The PUCO Nominating Council today submitted the names of four finalists to be considered by Gov. Mike DeWine for the position of commissioner.
The finalists are Christopher Healey, Jeffrey Crossman, John Williams and Michael Skindell. More info here: puco.ohio.gov/news/ncrecomme
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Bill would give Ohio drivers caught with marijuana in their system a break on OVIs dispatch.com/story/news/pol via
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Only the University of California, Berkeley & Illinois State Museum have more Native American ancestral remains than the Ohio History Connection's 7,167.
Learn why they have them and if tribes will get them back in my latest for :
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The Householder-Borges trial is canceled for the rest of the week after a juror tested positive for COVID-19.
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If you're looking for something to listen to during this trial break, 's podcast on how Speaker Householder's second term came crumbling down is here:
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Here's the notice on PACER: "The Court was advised this morning that, due to unforeseen circumstances, a juror is temporarily unavailable. Accordingly, jury trial will not convene on 1/25/2023. The recess is CONTINUED until 1/26/2023 at 9:30 a.m."
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Court is canceled today. It was already delayed because of weather.
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Trial will begin at 11 a.m. today because of weather.
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Today: FBI Special Agent Blane Wetzel takes the stand to detail the case against Householder and Borges.
Both have pleaded not guilty.
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Yesterday: federal prosecutors set the scene in 2016 of FirstEnergy “bleeding money” over its nuclear plants as energy prices dropped.
Meanwhile, Larry Householder reached out in August of that year (before he had been re-elected) seeking a meeting.
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How the relationship between Larry Householder and FirstEnergy formed over D.C. steakhouses
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Speaker was asked about hiring Megan Fitzmartin, who could be called to testify in Householder/Borges trial:
"I am 100% behind all of our employees. You know, there's a lot of people testifying in that trial and that will work itself out."
h/t
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Tomorrow's witness is FBI Special Agent Blane Wetzel, all day.
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Testimony is done for the day. Prosecutor is focusing on the initial meetings between FirstEnergy and Householder and the approval to send $1M to Generation Now, a 501c4 set up to back Householder and his candidates.
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Larry Householder flew on a FirstEnergy plane with Mike Dowling and Tony George to Trump's 2017 inauguration. (Chuck Jones took a separate FE jet) While there, Householder had multiple meetings with FirstEnergy execs at Charlie Palmer Steak.
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An Oct. 2016 document details what Team Householder was doing to prepare for the next elections. "Ginni Ragan won it for Cliff. Who is our Ginni Ragan? Boich?"
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Householder reached out to FirstEnergy executive Mike Dowling on 8/17/2016 via email, asking for a meeting.
FE staff discussed internally. Then-lobbyist Ty Pine recommended they needed to be sensitive of then-Speaker Rosenberger. "MTG with Chuck?"
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Trial will begin at 11 a.m. tomorrow because of inclement weather.
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Phone records admitted from Borges, Householder (home and Riffe), Neil Clark, Juan Cespedes, Jeff Longstreth, Anna Lippincott, Megan Fitzmartin.
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Admitting a ton* of exhibits including financial records, Jeff Longstreth's emails, business records from groups like Hardworking Ohioans, Partners for Progress, Red Maverick Media, etc.
* technical term
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On the stand: FBI Special Agent Blane Wetzel. He will be a key government witness in laying out this case.
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Judge Black gives an instruction to the jury that not everyone potentially involved in the case/enterprise is on trial. (FirstEnergy's deferred prosecution agreement is not expressly mentioned but this comes after FE's treasurer testified.)
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Setting rules for the Ohio House is normally a quick, easy vote. But this year is different. We might see a floor fight this afternoon-->
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House Bill 6 trial: What we learned as the federal prosecutors build their case
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House Bill 6 trial: Dark money expert, FirstEnergy treasurer, FBI agent to testify
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Day two of commuting in Cincinnati and can confirm Columbus is very flat.
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Murphy's law is court ending at a reasonable hour only for your AirBnb rental to be a cat-pee-infested mess. Weeee.
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Ohio's new House Speaker, Jason Stephens, has released his list of committee chairs. About 50% (by my count) went to the 22 who supported him along with most big committee positions like finance.
will be vice chair of the committee he chaired last GA.
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Prosecutors painted Larry Householder and Matt Borges as corrupt. But their lawyers told jurors there were no bribes and no corrupt scheme.
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First government witness with be OSU’s Dr. Dormady who will explain energy policy to the jurors. That might be it for day 1. I am headed to the courtroom to listen in.
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Long ends his opening statement by saying Borges helped a friend and served a client. He wasn't "on the farm" and didn't serve Householder's interests.
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"Matt never asked the attorney general to do anything or not do anything," Long said, adding that Borges asked Yost about the referendum language approval process but didn't advocate to slow it down.
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Borges, through 17 Consulting, paid for private investigators to follow petition collectors for referendum around. “It didn’t work out very well, but they tried.”
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Long details anti-referendum efforts, such as hiring signature campaigns to not come to Ohio, blockers to present different information to those signing petitions and a mirror campaign of signatures that wouldn't count for anything.
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Long says Borges was a consultant for AEP, which initially opposed the nuclear bailout or its customers paying for it, also Sam Randazzo's PUCO chairman appointment. At same time, he was building "grassroots support" for nuclear plants. Later joins FirstEnergy Solutions lobbyists
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FirstEnergy executives tried to meet with then-Gov. John Kasich about a nuclear energy bailout/solution. Borges, at Roetzel at the time and lobbying for Perry schools in the plant's footprint, advised them that Kasich wouldn't be interested. Kasich skipped the meeting, Long said.
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Long: “Matt was no ally of Larry Householder.” Borges backed GOP candidate Cliff Biggers, Householder’s primary opponent in 2016.
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Borges' attorney Todd Long is now presenting his opening statement: “There is a universe of difference between Matt Borges and everyone else you’re going to hear about in this case.”
“He was never a member of Team Householder. He was never on the farm.”
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“Larry was never bribed to advance this legislation," Bradley said. Bradley added that strategist Jeff Longstreth loaned Householder money for repairs to Householder's Florida home and attorneys fees for coal mining lawsuit with the expectation that it would be repaid.
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