The Ohio burgee. (Getty images file photo.)
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
• Prediction market ban. Politico reports, “Senate bans senators from prediction market trading.”
The Senate Thursday unanimously voted to ban senators and their staff from trading on prediction markets, a practice that has come under growing scrutiny on Capitol Hill in recent months.
The resolution, spearheaded by Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-Ohio), prohibits senators and staff from using prediction markets. It goes into effect immediately.
• Rural outreach. The Statehouse News Bureau’s Jo Ingles reports, “Once again, Democrats aim to reach out to rural voters in Ohio. But will it work?”
The midterm elections often go well for the party not in power. With that and low approval ratings for President Trump, political analysts are predicting a blue wave across the country this fall. And Ohio Democrats are hoping they can also make inroads in rural areas to try to win in November.
The party’s rural caucus recently put out a report on findings from community meetings in small towns and agricultural areas throughout Ohio. And they hope it will show them the way.
• More Ohio gerrymandering? Cleveland.com’s Sabrina Eaton reports, “Could Ohio’s Black congressional districts be targets after Supreme Court ruling on Voting Rights Act?”
A landmark Supreme Court ruling issued Wednesday could reshape congressional maps across the country — including in Ohio — after the justices sharply limited the reach of a key provision of the Voting Rights Act that has protected minority congressional districts for six decades…
The consequences could reach well beyond Louisiana. University of Akron political scientist David Cohen called it “an absolute disaster for minority representation in the U.S. House.” Minority voters tend to overwhelmingly support Democrats.
“In an attempt to maintain their majority, scores of red states, including Ohio, will now look to carve up majority-minority congressional districts currently represented by Black or Hispanic lawmakers, spreading voters of color into different red districts thus muzzling their political voices,” Cohen predicted.
• Homeless Ohio school students. The Cincinnati Enquirer’s Grace Tucker reports, “Cincinnati Public Schools opens safe sleep lot for homeless students.”
After weeks of delays, Cincinnati Public Schools’ safe sleep lot for homeless students is opening Thursday, April 30.
A first-of-its-kind effort in the state known to the Coalition on Homelessness and Housing in Ohio, the project offers 12 parking spaces at William Howard Taft Elementary School to families living out of their vehicles. The initiative is meant to aid a population of homeless students at CPS that has nearly doubled since 2015.
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