Catching Our Eye News Roundup, Aug. 18, 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

• Power. The Ohio Statehouse News Bureau’s Karen Kasler is reporting, “More Ohio households lost power because of nonpayment in the last year than previous years.”

In the last year, more Ohio households lost their power because of lack of payment than in previous years, according to an annual report from the state’s six regulated electric utilities filed with the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio. The leader of the state agency that advocates for ratepayers says that’s a real concern.

From June 2025 to May 2026, 344,589 Ohio households had their electric shut off for not paying. That’s an average of 7.7% of customers with AEP Ohio Power, AES Ohio, Duke Energy and the three companies associated with FirstEnergy, which are CEI, Ohio Edison and Toledo Edison.

“We’re in an affordability crisis,” said Ohio Consumers’ Counsel Maureen Willis. “People are paying more and more for commodities like groceries and gasoline, and they’re having to make choices about, should I pay my utility bill or should I pay my medical bill? So yes, affordability is a really big a big concern. And I think it’s reflected in the disconnections, the rising disconnection rates.”

• Data centers. WYSO’s Adriana Martinez-Smiley is reporting, “Springfield’s $1.3B data center brings economic hope — and environmental skepticism.”

The new data center in Springfield has been meeting new construction milestones, with the first phase of construction expected to be completed within the next few months.

While the company and economic development leaders see a big opportunity for job growth for the Clark County city, the new project has also been met with some resistance. This includes concerns about energy use, diesel generators and more.

The Canada-based AI infrastructure company 5C Group is constructing the $1.3 billion data center facility at Prime Ohio Corporate Park. The company is retrofitting the former LexisNexis data center to make a new, larger data center, scaling up from 67,000 square feet to 214,000 square feet.

• All bets are on. Signal Ohio’s Jake Zuckerman is reporting, “DeWine called for a prop betting ban a year ago. Little has changed in Ohio.”

As Major League Baseball last July announced the suspension of two Cleveland Guardians pitchers in a sports betting scandal that would escalate into a federal wire fraud case, Gov. Mike DeWine made a bold proclamation.

He said it was time to ban “all” prop bets, referring to bets on events that occur within a sport, like whether a given rush play will yield more than 7 yards or who will lead after the first half of a basketball game.

“The prop betting experiment in this country has failed badly,” DeWine said at the time.

A year later, Ohio hasn’t passed any law or rule restricting prop bets.