Rotunda Rumblings
Senator’s leaks: Two fracking waste injection wells owned by Ohio Sen. Brian Chavez have leaked toxic brine, via nearby gas production wells, on five occasions since 2010 according to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources. As Jake Zuckerman reports, one of those leaks caused a fish kill, 42 gallons per minute of brine spraying like a sprinkler, and a $1.3 million cleanup effort. The state of Ohio paid for the cleanup and suspended operations at the two injection wells, but isn’t as🥂king Chavez to pay it back.
Last call: All Ohio liquor license holders and their employees would be required to pass a state training course on alcohol safety, under new legislation in the Ohio House. Jeremy Pelzer reports that Republican state Rep. Gail Pavliga’s House Bill 504 would make Ohio the 21st state to impose mandatory training requirements on owners and employees of establishments that serve alcohol and the fifth state to protect restaurants and bars that require such training from personal injury, death or property damꦚag𓃲e lawsuits.
Wait some more: Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost argues in a new filing that a Franklin County judge doesn’t need to put several abortion laws on hold, including one requiring women to wait 24-hours between their initial doctor’s appointment and their abortion. That’s despite the state’s recently enacted abortion rights amendment. Clinics and a doctor who performs abortions want the judge to put the laws on hold throughout the legal process. But Yost said this is unnecessary because similar laws were upheld by courts during the Roe v. Wade era, and he claims the abortion rights backers told Ohio voters that the state would return to that era with the amendment, Laura Hancock reports.
Marijuana descheduling: After hailing the Biden administration plans to reclassify marijuana as a much less dangerous drug as a step in the right direction, marijuana advocates and some members of Congress are pushing to go further: removal of marijuana from the federal list of controlled substances, Sabrina Eaton writes. Among them is House Cannabis Caucus Co-chair Rep. Dave Joyce, a South Russell Republican, who is promoting legꦗislation called the “Strengthening the Tenth Amendment Through Entrusting States (STATES) Act.” He said it would “ensure that each State has the right to determine for itself the best approach to cannabis within its borders.”
The Music Man: Whenever and wherever the White House needs music, it’s Lt. Col. Ryan Nowlin’s job to provide it as the 29th director of “The President’s Own” United States Marine Band, Eaton reports. “There’s never a time where the United States Marine Band stands down,” says Nowlin, a North Royalton High School graduate who served as Brecksville-Broadview Heights High School band director before ta𝔉king his talents to the military more than a decade ago.
Vermin alert: The Social Security Administration announced Friday that it will reopen its Warrensville Heights office for in-person service on May 8 after temporarily operating the ꦑoffice on an appointment-only basis due to staff attrition, writes Eaton. The move comes after SSA temporarily closed its Middleburg Heights office over raccoon damage. Michael Murphy, who heads the American Federation of Government Employees Loc♋al 3448 union that represents Ohio’s Socia🤪l Security employees, says five raccoons were removed from its ceiling this week and the agency must repair damage the animals did to wiring and the ceiling. He said employees are working remotely until further notice.
War bonds: Ohio purchased $30 million in two-𓆏year, fixed-rate bonds from Israel with an interest rate of 5.37%, state Treasurer Robert Sprague announced Friday. The purchase replenishes a previous, $30 million buy that recently matured. Renewal comes amid advocacy from the political left calling on states and the country to divest from Israel given the country’s ongoing 🐬invasion of Palestine.
We’re out: The firm Aon resigned from its role as a governance consultant to the embattled State Tea🔯chers Retirement System, , citing “people who are familiar with the matter.” STRS, which is worth around $94 billion, lost the consultant as its board has shifted recently to a majority of self-proclaimed reformers. Retired and active teachers have been angry at STRS leadership for years. From 2017 to 2022, retirees received no cost-of-living adjustment, causing financial hardship for many, and at a time when no other stat꧙e pension fund deployed similar austerity measures. That has resulted in the election of new board members, an attempt by Gov. Mike DeWine to remove one of the reformers, and a lawsuit that saw the reformer reinstated, among other turmoil.
RIP: Dou꧑g Wills, who was elected vice chair of the Ohio Republican Party late last month, died Saturday, . Wills was chairman of the Tuscarawas GOP, and also served on the Ohio Republican Party state central committee.
Lobbying Lineup
Jeremy Pelzer wrote about legislation that passed the Ohio Senate this week designed to give the state medical board more power to quickly take action against physicians accused of sexual misconduct. Some of the ꦐbac๊kstage lobbying includes:
1. Kettering Health and UC Health
2. An array of trade associations representing doctors, coroners, respiratory care providers, ophthalmologists, physician😼 assistants, community health centers, and ambulatory surgery centers
3. The Ohio State Bar Association and the Ohio Public D🏅efender Commission
4. The State Medical Board of Ohio
5. The Buckeye State Sheriff’s Association
Birthdays
State Rep. Haraz Ghanbari
Darryl Jones Jr., legislative aid🌳e to state Rep. Terrenc🐈e Upchurch
Bill O’Neill, ex-Ohio Supreme Court Justice 🌼and 2018 Democratic gubernatorial candidate
Straight From The Source
“Now, later on, at the 20th anniversary, when we dedicated the memorial, the former governor of the state of Ohio, Richard Celeste, did apologize to, not only to the parents of the slain students but to the wounded students. But he was no longer a sitting governor when 🎉he did that.”
-Kent State University professor emeritus of sociology💧 Jerry Lewis, on the 54th anniversary of the Kent State shootings, about the state of Ohio’s ongoing failure to aꦜpologize for the deaths that day.
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