Catching Our Eye News Roundup, Aug. 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

• The Ohio Supreme Court and abortion rights decisions. The Statehouse News Bureau’s Jo Ingles and Karen Kasler report, “Both sides of abortion debate say latest Ohio Supreme Court action on amendment won’t be the last.”

The Ohio Supreme Court declined to take up a case that challenged the state’s new reproductive rights constitutional amendment. But supporters and opponents of the amendment agree on one thing; it’s not the end for lawsuits related to the 2023 voter-approved constitutional change.

• Wexner. WOSU’s Allie Vugrincic reports, “Les Wexner steps down as chair of namesake Ohio State Wexner Medical Center, remains on board.”

New Albany billionaire Les Wexner will step down as chair of his namesake Ohio State Wexner Medical Center, but will remain a member of the board. An Ohio State University Board of Trustees committee approved the change Thursday morning. The full board will vote in September.

Wexner has faced scrutiny for his relationship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, though Wexner has denied any wrongdoing. Calls to remove Wexner’s name from Ohio State campus buildings have been piling up for months. Meanwhile, 88-year-old Wexner last attended a board meeting in May 2025.

• Ohio earthworks. The Ohio Newsroom’s Kaitlin Thorne reports, “Inspired by European guidebooks, this author created a tour book of Ohio’s historic earthworks.”

Ohio is home to an estimated 500 earthworks, created by Native American groups like the Hopewell over 2,000 years ago. Often large in scale, the architectural structures are made of mounded dirt, clay and other raw materials.

“They were built for ceremonial purposes,” John Hancock, professor emeritus of architecture at the University of Cincinnati said. “They were not forts, they were not cities. They were built as sacred spaces for these American Indian ancestors.” …

Hancock published two books on Ohio earthworks this spring: “Traveler’s Guide to Ancient Ohio,” and “Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks: Landscape Monuments of the Ancient Ohio Valley.”