Ohio
Ohio Senate votes to put Biden on 2024 ballot, but problem isn’t fixed yet
Senate Republicans voted to put President Joe Biden on the ballot, but only after pairing it with campaign finance legislation opposed by Democrats
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The Ohio Senate voted Wednesday to put President Joe Biden on the November ballot, but only after pairing it with campaign finance legislation that Democrats cast as a poison pill and refused to support.
Senate Republicans approved a one-time ballot fix that would change the certification deadline to 74 days before the Nov. 5 election. Under current law, state officials must certify the ballot by Aug. 7 − 90 days beforehand − but Biden won’t be nominated until the Democratic National Convention 12 days later.
The Senate vote came one day after House leaders unveiled a separate plan to get Biden on the ballot and prevent future scheduling conflicts. The House is expected to take up that bill this afternoon.
Republicans folded the new deadline into a bill that would allow candidates to use their campaign funds to cover child care costs. It also includes a modified plan to ban foreign citizens and U.S. residents with green cards from donating to ballot campaigns. It’s already illegal for non-U.S. citizens to donate to candidates.
Senate Democrats opposed the bill − despite the fix for Biden − and said it would create another hurdle for groups that want to place issues on the ballot. For instance, it would require those campaigns to register as political action committees, something critics say could burden hyperlocal efforts like liquor options.
Republicans proposed the changes after a progressive dark money group poured millions into campaigns for the abortion rights amendment and independent redistricting commission.
“This Legislature is not fair,” Sen. Bill Demora, D-Columbus, said. “It’s not bipartisan. It’s not how policy should be made.”
Which Biden ballot fix will the Ohio House support?
It’s unclear what happens from here.
The Ohio House will vote on a different bill Wednesday that would change this year’s deadline to 74 days before the election. For 2028 and beyond, it would allow parties that can’t meet the 90-day deadline to certify presidential candidates either 74 days beforehand or within three days of their convention, whichever comes first.
Ohio has one of the earliest ballot deadlines in the country, according to the National Association of Secretaries of State. And this isn’t the first time it caused problems: The Legislature voted in 2012 and 2020 to temporarily change the deadline when parties scheduled their conventions too late.
Bills do not take effect for three months after Gov. Mike DeWine signs them, unless they come with an emergency clause attached. Secretary of State Frank LaRose said the Legislature needs to act by Thursday to get a fix in place.
LaRose supports the ban on foreign spending, but his spokesman, Ben Kindel, declined to say if he has a preferred plan for getting Biden on the November ballot.
“We’re leaning on the Legislature to come up with a fix that works for our Ohio law,” Kindel said.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
USA TODAY Network Ohio Bureau reporter Jessie Balmert contributed.
Haley BeMiller is a reporter for the USA TODAY Network Ohio Bureau, which serves the Columbus Dispatch, Cincinnati Enquirer, Akron Beacon Journal and 18 other affiliated news organizations across Ohio.
Out of prison, Indiana’s caviar king back on Ohio River to find fishing holes taken
David Cox, of English, Indiana, says once he began setting his nets again after a two-year prison sentence and a three-year ban on commercial fishing, all of his once-secret spots were taken.
Can you eat fish from the Ohio River?
In 1975, future presidential candidate Michael Dukakis, then governor of Massachusetts, bet 20 pounds of New England cod that the Red Sox would defeat the Reds in the World Series. If things went south for Boston, Ohio governor James Rhodes promised to send Dukakis 10 pounds of Lake Erie perch and 10 pounds of Ohio River catfish. The Reds ended up winning and the cod was sent to the Convalescent Home for Children, in Cincinnati.
At the time, people were still eating catfish from the Ohio without too much concern. The fish were also served at several restaurants along the river.
There were warnings in 1977
But two years later, in 1977, The Ohio River Valley Water Sanitation Commission released the results of a study of contaminants found in the tissues of Ohio River fish. They warned anglers in cities such as Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Louisville, Wheeling and Gallipolis that man-made chemicals known as PCBs, or polychlorinated biphenyls, had been discovered in the river fish. Later, high concentrations of mercury were discovered in the fish, too.
Thanks to the Clean Water Act of 1972 and the environmental regulations that followed, the river is now cleaner than it was in the seventies. And it’s still teeming with a variety of fish, including catfish, striped bass, drum and black bass, among other species.
But even though PCBs were banned by the Environmental Protection Agency in 1979, they are still found in fish, since they remain in the sediment in the bottom of the river. “Organisms live in the sediment and fish feed on them,” Rich Cogen, the executive director of the Ohio River Foundation told The Enquirer. Mercury is also a big problem, according to Cogen.
So the question is: Can you eat fish caught in the Ohio River?
The short answer is yes. But it depends on what species you are eating and where along the river you caught it.
There are also very strict limitations on how frequently you should eat them, according to the web site for the Ohio Sport Fish Consumption Advisory, part of the Ohio Department of Health.
In areas of the river between the Belleville Lock, located 204 miles downstream from the river’s origins in Pittsburgh, to the Indiana border, the advisory agency currently recommends consuming Ohio River fish no more than once a month max. That area includes Adams, Brown, Clermont, Gallia, Hamilton, Lawrence, Meigs and Scioto counties.
Here’s where to check
Recommendations change throughout the year, but you can keep up by visiting the Ohio Department of Health’s Sport Fish Consumption Advisory page, which provides updated information on when certain fish, usually bottom feeders such as carp, are deemed too dangerous to eat at all.
Here’s who should take a pass on Ohio River fish
The agency also warns that people who are more likely to have health effects from eating contaminated fish, includingchildren younger than 15 years old, pregnant women and women who are planning to become pregnant to avoid Ohio River fish altogether.
Just because you have to limit the amount of fish you eat, doesn’t mean the river is a bad place for fishing, as long as you limit your intake or do catch-and-release fishing. Just make sure you have a proper fishing license before casting your line.
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It isn’t over until it’s over. That’s the case for both the UCLA Bruins football program recruiting and for quarterback Brady Edmunds. Edmunds is currently committed to head to Ohio State but he took a visit from UCLA offensive coordinator Dean Kennedy earlier this week.
Kennedy met Edmunds on Thursday despite the fact that the quarterback has been committed to the Buckeyes since December of 2024 but could the UCLA Bruins be making a run at flipping the quarterback?
Edmunds has only had an official visit with Ohio State but could UCLA heave a heat check on the 6’5” quarterback? New UCLA head coach Bob Chesney is off to an unbelievable start to his recruiting with the Bruins and flipping a recruit of Edmunds’ caliber would be his most impressive move yet.
247 Sports has Edmunds as the No. 16 quarterback in the class, which would give UCLA a clear predecessor for Nico Iamaleava whenever the Bruins current starting quarterback decides to head to the professional level.
It’d be a full circle moment for the Bruins, as Edmunds was originally recruited to Ohio State by former UCLA head coach Chip Kelly, who bailed on UCLA to go run the Buckeyes offense. Ohio State is a great spot for a developing quarterback, as the Buckeyes produce tons of NFL talent, especially at the wide receiver position, which would help Edmunds put up some gaudy numbers in Columbus.
Chesney and the Bruins have geography on their side, Edmunds attends Huntington Beach High School in Southern California, which could potentially become a factor if Edmunds views UCLA as a program on the rise that’d be much closer to his friends and family than out in Ohio.
Time will tell if Kennedy’s visit will make a difference but UCLA’s recruiting has made waves in the first offseason under Chesney and the new regime.
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