Friday, September 25th, 2026

Welcome to Friday’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 1981: "Endless Love" by Diana Ross and Lionel Richie topped the charts, gas averaged $1.38 a gallon, and Saturday Night Live was about to launch Season 7, featuring Eddie Murphy and Joe Piscopo.

Top of the fold today: rain and record diesel prices squeeze Ohio's harvest, while data centers become a defining election issue as voters weigh jobs and economic development against fears of rising electric bills.

In today's Peach Section: a loaded college football weekend, Stapleton headlines Superfest, an HOA's war on a Little Free Library, and why schools banned phones but not AI.

LONDON  — Weeks of heavy rain are delaying Ohio's harvest and damaging crop quality, with farmers at this week's Farm Science Review reporting soybean mold and hayfields too wet to mow. 

Adding to the strain, diesel hit a record average of $6.52 a gallon this week, pushing farm operating costs even higher during peak harvest season.

OHIO — Pataskala, Ohio, blocked a large data center last month, and voters will decide in November whether to ban them for good. 

It's one of 20 Ohio data center votes this fall, almost half of all such votes nationwide. 

Supporters say the projects bring jobs and investment, but opponents have been successful in tying the issue to rising electric bills, making this a top election issue and pushing Congress to pass a bill asking data centers to help pay for power grid upgrades.

COLUMBUS — Ohio State (2-1) hosts Illinois (2-1) Saturday at noon on FOX as a 27.5-point favorite, with the over/under set at 53.5. 

The Buckeyes have won 10 straight in the series, their last loss in 2007, and the winner takes home the Illibuck trophy. 

It's also Ohio State's Hall of Fame Weekend, with this week's Bell Ringer honoring James Laurinaitis. 

Catch the coverage with Buckeye Insiders on YouTube, starting around 9 a.m.

While Ohio State is the marquee game on FOX, this weekend's slate has the potential to keep any serious college football fan on the couch for hours, with good games spread across nearly every window.

Also on Saturday, at 3:30 p.m. on CBS, Iowa, the team Ohio State plays next week, visits Michigan. The night closes with two ranked showdowns: Oregon is at USC at 7:30 p.m. on NBC, and Ole Miss visits Florida on ABC.

In an interesting starting time on Friday, you can warm up with Army at Temple at 4 p.m. on ESPN, before Northwestern visits Indiana at 8 p.m. on FOX to close out the night.

The Dayton Dragons, Dayton's High-A minor league baseball team and a Cincinnati Reds affiliate, now have a specialty Ohio license plate.

Chris Stapleton will headline the 2027 Buckeye Country Superfest at Ohio Stadium, returning to the Columbus stage after previously performing there alongside stars like George Strait.

Indian Lake, Ohio's two-acre Red Oak Island just listed for $1.125 million — your own private kingdom in the middle of a manmade lake.

A North Ridgeville, Ohio, homeowners’ association is demanding a resident remove her Little Free Library, calling the beloved book-sharing box "front porch storage" and threatening enforcement if she refuses to comply.

Ohio schools have handed down two rules this year. Rule one: AI is great, use it, the future demands it. Rule two: phones are banned all day, hide them like El Paso contraband. Nobody's explained why the device that runs the AI becomes public enemy number one the second it's buried in a pair of cargo pants.

Here's our Peach Section working theory, and we really think we've nailed this one: this was never about focus. This was about preserving evidence and possibly avoiding extortion.

A young scholar holding a phone with a 48-megapixel camera, the same resolution Apple brags about like it's discovering a new planet, is not a distraction risk. He's a one-man documentary crew, and trust us on this one, the school never wins once the footage is released to the world. Ban the phone, kill the film.

Then there's the public record footage that used to be called a catfight. Two sweet, emotionally charged young ladies, same boyfriend, a hastily called summit meeting at the lockers. That fight used to end up on TikTok before the bell finished ringing, laugh-track edit, dramatic music bed, hashtag included. Now it just ends the way it did in the 80s: a parking-lot conversation, 37 different versions, none of them on video, none that would hold up in juvy court.

We do have a suggestion for the runner-up in that summit, since AI is supposed to solve real problems. Open an app and let DaVinci AI generate a boyfriend with no group chat and no wandering eye. If a pretend girlfriend worked well enough for a Notre Dame linebacker to nearly win the Heisman on the strength of it, it'll certainly work for a troubled teen.

They gave the lunchroom a new name, something like The Commons or the Nutrition Center. In the end, it's the lunchroom, with a salad bar and the same mystery meatloaf it's always been. Somewhere in an Ohio cafeteria, someone is plating something that deserves a spot in the senior time capsule.

So, here's to Ohio's students: banned from filming the food, the fights, and the meltdowns, still expected to have opinions about how AI will change their future. Good luck prompting a chatbot on a phone you're not allowed to hold.

When a school district faces a budget shortfall, which cost-saving approach do you think is better?
- Take random furlough days throughout the year to reduce costs - 12%
- End the school year early by the number of days needed to make up the shortfall - 25%
- Neither; the district should find savings elsewhere - 63%

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