Every morning in the Ohio Capital Journal’s free newsletter, The Eye-Opener, we round up the news and commentary from across Ohio and around the country and world that is catching our attention. We call this feature Catching Our Eye, republished here.

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Catching Our Eye

• Won’t admit Trump lost 2020. Cleveland.com’s Sabrina Eaton reports, “Trump nominee Benjamin Flowers of Ohio wins Senate confirmation to appeals court.”

The Senate on Tuesday confirmed Benjamin Flowers to a lifetime seat on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit by a vote of 49 to 46, elevating the former Ohio solicitor general to the federal bench over Democratic objections to his record and his refusal to say who won the 2020 election.

Flowers, an Upper Arlington attorney and partner at Ashbrook Byrne Kresge Flowers LLC, fills the seat vacated by Judge Jeffrey Sutton. President Donald Trump nominated him to the court, which covers Ohio, Michigan, Kentucky and Tennessee.

• ICE and Flock. The Columbus Dispatch’s Anna Lynn Winfrey reports, “Columbus Police used Flock to watch ICE as it arrested hundreds in Ohio.”

Columbus police have faced scrutiny over whether its AI-powered license plate surveillance network has been used to aid in immigration enforcement. Turns out, a deputy chief used the Flock camera system to watch the enforcers too.

Agency audit data analyzed by The Dispatch show that Deputy Chief Tim Myers, who has defended some uses of Flock with local media, searched the network 54 times between Dec. 17-22 − largely the peak of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s “Operation Buckeye.”

• Data centers. WOSU’s George Shillcock reports, “Columbus City Council to pursue data center regulations instead of ban despite community demands.”

Columbus City Council put forth some new ideas for data center regulations, but residents responding to these ideas at a public hearing Wednesday say the city should be doing much more, with many calling for a moratorium.

City Councilmember Christopher Wyche explained to reporters before the hearing the city isn’t proposing a so-called “moratorium,” temporarily or permanently banning new data centers.