Jo Ingles

After a three-year break, Ohio is set to execute a death row inmate later this month. Ronald Phillips was convicted of raping and killing his girlfriend’s three-year-old daughter in Akron in 1993. He’s scheduled to receive a lethal injection on July 26th now that courts have given the state’s execution method a green light. Now, death penalty opponents are making a last minute appeal to Gov. John Kasich to spare Phillips and others.

Both of Ohio’s U.S. Senators say they still think it’s possible for lawmakers in Washington to come up with a plan to fix problems with the Affordable Health Care Act. U.S. Senator Rob Portman says he’s concerned there are not enough insurers available. Ohio Public Radio’s Jo Ingles reports.

The newest version of the U.S. Senate’s plan to reform the Affordable Care Act is out, and it’s creating a rift between the Vice President and Gov. John Kasich. And the state’s Republican Senator may be caught in the middle.

Ohioans will be voting on an issue this fall that, if passed, would add what backers call a victim’s bill of rights to the Ohio constitution. 

Ohio’s largest group representing abortion opponents is cheering news that two clinics that offered abortions in the Buckeye State have closed their doors.  

(A more comprehensive version of this story is also on this week's "The State of Ohio" show on Ohio Public Television. You can find that story by looking under the State of Ohio tab at the top of the homepage.)

School districts who are building new schools with state money are sometimes surprised by one of the rules. Those dollars cannot be used for something that is in many of the older buildings being replaced….auditoriums. That creates some tough decisions for school districts as they decide how to move forward with their building plans. Take a look at how some districts are doing it.

As Senators in Washington continue to grapple with how to reform the Affordable Care Act, Ohio’s two members explain why they have not embraced plans that have been introduced so far. They talk about what needs to be done to it to win their support.

Ohio is set to execute a death row inmate later this month. If it happens, it will be the first execution in the state in three and a half years. Death penalty opponents are trying to stop it.

The Ohio House of Representatives overrode 11 of the 47 vetoes Gov. John Kasich made recently to the state’s proposed budget. But the House didn’t override the most controversial one.

Representatives in the Ohio House have a session scheduled for tomorrow morning. They will take up a bill that would make changes to rules for constructing new schools and a bill to change gun laws. But there’s no word yet on whether lawmakers will try to override Gov. John Kasich’s line item vetoes in the state budget.

Fourth of July celebrations are taking place throughout the state but Ohio lawmakers are likely not finding this summer holiday to be carefree. That's because Gov. John Kasich vetoed 47 items when he signed the budget Friday. One of those is the controversial plan to freeze the Medicaid expansion program in Ohio in July of next year. Some former state lawmakers say they know what it’s like to walk a mile in the shoes of legislators who can’t get work off their minds.

Gov. John Kasich used his pen to veto 47 items in the new state budget. Among those vetoes was a plan to freeze expansion of Medicaid in 2018. 

The vice chairman of President Trump’s Commission on Election Integrity has sent a letter to all 50 states, asking for registered voters’ names, birthdays, political affiliations, voting history and last four digits of social security numbers. Here is how Ohio’s Secretary of State is handling this.

Along with the overall $65 million budget, this week the state legislature also passed a $581 million budget for the Bureau of Workers' Compensation. 

State lawmakers who have vacations scheduled for the week of the Fourth of July might be putting those plans on hold. 

Now that the Ohio House and Senate has passed the proposed two-year budget, its fate now lies in the hands of Gov. John Kasich. While he is expected to sign it into law, there are some parts he might veto. And the Senate President says if that happens, it might not be the end of the story. 

The Senate has unanimously approved a bill called “Judy’s Law.” It increases penalties and adds times onto sentences if an accelerant is used to intentionally disfigure a victim by setting that person on fire. 

The Ohio Senate passed a controversial bill that bans the abortion method most often used after 12 weeks of pregnancy. 

A bill that would a common procedure used in most second trimester abortions is on its way to the full Ohio Senate. The legislation was voted out of committee this morning/yesterday morning. But the vote didn’t come without some controversy.

The eleven state government websites that were hacked over the weekend are back online today. The hackers had posted messages against President Trump and for the Islamic State on the websites, including Gov. John Kasich’s.

Attorney General Mike DeWine’s office says his office is doing something it doesn’t normally do. It is asking the public for specific information in connection to the murders of eight Piketon residents a year ago.

Some state lawmakers have been questioning how much revenue is lost as a result of a recent tax break for small businesses. One Democratic representative says an analysis of that tax cut shows it's only helping a select few Ohioans. 

A group that wants a bill of victim rights in Ohio has submitted signatures to put the issue on the ballot this fall. 

Ohio's largest online charter school is making drastic cuts to help pay a $60 million-dollar debt to the state. Here's the latest in the battle between the Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow and the Ohio Department of Education.

A new analysis from the Associated Press showed Medicaid expansion accounted for 43 percent of total Ohio Medicaid spending on substance abuse and mental health treatment. Advocates for the poor worry a proposed amendment in the Senate budget to would Medicaid expansion enrollments would be a disaster for Ohio’s opioid crisis. 

An income tax break for Ohio’s small businesses in recent years is under fire from Democrats and some Republicans. They say the current budget situation shows it’s time to end that tax cut.  Gov. John Kasich is firmly rejecting those suggestions.

Some of the officers that enforce liquor laws in Ohio are being trained to fight more than illegal serving or drinking. 

The state auditor is asking auditors from his office to review how the Ohio Department of Education handles disciplinary complaints. 

Just days after Republican Senators unveiled their new two-year budget with some substantial cuts, Senate Democrats presented a plan of their own. And this one is drastically different than the one that’s likely to pass the GOP controlled Senate next week. 

A national political Republican pollster says it’s too early to predict what might happen in next year’s gubernatorial and U.S. Senate races. But he says his polling shows there’s a tremendous amount of restlessness among voters.