Thursday, August 6th, 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 1945, the Enola Gay dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima. Pilot Paul Tibbets later settled in Columbus, where he died in 2007.

Rep. Max Miller’s chaotic divorce continues to spill into public view, and a Fairfield County nursing home battles an outbreak that has put eight people in the hospital. Both stories are Top of the Fold

And in today's editorial section, we look at why a Granville school board has good reason to fear a thousand new rooftops — and how Columbus made that math unavoidable.

WASHINGTON — The House Ethics Committee is investigating Republican Rep. Max Miller of Ohio over allegations of domestic violence and illegal drug use made by his ex-wife, Emily Moreno.

Miller, who says he requested the probe himself, must soon decide whether to stay in a reelection race that Republicans fear could cost them the seat.

LANCASTER — Eight Legionnaires disease cases tied to the Country Lane Gardens Rehabilitation and Nursing Center have all led to hospitalizations, Fairfield County Health Commissioner Joe Ebel said Tuesday, and he expects the count could rise. 

The 99-bed facility uses well water and has added filters to faucets and shower heads while water test results are pending by week's end.

COLUMBUS — A cyclospora outbreak tied to imported iceberg lettuce has Ohioans skipping the grocery aisle for farmers markets, where vendors say greens often sell out within an hour of opening.

 One Northeast Ohio market saw foot traffic jump 127% over last July, and while local lettuce isn't risk-free, it passes through fewer hands on the way to the table.

Heath council chambers filled with applause Monday night when M/I Homes withdrew its Heath Hills application, a subdivision on annexed land where the new families would have sent their kids to Granville schools, not Heath's.

This was never about whether those kids grow up Bulldogs or Blue Aces. It was about arithmetic Columbus wrote, and Licking County had to live with.

Granville has about 2,500 students. Heath Hills would have added 1,000 more at a cost the district put near $8 million a year, plus $25 million in buildings. Heath would have collected the income tax.

Anybody calling Granville anti-growth wasn't listening. The people handing out signs said Licking County needs houses. Just not that many, that fast, on that little ground.

So what does Ohio send a district when a thousand kids show up?

Two hundred twenty-five dollars a head this year. Two hundred fifty next year, for districts that hit the growth thresholds. That's the enrollment growth supplement, a rounding error against what educating a child costs. Lawmakers wrote the current budget without updating the formula's cost inputs or student weights.

Two hundred fifty dollars. That's the state's contribution to a problem it created, and it reflects every zoning fight in central Ohio. The only place left is the local ballot. Ohio has made it rational for a school board to fear rooftops and for neighbors to pack a council chamber.

Granville's superintendent is at least trying. Senate Bill 173, which he helped write, would send annexed-area kids to the annexing city's schools. Reasonable, but it only moves students between columns. It adds no money, and it's been in committee over a year.

Here's the part nobody applauded. Granville expected a tax issue around 2028 with or without Heath Hills. Heath is out the revenue it counted on. The soybeans are still soybeans.

Pickerington is back on the ballot this fall with a 10-year income tax levy after voters said no in May. That's what the end of this road looks like everywhere.

Granville wasn't wrong. It responded correctly to a formula that punishes growth and hands homeowners the difference. Until the legislature fixes that, every growing community in Ohio gets the same bad options, and the tax bill comes either way.

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