BY: OHIO CAPITAL JOURNAL STAFF-MAY 11, 2026 9:24 AM
Every morning in the Ohio Capital Journal’s free newsletter, The Eye-Opener, we round up the news and commentary from across Ohio and around the country and world that is catching our attention. We call this feature Catching Our Eye, republished here.
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Catching Our Eye
Water. Cleveland Scene’s Mark Oprea reports, “Cleveland Agrees to $3 Million Settlement in Water Department Discrimination Lawsuit.”
In 2013, after a post-stroke spinal fracture, Albert Pickett, Jr. moved back into his childhood home in East Cleveland. But there was a problem. His mother had about $550 in overdue water bill payments.
On disability, Pickett was denied a payment plan with Cleveland Water. That same year, his water was shut off. He went six years without running water.
A 2019 class action lawsuit against the city detailed his case and those of others that argued residents were denied proper due process: Pickett, like hundreds of other Cleveland Water customers in the past six years, was never directed to the utility’s Water Review Board for a chance to dispute his shut off.
Cop cameras. The Dayton Daily News’ Sydney Dawes reports, “‘This doesn’t feel like public safety’: Daytonians call for removal of Flock cameras.”
Dozens of Dayton residents are calling on city leaders to cancel their contract with an automated license plate reader vendor, remove the cameras from the city, release all audit reports associated with the camera system and hold a public hearing where officials must present facts under oath, among other actions.
Make pollution great again. ProPublica reports, “Trump Exempted Some of the Nation’s Biggest Polluters From Air Quality Rules. All It Took Was an Email.”
The Trump administration has granted more than 180 polluting facilities nationwide a two-year pause on compliance with Clean Air Act rules.
The administration set up an email address through the Environmental Protection Agency where companies simply had to send an email to make their request.
The EPA’s air quality experts played no meaningful role in determining whether a facility should be handed an exemption to the rules, according to the agency.