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
• Data centers. News Channel 5’s Michelle Jarboe reports: “Ohio’s data center boom actually started in New Albany. We went there to see what it looked like“
In 2024, the state provided $554.9 million in sales tax credits to data centers, and local sales tax credits for these projects totaled $166.8 million, according to modern calculations from the Ohio Department of Revenue.
These numbers illustrate the rapid growth in these construction projects, including the construction boom taking place in New Albany.
• Prices. The Associated Press reports: “Producer prices rose 6%, increasing pressure on companies to raise prices for struggling customers“
Last month, wholesale inflation in the US was very high. Producer prices rose 6% from a year earlier, the highest level in more than three years, as the war in Iran pushes up energy prices and increases pressure on companies to pass on rising costs to consumers.
The Labor Department reported Wednesday that the producer price index – which tracks inflation before it reaches consumers – rose 1.4% in April, the largest monthly gain in more than four years.
Energy prices increased by 7.8% from March to April and by 22.7% a year earlier. Gasoline was up 15.6% from March, and diesel, the dominant shipping fuel, was up 12.6%.
• $700,000. WCMH’s David Rees reports: “A federal judge has ordered an Ohio anti-vaccination activist to pay nearly $700,000 in taxes“
A federal judge has ordered Sherri Tenpenny, an Ohio doctor and vaccine skeptic, to pay nearly $700,000 in unpaid federal taxes and interest, years after her testimony against Covid-19 vaccine requirements gained national attention during the pandemic.
• Lawsuit. Sabrina Eaton of Cleveland.com reports: “U.S. Rep. Max Miller is suing his ex-wife and her lawyer for defamation over harassment allegations“
U.S. Rep. Max Miller on Wednesday filed a defamation lawsuit against his ex-wife Emily Moreno, her attorney Andrew Zashin and his law firm, alleging that multiple media outlets falsely portrayed him as a domestic abuse perpetrator.
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 the defendants and deter similar conduct in the future” and attorneys’ fees.
Miller, a Bay Village Republican, alleges that the defendants engaged in a coordinated defamation campaign against him by making false statements published by national media outlets, including the New York Post, TMZ, the Daily Mail and The Daily Beast, that falsely portrayed him as violent and abusive towards Moreno and the couple’s two-year-old daughter.
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