Catching Our Eye News Roundup, June 24, 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

• Americans losing healthcare. NBC News reports, “Medicaid and ACA enrollment falls by more than 5 million, new report finds.”

The number of people enrolled in Medicaid and Affordable Care Act plans fell by more than 5 million in the last 12 months, according to a new report from the advocacy group Protect Our Care.

The decline stems in part from President Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful” bill — which was signed into law last July — and the expiration of the enhanced ACA subsidies, the group says. The law includes nearly $1 trillion in Medicaid cuts over 10 years; the subsidies expired in December after Republicans declined to extend them, leading to double- to triple-digit premium increases for millions of people.

• Moral failure. NPR and WOSU’s Allie Vugrincic report, “Ohio’s Catholic bishops call Trump administration’s attempt to end TPS for Haitians a ‘moral failure.’”

In a statement titled “America at 250: Freedom and the Common Good,” The Catholic Conference of Ohio characterizes the Trump administration’s termination of TPS as a “moral failure.”

“We find no moral justification for terminating their Temporary Protected Status (TPS) without an alternative way to adjust their immigration status. The current conditions in Haiti, noted across a wide array of sources and first-hand accounts, including the U.S. State Department’s travel advisory, demonstrate that it is neither safe to return, nor reasonable to expect families not to desperately search for another option,” the statement reads.

• Reflecting pool Ohio connection. Cleveland.com’s Sabrina Eaton reports, “The reflecting pool debacle has an Ohio connection, and it goes deeper than green water.”

A company tied to Youngstown-area businessman John J. Cafaro is under scrutiny after winning a no-bid federal contract to fix the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, which has since turned green with algae and shed patches of new blue paint.

The National Park Service gave a $1.7 million contract to Greenwater Services of Brookfield to install a water-purification system in the pool, bypassing the competitive bidding process normally required for federal work, The New York Times reports. The firm’s ultimate owner is the J.J. Cafaro Investment Trust, led by Cafaro, who is a longtime Republican donor and a Mar-a-Lago neighbor of President Donald Trump’s in Florida.

• Drone on. The Statehouse News Bureau’s Jo Ingles reports, “Will DeWine let the ‘drone bill’ fly into law or will he ground it?”

One of the bills recently passed overwhelmingly by the Ohio Legislature is now awaiting Gov. Mike DeWine’s signature, but some people are urging him to veto it. The legislation (HB 251) establishes rules for how and when police agencies can use drones.