Rotunda rumblings
Flagged for content: U.S. Rep. Dave Taylor’s office is drawing fire after an image circulated online showing an American flag with a swastika pinned on a cubicle wall behind a Taylor staffer during a video meeting. As Jeremy Pelzer reports, the freshman Republican congressman from Clermont County blamed “office vandalism” and said he and Capitol Police are investigating how the Nazi hate symbol got there. Taylor’s office declined to comment on any other details, including how and why the swastika got there and whether the staffer on the video call knew it was there.
Air apparent: Cleveland State University turned over operations of its radio station to Ideastream Public Media without receiving compensation, new documents obtained by Laura Hancock show. In exchange, CSU President Laura Bloomberg gets a seat on Ideastream’s board, the university won’t have to pay for maintenance or repairs of the station, and CSU will get some publicity from station announcements. The documents show very few details have been carved out about opportunities for students at WCSB 89.3, which Ideastream is using as a jazz station.
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Board Freeze: A Franklin County judge has put plans to restructure Ohio’s State Teachers Retirement System board on hold. During the budget process, Republicans added language to replace several elected members with gubernatorial appointees over the next three years. That change is now on an indefinite pause. Anna Staver reports teachers’ unions call the move unconstitutional, while lawmakers say it would bring stability after years of controversy.
Hemp pause isn’t hitting: Ohio House Speaker Matt Huffman said Wednesday that a Franklin County judge’s decision to pause Gov. Mike DeWine’s ban on intoxicating hemp products for 14 days “muddied the water” but doesn’t add urgency to lawmakers’ push to come up with solutions, Mary Frances McGowan reports. Huffman said the pause doesn’t impact lawmakers’ efforts because the governor’s executive order already “jump-started” those conversations. “I don’t think it really changes what we’re trying to do and whether we will get it done here in the next few weeks,” Huffman said.
Expelling high-school NIL ban? A new lawsuit seeking to allow Ohio high-school athletes to be paid for use of their “name, image, and likeness” may soon trigger an emergency vote by Ohio High School Athletic Association member schools on the issue. As Matt Goul reports, Huber Heights Wayne junior Jamier Brown, ranked the nation’s sixth-best high-school football prospect, claims in a Franklin County lawsuit that Ohio – which is one of only six states to ban high-school NIL deals – subjects student-athletes to “unequal treatment” and “unlawfully suppresses their economic liberties.” An OHSAA spokesman said the legal challenge may result in an emergency referendum within the next month, as is typical when such lawsuits are filed.
Security clearance: Ohio political candidates can spend campaign money on security expenses for themselves, their immediate family, and their home, so long as they fear for their safety and the costs are “reasonable,” according to an Ohio Elections Commission advisory opinion issued last week. As Andrew Tobias and Jake Zuckerman of Signal Ohio report, the opinion reverses an OEC ruling from 2008, in which then-Attorney General Marc Dann was ordered to repay $40,000 to his campaign for a security system at his home. Phil Richter, the elections commission’s executive director, said times have changed since then, pointing to the recent assassinations of conservative activist Charlie Kirk and Minnesota state lawmaker Melissa Hortman.
App flap: Tech giants Meta and Google, respectively, are backing competing Ohio legislative proposals to create age verification requirements for app stores. As Sarah Donaldson of Ohio Public Media reports, Meta is backing twin House and Senate bills to require app stores to obtain parental permission to let Ohioans age 16 or younger download apps that are “likely to be accessed by children.” Google, meanwhile, is backing more narrowly tailored legislation that would require age verification for “covered” apps that have different content, ads, and other features for kids than for adults, as well as social-media apps that already have restrictions for underage users.
Berry picking: Two Republican state representatives have started the process of removing Hamilton County Municipal Judge Ted Berry from office for making controversial social-media comments about the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk last month. State Reps. Adam Mathews and DJ Swearingen, in a release, stated they have filed a resolution to strip Berry of his judgeship. As Kevin Grasha of the Cincinnati Enquirer notes, it will take a two-thirds vote in both the House and Senate to remove Berry; while Republicans hold more than two-thirds of the Senate, in the House at least one Democratic vote is needed for it to pass.
Buckeye Brain Tease
Question: How many astronauts have hailed from Ohio?
Email your response to capitolletter@cleveland.com. The first correct respondent will be mentioned in next week’s newsletter.
Thanks to everyone who answered our last trivia question: What was the first kind of tax ever levied by the state?
Answer: Land or property tax
Capital Letter reader Rob Kirchstein was the first to email with the correct response.
On the Move
U.S. Sen. Jon Husted, a Columbus-area Republican, has been endorsed by the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 66, a labor union representing the Mahoning Valley.
Scott DiMauro, a Westlake Democrat and the former president of the Ohio Education Association (the state’s largest teachers’ union), has filed paperwork to run next year for Ohio House District 16, a Cuyahoga County district currently held by term-limited Democratic state Rep. Bride Rose Sweeney of Westlake.
State of Ohio Chief Information Security Officer Holly Drake was awarded the National Association of State Chief Information Officers Thomas M. Jarrett Cybersecurity Leadership Award for pivotal contributions to the field of cybersecurity.
Birthdays
Friday, October 17: Ray DiRossi, Ohio Senate Republicans’ budget and finance director; Kathryn Steveline, administrative assistant, Ohio Supreme Court; State Rep. Terrence Upchurch
Saturday, October 18: Natalie Petrosky, Ohio Senate Democrats’ deputy legal counsel; Susan Waidner, fundraising consultant, Precision88
Sunday, October 19: State Rep. Thad Claggett; State Rep. Riordan McClain
Straight from the Source
“Imagine having to show your driver’s license just to download a weather app.”
Matthew Bye, a managing director for Google, describing why he thinks age verification should be done by the companies that make apps for your phone instead of the stores where you download them. Bye said this while testifying before an Ohio Senate committee debating two age verification bills this week.