Thursday, May 7th, 2026

Welcome to Wednesday’s edition of The Pennant. To listen to this newsletter, click the “Listen Online” link in the top right corner of this email.

Media mogul and Cincinnati native Ted Turner died Wednesday. He was 87.

Both Ohio Northern University and the Columbus Zoo experienced threats and evacuations on Tuesday. Read about why in the Top of The Fold.

Also, millions in questionable medicaid payments have been found at several Columbus office buildings. Find out more in our Government section.

Ohio Northern University in Ada was evacuated Tuesday afternoon after a bomb threat was received around 2:15 p.m., sending students, faculty, and staff to nearby Ada High School.

Law enforcement cleared all buildings by early evening, and students were allowed to return to residence halls, with academic buildings set to reopen Wednesday morning at 7 a.m.

More on the story can be found here.

The Columbus Zoo evacuated all guests and staff Tuesday morning after receiving a phone threat at 9:54 a.m., the second such incident in less than a week.

The closure is part of a broader pattern of hoax swatting calls targeting zoos across the country, including the Cleveland Zoo, the Akron Zoo, and several others that received similar threats over the weekend.

Read the full story here.

Ohio technology executives were asked to name one company deserving more attention, with top picks including Harmoni for smart manufacturing, Anduril for defense innovation, and Path Robotics for AI-powered welding that addresses skilled labor shortages.

For the complete list, go here.

The Daily Wire, a conservative news outlet, has published the second installment of its "Medicaid Millionaires" investigation, and the details are hard to ignore regardless of where you get your news.

Reporters found seven large office buildings along East Dublin Granville Road in Columbus where hundreds of small companies were billing Medicaid, the government health program for low-income Americans, for home health care services. Many of the offices appeared empty or abandoned. Together, 288 businesses in those buildings billed taxpayers more than $250 million between 2018 and 2024.

Investigators found companies that billed for home visits while patients were actually in the hospital. Others saw their monthly billing jump from tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of dollars almost overnight. Several owed back taxes while collecting millions in government money. One business operated out of what appeared to be a closet.

Ohio has 3,700 companies with "Home Health" in their name. The program has little oversight because most services take place in private homes.

The Daily Wire says more reports in the series are coming. Here is a link to their investigation.

Ohio has a gubernatorial race and two candidates that the Pennant editorial team isn't particularly excited about.

First, there's Dr. Amy Acton.

Her COVID tenure alongside Governor DeWine was wrong about nearly everything and had the press releases to prove it. Masks weren't necessary, then they were mandatory. Going outside would kill you, then it wouldn't. People sat alone on park benches, wondering why fresh air was suddenly a health hazard.

Ohioans stopped listening because we figured out it wasn't science, it was theater. We haven't forgotten. Now the architect of that mess wants to run the state.

The rest of the record: a police incident, a Senate flirtation that went nowhere, and being a woman, which apparently settles it for some people.

On the other side: billionaire Vivek Ramaswamy.

This is the man who wrote Woke, Inc., plays piano, and is pretty good at tennis. Attended both Harvard and Yale. He is almost certainly the smartest person in any room and makes certain you never forget it. His life requires what appears to be a traveling production crew with a producer, two cameras, and an audio engineer. Being late is just something he does. 

Make of that what you will.

When they both speak, it feels like focus group-generated talking points. For example, property taxes are crushing homeowners while the state loses residents to Indiana, Tennessee, and Florida. People are leaving. That's the story.

The response? Property taxes are a problem and we're going to fix that or eliminate them or something.

Another major issue is data centers. These projects mean real money for towns like Van Wert and Portsmouth. Jobs, tax revenue, infrastructure investment. They need real management too: grid planning, water accountability, and zoning that works for the towns that want them. We're still waiting.

Let's face it, public education in Ohio is mostly a mess. Unions are protecting jobs. School boards are burning energy fighting vouchers instead of fixing classrooms. Families in failing districts are trying to get out any way they can.

A real candidate has a specific answer for that, and it's not "we're going to fix the schools."

Dr. Acton and Mr. Ramaswamy won their primaries. The Pennant editorial staff isn't quite sure what Ohio got out of it. There's time to win us over. Just be real and not so focus groupie.

Come November, choose carefully. The state is watching. So is Indiana, Tennessee, Florida, and Texas.

The Pennant welcomes comments and letters to the editor. Write to us at [email protected]

The Pennant welcomes letters to the editor and guest columns from readers. Submissions may be edited for length, clarity, and AP style. The Pennant reserves the right to verify all information contained in submissions before publication.

Please send all submissions to [email protected]