Rotunda Rumblings

Pot luck: The state’s existing 114 medical marijuana dispensaries could have been ready to sell product for adult use if the General Assembly would have sent him a marijuana bill in the last week, Gov. Mike DeWine said on Friday. Instead, the House adjourned for the year without acting on marijuana. The Senate’s bill did permit recreational sales out of medical dispensaries but wasn’t passed with an emergency clause or a supermajority to go into effect immediately. Meanwhile, Laura Hancock reports that the Ohio Department of Commerce has named the first superintendent of the Division of Cannabis Control, the new, consolidated agency that will handle regulation of both medical and recreational marijuana.

Open Mike: DeWine spoke with reporters Friday about a wide range of other topics, including lawmakers’ attempt to override his veto of a budget measure overriding local bans on flavored tobacco products, anti-transgender legislation, a bill to combat liberal bias on college campuses, and expanding Amtrak in Ohio. Jeremy Pelzer has the details.

Brown goes green: U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown told reporters on Friday that he’d vote to legalize marijuana on the federal level. As Pelzer writes, the Cleveland Democrat, who filed for reelection on Friday, has long been wary of legalizing marijuana, though he voted last month to do so on the state level. Currently, there are no marijuana legalization bills that have made significant progress through Congress.

Defense: State Rep. Elliot Forhan, a South Euclid Democrat, sent a 13-page memo arguing, point by point, the allegations against him outlined in an earlier memo by Ohio House Minority Leader Allison Russo that said his behavior has been erratic and violent. Forhan’s memo says none of the actual underlying allegations accuse him of physical violence, and that legislative leadership has a double standard in how it deals with lawmakers, Andrew Tobias reports.

Proper channels: An effort Thursday by Sen. JD Vance to bring up a tax bill he’d just introduced directly to the Senate floor and circumvent Senate committee consideration was thwarted by an objection from Senate Finance Committee Chair Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat. Vance said his College Endowment Accountability Act to raise taxes paid by university endowments would correct a situation where “we allow these massive hedge funds pretending to be universities to enjoy lower tax rates than most of our citizens, people who are struggling to put food on the table and buy Christmas presents this season.” Wyden expressed doubt the Cincinnati Republican’s bill would “somehow make things better for students,” and said his committee “is the correct place to hold a robust discussion about fairness and affordability.”

Stopping scammers: U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, a Cleveland Democrat who chairs the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee on Thursday joined several of his Democratic colleagues in a letter asking Venmo to adopt new policies to reimburse consumers who get scammed and make it easier for users to report scams and fraud on Venmo. The letter notes that another instant payment platform, Zelle, has taken steps to reimburse scammed customers. “Venmo must provide a safe platform for American consumers – who deserve a payments system that provides them with speed and convenience, but above all, that keeps their money safe.” it says.

Remittance fee: Vance on Thursday announced he’d introduced legislation called the “Withholding Illegal Revenue Entering Drug Markets (WIRED) Act” that would impose a 10% fee on remittances out of the United States and use the money to support border security. Vance said it would penalize illicit activity such as drug and human smuggling, calling it “a commonsense solution to disincentivize illegal immigration and reduce the cartels’ financial power.”

Crime after miscarriage? The forensic pathologist concluded that the fetus had died before passing through Brittany Watts’s birth canal, but Warren Assistant Prosecutor Lewis Guarnieri charged her with abuse of a corpse. Now a Trumbull County jury is investigating her case. The Washington Post reviewed police reports, call recordings and over 600 pages of medical records, plus conducted interviews to report about the case, which could be the new front of the anti-abortion movement. But Guarnieri argues that the issue “isn’t how the child died, when the child died — it’s the fact that the baby was put into a toilet, large enough to clog up a toilet, left in that toilet, and she went on [with] her day.”

Lobbying Lineup

Five organizations that are registered to lobby on Senate Bill 53, which would lower the minimum age to become a police officer from 21 to 18. The bill passed the Ohio Senate on May 10. It’s being considered in an Ohio House committee.

1. Ohio Municipal League

2. Ohio Justice & Policy Center

3. Ohio Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association

4. Ohio Mayor’s Alliance

5. Ohio Association Of Comprehensive and Compact Career-Technical Schools

On The Move

Nick Derksen will begin as the Inter-University Council’s vice president of government relations beginning Jan. 8. Derksen joins the council from the Ohio Department of High Education, where he worked as the director of legislative and external affairs.

Birthdays

John O’Shea, legislative aide to state Rep. Thomas Hall

William Allen, Ohio’s 31st governor (1803-1879)

Straight From The Source

“I just kind of assume we’re always on (the record).”

-Gov. Mike DeWine to Lisa Peterson, his communications director, who was reminding him he was on the record with the Statehouse press corps during a holiday breakfast Friday.

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