Thursday, May 21st, 2026

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On this date in 1980, The Empire Strikes Back opens in U.S. theaters, giving the world the line "No, I am your father" and arguably the best film in the Star Wars saga.

Note: the line is almost always misquoted as "Luke, I am your father." Vader never actually says Luke's name in that moment.

Starting July 1, low-income students in Ohio can use federal Pell Grants towards job training. Find out how and why in the Top of the Fold.

Also, multiple states had their primaries Tuesday night. Find out what their results mean in our Election Coverage section.

Starting July 1, low-income students in Ohio can use federal Pell Grants — up to $7,395 — to pay for short-term job training programs as brief as eight weeks at community colleges and trade schools.

The new Workforce Pell Grant program, part of a sweeping federal education overhaul, covers high-demand fields like skilled trades, health care, and information technology.

Find more on the grants here.

Ohio State University professor Caroline Wagner says China has quietly overtaken the U.S. in research spending and scientific output, and with deep federal budget cuts on the way, she warns the gap is only going to grow.

See just how big the gap has grown here.

A bipartisan bill in the Ohio House would require election boards to set aside seating and priority lines for voters who have a hard time standing through long waits at the polls.

More on the voting bill here.

Tuesday's primaries across Alabama, Georgia, Idaho, Kentucky, Oregon, and Pennsylvania gave Republicans much of what they wanted, but November is a different fight. 

In Kentucky, President Trump successfully ousted another incumbent, Rep. Thomas Massie — who says he voted with the president roughly 90 percent of the time during Trump's second term — because that other 10 percent was enough to make him a target.

Trump has made clear that crossing him has a price. The problem is that purging skeptics works in a primary. Holding the House in November means defending swing districts where voters don't always follow the same script. Democrats in Georgia and other states turned out in numbers that should concern Republican strategists, and the midterm map ahead is expensive and hard to navigate.

Ohio offers a look at what's coming. The state's May 5 primary set up Vivek Ramaswamy against Amy Acton for governor and former Sen. Sherrod Brown against appointed Republican Sen. Jon Husted, with analysts already calling it another nine-figure Senate race.

Democrats have their own baggage to sort out. Old social media posts keep surfacing for their candidates — past takes on policing, Israel, and pandemic-era school closures that play well in a primary but create headaches once the general election starts.

Both parties left Tuesday with a nominee. What neither has figured out yet is whether their candidate can connect with millions of voters who are tired of the whole thing.

Walk into almost any factory, hospital, or construction site in Ohio right now, and you'll hear the same thing from employers: we can't find enough workers. Enough people in Washington were listening and may have just done something about it.

Starting July 1, low-income students can use federal Pell Grants — up to $7,395 — to pay for short-term job training programs at community colleges and trade schools. This includes eight-to-fifteen-week programs that lead to certification in welding, HVAC, medical assisting, or truck driving.

This is a move to support programs that actually match what Ohio businesses need out of the workforce.

The old rules made no sense. The U.S. Department of Education would help students rack up nearly $38,000 in debt chasing a four-year degree, but wouldn't give a dime to someone who just wanted to learn a trade and get to work.

Read the full editorial here.

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