Monday, June 8th, 2026

Welcome to Monday’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 1984, the now cult-classic blockbuster “Ghostbusters” was released in theaters.

As the investigation into the medicaid fraud in Ohio continues, so do the consequences. Find the latest update in the Top of the Fold.

Also, Former General Attorney Dave Yost officially left office yesterday. Read about his final act in our Editorial section.

COLUMBUS — The Ohio Department of Medicaid suspended payments to 49 Medicaid providers and filed charges in multiple cases over allegations of fraud.

Of the 49 providers under investigation, 47 operate in the Columbus area, with many sharing the same street address.

Prosecutors charged four people, including two state employees, in a $30 million fraud scheme involving Ohio’s behavioral health programs.

For more on the providers under investigation, see the full provider list. For more on the cases, see the full case details.

WASHINGTON — Emily Moreno, daughter of Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-Ohio) and ex-wife of Rep. Max Miller (R-Ohio), has accused Miller of physical abuse during their custody dispute.

In an affidavit, Moreno alleged that Miller threw scalding water at her and verbally abused her during their marriage.

Miller denied the allegations, noting that no police reports were ever filed. He also said Moreno has bipolar disorder and suggested it influenced the accusations. Moreno’s representatives did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Miller's full interview on the subject here.

Elon Musk is about to become the world’s first trillionaire. The SpaceX IPO prices on June 11^th, and when it does, his net worth clears $1,000,000,000,000. Twelve zeroes. Most of us lose the plot somewhere around seven.

A thousand dollars is a car repair you weren’t expecting. A bad month. A hundred thousand is what a lot of people around here work a full year to bring home — if they’re lucky. That number has weight to it. You feel it.

A million is the one everybody dreams about. Pay off the house. Take care of mom. Maybe finally take that trip. It’s the finish line in a million different American daydreams, and most people never get close.

A billion is where the brain just quits. Spend a thousand dollars a day and it takes nearly 3,000 years to burn through a billion. One billion minutes ago, Rome was still running things. There are about 2,700 billionaires on earth. Before this week, Musk was already worth close to a thousand of them put together.

A trillion is a thousand billion. The Wall Street Journal did the math: spread across the 31 years since Musk started his first company, it works out to about $3.6 million an hour. Every hour. Around the clock. Since 1995. It doesn’t feel real. But the numbers say it is.

Say what you want about the man — and people certainly do. But no one in recorded history has ever held this much wealth. Not Rockefeller. Not the oil kingdoms. Nobody. This is genuinely new territory.

A trillion dollars. Sit with that for a second.

Dave Yost officially left the Attorney General’s office yesterday. Two terms, term-limited, and nobody would have blamed him for clearing out his desk quietly. That’s not what he did.

Last week, in one of his last acts as AG, Yost stood alongside the U.S. Department of Justice to announce charges against nine defendants tied to more than $42 million in fraud against Ohio taxpayers.

In Butler County, a licensed social worker named Robert Haley faces 31 felony counts for allegedly submitting more than 60,000 fraudulent Medicaid claims — over $12 million — for therapeutic services to children in after-school programs that were never actually delivered. Parents told investigators they had no idea their kids’ names were being used. Signatures on consent forms appeared to be forged. In a separate case, four defendants are charged with stealing more than $1.4 million in COVID relief money through fake PPP loan applications.

Take a moment to consider the scope and maliciousness. Someone billed the government for autism and behavioral health services that children never received — forging their families’ signatures to do it. This isn’t bureaucratic waste. It’s theft from kids who needed help, funded by taxpayers who assumed the money was going where it was supposed to go.

Yost has never been shy about saying what this is. “This is your money that’s being stolen,” he told reporters last week. He said it for eight years and backed it up.

At some point, Ohio taxpayers have to say enough. Enough of providers treating Medicaid like a personal slush fund. Enough of forged signatures and phantom services. Enough of families with autistic children being used as billing props by people who never showed up to help them.

Andy Wilson steps into the AG’s office today. He inherits a fight worth continuing — aggressive investigation, federal partnership, and no appetite for people who prey on the most vulnerable. The fraud doesn’t stop because the calendar changes. Ohioans will be watching.

Dave Yost served this state with backbone. Going out the way he came in — swinging — that’s how you leave a job well done. It’s also exactly what the job description calls for.

Have you ever been to a drive-in movie theater?
- Yes - 66%
- No - 34%

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