Rotunda Rumblings

School work: The Ohio Department of Education and Workforce said that as of Aug. 7, the state has shelled out $966.2 million for private school scholarships for the school year that just ended. The General Assembly expanded one of the five voucher programs to include upper-income Ohioans and its participation has ballooned from 23,272 participating students in the 2022-2023 school year to 89,770 students last year. Numbers will be finalized in October, Laura Hancock reports.

Let’s make a deal: FirstEnergy on Monday signed an agreement with Attorney General Dave Yost’s office on Monday to pay $20 million to avoid prosecution on state charges over the House Bill 6 scandal, as well as to drop FirstEnergy from Yost’s HB6-related civil lawsuit. As Jeremy Pelzer reports, the agreement means the Akron-based utility will pay a total of just $250 million, plus an expected $100 million regulatory fine, to skirt charges for its role in the largest bribery scandal in Ohio history; consultants previously warned the company it could face up to $3.8 billion in fines if it was indicted.

Job qualifications: U.S. Sen Sherrod Brown, a Cleveland Democrat, has introduced legislation that would make it easier for workers who lack four-year college degrees to get federal government jobs, Sabrina Eaton reports. The “Federal Jobs for STARs Act” that he introduced with U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin, a Wisconsin Democrat, would remove unnecessary educational requirements from federal civil job postings on USAJOBS.com.

Failed investment: An indoor agriculture startup called AppHarvest that U.S. Sen. JD Vance invested in and publicly pitched “not only failed as a business after pursuing rapid growth, but also provided a grim job experience for many of the working-class Kentuckians” the Cincinnati Republican vowed to help, CNN reports. The rise and fall of the company, which declared bankruptcy last year, and Vance’s role in it, cuts against his image as a champion for the working class — an image that helped catapult him to the top of the Republican ticket as Donald Trump’s running mate.

Red meat: Although the speech Vance’s wife, Usha, delivered to last month’s GOP convention praised her husband for adapting to her vegetarian diet despite being a “meat and potatoes kind of guy,” the vice-presidential candidate is not a vegetarian and has frequently appears in photos “alongside all manner of plated flesh”, the Los Angeles Times clarifies. Only 4% of Americans identify as vegetarians, according to a recent Gallup poll. And these days, there’s little doubt: In popular American culture, vegetarianism often is perceived as “liberal, wimpy and feminine,” a food studies professor told the publication.

Speaking of red meat: A Washington Post fact check has evaluated a trio of claims that Vance made about Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris, including a claim that she “wants to take away your ability to eat red meat,” and found them to be false. Other false claims it examines are Vance’s contention that Harris wants to take away gas stoves and his insistence that Harris has said it’s reasonable not to have children over climate change.

It pays to advertise: The National Republican Senatorial Committee canceled its fall cable ad reservations totaling more than $700,000 in the Ohio Senate race between Brown, the Democratic incumbent, and GOP challenger Bernie Moreno, Washington Examiner reports. According to AdImpact, NRSC canceled its full cable reservation in one of the most competitive races in the country in which ads were set to run between Aug. 31 and Election Day. In a social media post, the GOP Senate campaign arm said it still regards Ohio as a top pickup opportunity but believes its money can be more efficiently spent on hybrid ads.

Delayed again: For those anticipating an order over whether the state’s six-week “heartbeat” abortion ban is constitutional, the wait goes on. First, Hamilton County District Court Judge Christian Jenkins gave himself a deadline for the order on May 20. Then he pushed it to June 25. Then he pushed it to Tuesday. And on Tuesday, he pushed his deadline to Aug. 29. The state has been prohibited from enforcing the heartbeat law for 22 months, meaning women can obtain abortions past six weeks. But abortion clinics and doctors want Jenkins to weigh the law against the new abortion rights amendment that voters passed last November and strike down the law for good. Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost agrees the ban is no longer constitutional but thinks other parts of the law should stand.

New job: Lee Strang, a University of Toledo law professor who was a driving force behind the legislature creating five new “intellectual diversity centers” at a handful of universities, was hired to lead one of them. Strang will be executive director of the Salmon P. Chase Center for Civics, Culture and Society at Ohio State University. Strang was also the leader of the University of Toledo’s intellectual diversity center, and has testified to the legislature on a number of issues, including in favor of the special election last year that was intended to foil the abortion rights amendment, Ohio Capital Journal’s Megan Henry reports.

Lobbying Lineup

Five organizations lobbying on House Bill 103, which would establish a K-12 social studies task force to implement the American Birthright standards by the conservative Civics Alliance. The bill hasn’t had any hearings since June 13, 2023.

1. Cleveland Metropolitan School District

2. Ohio Council of Churches

3. Ohio Federation of Teachers

4. Buckeye Association of School Administrators

5. Warren City Schools

Birthdays

State Rep. Thomas Hall

Grace Flajnik, legislative aide to state Rep. Justin Pizzulli

Straight From The Source

“Any application question or line item requesting an applicant’s race or ethnicity was removed from all materials provided to application readers or other individuals participating in admissions decisions.”

-A section of Ohio State University’s website, as reported by Ohio Capital Journal’s Megan Henry, who looked at how Ohio’s universities are treating affirmative action after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down race-based admissions policies last summer.

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A restaurateur who refused to play the Olympics at his Ohio eateries after claiming the opening ceremony “Last Supper” drag controversy mocked Christians has been arrested for attempted murder, rape, kidnapping and more.

Businessman Bobby George, 43, is accused of a horrific pattern of abuse against a woman he lived with — including mocking her for praying to God that she wouldn’t die during one of multiple alleged attacks while the pair resided under the same roof.

“You think God is going to help you?” he reportedly taunted the 25-year-old victim as he allegedly shoved a towel down her throat and strangled her, according to police records obtained by Cleveland.com.

George, of Lakewood, Ohio, turned himself in to authorities after police issued a warrant Friday for his arrest on charges of attempted murder, rape, felony assault, four counts of kidnapping and two counts of strangulation, according to the local publication.

He appeared in Cleveland Municipal Court Tuesday and was released after posting a $200,000 bond — but must not contact the victim he’s accused of attacking multiple times from September 2023 up until last month per the order of protection the judge granted.

The victim “fears for her life” after the repeated attacks, a Cleveland police detective wrote in court documents cited by the local outlet.

In the first attack noted by police, George — who owns Cleveland restaurants TownHall and the Barley House — allegedly threw the woman into a kitchen cabinet, causing the glass of the cabinet to shatter.

The next month, police say he pinned her to the ground, choked her so that she couldn’t breathe and slammed her head into a table repeatedly. She reportedly suffered blurred vision and a ringing in her ears which were left bloodied, according to the court docs.

“The defendant then had victim treated by his business’(s) nurse-practitioner who diagnosed her with post-concussion syndrome,” the Cleveland police Domestic Violence Unit wrote in the arrest warrant, according to Cleveland.com.

In another alleged assault, George is accused of shoving a gun to the woman’s stomach after she tried to flee their residence in her car and forced her back inside, the arrest warrant states.

The rape charge comes from yet another attack when he allegedly pushed her to the ground and held her down while he raped her after she got out of the shower, according to the warrant.

Then in June came the prayer-mocking incident.

The victim hid in a closet as she prayed for her life only to be pulled out by the restauranteur who shoved a cloth into her throat, spit at her, bit her nose, choked her and pushed her around the home while refusing to let her leave, police alleged in the docs.

“Defendant pulled her hair, strangled her and threw her all over the house,” the Cleveland police detective wrote.

George reportedly apologized after admitting to some of the accusations against him and told the victim that he loves her in an audio recording, according to the court documents.

His attorney, Kevin Spellacy, told Cleveland.com that the charges shouldn’t have ever been brought against his client and implied that he was targeted for his well-known name in the community. He denied the allegations against George.

The Cleveland law director said the case was thoroughly investigated and handled no differently than other cases.

“It’s imperative for the public to know that this case was treated according to standard protocols like any other case — regardless of the defendant’s name, title, or occupation. The investigation remains ongoing,” law director Mark Griffin said in a statement to WKYC.

The local NBC affiliate station reported earlier this month that George refused to show the Paris Olympic games on TVs inside his businesses over the reported depiction of the “Last Supper” during the event’s opening ceremony.

“The portrayal of ‘The Last Supper’ was handled with an irresponsible level of irreverence, insulting the Christian faith,” signs at the restaurants said, according to the station.

If you or someone you know is affected by any of the issues raised in this story, call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1.800.799.SAFE (7233) or text START to 88788.

HAMILTON COUNTY, Ohio — Back-to-school is in full swing in the Tri-State, but experts said the exciting time of year can also bring the potential for danger as well.

“We tend to see more of the bomb threats or active shooter threats when it comes to go back to school. As well as around the springtime, the very end of spring when we go to get out of school,” said Emily Torok, the executive director of the Ohio School Safety Center.

The Cincinnati area has seen several school threats within just the last 12 months. On Monday, Hamilton High School saw their first day of school end early, after threatening phone calls were made. Back in April, a middle school student at West Clermont Middle School was charged after officials said he created a bomb threat. Even last December, local FBI agents investigated threatening emails made to several local schools.

Even with a large number of incidents at campuses locally, statewide and even nationally, law enforcement experts tell us that the threat of danger is slim.

“The clear majority are not credible, but again, you must take it seriously until you know it’s not credible,” said Mo Canady, a former police officer and executive director of the National Association of School Resource Officers.

Canady said Student Resource Officers (SROs) play a pivotal role in deciding how to respond when a school receives a threat, whether in-person, online or by phone.

“It really is important that the SRO is a functional part of any school’s multi-disciplinary safety team,” he said.

Canady said SROs can also be a helpful resource for students or parents to make reports to when something may be off or concerning.

“They’re there to be an advocate for you, to help keep you safe, and they are the right person for you to be able to report something that you see or hear that’s concerning to you,” he said.

The Ohio School Safety Center has a 24/7 resource available for anyone to report threats or suspicious activity, called the “Safer Ohio School Tipline.”

Parents, students or even staff can make anonymous reports online or by calling or texting 844-723-3764.

“The more we can do to have this anonymous reporting solutions out there, to have ways to report suspicious activity, the better our chances are to prevent something from happening,” Torok said.

Outside of the Ohio School Safety Center’s resources, Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost also has multiple school threat assessment training videos.