Tag: ohio

Ohio, Indiana Stop The ‘Horrors’ Of Ranked-Choice Voting From Corrupting Their Elections

Ohio and Indiana have officially joined a growing number of states prohibiting the use of ranked-choice voting (RCV) in their elections.

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine signed legislation (SB 63) on Tuesday that prevents elections from being conducted with ranked-choice voting (or “instant runoff voting”). Should the secretary of state determine that an Ohio city or locality “approved the use” of such a system in its elections via resolution or ordinance, “then the county or municipal corporation is ineligible to receive any local government fund distributions from the state during the period beginning with the month following the adoption of the resolution or ordinance and ending with the month following the last day it is in effect.”

SB 63 was introduced by Republican Sen. Theresa Gavarone and Democrat Sen. William DeMora and received overwhelming support in the state House (65-27) and Senate (24-7).

Under RCV, voters rank candidates in order of preference. If no candidate receives more than 50 percent of first-choice votes in the first round of voting, the last-place finisher is eliminated, and his votes are reallocated to the voter’s second-choice candidate. This process continues until one candidate receives a majority of votes.

As The Federalist previously reported, Democrats have often pushed ranked-choice voting as a way of winning races in which Republican candidates receive a majority of the vote. The system has also been shown to produce confusion among voters, delayed election results, and thrown-out (“exhausted”) ballots.

“From decreasing voter turnout, to even having the losing candidate declared the winner, we have seen the horrors of ranked choice voting play out in several states throughout the country, but that will not happen in Ohio!” Gavarone wrote in a tweet responding to DeWine’s signing of SB 63.

The law is expected to take effect 90 days after its approval, according to Dayton Daily News.

DeWine’s signature comes nearly a month after GOP Gov. Mike Braun approved legislation barring RCV in Indiana.

Much like its Ohio counterpart, Indiana’s SB 12 stipulates that elections “may not be determined by ranked choice voting” and that candidates “may not be nominated for or elected to an office by means of ranked choice voting.”

The measure passed the Indiana House (58-30) last month after clearing the state Senate (38-9) in January.

There are now 19 states that have adopted laws prohibiting the use of ranked-choice voting in their elections, according to Ballotpedia.

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Jury Clears Afroman of Defamation for Mocking Cops Who Raided His House

An Ohio jury on Wednesday found the rapper Afroman not liable for defaming the sheriff’s deputies who raided his house nearly four years ago.

The verdict is a free speech victory for Joseph Foreman, a.k.a. Afroman, best known for his 2000 hit “Because I Got High.” Over the course of a three-day civil trial that captured social media attention, Afroman, who appeared in court dressed in an American flag-print suit, insisted that he had a First Amendment right to make fun of the deputies who kicked down his door and pawed through his belongings. Afroman released several music videos about the incident using surveillance footage of the raid.

“I got freedom of speech. After they run around my house with guns and kick down my door, I got the right to kick a can in my back yard, use my freedom of speech, and turn my bad times into a good time, yes I do,” Afroman told jurors on Tuesday. “And I think I’m a sport for doing so, because I don’t go to their house, kick down their doors [and] then try to play the victim and sue them.”

The sheriff’s deputies, meanwhile, were reduced in court to watching full-length music videos of Afroman mocking them and testifying about how the rapper had called them “dipshits” and made claims to sleeping with their wives.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Ohio, which filed an amicus brief in support of Afroman, applauded the verdict.

“We’re very pleased with this outcome, and we think the jury got it right. Robust protection for free speech requires leaving room for speakers to give their opinions in strong, florid, or figurative terms without fear of criminal or civil consequences,” says David Carey, deputy legal director of the ACLU of Ohio. “All the more so with speech involving criticism of government officials and their actions. Juries exercising common sense and considering the full context and actual meaning of a speaker’s words are a critical part of that system.”

Adams County, Ohio, sheriff’s deputies executed a search warrant on Afroman’s house in 2022. According to a search warrant, Afroman was suspected of drug possession, drug trafficking, and kidnapping. The deputies were searching for evidence of outlandish claims from a confidential informant that the house contained a basement dungeon. 

Body camera footage of the raid showed the deputies—after the initial excitement of busting down the front door—ambling through Afroman’s house, rifling through his clothes and CDs, and trying to find false walls and secret rooms. But the hourslong search turned up no evidence to corroborate the claim of a basement dungeon. Part of the problem may have been that, as Afroman’s record label told Vice, the house did not have a basement.

Afroman was never charged with a crime.

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Ohio Democrat’s Allegation of Kennedy Center Exclusion Debunked After Email Found in Her Spam Folder

Questions over whether Rep. Joyce Beatty (D-OH) had been excluded from a Kennedy Center board meeting emerged after she accused President Donald Trump and the Kennedy Center’s board of leaving her out, though court filings later indicated the invitation had been sent and was found in her personal email spam folder.

CNN reporter Betsy Klein posted about the development on X, writing: “In today’s edition of Washington is Veep: A Democratic congresswoman made a legal complaint against President Donald Trump for, in part, excluding her from an upcoming Kennedy Center board meeting. The invitation, it turned out, was in her spam folder. Aide filed an update today.”

Klein also shared a screenshot from a court filing describing how the email was ultimately located. The filing states: “On March 6, 2026, after learning that Defendant’s counsel represented to the Court that the Center sent the notice to Congresswoman Beatty’s personal email address, I asked Congresswoman Beatty to search her personal email. She was able to locate the notice in the spam folder of her personal email address.”

Roma Daravi, vice president of public relations for the Kennedy Center, responded in a quote tweet: “Did the dog also eat her homework?”

The issue surfaced as Beatty pursues legal action related to governance of the Kennedy Center. According to reporting from The Hill, the Ohio Democrat’s attorneys initially stated in court filings that she had not been invited to a March 16 meeting where a proposed renovation of the center is expected to be discussed.

The Justice Department noted the invitation had been sent, and Beatty’s legal team later confirmed it had been delivered but landed in the spam folder of her personal email account. Her lawyers wrote in a filing that the congresswoman “appreciates Defendants’ confirmation that she can attend the meeting at the White House.”

Beatty told reporters invitations to Kennedy Center board meetings typically go to her scheduler and chief of staff rather than her personal email. She explained her chief of staff had stopped receiving the emails months earlier and her scheduler did not receive the March 16 invitation. After the hearing, her attorney Norm Eisen revealed the message had been caught by a spam filter, speaking to reporters, “I doubt there’s a single person here who hasn’t had an email vanished somewhere in a spam filter. That’s what happened here.”

The dispute arose during a hearing before U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper over Beatty’s request for a temporary restraining order tied to a Kennedy Center board meeting. Beatty, an ex officio trustee, argues she should be allowed to participate and vote on plans involving the institution.

In court filings, Justice Department lawyer William Jankowski wrote that Beatty “will not be permitted to vote” because board procedures distinguish ex officio trustees from governing trustees.

Cooper said he would take the motion under advisement and aim to rule quickly, calling the proposed overhaul of the performing arts venue “a pretty big deal” for what he described as the nation’s premier performing arts center.

In December 2025, the Democratic lawmaker sued President Trump and members of the center’s board after the institution was renamed to include Trump’s name. Beatty has contended that Congress alone has the authority to change the institution’s name and maintained she had been muted during the board call when the decision was made.

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Ohio Senator Bernie Moreno seeks to ban welfare recipients from sending money abroad

U.S. Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-Ohio) took to the Senate floor on Wednesday to request unanimous consent for his bill — one that would levy large fines against public assistance recipients in America who transmit money to foreign countries.

“If you are on any type of government aid, you are restricted from sending money overseas,” Moreno said during a speech today on the Senate floor. “We want to help Americans in need. But if they are in need, why do they have money to send oversees?

The “Stopping Transfers of Public Funds Abroad Act” would require anyone applying for federal benefits to sign a written declaration, under penalty of perjury, promising not to conduct any remittance transfers while receiving assistance.

Under the proposed law, any individual found to have sent money overseas while on those rolls would face a $100,000 fine.

“If an individual has enough cash to send money overseas, they have no business taking welfare benefits from hardworking Americans,” Moreno said in a statement. “The abuse ends now.”

The legislation targets programs defined under federal social security regulations, which generally include Supplemental Security Income (SSI) and other needs-based assistance.

While the bill aims to curb fraud, the policy would most directly impact American citizens and “qualified aliens”—legal immigrants who have cleared the mandatory five-year waiting period for federal benefits—who still maintain financial ties to family members in their home nations.

The bill defines “remittance transfers” as electronic transfers of funds to a person or business in a foreign country, a common practice for immigrant families supporting relatives abroad.

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Unmasking The Muslim Brotherhood Ties Inside Ohio’s General Assembly

In a highly anticipated move, the Trump administration designated factions of the global Muslim Brotherhood as terrorist organizations last month, an executive action with profound implications extending beyond the Middle East to America’s heartland. Astonishingly, a Somali-American legislator from Ohio, State Rep. Munira Abdullahi, D-Columbus, continues to serve as a national leader for the Muslim American Society (MAS), a registered nonprofit that federal prosecutors have identified as the “overt arm of the Muslim Brotherhood in America.”

Abdullahi’s involvement with MAS dates back to at least 2012, when she served as a youth director in Columbus and later as a national program director. The organization’s youth programs have been marred by scandals nationwide, including an incident in Philadelphia where children were taught songs about beheading Israeli Jews, and a fundraiser selling merchandise glorifying Hamas and Hezbollah terrorists. Upon her election to public office in 2022, Abdullahi appeared to distance herself from MAS, updating her LinkedIn profile to indicate she no longer worked for the group.

However, her ties persisted and deepened. Now heading MAS-Columbus and part of the organization’s national leadership, she leverages her elected status to host events featuring ultra-conservative preachers and pro-Hamas activists. Though MAS officially claims independence from the broader Sunni Islamist movement, a 2004 Chicago Tribune investigation exposed how its early leaders decided to conceal their Muslim Brotherhood affiliations while aiming to “convert Americans to Islam and elect like-minded Muslims to political office.”

Campaign finance records underscore this connection: in 2022, Abdullahi received a $1,000 contribution from an MAS colleague and later donated $2,400 from her campaign to MAS-Columbus.

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Husted took donations from Epstein ‘co-conspirator’ Les Wexner, then voted to block file release

Ohio Republican Senator Jon Husted has accepted $116,892 from Les Wexner between 2001 and 2025, according to Federal Election Commission and Ohio Secretary of State campaign finance records reviewed by TiffinOhio.net.

Wexner, the billionaire founder of Victoria’s Secret parent company L Brands, was publicly identified this week as a “co-conspirator” of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein in FBI documents.

Husted took $3,500 from Wexner as recently as July 3, 2025 — just two months before voting on September 10, 2025 to block a bipartisan Senate amendment that would have directed the Attorney General to publicly release documents related to Epstein.

The financial relationship spans Husted’s entire political career, from his time in the Ohio legislature through his current role as U.S. Senator. Campaign finance records show Husted is the only senator up for re-election in 2026 who accepted contributions from Wexner during the 2025-2026 election cycle.

FBI labeled Wexner as Epstein co-conspirator

On February 10, 2026, the Department of Justice released previously redacted names from internal FBI documents following pressure from Representatives Ro Khanna (D-California) and Thomas Massie (R-Kentucky). An August 15, 2019 FBI internal document from the bureau’s Criminal Investigative Division included a reference to Wexner as a co-conspirator of Epstein.

“The Justice Department has released the names of three people the FBI once called co-conspirators of Jeffrey Epstein after lawmakers complained that the names had been improperly withheld,” NBC News reported February 10, 2026. “The Justice Department unredacted parts of an Aug. 15, 2019, FBI internal document from the bureau’s Criminal Investigative Division — which included a reference to billionaire Les Wexner as a co-conspirator.”

The document lists eight people as co-conspirators, including Wexner, Ghislaine Maxwell (who was convicted of sex trafficking charges), modeling agent Jean-Luc Brunel, and Epstein’s longtime secretary Lesley Groff. Four other names remain redacted.

According to the released documents, a separate FBI email from August 2019 stated there was “limited evidence” regarding Wexner’s involvement, though he was served a subpoena during the investigation.

A legal representative for Wexner stated that “the Assistant U.S. Attorney told Mr. Wexner’s legal counsel in 2019 that Mr. Wexner was neither a co-conspirator nor target in any respect. Mr. Wexner cooperated fully by providing background information on Epstein and was never contacted again.”

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Video reignites interest in 20-year-old Columbus missing persons case

For nearly 20 years, one question has haunted many people in Columbus: How does someone walk into a building and never walk out? 

The disappearance of 27-year-old Ohio State medical student Brian Shaffer is back in the spotlight as surveillance video from the night he vanished circulates across social media. 

“It’s really important to continue to remind the public that this case exists, and we need the public’s assistance,” retired FBI Agent Harry Trombitas said.

Shaffer was caught on camera walking into the Ugly Tuna Saloon in the early morning of April 1, 2006, but was never recorded leaving. Columbus police said the video circulating is not new, and there’s no new evidence in the case file, but according to experts, this renewed attention could be the key in solving the case. 

“I appreciate whoever on the internet put that video back out on Brian because it gets people talking about it, gets it out in front of people and just the right person may see it and contact law enforcement,” Trombitas said. 

Over the past few days, videos have resurfaced claiming to show the final full hour of surveillance from the bar the night Shaffer went missing. His case, which has captured national attention, has once again exploded across social media. 

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Gov. DeWine: Ending Haitians’ Protections Would Hit Ohio Jobs

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine said ending temporary protected status for Haitians who live and work in his state would be a “blow to the economy,” days after a federal judge blocked the Trump administration from terminating the protections while a lawsuit proceeds.

The Republican governor told CNN on Thursday that employers would lose workers if Haitians with TPS could no longer work legally.

“If they lose temporary protected status and they no longer can work and the companies can’t employ them, that’s a blow to the economy,” he said.

“That’s a blow to the state.”

A U.S. District Court judge in Washington issued a temporary stay Monday that blocked Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s order terminating TPS for Haitians, which was scheduled to take effect Tuesday, pending the outcome of a suit brought by five Haitian TPS holders.

In the 83-page memorandum opinion, Judge Ana Reyes, an appointee of former President Joe Biden, said that Noem did not consult with other agencies as required by law before ending the designation and wrote that it seemed “substantially likely” the secretary “preordained her termination decision and did so because of hostility to nonwhite immigrants.”

Reyes also pointed to the State Department’s current warning on Haiti.

The advisory, reissued July 15, 2025, says: “Do not travel to Haiti for any reason” and cites “kidnapping, crime, terrorist activity, civil unrest, and limited health care.”

Reyes wrote, “‘Do not travel to Haiti for any reason’ does not exactly scream, as Secretary Noem concluded, suitable for return.”

Noem announced in November that TPS for Haitians would expire in February, after an earlier move last summer was delayed by litigation.

As of March 31, 2025, federal data compiled by the Congressional Research Service listed 330,735 Haitians with approved TPS applications.

DeWine said Thursday that Springfield, Ohio, “is coming back” in part because of Haitians living and working there.

“They’re not only working, but of course they’re spending money in the community,” he said.

“There’s been businesses started. Restaurants have started.”

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OSU Just Hired an Assistant Professor of What?

There’s been a problem in higher education for quite some time. Colleges and universities are less interested in educating people than they are indoctrinating them into woke, Leftist ideologies. At the same time, bloated administrative staff and government-backed student loans have made tuition costs (and student loan debt) skyrocket. It’s a recipe for disaster, but academica doesn’t seem keen on changing any time soon.

At Ohio State University (OSU), for example, they recently hired an Assistant Professor of Black Sexualities. 

Zalika U. Ibraorimi, who has “she/they” pronouns, has some interesting areas of expertise, including “Black Sexual Logics,” “Dark Black Study,” “Anti-Blackness,” and “Black Digital Intimacy.”

OSU describes Ibraorimi as “an antidisciplinary artist” (someone who deliberately rejects traditional artistic categories) and wrote that “she engages Black material and digital publics as landscapes to trace the Human sexual geographies between the relation of the Black femme and spectator.”

Um, what?

As Salier pointed out, Ibraorimi was hired because the Mellon Foundation gave OSU almost $3 million to “transform” the Department of African American and African studies.

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Threats on VP Vance Expose a Sick Secret As Feds Close In

Unfortunately, Vice President JD Vance is no stranger to threats. Vance and his family have endured multiple threats since he became the 50th Vice President of the United States. 

One of the most recent instances has resulted in federal charges against an Ohio man, and there’s an added dark twist involved here. 

On Friday, the Department of Justice announced that a federal grand jury had returned an indictment against a 33-year-old Ohio man who threatened to kill Vance during his January visit to Ohio.

TOLEDO, Ohio – A federal grand jury returned an indictment earlier this week charging a 33-year-old man with threatening to kill the Vice President of the United States during his visit to the Northwest Ohio region in January.

Shannon Mathre, of Toledo, is accused of making a threat to take the life of, and to inflict bodily harm upon, a successor to the presidency, in violation of Title 18 U.S. Code Section 871(a). In the indictment, he allegedly stated, “I am going to find out where he (the vice president) is going to be and use my M14 automatic gun and kill him.” Mathre was arrested by U.S. Secret Service agents Feb. 6.

But it isn’t just threats against Vance for which Mathre is facing charges. 

The grand jury further charges that from about Dec. 31, 2025, to Jan. 21, 2026, Mathre was also engaged in the receipt and distribution of images that visually depict minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct, in violation of Title 18 U.S. Code Section 2252(a)(2). While investigating the threats allegedly made against the vice president, federal agents discovered multiple digital files of child sexual abuse materials (CSAM) in Mathre’s possession.

U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi had this to say about the matter: 

“Our attorneys are vigorously prosecuting this disgusting threat against Vice President Vance. You can hide behind a screen, but you cannot hide from this Department of Justice.”

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