Catching Our Eye News Roundup, April 2, 2026

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

• Wexner sued by Epstein survivors. The Columbus Dispatch’s Max Filby reports, “Epstein accusers sue Wexner, claiming funding enabled sex trafficking.”

Accusers of sex offender Jeffrey Epstein have filed a lawsuit against Ohio retail mogul Les Wexner and his foundation alleging the billionaire helped to fund his former financial adviser’s crimes.

The lawsuit, filed March 30 in New York State Supreme Court, claims Wexner and the Wexner Foundation paid Epstein $200 million or more over 20 years or so that the two men had a business relationship.

• Gas prices. Politico reports, “With gas prices on the rise, Trump officials discuss feared $150 oil: The White House braces for a potential oil spike to $150 or higher as the Iran war chokes supply.”

White House senior staff and administration officials are discussing the possibility that oil prices climb to a record $150 or more per barrel as the Iran war drags into its second month, according to a person familiar with the conversations and two people close to the White House.

• The wealthy are doing great. Bloomberg reports, “Trump’s Tax Cut Delivers at Least $65 Billion Windfall to Corporations.”

Some of the country’s wealthiest corporations are calculating they owe far less to the Internal Revenue Service as a result of President Donald Trump’s overhauled tax code, underscoring how a law billed as a middle‑class cut also turned out to be a big win for Corporate America.

Nearly a dozen of the 50 biggest US-listed companies attributed a drop in federal cash income taxes last year as a direct result of Trump’s $3.4 trillion sweeping tax law, according to a Bloomberg analysis of regulatory filings. In all, annual corporate tax revenues dropped by $65 billion following the law’s passage.

• Slap on the wrist. The Associated Press reports, “Robert Morris, Texas megachurch pastor, is released from jail after 6 months for child sex abuse.”

The founder of a Texas megachurch who pleaded guilty to sexually abusing a child in the 1980s was released Tuesday after serving six months in an Oklahoma jail…

Morris pleaded guilty last year to five counts of lewd or indecent acts with a child as part of a plea agreement under which he received a 10-year suspended sentence with the first six months to be served in the Osage County Jail.