Editorial

Though passenger railroads once criss-crossed our region, Ohio has become flyover country for many in the U.S. Those living in the Buckeye State who wish to travel largely have been limited to planes and automobiles, as the option to board trains has disappeared.

The next chapter in Ohio’s long-running Statehouse bribery scandal begins with an 11-count federal indictment against former Public Utilities Commission of Ohio Chairman Sam Randazzo.

Are some Ohio Republicans finally learning to respect the will of voters?

In a welcome development, state legislators are sponsoring a bipartisan measure, Senate Bill 37, to help Ohio drivers whose licenses have been suspended. This is exactly the kind of cross-aisle cooperation that the General Assembly needs to generate more often. It’s also very much needed as part of ongoing efforts to correct an injustice in Ohio where most license suspensions are not for driving infractions but for inability to pay court and related debts.

The credit rating agency Moody’s on Nov. 10 lowered its outlook on the United States from “stable” to “negative” in the latest knock to the country’s fiscal stewardship. Though the White House and other federal leaders decried the change, is it any wonder investors have soured on the country’s long-term prospects?

You can gerrymander districts and stack courts.

Even as the Pentagon budget soars toward $1 trillion per year and President Joe Biden is seeking a $100 billion-plus emergency spending package to, among other things, provide military aid to Ukraine and Israel, a new congressional commission report has suggested spending even more. This time the money would go toward a dangerous and unnecessary nuclear weapons buildup that could devour huge quantities of tax dollars for years to come.

I’m a state legislator, and foreign affairs are not typically my focus. But Hamas’ Oct. 7 terrorist attack against Israel irrevocably changed everything — including leading me to speak out.

It was the worst attack on the state of Israel in 50 years. About 1,000 terrorists affiliated with Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad sneaked into Israel from Gaza by air, land and sea, surprising the Israel Defense Forces, or IDF, and catching the normally capable Israeli intelligence services by complete surprise. The attack was as devastating as it was lethal.

On Sept. 26, Ohio’s Redistricting Commission, dominated 5-2 by Statehouse Republicans, reached a surprise 7-0 bipartisan consensus on new state legislative maps. The maps were still heavily gerrymandered, just not as much as before. The decision by the commission’s two Democrats — state Sen. Nickie Antonio of Lakewood and state Rep. Allison Russo of suburban Columbus — to sign off on the maps drew praise from many Statehouse Democrats because of alterations benefiting Democrats in the Cleveland, Columbus and Dayton areas, but criticism from Democrats in places like Cincinnati and the Toledo area where blatant gerrymanders remained. And former Ohio Chief Justice Maureen O’Connor, a key reformer seeking to put an amendment on the 2024 ballot to create an independent redistricting commission from which politicians will be barred, heaped scorn on what she saw as gerrymanders benefitting both parties.