Ohio’s Broadband Network Could Jump Into Lightspeed

The Republican presidential primary fight is now moving to Ohio, and the Republican candidates are swinging through the state. And a new poll shows Rick Santorum leading the pack, but half of likely voters say they could still change their minds. Another poll shows support for the so-called “right to work” amendment and for a bill to ban smoking in cars if children under six are in them, and also for a hike in the speed limit. Ohio will soon have grand opening dates for its first two casinos.  And the state has a new agriculture director - former Republican Senator David Daniels of Greenfield. 

For the next few weeks, we’ll be analyzing and digging into Gov. John Kasich’s second State of the State speech and its impact. The biggest news out of the speech was likely that the state plans to increase the speed of its broadband network from 10 gigabytes per second to 100 gigs per second. And it’s the most exciting news in years for the experts at the Ohio Academic Resources Network, or OARnet.

Also in Gov. Kasich’s State of the State speech were several shoutouts, including one to Democratic former Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner. The governor has asked Brunner, who is a former Franklin County judge, to work with his administration on the issue of collateral sanctions, which are restrictions placed on people who’ve done time in prison. But Brunner is also working on another issue – the ballot issue that could reject a package of election reforms passed by the Republican-dominated legislature last year.  Brunner talks about both those projects.