The US Senate campaign of 2016 is really moving forward now – a Democrat has announced he’s in the race. Cincinnati City Councilman PG Sittenfeld announced this week that he wants to take on incumbent Republican Rob Portman, who has said he’s seeking a second term. The state wants a federal judge to dismiss a lawsuit filed by four death row inmates who are challenging a law that shields the names of companies that make drugs for lethal injections. The relationship between police officers and the communities they serve is the subject of a new task force that held its first meeting at Cleveland State University this week. And now that Gov. Kasich’s second inauguration is over, we should know soon when and where he’ll deliver his State of the State address.
For several months now, we’ve been hearing Gov. Kasich say things about helping people who “live in the shadows”. For Kasich, those people include drug addicts, the developmentally disabled and the mentally ill – people he’s said can be helped by the expansion of Medicaid, which will be a continuing battle between the governor and the legislature. But he’s also talked extensively about how he feels that everyone should share in what he calls the state’s growing economic prosperity. Advocates hope those are signs that he'll continue to reach out to those populations with his budget. Lisa Hamler Fugitt is the executive director of the Ohio Association of Food Banks. Terry Russell is the executive director of the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill of Ohio, also known as NAMI Ohio. And Jack Frech was the executive director of Athens County Job and Family Services – he retired at the end of last year, but plans to continue to advocate for low-income Ohioans even in his retirement. He joins us through the facilities of WOUB in Athens.