News

In their version of the state budget, Ohio Senate Republicans erased money that had been earmarked for broadband programs. But they also added a provision that would ban local communities from doing their own broadband programs. Ohio Public Radio's Karen Kasler report.

Advocates for low-income Ohioans are urging lawmakers to take what they call a harmful provision out of the state budget bill. An amendment added by the Senate would impose asset limits for people using federal assistance for groceries, often referred to as food stamps. Statehouse correspondent Andy Chow reports.

For the first time in more than 160 years, the Ohio House has voted to expel a state representative. In an extraordinary move, the House voted to suspend the rules and take up the resolution to remove Representative Larry Householder from his seat. Statehouse correspondent Andy Chow reports. 

Groups representing Ohio’s school boards, school administrators and school financial officials are raising serious concerns about the Senate’s version of the budget, which blew up the $1.8 billion school funding formula overhaul in the House budget. Statehouse correspondent Karen Kasler reports.

Ohio has settled a lawsuit filed just three months ago with a pharmacy benefits manager it accused of using subcontractors to overcharge Ohio’s Medicaid program.

Attorney General Dave Yost said Centene initiated the talks that led to the $88.3 million settlement.

“We didn’t seek out a settlement. Centene initiated the negotiations and said, ‘what’s is going to take to resolve this matter?’" Yost said in announcing the settlement.

The Speaker of the Ohio House says recent false comments made during testimony by an anti-vax doctor is out of the ordinary. And he doesn’t think changes need to be made to fact check speakers in the future or stop their messages from being spread online through the state’s broadcast service. 

One of the biggest corruption cases in the nation is happening right here in Ohio. Federal prosecutors are going after the former speaker of the Ohio House and the former head of the Ohio Republican Party, along with others, for federal crimes. But if there are crimes that occured at the state level, those could be affected by an amendment slipped into a Statehouse bill.

It’s been a momentous six months for school funding in Ohio, after decades of debate over how to most fairly fund the state’s more than 600 public school districts.

A plan crafted by a group of legislators and school finance experts addressed inequities that plague the current funding formula. But the state House and Senate disagree on the approach--and cost is at the root of it.  Statehouse correspondent Karen Kasler explains. 

There are 200,000 doses of the one-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine in Ohio that will expire later this month. As Statehouse correspondent Jo Ingles reports, Gov. Mike DeWine has issued an urgent communication to vaccine providers to ask them to distribute as many doses as possible as quickly as possible.

The COVID-19 case rate continues to drop in Ohio as the state moves into a new era of the pandemic without health orders. But Gov. Mike DeWine says the key is to increase vaccination among a certain portion of the population. Statehouse correspondent Andy Chow reports.

With the expiration of statewide pandemic health orders, many businesses from the Crew to the Columbus Zoo no longer require masks, at least for people who are fully vaccinated.  But doctors say there are people who should still be wearing face masks. Ohio Public Radio's Jo Ingles reports. 

The latest winner of Ohio's million-dollar vaccine lottery says the sweeptsakes was the extra motivation he needed to go get the COVID-19 shot. Statehouse correspondent Andy Chow reports.

Columbus City Schools Board Tuesday night approved a resolution to join possible litigation over the state voucher program that takes money away from public schools - but not without heated argument.

For the second time in less than a year, Ohio lawmakers are considering a bill to ban transgender girls from girls’ sports. Statehouse correspondent Karen Kasler looks into what the bill would do and why.