Ohio voters will decide in November on a bail reform measure that could move the state toward cash bail and requires judges to consider public safety when setting bail provisions.
Attorney General Dave Yost praised the passage of House Joint Resolution 2 and Senate Joint Resolution 5 as issues that came in response to an Ohio Supreme Court decision upholding an appeals court ruling that public safety cannot be considered when determining bail.
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After the top attorneys in Texas, Montana and Missouri announced that they would be leaving the National Association of Attorneys General (NAAG), Ohio appears poised to remain part of the group.
“The attorneys general of Texas, Missouri and Montana have decided to withdraw our states’ membership from NAAG,” said a letter penned by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R).
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Ohio’s top attorney this week is warning residents of a new class of designer drugs that are more deadly than fentanyl.
“Frankenstein opioids are even more lethal than the drugs already responsible for so many overdose deaths,” Attorney General Dave Yost said in a press release. “Law enforcement and the public need to pay attention to these emerging hazards.”
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Ohio Governor Mike DeWine, in connection with Attorney General Dave Yost and State Highway Patrol Superintendent Col. Richard Fambro, announced a new initiative to address gun violence-related crimes.
The state will give $10.5 million to the Ohio Attorney General’s Bureau of Criminal Investigation (BCI) and Ohio State Highway Patrol (OSHP) to improve access to key technology for law enforcement throughout the state.
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An Ohio police officer was killed on Thursday after being struck by a fleeing vehicle that he was attempting to stop.
Officer Dominic Francis of the Bluffton Police Department was trying to place spike strips to stop the driver when he was hit by the vehicle around 3 a.m.
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A Cleveland Police officer was cleared by a grand jury earlier this week after it determined that he acted lawfully in self-defense in the shooting death of an alleged murderer last year.
“The grand jury ruled that the officer acted properly based on its review of a thorough, independent investigation,” Attorney General Dave Yost (R) said in a press release. “The goal is always to find the truth.”
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Eight individuals were arrested for attempting to buy sex during an anti-human trafficking operation that took place in the northeastern region of the state, according to Attorney General Dave Yost.
The mission, Operation Fouled Out, involved the Ohio Organized Crime Investigations Commission and focused on Cleveland, leading up to the National Basketball Association’s All-Star Game.
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Attorney General Dave Yost (R) is holding a series of forums to spread awareness about elder abuse in the state.
In a press release announcing the next event in the series of forums, called “Responding to Financial Exploitation, Scams and Fraud in Facility Settings,” Yost told the following story of an Ohio senior who was bilked out of his own money:
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The Ohio Supreme Court agreed with two Democrats on the Ohio Redistricting Commission and denied a motion from Attorney General Dave Yost to relegate the two to “friend of the court” status in ongoing legal challenges to new state legislative districts.
Commission co-chair Sen. Vernon Sykes, D-Akron, and House Minority Leader Allison Russo, D-Upper Arlington, called Yost’s motion an attempt to silence the two, who had voted against the original maps and ones reconfigured by order of the court.
“I am relieved to see that a fair process is continuing in the courts,” Russo said. “We spoke up for the people against unconstitutional maps, while the Attorney General tried to silence us. AG Yost should not have tried to put his thumb on the scale in this process. Now, we wait the court’s decision on the submitted maps and let the process play out with greater transparency.”
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Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost kept pressure on the Biden administration this week by joining a lawsuit challenging the federal COVID-19 vaccination mandate for health care employees.
Yost signed onto a federal lawsuit filed in Louisiana that wants the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ mandate declared illegal. Yost said the mandate affects about 17 million people across the country working full- and part-time jobs at hospitals, nursing facilities, hospices and home health agencies.
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Ohio has joined a federal lawsuit challenging the Biden administration’s new federal immigration policy, which Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost said stops nearly all deportations and handcuffs U.S. immigration officers.
Yost and attorneys general in Arizona and Montana want to stop the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Guidelines for the Enforcement of Civil Immigration Law, which is scheduled to take effect Nov. 29. The lawsuit called the guidelines irrational and said they likely will increase a border crisis.
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The attorneys general of Arizona, Montana and Ohio filed suit against the Biden administration Thursday to block an order by Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas that would effectively halt deportations of illegal aliens — including those convicted of crimes.
Attorneys General Mark Brnovich, Austin Knudsen, and Dave Yost sued President Joe Biden, Mayorkas, acting Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Troy Miller, acting Director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement Tae Johnson, and Director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Ur Jaddou in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio.
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A school teacher from Columbus has been arrested for allegedly paying to have sex with a teen whom police suspect was a victim of human trafficking.
“Robert Pea, 60, of Columbus, was arrested Wednesday morning and is charged with one count of compelling prostitution,” according to reports. “The Northland High School teacher is accused of contacting a 16-year-old girl through an online advertisement to have sex at a hotel in Reynoldsburg.”
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The Ohio Board of Education (BOE) this week dropped its Critical Race Theory (CRT) resolution that activists described as “anti-racist,” and critics described as “divisive.”
According to The Columbus Dispatch, it has been replaced with a new resolution that condemns any curricula that “seeks to divide.”
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After being convicted for stealing $150,000 from P.A.T.H. School for Autism, Inc. and the P.A.T.H. Academy for Autism, Ltd., the former executive director of those nonprofit organizations, which are partly responsible for administering Ohio’s curricula for children with autism, has been sentenced to 90 days in jail.
“Bonnie Kimpling, 53, of Chicago, was sentenced for one count of Aggravated Theft, a third-degree felony, in Williams County Common Pleas Court. In addition to jail time, she was sentenced to five years of community control, fined $2,500 and ordered to pay approx. $32,269 in restitution,” Attorney General Dave Yost’s office said in press release.
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An Ohio U.S. Senate candidate and attorney has signed onto a lawsuit in support of the state’s bid to regulate Google like a public utility.
JD Vance is part of the Claremont Institute, which filed an amicus brief supporting Attorney General Dave Yost’s June lawsuit against the Silicon Valley giant.
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Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost is leading 15 other state attorneys general in backing Georgia’s effort to dismiss a federal lawsuit challenging the state’s new voter laws.
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) sued Georgia, Georgia’s secretary of state and other election officials in June, saying several provisions of the state’s recent voting reform law blocks the right to vote for Georgians based on race.
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In response to a “surge” in opioid overdoses in Ohio in 2020, Attorney General Dave Yost Friday announced the state’s first “Drug Dropoff Day.”
“You know, a lot of opioid addictions actually start out of the family medicine cabinet,” Yost said in a video posted to his Twitter account.
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Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine’s plan to encourage more people to get the COVID-19 vaccine by offering millions of taxpayer dollars and college scholarships through a raffle program appears to be legal, Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost said.
Yost tweeted the opinion, but he stopped short of saying he believed DeWine’s plan was a was a good idea.
“About the $1M [vaccination] lottery: I heard about it yesterday. It doesn’t appear to violate state law, though it depends on how it’s designed,” Yost’s tweet read. “Just because a thing may be legally done does not mean it should be. The wisdom of it is a question for the Governor and the General Assembly.”
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On Monday Ohio State Representative John Becker (R-Union Township, Clermont County) filed a motion with the Ohio Twelfth District Court of Appeals to strike down a brief Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost filed with the court.
AG Yost filed the amicus curiae (friend of the court) brief on behalf of Clermont County Prosecutor D. Vincent Faris who Becker is attempting to make investigate charges Becker made against Ohio’s governor.
Becker and Faris ended up in the district appellate court after Becker filed a Private Citizen Affidavit (PCA) on September 28 in Clermont County. As The Ohio Star reported, in the PCA Becker alleged Ohio Governor DeWine committed 7 felonies and 3 misdemeanors as a result of his managing the state’s COVID response.
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Ohio crime victims are expected to receive additional support from groups around the state, according to Attorney General Dave Yost, who plans to award nearly $59 million in grants to groups that provide direct assistance.
Yost announced the anticipated grants, which include $13 million to help children. He expects $55 million to come from the Victims of Crime Act and another $3.5 million from the State Victim Assistance Act fund.
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Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost said in an interview with Fox Radio that if the Big 10 refuses to change its stance on college football, Ohio State University (OSU) should sue.
Yost said that “it seems crazy,” that with so many other sports, including high school and amateur football being played that OSU will not be able to have a season.
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Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost has ordered abortion clinics to stop performing surgical abortions during the coronavirus pandemic.
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JobsOhio has operated as a privatized, independent economic development agency for the State of Ohio since 2011. In all that time, a few concerned officials have tried to peel back the curtain obscuring its inner workings, too little success.
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Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost has awarded more than $345,000 in grants to more than 60 local police departments over the last three months to purchase body armor vests for their officers.
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Attorney General Dave Yost announced Monday he amended his lawsuit filed against pharmacy benefit manager (PBM) OptumRx, claiming the PBM excessively charged the Ohio Bureau of Workers Compensation for generic drugs. The overcharge totaled nearly $16 million. It is now “significantly more.”
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Ohio legislation this week seeks to turn the fight against prostitution in a different direction: finding fault with suppliers and buyers rather than sex workers.
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Attorney General Dave Yost has filed a “friend of the court brief” with the Ohio Supreme Court regarding a federal lawsuit filed by an employee of the Geauga County Health Department. Rebecca Buddenberg, a “whistleblower” who claims the county retaliated against her for reporting, “…unequal pay practices and potential ethical violations by County Health Commissioner Robert Weisdack,” resigned in May 2017. She filed her lawsuit in March 2018.
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Attorney General Dave Yost filed a petition to the 6th Circuit Court for “REHEARING AND REHEARING EN BANC” (emphasis his) to reconsider their recent block of Ohio’s ban on Down Syndrome abortions Friday, Gongwer reported. Senate President Larry Obhof (R-Medina) and Ohio Right to Life had pushed for reconsideration.
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The day before the bellwether trial of Cuyahoga and Summit Counties versus four major pharmaceutical companies began, the drug manufacturers settled. The issue for the counties was the significant cost of the opioid epidemic, believed to have been fueled by the drug companies. Earlier this summer Attorney General Dave Yost tried to force the court to consolidate the counties’ cases under his jurisdiction, and he voiced concern with the settlement.
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On Friday, Cincinnati Right to Life declared, “Discrimination Legal in Ohio, Sixth Circuit Blocks Ohio Down Syndrome Abortion Ban.”
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On Monday Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost gave a message to people attempting to interfere with the signature gathers of a referendum petition against House Bill 6: Knock it off.
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Last week First Energy Solutions (FES), which owns the two nuclear power plants in northern Ohio, sued the Ohio Secretary of State and Ohioans Against Corporate Bailouts. FES wants to stop the Bailout group from moving ahead with their referendum against House Bill 6 – known as the nuclear bailout – and they asked for the case to be expedited. Attorney General Dave Yost declined their request.
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DELAWARE, Ohio — Second Amendment supporters from around Ohio and beyond gathered Saturday at Blackwing Shooting Center to celebrate and memorialize one of gun owners’ greatest allies and advocates – L. Kenneth (Ken) Hanson. Hanson, co-founder of Buckeye Firearms Association (BFA), passed away Sunday, August 4, 2019. He was 49 years old.
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A referendum initiative to repeal House Bill 6, a controversial bill that some call a nuclear bailout, cleared two major hurdles last week.
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A bill that may be introduced in the Ohio General Assembly is pitting local officials against the state and the governor against the attorney general. Although the legislation has yet to be introduced, just the mention of it has lines being drawn and words like “unconstitutional” and “veto” being thrown around.
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Ohio Democrats are condemning Attorney General Dave Yost for joining with other states in a Supreme Court case declaring that federal civil rights laws do not apply to lesbians, gays, bisexuals, transgenders or others in the LGBTQ category. Aaron Baer from Citizens for Community Values (CCV) is praising him.
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Last month, Project Veritas, Project Veritas Action Fund and James O’Keefe sued the Ohio Elections Commission. They claim the Commission is enforcing an unconstitutional violation of their 1st and 14th Amendment rights by prohibiting them “from reporting unapproved information that is acquired through investigating a political campaign while undercover.”
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Several state attorneys general are pursuing a joint antitrust probe of major technology companies, according to sources of The Wall Street Journal. It could begin as early as next month and Ohio’s Attorney General Dave Yost may be among them.
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Brian Ames of Portage County has been fighting for public meetings to be open for more than 20 years. He has been studying and applying the requirements in the Open Meetings Act. He’s had some success in court and in Brimfield Township, where the trustees are now being transparent…
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Ohioans Against Corporate Bailouts wants to repeal House Bill 6. They are using the petition for referendum option in Ohio’s Constitution to try to place the bill on the ballot so Ohio voters can decide for themselves if they want the so-called nuclear bailout. The referendum language was submitted to Attorney General Dave Yost’s office on July 29, but their summary was rejected on Aug. 12.
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