Tag: ohio

‘One hell of an October surprise’: Watch Amy Acton’s mother urge people not to vote for her ‘liar’ daughter in Ohio governor race against Vivek Ramaswamy

In what is being called a bombshell in the Ohio race for governor, the mother of Democrat candidate Amy Acton is urging citizens not to vote for her own daughter, whom she says has “a serious problem” and has “lied her entire life.”

Acton is running against Republican Vivek Ramaswamy, a former presidential candidate and adviser to President Donald Trump.

In a video posted on X by investigative journalist Walter Curt, Acton’s mother says: “My name is Donna Arthur and I’m Amy Acton’s mother. I worked at Children and Family Service Association, building one of the first two sexual abuse programs in America.

“I love my daughter, but when I saw her lying about her opponent – and it’s not easy for a mother to say this – but Amy has a serious problem.

“She is a liar. She lies about her past. She says she grew up living in a tent. None of that is true. She’s lied her entire life.

“My daughter needs help, and she can’t help you if she needs help herself. People can change, but first they have to tell the truth, and my daughter still isn’t doing that.

“Don’t vote for people who lie. Don’t let her become your governor. If you think she’ll make your life better, you’re fooling yourself. It will only get worse.”

Curt noted of the video, “That’s one hell of an October surprise.”

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Lawsuit challenges Cincinnati over BLM mural, equal access to streets

A federal lawsuit is challenging Cincinnati’s decision to allow a Black Lives Matter street mural, with the plaintiff arguing other viewpoints deserve the same opportunity to paint city streets.

Chris Langdon filed the lawsuit in federal court just days before the Black Lives Matter mural was refurbished for the BLINK festival. The mural was painted on Plum Street in 2020.

Langdon lives in Winter Park, Florida. He said the First Amendment gives him the same right to express his views on Cincinnati streets as anyone else.

“I think the First Amendment is important. one group to use the city streets, you have to allow all groups to use it, all points of view,” Langdon said.

What Langdon wants to paint

Langdon said he wants to paint a mural on a Cincinnati city street using religious figures standing arm in arm with the caption “Peace & Religious Tolerance.” He wants it to include Jesus, Buddha, the Prophet Muhammad and Moses.

“I put in my lawsuit things like all lives matter, brown lives matter, yellow lives matter. I don’t think you can just make a statement just for one race,” Langdon said.

Fox19 legal analyst Mark Krumbein said the lawsuit is not a novel concept.

“It’s an interesting lawsuit and its a concept that has come up before and basically an individual is saying he wants to do the same thing that someone else is done and in this case, Black Lives Matter has painted murals on the sidewalk, different symbols, so he wants to do that himself,” Krumbein said.

Krumbein compared the issue to past disputes over religious displays.

“The same issues applies like when they have a Christmas tree on Fountain Square and you know like well, can I have my, this religious, that religion and can I do this?” Krumbein said.

Lawsuit seeks damages

Langdon’s lawsuit also includes $10,000 in damages from the mayor and $10,000 from the city.

Mayor Aftab Pureval released a statement to FOX19 saying: “This looks to me like a frivolous lawsuit filed by someone offended by racial inclusion. I’m not sorry for supporting the Black Lives Matter mural. It is a beautiful representation of our City’s speech and values. It’s not going anywhere.”

Langdon said he has sued other cities over the same issue.

“So anybody has the right to paint the streets and anybody else in America has a right to come and paint. You have the same right to paint the city streets. It doesn’t matter if you’re a resident of Cincinnati or not,” Langdon said.

Langdon said if the city doesn’t settle his lawsuit, he hopes it makes its way all the way up to the Supreme Court.

The Black Lives Matter mural was privately funded when it was painted in 2020. In 2021, City Council approved an ordinance transferring and appropriating $125,000 from city funds to restore it.

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NCAA sues Ohio governor over his executive order allowing schools to ignore new eligibility rule

The NCAA filed a federal lawsuit against Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine on Friday, three days after he signed an executive order giving the state’s universities the option of allowing athletes who graduated from high school in 2022 to play a fifth year in defiance of the organizations’s new eligibility rules.

NCAA President Charlie Baker said the lawsuit, filed in federal court in Ohio, was an “extraordinary step” designed to prevent DeWine from taking a step that would make it “impossible for all schools to compete on a level playing field.”

Under the order, public and private universities in Ohio can allow the Class of ’22 athletes to play, even though the NCAA’s new guidance excludes those who have already played four seasons. The rule, passed in June, is the subject of multiple court fights.

“This Complaint seeks to halt a misguided attempt to give Ohio colleges and universities an unfair, unprecedented and unwarranted competitive advantage in stadiums and arenas throughout the country,” the introduction to the lawsuit reads. “College sports, like all sports, depend on participants following the rules. (DeWine) is attempting to give Ohio institutions a hall pass to break the rules.”

DeWine’s move was the latest in what has become a daily digest of legal maneuverings that are creating new rules on a state-by-state basis.

In reaction to the governor’s move, the Ohio Supreme Court said it would step in and determine the legality of the executive order. As part of that, it paused an appeals court ruling in a case there that had declared the ’22 athletes ineligible. The court asked both sides to file briefs in the case, in which basketball player Filip Borovićanin is the lead plaintiff, by next Monday.

Baker said the NCAA did not believe the Supreme Court’s order did, in fact, declare those players immediately eligible to compete and said it would submit arguments in that case by Monday.

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Jury Convicts Blogger After Ohio Senator Reports Crude Political Joke

An Ohio jury has found a blogger guilty of sending a crude, but clearly political joke to a state senator who had just dropped out of a Senate president race – and who chose to call the police instead of simply blocking the number.

All it took was for Senator Jerry Cirino to personally call the police chief in his hometown of Kirtland and ask that charges be filed against D.J. Byrnes, who writes under the pen name “The Rooster.”

The image that was sent to the senator depicted the cartoon ogre Shrek holding his genitals, and the accompanying text was a joke at the politician’s expense.

The judge who signed the arrest warrant had received campaign contributions from Cirino and had been endorsed by him.

Cirino also emailed the local police chief, saying he was “officially filing a complaint” and asking the police to “take appropriate actions” – and to make sure the “harassment” stops.

The Shrek image sent by Byrnes was described in the arrest affidavit as “fully nude with an exposed and erect humanlike penis engaged in an act of masturbation.”

Byrnes’ attorneys argued that the image, accompanied by a text that called Cirino “Young Mussolini,” was simply a political statement.

“The image made the exact same point he texted. Cirino had exposed himself,” said defense attorney William Livingston.

“One message and a meme and one reply, all about a single subject: the Senate race that Cirino had just lost,” Livingston said.

Another attorney, J. Michael Murray, told the court that the image of Shrek was meant to show that Cirino was “exposing himself, as he couldn’t win the presidency.”

Murray said that Byrnes, who was arrested in public at the Statehouse in June and held for 23 hours, “spent a night in jail because he offended a powerful politician.”

Prosecutor Matthew Lallo asked the jury: “Tell me how that is not a harassing message.”

Byrnes was found guilty and ordered to pay $200 in fines and court costs. His attorneys plan to appeal.

Cirino, meanwhile, maintained that he was not trying to stifle free speech, saying, “This was about protecting my rights as an individual.”

The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) said in June that the government “generally cannot punish people for saying things to or about public officials, even if some find the speech offensive, insulting or vulgar.”

FIRE also rejected the notion that the image of Shrek was obscene, saying it was “protected political mockery, not obscenity.”

FIRE’s advice to Cirino at the time was: “Block the number.”

The real punishment was the arrest, the night in jail, and the trial, all courtesy of a powerful politician who chose to “pursue” a critic instead of blocking them on his phone.

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Ohio Mental Hospital Reportedly Confirms that James Talarico was Discharged as Dem’s Campaign Screams ‘This is a Lie!’ and Calls It a ‘Pathetic Conspiracy Theory’

Receipts were just dropped by several investigative reporters producing a recorded call with a mental hospital that claimed that Texan Democrat James Talarico was just discharged. His campaign is still claiming he had the flu. More damning evidence is coming – time for Talarico to bow out of the race.

And there it is… Looks like Texan soy boy Democratic Senate candidate and all-around Marxist James Talarico has some ‘splainin’ to do, and the clock is ticking. As reported previously, Talarico was missing for roughly two weeks. His campaign claimed he had the flu, and Friday he finally showed his face with some supporters at the Austin City Limits music festival for about 15 minutes. However, investigative reporter Rhein Amacher confirmed with a mental hospital in Mason, Ohio, that Talarico was checked in there and has now been discharged. Oops.

Rumors are still swirling around the claim, but it now has a lot of credence since Amacher recorded that call. The reporter said he personally confirmed Talarico’s stay by calling the hospital, and he produced the receipts. That’s pretty damning.

“During my recorded call, an individual identifying themselves as a female facility employee reportedly stated that Talarico was no longer a patient and had been discharged within the previous 24–48 hours,” he posted on X.

The unidentified woman Amacher spoke with checked her records and told him that Talarico “was just discharged this evening; that’s why I don’t have it,” after telling him she could not confirm he was an inpatient. Except she just did.

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Ohio Journalist Goes on Trial for Sending Picture of ‘Shrek’s Penis’ to GOP Lawmaker — Faces Up to Six Months in Prison

An Ohio political blogger will go on trial Thursday for allegedly sending a state lawmaker a picture of Shrek with an erect penis.

D.J. Byrnes, 39, publisher of the Ohio political newsletter The Rooster, has pleaded not guilty to misdemeanor telecommunications harassment over the bizarre exchange with Republican State Sen. Jerry Cirino.

The saga began after Cirino gave up his bid to become president of the Ohio Senate.

Byrnes, a committed leftist who nicknamed Cirino the “Young Mussolini,” allegedly sent him a taunting message celebrating his political setback.

“Good to see you finally made your humiliation public, Young Mussolini. THE PATRIOTS CAUCUS sends its regards!!!!!!!!!!!” Byrnes wrote, according to court filings.

“I don’t know who this is but I am certain you are a moron,” Cirino responded.

Byrnes allegedly sent the senator a digitally altered image depicting the famous green ogre fully nude with an exposed and erect penis.

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Data Center Attack Ad From Ohio Democrat Sherrod Brown Features Google Facility – While Brown Takes Thousands From Google Lobbyists

Ohio Democrat Sherrod Brown goes after data centers in one of his latest attack ads. Data centers are all the rage on the left right now. They’re like the new climate change.

Most of these people don’t even understand the technology behind data centers, they just know that if they’re on the left, they’re supposed to hate them.

In Brown’s ad, there is a Google facility, which is kind of funny, considering that Brown has taken thousands in donations from lobbyists for Google.

FOX News reports:

Dem’s data center attack in critical Senate race hits snag when money trail surfaces: ‘Jekyll-and-Hyde’

Former Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown is targeting Republican Sen. Jon Husted over Ohio’s growing data center industry in a new campaign ad that features a facility owned by Google, whose corporate PAC and lobbyists have contributed thousands of dollars to Brown’s campaigns.

The Sept. 4 ad features an Ohioan blaming Husted for spearheading “the push to bring data centers to Ohio” and linking their expansion to “higher electric bills.”

The facility featured in the ad, which opened in Lancaster in 2023, is owned by Google.

Campaign finance records reviewed by Fox News Digital show Google’s corporate PAC contributed $20,000 to Brown over his political career. Brown also received thousands of dollars from individuals who lobby for Google, including two whose firms have worked on permitting, grid reliability and energy affordability issues.

“Apparently, Google is terrible enough to put in a campaign attack ad, but perfectly acceptable when the political contributions are coming in,” Mehek Cooke, a GOP strategist and attorney in Ohio, said in a statement to Fox News Digital. “That is the contradiction Brown needs to answer. If Google’s Lancaster investment is so bad for Ohio, why was Google political money acceptable to Sherrod Brown?”

Do as I say, not as I do.

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Ohio Schools Can Send Unvaccinated Kids Home for 25 Days — Even If They’re Not Sick

Ohio’s new policy forcing healthy, unvaccinated children out of school for 21 to 25 days after a confirmed case of measles or rubella is drawing fire from parents, lawyers and scientists.

Critics say the policy isn’t needed to protect public health, it could harm children and it may be illegal.

The policy, part of a public health order signed in February by Ohio Department of Public Health (ODH) Director Bruce Vanderhoff, is enforceable even if the unvaccinated student shows no signs of illness or infection.

The policy also applies whenever a mumps or chickenpox outbreak occurs — and it extends to sports and extracurricular activities, not just classroom attendance.

The 21-to-25-day quarantine resets every time a new case or outbreak is reported at the student’s school.

Jeffrey Tucker, president and founder of the Brownstone Institute, called the policy “cruel and discriminatory” and a violation of the rights of children and their parents or guardians.

“If the policy is to protect the unvaccinated children, the parents should be the ones to decide,” Tucker said.

Karl Jablonowski, Ph.D., senior research scientist for Children’s Health Defense (CHD), said the “contrast between medical freedom and medical tyranny is blatant” in the policy, which he said “discriminates against people based on medical choice … with zero evidence that they pose a risk.”

Policy could lead to ‘serious risk of vaccine injury’

Ohio’s school vaccine mandates require students to receive routine childhood vaccinations for 10 diseases: diphtheria, hepatitis B, measles, meningococcal, mumps, pertussis (whooping cough), polio, rubella, tetanus and varicella (chickenpox).

Earlier this month, Ohio school districts sent letters to parents warning that children who haven’t received two doses of the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine will be “excluded from school” for 21 days whenever the school confirms a measles case.

According to the policy, any vaccine doses children received five or more days before the minimum interval or age are “invalid” — so those students are classified as unvaccinated and required to be re-vaccinated.

That could put those children “at serious risk of vaccine injury,” according to Ohio Advocates for Medical Freedom, which called for the “immediate repeal” of the policy.

In a letter to leaders and members of the Ohio Senate and House of Representatives, the group said Ohio’s policy amounts to a “coercion tactic to bully parents into submitting to vaccination against their conscience out of desperation.”

Most families will be unable to find solutions to keep their unvaccinated children at home for several weeks or months, the letter noted.

Leslie Manookian, president of the Health Freedom Defense Fund, agreed that the policy appears deliberately designed to “coerce busy parents into vaccinating their children so they won’t be excluded from attending school and any school-related activities.”

However, Manookian questioned whether the policy will change the minds of parents who have chosen not to vaccinate their kids.

“This policy misses a larger point, which is that many parents would prefer to take the risk of their child contracting measles than to subject their child to the potential risk of the measles vaccines,” she said.

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Husted Campaign Fires Political Director Over Nazi, Rhodesia Posts

Sen. Jon Husted’s campaign fired its political director Friday after The Washington Post asked about the director’s social media accounts, which included a Facebook profile photo of Nazi SS troops and a Spotify playlist devoted to white-ruled Rhodesia.

Stephen Woytek, 25, had been hired by the Ohio Republican’s campaign in August.

“Steve serves our country honorably as a lieutenant in the U.S. Army and is a proud graduate of The Citadel. He studies military history and routinely reenacts historical battles. While he denies negative intent, his social media activity displays a complete lack of judgement and disregard for its impact on others,” a spokesperson said.

“Sen. Husted demands better of those who represent him.

“Upon learning about the social media posts today, Sen. Husted made the immediate decision to part ways.”

The Post reported that Woytek changed his Facebook profile photo in 2018 to an image of soldiers from the Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler division holding captured Soviet banners. The photo was still publicly visible Friday.

His Spotify account included a public playlist titled “Tales From Rhodesia,” described as “homesick for a place that no longer exists,” with tracks including “Rhodesians Never Die.” Songs were added as recently as August. The playlist was made private Friday.

Woytek said his interest in the period was historical.

“I want to be unequivocal: I reject the racist and antisemitic ideology the SS and Nazi Germany represented,” he said in a statement to the newspaper.

Woytek said he takes part in historical reenactments because “I believe it is important to educate our younger generations,” and acknowledged he should have “exercised better judgment when posting about my activities online.”

He did not answer the newspaper’s questions about the Rhodesia playlist. The campaign did not say whether it had reviewed his accounts before hiring him.

Rhodesia, the white-minority government that ruled what is now Zimbabwe until 1980, has become a symbol among white supremacists, according to the Anti-Defamation League, which cautions that its imagery alone is not evidence of extremist beliefs.

The gunman who killed nine Black churchgoers in Charleston, South Carolina, in 2015 called himself “the last Rhodesian.”

Woytek graduated from The Citadel in 2024 and serves in the National Guard. He previously worked as a legislative aide to state Rep. Haraz Ghanbari, a Perrysburg Republican.

It was the second departure from the campaign in two months.

Andrew Havas, Husted’s volunteer Franklin County chair, resigned in July after NBC News asked about a 2008 charge of sexual misconduct with a minor that was reduced to misdemeanor assault under a plea deal.

Husted, appointed by Gov. Mike DeWine in January 2025 to the seat Vice President JD Vance gave up, faces former Sen. Sherrod Brown in the Nov. 3 special election. The contest is widely considered a toss-up.

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Children of the Somali Dictator Responsible for the Deaths of 200,000 People Quietly Living Off American Taxpayers in Ohio Suburbs Alongside Victims of His Regime

The children of former Somali dictator Mohamed Siad Barre, whose brutal regime has been linked to the deaths of as many as 200,000 people, are reportedly living quiet suburban lives in Columbus, Ohio.

According to an investigation by the New York Post, Barre’s son, Ayanle Mohamed Siad, and daughter, Deka Mohamed Siad, settled in the United States after their father was overthrown in 1991.

Their presence has reportedly caused deep pain within Columbus’ Somali community, which includes refugees and families who suffered under Barre’s 21-year military dictatorship.

“Siad Barre and his men committed so many war crimes, so I was shocked to see his son in the mosque enjoying his freedom,” Ali-Guban Mohamed, whose family members were reportedly executed by Barre’s forces, told the Post.

Barre seized power in a 1969 coup and ruled Somalia through repression, political persecution, and military violence. His regime’s campaign against the Isaaq people in northern Somalia included mass killings, destroyed cities, poisoned wells, and widespread displacement. Estimates of those killed range as high as 200,000.

Ayanle, 61, has been described by historian Mohamed Haji Ingiriis as his father’s “right-hand man.” Ingiriis told the Post that Ayanle exercised significant power during the final years of the dictatorship and at one point acted as the de facto ruler while his father was incapacitated.

“He was so powerful that he was able to appoint and dismiss regime authorities on behalf of his father,” Ingiriis said.

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