Catching Our Eye News Roundup, Sept. 9, 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 Toledo Blade. The Toledo Blade reports, “Possible final edition of Blade announced; company explores sale.”

Block Communications has announced its intention to explore a sale of The Blade’s assets, which, if unsuccessful, will result in the final edition of the newspaper being published Dec. 31.

• Annie get your gun. The Ohio Newsroom’s Kendall Crawford reports, “A new film unveils the hidden history of iconic Ohio sharpshooter Annie Oakley.”

Most people know Annie Oakley for her incredible sharpshooting skills: hitting dimes in midair and splitting playing cards with her trusty .22-caliber rifle.

But a new documentary goes beyond those famous feats and takes a closer look at the life of the Darke County native — and the women who have spent decades piecing together her story.

“North Star” tells Oakley’s story, while also spotlighting the Garst Museum researchers who have kept her legacy alive: Brenda Arnett, Karen Besecker and Nancy Stump.

• Other states. The Statehouse News Bureau’s Sarah Donaldson reports, “Ohio US senators target other states licensing some immigrant drivers.”

Ohio’s two U.S. senators, Bernie Moreno and Jon Husted, want federal government intervention to block other states from issuing driver’s licenses to immigrants living in the U.S. without legal authorization.

• Roy Cohn and Trump. In The New York Times, Carlos Lozada writes, “Trump’s Only Teacher.”

At this point in the Trumpian arc, we’re all too familiar with the president’s methods: Deny everything; apologize for nothing. Hog the spotlight. Counterattack, counterpunch, countersue. Always declare victory, even when you lose (especially when you lose). Resentment sells. Nativism sells. Cruelty, if not yet normal, becomes the norm. Rules and traditions are for suckers; everyone is, if not corrupt, at least corruptible. These are President Trump’s instincts, yes. But before they were his, they were Roy Cohn’s.

Kai Bird’s new book, “American Scoundrel,” written with Susan Goldmark (Bird’s wife and chief researcher), is a biography of Cohn, the sinister 20th-century lawyer who served as chief counsel to Joe McCarthy when the junior senator from Wisconsin was Red Scaring America and as lawyer to Trump when the young real estate developer was deflecting allegations of discrimination against prospective Black tenants. “American Scoundrel” is very much a how-we-got-here book, showing how Cohn’s guile, paranoia and shamelessness guided McCarthy, rubbed off on Trump and stuck fast to America.