Rotunda Rumblings
Out of the game: Lt. Gov. Jim Tressel announced Friday that he won’t run for governor next year, dashing the hopes of moderate Republicans and Democrats who saw him as the only person standing between Vivek Ramaswamy and the Republican nomination. As Jeremy Pelzer reports, Tressel’s decision doesn’t come as much of a surprise, given how the 72-year-old ex-Ohio State University football coach hasn’t been taking any of the usual steps to prepare for a statewide campaign, even as Ramaswamy has moved decisively to sew up the nomination.
Stars aligned: Laura Hancock looked at Northeast Ohio school districts that increased overall rankings on the recently released report cards and asked what strategies they deployed to improve. She focused on East Cleveland City School District – one of the state’s poorest – which has struggled for decades with low tests scores. East Cleveland received 3 stars, up from 2 stars last year, and the highest score in recent history.
Lunar power: Cleveland’s NASA Glenn Research Center is spearheading an ambitious project that sounds like something out of science fiction: building a nuclear power plant on the moon by 2030, Sabrina Eaton reports. The project’s urgency stems from a race with global rivals to claim prime lunar real estate for permanent bases to be used for scientific research, resource extraction, military strategy, and launching missions to Mars, asteroids and deep space. “To have a base on the moon, we need energy,” said Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy.
Tax bill breakdown: Ever wonder where your property tax dollars actually go? Anna Staver and Rich Exner looked at bills across Northeast Ohio and found schools take the biggest slice, but counties, cities, libraries, parks and community colleges all claim their share too. With lawmakers debating reforms and even proposals to scrap the system, understanding the breakdown shows what’s really at stake for your community.
Final countdown:A Case Western Reserve University-led coalition has advanced to the final round of a major federal competition that could bring up to $160 million to Northeast Ohio over 10 years, Mary Frances McGowan writes. NEO-SMART, short for Northeast Ohio Strengthening Manufacturing for American Resilience through Technology, was named one of 15 finalists in the U.S. National Science Foundation’s Regional Innovation Engines program. The consortium emerged from 29 semifinalists selected in July.
Divided on Kirk: The U.S. House of Representatives on Friday adopted a resolution honoring conservative activist Charlie Kirk, who was shot and killed Sept. 10 at Utah Valley University, with Ohio Democrats Shontel Brown of Warrensville Heights, Emilia Sykes of Akron and Joyce Beatty of Columbus opposing the measure, Sabrina Eaton reports. The rest of Ohio’s Congress members supported it. Brown issued a statement after the vote that condemned Kirk’s assassination “in the strongest possible terms” while criticizing the resolution’s characterization of his record. “I cannot ignore that Mr. Kirk’s record was filled with rhetoric that disparaged and demeaned people like my constituents and people like me,” her statement said.
Staffing issues: If you think flags at public buildings around Ohio have been permanently stuck at half-staff, you’re not the only one. As of Saturday, Gov. Mike DeWine has ordered the U.S. and Ohio flags to be lowered on nearly four out of every 10 days in 2025. As Pelzer explains, that’s roughly in line with how often they’ve been lowered each year for the past decade. While lowering flags has been done for centuries to pay tribute to fallen leaders and heroes, there’s also concern that it’s now being done so often that the gesture is starting to lose meaning.
Parklife: Ohio’s state park system has been crowned the best in the nation by a pair of national park-management groups. As Pelzer explains, Ohio beat out Florida and Wyoming for the 2025 National Gold Medal Award for Excellence in Park and Recreation Management, awarded based on criteria such as conservation efforts, innovation, sound fiscal policy, and community engagement. Gov. Mike DeWine, a vocal supporter of Ohio’s 76 state parks, said the award “just validates what we’ve been telling people.”
Hail Colombia: U.S. Sen. Bernie Moreno, a Westlake Republican who was born in Colombia, last week praised President Donald Trump for adding his native land to a list of countries who are refusing to cooperate in U.S. anti-drug efforts. “President Petro’s naivety has made a bad situation worse in Colombia’s fight against narcotrafficking and, as a result, the United States has been flooded with deadly drugs, claiming the lives of hundreds of thousands of Americans every year,” said a statement from Moreno.
Free speech contradictions: Vice President JD Vance’s pledge at this year’s Munich Security Conference that the administration would be more pro-free speech than the previous Biden administration has come back to haunt him, after he encouraged employers to terminate workers who voiced distasteful opinions about the death of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, Newsweek reports. “In Washington, there is a new sheriff in town; and under Donald Trump’s leadership, we may disagree with your views, but we will fight to defend your right to offer it in the public square, agree or disagree,” Vance told the February conference. Some conservatives, including lawmakers in Washington, have encouraged employers to terminate employees expressing such rhetoric—including Vance himself, who on Sept. 15 said that anyone celebrating Kirk’s death should be “called out” and that their employers should be notified.
Hot-button issue: The Ashland County Fair has shut down the Ashland County Democratic Party booth for selling “offensive buttons” about President Donald Trump. As WJW-TV reports, the buttons depicted red, MAGA-style hats with words such as “Fascist” and “Resist,” with smaller phrases underneath such as “Is he dead yet?” and “One day, we will wake up to his obituary.” Ashland County Sheriff Kurt Schneider said he intends to report the buttons to the U.S. Secret Service. The county’s Democratic Party chair declined comment until she speaks with a lawyer.
Lobbying for Congress: Former Ohio Sen. Kevin Coughlin a self-described “husband, father, [and] small business owner” who is a GOP candidate for Congress in Ohio’s 13th Congressional District, promises to “put Ohio workers and their families first,” according to his campaign website. “Never politicians, lobbyists, or special interests.” What Coughlin doesn’t say is that the “small business” he touts was, in fact, a lobbying firm, Mother Jones reports. If Coughlin is pitching himself in this potentially competitive matchup as the candidate best prepared to fight lobbyists and their corporate interests, it may be because he knows the profession from the inside.
Stepping down: Sheila McKnight, a member of the Anthony Wayne Local school board near Toledo, plans to resign at the end of this year after she admitted to using a laughing emoji in reaction to a Facebook post about the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, WTVG reports. McKnight said that she had already planned on stepping down due to “personal, private, health and family issues.” She will also resign from the board policy committee effective immediately, which is not something she planned to do previously.
Funding cuts: The Kaleidoscope Youth Center, a Columbus-based nonprofit, is closing its housing program for LGBTQ youth due to a lack of grant funding that it has received previously from the Ohio Department of Health, Danae King of the Columbus Dispatch reports. In total, the center said that it lost more than $500,000 because of reduced grant funding. The program, founded in 2019, served more than 50 young people experiencing homelessness or housing insecurity over the six years. Ten young people currently utilizing the housing will now need to find alternative places to live.
Case dismissed: Federal attorneys dismissed an immigration case against an interfaith chaplain at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital. The trial of Ayman Soliman, a Muslim imam originally from Egypt, was to begin Thursday in Cleveland, Adam Ferrise reports. Soliman walked out of jail Friday. His attorneys expect his asylum status to soon be reinstated.
Read more Ohio politics stories
DeWine’s hypocritical college recruitment push after signing harmful higher ed law
Is criminalizing sleeping in public the best way to address chronic homelessness? Editorial Board Roundtable
Anti-Acton lies set the stage for a nasty Ohio gubernatorial contest: Brent Larkin
Full Disclosure
Here are five things we learned from the May 11, 2025 ethics disclosure form filed by state Rep. Veronica Sims, an Akron Democrat, about her 2024 finances:
Besides Sims’ legislative salary of $69,119.53, she received between $1,000 – $9,999 from serving as a council member on the Summit County Council. She was also paid an amount somewhere within the same range through serving as a community outreach liaison with Stewart & Calhoun Funeral Home and Cremations Service.
Sims reported that she neither owed nor was owed more than $1,000 at any time in 2024.
Sims listed one investment of more than $1,000: her state public-employees retirement account.
Sims reported owning no real estate, though lawmakers are not required to list any personal residences or personal recreation properties.
She reported spending $262.00 on lodging for new member orientation.
On the Move
Amy Acton, a Democratic candidate for governor, has been endorsed by Democratic state Reps. Munira Abdullahi of Columbus, Rachel Baker of Cincinnati, and Crystal Lett of suburban Columbus.
On Thursday, September 18th, Vice President JD Vance and Second Lady Usha Vance hosted His Royal Highness Crown Prince Al Hussein bin Abdullah II and Princess Rajwa Al Hussein of Jordan for dinner at the Vice Presidential Residence. The Vice President and Crown Prince Al Hussein discussed the enduring partnership between Jordan and the United States and mutual efforts to promote regional peace.
Birthdays
State Sen. Mark Romanchuk
Straight from the Source
“People will propose various measures, banning certain things, adding new regulations or passing additional laws. Some of those proposals may be worth considering, but none of them get at the deeper crisis we face. The deeper crisis is that too many of us have stopped seeing the humanity in one another. We have forgotten what it means to live as neighbors, not adversaries.”
– Former Ohio Gov. John Kasich, a Columbus-area Republican, urging people in a Columbus Dispatch guest column to work on a local level to rebuild a spirit of community in America following the shootings of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, as well as two Minnesota lawmakers and their spouses.