By The Associated Press
Akron Beacon Journal. December 8, 2023.
Editorial: Are Ohio lawmakers learning they can’t ignore voters on marijuana, other issues?
Are some Ohio Republicans finally learning to respect the will of voters?
That didn’t appear to be the case Monday when Senate Republicans introduced legislation to negate significant aspects of Issue 2, a citizen-initiated law permitting recreational marijuana use that was resoundingly approved by 57% of voters on Nov. 7.
Those senators wanted to eliminate growing recreational marijuana at home, increase the tax and change who gets the tax money among other significant changes. State Rep. Casey Weinstein, D-Hudson, correctly described the proposal as “a purposeful kill shot” to Issue 2.
The response was furious enough from across Ohio that Republicans were singing a different tune by Wednesday night just hours before recreational marijuana became legal.
Gov. Mike DeWine called a last-second press conference to announce he supports a revised Senate bill approved Wednesday night that would allow for far earlier retail sales at existing medical marijuana facilities while allowing home grown pot on a smaller scale.
Whether the House will pass that legislation remains to be seen. It would not take effect until 90 days after DeWine signs it.
But DeWine clearly understands the will of the voters must be respected even if some of the more conservative members of his party are in denial.
You may recall a similar reaction from many elected Republicans when another 57% of Ohioans also voted to enshrine abortion and reproductive rights into the state constitution last month. Some advocated for calling for a second vote, while others promised to illegally strip power from judges. Cooler heads have since prevailed — for now.
Republicans also ignored voter-approved measures designed to stop political gerrymandering when maps for new legislative and congressional districts were created after the 2020 census. They even flouted Ohio Supreme Court rulings ordering fairer maps while effectively running out the clock to preserve districts where they are unlikely to lose in 2024.
Ironically, the Senate’s marijuana proposal came the same day as federal prosecutors indicted former Public Utilities Commission of Ohio Director Sam Randazzo on 11 charges tied to a bribery scandal involving FirstEnergy and former Republican House Speaker Larry Householder, who is now serving 20 years in prison. Republicans have largely failed to address this scandal resulting from House Bill 920. And DeWine, who hired Randazzo, and Lt. Gov. Jon Husted are now facing subpoenas in a related civil case.
Ohio Republicans also are on the verge of approving House Bill 51, the “Second Amendment Preservation Act,” which would prevent local police from enforcing federal firearms restrictions. Lawmakers insist they are fighting Democratic President Joe Biden’s push for gun restrictions. But the bill is strongly opposed by police and prosecutors who say it will make it more difficult to catch criminals and make Ohio less safe.
All of this illustrates why no political party should enjoy supermajority status in the Ohio General Assembly.
Ohioans need a legislature that more accurately reflects the viewpoints of most Ohioans on a wide range of issues, with lawmakers elected from fair districts drawn without stacking the deck for either party. That’s why we support an effort to remove lawmakers from future redistricting decisions with another statewide issue we hope to see on the ballot in 2024.
On the marijuana law, Republicans have bungled every aspect of this issue, including an opportunity to write their own law as they did for sports gambling. Although Issue 2 was widely expected to pass, lawmakers were unprepared to accept the vote and then waited to the 11th hour to introduce ideas they believed would improve the law.
The result is likely to be mass confusion for a period of time.
But, for now, Issue 2 is the law of Ohio.
If that changes in any significant way, we’re confident Ohio voters are watching.
___
Toledo Blade. December 6, 2023.
Editorial: More Ohio corruption
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.
The Justice Department has finally followed the logic of the July, 2021 deferred prosecution agreement with FirstEnergy which stipulated that a $4.3 million payment to Mr. Randazzo was a bribe to help pass legislation worth $2 billion to the Akron utility ( “Former utilities regulator is indicted, faces 11 counts,” Tuesday ).
Mr. Randazzo’s alleged crimes amount to working for FirstEnergy when his duty was to the citizens of Ohio. Former Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder is serving a 20-year prison sentence over the same criminal issue.
The evidence from Mr. Householder’s trial, Mr. Randazzo’s indictment, and FirstEnergy’s plea bargain indicates the bribes were authorized by FirstEnergy CEO Charles Jones and Vice President Michael Dowling. Both Mr. Jones and Mr. Dowling deny wrongdoing but the Justice Department must be as aggressive in combating corporate crime as they are in prosecuting state government corruption. It literally takes two to tango.
We hope the indictment of Mr. Randazzo will spur the Ohio legislature to strengthen state law against corruption. House Bill 16, a comprehensive ethics reform package sponsored by Rep. Derek Merrin (R., Monclova Township) in response to the FirstEnergy bribery scandal, has languished after two perfunctory hearings.
Legislation recommended by the Ohio Ethics Commission, also as a direct result of the federal corruption investigation, was ignored by state lawmakers. There have been no proposed reforms from Gov. Mike DeWine and Lt. Gov. Jon Husted. Mr. Husted followed up on his work to make Mr. Randazzo PUCO chairman with the unprecedented step to take a paid corporate board position. Representative Merrin’s proposed ethics legislation would prohibit Ohio Constitutional officers from serving on a corporate board.
It shouldn’t take a law to know a public official cannot serve two masters and must always avoid even the appearance of conflict of interest.
But in the nine months since convictions in the FirstEnergy bribery case there has been no effort to change Ohio law to protect citizens from corrupt officials.
The Justice Department said evidence suggested those in power knew about Householder and FirstEnergy’s corruption and did nothing while it was happening, despite a $2 billion cost to citizens.
The 20-year prison sentence imposed on Householder was considered necessary to deter government corruption in Ohio because there had been no sign of protective response from state government.
That is still the case as Mr. Randazzo faces bribery charges.
Governor DeWine’s greatest failure is not the appointment of Mr. Randazzo despite knowledge of his ties to FirstEnergy, it’s the lack of reform to prevent the corruption rocking his administration from continuing in the future.
Yet, neither Mr. DeWine nor majority Republicans in the legislature appear ready to reform the corrupt way of doing business in the Capitol.
___
Youngstown Vindicator. December 8, 2023.
Editorial: Rail expansions positive move, as would be new safety measures
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.
But expansion projects announced this week by U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, may change that.
U.S. Department of Transportation Federal Railroad Administration officials have selected four routes in Ohio as priorities for Amtrak expansion: Cleveland-Columbus-Dayton-Cincinnati, the 3C+D corridor; Cleveland-Toledo-Detroit; Chicago-Fort Wayne-Columbus-Pittsburgh, the Midwest Connect corridor via Lima, Kenton, Marysville, Columbus, Newark, Coshocton, Newcomerstown, Uhrichsville and Steubenville in Ohio; Daily Cardinal Service, increasing service frequency from three days per week to daily on Amtrak’s service to Cincinnati between New York City, Washington, D.C. and Chicago via Virginia, West Virginia, Kentucky, Indiana, and Illinois.
“Today’s announcement is a great first step toward expanding Amtrak in Ohio,” Brown said. “Good Amtrak service shouldn’t be a privilege only for people on the coasts. These new routes would expand opportunity, help grow businesses and create jobs, and connect communities in Ohio and across the Midwest.”
Of course, it would be wonderful to hope railroad safety reforms will accompany such an expansion. But increased transportation options for Ohioans (and for those hoping to visit or commute into Ohio) will be an important part of the expansion and diversification of the state’s economy. Those in both Columbus and Washington, D.C., who helped make it happen are to be commended.
___
Elyria Chronicle-Telegram. December 7, 2023.
Editorial: Public corruption case keeps moving along … slowly
“We are not done with this case,” then-U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio David DeVillers said in July 2020 when he announced that then-Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder had been charged in a $60 million bribery scheme.
How right he was.
More than three years later, the case stands as proof of the old adage that the wheels of justice turn slowly.
Last month the feds finally got around to indicting Sam Randazzo, the former chair of the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio, allegedly a key player in the bribery scandal that brought down Householder. The case was unsealed Monday.
Randazzo, like Householder before him, stands accused of taking bribes from FirstEnergy Corp. to further the company’s business interests, including making regulatory decisions to benefit the company and championing House Bill 6. Randazzo has pleaded not guilty to the charges against him. Householder is now serving a 20-year prison sentence.
HB 6, which Householder muscled through the state legislature, required Ohio ratepayers to bail out two nuclear power plants then owned by a subsidiary of FirstEnergy to the tune of what would have been $1 billion. It also forced ratepayers to subsidize two coal-fired power plants, one of which is in Indiana.
The bill passed in July 2019 and was signed into law by Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, a Republican like Householder. (DeWine has never been accused of criminal wrongdoing and has denied knowing anything about the bribery scheme.)
An effort to put HB 6 before voters, whom we suspect would have repealed it, failed to make the ballot in part because of opposition and some underhanded tactics by Householder and his allies.
The General Assembly rightly repealed the nuclear plant portion of HB 6, but there has been no significant progress on bills that would roll back the largesse showered on the coal plants.
Nor has the state enacted much in the way of meaningful reforms in the wake of the bribery scheme, widely considered the biggest public corruption case in Ohio history.
Yes, Householder and some of his associates have been convicted or pleaded guilty to the charges against them, but Randazzo was charged roughly three years after the feds raided his Columbus home in November 2020. He resigned as PUCO chairman after the raid.
That’s a long time, even for the feds, who are notorious for taking their time to build a case and for being tight-lipped about exactly what they’re up to.
Some of that is understandable. Investigators need to gather evidence and sort through whatever they find, which can be especially time consuming in cases involving financial crimes. The feds also, quite reasonably, don’t want to tip their hand.
In a story published Wednesday, The Plain Dealer talked to several former prosecutors about why the case was taking so long. Some speculated that the delays might be the result of prosecutors trying to work out plea deals with some suspects to get them to cooperate with the investigation.
Perhaps that helps explain why no one has been charged with bribing Householder and others.
Yes, FirstEnergy reached a deferred prosecution agreement that included paying $230 million in penalties, making some reforms and acknowledging wrongdoing. That’s all well and good, but corporations are composed of people who make the decisions.
The company did fire several people, including CEO Chuck Jones and Senior Vice President Michael Dowling, but neither of them has been charged. Although they have denied wrongdoing, their lawyers acknowledged in March that their clients faced “looming potential indictments.”
The slow-moving federal case also has delayed state-level investigations into the matter.
A slew of details came out during the trial of Householder and former Ohio Republican Party Chairman Matt Borges, who also was convicted in the scheme and is serving a five-year prison sentence. Civil lawsuits have revealed further information.
More details no doubt will emerge as the case against Randazzo moves forward, but that will take time.
As for when — or if — additional charges are coming, the office of Kenneth Parker, the current U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Ohio, isn’t saying.
“While we can never confirm any potential charges that may be brought in the future, we continue to work diligently,” Jennifer Thornton, a spokeswoman for Parker, told The Plain Dealer.
Ohioans have been hearing that refrain for three years and counting.
___
Sandusky Register. December 6, 2023.
Editorial: State reps deadly wrong
Gun violence became the leading cause of death among children a few years ago, surpassing automobile accidents.
We teach our children to hide under desks at school in the event that an active shooter shows up there. Children know the ravages of gun violence by the time they are in kindergarten, and they know we send them to schools where, from a child’s perspective, we also send deranged men with high-powered weapons to kill children.
There’s no amount of reason, or words, otherwise to explain it any other way, or explain it any better than that. What are we teaching our children?
The assault weapons these men use are capable of slicing a dozen second-graders into pieces in nano-seconds, and that is what we allow, it’s what we tolerate, and it’s some ways what some promote.
The Washington Post reported this week that “in less than 90 minutes on Sunday afternoon, two 911 calls led police in Texas and Washington to two mass shootings that pushed the nation to a gruesome milestone.
“They were the 37th and 38th shootings this year in which four or more victims were killed, the highest number of mass killings in any year since at least 2006. Last year’s 36 was the previous record.”
Ogden Newspapers reported this week that state Rep. Mike Loychik, R-Bazetta, and state Rep. Jean Schmidt, R-Loveland, recently introduced House Bill 51, or the Second Amendment Preservation Act, in the Ohio legislature.
Schmidt described it this way in a news release: If approved, HB 51 would make “unconstitutional federal gun-control laws, executive orders or agency rule interpretations” unenforceable in Ohio.
It’s not really Schmidt’s bill, or Loychik’s bill; it’s a manufactured piece of pseudo-legislation that conflates “sanctuary cities” into political culture warfare designed to protect and promote the gun industry.
The audacity promoting dangerous legislation that in part keeps the door open for disturbed individuals to obtain high-powered weapons is overwhelming. The “group think” and utter lack of intellectual consideration that HB 51 represents, and the pretense that it is somehow patriotic or protecting the U.S. Constitution would be laughable, if it weren’t so deadly dangerous.
H.B. 51 is openly pro-Second Amendment, but it also protects the ability of those on the edges of our society to obtain the means to wantonly inflict death or harm on innocent bystanders.
Lawmakers on both the state and federal level have the right and the duty to consider gun regulation and enact it without a pre-judged determination made by gerrymandered state bodies that are wantonly self-serving and against the national interest.
Against the interests of everyone the public at large HB 51 is highly irresponsible and should be repudiated.
