Gov. Mike DeWine vows to lift coronavirus orders if cases fall to certain level: Capitol Letter
Rotunda Rumblings
End in sight? Gov. Mike DeWine, in a brief statewide address Thursday evening, told Ohioans he would remove all coronavirus orders when the state reaches a benchmark: 50 cases per 100,000 people for two weeks. The state average is now at 179.6 per 100,000, although it was as high as 731 on Dec. 3. As Laura Hancock reports, DeWine called the goal “very doable,” and implored Ohioans to stick with safety measures until the end.
ICYMI: A previously unnoticed disclosure by FirstEnergy Corp. says the millions of dollars the company says it paid to someone shortly before they were hired as a top state utility regulator led to that person taking actions on the company’s behalf in their new state job, Andrew Tobias writes. Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost has said the payment appears to have gone to a company owned by former Public Utilities Commission of Ohio Chairman Sam Randazzo. The disclosure appeared in a federal filing in November, but went largely unnoticed until a pro-green energy group highlighted it on Thursday.