhoods most likely to be traffic stop targets in Ohio’s 3 biggest cities By Max Londberg and Lucia Walinchus Video by Michael Nyerges Reporters from the nonprofit newsroom Eye on Ohio, The Cincinnati Enquirer and researchers from Stanford University’s Big Local News program examined police stops to assess how the three largest…
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How Much are you Overpaying in Property Tax?
Commercial Property Sales Loophole Costs Small Business Owners Thousands This investigation made possible via a grant from the Pulitzer Center for Crisis Reporting. By Lucia Walinchus, Lukas Udstuen, Samantha Raudins, Ashton Nichols, and Chen Chang When Palmer Square, LLC recently wanted to sell their apartment building at 4121 Palmer Park Circle East in Columbus, they…
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Q&A: Experts Discuss How to Find Undisclosed Campaign Donors
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…
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How do the issues affect Ohio voter choices?
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…
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Surprise Supreme Court Reaction to Ohio Controversy Prompts More Campaign Disclosures Nationally Right Before the Election
A look at the 12 groups who haven’t disclosed their donors in state elections; The 501(c)(4) with no trace By Lucia Walinchus 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…
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