OPN Dec. 4 send: Kickbacks and crackdowns

• The story: Local communities that play host to Ohio’s 182 operational recreational marijuana dispensaries are collectively due 36% of the tens of millions of dollars the state has raised in sales tax since sales began in September 2024. They haven’t gotten any of it.

• Looming change: But that may soon change if, as expected, the Ohio Senate gives Senate Bill 56 its final vote of approval next Tuesday, priming it for Gov. Mike DeWine’s signature.

• Appropriations: The bill, which includes many other provisions tweaking Ohio’s recreational cannabis laws and regulating intoxicating hemp products, would finally give the state the authority it says it needs — and has lacked — to disburse the money sitting in Ohio’s Host Community Cannabis Fund to the communities that are home to recreational marijuana dispensaries.

• IOU: A state spokesperson told us that it’s not exactly true that these communities are “owed” anything, as there’s no current legal directive for the fund to be disbursed in any particular way. Still, there’s $28.3 million set aside and lying in wait.

• Waiting game: The delay has caused frustration for an array of communities in the Miami Valley, which is home to nearly 20 dispensaries scattered in Montgomery County (seven), Butler County (five), Warren County (four), Clark County (three) and Greene County (one).

• Here’s my full story on the bill.

• The story: Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, alongside state and local public safety officials at Dayton City Hall this week, vowed to go after repeat violent offenders and people who unlawfully possess firearms in the Dayton region.

• State stats: DeWine said state data shows a small segment of the population is responsible for most violent crime. He added that local, state and federal law enforcement agencies will be conducting focused, data-driven operations that will target violent perpetrators and people who illegally possess guns.

• Quote: “This truly is a team effort,” DeWine said. “To the repeat violent offenders, who continuously disregard the law and illegally carry guns, we have this as a warning today: We are using the combined expertise of every one of these agencies to find you, to put you in jail, to put you in prison and get you out of the community.”

• Locally: Dayton Police Chief Kamran Afzal said some data suggest that around 150 to 200 people in Dayton are responsible for a large share of violent crime in the city. Dayton had one of the nation’s highest homicide rates in 2024.

• Here’s Cornelius Frolik’s full story on the initiative.

• Short sighted?: The Dayton Unit NAACP tacked on to local opposition to the state’s plan to build a new mental health hospital on the Trotwood and Harrison Twp. site of the former Hara Arena, citing concerns that the project would stymie the city’s preferred economic development plans. Here’s my story.

• Monthly reports: Newly-required monthly reporting shows that October saw about four-times more Montgomery County abortions than September, the only two months on record so far. Here’s Samantha Wildow.

• Officer released: Montgomery County Sheriff Rob Streck said an officer was “probationary released” for his actions, which were inconsistent with office guidelines, in the events that led to the positional asphyxiation and death of 25-year-old Christian Black. Daniel Susco and Sydney Dawes have the story.

• Oversight: There have been 12 inmate deaths in Montgomery County Jail since January 2023. Dayton Commissioner Mary McDonald, a Republican, is calling for local and state agencies to investigate the jail’s operations. Sydney Dawes has the story.

• First responder trauma: The Ohio legislature is putting $40 million in cash into a state fund that promises direct financial help for firefighters, police and EMS first responders who suffer from a post traumatic stress injury. There’s not yet a system to get that money to those who need it. Here’s my story.

• Mandatory minimums: In remembrance of an Ohio correctional officer who was allegedly beat to death by an inmate last Christmas, the Ohio House approved a comprehensive reform package that contains a series of mandatory minimum sentences for assaulting corrections officers. Here’s my story.

• Vehicle thefts: Ohio House lawmakers before Thanksgiving progressed a bill to make it illegal to own, with criminal intent, digital devices that have led to a scourge of car break-ins across the country in recent years. Here’s my story.

• HUD changes: Abrupt changes in federal funding could result in more than 13,000 Ohioans losing the roofs above their heads, according to groups that combat homelessness. Cornelius Frolik has the story.

• SNAP rollback: More than 1,000 immigrants in Montgomery County who are legally in the county but not U.S. citizens lost eligibility for the federal food assistance program after the passage of the tax and spending bill President Donald Trump signed into law this summer. Sydney Dawes has the story.

• Double tap: Dayton’s congressman is emerging as one of the congressional observers pointedly questioning the Trump administration’s approach in striking what the administration alleges are drug boats heading to the United States from Central and South America. Here’s Thomas Gnau.