Catching Our Eye News Roundup, March 12, 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

On watch? Laura A. Bischoff reports in The Columbus Dispatch, “Watchdog agencies not yet investigating former OSU President Ted Carter.”

Ohio State University is conducting an internal investigation into former President Ted Carter and so far, the university appears to be the only entity taking a look.

Carter resigned March 7 after he disclosed that he had an “inappropriate relationship with someone seeking state resources to support her personal business,” according to a university statement. JobsOhio released a statement on March 9 saying it sponsored a podcast that was connected to the inappropriate relationship.

There are multiple state agencies that could open investigations, depending on how the facts unfold.

Out with the old, in with the new. WOSU’s  Mark Ferenchik reports, “Ohio State’s Board of Trustees to name new ‘university leader’ Thursday after Carter resignation.”

The Ohio State University’s Board of Trustees has scheduled a special meeting for 9 a.m. Thursday at the Longaberger Alumni House.

University spokesperson Ben Johnson said that the board will name the next “university leader,” following the resignation of President Ted Carter on Saturday.

Asked whether that person will be interim or permanent, Johnson said he didn’t have more details to share.

Big Trouble in Little Miami. The Cincinnati Enquirer’s David Ferrara reports, “School board member resigns after posts deny Holocaust, praise Hitler.”

A Cincinnati-area school board member, Dan Smith, resigned after his social media posts denying the Holocaust and praising Hitler were discovered.

Smith stated in his resignation letter that the posts were wrong and do not reflect his actual beliefs.

The resignation follows a recent contentious vote where Smith argued to remove a classroom LGBTQ+ poster based on his Christian beliefs.

The Little Miami school board accepted the resignation, stating the posts raised serious concerns and did not meet the standards of public office.

Rain or shine. The Akron Beacon Journal’s Derek Kreider reports, “Protesters meet outside Summit courthouse to rail against Jon Husted.”

Roughly 30 people defied a tornado watch and stood in the rain to speak out against U.S. Sen. Jon Husted on the day the Ohio Republican testified remotely in the bribery trial of two former FirstEnergy executives.

Hidden treasure. People magazine reports, “Ohio Treasure Hunter Released from Prison After Refusing to Reveal Whereabouts of Ship of Gold’s 500 Gold Coins.”

A treasure hunter who spent years in prison after refusing to reveal the location of 500 missing gold coins from one of the greatest shipwrecks in the U.S. has been released.

Tommy Thompson discovered the 1857 Ship of Gold, also known as SS Central America, off the coast of South Carolina in 1988, according to the Associated Press and The Columbus Dispatch.

The Ship of Gold sank in 1857 during a hurricane in the Atlantic Ocean, killing 425 people, per The Columbus Dispatch.

Thompson, now 73, was then sent to prison in 2015 after not disclosing where the ship’s 500 gold coins were located.

Risks? What risks? The New York Times reports, “How Trump and His Advisers Miscalculated Iran’s Response to War.”

On Feb. 18, as President Trump weighed whether to launch military attacks on Iran, Chris Wright, the energy secretary, told an interviewer he was not concerned that the looming war might disrupt oil supplies in the Middle East and wreak havoc in energy markets.

Even during the Israeli and U.S. strikes against Iran last June, Mr. Wright said, there had been little disruption in the markets. “Oil prices blipped up and then went back down,” he said. Some of Mr. Trump’s other advisers shared similar views in private, dismissing warnings that — the second time around — Iran might wage economic warfare by closing shipping lanes carrying roughly 20 percent of the world’s oil supply.

The extent of that miscalculation was laid bare in recent days, as Iran threatened to fire at commercial oil tankers transiting the Strait of Hormuz, the strategic choke point through which all ships must pass on their way out of the Persian Gulf. In response to the Iranian threats, commercial shipping has come to a standstill in the Gulf, oil prices have spiked, and the Trump administration has scrambled to find ways to tamp down an economic crisis that has triggered higher gasoline prices for Americans.

The episode is emblematic of how much Mr. Trump and his advisers misjudged how Iran would respond to a conflict that the government in Tehran sees as an existential threat. Iran has responded far more aggressively than it did during last June’s 12-day war, firing barrages of missiles and drones at U.S. military bases, cities in Arab nations across the Middle East, and on Israeli population centers.

School bombing update. NPR reports, “Pentagon probe points to U.S. missile hitting Iranian school.”

The U.S. has launched a formal investigation into a missile strike on an Iranian girls’ school that killed at least 165 civilians, after a preliminary assessment determined the U.S. was at fault, according to a U.S. official who was not authorized to speak publicly. The investigation is expected to take months and will include interviews with all those involved, from planners and commanders to those who carried out the strike.