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
• Data centers. News Channel 5 WEWS’ Michelle Jarboe reports, “Ohio’s data center boom really started in New Albany. We went there to see what it looks like.”
In 2024, the state provided $554.9 million in sales-tax breaks for data centers — and local sales-tax breaks for those projects totaled $166.8 million, according to new calculations from the Ohio Department of Taxation.
Those numbers illustrate the sharp uptick in these construction projects, including the building boom taking place in New Albany.
• Prices. The Associated Press reports, “Producer prices shot up 6%, adding pressure on companies to hike prices for struggling customers.”
U.S. wholesale inflation came in hot last month. Producer prices rose 6% from a year earlier, the highest point in more than three years, as the Iran war pushes up energy prices and intensifies pressure on companies to pass along their rising costs to consumers.
The Labor Department reported Wednesday that its producer price index — which tracks inflation before it hits consumers — shot up 1.4% in April, the biggest monthly gain in more than four years.
Energy prices climbed 7.8% from March to April and 22.7% from a year earlier. Gasoline soared 15.6% from March and diesel, the dominant fuel used in shipping, jumped 12.6%.
• $700,000. WCMH’s David Rees reports, “Federal judge orders Ohio anti-vaccine activist to pay nearly $700,000 in taxes.”
A federal judge has ordered Ohio physician and vaccine skeptic Sherri Tenpenny to pay nearly $700,000 in unpaid federal taxes and interest, years after her testimony against COVID-19 vaccine requirements drew national attention during the pandemic.
• Lawsuit. Cleveland.com’s Sabrina Eaton reports, “U.S. Rep. Max Miller sues ex-wife and her lawyer for defamation over abuse claims.”
U.S. Rep. Max Miller on Wednesday filed a defamation lawsuit against his former wife, Emily Moreno, and her attorney, Andrew Zashin, and his law firm, alleging they falsely portrayed him as a domestic abuser to multiple media outlets.
The lawsuit assigned to Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge Joy Kennedy seeks compensatory damages in excess of $25,000, punitive damages “in an amount sufficient to punish Defendants and deter future similar conduct,” and attorneys fees.
Miller, a Bay Village Republican, claims the defendants engaged in a coordinated defamation campaign against him, providing false statements published by national media outlets including the New York Post, TMZ, the Daily Mail and The Daily Beast, that falsely depict him as violent and abusive towards Moreno and the couple’s two-year-old daughter.
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