Wednesday, September 9th, 2026

Welcome to Wednesday’s edition of The Pennant. To listen to this newsletter, click the “Listen Online” link in the top right corner of this email.

On September 9, 1776, the Second Continental Congress formally adopted a resolution renaming the new nation the "United States of America," replacing the previously used "United Colonies."

Man tied to shoving incident near gubernatorial candidate Acton faces court; plus, why Ohio's falling unemployment masks a shrinking workforce. Find these in the Top of The Fold.

And a new bill would kill local tax breaks for data centers, plus why Ohio can't decide if non-citizens should carry a badge.

CANFIELD — Patrick Havas, 38, was scheduled to appear in court Tuesday on assault and disorderly conduct charges after allegedly pushing toward Democratic gubernatorial candidate Amy Acton at the Canfield Fair, knocking two people down.

His motive remains unclear, and it has not been established whether the assault counts will be charged as felonies or misdemeanors.

COLUMBUS — Ohio's unemployment rate fell from 4.9% to 3.4% over the past year, but its labor force shrank from about 6 million to 5.91 million, per BLS data. 

Buckeye Institute's Greg Lawson says the drop matters more than headline unemployment numbers, driven largely by an aging population. 

Toledo's labor force fell by 7,000, even as manufacturing employment there grew 3.7%, and construction jobs rose 7.6%. 

Lawson says the real bottleneck is skills, not job availability, and points to trades training and retaining young workers as keys to Ohio's outlook.

OHIO — A large storm complex moving out of the Northern Plains is expected to reach Ohio by midweek, bringing clouds to northern and northwest Ohio Wednesday afternoon, followed by showers and thunderstorms. 

Precipitation is forecast to spread statewide through Wednesday evening and overnight, continuing into Thursday. 

Farmers are advised to plan around wet conditions as the system moves through.

COLUMBUS — State Rep. Daniel Troy, D-Willowick, introduced House Bill 999 on Sept. 4, seeking to ban new local property-tax incentives for data centers statewide. The bill would void any township, city or county abatement approved after its effective date and bar the state tax commissioner and county auditors from signing off on new data-center exemptions.

Cosponsors include Reps. Abdullahi, Baker, Brennan, Miller, Rader and Sims. Troy called existing breaks "unjustified giveaways," arguing full property-tax bills would ease pressure on homeowners. The bill has not yet been assigned to committee.

The proposal echoes remarks U.S. Sen. Bernie Moreno made last week at a Club for Growth and Arnold Ventures energy-permitting summit in Columbus, where he said data centers should receive "no tax incentives" and that he may introduce federal legislation taxing any state or local incentive at 100%.

Energy Secretary Chris Wright, speaking at the same event, warned that blocking data-center projects in Ohio wouldn't stop them — it would simply push the investment to China or the Middle East.

Danbury, Connecticut's city council didn't just tweak a hiring policy when it voted to let non-citizens and DACA recipients apply for police jobs. It came days after ICE swept through the city, and council members said, plainly, what they'd apparently been sitting on.

One member called federal immigration enforcement an "invasion." Another said the vote "sends a message to our immigrant community." Call it a personnel policy if you want. It was a shot at the Trump administration and ICE.

For those who don't remember, illegal immigration was the center of the 2024 presidential race. It ran neck-and-neck with inflation as voters' top concern, and a majority of Americans — including a quarter of Democrats — told pollsters they supported mass deportation of people in the country illegally. Two years later, that's still the backdrop a city council is legislating against.

It's worth looking at Danbury itself. Nearly a third of the city is foreign-born, and its demographics — a large, fast-growing Latino population — are similar to what one would find in Lorain or Painesville. Mayor Roberto Alves, an immigrant who came to Danbury undocumented at age five, unseated over two decades of Republican control in 2023.

It's hard not to think this is a direct response to the Trump administration and ICE, as the mayor and city council play the political cards that got them elected.

Ohio doesn't need a lesson from Connecticut to understand the national debate on ICE enforcement. Springfield already got national attention over its Haitian community back in 2024, and Columbus has lived through "Operation Buckeye," which resulted in more than 280 arrests across central Ohio, with Rep. Joyce Beatty calling the raids "racially targeted." Cincinnati's ICE field office has drawn weekly protests.

And yet, on the narrow question of who gets to wear a badge and handle everything from speeding to domestic violence calls, the state stays quiet. Cincinnati and Canton already accept green-card holders, quietly, in a job posting. Cleveland, Columbus and Toledo require citizenship, full stop. Nobody's voted on it. Nobody's said why.

Danbury might be the beta test for non-citizen police officers. Ohio has more reason than most to think this through — rather than copy Danbury's playbook or keep letting job postings decide by accident.

Comments and letters welcome: [email protected]

Will you be traveling for Labor Day weekend?
- Yes, but within the state - 10%
- Yes, out of state - 18%
- No - 45%
- Unsure - 27%

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