Catching Our Eye News Roundup, Oct. 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

• Sad. The Statehouse News Bureau’s Jo Ingles reports, “Libertarian candidate for Ohio governor makes shocking discovery while shooting ad.”

Libertarian candidate for Ohio governor Don Kissick made a disturbing discovery along the Maumee River near Toledo Thursday morning.

Kissick’s manager Steve Perkins said Kissick, along with Libertarian secretary of state candidate Tom Pruss, were making a campaign commercial.

“During that, a youth approached them and said hey, ‘I think this is a body in the river. Can you come see if this, back me up on this?’’” Perkins said in an interview. “And they went. And they looked, and it was.”

• Survivors and the Wexner name. WOSU’s Katie Geniusz reports, “Epstein, Strauss survivors call for Wexner’s name to be removed from Ohio State buildings.”

Survivors of Dr. Richard Strauss, the Ohio State team physician who sexually abused hundreds of victims, joined Jeffrey Epstein survivor Annie Farmer Thursday afternoon to call for Les Wexner’s name to be removed from Ohio State buildings. They appeared at a pop-up exhibit of the released Epstein files in Columbus.

The exhibit is named The Donald J. Trump and Jeffrey Epstein Memorial Reading Room, and has been displayed across the country. It shows the 3.5 million pages of the Epstein files the Department of Justice released in 2025 in 3,437 bound volumes. The exhibit is located at the Sanctuary on Neil, 618 Neil Ave., near Goodale Park, and is open until Oct. 11.

• Nuclear startup. Bloomberg reports, “Vivek Ramaswamy’s Nuclear Startup Raises at $1.9 Billion Value.”

Atlas Atomics, a nuclear startup cofounded and backed by Ohio gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, has raised capital at around $1.9 billion valuation, according to people familiar with the matter.

The series A fundraiser generated about $400 million in fresh money, the people said, declining to be identified because the information is private. General Catalyst is leading the round and Andreessen Horowitz is participating in the capital raise.

Atlas Atomics, General Catalyst and Andreessen Horowitz declined to comment.

• Eastern Gateway. In the Columbus Dispatch, Laura A. Bischoff and Jessie Balmert report, “Criminal charges filed in investigation of Ohio community college.”

Three former Eastern Gateway Community College employees, including the college’s last president, are accused of participating in a nearly $20 million scheme to divert federal Pell Grants and other financial aid from students, Ohio Auditor Keith Faber announced on Oct. 8.

Former President Michael Geoghegan and co-owners of the for-profit Student Resource Center, Michael Perik and Nicole Rowe Colclasure, were indicted on multiple felony charges, including engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity, for the alleged financial crimes. As a result, Eastern Gateway Community College closed in September 2025, eliminating a higher education option for students in eastern Ohio.