Catching Our Eye News Roundup, April, 23, 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.

Please subscribe to our free daily newsletter to get all the Ohio news you need to know right to your inbox every weekday morning.

If you already subscribe, please share with your family and friends so they know about the Ohio Capital Journal too: https://ohiocapitaljournal.com/subscribe/

Catching Our Eye

• Farming education. WYSO’s Shay Frank is reporting, “’Funding changed, but the need didn’t,’ Yellow Springs center halts farming classes after USDA cuts.”Nearly 50 community projects aimed at helping young, beginner and underserved farmers lost close to $300 million in federal funding last month.This includes the Agraria Center for Regenerative Practice in Yellow Springs. It received $3 million from this grant pool under the USDA’s Increasing Land, Capital, and Market Access projects.Agraria’s BIPOC initiative director Tia Stuart said their George Washington Carver Project for Equity and Access focused on helping BIPOC underserved and regenerative farmers expanding access to farmland with support from local land banks and trusts, offering assistance with grants and loans to fund land acquisition and farmer education.
• Electric savings. The Columbus Dispatch’s Jessie Balmert is reporting, “Ohio Supreme Court deals blow to industry some blame for price gouging.”The Ohio Supreme Court dealt a blow to submetering companies by ruling that the middlemen should be regulated like utilities.The Supreme Court unanimously ruled that the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio has the authority to regulate third-party companies that provide electricity to tenants across the state.”No company gets to sell essential electric service in Ohio without playing by the rules. The Court’s ruling enforces that,” Ohio Consumers’ Counsel Maureen Willis said.
• How about them apples? The Ohio Newsroom’s Kendall Crawford is reporting, “An Ohio apple grove with rare varieties could soon be uprooted.”More than twenty years ago, an Ohio researcher brought wild apple tree seeds from Central Asia to Central Ohio.Dr. Diane Miller, a fruit specialist at Ohio State University, planted these seeds at The Dawes Arboretum in Newark, with the aim of breeding more resilient apples and unlocking new varieties.But, the future of that work is uncertain. The arboretum has given researchers until the spring of 2027 to remove the trees, citing concerns over invasive species and pests.