Ohio Senators Ask Federal Agencies to Monitor Health of East Palestine Residents over Long Term

U.S. Senators J.D. Vance (R-OH) and Sherrod Brown (D-OH) this week sent a letter to heads of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention  (CDC) urging long-term health monitoring of East Palestine, Ohio residents. 

Vance and Brown asked EPA Administrator Michael Regan and CDC Director Rochelle Walensky to guarantee baseline medical testing for those living near the site of the February 3 train derailment. The rail company Norfolk Southern followed the incident with what the company termed a “controlled burn” of five cars containing vinyl chloride. 

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Five New Officers Elected to Ohio Republican Party State Central Committee

The Ohio Republican Party State Central Committee elected five new officers and filled four vacant committee seats at their January meeting.

The longtime leader of the Hamilton County Republican Party Alex Triantafilou was selected to replace Bob Paduchik as the Ohio Republican Party’s next chairman.

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Seven New Ohio State Senators Sworn in for New Legislative Session

In the 2022 general election, 17 of the Ohio State Senate’s 33 seats were up for grabs. As of January 2023, seven of those seats are held by members of the Democratic Party, and 26 are held by members of the Republican Party.

Four new Democratic state senators and three new Republican state senators have been sworn in to represent their constituents in the new legislative session.

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Public University Evicts, Disciplines Student for Telling Others It Gave Her Vaccine Exemption

A Michigan public university retaliated against a Russian immigrant for telling others how she got a religious exemption from its COVID-19 vaccine mandate, evicting her from campus housing and putting a disciplinary record in her student file, according to her lawyers.

After Inara Ramazanova posted her requested and received exemption in a private Facebook group for similarly situated people nationwide, Oakland University deemed this “collusion or conspiracy” to help others evade its rules, the First Liberty Institute wrote to OU in a pre-lawsuit warning letter Thursday.

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Ohio University Employees Are Donating to Democrats 10-to-1 over Republicans

With midterm elections this year, Ohio’s 2022 congressional redistricting plans are under scrutiny. The state lost one congressional district last year, bringing the total number down to 15.

The Ohio Supreme Court recently struck down new redistricted maps and gave the Ohio Redistricting Commission until Feb. 17 to draw new maps. As the deadline approached, the Commission decided they were at an “impasse” and negotiations came to a halt as of this writing.

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Attorneys File Lawsuit Against University of Cincinnati over Vaccine Mandates

Attorneys at Mendenhall Law Group in Akron have filed a lawsuit against the University of Cincinnati over the school’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate. 

“School officials are overriding students’ civil rights to bodily autonomy under the United States and Ohio constitutions.  Young people do not experience this as a grave illness.  It is unprecedented for a university to require students to participate in experimental medical procedures such as injections or masking,” Warner Mendenhall told The Ohio Star Friday.

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Engineering Professor Under Investigation for Referring to COVID as the ‘Chinese Virus’

The University of Cincinnati placed an engineering professor on administrative leave and launched an investigation into him after he referred to coronavirus as the Chinese virus.

The public university told Professor John Ucker that he is on administrative leave with pay as of September 18 after a student, Evan Sotzing, posted a screenshot of an email from Ucker.

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