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 attention. We call this feature Catching Our Eye and have published it here.
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Catching our eyes
• Americans are losing health care. NBC News reports: “A up-to-date report shows that Medicaid and ACA enrollment has dropped by more than 5 million“
The number of people covered by Medicaid and Affordable Care Act plans has fallen by more than 5 million over the past 12 months, according to a up-to-date report from the advocacy group Protect Our Care.
The decline is due in part to President Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful” bill — which was signed into law last July — and the expiration of enhanced ACA subsidies, the group says. The law calls for nearly $1 trillion in Medicaid cuts over 10 years; the subsidies expired in December after Republicans refused to extend them, leading to double- or triple-digit premium increases for millions of people.
• Moral failure. NPR and WOSU report Allie Vugrincic: “Ohio’s Catholic bishops call the Trump administration’s attempt to end TPS for Haitians a “moral failure.”“
In a statement titled “America at 250: Freedom and the Common Good,” the Ohio Catholic Conference characterized the Trump administration’s ending of TPS as a “moral failure.”
“We find no moral justification for terminating their Temporary Protected Status (TPS) without an alternative means of adjusting their immigration status. Current conditions in Haiti, as recorded by multiple sources and first-hand accounts, including the U.S. Department of State travel advisories, demonstrate that it is neither safe nor reasonable to expect that families will not desperately seek another option,” the statement read.
• Reflecting the Ohio Basin Connection. Sabrina Eaton of Cleveland.com reports: “The reflecting pool debacle has an Ohio connection and goes deeper than green water“
A company associated with Youngstown-area businessman John J. Cafaro is under investigation after winning a no-bid federal contract to repair the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, which has since turned green with algae and shed patches of up-to-date blue paint.
According to The New York Times, the National Park Service has awarded a $1.7 million contract to Brookfield-based Greenwater Services to install a water treatment system in the basin, bypassing the bidding process typically required for federal work. The company’s ultimate owner is JJ Cafaro Investment Trust, headed by Cafaro, a longtime Republican Party donor and Mar-a-Lago neighbor of President Donald Trump’s Florida headquarters.
• Drone turned on. Jo Ingles of the Statehouse News Bureau reports: “Will DeWine allow the “drone bill” to go into effect or will he kill it?“
One bill recently passed by a majority vote in the Ohio Legislature now awaits Gov. Mike DeWine’s signature, but some are urging him to veto it. The legislation (HB 251) sets rules for how and when police can apply drones.
