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Mailbox: Did soft schedule lead to Ohio State football ‘hype train’ being derailed?

Published

1 year ago

October 20, 2024

Press Room

Mailbox: Did soft schedule lead to Ohio State football ‘hype train’ being derailed?

Have more comments, questions? Reach out to me at bwhite1@dispatch.com. Letters are lightly edited for clarity.

On Ohio State football

To Brian: I watched with jaundiced side eye at all the preseason hype of superstar transfers, returning talent and a new offensive coordinator combining to make the Buckeyes a national championship juggernaut. Even Ohio State’s detractors said this was the best team money could buy. All these prognosticators ignored Ryan Day and his choke factor in big games. Now that it’s apparent the hype train was derailed in Eugene, it may be time to reevaluate the head coach position if they gag in the playoffs.

Jeff Petsche, Delray Beach, Fla.

Dear Editor: With the Buckeyes’ loss to Oregon, it makes one wonder about their scheduling of opponents early in the season. Do the Buckeyes really benefit from beating the “Little Sisters of the Poor” teams 62-0 and then pound their chest and claim they are such a great team? I don’t think so. After those lopsided early-season blowout wins they then meet a “real” opponent and find it very difficult to handle the situation of a real competitive game. Maybe the Buckeyes should schedule some actual games where the outcome is not so assured early in the season to better prepare them for the more competitive teams that will surely follow. Chance favors those better prepared.

Chet Ridenour Sr., Worthington

To Mr. White: After rewatching the OSU vs. Oregon game, I have a question for Jim Knowles: Why do D-ends contentiously crash down inside and not maintain the edge? That should be their primary goal, pushing everything toward the middle for the D-line and linebackers. In Saturday’s game, one end failed to make a difference and the other did not maintain his assignment which resulted in the game-wining touchdown. Coach Knowles is paid enough to have his defense prepared for any situation and offense.

Fausto J Garofalo Jr, Columbus

To Brian: I’ve always criticized those who criticize amateur athletes, but I guess Ohio State football players aren’t really amateurs anymore. Nonetheless, those critical of Will Howard’s decision-making at the end of the Oregon game and Jeremiah Smith’s questionable penalty just before that overlook that they played well throughout the evening against a very good team in a hostile environment at night three time zones away and still almost overcame the deficiencies of the defense and a kickoff return player who demonstrated how playing back on your heels is less effective than being on your toes.

Dennis Singleton, Dayton

On baseball catchers

To the editor: Having gone to Williamsport’s Little League World Series a couple of years ago with my adult grandson, we consider it a special place to showcase youth players.I do have a baseball and an umpiring complaint. It was not only “if” but “when” the issue would reach and impact Williamsport.In a recent LL game, the catcher was “framing” pitches to deceive the umpire into thinking it was a strike. Often called an art form, it is praised by MLB commentators. Catchers are often rated by their ability to influence a ball into a strike. Youth catchers and coaches have noticed. It has become blatant, successful and game-changing. You can not watch an MLB game without framing. But LL!Baseball has always included integrity challenges. Sharpened spikes, spitballs, illegal bats, betting and now, framing. What kind of a fair penalty could be administered?Umpires could treat the framed pitch as a walk unless the batter advances otherwise. After all, by framing the pitch back into the strike zone, what has the catcher admitted?Hitting a baseball is one of the most difficult skills in sports. Failing seven in 10 at-bats could make a Hall of Famer.Jim N. Reed, Lancaster

To Jim: Subtle framing, without moving the receiving arm, is indeed an art. But the exaggerated movement of the glove or hand should not throw off a good umpire, who can judge a pitch by where it hits the glove. That good umpire will ignore such catchers and they will stop the silliness.

On newspapers, deadlines and online coverage

To Brian: I’m just sitting here (about 2 p.m. Saturday) and thinking how this modern world can do so many things faster, smarter, and with more precision than in the past. I recall what the current media misses. Like, Woody had a TV show after the Saturday game, 10, 10:30 or 11 p.m. That included some of the outstanding players of the game.

Yes, the very next day the paper came out on Sunday morning with super stories from the game day. This week, we might (get a paper on Tuesday with a) little about the game. If they lose or win by a very small margin, the sports department will certainly tell how bad they are. That’s what they do all week. It sounds like the “USA Today” sports section doesn’t like to do anything positive for the team.

I also recall going to the games and getting an early Saturday paper, which told how great the team was. When do I see that now? I haven’t. The media help the Ohio State Buckeyes rise and fall.

This is just history to all, but true. This might be how The Dispatch falls, too.

Bill

To Bill: Newspapers are different these days, with earlier print deadlines. In our case, that means any Ohio State game that kicks off later than 12:15 p.m. will not make the Sunday print editions. It’s been that way for many years now, with coverage of the games in Monday’s print editions. However, the timeliness of our coverage on Dispatch.com is better than ever, and shortly after the Ohio State-Oregon game ended we had published 14 stories, plus a photo gallery. All week, our website contains several articles that don’t make the print edition. Our Saturday print edition is now an electronic edition, available to all subscribers, but our Friday print editions include a separate game preview section. Lastly, our job as journalists is to report on the team in an unbiased and fair fashion, not to strive to do only positive things for the team. There are plenty of media in Columbus that do that. It’s just not our role.

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Get more Ohio State football news by listening to our podcasts

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Ohio

Ohio woman sentenced in $775,000 Medicaid scheme

Published

6 minutes ago

February 27, 2026

Press Room

COLUMBUS — A Lake County woman was sentenced this morning to jail time and ordered to pay $775,000 in restitution for fraudulently billing Medicaid, Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost announced. “She inflated her earnings through brazen fraud, but her scheme burst wide open when our investigators got the case,” Yost said. “Cheating taxpayers comes with […]

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‘Catastrophic’ Ohio farm fire kills 6,000 hogs and pigs, officials say

Published

12 hours ago

February 27, 2026

Press Room

‘Catastrophic’ Ohio farm fire kills 6,000 hogs and pigs, officials say

A wind-swept blaze at an Ohio hog farm complex caused “catastrophic” damage and left thousands of pigs dead, fire officials said, marking another devastating barn inferno contributing to the deaths of millions of animals in recent years.

The massive fire occurred on Wednesday, Feb. 25, at Fine Oak Farms in Union Township, Madison County, located west of Ohio’s capital of Columbus, according to the Central Townships Joint Fire District. Fire crews received a report of a barn fire shortly before 12 p.m. local time.

The incident was later upgraded to a commercial structure fire after Chief Brian Bennington observed a “large column of smoke visible from a distance” and requested additional resources. Multiple local fire departments, along with several other emergency agencies, were called to the scene.

“What our crews encountered upon arrival was a very difficult and heartbreaking incident,” Bennington said in a statement on Feb. 26.

The fire chief described the facility as a large farm complex used for hog production consisting of five large agricultural buildings, including four that housed about 7,500 hogs. When crews arrived at the scene, they found two of the barns engulfed in flames, Bennington said.

Crews were challenged by windy conditions that significantly impacted fire suppression efforts, according to Bennington. Three barns were destroyed in the fire, and about 6,000 hogs and pigs were killed.

Firefighters saved one barn and about 1,500 hogs, the fire chief added. No injuries were reported in the incident.

Bennington highlighted the assistance of the farming community throughout Madison and Clark counties, as multiple farmers responded with water trucks to help with water supply efforts. “Rural Ohio’s agricultural community is tight-knit, and they truly step up when one of their own is in need,” he said.

The incident remains under investigation, and the Ohio State Fire Marshal’s Office will determine the fire’s cause and origin. Bennington said there is no suspicion of arson and no ongoing threat to the public at this time.

‘Rapidly changing fire behavior conditions’

Heavy smoke from the fire could be seen for miles, and Bennington said first-arriving units were met with fire conditions coming from the opposite side of the hog farm complex.

The fire chief noted that the incident required extensive water-shuttle operations due to rural water-supply limitations in the area. Crews attempted to cut the fire off by deploying multiple handlines and using an aerial device, but “faced extremely challenging conditions throughout the incident,” according to Bennington.

Sustained winds of about 20 mph with gusts up to 35 mph accelerated the fire’s spread, Bennington said. The high winds made it “extremely difficult” to contain forward fire progression and created “rapidly changing fire behavior conditions” across the agricultural complex, he added.

After about four to five hours, the fire was contained by fire personnel from four different counties, according to the fire chief.

“Unfortunately, the fire resulted in catastrophic damage to the business,” Bennington said in an earlier statement on Feb. 25. “A significant portion of the agricultural structures were destroyed.”

Latest major fire to impact an Ohio hog farm

The incident at Fine Oak Farms is the latest major fire to cause significant damage to an Ohio hog farm in recent years.

In August 2024, about 1,100 pigs were killed in Versailles, a village about 50 miles northwest of Dayton, Ohio, according to data from the nonprofit Animal Welfare Institute. In March 2022, about 2,000 hogs died in a barn fire at Kenneth Scholl Hog Farm in Brown Township, just west of Columbus.

Before the fire at Fine Oak Farms, the Animal Welfare Institute reported that other barn fires in Ohio this year killed 162 sheep, horses, cows, chickens, and other animals.

Hundreds of thousands of animals killed in barn fires each year

Data from the Animal Welfare Institute shows that hundreds of thousands of animals are killed in barn fires across the country each year. Since 2013, over 9 million farm animals have been killed in barn fires, according to the organization.

As of Feb. 26, the Animal Welfare Institute reported that 118,738 farm animals have died in U.S. barn fires this year, including the incident at Fine Oak Farms. The majority of farm animals killed were chickens in separate incidents in North Carolina and Georgia in January, and another incident in Missouri earlier this month.

“Most fatal barn fires occurred in colder states, particularly the Upper Midwest and the Northeast. New York, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Illinois had the highest number of barn fires, respectively,” according to the organization. “The amount of cold weather a state experienced appeared to be a greater factor in the prevalence of barn fires than the intensity of a state’s animal agriculture production.”

In an updated report on farm animal deaths due to barn fires in 2025, the Animal Welfare Institute said more than 2.53 million farm animals were killed in barn fires from 2022 to 2024. The organization noted that the high death toll was “driven primarily” by fires at large operations that housed several thousand to over 1 million farm animals.

The majority of deaths in these incidents during that period, over 98%, were farmed birds, such as chickens and turkeys, according to the Animal Welfare Institute. But in 2023, a massive fire at a west Texas dairy farm became the single deadliest event involving livestock in the state’s history and the deadliest cattle fire in America in at least a decade.

18,000 head of cattle perished in the fire at the South Fork Dairy farm near Dimmitt, Texas. At the time, Roger Malone, who is the former mayor of Dimmitt, called the incident “mind-boggling.”

“I don’t think it’s ever happened before around here. It’s a real tragedy,” Malone said.

Contributing: Rick Jervis, USA TODAY; Shahid Meighan, Columbus Dispatch

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Ohio’s LaRose pushes back on voter fraud critics, Democrats

Published

1 day ago

February 26, 2026

Press Room

Ohio’s LaRose pushes back on voter fraud critics, Democrats

Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose discussed voter fraud and Ohio’s efforts to prevent it during a recent radio appearance.

LaRose appeared on “The Bill Cunningham” radio show, where he defended the state’s efforts to minimize voter fraud. A clip posted on X shows audio of LaRose arguing that policies aimed at preventing voter fraud are necessary even though cases are rare.

Here’s what to know.

Secretary of State Frank LaRose says voter fraud in Ohio is rare, compares prevention efforts to TSA security

In the clip, LaRose says that Democrats claim voter fraud is rare, and should be ignored.

“The left claims that voter fraud is rare, so we should just ignore it,” he said. “Well, airplane hijackings are also rare — we don’t abolish the TSA. The reason why we keep voter fraud rare in states like Ohio because we do these very things that they’re trying to take away from me.”

LaRose announced the inaugural meeting of the new Ohio Election Integrity Commission, which replaces what he called the flawed Ohio Elections Commission, in January 2026. The new committee, he says, will be used in “enforcing Ohio’s election laws, reviewing alleged violations, and ensuring accountability in matters relating to voting.”

In October 2025, LaRose said that he forwarded more than 1,000 cases of voter fraud to the U.S. Department of Justice. The cases involved 1,084 noncitizen individuals who appear to have registered to vote unlawfully in Ohio, and 167 noncitizens who appear to have also cast a ballot in a federal election since 2018.

In February 2026, President Donald Trump said Republicans should “nationalize” elections. He also accused Democrats of bringing migrants into the United States to illegally vote, a claim that is not backed by evidence, USA TODAY reports.

Voter fraud in the U.S. is considered rare nationwide, according to NPR, but there are still debates from both political sides on how frequently it occurs.

What is voter fraud?

Electoral fraud is defined as illegally interfering with the process of an election, according to Ballotpedia. This includes in-person voter fraud, absentee or mail ballots and illegal voter suppression.

Criminal penalties can include fines or imprisonment for up to five years, according to U.S. code. In Ohio, election interference can carry a felony of the fourth degree, according to Ohio Code.

Voter fraud is often a topic of debate among Democrats and Republicans, where organizations such as the conservative Heritage Foundation maintains a database claiming to show nearly 1,500 cases of election fraud since the year 2000.

Meanwhile, research by law professor Justin Leavitt published in 2014 found 31 cases of in-person voter fraud among billions of ballots cast from 2000–2014, according to Ballotpedia.

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