Catching Our Eye News Roundup, Nov. 11, 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

• Capital punishment. The Statehouse News Bureau’s Jo Ingles and Karen Kasler are reporting, “DeWine’s possible death penalty commutations have prosecutors concerned.”

Gov. Mike DeWine is in the process of planning the commutations of multiple death sentences as he prepares to leave office. That’s gotten pushback from one group, and praise from another.

“I’m going through a process that all governors do. But really, it’s been an eight year process,” DeWine said to reporters. “We’ve been issuing pardons when it was appropriate in cases all throughout an eight-year period of time. We are looking at the death penalty cases, but we are also looking at other cases as well.”

DeWine added, “It’s nothing unusual what normally happens at the end of a governor’s term. But we’ve actually been doing it since the beginning.”

• Measles in Ohio. Ideastream’s Ida Lieszkovszky is reporting, “Measles cases pass 300 in Ohio as U.S. is poised to lose elimination status.”

There have been 310 confirmed cases of measles in Ohio since January, as the measles epidemic continues to spread nationwide. Ashtabula, Geauga and Wayne counties account for roughly half of all cases statewide.

As of Nov. 5, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has confirmed 5,182 cases across the country.

The spike in measles comes as the Pan American Health Organization convenes a meeting to determine the measles and rubella elimination status of the Americas. The U.S. is at risk of losing its measles elimination status. Losing elimination status happens when a country cannot stop the spread of measles over a 12-month period.

• Food insecurity. WYSO’s Shay Frank is reporting, “Champaign County expects funding deficit for food aid administration.”

Champaign County anticipates an $81,000 deficit in funding to administer SNAP food assistance.

This comes after new federal rules from the Big Beautiful Bill have shifted how funding is handled for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, also known as food stamps.

Those rules went into effect Oct. 1, pushing individual counties to pay 75% of administrative costs for SNAP. Previously counties split the cost of staff and other expenses to run the program with the federal government.