State News

Ohio plans to spend $156 million in taxpayer funds to encourage solar power in what the state calls disadvantaged areas. The Ohio Air Quality Development Authority and the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency are offering both grants and low-cost financing for residential and community solar projects to lower electricity bills in low- to moderate-income households.

Homes keep selling in Wisconsin but prices and the cost to get a mortgage are keeping some from being able to afford a new home. The Wisconsin Realtors Association is out with its latest look at the state’s housing market.

Michigan’s top business group says “we can’t get” to the 100% clean energy standard by 2040 without nuclear energy. The Michigan Chamber of Commerce, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, bipartisan lawmakers and organized labor support restarting the 800-megawatt Palisades nuclear plant on Lake Michigan’s Eastern shore, expected to return online in 2025.

Georgia Governor Brian Kemp signed multiple anti-human trafficking bills into law on Wednesday to hold both "traffickers and buyers" accountable. "For years Georgia was considered a hot spot for human trafficking," said Governor Kemp in a press release on Wednesday, "but thanks to the GRACE Commission, under the leadership of First Lady Marty Kemp, we have established Georgia as a national leader in this fight by passing legislation that cracks down on both traffickers and buyers while also, and even more importantly, empowering survivors."

The Arizona rancher who was accused of murdering a Mexican national who illegally immigrated to the United States is unlikely to accept any plea deals offered by prosecutors after his case ended in a mistrial, according to Wednesday remarks by his attorney. Kathy Lowthorp, one of the attorneys who represented rancher George Alan Key after prosecutors charged him with second-degree murder for allegedly killing a Mexican national who trespassed onto his property, said in a Wednesday interview with NewsNation's Cuomo that her client would be unlikely to accept a plea deal if prosecutors move for a retrial.

Ohio’s job market continues to cool. The state’s unemployment rate rose again in March, while the labor participation rate remained steady, according to figures released by the state Department of Job and Family Services.

A super PAC that previously supported former ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley in the Republican primary cycle is now reportedly targeting her Republican supporters in Georgia on behalf of President Joe Biden. The super PAC previously known as Primary Pivot formerly urged Democratic and unaffiliated voters to cast ballots for Haley in Republican primary contests, but rebranded after Haley dropped out of the race.

The Chesterfield County Jail is reportedly set become the first in the country to use a detox device to help inmates recover from opioid withdrawal symptoms by sending electrical impulses to the user's brain. According to its manufacturer, the Masimo Bridge device is "a small electrical nerve stimulator device that contains a battery-powered chip and wires that are applied around a patient's ear in a short, non-surgical, in-office procedure, providing five days of continuous relief" from withdrawal symptoms by sending electrical impulses to parts of the brain associated with opioid withdrawal.

An Arizona grand jury on Wednesday indicted former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, Rudy Giuliani, and five other former aides to former President Donald Trump on felony charges related to alleged efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

A Tuesday report which detailed alleged culture clashes between local workers and those from Taiwan at the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) facilities in Arizona reveals some workers from Taiwan, who relocated to Arizona to build the plants, will seek to start or expand families so their children reap the benefits of U.S. citizenship. The Rest of World report described TSMC's ventures in Arizona as a "debacle," with American engineers subjected to intense scrutiny, public humiliation and restricted communications while being trained by TSMC in Taiwan.

Another local prosecutor declined to bring charges against a Republican state lawmaker in a campaign funding raising case. Waukesha County’s District Attorney Sue Opper said she would not file charges against state Rep. Janel Brandtjen. But Opper said she is not clearing Brandtjen in the case.

Michelle Martin, a Libertarian candidate running against Representative David Schweikert (R-AZ-01), has dropped out of the race after at least four voters said someone illegally signed her petition with their signatures. Martin’s paperwork revealed that a registered Democrat named Jeremy Garrett was one of the petition signature gatherers, along with four other registered Democrats. Someone named Jeremy Garrett works as an Electoral Campaign Manager at the progressive group Our Voice Our Vote (OVOV).  Schweikert told The Arizona Sun Times that this is clearly fraud and needs to be prosecuted. He said it has been referred to the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office.

The president of Ohio State University has issued a statement saying he “will not compromise” when it comes to enforcing the law and university policy amid pro-Palestine, anti-Israel protests on campus.

An empty podium will represent Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis after her campaign declined to participate in a debate with her primary challenger, Christian Wise Smith, it was reported Monday. The Atlanta Press Club will live stream more than nine hours for its Loudermilk-Young Debate Series on April 28, with the event originally scheduled to culminate with a debate between Willis and Wise Smith.

Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney on Tuesday officially ended his gubernatorial campaign, instead declaring he will seek the Democratic Party's nomination to become Virginia's next lieutenant governor. Stoney will no longer challenge Representative Abigail Spanberger (D-VA-07) to become Virginia's next Democratic candidate for governor, and switched races on the same day State Senator Aaron Rouse (D-Virginia Beach) announced his candidacy for lieutenant governor.