Mayor from Ohio. (Getty image file photo.)
Each morning in the Ohio Capital Journal’s free newsletter, The Eye-Opener, we round up the news and commentary from across Ohio, the country and the world that catches our eye. We call this feature Catching Our Eye and have published it here.
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Catching our eyes
Battlefield again? The headquarters of the decision-making department informs: “Ohio will be a key battleground in 2026“
Once upon a time, Ohio was considered a belligerent state. From 1964 to 2012, he supported the winner of every presidential election and usually voted like the entire nation. But since President Donald Trump took the state in 2016, Ohio has voted overwhelmingly right, weakening its reputation as a swing state.
But in the 2026 midterms, Ohio will be able to regain some of the patina lost on the battlefield. Ohio’s U.S. Senate and gubernatorial elections appear highly competitive in the nearly seven months since the November election, according to Decision Desk headquarters polling averages.
Capital gains. Jessie Balmert of the Cincinnati Enquirer reports: “The capital gains income tax will be eliminated in Ohio under a modern law“
A Republican lawmaker from Ohio wants to eliminate capital gains taxes – a change that could cost the state up to $680 million a year.
House Bill 617 would eliminate the state income tax on capital gains, which are funds obtained from the sale of stocks, bonds, real estate or other investments. If approved, Ohio would join fewer than 10 states that do not tax capital gains.
Voter fraud. The Washington Post reports: “Conservative activist convicted in election fraud case“
In Wisconsin, Harry Wait said he decided to expose potential voter fraud. He ordered absentee ballots in other people’s names and was charged with crimes.
Trump’s war. NBC News reports: “Inside Trump’s daily video briefing on the Iran war“
Every day since the start of the Iran war, U.S. military officials have produced a video update for President Donald Trump that shows video of the largest and most effective attacks on Iranian targets over the past 48 hours, three current U.S. officials and a former U.S. official said.
Officials say the daily assembly usually takes about two minutes, sometimes longer. One described each daily video as a series of clips of “blowing up.” …
But the video conference is raising concerns among some Trump allies that he may not get – or absorb – the full picture of the war, which is now in its fourth week, said two current officials and a former official.
Iran. Tom Nichols of The Atlantic writes: “Trump had no plan B for Iran. And it shows“
Three weeks into Donald Trump’s war with Iran, the president still refused to define victory other than saying the war would end soon. Since the beginning of hostilities, he has offered many justifications for the war, choosing from them as if he were choosing a snack from a buffet at one of his golf resorts: it’s about nuclear weapons, it’s about terrorism, it’s about ballistic missiles. While the media and the world press him for clarification, he continues, as Pegah Banihashemi and Paul Poast wrote in The Atlantic on Wednesday, “vacillate” between demanding “unconditional surrender” from Tehran and signaling “that he might suddenly declare victory and walk away.”
However, at the beginning of the war, Trump seemed to have an overarching goal: regime change. In a video he released the first night after the attack, he ordered Iranian authorities to surrender and called on the Iranian people to rise up against their government. Unfortunately, the regime in Tehran appears to be regaining strength and, worse still, consolidating power. The U.S. intelligence community reportedly assessed that the regime “will remain intact and perhaps even emboldened in the belief that it has stood up to Trump and survived.” Trump now seems lost and unable to comprehend how a hit movie that he wrote as a screenplay and cast himself as the Liberator of Iran turned into a poorly received miniseries that may be renewed for another dismal season.
Denmark planned a United States invasion of Greenland. BBC News reports: “According to reports, Denmark planned to blow up Greenland’s airstrips in the event of a US invasion“
Danish soldiers who flew to Greenland in January were ready to blow up key airport runways for fear that US President Donald Trump might invade the Arctic island, according to Danish public broadcaster DR.
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