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House Bill 319 is another try at centralizing power

Ohio employers have plenty of requirements and standards for employees. As the people best equipped to understand what is necessary to run their own businesses — while keeping employees healthy and safe — policymakers generally allow employers to uphold those standards. For example, a restaurant owner who required kitchen workers to wear a hair net or otherwise keep hair out of food (and away from flame) would not be frowned upon for disciplining an employee who failed to follow that health and safety rule. A couple of Ohio lawmakers, apparently desperate for Columbus to have even ...

We should help police departments do better

Across Ohio, law enforcement agencies continue to have a hard time recruiting new officers. Perhaps part of the reason is that incident after incident shows a few in some of those same agencies are either receiving poor training or are disregarding their training — either way forcing the public to question whether they can be trusted. On April 18, officers from the Canton Police Department apprehended Frank Tyson in a bar, after he was suspected of leaving the scene of an accident. Bodycam footage released by the department shows the officers entering the bar, an altercation taking ...

Protecting victims and not protecting criminals

Slowly but surely, Ohio lawmakers are progressing in the effort to better protect victims, rather than offering protection to criminals. On Wednesday the state Senate voted unanimously to eliminate exceptions to certain sex offenses that apply if the victim is the spouse. This outdated remnant had been allowed to do damage for too long. But last November, the state House of Representatives passed a similar bill with a nearly unanimous vote. Goodness knows what state Rep. Bill Dean, R-Xenia, was thinking when he cast the lone “nay” vote. But no matter. A bill that eliminates the ...

Ohio lawmakers ponder social media in classes

Social media can be damaging, especially to young people. That’s no secret, but what to do about it remains a mystery. Ohio lawmakers are tossing around the idea of banning social media and the use of electronic devices during class, according to a report by News 5 Cleveland. House Bill 485, sponsored by Reps. Tom Young, R-Washington Township, and Phil Plummer, R-Dayton, would amend state code “regarding a school internet safety policy and instruction on the effects of social media in public schools.” News 5 Cleveland reports Young would like the change to emulate what is being ...

Lawmakers, policymakers must combat rising taxes

You’re not imagining things. Taxes just keep getting higher and higher — at least when it comes to property taxes. Axios reports median property taxes in Ohio rose 23.1% from 2019 to 2023. That’s higher than the national average increase of 21.6%. Axios quoted CoreLogic data that says median property taxes on U.S. single-family homes rose to $2,877 in 2023 from $2,367 in 2019. In Ohio, those figures are $2,530 in 2023 up from $2,054 in 2019. Home prices are rising across the country, too, with the annual income required to afford a median-priced home up an astounding 23.8% ...

Hate, division growing in our very own state

If it feels as though hate and division are only growing worse in this country, you’re not wrong. A report published April 15 by the Anti-Defamation League says final statistics for 2023 show a total of 8,873 incidents of antisemitic assault, harassment and vandalism across the country. According to a report by WCPO, that’s a 140% increase from 2022 (itself a record-setting year). Things are grimmer in Ohio. Kelly Fishman, regional director of the ADL in Cleveland, told WCPO there was a 367% increase in reported incidents in Ohio last year. “One of the things we see tied to this ...