Support for the statewide broadcast of the state of Ohio comes from medical mutual, providing more than 1.4 million Ohioans peace of mind with a selection of health insurance plans online at Med Mutual dot com slash Ohio by the law offices of Porter, Wright, Morris and Arthur LLP, now with eight locations across the country.

Porter Wright is a legal partner with a new perspective to the business community.

Moore and Porter Wright dot com and from the Ohio Education Association, representing 124,000 members who work to inspire their students to think creatively and experience the joy of learning online at OHEA.org.

A new variant of coronavirus has Ohio health officials cautiously concerned with vaccines still touted as the best weapon against COVID.

Black moms speak out on their concerns about the discussion of teaching about racism in schools and a preview of next week's arguments over whether the new Republican drawn maps for Ohio State representatives and senators go along with what voters wanted when they approved changing the redistricting process several years ago.

All this weekend, the state of Ohio.

Welcome to the state of Ohio.

I'm Karen Kasler.

The Omicron variant of the coronavirus is on American shores, just as health experts in Ohio said we're headed into the winter already in a COVID case, surge confirmed case numbers jumped into the 6000 starting on Wednesday.

And when probable cases are added in the total case numbers are topping 9000 a day.

Ohio Department of Health Director Dr. Bruce Vander Hoff said the total moved into the highest numbers reported since the post-holiday surge back in January.

These numbers are comparable to what we were experiencing at the peak of our fall surge.

Indeed, the last time we saw 24 hour case numbers this high was on September 10th, when we saw more than 9000 cases reported.

Similarly, at the peak of our fall surge, we saw a total of more than 3700 patients hospitalized with COVID 19 across the state, reaching that high figure on September 27.

Yesterday, we reported more than 3500 inpatient COVID hospitalizations higher than at its peak during our fall surge.

In fact, the last time more Ohioans were being treated in the hospital for COVID 19 was all the way back on January twelve, when 4000 patients were hospitalized across the state.

Now, much as we discussed last week, these cases aren't necessarily occurring evenly across the state at any point in time.

We're seeing fluctuations in cases in different regions, in different counties.

Currently, we're seeing the highest incidence of new COVID 19 cases in the northern portion of the state, with the highest concentration of hospitalizations in the northeast corner of Ohio.

When we look at trends across ages, what we see is that younger Ohioans, specifically those between the ages of 23 and 49, have a case rate per 100,000.

It's 25% higher than the statewide average.

And of course, when we look at those who are hospitalized with COVID 19.

They continue to be largely unvaccinated.

The COVID 19 vaccines, as we know, are designed to protect us from severe cases resulting in hospitalization or death.

So while someone who's fully vaccinated may in some instances still catch COVID 19, they are far more likely to be able to weather that case at home rather than ending up in a hospital or on a ventilator or in the obituary pages.

Although we are, of course, very concerned about the high number of hospitalizations, particularly in northeast Ohio, our Strategic Hospital Zone system allows our hospitals to work together to address patient needs.

Discuss approaches to shared challenges and shift some care within and between regions.

Ohio's hospitalization numbers are just under the peak hit on January twelve, when 4000 people with COVID were hospitalized in Ohio, one in five patients in Ohio hospitals and one in four patients in Ohio.

Intensive care units are tested positive for COVID.

Compare that to late June, when one in 75 patients and one in 46 in ICU had COVID in Ohio, and deaths, which are reported twice weekly, remain in the triple digits.

At each report, 5671 people in Ohio have died in the last 90 days of COVID.

An average of 63 people reported dead of COVID each day by the Ohio Department of Health since September first.

Meanwhile, a Republican candidate who has criticized mask policies and vaccine mandates has announced his running mate in his bid to be Ohio's governor, and this person is an unknown in Ohio political circles.

Jim Renacci, a far right conservative campaigning for the Republican nomination against incumbent Governor Mike DeWine, selected Air Force veteran and movie producer Joe Knopp, who grew up in Philadelphia but currently lives in Spring Borough near Dayton.

NOP is best known as a conservative themed movie producer whose films include The Trump I Know The Anti-abortion Movie Unplanned, and I can only imagine one of the highest grossing Faith-Based films.

In an interview with my Statehouse News Bureau colleague Andy Chow before the announcement, Renacci, who was in northeast Ohio congressman from 2011 to 2019, touts nobs status as an outsider with no political experience.

two of us are outside businesspeople who understand that we can't keep going down the same road of career politicians who don't really know how to change anything, and that's the reason our state is failing so bad today.

Renzi is running a far right campaign against several Republican candidates, including DeWine and central Ohio farmer and businessman Joe Blystone.

At the beginning of last year, Republicans elevated frustration about how racism is taught in schools to a top talking point, even as the Black Lives Matter movement and the killing of George Floyd brought protesters into the streets in cities around Ohio in the country.

But a lot of the leading voices sharing their concerns about teaching about racism throughout history and in public policy, especially after last month's election, have not been people of color, though they have been dealing with the issue throughout their lives.

Statehouse correspondent Joe Ingles talked to some Ohio moms about that.

Republicans have made racism in public policy and what they've called critical race theory in schools, a key issue in campaigns this year and in 2022, they've held protests.

They've come to school board meetings and they've run for school board.

Republicans in the Legislature have sponsored two bills to ban the teaching of what's called divisive concepts or critical race theory, which is not taught in K through twelve schools in Ohio.

And pressure from Republicans resulted in the state Board of Education taking back and anti-racism resolution passed after the George Floyd demonstrations last summer.

That sweeping resolution acknowledged the longstanding achievement gap between different demographics and emphasized equity and opportunity for students of color.

And it was replaced with a statement that promotes, quote, academic excellence without respect to race, ethnicity or creed unquote.

two board members resigned after that vote, but Senate President Matt Huffman suggested there re appointments to the board were unlikely to be confirmed.

Nearly all of the board members are white, and the conversations about teaching and confronting racism in schools has continued at the local level in urban districts and in smaller, less diverse ones.

Melissa Harris said she wanted to be a leading voice for change in Delaware, where her kids attend school and where 80% of the students are white.

Last year, she spoke out against bullying and racism.

This year, she ran for school board and one coming in first in the field of candidates.

And she says she wants to focus on making sure all of the district's students have a chance to be successful.

I think just focusing back on the student needs and listening to the students, there's so many people are caught up on CRT and Black Lives Matter, and there's all these buzzwords that are confusing people inciting people, you know, creating a greater divide.

Instead of listening to what the students need, the students are telling you exactly what they need.

Exactly what they want, but people need to listen.

And once you listen, take what they've said, bring them to the table with you to find solutions.

Harris says she wants to work with the community and adopt good ideas from other school districts to help teachers and school personnel meet students where they are.

So not just on a racial level and ethnic level, but also socioeconomically low socioeconomic level.

There are students that have households that look different than other students.

There are some students being raised by grandparents, their foster students.

We have some that have zero income in their household, in some students that they may share a bedroom with three or four people.

So doing homework at night is sometimes impossible.

They may not have the same privileges that other students have, or they can go home and have Wi-Fi, you know, go home and have parents that can help them.

So the faculty and staff members having a better understanding of the challenges that our students have is imperative for their further, further education.

Laquita Miller is from Mason, where 54% of the students are white and just under 5% are black.

30% are Asian or Pacific Islander.

Miller says meeting the needs of students in the future must start with facing the truth of the past.

There is a large demographic of individuals not just in Ohio, but around the world that don't want to acknowledge factual information about our history.

In order for us to improve things, make them better.

So on and so forth, I think that is the first step.

It's just a collective discussion dialog around acknowledging, Yes, this happened.

This is America's original sin of slavery.

And how do we take the lessons that we learned in the growth of our country and move forward so that young adults and children that are in schools now are given accurate information about history and not an idealized or watered down version of events?

Miller says it's important for schools to consider the community when trying to move forward with programing.

My suggestion to the schools would be to lean on the community, lean on the individuals who have lived this and are still living it to help guide you in decision making and next steps.

Back in Delaware.

Tamika Vincent Reed is working on making the community itself aware of issues facing minorities.

She says the attention put on the diversity issue last year during the Black Lives Matter protests has waned.

So the Delaware African-American Heritage Council has been holding events and forums to help make community members more aware.

You continue to engage.

You continue to engage people through conversation, through learning, through helping people see what actions.

Tangible actions can you take to dismantle racism, right?

Because racism is if it can be corrected, right?

Because anti-racism says that if we attack policies, practices, procedures, values, norms, all of that right can be corrected.

Right.

So any time we can get those advocates to advocate for anything that reduces racial inequity, we're making a corrective stance to say not in our community.

So it's really about helping those people remain engaged, but giving them tangible action stuff.

That's what they can do to dismantle what we're seeing in our communities right now as it relates to racism.

Reid says she knows there's work to do.

She notes Recently, some white nationalists protested on a prominent street corner downtown.

We had some armed protesters show up with messages in white genocide.

White Lives Matter opened the borders for all of these misguided write messages.

So we definitely are pro, you know, freedom of speech, right?

We believe everyone has the right to protest a symbol.

Not a problem.

We may not agree with your message.

However, the iss that we took specifically with this rally was against showing up bearing arms.

Vinson read says she's hoping her group can arm the community with information that will help in the fight against racism and for diversity in the future.

Joe Ingles Statehouse News Bureau.

The legal battle over Ohio's congressional map has just started, with two lawsuits now filed over the map approved by state lawmakers last month.

The League of Women Voters of Ohio, the Philip Randolph Institute and the ACLU of Ohio filed suit this week, joining the National Redistricting Action Fund, an offshoot of the National Democratic Redistricting Committee affiliated with President Obama's attorney general, Eric Holder, filed last week.

Both are challenging the map that was drawn under a process approved overwhelmingly by voters in 2018.

Next week, the Ohio Supreme Court will hear arguments in the lawsuits filed over the maps for new.

Ohio House and Senate districts approved by the Ohio Redistricting Commission in September.

As with the congressional map lawsuits, these challenges to the legislative maps claim the Republican created maps approved along party lines are unconstitutional under an amendment passed in 2015 that sought to take the Partizan gerrymandering out of redistricting.

Republicans have said those maps give their party a 62 to 37 advantage in the house and a 23 to ten advantage in the Senate, which are super majorities in both chambers.

To preview those arguments and the upcoming challenges to the congressional map, I asked the leading expert in the Ohio Constitution to preview those arguments, starting with the claim by the maps defenders that the language of the amendment stating that the Ohio Redistricting Commission shall attempt to draw a General Assembly district map that meets all these standards makes them optional.

It seems to me the two issues there.

one is shall attempt is have to be a good faith attempt or not.

So that's one issue that gets raised.

But I think even more importantly, the argument has been made that the shallow attempt means that the whole matter is not really a requirement.

It's really aspirational.

And as I told one of your colleagues in the print media, not that long ago, I think the Soviet Constitution is aspirational.

I think the Ohio Constitution is enforceable.

And the fact that the word shall attempt is there doesn't simply create a pass.

Could the language have been drafted with greater precision?

Sure.

Sure it could have.

But drafting language amendments in particular is difficult.

It got drafted in a very heated, bipartisan drafting process during the time that I was the senior policy adviser of the Ohio Constitutional Modernization Commission.

I take no credit nor blame for the language because literally two of the members of the commission, Senator Hoffman and Representative Cupp, are the ones that ran the show, and I was not figuratively or literally in the room where it happened.

So the language is kind of tough, I should say.

Representative Sykes, then Representative Sykes, was also involved.

So you had both Republicans and Democrats involved.

But again, I wasn't in the room.

So could they have done a better job drafting?

Yes.

But I think was full of instances where words like attempt mean something other than, well, we'll think about it if we want to.

So I don't read it as giving a complete.

Pass on whether this is a requirement that's been followed.

There are a couple of other reasons to why I think the treating it as aspirational is is wrong.

Let me say it this way.

The war is often full of statutory or linguistic ambiguity, and justices, lawyers to try to resolve some of those ambiguities.

And sometimes we have assistance.

We don't have a lot of assistance as to what was meant in the 18 two constitution because there was no there were no hearings.

There was no transcript.

We just have to look at the language itself.

We have a couple of aides that are pretty important when it comes to looking at the provision we're talking about in Article six.

And let me just repeat what they are.

We're talking not just about shallow attempt, but we're we're we're talking about plans that are.

We're talking about partizanship.

We're talking about proportionality.

And we're talking about compactness requirement.

And there's some details in subsection six as to what the what, what should be achieved.

The Legislative Service Commission, for one, told the legislators that drafted the joint resolution that led to the constitutional amendment in 2015.

What that particular amendment was designed to accomplish, and they made it pretty, pretty clear that it was designed to end Partizan gerrymandering.

I'm looking for some language.

Let me move away from them and talk about the most important external factor we have, and that is you and me.

The voters constitutional amendments in Ohio have to be approved by the voters and the voters get a ballot, and the ballot has an official explanation.

And the official explanation for the amendment that went before the voters in 2015 was and now I am quoting the proposed amendment would end the Partizan process for drawing how Ohio House and Senate districts and replace it with a bipartisan process with the goal of having the district boundaries that are more compact and politically competitive.

But to me, at least doesn't sound aspirational.

It sounds like the voters were asked to do something, and that's what the voters understood they were doing.

And I think that's how it's generally been construed.

I mean, I know lawyers are always clever and they can come up and create.

Interesting arguments, but I think I think it's pretty clear that it's enforceable.

So I think at the end of the day that the voters speak, they speak by voting on the amendment.

In this case, they approved it.

And I, I would expect that a court would give great deference to the voters where they do find ambiguity in the constitutional amendment.

And if that happens, if the court does then say these maps are not going to pass constitutional muster.

Is there a defined process for what happens next?

I'd say there's a process, though, how well defined it is, it remains remains to be seen.

I mean, it goes back to the Ohio Redistricting Commission.

Remember now when it comes to state apportionment in the General Assembly does not have a role.

It's the Ohio redistricting commission that makes the decision and the redistricting commission is told to try again.

Now, the amendment tries to cap and control the discretion that the.

Commission on in this Remain exercise.

If there's only if they if they're asking if they're two or fewer violations, they just order a correction.

If they're six or less, they are.

They're more than six.

They order a new plan.

And then in cases where there are very serious violations, including the political requirements, they must order a plan.

And so there is an effort to create this hierarchy of of remedies.

Bottom line bottom bottom line is the court gets the plan.

It cannot write its own plan.

It can say we looked at the plans, but we have in our back pocket some smart folks.

We're going to draft a new plan and that's the new plan.

But they don't just send it back and say not good enough.

Try again.

My expectation.

Just based on how courts work, is that the court understands that time is of the essence.

It has a lot of experience with an expedited election docket.

Everything it's done so far in this case, whether it's discovery or the briefing or the arguments schedule, makes fairly clear that the court is aware that it's operating against a deadline.

My expectation is if the court found that the plan does not meet constitutional muster, it would say why.

How do you tell a statement that it would make?

Remains to be seen.

I would expect, but again, I don't know that the court would try to provide some detail so that it doesn't come back a third and the fourth time.

So the court would give the district commission enough guidance so the commission would know what the court found to have been lacking and would then correct it.

So I think the most optimistic scenario at this point in the event the court concludes that the requirements are enforceable and wants to send it back is it would send it back with guidance and a bipartisan majority of the commission would say, OK, now we see the light and we were going to adopt a plan that to Raj and to ease and a minimum support.

And we get it for ten years and it complies.

So that would be the most optimistic scenario.

You could have a situation where the district redistricting commission makes some minor changes, parties argue that they haven't complied with the first decision or with the requirement.

You can go back to the Supreme Court.

My expectation would be that the court would retain jurisdiction over this case while the parties were going back to the drawing boards before the redistricting commission, and the court could easily take another look at it.

I don't think you would would dismiss the case, but rather would retain jurisdiction so that it could assure that its remedy was being respected.

By the way, while the U.S. Constitution doesn't require members of Congress to live in their districts only in the state where their district is stained, Glass notes the Ohio Constitution does candidates have 30 days to change their residence if their district changes or if they want to run in another district.

And that is it for this week for my colleagues at the Statehouse News Bureau of Ohio Public Radio and Television.

Thanks for watching.

Please check out our website at State News DAUG, and you can follow us on the show on Facebook and Twitter.

And please join us again next time for the state of Ohio.

We leave you with images from the holiday tree lighting at the State House this week.

321.

Oh!

Good work, Santa.

Thank you.

Good work.

Good job.

Yes, absolutely.

Support for the statewide broadcast of the state of Ohio comes from medical mutual, providing more than 1.4 million Ohioans peace of mind with a selection of health insurance plans online at Med Mutual dot com slash Ohio by the law offices of Porter, Wright, Morris and Arthur LLP, now with eight locations across the country.

Porter Wright is a legal partner with a new perspective to the business community.

More at Porter Wright dot com and from the Ohio Education Association, representing 124,000 members who work to inspire their students to think creatively and experience the joy of learning online at OHEA.org.