Ohio's largest newspaper has broken its own ban on major-race endorsements to back Democrat Amy Acton for governor, after condemning Republican Vivek Ramaswamy's campaign advert featuring Acton's estranged mother as 'vile' and 'weaponizing' her alleged childhood sexual abuse.

Sipping on an iced caramel latte with whipped cream and talking about “squadding up” with his daughters on Fortnite, Brian Poindexter doesn’t necessarily fit the stereotype of a “manly man,” which is how another magazine characterized the congressional candidate in mid-July. 

For what it’s worth, it’s his political opponent, Republican Rep. Max Miller, who recently testified about taking testosterone and frequenting half-a-dozen different gyms. Whatever muscles Poindexter has, he confirms, are the result of 19 years spent placing rebar and erecting the steel skeletons of buildings, and before that, working as a cross-country mover for people with too much Ethan Allen furniture.

Repost as I didn't include the source link, which is the Ohio Board of Elections dashboard.

I was looking at the early voting totals through yesterday and comparing them to 2024. To date, Democrats have an early voting lead of 55,888 over Republicans, and that lead has been growing. As is thought that Democrats vote early more often, that's less important. What's more interesting to me is comparing to 2024.
To date, Democratic early voting is now 74.9% of all of 2024's early voting total. Meanwhile, Republicans are only at 39.7% of their 2024 early voting, so it seems like Dems are poised to beat 2024, but Republicans will be way under. It's significant because 2024 was a presidential election year, which tends to have higher turnout than midterm elections.
I suppose this could mean Republicans will vote on Election Day itself like normal, but it could also indicate a big enthusiasm gap with more Republicans just staying home.
Either way, while some signs are positive, no one should get complacent. If you are registered to vote, go do so.

Secretary of State Data Portal The numbers are here.

Who is funding this effort? How and why is my phone number still associated with my voting records?

If Greg Levy actually cared about the things in his platform, he would have dropped out when the GOP dirty tricksters started using him to trick voters on the margins.

VivekRamaswamy's latest ad puts Amy Acton’s estranged and abusive mother on TV to attack her.

Gov. DeWine we ask you to stand with Ohio’s vulnerable children and withdraw your endorsement of Ramaswamy.

https://app.sosha.ai/s/ZDt2rZPz

I call it... "How it feels living in Ohio during election years."

Under Ohio law it is currently a first-degree misdemeanor to abandon or fail to provide adequate support to an aged or infirm parent who lacks the means to support themselves. A conviction carries up to 180 days in jail and a $1,000 fine.

While this law is rarely enforced in the Ohio I think the current situation with Amy Acton and her seemingly indigent bio mother highlights why it should be repealed entirely. Then protections need to be added in to prevent enforcement of similar laws (both civil and criminal) from being enforced on Ohio citizens from other states. Notably because of PA since they are the most active in enforcing their filial responsibility laws both intra and inter state; PA also seems to be where Amy Acton's bio mother is living these days. Republicans in PA partnering with their brethren in Ohio could decide to use the law as a weapon against Amy Acton even if she does not win the current election. But also, those laws should be done away with their entirety.

Hey fellow Ohioans, I want to address a systemic public health failure by the state government that is actively shortchanging taxpayers and endangering high-risk individuals across all 88 counties.

The Ohio Department of Health (ODH) has centralized its respiratory illness reporting into a dashboard that is an interactive mess—it’s difficult to navigate, poorly organized, and completely lacks actionable, real-time numbers.

Instead of tracking current community viral load, the dashboard relies on cumulative hospitalizations. Hospitalizations are a severe lagging indicator. By the time a patient is admitted to an ICU, that specific viral wave has already been tearing through schools, workplaces, and grocery stores for three to four weeks. It tells us where the virus was, giving vulnerable citizens zero warning to protect themselves today.

Even worse, ODH used to publish incredibly useful weekly reports broken down by the state's official Surveillance Regions (Northwest, Northeast, Central, West Central, Southwest, and Southeast). They killed those reports. Now, the state and the CDC only push a single, flat "statewide average" for Influenza-Like Illness (ILI).

But diseases do not spread evenly across Ohio. Cleveland or Columbus could be experiencing a massive surge while Toledo and Cincinnati are completely quiet, or vice versa. A single statewide average completely erases our regional realities, masking local outbreaks and leaving communities completely unprepared.

ODH is actively hiding early-warning data points like regional clinical laboratory test positivity rates and outpatient doctor visit percentages—metrics that neighboring states like Michigan openly publish in clean, weekly text summaries.

I am an Ohioan managing severe asthma with a history of ICU flu stays. I rely on real-time data to know when to wear an N95 mask so I can protect my health and stay employed. Our tax dollars fully fund this public infrastructure, yet the bureaucracy is prioritizing its own legal comfort and "Cover Your Assets" culture over basic public transparency.

One person complaining won’t change an agency's culture, but a wave of constituent pressure will.

Please take 60 seconds tomorrow morning to call the ODH Director’s office and your local state legislators to demand that they restore regional weekly reporting and real-time early indicators:

• Dr. Bruce Vanderhoff (Director, Ohio Dept of Health): (614) 466-7217
• Your State Representative & Senator: Find them here by your ZIP/Address

What to tell them:
"My name is [Your Name] from ZIP [Your ZIP]. I am demanding that the Ohio Department of Health restore its weekly regional public health text reports. The current dashboard is non-functional for daily life and relies on cumulative hospitalizations, which are a lagging indicator providing zero actual warning. Hiding regional test positivity and outpatient data leaves vulnerable Ohioans blind during the winter surge. We deserve a functioning data pipeline."

Let’s force Columbus to stop hiding the math and give us our regional data back!