Tuesday, September 15th, 2026

Welcome to Tuesday’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 date in 1857, William Howard Taft — future U.S. president and Supreme Court chief justice — was born in Cincinnati.

Acton and Ramaswamy clash over Flock cameras in Ohio's governor's race, and Ohio State earns an F in a national free speech ranking — Top of the Fold today.

And Ryan Day faces reporters after Ohio State's stunning collapse at Texas, plus our editorial board asks whether Sherrod Brown's data center crusade is genuine or just a midterm psyop.

CINCINNATI — Ohio's gubernatorial candidates disagree on Flock cameras, with Democrat Amy Acton calling for a statewide ban over privacy concerns, while Republican Vivek Ramaswamy opposes a ban but warns against a "surveillance state." Gov. Mike DeWine and Attorney General Andy Wilson defend the technology's crime-fighting value. Hamilton County recently paused its use of the cameras, citing a need for clearer safeguards on data access.

COLUMBUS — Ohio State University received an F grade in FIRE's 2027 College Free Speech Rankings, ranking 174th out of 261 schools nationwide. Three other Ohio universities also failed, while most Ohio schools scored a D or D-. The survey, based on nearly 63,000 student responses, found the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Trump, and Charlie Kirk's killing among the toughest topics to discuss openly on campus.

COLUMBUS — The University of Toledo may soon start an artificial intelligence institute to boost AI research and teaching across the school. A leader at UT said it would support work already happening in health sciences, defense, and manufacturing. The plan connects to AI Ready Ohio, a statewide program that has given free AI training certificates to 1,500 people so far, with 3,000 expected by the end of 2026.

COLUMBUS — A new Ohio State pilot study found psilocybin-assisted therapy safe and effective for veterans with treatment-resistant PTSD. Among 12 participants, nine went into remission after two psilocybin doses combined with psychotherapy over 11 weeks, with clinician-rated symptoms dropping an average of 27.5 points. No adverse events were reported. Researchers say a larger, randomized controlled trial is planned to confirm the findings.

COLUMBUS — Ohio State head coach Ryan Day meets with reporters today at noon to preview Saturday's home game against Kent State; kickoff set for noon on Fox. But little discussion is expected to center on the Golden Flashes. 

Instead, questions will likely focus on the No. 1 Buckeyes’ one point loss at No. 4 Texas Saturday night, part of a stretch in which Ohio State has now lost three of its last four games to ranked opponents — No. 2 Indiana in the Big Ten Championship, No. 10 Miami in the CFP quarterfinals, and now Texas. Buckeye Insiders will stream the press conference live on its YouTube channel.

A recent New York Post opinion column argues that the sudden wave of AI "doom" warnings — including Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei's call for global AI governance — looks less like genuine alarm and more like a coordinated Democratic talking point timed to the midterms.

The column's author, Miranda Devine, points to Bernie Sanders' parallel push for an AI regulation bill and Barack Obama's reported private lobbying of Democratic donors to make AI a campaign centerpiece, calling the coordination suspicious.

That national argument lands squarely on Ohio's U.S. Senate race. Data centers have become an emotional firestorm, fueling city council chaos in towns across the state. Sherrod Brown has run television ads all summer tying Republican Sen. Jon Husted to unpopular data center projects and rising energy bills, part of a broader Democratic strategy that a leaked National Republican Senatorial Committee memo reportedly took seriously enough to warn AI companies about.

For a man who has spent 50 years running for public office, it's fair to ask where Brown really stands on the issue, because frankly, his thirty-second "I hate data centers" commercials kind of feel like they are driven by the flavor-of-the-week outrage cycle.

We could be wrong, but probably not. After all, he did "approve this message."

The odds are, Brown is against them now because his campaign data (probably driven by AI) tells him to be against them. But there's a political fog that no one seems to want to clear up.

Brown has long branded himself Ohio's champion of organized labor. But the state's building trades unions, through Affiliated Construction Trades (ACT) Ohio, have been actively pro-data center. Executive Director Matt Szollosi told state lawmakers this summer that data center construction has driven a surge in trades apprenticeships, wages and job hours, calling it "the gift that keeps on giving."

So, what will be Sherrod Brown's position if he wins? Will he be the guy running ads against data centers, or the one who has spent decades voting with unions that now absolutely need them for their own survival?

Is this campaign position durable policy, or is it, as any fair-minded skeptic could argue, this cycle's version of Bud Light, where data centers are his version of Dylan Mulvaney sitting in a bubble bath?

Brown's campaign, notably, hasn't called for a construction ban, only more oversight. That's fine, but what is the definition of "oversight"?

The Pennant editorial board has a sneaky suspicion that oversight means as long as data centers are built with union labor, he's for them. Or put another way, he's against 'em until he doesn't need to be.

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