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

• Energy reliability standards. Cleveland.com’s Anna Staver reports, “PUCO rejects FirstEnergy bid to weaken reliability standards, allow outages to last longer.”

Ohio regulators rejected FirstEnergy’s request to weaken its reliability standards, concluding that customers should not have to accept longer and more frequent power outages because the company has struggled to meet existing benchmarks.

The Public Utilities Commission of Ohio denied the utility’s application on Wednesday and left current standards in place.

• Campaign finance. The Cincinnati Enquirer’s Victoria Moorwood reports, “Developer spent ‘unprecedented’ amount on suburban Ohio election.”

A developer donated $64,000 to a Warren County commissioner candidate, the largest in at least a decade. The developer’s company, Conger Construction Group, has built government-owned projects in the county.

The donations to Mark Messer’s unsuccessful campaign are legal as there are no contribution limits for county commissioner races.

• Outdoor recreation. The Athens County Independent’s Dani Kington reports, “Governor vetoes outdoor rec funding cut.”

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine issued an eleventh-hour line-item veto on a house bill provision that would have stripped the Outdoor Recreation Council of Appalachia of $750,000 in state funding.

DeWine waited until last night to announce the veto. The funding cut would have automatically gone into effect hours later without his action.