Good morning all. Here’s some quick news today.
Former University of Cincinnati police officer Ray Tensing’s attorneys won't prevail in a motion they filed yesterday seeking dismissal of the murder and manslaughter charges against. Tensing is on his second trial for the shooting death of unarmed motorist Sam DuBose during a routine traffic stop in July 2015 after a jury deadlocked the first time around last November. Tensing's request, which Hamilton County Common Pleas Court Judge Leslie Ghiz denied today, came after Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters spoke to WCPO about the case yesterday despite a gag order Ghiz issued. Assistant Prosecutor Mark Piepmeyer apologized for the breech of the gag order. Ghiz told both sides, in court today for the trial’s first day, that she was very angry about Deters’ actions and would hold him in contempt of court if he did it again. She said the breech of the gag order was “not egregious enough” to warrant dismissal of the case.
• Soccer team FC Cincinnati is currently scouting out three locations for a potential stadium dedicated to soccer, team president Jeff Berding acknowledged yesterday. The team is mulling sites in Cincinnati’s West End, perhaps near Taft high school’s football stadium; Oakley, on old industrial land like the former Cincinnati Milacron site; and Newport, near where the Licking and Ohio rivers meet. The possible stadium would be completed with $250 million in private investment, Berding told the Cincinnati Enquirer, and wouldn’t include a tax increase ask. The nascent plans are part of a bid to make FC Cincinnati a Major League Soccer franchise — the league requires teams play in their own dedicated stadiums. Staunch opposition to public funding for the stadiums has arisen from across the local political spectrum. A group called No More Stadium Taxes formed this week to advocate against public funding for such a stadium, as well as public funds for a renovation of U.S. Bank Arena. That group includes Tim Mara, who fought against the 1996 stadium financing footed largely by Hamilton County taxpayers. The financing for Paul Brown Stadium and Great American Ball Park has been widely derided as among the worst deals for taxpayers in the country.
• Ohio now has the Midwest’s second-largest city. Take that, Indiana. According to new Census data, Columbus has surpassed Indianapolis when it comes to population, meaning it's just behind Chicago in the ranks of Midwest cities, with 860,000 people. It’s also the 14th-largest city in the country. The rest of Ohio didn't fare as well, however. While Columbus’ population grew, Cleveland’s declined and Cincinnati’s increased only slightly.
• Health care activists who support former President Obama’s Affordable Care Act will hold a news conference outside the downtown Cincinnati office of U.S. Sen. Rob Portman today, according to a news release from the group. The event comes after the Congressional Budget Office last night released its score for a Republican effort to repeal and replace the healthcare law. The GOP’s American Health Care Act would mean 23 million more people would be uninsured in the next decade, according to the CBO, including 14 million people who could lose their insurance as early as next year. Among those gathering at the news conference today are representatives from Planned Parenthood Advocates of Ohio and the Human Rights Network, along with residents of Ohio who have personal stories about the ACA.
• The GOP’s plan slashes Medicaid and would drastically raise premiums for some who are chronically ill and those with pre-existing conditions — though it is projected to cost less for healthy consumers. Republicans in the U.S. House passed the bill earlier this month before the CBO issued a score — a rare move, and one that has left uncertainty about how GOP senators will proceed. Many have asked for big changes in the bill before they pass it, and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell yesterday expressed uncertainty about how it will pass.
• Let’s stay on Portman for a minute, who yesterday threw his support to fellow Republican Ohio Treasurer Josh Mandel in his campaign to unseat Democrat U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown next year. Portman gave Mandel his endorsement in a short video posted yesterday, citing his record as a fiscal conservative and his service in the Marine Corps. Mandel has launched a controversial, Donald Trump-inspired campaign to unseat Brown, a progressive Democrat who handily retired an earlier, 2012 challenge from Mandel. But Republicans feel Brown may be more vulnerable this time around, given that Trump won Ohio’s vote in the 2016 presidential election by eight points.
• White House officials say they’re standing down on a controversial budget ask that would have had big consequences for local anti-drug efforts. The Trump administration earlier this month proposed cutting 95 percent of funding given to the Office of National Drug Control Policy. That office directs several programs that work with local law enforcement to fight Ohio’s opiate epidemic, and the proposed cuts drew condemnation from local elected officials and law enforcement leaders. The Trump administration has backed off on calls for such deep cuts, however. In a budget proposal released Tuesday, the administration proposed a much more modest 3 percent cut to the office. All told, the administration will devote nearly $28 billion to drug prevention efforts. But most of those will go toward increased law enforcement efforts while treatment and prevention efforts see cuts. Trump’s budget proposal eliminates $235 million in funding for mental health programs and $73 million from substance abuse prevention efforts, for example.
• Finally, a GOP congressional candidate in Montana is accused of body-slamming a reporter attempting to ask him a question yesterday. Greg Gianforte, running in a special election to replace Trump's newly tapped Interior Secretary Ryan Zink, allegedly grabbed reporter Ben Jacobs of the Guardian by the neck and slammed him to the ground, according to other reporters in the room at the time. Some accounts say that Gianforte then began punching Jacobs. Wild.
