Catching Our Eye News Roundup, April 7, 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

• The ambition of Jim Jordan. Politico reports, “Jim Jordan’s dream might not be deferred much longer.”

Jim Jordan has spent much of the past year out of the House GOP spotlight. Don’t expect that to last.

The Ohio Republican rose to prominence as a headline-grabbing conservative firebrand, then saw that reputation work against him when he made a failed bid for the speakership in 2023. Since then he has been supporting President Donald Trump as chair of the House Judiciary Committee and otherwise staying out of Speaker Mike Johnson’s way.

But now as frustrations with Johnson’s leadership rise inside the House GOP, and expectations grow that the Republican majority’s days might be numbered, speculation is brewing that the 62-year-old former wrestling star is preparing another push for the top leadership ranks.

• Pardon the corruption. The Cincinnati Enquirer’s Kevin Grasha reports, “Supreme Court paves way for vacating PG Sittenfeld’s conviction.”

The U.S. Supreme Court has issued an order that will allow the conviction of former Cincinnati City Councilman P.G. Sittenfeld to be vacated. The case is being sent back to a lower court to consider a Justice Department motion to dismiss the indictment entirely.

Sittenfeld was convicted in 2022 on bribery and attempted extortion charges and served several months in prison before being released pending an appeal. Although pardoned by former President Donald Trump, Sittenfeld’s attorneys argued the pardon did not resolve all consequences of the conviction.

• Oh surprise, the lies don’t comport with the data. The Columbus Dispatch’s Anna Lynn Winfrey reports, “ICE says it arrested ‘worst of the worst’ in Columbus. Data shows not so.”

Although ICE has celebrated going after “the worst of the worst criminals” in Ohio, the vast majority of people taken into custody had no criminal conviction – less than 7% of arrestees during the heightened enforcement surge in mid-December had a criminal record, according to the Deportation Data Project (DDP) data analyzed by The Dispatch. The DDP collects immigration data from lawsuits and publishes the datasets publicly.

• Covid. Ideastream’s Taylor Wizner reports, “Highly mutated COVID variant ‘cicada’ detected in Northeast Ohio.”

A highly mutated COVID-19 variant known as “cicada” has been detected in Northeast Ohio, according to public health officials, though it does not appear to spread faster or cause more severe illness than other omicron strains.

• Throw an enormous amount of money at it. The New York Times reports, “Republicans Unveil a $342 Million Battle Plan to Keep the Senate.”

The leading super PAC for Senate Republicans is unveiling a nearly $350 million plan to preserve control of the Senate, aiming tens of millions of dollars at red-leaning states including Alaska, Iowa and Ohio as the midterm elections grow more competitive…

The super PAC is reserving television time to defend five Senate seats held by Republicans: Ohio, North Carolina, Maine, Iowa and Alaska. It is also targeting three Democratic-held seats in Michigan, Georgia and New Hampshire. The ads are set to begin airing in early September.