Karen Kasler

60% of Ohio public school students living in poverty scored below proficient on required statewide tests, and the districts that have the lowest test scores have the highest percentages of poor students. That’s based on data from the Ohio Department of Education.  State lawmakers are now studying the connection between education and poverty.

Senators are expected to come back to the Statehouse on Tuesday and vote on at least one overrides that the House approved last month on 11 of Gov. John Kasich’s 47 budget vetoes. And as Republicans consider how and what they'll vote on, Senate Democrats are trying to figure out their strategy.

The central Ohio man who’s behind the white nationalist website "The Daily Stormer" has gotten a lot of attention since this weekend’s violence in Virginia. He’s now getting hit with a defamation lawsuit filed in Columbus by a well-known Muslim comedian, columnist and radio host.

It’s not unusual for pharmaceutical companies to offer payments to doctors – for speaking fees, for travel expenses, for lunches and for gifts. But a new study shows one in five family doctors in America have received a payment involving an opioid medication – and Ohio is among the top states in the country in terms of dollars involved in those payments.

*Editor's note (8/15/17): The Senate has now announced the voting session will happen on August 22, and the session on August 23 has been cancelled.

Last month, state representatives voted to override a budget veto for the first time in 40 years. They actually overrode 11 of Gov. John Kasich’s 47 vetoes. Senators are now deciding which of those overrides to vote on, and that they may ask the House to consider overriding more vetoes.

At one point, four in ten incoming freshmen on Ohio’s public colleges and university campuses needed refresher courses on things they should have learned in high school. That number is falling, but officials are still concerned about the number of kids needing remedial work – which can be costly.

There were a lot of cuts in this new state budget, largely because tax revenues were off nearly $850 million dollars for the last fiscal year. There’s one budget cut that’s small, but some worry it could have a huge impact on people who really need that money.

The November election is more than three months away. But there is action ongoing with the issue that’s likely to be the most expensive ballot question in state history – a proposed law that would force the state to only buy drugs at a discounted price.

After years of big numbers, attendance at this year’s Ohio State Fair plummeted to its lowest number in 13 years.

An outspoken advocate against the death penalty says though yesterday’s lethal injection of Ronald Phillips was problem-free, he worries that won’t be the case with the more than two dozen executions that are scheduled over the next three years.

The state auditor is warning local governments that they’re risking taxpayer money if they don’t have policies on employees’ use of debit or credit cards.

Gov. John Kasich calls it the worst tragedy in the history of the Ohio State Fair. One person was killed and seven were injured, three of them critically, in a catastrophic ride malfunction on the first night of the fair.

Lt. Gov. Mary Taylor says she’s still in the race for governor next year, though over the weekend she missed the largest statewide party event before the May primary.

The Ohio Supreme Court has upheld the right of cities to use traffic cameras without certain restrictions passed by state lawmakers, saying the state law that restricts those cameras is unconstitutional.

Nine months after lawmakers created a committee to examine state tax breaks and loopholes to see which ones should be abolished or closed off, that committee finally has some members.

The Ohio Republican Party’s state dinner this weekend brought in hundreds, and included two leaders with two different perspectives on the Senate health care bill. And that puts the person who’ll actually be voting on it in a tough position.

Hundreds of Republicans came to Columbus over the weekend for their biggest statewide fundraising event, featuring Vice President Mike Pence. His speech came a week he made comments about Ohio’s Medicaid expansion that Gov. John Kasich labeled “fake news”. And it also drew the people who want to replace Kasich next year.

Ohio tax collections for the fiscal year that ended last month were more than $850 million off estimates. But the state ended the year with a balance of nearly $171 million. And almost a third of that was transferred from 15 pools of money held within various state agencies.

Gov. John Kasich’s initial state budget would have required businesses to file a certain tax with the state instead of in the cities they operate. After objections from cities, the final state budget made that an option. But it’s still under debate on both sides.

The only Democrat holding statewide office in Ohio says he won’t follow through on the run for governor he was considering – because he says his favored candidate will be getting into the race.

The Ohio Supreme Court has decided a tough case that involving two young parents, which will likely mean a two-year-old child will be taken from the Tennessee family he’s lived with since birth.

It’s been six years since delinquent taxpayers in Ohio were given a chance to pay up without penalties. The new state budget gives them another opportunity at the beginning of next year.

The state budget director took a lot of heat for tax collections that came in nearly a billion dollars below his projections.  That office is trying to make sure it doesn’t miss with its forecast for the new budget. But as he notes on "The State of Ohio" this weekend, there are still a lot of economic uncertainties to deal with.  

A national initiative to revive civility and respect in political talk is launching tomorrow at the Columbus Metropolitan Club.

One of Gov. John Kasich’s vetoes overridden by the House last week involves a tax on managed care organizations that helps raise money for counties and transit authorities. And those local groups are hoping Senators go along with that override.

Nine of the 11 vetoes that state representatives voted to override in the state budget this week are related to Medicaid, though not the big veto on the plan to freeze Medicaid expansion enrollment next year. That was likely no accident, because Medicaid was in the spotlight and under the microscope this time.

The state budget director was off by almost a billion dollars in its projections on tax collections for the fiscal year. But his prediction that the year that ended last week would close in the black was right.

There may have been occasional disagreements between Ohio’s Republican-dominated House and Senate and Republican Gov. John Kasich, but he’d issued more than a hundred vetoes in his seven years in office without one being overturned. Today, that changed dramatically.

The window to apply to become growers under Ohio’s medical marijuana program has closed, with the state receiving 185 applications – all with nonrefundable fees attached.