What started as an energy-policy bill passed in 2019 as House Bill 6, has turned into a multi-year corruption investigation that shows little sign of ending.
Last week, Attorney General Dave Yost announced indictments against two former executives of FirstEnergy: ex-CEO Chuck Jones and former vice-president Michael Dowling. Yost also announced the indictment of the former chair of the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio, Sam Randazzo. All three deny wrongdoing.
HB 6 contained numerous measures, but the part that received the most attention was what’s been called the “nuclear bailout.” That part of HB 6 would have provided a billion dollars in subsidies for two nuclear plants owned by a FirstEnergy subsidiary. Those subsidies were repealed but House Bill 6 remains on the books.
To begin Wednesday’s "Sound of Ideas," we’re going to talk about House Bill 6 including how much consumers are still impacted by it.
Later in the hour, many were taught in U.S. history class about the landmark 1954 civil rights case, Brown v. Board of Education, where the Supreme Court ruled that separating children in public schools based on race was unconstitutional.
But for many Black families, the right to integrate was a much longer battle. In Ohio, a group of mothers and their children in Southwest Ohio marched for over two years to be admitted into a white elementary school. And this was after Brown v. Board of Education was decided. Their struggle is chronicled in a documentary called “The Lincoln School Story.” We will discuss a screening planned for the film this week and a panel discussion.
Film screening and panel discussion of The Lincoln School Story
Thursday, Feb. 22 at 4:30 p.m.
Case Western Reserve University Law School (11075 East Blvd, Cleveland, OH 44106)
Register here
Guests:
-Karen Kasler, Statehouse News Bureau Chief, Ohio Public Radio/TV
-Neil Waggoner, Federal Deputy Director for Energy Campaigns, Sierra Club
-Kathiann Kowalski, Reporter, Energy News Network
-Melvin Barnes Jr., Ph.D., Historian & Program Officer, Ohio Humanities
-Teresa Williams, Lincoln School Marcher
