Catching Our Eye News Roundup, Sept. 17, 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

• Ohio craft beer. The Statehouse News Bureau’s Sarah Donaldson reports, “Facing industry woes, craft brewers seek Ohio franchise law overhaul.”

In the state and across the country, stakeholders have said that craft brewers are facing an increasingly hard business climate. The Ohio Craft Brewers Association has been trying to kickstart Senate Bill 23 during the legislature’s recess.

Reintroduced last January by Sen. Andrew Brenner (R-Delaware), SB 23 rewrites a five-decade old law regulating the franchise agreements between beer and wine manufacturers and their distributors by excluding many smaller breweries from the requirements for those often strict agreements.

• Automating trucking. Signal Ohio’s Jake Zuckerman reports, “Self-driving trucks are cruising Ohio roads.”

Trucks that drive themselves are whizzing between Indianapolis and Columbus, with human backups at the ready. The fully driverless vehicles are confined to a corporate park — for now.

• Federal v. State levels. The Dayton Daily News’ Avery Kreemer reports, “DeWine: AI regulation ‘has to’ come from the federal government, not states.”

Term-limited Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine told reporters Tuesday, Sept. 15 that he would not encourage his successor to pursue state-level regulations on artificial intelligence despite his belief that the government needs to get a handle on the emerging technology.

“Look, as far as AI, this really needs to come from the federal government,” DeWine said at a New Albany event. “We need to have uniformity, not just in this country; we need to have uniformity in the world. So, I would certainly hope we can see some uniformity coming out of Washington.”

• New polls. The Toledo Blade’s Danny Eldredge reports, “BGSU poll shows Ohio Dems hold slight leads in races for governor, Senate.”

Dr. Amy Acton and Sherrod Brown are both leading their Republican opponents by 3 percentage points as the November election approaches, according to a Bowling Green State University poll released Wednesday.

Dr. Acton holds a 48-45 percent advantage over Republican gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy among likely Ohio voters, while Mr. Brown also has a 48-45 percent lead over incumbent U.S. Sen. Jon Husted (R., Ohio).

However, 62 percent of those same voters believe Mr. Ramaswamy will end up winning the race for governor, while 36 percent think Dr. Acton will prevail. Similarly, 53 percent of voters think Mr. Husted will keep his seat in the U.S. Senate, and 45 percent believe Mr. Brown will win.

• Waymo coming to Cincy? Spectrum News’ Javari Burnett reports, “Waymo maps Cincinnati streets as it explores expansion of self-driving technology.”

Drivers around Cincinnati may notice some unfamiliar vehicles navigating local roads over the next several weeks.

Waymo, the autonomous driving technology company, is mapping streets across Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky as it gathers information about the region’s roadways.

But don’t expect to catch a driverless ride just yet. Waymo says trained specialists are manually driving the vehicles during the mapping process. Cameras and sensors on the vehicles collect information used to build detailed maps that can help the company’s autonomous driving technology navigate roads.