Ohio weed enthusiasts, contrary to stereotype, have been moving more quickly than anticipated in getting recreational marijuana on shelves.

Sales could begin as soon as mid-June, according to policymakers, the Division of Cannabis Control and dispensary owners. We had the exclusive on this story in April, but it finally came to fruition Monday.

The passage of Issue 2 allowed adults 21 years of age and older to smoke, vape and ingest weed. Individual Ohioans are able to grow up to six plants with up to 12 per household. Click here to learn more about what the law entails.

Per Issue 2, the Department of Cannabis Control (DCC) wasn’t set to start processing retailer applications until June. The governor and lawmakers initially predicted that weed would not be able to be bought legally until late summer or fall.

But, due to the DCC working quickly, the drug may be available in just one month.

“We’re really excited about the opportunity to serve adult-use consumers here in Ohio,” said Tom Haren, spokesperson for the Ohio Cannabis Coalition.

Haren is thrilled that the Joint Committee on Agency Rule Review (JCARR) has approved regulations from the Division of Cannabis Control, which means that medical dispensaries could start applying for a recreational license in the next few weeks.

This is great news for Phoebe DePree with Goddess Growers, who sells edibles. She said this opens up her products to a whole new market.

“It’s exciting for us because that adds an element of convenience to consumers,” DePree said. “It’s a real opportunity for us.”

This was spearheaded by state Rep. Jamie Callender, R-Concord, also the chair of JCARR. He fought against changes that senators wanted to make toward our current marijuana policy — such as cutting down on home grow and limiting THC content.

This approval should alleviate the squabbling between Republicans. There are two ways that marijuana would be able to be sold legally. Issue 2 set it so that the administration would make the guidelines, but the faster way would have been through legislative action.

The House and the Senate both proposed ideas, and their leaders have been arguing about whose policy is better for the state, which in turn has kept marijuana off the shelves despite being legalized five months ago.

The Senate passed a proposal in December to allow medical dispensaries to sell recreationally immediately. However, it would limit home grow, reduce THC levels and ban the vast majority of vapes — among dozens of other restrictions and changes to what the voters chose. Gov. Mike DeWine has urged its passage by the House.

The House has refused to touch it, saying the other chamber is going against the “will of the people,” with Callender being the leading voice of that sentiment.

“We’ve gotten past a lot of the fears that many of the senators and the governor’s office had originally — and have gotten to the point where they’re saying ‘Oh, yeah, this is gonna work,'” Callender said.

TIMELINE

The DCC has to file the rule in final form with JCARR, the Legislative Service Commission and the Secretary of State’s office by May 22.

From there, applications will be available before June 7. These will be available for medical dispensaries wanting to expand to everyone, called a dual license, and for groups just wanting to sell recreationally.

The application process will be easy to become a dual facility since medical dispensaries already have a strenuous licensure process, Callender told us. The applications could be approved in a week, he said.

Dual stores can start selling in mid-June, he anticipated. The DCC echoed these sentiments after the hearing.

But policymaking won’t end there — more rules are still needed.

“Packaging, child safety — some of those things I think still need to be dealt with,” the lawmaker said.

Ahead of those guidelines, Haren said that many of his dispensaries will be ready by mid-June.

“They’ve been working on getting processes in place, making whatever changes they need,” Haren said.

Callender plans to celebrate the first legal sale by buying the drug in Northeast Ohio, he said. On whether he would buy edibles or plants, the lawmaker jokingly made an attempt to act like he didn’t know which kind he liked.

“Well, I wouldn’t know because it’s not been legal for recreational use lately,” he said. “So back in college, all we had was what they now call flower.”

This is the best outcome of the marijuana debate, the lawmaker said, because Ohioans get to keep Issue 2 how they voted.

“In these really contentious times politically, it’s kind of nice to see the system actually working for the people — the way that people wanted it to,” he said, smiling. “I’m kind of proud that I played some role in helping make sure the will of the voters is occurring and occurring promptly.”

HHS RULES ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS PROTECTED BY DACA ELIGIBLE FOR GOVT.-SUBSIDIZED OBAMACARE

Tuesday, May 14, 2024
Judicial Watch

Illegal immigrants protected by a controversial Obama amnesty program for adults who came to the U.S. as children are eligible to receive government-subsidized health insurance under a new Biden administration rule that will cost American taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars annually. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) recently amended its regulations to extend the publicly funded perk to migrants who have benefited from Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), a measure enacted by the former president by executive order after Congress repeatedly rejected legislation offering illegal aliens similar protections. The failed bill was called Development Relief and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM Act) and those shielded by Obama’s order are often referred to as Dreamers.

So-called Dreamers specifically do not qualify for government-subsidized insurance under Obama’s disastrous healthcare overhaul, officially called the Affordable Care Act (ACA) but better known as Obamacare. The 2010 measure requires individuals to be citizens or lawfully present in the United States to enroll in a qualified health plan through the Obamacare exchange. ACA also requires enrollees to be to be lawfully present in the U.S. to be eligible for insurance affordability programs such as cost sharing reductions and advance payments of the premium tax credit. A few years after Obamacare passed, HHS issued regulations that explicitly exclude recipients of the former president’s DACA from being categorized as lawfully present in the country for the purpose of subsidized health insurance under ACA. The agency explained that allowing Dreamers to participate in the government’s insurance affordability programs was not consistent with the relief that the special amnesty initiative afforded, a reference to temporary protection from deportation.

Now HHS has done an about face, issuing a rule that makes DACA recipients eligible to enroll in a qualified health plan through an Obamacare exchange or a state basic health program. “Specifically, Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients and certain other noncitizens will be included in the definitions of “lawfully present” that are used to determine eligibility to enroll in a QHP through an Exchange, for Advance Payments of the Premium Tax Credit (APTC) and Cost-Sharing Reductions (CSRs), or for a BHP,” the new rule states. It will take effect on November 1 and HHS estimates that it will cost American taxpayers about $305 million annually. The agency explains in the new 145-page rule that after “further review and consideration, it is clear that the DACA policy is intended to provide recipients with a degree of stability and assurance that would allow them to obtain education and lawful employment, including because recipients remain lower priorities for removal.” Therefore, the document says, “extending eligibility to these individuals is consistent with those goals.”

More than half a million illegal immigrants are currently protected under DACA, according to government figures, and over 800,000 under the age of 31 have been shielded from deportation and allowed to obtain work permits and drivers licenses since the measure was enacted. A big chunk of DACA applicants have arrest records, according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), the Homeland Security agency that administers the nation’s lawful immigration system. Nearly 110,000 illegal aliens who requested the special Obama-era amnesty for adults who came to the U.S. as children have criminal histories for offenses that include assault, battery, rape, murder and driving under the influence. Tens of thousands of DACA recipients have multiple arrests and hundreds have more than 10 arrests, according to USCIS.

A few years ago, migrants protected under DACA were among rioters and looters arrested and criminally charged with crimes during a Black Lives Matter “Justice for George Floyd” protest in downtown Phoenix, Arizona. Among them was 30-year-old Mexican national Maxima Guerrero, a community organizer with a Phoenix-based grassroots migrant justice organization called Puente Movement. During the riots, Guerrero and her fellow DACA friends occupied a vehicle “loaded with incendiary devices,” according to a high-level Phoenix Police source. Now, thanks to the Biden administration, lawbreakers like Guerrero and her friends can get their health insurance subsidized by Uncle Sam.

S.O.S…SAVE OUR SENIORS

Saturday, May 11, 2024
Brian Massie, A Watchman on the Wall

We are taking the initiative to reach out to the Ohio Senators and Representatives to ensure that seniors, and those living on fixed incomes, are not priced out of their homes with the ever-increasing property taxes. Lake County seniors need immediate relief from the property taxes increases in store for them due to the estimated 30% increases in property valuations in 2024 to be collected in 2025.

If you agree with us, please share this article with your friends, relatives and acquaintances. We would like this to spread throughout Ohio, so that our legislators know that we mean business. Seniors are a powerful voting block, and they are tired of not having a voice in the State legislature.

Now is the time for all good citizens to come to the aid of the seniors.

If interested in adding your name, send email to: stoppropertytaxes@gmail.com
You can make a difference!

LETTER FOLLOWS:

All future property tax levies are going to be in jeopardy because of the massive increase in property taxes for Counties, Municipalities and School Districts without a vote of the people. We are seeing a massive money grab without any concern for the taxpayers.

You do not own your home, you are merely renters from the government because of the ever-increasing property taxes.

We are being taxed on unrealized gains.

Any tax that causes a citizen to become homeless is immoral!

Now is the time for all good citizens to Save Our Seniors!

PROPERTY TAX LEVY ISSUE COULD SEE HOUSE VOTE THIS WEEK

Friday, May 10, 2024

J.D. Davidson | The Center Square

The Ohio House could take up a bill this week that would force clear language on ballots for potential property tax increases and stop school districts from using individuals to challenge tax assessments.

House Bill 344 could be on the House agenda when it meets Wednesday after it passed the chamber's Ways and Means Committee on a Republican-majority 10-6 party-line vote.

Sponsors say voters can sometimes be confused when a school district places either a new, replacement or renewal levy on the ballot. The bill would require ballot language to point out what had been paid and what would be paid if the levy passes.

“Seemingly every election, different property tax levies are placed on the ballot,” Reps. Adam Mathews, R-Lebanon, and Thomas Hall, R-Madison Township, told the committee. “‘New levy’ and ‘increase’ are easy to understand, but many voters treat ‘renewal’ and ‘replacement’ as synonyms when they function entirely differently as replacements can increase the asked-for amount and the taxpayer’s final bill. Voters are also frequently unaware that there is a world of difference between the effective tax rates they are paying on an existing levy and the official ‘voted’ amount they would be paying under a new levy.”

The bill also aims what sponsors say is restoring the intent of legislation passed in 2022 that intended to stop school districts from challenging valuations.

According to Mathews and Hall, since the law went into effect in July 2022, districts have used either their treasurer or an attorney at the district’s law firm to file the complaints. Then, the district would file a counter complaint to allow it to join as a third party.

“This straw man strategy has been used in hundreds of cases and creates an environment without clarity for property owners, investors, and auditors,” the two sponsors said.

The bill would not allow an individual to act as an agent of a governmental entity that could benefit from a valuation increase.

Opponents, however, say the legislation would stop taxing entities from placing replacement levies for voter approval and tightens tax complaint properties for large, undervalued properties.

They say the bill would shift tax burdens from large companies to individual taxpayers.

“At a time of historic property tax increases, I am stunned that my Republican colleagues would vote to shift more of the tax burden onto Ohio’s most vulnerable, essentially raising taxes on them, and then somehow mysteriously calling it tax relief,” said Rep. Daniel Troy, D-Willowick. “Our tax system should be fair and uniform, where no one is overburdened because others are underburdened. Ohioans have been crying out for real, meaningful property tax relief and House Bill 344 does absolutely nothing to help them.”

During committee hearings, the bill was opposed by several government taxing agencies but supported by business groups.

WHAT'S NEXT AFTER THE FTC SAID THE BIGGEST GROCERS WERE INFLATING FOOD COSTS?

Friday, May 10, 2024
Marty Schladen | Ohio Capital Journal

The Federal Trade Commission in March released a report saying that the three largest grocers “accelerated and distorted” food costs amid supply disruptions caused by the coronavirus pandemic. It also said that prices — and profits — remain high for Kroger, Walmart and Amazon even after the supply kinks have straightened themselves out.

But the country’s trade watchdog didn’t say in its report what might be done about it. The agency this week might have given a hint.

The commission is already suing to block a proposed merger between Cincinnati-based Kroger and Boise, Idaho-based Albertsons, arguing that the deal will “eliminate fierce competition … leading to higher prices for groceries and other essential household items for millions of Americans.”

But that’s unrelated to the findings of the “6(b)” report, which was started during the pandemic in November 2021. It found problems with consolidation in the grocery sector even without the Kroger-Albersons merger.

Asked if the FTC planned to do anything about those problems, an agency official speaking on background on Monday said, “The report outlines several areas where further scrutiny by the FTC and policymakers is warranted. The report doesn’t specifically spell out any enforcement actions to be taken as a result of the report, but the report will inform the FTC’s future work as the Commission reviews potentially anticompetitive mergers and conduct as it works to protect consumers.”

The report itself found several broad areas in which it said the three big grocers were using their size to suppress competition.

One had to do with the big boys’ use of “on time, in full,” or OTIF, contracts with their suppliers. Because they’re such huge customers, they’re able to get strict guarantees that they’ll have their orders completely and promptly fulfilled or the supplier has to pay a steep penalty.

The FTC report said that at the beginning of the pandemic, virtually no grocers were insisting that the terms of their OTIF contracts be met — an acknowledgement that supply-chain disruptions made it impossible. But as time wore on, some of the biggest grocers reimposed them with a vengeance, the report said.

“Even as the supply chain crisis brought on by the pandemic continued, some retailers reimposed or even heightened the standards for their OTIF policies later in 2020,” it said. “For example, Walmart tightened its OTIF requirements in September 2020, requiring suppliers to achieve 98 percent OTIF compliance to avoid fines of 3%.”

Imposition of the contracts had an anticompetitive effect because, in a time of scarcity, they directed limited supplies of some items to the biggest grocers while their smaller competitors went begging, the report said.

In addition, large grocers are able to use their heft to negotiate constant, relatively low prices from suppliers, a practice known as “everyday low pricing.” Meanwhile, their smaller competitors depend on producer promotions to offer certain items at temporarily low rates.

As the pandemic set in and producers were already struggling to fill orders, they had little incentive to voluntarily reduce prices. That created another mismatch between the biggest grocers and their smaller competitors, the FTC report said.

“Promotions designed to increase sales made little sense when those producers were unable to meet existing demand,” it said. “These changes affected retailers differently depending on their pricing model. Most notably, these trade promotions reflect a significant amount of money within the industry, and so the competitive impact of these differential effects (or of the promotions generally), may warrant further study.”

More broadly, food prices have jumped 25% over four years and they remain high even as supply problems related to covid have eased. Grocers have said their costs remain high, but according to the FTC report, food and beverage retailers saw their revenue rise to 6% over total costs in 2021 — higher than the previous peak of 5.6% in 2015. Then in the first three quarters of 2023, it went even higher — to 7% over costs.

It seems that might be an avenue of further inquiry.

“This profit trend casts doubt on assertions that rising prices at the grocery store are simply moving in lockstep with retailers’ own rising costs,” the report said. “Examining the cause or nature of rising industry profits is beyond the scope of this limited study into pandemic-related supply chain disruptions. However, the question warrants further inquiry by the Commission and policymakers.”

GOV. SIGNALS LOOMING SCANDAL AT TEACHERS' PENSION FUND

May 9, 2024
Marty Schladen | Ohio Capital Journal

After years of complaints about gold-plated salaries, billions in investment fees and lackluster returns, things seem poised to hit the fan at Ohio’s State Teachers Retirement System.

Gov. Mike DeWine on Wednesday issued a press release saying that he was alarmed at the news that a consultant for the $90 billion retirement plan, Aon, was severing its contract.

“This is a huge red flag, calling into question how STRS is operating and providing oversight,” the press release said. “The unstated implication is that the governance issues at STRS are so concerning that Aon could not continue its contract in good faith. STRS may now be out of compliance with portions of audit recommendations due to Aon ending the contract.”

The statement also cited unspecified allegations against members of the pension fund’s board, to which the governor appoints some members.

“Additionally, my office has received documents containing some other disturbing allegations regarding the STRS board,” the statement said. “I have directed my staff to forward these documents to a number of relevant offices, including the Ohio Ethics Commission, the Ohio Retirement Study Council, Attorney General Yost, Auditor Faber, Treasurer Sprague, Secretary of State LaRose, and relevant members of the Ohio General Assembly. I encourage them to review the document and take any action that may be appropriate under any jurisdiction they may have.”

Retirees have long complained of rarely getting cost-of-living increases while the retirement system awarded huge bonuses to already well-paid investment managers. For example, the system in 2022 handed out $10 million in bonuses just before announcing that the system’s investments lost $5.3 billion that year.

Last November, the system’s executive director, Bill Neville, was suspended amid employee complaints of inappropriate behavior.

DeWine himself has fueled some of the controversy at the retirement system. Exactly a year ago, just as reformers were about to achieve a majority on the board, DeWine terminated a reform member.

DeWine said the member, Wade Steen, didn’t attend board meetings regularly enough. But Steen countered that the charge was trumped up. The Ohio 10th District Court of Appeals said DeWine’s termination of Steen was unlawful and ordered that Steen be restored to his position.

The turmoil at the teachers’ pension fund isn’t the only controversy facing the DeWine administration.

DeWine and his lieutenant governor, Jon Husted, haven’t explained their and their staffs’ involvement in an epic utility scandal that featured $61 million in bribes and a $1.3 billion ratepayer bailout as the payoff. A former house speaker and a former state GOP chairman are serving lengthy federal prison sentences in the scandal, which has also resulted in two suicides.

BIDEN ADMINISTRATION DEFENDS TREATMENT OF VETERANS DESPITE IG REPORT

Sunday, May 5, 2024
Casey Harper | The Center Square

U.S. Veterans Affairs Secretary Denis McDonough

The U.S. Department of Veterans’ Affairs pledged to protect veterans and address any problems identified by federal watchdogs after an Inspector General report raised concerns about the physicians employed by the VA.

Press Secretary Terrence Hayes responded to an inquiry from The Center Square about recent IG reports. The reports in question said that the healthcare wing of the VA was paying doctors to care for veterans even after those doctors had been disqualified for safety reasons.

“At VA, our mission is to make sure Veterans get the world-class health care they deserve from caring, qualified professionals – and we will never settle for anything less,” Hayes told The Center Square. “Inspector General reviews like this help us make VA health care better, and we are already taking action to address the OIG’s recommendations.”

As The Center Square previously reported, U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., raised questions with Secretary of Department of Veterans Affairs Denis McDonough  about the treatment of veterans.

His letter pointed out that internal policies at the VA would not prevent health care providers from being paid to treat veterans even after those health care providers had violated federal policies.

Hayes said the agency would respond to Rubio’s letter directly and that the agency is beefing up review processes for health care providers after the IG report’s results.

“We are thoroughly reviewing our criteria and processes to ensure that all ineligible health care providers are identified and excluded from participating in VA’s Community Care Program,” Hayes said. “And, we are establishing an appropriate review process for the Veterans Health Administration to ensure that past removals of health care providers were due to patient safety concerns.”

Rubio called for accountability at the VA and pointed to examples of physicians who should not have been treating veterans.

“While this is an issue that needs to be addressed nationwide, one specific instance the VA OIG has considered in recent months resulted from a case involving a surgeon who had a medical license revoked in Florida but later would participate as a provider in the VCCP,” the letter said. “The OIG found that the surgeon voluntarily relinquished a Florida medical license after being investigated by the Florida Department of Health and notified of ‘a potential termination for cause.’ The OIG stated that Optum was unclear on whether such an instance should be considered as part of the VCCP credentialing process, and OIG stated that the VA’s contracts do not address or define this terminology.”

Hayes also pledged to address the third-party providers who are ineligible to care for veterans.

“Further, we will make certain that appropriate corrective actions are established for providers who have been identified as ineligible – including working with our third-party administrators – to ensure that these ineligible providers are removed from the Community Care Network,” Hayes told The Center Square. “We will not rest until this issue is fully resolved for the Veterans we serve.”

NYPD SAYS PROTESTERS HAD WEAPONS, GAS MASKS AND 'DEATH TO AMERICA!' PAMPHLETS

Sunday, May 5, 2024
By Tom Gantert | The Center Square

NYPD Deputy Commissioner Kaz Daughtry posted on X photos of items  he said the police confiscated from protesters who took over Hamilton  Hall at Columbia University.

A high-ranking official with the New York Police Department said protesters had weapons including knives and hammers as well as pamphlets with "Death to America!" written on them.

Michael Kemper, a NYPD's chief of transit, posted photos Friday of what police confiscated from the protesters.

“For those romanticizing the protests occurring on college campuses, ‘Death to America!’ is one sentiment that runs counter to what we believe in, what we stand for, and what many have fought for on behalf of this country,” Kemper stated on X. “And if you think the words written on this piece of paper are disturbing … you should hear the vile, disgusting, hateful, & threatening words coming out of the mouths of far too many of these so called ‘peaceful protestors.’”

Kemper posted a video of a pamphlet that stated, “Death to Israeli Real Estate” and “Death to America!” The pamphlet also stated, “DISRUPT/RECLAIM/DESTROY Zionist business interests everywhere!”

NYPD Deputy Commissioner Kaz Daughtry posted on X photos of items he said the police confiscated from protesters who took over Hamilton Hall at Columbia University. The photo showed gas masks, ear plugs, helmets, goggles, tape, hammers, knives, ropes, and a book on terrorism. The book is by Charles Townshend, Professor of International History at Keele University in England. It was published in 2011 and is 161 pages.

"These are not the tools of students protesting, these are the tools of agitators, of people who were working on something nefarious," Daughtry said on X. "Thankfully, your NYPD was able to prevent whatever they were planning and stop them before they could do it."

Kemper asked who was organizing the protests.

"However, as we have been stating for the past 2 weeks, there is an underlying radical indoctrination of some of these students. Vulnerable and young people being influenced by professional agitators. Who is funding and leading this movement?" Kemper asked on X.

Kemper also posted a letter from The New School requesting the NYPD's assistance in removing protesters from their campus on Friday.

"The actions and continuing escalation of these individuals are a substantial disruption of the educational environment and regular operations of the university," the letter stated.

The New School is a university in New York City. It closed all academic building on Friday and classes were moved to online. The college said classes on campus would resume Saturday.

Fox News reported that 56 protesters were arrested at The New School and New York University.

OHIO AG YOST JOINS FIVE OTHER STATES SUING U.S. DEPT. OF EDUCATION OVER BIDEN TITLE IX RULES

April 30, 2024
Jon Styf and Jack Windsor

Tennessee and West Virginia led a six-state lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Education challenging the federal overhaul of Title IX of the Educational Amendments Act. Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, and Virginia joined the suit.

The lawsuit is one of several filed nationally on the topic after Biden’s administration rewrote the Title IX statute to expand the definition of “sex” to include “gender identity.”

"This regulation turns the statute upside down. Title IX was meant to protect equal opportunity for women," Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost said. "This new rule says that there are no opportunities that are exclusively for women, and men who identify as women can use the programs and facilities designed for women."

“The U.S. Department of Education has no authority to let boys into girls’ locker rooms,” Tennessee Attorney General Skrmetti said in a statement. “In the decades since its adoption, Title IX has been universally understood to protect the privacy and safety of women in private spaces like locker rooms and bathrooms.

“Under this radical and illegal attempt to rewrite the statute, if a man enters a woman’s locker room and a woman complains that makes her uncomfortable, the woman will be subject to investigation and penalties for violating the man’s civil rights.”

Skrmetti’s office said the DOE is essentially abolishing sex-based distinctions in educational activities and programs and forcing states to accept radical gender ideology in schools.

The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky.

"If this unauthorized rewrite of Title IX by the executive branch is allowed to stand, the suit says, Ohio schools will have to allow males from preschool through college who self-identify as female to use girls’/women’s bathrooms, locker rooms, and student housing, play on girls’/women’s sports teams, and access other female-only activities and spaces, or risk losing billions in federal funding," a press release from Yost's office stated.

The statement continued, "the sweeping Title IX mandate would disrupt schools’ long-lasting practices of protecting student privacy and safety, unfairly undermine women’s academic and athletic accomplishments and their associated societal advancement, and punish states for following their own laws."

Alabama, Florida, Georgia and South Carolina joined in a similar lawsuit filed Monday in federal court in Alabama.

MARK CUBAN HAS A SIMPLE QUESTION FOR CVS'S DRUG MIDDLEMAN: WHY DON'T YOU PUBLISH YOUR PRICES?

April 26, 2024
Marty Schladen | Ohio Capital Journal

Businessman and TV personality Mark Cuban has a seemingly straightforward question for the huge drug middleman owned by CVS: If you’re as transparent about drug pricing as you claim, why don’t you publish prices on your website?

The company didn’t answer directly.

Cuban, founder of Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drugs, last week raised that question to the Capital Journal in response to a paid column that appeared April 3 in Forbes magazine. It was written by David Joyner, president of CVS Caremark, CVS’s pharmacy benefit manager, or PBM.

The company is the largest drug middleman in the United States. It represents insurers in drug transactions by creating lists of drugs that are covered, negotiating deals with manufacturers, reconciling transactions at the pharmacy counter and reimbursing pharmacists.

The three biggest PBMs — CVS Caremark, OptumRx, and Express Scripts — are part of giant corporations that each own a top-10 insurer. Together they represent 80% of the patients whose prescriptions are covered by insurance. And they say they use that size to force the big pharmaceutical companies to reduce prices.

“Our size and scale allow us to go toe-to-toe with drug companies, driving competition and negotiating discounts that make the difference between someone affording their medication or going without,” Joyner wrote in his Forbes column.

However, those companies have for years been dogged by accusations that they’re not transparent and that they’re pocketing huge amounts from their position as middleman in lucrative pharmaceutical transactions.

For example, a special investigation by the Ohio Department of Medicaid showed that CVS Caremark and OptumRx in 2017 took nearly a quarter-billion dollars in previously unknown fees from the health program for the poor. Six years later, the companies are still in court, fighting to keep secret information that it redacted in the report — even though the media reported it in 2019.

Questions about the big PBMs reached the point that the Federal Trade Commission in 2022 mounted a major investigation of the companies’ practices. It’s ongoing.

Amid stories about seemingly arbitrary pricing in which the big PBMs were sometimes paying themselves 100 times as much for drugs as they could be gotten elsewhere, Cuban and others started opening businesses that take drug purchases outside the insurance/PBM system. Discarding the PBM model of using a dizzying array of “maximum allowable cost” lists, the pharmacies publish their cost for the drugs and charge that plus a set markup plus a set dispensing fee.

For example, pharmacist Nate Hux opened Freedom Pharmacy in Pickerington. Illustrating how arbitrary pricing in the insurance/PBM system can be, Hux in 2021 reported selling a patient Celecoxib — a generic version of the anti-inflammatory drug Celebrex — for $23.05. When the patient used her insurance, her copayment alone had been $141.

The Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drug Company site reports other such disparities.

In his column, Joyner, the CVS Caremark president, points out that such operations deal chiefly in generics — the least expensive class of drugs that are no longer patented and thus available from multiple manufacturers. He said the idea behind such cost-plus businesses is old and outmoded.

“The reality is, the Cost Plus offering is neither novel nor unique — it is a generic sourcing business that is 10 years too late,” Joyner wrote.

Cuban appeared to tweak Joyner for claiming the Cost Plus idea is irrelevant, while simultaneously going to the trouble to write a column in a national magazine criticizing it.

“My only response is that we are honored that he would take the time to talk about us and we hope he continues to do so,” Cuban, an owner of the Dallas Mavericks, said in an email.

In his column, Joyner said Cuban’s operation couldn’t address “the real issue: This country has a brand drug pricing problem.”

Those are the more-expensive drugs that are still under patent. The big PBMs negotiate huge, non-transparent rebates and discounts from their manufacturers in exchange for covering them on behalf of the millions of patients they represent. Joyner blamed drugmakers for raising list prices of drugs, but research has shown that list prices go up in conjunction with rebates and discounts received by PBMs.

A spokesman for CVS Caremark didn’t respond directly to a question asking whether, through its negotiations, the company impacts the prices of branded drugs.

In his column, Joyner also said CVS Caremark was bringing sunlight to drug pricing. He wrote, “… we are creating a more transparent environment for drug pricing in this country, and it’s not just for 2,500 drugs; it’s for every drug from every manufacturer for every condition and every patient.”

That prompted Cuban to ask whether the company would publish drug prices on its website as his company had.

“All anyone has to do is go to costplusdrugs.com and look at our pricing and then go to their websites and do the same,” Cuban said. “Then they can make their own decisions.”

Asked whether CVS Caremark would publish prices, its spokesman, Phil Blando again didn’t respond directly.

“The point David (Joyner) is making is one we’ve talked to you and many others about: PBMs are the only enduring protection from high prescription drug prices for seniors, the disabled, and working families,” Blando said in an email. “Prior to the advent of PBMs, consumers were at the mercy of drug companies’ high list prices. Many patients could not afford their medicines and otherwise manageable conditions took a heavy toll. We remain confident in our model and our ability to deliver sustainable savings to our clients and their members without sacrificing access or quality.”

For his part, Hux on Monday said his Pickerington business has grown by the month. He said word-of-mouth, media coverage and Cuban’s venture have all raised awareness of the cost-plus pricing model.

He said that it not only allows him to offer many medicines much more cheaply, the model also creates fewer headaches than his insurance-using pharmacy does.

“We don’t have to fool around with chasing claims, all the extra administrative work,” Hux said. “The documentation, there’s a lot of paperwork to deal with. And the fees they charge the pharmacies. And the audits. It’s just very inefficient. I hate it.”

OHIO DEMOCRAT WANTS TO ENSURE UTILITIES' POLITICAL SPENDING DOESN'T WIND UP ON CONSUMERS' BILLS

Friday, April 26, 2024
Nick Evans | Ohio Capital Journal

In the nearly four years since former Ohio House speaker Larry Householder was indicted, a cascade of stories have come to light illustrating the influence public utilities have in state politics. In just the last week, Ohioans have learned FirstEnergy funneled money to dark money groups backing Gov. Mike DeWine, Lt. Gov. Jon Husted and Senate President Matt Huffman.

State Rep. Lauren McNally, D-Youngstown, is trying to put up guardrails. She’s sponsoring legislation prohibiting utilities from recouping the money they spend on politics through rates or riders. If a utility gets caught circumventing those restrictions they’d have to refund customers with interest and pay a fine. Those fines would be placed in a fund meant to help cover past due utility expenses.

The bill, known as HB 444, also requires utilities to publicize their political spending on an annual basis through the Public Utility Commission of Ohio website.

The measure would give legislative backing to what is already standard practice. The PUCO relies on federal accounting standards that prohibit calculating political spending when setting rates, but McNally argued that hasn’t been good enough.

“So if this system,” she said, “as it is today, just this quote-unquote long standing practice, worked as an efficient deterrent for utilities’ rate recovery of political expenditures, then FirstEnergy really could not have amassed $61 million in revenues to bribe public officials.”

First hearing

In committee, McNally described a familiar parental complaint. She’s a mother of four and explained, “my kids seem to never be able to keep the front door closed.”

“They’re constantly letting the air conditioning out, the heat out. They never shut a light off,” she said. “So I’m always following them around closing doors, turning lights off, sounding like my parents saying money doesn’t grow on trees.”

For many families, McNally explained, the utility costs that come with those open doors and lights left on, can really add up. She described regularly chatting with other parents about utility costs and “how hot we should let it get before turning our air conditioner on.”

Ohio’s electricity rates fall near the middle of the pack among U.S. states, but McNally noted they’re rising quickly. In 2022, the 14.3% increase in electricity bills was more than double the rate of annual inflation.

McNally allowed paying fees to improve a service or maintain infrastructure might be reasonable, but being forced to cover a utility’s political efforts, even indirectly, is not. She compared it to grocery stores asking customers to round up their bill to support a local food pantry. The latter is fine she argued because it’s voluntary and transparent.

“But what if they asked me to give a few dollars to support their corporate, political agenda?” she asked. “What if they wouldn’t tell us what that agenda is, how it improves the product, or makes our costs go down? What if they didn’t ask at all, and paying for it was mandatory?”

To bar utilities from taking those steps, she said, HB 444 combines rules, disclosure and enforcement. In addition to codifying the prohibition on including political spending in rate setting calculations, the bill explicitly defines what spending falls under the umbrella.

Contributions to political candidates and political parties obviously count. Lobbying expenses, too. But the measure also includes industry association dues, public relations expenditures or donations to the non-profit, dark money organizations politicians often rely on to obscure fundraising.

To help Ohioans follow what political spending utilities are engaging in, the bill requires them to report the previous year’s expenditures on Jan. 1. That report must include the recipient, the amount and the purpose of the expenditure. The PUCO would then combine those disclosures into a single report to be submitted to the general assembly by Feb. 1.

If a utility circumvented the law requirements, the punishment would be costly. McNally explained the utility would be on the hook for 20 times what it charged customers. Part of the money would reimburse rate payers with interest, and the excess would go to a fund meant to help people who are behind on their bills.

“It sends a clear message on the cost of corruption here in Ohio and who will pay for it,” McNally said. “The world is watching, and the time to send this message is now.”

OHIO U.S. SEN. SHERROD BROWN'S FEND OFF FENTANYL ACT SIGNED INTO LAW

Thursday, April 25, 2024
Nick Evans | Ohio Capital Journal

Aid for Ukraine may be the most consequential part of the foreign aid measures Congress recently approved, and President Joe Biden signed into law, but U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown is highlighting a different policy change wrapped into the effort. The Ohio Democrat’s FEND Off Fentanyl Act was part of a wide-ranging bill including provisions to use frozen Russian assets and potentially force the sale of TikTok.

“Our legislation would impose new, more powerful sanctions targeting the entire fentanyl supply chain,” Brown said in a recent conference call, “from the chemical suppliers in China to the Mexican cartels that traffic the drugs into our country.”

Passage of Brown’s measure comes nearly a year to the day after he and U.S. Sen. Tim Scott, R-SC, introduced the idea. The proposal declares fentanyl trafficking a national emergency and places new sanctions on the leaders of trafficking organizations. The measure also gives the U.S. Treasury Department more latitude to combat money laundering tied to trafficking and gives officials the authority to make use of forfeited property for law enforcement efforts.

“Law enforcement in Ohio and around the country made it clear that we needed more tools to stop fentanyl at its source,” Brown said in a statement shortly after President Biden signed the bill into law.

“Because of our work together, those tools are now law and can begin to be put to use going after the cartels,” he added. “Today is an important step in our fight to stop the illicit fentanyl that is flooding Ohio communities.”

THE OPIOID CRISIS

In 2021, the most recent national data, more than 80,400 Americans died of an opioid overdose. Those figures, from the National Institute on Drug Abuse, portray a sharp increase in overdose deaths — the number of fatalities effectively doubled in just five years.

In a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention state-by-state comparison of mortality from any drug, Ohio lands near the top. In terms of raw number of overdose deaths, the state had the fifth most in 2021, and in terms of rate, it landed at seventh.

Fentanyl has been particularly deadly. According to preliminary state figures from Ohio, 81% of unintentional overdose deaths in 2022 involved the drug. Ohio’s overdose deaths overall declined by about 5% compared to the peak in 2021. But even then, 2022 saw more than 4,900 Ohioans die from an overdose. More than 3,900 of those were related to fentanyl.

The organization Harm Reduction Ohio tracks data from the state’s mortality database, and while it notes official reporting is still months away, 2023 is on track to see another modest decline.

Still, addressing opioid abuse is, and has been, a priority for politicians from both parties at the local, state and federal level. Brown and his former Senate colleague Republican Rob Portman teamed up on several measures during their time together.

Fighting the opioid crisis also remains a perennial feature in campaign ads and political debates. Brown’s campaign team, for instance, was quick to seize on Republican Bernie Moreno’s statement that he would’ve supported aid to Israel but not the broader package of legislation.

Although Moreno, who’s challenging Brown for his Senate seat this November, didn’t weigh in on the FEND Off Fentanyl Act specifically, Ohio Democrats painted Moreno’s dismissal as part of a broader rejection of bipartisanship.

In line with former president Donald Trump, Moreno vehemently opposed an earlier Senate bill pairing Ukraine funding with several conservative immigration policy changes. In an interview with the Ohio Press Network, Moreno insisted, “I did read all 357 pages,” and it “highlights every single thing that’s wrong with Washington D.C.”

“It’s grotesque, it’s disgusting, and I would do everything in my power to make certain that something like that bill never got passed,” Moreno said.

Brown’s FEND Off Fentanyl Act was included on page 225.

After this story was published, Moreno spokeswoman Reagan McCarthy offered additional context.

“Bernie is happy to see any action to stop the flow of fentanyl into our country and would have supported this as a standalone bill,” McCarthy said before criticizing Brown’s “long record of supporting open border policies that have exacerbated the fentanyl crisis.”

In particular she cited a 2022 vote in which Brown opposed funding for U.S. Customs and Border Protection to “better detect fentanyl coming across the border.” It’s an apparent reference to an amendment offered by U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-SC, during the Senate’s vote-a-rama on the Inflation Reduction Act. That proposal would’ve earmarked $500 million to install vehicle scanners at the southern border, among other provisions dealing with oil and gas leases and building energy codes.

However, here again the Senate bill Moreno called ‘grotesque’ carried similar provisions — setting aside $424.5 million for the “acquisition and deployment of non-intrusive inspection technology.” Notably, the acting director of Customs and Border Protection as well as the head of the Border Patrol union both endorsed the measure at the time.

THE FEND OFF FENTANYL ACT

Brown’s package of sanctions and anti-money laundering provisions has the backing of several law enforcement organizations including the Fraternal Order of Police, National Association of Police Officers, the National Sheriff’s Association.

Wood County Sheriff Mark Wasylyshyn joined Sen. Brown’s call with reporters earlier this week and praised the measure for targeting the flow of drugs into the country.

“Fentanyl is ravaging our communities and killing our citizens, and we must stop the flow at the source immediately,” he said.

He referenced a recent Congressional report that shows the Chinese government is directly subsidizing the production of fentanyl precursors so long as they’re sold outside China. Once they cross the ocean, those chemicals are fueling massive trafficking enterprises.

“They’re making billions — with the B — a year, and we have to stop that,” Wasylyshyn said. “As long as they’re making that kind of money, they’re going to do whatever it takes to get through this.”

Brown described hearing the same concerns from law enforcement over and over again.

“In Youngstown or Toledo, Cincinnati or Cleveland, Zanesville, Columbus, Bowling Green,” Brown said, “law enforcement tells us one of the best ways we can support them in this fight is by doing more to keep it from reaching Ohio in the first place.”

NEARSIGHTEDNESS IS AT EPIDEMIC LEVELS – AND THE PROBLEM BEGINS IN CHILDHOOD

Thursday, April 25, 2024
Andrew Herbert | The Conversation

Myopia, or the need for corrected vision to focus or see objects at a distance, has become a lot more common in recent decades. Some even consider myopia, also known as nearsightedness, an epidemic.

Optometry researchers estimate that about half of the global population will need corrective lenses to offset myopia by 2050 if current rates continue – up from 23% in 2000 and less than 10% in some countries.

The associated health care costs are huge. In the United States alone, spending on corrective lenses, eye tests and related expenses may be as high as US$7.2 billion a year.

What explains the rapid growth in myopia?

I’m a vision scientist who has studied visual perception and perceptual defects. To answer that question, first let’s examine what causes myopia – and what reduces it.

A closer look at myopia.

HOW MYOPIA DEVELOPS

While having two myopic parents does mean you’re more likely to be nearsighted, there’s no single myopia gene. That means the causes of myopia are more behavioral than genetic.

Optometrists have learned a great deal about the progression of myopia by studying visual development in infant chickens. They do so by putting little helmets on baby chickens. Lenses on the face of the helmet cover the chicks’ eyes and are adjusted to affect how much they see.

Just like in humans, if visual input is distorted, a chick’s eyes grow too large, resulting in myopia. And it’s progressive. Blur leads to eye growth, which causes more blur, which makes the eye grow even larger, and so on.

Two recent studies featuring extensive surveys of children and their parents provide strong support for the idea that an important driver of the uptick in myopia is that people are spending more time focusing on objects immediately in front of our eyes, whether a screen, a book or a drawing pad. The more time we spend focusing on something within arm’s length of our faces, dubbed “near work,” the greater the odds of having myopia.

So as much as people might blame new technologies like smartphones and too much “screen time” for hurting our eyes, the truth is even activities as valuable as reading a good book can affect your eyesight.

OUTSIDE LIGHT KEEPS MYOPIA AT BAY

Other research has shown that this unnatural eye growth can be interrupted by sunlight.

A 2022 study, for example, found that myopia rates were more than four times greater for children who didn’t spend much time outdoors – say, once or twice a week – compared with those who were outside daily. At the same time, kids who spent more than three hours a day while not at school reading or looking at a screen close-up were four times more likely to have myopia than those who spent an hour or less doing so.

In another paper, from 2012, researchers conducted a meta-analysis of seven studies that compared duration of time spent outdoors with myopia incidence. They also found that more time spent outdoors was associated with lower myopia incidence and progression. The odds of developing myopia dropped by 2% for each hour spent outside per week.

Other researchers have reported similar effects and argued for much more time outdoors and changes in early-age schooling to reduce myopia prevalence.

‘Why so many people need glasses now.’

WHAT’S DRIVING THE EPIDEMIC

That still doesn’t explain why it’s on the rise so rapidly.

Globally, a big part of this is due to the rapid development and industrialization of countries in East Asia over the last 50 years. Around that time, young people began spending more time in classrooms reading and focusing on other objects very close to their eyes and less time outdoors.

This is also what researchers observed in the North American Arctic after World War II, when schooling was mandated for Indigenous people. Myopia rates for Inuit went from the single digits before the 1950s to upwards of 70% by the 1970s as all children began attending schools for the first time.

Countries in Western Europe, North America and Australia have shown increased rates of myopia in recent years but nothing approaching what has been observed recently in China, Japan, Singapore and a few other East Asian countries. The two main factors identified as leading to increased myopia are increased reading and other activities that require focusing on an object close to one’s eyes and a reduction in time spent outdoors.

The surge in myopia cases will likely have its worst effects 40 or 50 years from now because it takes time for the young people being diagnosed with nearsightedness now to experience the most severe vision problems.

TREATING MYOPIA

Fortunately, just a few minutes a day with glasses or contact lenses that correct for blur stops the progression of myopia, which is why early vision testing and vision correction are important to limit the development of myopia. Eye checks for children are mandatory in some countries, such as the U.K. and now China, as well as most U.S. states.

People with with high myopia, however, have increased risk of blindness and other severe eye problems, such as retinal detachment, in which the retina pulls away from the the back of the eye. The chances of myopia-related macular degeneration increase by 40% for each diopter of myopia. A diopter is a unit of measurement used in eye prescriptions.

But there appear to be two sure-fire ways to offset or delay these effects: Spend less time focusing on objects close to your face, like books and smartphones, and spend more time outside in the bright, natural light. Given the first one is difficult advice to take in our modern age, the next best thing is taking frequent breaks – or perhaps spend more time reading and scrolling outside in the sun.

Andrew Herbert is Professor of Psychology, Visual Perception, Rochester Institute of Technology

TRUTH SOCIAL CEO CALLS ON HOUSE TO INVESTIGATE POTENTIAL 'UNLAWFUL MANIPULATION OF DJT STOCK'

Thursday, April 25, 2024
By Nicholas Ballasy

"Such an inquiry is needed to protect shareholders, including TMTG’s retail investors," Nunes says

Devin Nunes, CEO of the Trump Media & Technology Group, is asking House committee leaders to investigate the potential "unlawful manipulation of DJT stock."

In a letter to the committees, Nunes pointed out that DJT [the initials for Donald J. Trump] has appeared every day since April 2 on Nasdaq’s "Reg SHO threshold list," which he said is "indicative of unlawful trading activity."

The concern follows Trump Media & Technology Group, whose flagship product is social networking site Truth Social, began being traded late last month on the Nasdaq stock market.

"This is particularly troubling given that 'naked' short selling often entails sophisticated market participants profiting at the expense of retail investors," Nunes wrote in the letter released on Tuesday. "Reports indicate that, as of April 3, 2024, DJT was the single most expensive stock to short in U.S. markets by a significant margin, meaning that brokers have a significant financial incentive to lend non-existent shares."

The California Republican is also a former chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.

Nunes also wrote that "data made available to us indicate that just four market participants have been responsible for over 60% of the extraordinary volume of DJT shares traded: Citadel Securities, VIRTU Americas, G1 Execution Services, and Jane Street Capital."

The former House Intelligence Committee chairman called on the committees to "open an investigation of anomalous trading of DJT to determine its extent and purpose, and whether any laws including RICO statutes and tax evasion laws were violated, so that the perpetrators of any illegal activity can be held to account."

He argued that "such an inquiry is needed to protect shareholders, including TMTG’s retail investors" and might also "shed light on the need for policy changes such as closing the Reg SHO loophole for market makers, requiring brokers to better document their efforts to locate and borrow stock, and stiffening penalties for illegal naked short sellers."

25 ATTORNEYS GENERAL SUE OVER EPA EMISSIONS RULE, EV MANDATE

Tuesday, April 23, 2024
Bethany Blankley | The Center Square contributor

Led by Kentucky, the 25 states petitioned the U.S. District Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to block an Environmental Protection Agency rule, “Multi-Pollutant Emissions Standards for Model Years 2027 and Later Light-Duty and Medium- Duty Vehicles,” from going into effect.

They argue the final rule “exceeds its statutory authority, is arbitrary, capricious, an abuse of discretion, and not in accordance with the law.” The lawsuit asks the court to declare it unlawful.

The EPA proposed the rule through the Clean Air Act to require car manufacturers to create “zero-emission vehicles and plug-in-hybrid electric vehicles in compliance with calculations, medium-duty vehicle incentive multipliers, and vehicle certification and compliance.”

The rule also implements regulations related to controlling “refueling emissions from incomplete medium-duty vehicles, and battery durability and warranty requirements for light-duty and medium-duty electric and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles” as well as aftermarket fuel conversions, importing vehicles and engines, evaporative emission test procedures, and test fuel specifications for measuring fuel economy.

It's set to become effective June 17.

The coalition argues the rule “imposes unworkable emissions standards on passenger cars, light-duty trucks and medium-duty vehicles” and the EPA is “attempting to use the weight of the federal government to force manufacturers to produce more EVs.”

The rule’s stated goal is for manufacturers to produce enough electric vehicles to account for nearly 70% of cars available for sale within 10 years. The mandate is being pushed as the U.S. does not have the electric grid or infrastructure to support it, critics argue, and as the majority of Americans oppose purchasing electric vehicles. Last year, EV sales in the U.S. were 8.4% of total vehicle sales despite millions in federal rebates and subsidies offered.

Forcing a transition to EVs would “devastate the American economy, threaten jobs, raise prices and undermine the reliability of the electric grid,” the coalition argues.

“The Biden Administration is willing to sacrifice the American auto industry and its workers in service of its radical green agenda,” Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman said. “We just aren’t buying it. Demand for EVs continues to fall, and even those who want to buy one can’t afford it amid historic inflation.”

The lawsuit was filed as 50% of likely voters surveyed say the Biden administration should reduce its electric vehicle sales target and car dealers say consumers’ interest in buying EVs has waned, a recent The Center Square Voters' Voice Poll found.

It also comes after more than 4,000 dealerships from every state sent a letter to President Joe Biden asking him to “tap the brakes” on his proposed EV mandate. After receiving no response, in January, more than 5,000 dealers sent a second letter urging the president to “slam the brakes,” The Center Square reported.

The EPA’s push comes as car manufacturers’ profits have dropped, with many announcing layoffs and scrapping their proposed EV production plans.

Ford Motor Company lost roughly $4.7 billion on EVs in 2023 and is projected to lose between $5 billion and $5.5 billion this year, Fox Business reported.

Tesla announced it is cutting 10% of its global workforce after reporting an 8.5% year-over-year decline in first-quarter deliveries. Its stock price also dropped over 30% so far this year, “erasing billions of dollars in market capitalization,” The New York Times reported.

GM also scrapped its plan to build 400,000 EVs, delayed producing its EV pickup trucks at a Michigan plant by one year, and dropped a $5 billion plan to jointly develop EVs with Honda Motor, Reuters reported.

According to a new Gallup poll, only 35% of Americans say they might consider buying an EV in the future. Interest among those who were seriously considering purchasing an EV dropped from 55% in 2023 to 44% today; opposition to purchasing an EV increased from 41% to 48%.

Joining Coleman are attorneys general representing the states of Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia and Wyoming.

SEC PLAN TO TRACK AMERICANS’ STOCK INVESTMENTS SPARKS LEGAL FIGHT

Sunday, April 21, 2021
By Kevin Stocklin

‘We think it’s vital to strangle this new illegal power grab,’ Scott Shepard, director of the Free Enterprise Project, said.

All stock trades conducted on U.S. exchanges will soon be surveilled by the government, according to a newly implemented plan by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

The SEC’s “Consolidated Audit Trail” (CAT) mandate would “allow regulators to efficiently and accurately track all activity throughout the U.S. markets,” the SEC stated.

In announcing the launch of this plan, SEC Chairman Gary Gensler stated in September 2023 that “prior to CAT’s creation, regulators lacked a consolidated view of the material information of all orders in [exchange-traded] securities.”

The CAT plan was originally proposed under the Obama administration in 2012 but remained dormant under the Trump administration. It is currently being resurrected under the Biden administration.

This plan ran into some resistance last week, however, from a group of lawyers and retired judges who see it as a historic violation of Americans’ civil rights.

A complaint filed on April 16 by the New Civil Liberties Alliance (NCLA), as a prelude to a lawsuit, called the CAT mandate “an unprecedented scheme by an administrative agency … to unilaterally set in motion one of the greatest government-mandated mass collections of personal financial data in United States history.”

According to the NCLA and others who have joined the legal action, the plan expands a trend of already extensive government surveillance, exceeds the SEC’s authority, and infringes on Americans’ Fourth Amendment protections against warrantless government searches.

“The SEC has no statutory authority to do this at all,” Peggy Little, senior litigation counsel with the NCLA, told The Epoch Times, calling the plan “a surveillance system.”

“We think it’s vital to strangle this new illegal power grab,” Scott Shepard, director of the Free Enterprise Project, who has signed on to the complaint, told The Epoch Times.

“The idea that this SEC can be relied on not to abuse this vast cache of financial information for which it has no legitimate use is laughable,” Mr. Shepard stated.

The SEC, however, insisted that it had the necessary authority to enact the CAT system.

“The Commission undertakes its regulatory responsibilities consistent with its authorities,” an SEC spokesperson told The Epoch Times.

The SEC argues that the CAT program is necessary to protect investors, prevent financial crimes, and investigate events such as the 2010 “Flash Crash,” which caused markets worldwide to tumble, temporarily wiping out $1 trillion in market value in one day.

‘MASS SURVEILLANCE’ OF AMERICANS’ FINANCIAL DATA

The plan’s critics, however, argue that these laudable goals must be weighed against the extensive infringement on Americans’ right to privacy.

Calling it “the single largest government database targeting the private activities of American citizens,” former Attorney General William Barr wrote in an April 15 Wall Street Journal op-ed: “That a few bad apples might engage in misconduct doesn’t justify mass surveillance of everyone’s private affairs.”

This database would reportedly allow more than 3,000 government employees in more than 20 agencies to monitor the personal investment activities of tens of millions of Americans in real time, he wrote.

“If our society accepts the SEC’s rationale for CAT, there is no reason to confine the government to databases on investment activities,” Mr. Barr stated. “Digital records on a range of personal activity can help crack criminal cases.

“Phone companies have data from our smartphones, automakers have data from our cars, and so forth,” he wrote. “Why not maximize the efficiency of all law enforcement by pumping this information into government databases, so investigators have it in real time?”

The CAT plan also has its critics in Congress.

In a November op-ed, Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) wrote: “The Securities and Exchange Commission is supposed to protect investors, not stalk them.”

By implementing the CAT program, “the SEC has paved the way for the federal agency to follow an investor’s every move,” Mr. Kennedy stated. “Here’s just a bit of the information the SEC is forcing brokers to fork over: their customers’ full names, birth years, addresses, which stocks they bought, which stocks they sold, and when those transactions occurred.”

Google and Amazon are reportedly among the competitors for contracts to create “the biggest database in U.S. history,” in order to comply with the SEC directive.

The extensive cost of setting up and running the CAT program will be paid by brokerage firms, but critics say those costs will simply be passed on to everyday Americans.

“Those costs will run into the billions of dollars and will represent an enormous deadweight tax on American investors,” Ms. Little said.

Critics also worry that collecting Americans’ private financial information in government databases could leave it vulnerable to hackers.

“The SEC itself has been hacked on several occasions,” Ms. Little said. “It is shocking to me that they would take all of this data and expose it to hacking and to theft.”

Attempting to assuage these concerns, however, Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) stated at a 2019 Senate Banking Committee hearing: “Some take issue with the SEC, or any government agency, having this much data and call the system a target for hackers. I refuse to accept that we can’t both protect people’s personal information and go after criminals who take advantage of our markets.

“Just last week, the SEC filed charges against 18 people, most of them in China, who engaged in a six-year market manipulation scheme using dozens of accounts, across many brokerage firms, that resulted in 31 million dollars of illicit profits,” Mr. Brown stated. “While we’ll never know if the new system would have made it easier to uncover those crimes, it is that kind of activity that the SEC should have the technology to uncover.”

REPUBLICAN SENATORS CRITICIZE FISA SURVEILLANCE PROGRAM AFTER BILL PASSAGE

April 20, 2024
By Aldgra Fredly

Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) has expressed his discontent with the passing of the ‘horrible bill.’

The Senate passed a controversial surveillance bill on April 20, drawing criticism from several Republican lawmakers who argue that it violates Americans’ constitutional privacy protections.

The Reforming Intelligence and Securing America Act, which reauthorizes Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) for two years, passed in a 60–34 vote that concluded 45 minutes after the 12 a.m. ET deadline.

“We have good news for America’s national security: Senators have reached an agreement that clears the way to approve FISA reauthorization tonight,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said.

“Allowing FISA to expire would have been dangerous. It’s an important part of our national security toolkit and helps law enforcement stop terrorist attacks, drug trafficking, and violent extremism,” he added.

Several Republican lawmakers have expressed reservations about the bill’s passage due to FISA Section 702 allowing intelligence agencies to conduct surveillance on foreign nationals overseas without warrants.

Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), who voted against the FISA reauthorization bill, took to X (formerly known as Twitter) on April 20 to express his discontent with the passing of the “horrible bill.”

“Tonight the Senate passed the House-passed FISA expansion bill—after rejecting seven different amendments requiring a warrant and otherwise reforming FISA 702,” the senator stated.

“This is a horrible bill. It shows wanton disregard for the rights of Americans. This is not a day to celebrate,” he added.

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) said that he had voted against the legislation because it “did not go far enough in protecting Americans’ privacy rights from intrusions by the federal government.”

“How FISA has been used and abused in the past is extremely troubling. While it performs a critically important role—particularly at a time when President Biden has allowed millions of illegal aliens to pour across our border—we must not sacrifice Americans’ constitutional privacy protections,” he said in a statement.

Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) said the Department of Justice’s abuses of FISA to spy on Americans are “unacceptable” and go against the protections enshrined in the country’s Fourth Amendment.

“The prohibition on unreasonable search and seizure can’t be taken for granted,” Mr. Cramer stated.

Some Democrat lawmakers also opposed the bill. Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) said in a statement that Americans should not have to compromise their liberty for security.

“It is clear from the votes on very popular amendments that senators were unwilling to send this bill back to the House, no matter how common-sense the amendment before them.

“Time after time anti-reformers pledge that their band-aid changes to the law will curb abuses, and yet every time, the public learns about fresh abuses by officials who face little meaningful oversight,” he stated.

The bill was blocked three times in the past five months by House Republicans bucking their party, before passing last week by a 273–147 vote when its duration was shortened from five years to two years.

The bill will now go to President Joe Biden’s desk. Citing the significance of the bill to protecting national security, the White House said that President Biden “will swiftly sign the bill into law.”

Lawmakers took votes on a series of amendments that would strengthen civil liberty protections. But none of these—including an amendment by Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) to require a warrant to search Americans’ Section 702 data and another by Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) to prohibit federal law enforcement from purchasing Americans’ data from third-party brokers—were passed by the Senate.

Samantha Flow, Joseph Lord, and Reuters contributed to this report.

FIRSTENERGY GAVE $2.5M TO GOP GOVERNORS' DARK MONEY GROUP BACKING DEWINE'S 2018 BID

Sunday, April 21, 2024
Jessie Balmert | USA Today Network

Versions of this story are being published by the USA Today Network, Floodlight, Energy News Network, and the Ohio Capital Journal.

In 2018, Akron-based FirstEnergy donated $2.5 million to a Republican Governors Association-affiliated dark money group backing GOP nominee Mike DeWine in a competitive race for governor.

The previously undisclosed money reveals how invested FirstEnergy was in the outcome of the Ohio governor’s race between DeWine and Democratic challenger Rich Cordray. At the time, FirstEnergy wanted to bail out two nuclear plants then owned by a subsidiary but faced opposition from Ohio leaders like then-Gov. John Kasich.

Both DeWine and Cordray had promised to save two northern Ohio nuclear plants if they became governor, and the company chipped in publicly disclosed money to both the Republican Governors Association and Democratic Governors Association.

But newly released records show FirstEnergy donated $2.5 million in three installments to State Solutions, a 501(c)(4) nonprofit affiliated with the Republican Governors Association that is not required to disclose its donors. One installment of $500,000 is labeled “DeWine;” the other two are listed as “RGA,” according to records released by the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio to the USA TODAY Network Ohio Bureau, Floodlight, Ohio Capital Journal and the Energy News Network.

DeWine met with FirstEnergy executives at an RGA fundraiser in downtown Columbus on Oct. 10, 2018, the Dayton Daily News first reported. Shortly after, FirstEnergy Solutions donated $500,000 to RGA, according to tax records.

FirstEnergy also donated $200,000 to the Citizens Policy Institute, which blasted Cordray for being “Republican Lite,” according to released records. Cleveland restaurateur Tony George, a close FirstEnergy ally, was behind the group, BuzzFeed News reported at the time.

In November 2018, DeWine defeated Cordray, 50.4% to 46.7%, as Democrats swept elections across the country. In 2019, FirstEnergy helped Republican lawmakers craft House Bill 6, an energy overhaul measure that included $1 billion for the two nuclear plants. DeWine signed House Bill 6 within hours of it hitting his desk.

When asked if the donations influenced DeWine’s support of nuclear energy, DeWine spokesman Dan Tierney said: “Gov. DeWine’s support for nuclear energy is documented well prior to 2018, including during his tenure as United States senator.”

FirstEnergy spokeswoman Jennifer Young said the company was unable to comment on pending litigation. Shareholders sued FirstEnergy after federal investigators revealed an extensive pay-to-play scandal bankrolled by the Ohio utility.

That federal investigation led to a 20-year prison sentence for former Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder, a five-year sentence for ex-Ohio Republican Party Chairman Matt Borges and the firing of several FirstEnergy executives. Attorneys in the shareholder lawsuit have sought to subpoena records from DeWine and depose Husted, but neither faces any criminal accusations.

FirstEnergy donated $1 million through a dark money group to back Husted’s bid for governor in 2017, according to previously released records. Husted and DeWine were competitors until they merged campaigns in November 2017.

CONCERNS RAISED

In 2018, the nuclear plants’ owner FirstEnergy Solutions was in bankruptcy. So creditors raised concerns about a $1 million payment earmarked to help DeWine’s campaign, according to emails exchanged on Aug. 11, 2018. “They cited it is very large compared to DeWine’s current fundraising.”

Senior Vice President of External Affairs Michael Dowling tried to allay concerns by explaining that donors can back DeWine’s bid in several ways, including giving to DeWine’s campaign fund, the Republican Governors Association, State Solutions and the Ohio Republican Party’s state candidate fund.

“Theoretically, DeWine/Husted could have a balance of $10M in their campaign account and the RGA could spend $40M in support of DeWine in Ohio,” Dowling explained in an email. “My point is that comparing the size of a contribution to the RGA to what the DeWine campaign has raised or what the DeWine Campaign’s current balance is can be done, but I’m not sure is logical.”

Republican fundraiser Brooke Bodney, who worked with the RGA, confirmed: “All factually accurate.”

Meanwhile, FirstEnergy Solutions’ David Griffing reassured Akin Gump’s Rick Burdick that there was no connection between State Solutions and DeWine’s campaign. Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld is a powerful law firm that represented FirstEnergy Solutions during its bankruptcy and lobbied for House Bill 6.

The issue was important because exchanging a political favor for a campaign donation would be illegal, a quid pro quo.

“Thanks,” Burdick wrote. “Just to confirm there is also no understanding with the DeWine campaign re his position on regulatory relief for nuclear plants related to this contribution.”

“Correct,” Griffing replied.

Jessie Balmert 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.

OHIO LT. GOV. HUSTED WON'T SAY IF HE KNEW ABOUT $1M DARK-MONEY CONTRIBUTION

Tuesday, April 16, 2024
Marty Schladen | Ohio Capital Journal

Ohio Lt. Gov. Jon Husted is refusing to say whether he was aware of a $1 million contribution in 2017 to a political group that was supporting his bid for governor. Instead, his office is only reiterating that the group wasn’t affiliated with the Husted campaign.

The massive donation came from Akron-based FirstEnergy, which over the next two years ponied up more than $60 million in bribes in exchange for a $1.3 billion ratepayer bailout — a law that Gov. Mike DeWine signed just hours after it passed.

The donation was discovered among a trove of documents that a group of news organizations including the Capital Journal requested from the Office of Ohio Consumers’ Counsel.

As reported last week by the Energy News Network and Floodlight, the documents also contained emails indicating that Husted was lobbying DeWine to support the bailout. The lobbying came just 11 days after Husted abandoned his gubernatorial bid and joined DeWine’s ticket on Dec. 1, 2017.

“Jon Husted called me to say he was meeting with DeWine on our issue to try and get him aligned to help keep the plants open,” a Dec. 12, 2017 email by FirstEnergy lobbyist Joel Bailey said.

The plants were money-losing nuclear and coal plants that FirstEnergy wanted to prop up with the bailout and then spin off.

FirstEnergy in 2021 signed a deferred prosecution agreement in which it admitted to paying bribes to elect a friendly Republican majority to the state House, which would elect a friendly speaker who would pass and protect the corrupt bailout. 

The company also admitted to paying a $4.3 million bribe to Sam Randazzo, DeWine’s pick to chair the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio, who died by suicide last week. A state indictment said that FirstEnergy executives arranged the bribe with Randazzo the same night they discussed his suitability as a regulator at a dinner meeting with Gov.-elect DeWine and Lt. Gov.-elect Husted on Dec. 18, 2018.

The ensuing scandal has landed former House Speaker Larry Householder, R-Glenford, in federal prison for 20 years, and former Ohio GOP Chair Matt Borges for five. Two others have pleaded guilty and await sentencing. Another defendant, lobbyist Neil Clark, also died by suicide — clad in a “DeWine for Governor” T-shirt.

DeWine and Husted haven’t been charged in case, and they adamantly deny wrongdoing.

However, they haven’t publicly discussed just what they knew about Randazzo’s long-standing relationship with FirstEnergy, or what they knew about the torrent of dark money flooding from FirstEnergy into Capitol Square to pass and protect the bailout. They also haven’t discussed what senior administration officials with close ties to FirstEnergy might have known.

Among the documents turned over once FirstEnergy made its agreement with federal prosecutors was a spreadsheet listing 501(c)(4) political contributions the company made in 2017. 

Such donations are called “dark money” because recipients don’t have to disclose their sources. By law, dark-money contributions can’t go directly to candidates, but they can go to groups that support them, but aren’t supposed to directly coordinate with them.

The FirstEnergy spreadsheet is only now becoming public because the FBI investigated the scandal and the U.S. Department of Justice brought a prosecution. During the battle over the bailout law in 2019, there were suspicions that FirstEnergy was bankrolling the effort, but the press and public couldn’t know because the money was being funneled through dark-money groups — without which U.S. Attorney David DeVillers said the conspiracy would have been impossible.

Now that FirstEnergy’s 2017 donation to a Husted-aligned group is known, it raises new questions.

Special interests sometimes piously claim that they spend millions on politics solely in the interests of “good government.” But as was shown in Householder’s lengthy trial last year, corporate political donations are often — if not usually — intended to buy influence with people in government.

In order for that to happen, a government official would have to know that a special interest had contributed on his or her behalf. But Husted — who is eyeing a 2026 gubernatorial run — won’t say whether he knew that FirstEnergy in 2017 gave a million bucks to a group supporting his earlier bid.

His spokeswoman, Hayley Carducci, was asked if Husted knew of the contribution and if he did, when he learned of it. She was also asked if Husted persuaded DeWine to support the FirstEnergy bailout; what Husted knew about Randazzo’s links to FirstEnergy when he was picked to regulate the company; and whether he knew that FirstEnergy was flooding Cap Square with dark money in its effort to pass and preserve the bailout.

In an email, Carducci repeated her earlier statement: “The Husted campaign never received this donation and is not affiliated with any of these groups.”

She added, “As for your other questions, we will not be commenting.”

FBI LAUNCHES CRIMINAL INVESTIGATION INTO SHIP THAT CAUSED BALTIMORE BRIDGE COLLAPSE

Tuesday, April 16, 2024
Jake Smith | The Ohio Star

The FBI has begun an investigation into the ship responsible for striking the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore in March, The Washington Post reported on Monday.

The “Dali,” a near-1000 foot long cargo ship, temporarily lost power and sailed into one of the bridge’s support beams on Mar. 26, causing the entire bridge to collapse into the river and killing six people. The FBI has opened an investigation into the Dali and whether its crew operated it knowing the vessel had operational problems, according to the Post.

Federal authorities appeared to board the Dali in the early hours of the morning on Monday and began navigating the ship, according to the Post. The FBI confirmed it was onboard the Dali on Monday but did not share what exactly it was probing or looking at.

“The FBI is present aboard the cargo ship Dali conducting court authorized law enforcement activity,” the agency told the Post in a statement on Monday.

“My office generally will not confirm the existence of or otherwise comment about investigations,” Erek L. Barron, the U.S. attorney for Maryland, told the Post in a statement on Monday. “However, the public should know, whether it’s gun violence, civil rights abuse, financial fraud, or any other threat to public safety or property, we will seek accountability for anyone who may be responsible.”

The FBI’s probe is separate from the National Transportation Safety Board’s (NTSB) investigation, which is examining why the Dali struck the bridge and possible safety failures. The NTSB confirmed in late March that there were over 764 tons of hazardous materials onboard the ship when it struck the bridge.

“Mostly corrosives, flammables, and some miscellaneous hazardous materials, class nine hazardous materials, which would include lithium-ion batteries,” NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy said during a press conference on Mar. 27.

Chilean authorities during an inspection in June 2023 detained the ship after discovering pressure gauge issues. The Maritime and Port Authority (MPA) of Singapore confirmed in June 2023 there was a “faulty monitor gauge for fuel pressure” discovered during the inspection.

ASTRONAUT THOMAS STAFFORD, COMMANDER OF APOLLO 10, HAS DIED AT AGE 93

Friday April 8, 2021
Seth Borenstein, AP Science Writer

Astronaut Thomas P. Stafford, who commanded a dress rehearsal flight for the 1969 moon landing and the first U.S.-Soviet space linkup, died Monday. He was 93.

Stafford, a retired Air Force three-star general, took part in four space missions. Before Apollo 10, he flew on two Gemini flights, including the first rendezvous of two U.S. capsules in orbit. He died in a hospital near his Space Coast Florida home, said Max Ary, director of the Stafford Air & Space Museum in Weatherford, Oklahoma.

Stafford was one of 24 NASA astronauts who flew to the moon, but he did not land on it. Only seven of them are still alive.

"Today General Tom Stafford went to the eternal heavens which he so courageously explored as a Gemini and Apollo astronaut as well as a peacemaker in Apollo Soyuz," NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said via X, formerly known as Twitter. "Those of us privileged to know him are very sad but grateful we knew a giant."

After he put away his flight suit, Stafford was the go-to guy for NASA when it sought independent advice on everything from human Mars missions to safety issues to returning to flight after the 2003 space shuttle Columbia accident. He chaired an oversight group that looked into how to fix the then-flawed Hubble Space Telescope, earning a NASA public service award.

"Tom was involved in so many things that most people were not aware of, such as being known as the 'Father of Stealth'," Ary said in an email. Stafford was in charge of the famous "Area 51" desert base that was the site of many UFO theories, but the home of testing of Air Force stealth technologies.

The Apollo 10 mission in May 1969 set the stage for Apollo 11's historic mission two months later. Stafford and Gene Cernan took the lunar lander nicknamed Snoopy within 9 miles (14 kilometers) of the moon's surface. Astronaut John Young stayed behind in the main spaceship dubbed Charlie Brown.

"The most impressive sight, I think, that really changed your view of things is when you first see Earth," Stafford recalled in a 1997 oral history, talking about the view from lunar orbit.

Then came the moon's far side: "The Earth disappears. There's this big black void."

Apollo 10's return to Earth set the world's record for fastest speed by a crewed vehicle at 24,791 mph (39,897 kph).

After the moon landings ended, NASA and the Soviet Union decided on a joint docking mission and Stafford, a one-star general at the time, was chosen to command the American side. It meant intensive language training, being followed by the KGB while in the Soviet Union, and lifelong friendships with cosmonauts. The two teams of space travelers even went to Disney World and rode Space Mountain together before going into orbit and joining ships.

"We have capture," Stafford radioed in Russian as the Apollo and Soyuz spacecraft hooked up. His Russian counterpart, Alexei Leonov, responded in English: "Well done, Tom, it was a good show. I vote for you."

The 1975 mission included two days during which the five men worked together on experiments. After, the two teams toured the world together, meeting President Gerald Ford and Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev.

"It helped prove to the rest of the world that two completely opposite political systems could work together," Stafford recalled at a 30th anniversary gathering in 2005.

The two crews became so close that years later Leonov arranged for Stafford to be able to adopt two Russian boys when Stafford was in his 70s.

"We are too old to adopt, but they were too old to be adopted," Stafford told The Oklahoman in 2004. "They just added so much meaning to our life, and just because you're retiring doesn't mean you don't have anything left to give."

Later, Stafford was a central part of discussions in the 1990s that brought Russia into the partnership building and operating the International Space Station.

Growing up in Weatherford, Oklahoma, Stafford said he would look up and see giant DC-3 airplanes fly overhead on early transcontinental routes.

"I wanted to fly since I was 5 or 6 years old seeing those airplanes," he told NASA historians.

Stafford went to the U.S. Naval Academy where he graduated in the top 1% of his class and flew in the backseat of some airplanes and loved it. He volunteered for the Air Force and had hoped to fly combat in the Korean War. But by the time he got his wings, the war ended. He went to the Air Force's experimental test pilot school, graduated first in his class there and stayed on as an instructor.

In 1962, NASA selected Stafford for its second set of astronauts, which included Neil Armstrong, Frank Borman and Pete Conrad.

Stafford was assigned along with Wally Schirra to Gemini 6. Their original mission was to rendezvous with an empty spaceship. But their 1965 launch was scrubbed when the spaceship exploded soon after liftoff. NASA improvised and in December, Gemini 6 rendezvoused with but didn't dock with two astronauts aboard Gemini 7.

Stafford's next flight in 1966 was with Cernan on Gemini 9. Cernan's spacewalk, connected to a jet-pack like device, didn't go well. Cernan complained that the sun and machine made him extra hot and hurt his back. Then his visor fogged up and he couldn't see.

"Call it quits, Gene. Get out of there," Stafford, the commander, told Cernan. Stafford talked him back in, saying "move your hand over, start to float up ... stick your hand up ... just walk hand over hand."

In all, Stafford logged 507 hours in space and flew four different types of spacecraft and 127 types of aircraft and helicopters.

After the Apollo-Soyuz mission, Stafford returned to the Air Force and worked in research and commanded the Air Force Flight Test Center before retiring in 1979 as a three-star general.

Stafford's Air Force duties not only had him run the military's top flight school and experimental plane testing base, but he was commanding general of Area 51. A biography from his museum said, that while Stafford was in charge of Area 51 and later as the development and acquisition chief at the Pentagon he "wrote the specs and established the program that led to the development of the F-117 Stealth Fighter, and later, the B-2 Stealth Bomber."

Stafford became an executive for an Oklahoma-based transportation company and later moved to Florida, near Cape Canaveral.

He is survived by his wife. Linda, two sons, two daughters and two stepchildren, according to the museum.

EX-PUCO CHAIRMAN SAM RANDAZZO ACCUSED IN FIRST ENERGY BRIBERY SCHEME HAS DIED BY SUICIDE

April 9, 2024

Laura A. Bischoff and Jessie Balmert | Cincinnati Enquirer

Former Public Utilities Commission of Ohio Chairman Sam Randazzo, who was facing criminal charges over a bribery scandal, has died by suicide.

A spokesman for the Franklin County Coroner said Randazzo was found shortly before noon Tuesday in a Columbus warehouse that he owned.

Randazzo, 74, of Columbus, was recently accused of accepting $4.3 million from Akron-based FirstEnergy to help the company with a $1 billion bailout for two nuclear plants and regulation that would have cost the company money. He was also accused of embezzling from his clients. He had pleaded not guilty to charges in state and federal court.

A spokesman for Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine said the governor's office had no comment on Randazzo's death on Tuesday.

Randazzo is the second man accused of crimes in the House Bill 6 case to die by suicide. Long-time lobbyist Neil Clark shot himself in Florida while awaiting trial in federal court. Clark, who was wearing a DeWine for governor T-shirt, had pleaded not guilty.

Randazzo's attorneys recently asked that their client be excused from wearing a GPS monitor.

Randazzo's attorney did not disclose the medical reason behind the request. But the Ohio Attorney General's Office wrote that "a mental health professional has opined that the GPS monitor that Randazzo is required to wear as a condition of his bond has negative health consequences for Randazzo."

WHO WAS SAM RANDAZZO?

Gov. Mike DeWine appointed Randazzo to lead the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio in February 2019. Before that, he served as an attorney in the utility sphere. He represented large industrial energy users. He had a reputation as a sharp lawyer with deep expertise in energy policies.

The PUCO regulates telecom, natural gas and electric companies. The chairman has one vote but helps guide the commission.

FirstEnergy quietly pitched Randazzo for the PUCO job. Text messages show Randazzo had a chummy relationship with FirstEnergy executives.

And Randazzo went on to advocate for House Bill 6, which would've provided a $1.3 billion bailout to help FirstEnergy and other utilities. DeWine signed HB 6 into law in July 2019.

Randazzo's condo was searched by the FBI in November 2020 and he resigned shortly after.

In July 2020, FirstEnergy signed a deferred prosecution agreement in which it agreed to pay a $230 million fine and cooperate with prosecutors. The company admitted in the agreement that it bribed Randazzo and former Ohio House speaker Larry Householder.

A federal jury convicted Householder and former Ohio GOP chairman Matt Borges of racketeering conspiracy. Householder is now serving 20 years and Borges five years in federal prison.

Laura Bischoff and Jessie Balmert are reporters 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.