Thursday, June 18th, 2026

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

On this day in 2000, Tiger Woods won his first U.S. Open at Pebble Beach in California by 15 strokes, the largest margin of victory in the history of golf's major championships.

DeWine held a press conference on Tuesday, where he called for the abolishment of the death penalty. Read about his reasoning in the Top of the Fold.

Also, severe storms have been sweeping across the state. Find out if this is a fluke or a trend for the rest of the summer in our Weather section.

COLUMBUS — Republican Gov. Mike DeWine urged Ohio to abolish the death penalty, saying capital punishment no longer deters murder and that the moral justification he had for the 1981 law he helped write no longer exists.

DeWine, who has not authorized an execution in seven years as governor, pointed to data showing fewer death sentences, decades-long waits on death row, and condemned inmates who often die of natural causes before they can be executed.

Read more from Fox News.

TOLEDO — The Holland Strawberry Festival, which runs through June 21, is adding security after a June 6 shooting at Toledo's Old West End Festival injured 12 people.

Organizers say all guests and bags will be screened, no weapons or oversized bags will be allowed, and minors 16 and younger must be with a parent or guardian after 7 p.m.

Read more from Spectrum News 1.

COLUMBUS — Ohio has begun downgrading the commercial driver's licenses of about 1,200 foreign-born truckers whose documents no longer meet federal requirements, part of a review of roughly 5,000 non-domiciled license holders.

The state says it won't issue or renew such licenses going forward, following new federal rules and a nationwide audit ordered after a string of fatal crashes. Read more from The Center Square.

CLEVELAND — Severe storms that swept across Ohio on Sunday spawned tornadoes in the eastern part of the state and left tens of thousands without power in the northeast.

The National Weather Service confirmed two tornado touchdowns in Columbiana County, near the Pennsylvania line, among five tornadoes surveyed across eastern Ohio and northwestern Pennsylvania. No injuries were reported, and the only structural damage cited was to a barn. Farther north, the same system battered Ashtabula, Lake, and Cuyahoga counties with winds that downed trees and power lines. FirstEnergy said more than 142,000 customers lost power at the peak.

There is reason to expect more. The weather service counted 11 confirmed tornadoes in the region in just two weeks, and that fits a longer pattern. Researchers say the Midwest and the Ohio and Mississippi valleys have been serving up a more consistent mix of warmth, humidity, and wind shear, the ingredients for severe storms. 

A widely cited 2018 study found those ingredients now flourish more east of the Mississippi than in the traditional Tornado Alley, with tornado days rising across the eastern U.S. The bullseye has been creeping east, toward Ohio. 

Even when twister counts run low, forecasters warn, straight-line winds can do tornado-scale damage. Read more from CBS News. Outage details from WKYC.

This is shaping up to be a brutal summer to be a teenager looking for work. The outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas projects teens will pick up about 790,000 jobs from May through July, down from last year's record low of 801,000. That would be the weakest summer hiring since the government started counting in 1948. NPR called it the worst teen job market in decades.

The blame this year falls on real things. AI and automation have swallowed jobs at the mall, the register, and the movie counter. Older workers are staying put longer, and leisure employers like theme parks, resorts, and hotels announced 70% fewer hiring plans through April than a year earlier.

But the slide is older than any chatbot. Writing in The Wall Street Journal, Harvard economist Roland Fryer notes that teen labor-force participation peaked in 1979 and has fallen ever since, from about 49% of teenagers holding a job then to 31% today. For most, leaving was a choice. A college degree pays off more than it used to, so families with money trade the part-time job for tutors, camps, and internships.

Read the full editorial here.

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