A bill introduced in the Ohio General Assembly earlier this year is seeing changes as lawmakers craft how to deal with concerns about childcare centers. In January, Republican state Reps. Josh Williams and DJ Swearingen introduced House Bill 649, with the House Children and Human Services Committee continuing to review the bill. The bill requires the Ohio Department of Children and Youth to immediately conduct a preliminary investigation following an allegation of waste, fraud, or abuse at childcare centers receiving public funding in the state. When introducing the bill, Williams promoted standardized enforcement so “no one can complain about the oversight because it’s a uniform rule by the Legislature across the state of Ohio.” The Childcare Fraud Prevention Act, Williams said, came in response “to an overwhelming request for better oversight of our publicly funded childcare system in Ohio.” I am proud to be partnering with Representative @DJSwearingenOH and Attorney General @DaveYostOH on this incredibly important piece of legislation.We owe it to Ohio's citizens to be good stewards of their tax dollars and make sure they aren't being stolen by fraudsters.The…— Rep. Josh Williams (@JoshWilliamsOH) January 15, 2026 The legislation “has a very simple purpose,” Williams said of his bill in January. “If the government is taking money from Ohio taxpayers and using it to fund childcare, the government has a moral and legal obligation to protect that money and protect the children tied to those state funds.” On Tuesday, the bill’s sponsors offered a change allowing the inspector general to request additional evidence from the Ohio Department of Children and Youth at any point in the investigation and to pause the investigation until that evidence is made available. In addition, the Ohio House speaker and Senate president must be alerted at the start of an investigation. A committee meeting in March amended the bill so that the storage of photos or videos taken at childcare facilities would be prohibited, citing surveillance concerns. Only footage from devices owned by the Ohio Department of Children and Youth may be allowed. Another bill, Ohio House Bill 647, moved funding back to the Ohio Department of Children and Youth budget, with Director Kara Wente in support. Concerns about fraud, including those involving the home health system and Medicaid fraud, have thrust Ohio into the national spotlight, including Gov. Mike DeWine’s handling of the situation.

Editor’s note: This is a lightly edited transcript of today’s video from Daily Signal Senior Contributor Victor Davis Hanson. Subscribe to our YouTube channel to see more of his videos. Hello, this is Victor Davis Hanson for The Daily Signal.   The Democrats have an autopsy report that was just released that supposedly would explain why they lost the 2024 election. They were shocked. Remember the NPR poll, for example, on the eve of the election said that Kamala Harris was beyond the margin of error.  In other words, she was ahead by more than three points just before the balloting began. Remember the Iowa poll that said that Kamala Harris was going to win by three points, and she lost by eight or nine, I think. So the point is they were shocked, and they wanted to know what happened. And they should want to know what happened because they had more money.  She raised a billion dollars. If you look at the aggregate Biden-Harris total campaign chest, they outraised Donald Trump by a billion dollars. Donald Trump was also, for much of 2022, 2023, and 2024, sidelined off the campaign trail dealing with five criminal and civil lawfare suits. So they thought they should have won.  And that’s in addition to the media. You remember the debate with J.D. Vance and Tim Walz and Joe Biden and Kamala Harris debates with Donald Trump. The moderators were more or less on the side of the Democrats.   So they had all these advantages, support, and they lost. So they wanted to know why. Well, you and I know why they did.  Because they had an agenda, and what was that agenda? The trans issue, the open-borders issue, the 10 to 12 million illegal aliens issue, the 500,000 criminals who came across issue, the highest urban crime rates in a generation issue, the war on fossil fuels issue, the 9.2% inflation in 2022 under Biden and, in the aggregate, on key staples, maybe a 20% or 30% rise in prices, the catastrophe in Afghanistan, the sense of appeasement that allowed [Vladimir] Putin to think he could go into Ukraine.  I could go on. Two theater wars, one in Ukraine, one in the Middle East, etc., etc., etc.   They didn’t mention any of that. They didn’t mention any of that because that is the agenda, the platform, the policies of the new Democratic Party. They feel that the Green New Deal is great and we should war on fossil fuels, cut back on gas and oil production.  They believe that there are three sexes and that biological men have a perfect right to dress in girls’ dressing rooms or compete in women’s sports.   They believe the border should be open. They believe that 10 or 12 million illegal aliens wasn’t enough. They believe that it was good to get out of Afghanistan the way we did.  They didn’t criticize that. They believe in DEI and racial preferences. So they weren’t going to say that that agenda, none of it which is supported by the American people, was the undoing.   They also didn’t say that the party that talks about democracy and that Trump is a dictator didn’t talk about the manner in which Joe Biden, who won 14 million votes in the primaries, was forced out by a bunch of backroom insider politicos.  One day he was there, one day he was forced off the ticket, and almost within 24 hours, Kamala Harris was coronated as the nominee. Everybody came in lockstep, endorsed her. The vote at the convention a few weeks later was pro forma. And guess what? She had run in 2020 against Biden and had not gotten one delegate.  So that was an entire coup, so to speak, that was contrary to the perception of the Democrats that they were the party of democracy. They weren’t going to talk about it being far left.   So what did they say in this 192-page, poorly written report? It was written by Mr. [Paul] Rivera, who’s a politico analyst, an activist, an analyst, a friend of Ken Martin’s who did it.  The report has misspelled words. It’s kind of incoherent. There are no footnotes. He didn’t want to release it, but he was forced to because he had earlier made a promise that he would. Those were the admissions. Well, what was the commission? Well, it was that you didn’t attack Donald Trump hard enough. They attacked him all the time.  They called him a fascist. They called him a liar. They called him a dictator. But they had to say that.   And then, second of all, they said that they didn’t properly prepare Kamala Harris. They did prepare Kamala Harris. They kept her out of reach from media and the public for 30 or 40 days. They did all they could to coach her.  They had private planes for her staff. They had wardrobe consultants. They had speech consultants. They had Hollywood producers advise [her]—they had everybody. But they couldn’t do it, not because they didn’t try, because Kamala Harris was one of the most inept candidates that we have seen in modern political history.  Any time that she got on the stage and she started talking about metaphysics, time, being, thought, her eyes would sort of go into a corkscrew and Twilight Zone music would come on, and she was just, you know, coconut palms and being and what could be and all.   And it was just embarrassing. It was so embarrassing that people thought she was intoxicated because her sentences, her paragraphs, her grammar, her syntax made no sense.  So it wasn’t that they didn’t prepare her; it’s that they handed a nomination to someone who was selected after the aftermath of George Floyd on the basis of her gender and race, and she had nothing, nothing in her past that would show that she was qualified.   She did have one thing. She was the most left-wing senator based on her voting record, to the left of Bernie Sanders, in the entire U.S. Senate.  So what would an accurate autopsy say? The accurate autopsy would say our message is too far left and nobody wants it, so we have to disguise it.  And then it could say, look what Joe Biden did. He got elected, and he turned out to be the most far-left president since FDR.  Now, how did we do that? We did that—forget about the balloting and elections and changing the voting laws and all the things that Molly Ball bragged about in her Time essays of cabals and conspiracies.  They did it because Joe Biden served as a waxen effigy. Old Joe Biden from Scranton, the good guy, the union guy, the lunch-bucket guy. It was all a myth. And then the Obama team came in and used him as sort of a puppet, pulled the strings, and then rushed through this agenda. And it took four years for people to catch on to what was happening.  This guy was non compos mentis, and they couldn’t believe it that he was president, but it served a purpose. And a lot of candidates saw that. [Abigail] Spanberger in Virginia saw that. And it looks like some of the Democrats running for the mayorship and the governorship in California see that.  In other words, they feign like they’re moderates. They suggest they are moderates during the campaign, and then when they’re elected, they have the socialist redistributionist agenda.   So, in conclusion, if the autopsy wanted to be accurate, it would have done this. We lost the 2024 campaign because we had a radical agenda that reflects the Jacobin neo-socialism of the new party.  For us to get elected on a national basis, we have to hide that agenda. We have to hide that agenda, lie to the people, act like we’re moderates, say we’re for fracking, close the border, say we are not objecting to deportation, tough on crime, don’t defund the police—all of that Kamala Harris was not able to do.  She may have tried here and there, but she did not modify or hide or mask or disguise that agenda with a veneer of moderation.  Second of all, she should have never been nominated. She was completely unqualified to be a presidential candidate. She had run in 2020. She was the weakest of eight or 10 candidates.  She dropped out before the Iowa and New Hampshire caucuses, and she didn’t get a single delegate. That should have told them something.   And number three, Joe Biden had a terrible record. Terrible record. And the Democrats did everything they could to demonize Donald Trump, to make the campaign about Donald Trump, to keep Kamala Harris out of reach, to hide her so people wouldn’t find out how crazy and inept she was.  That was not enough.   And so, all they had to do was say we can’t change our message; it’s toxic; let’s hide it. We can’t get good candidates, and we anoint them, and that was another problem. So we need a better candidate that can better mask and disguise this radical socialist agenda that we have until he or she is elected president.  That would have been honest.   We publish a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of the Daily Signal.

The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform has launched an investigation to determine whether Democrats are using American taxpayer dollars to fund an online, abusive sex scandal catering to inmates on death row. All California prisoners are given “free” government-issued tablets meant for “education, rehabilitation, family communication, and reentry support proven to reduce crime,” according to California Gov. Gavin Newsom. However, an investigation by City Journal found the tablets offer prisoners an opportunity to “sexually exploit women and minors from their jail cells.” Committee Chairman Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., called the alleged fraud and corruption a “pattern” of liberal leadership. Governor Gavin Newsom doesn't want you to know a California inmate is on trial right now for grooming a 12-year-old on his taxpayer-funded tablet.Why are we buying prisoners iPads?Here's an idea: let's use our tax dollars to provide children in school with better technology. pic.twitter.com/g0T1oFTvdH— Rep. James Comer (@RepJamesComer) May 27, 2026 Comer and Oversight Committee members Rep. Brandon Gill, R-Texas, and Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., suspect Newsom may be using federal grant money to pay for the tablets. They sent him a letter demanding that he hand over all relevant information detailing the initiative’s funding by June 9. “We’ve got kids in public schools in vital need of technology to learn,” Comer said. “These are our next generation of leaders, our next generation of the workforce, and they are being neglected in liberal states because they want to provide luxury items to inmates.” This “rehabilitation” initiative, in which California provides inmates with generic flat-screen tablets, was launched in 2018. In 2026, the state began upgrading the devices. Newsom recently signed a new contract with Securus Technologies, agreeing to pay nearly $190 million for 90,000 tablets—roughly $2,000 per tablet. The $190 million comes from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, which is funded by California taxpayers. However, the letter notes that the department has received nearly $500 million in federal funds, which could have supplemented the tablet program. The lawmakers specifically cited $70 million from the Byrne Justice Assistance Grant program, $16.5 million from the Second Chance Act, and $410 million in Medicaid funding. BREAKING: We are investigating California’s taxpayer-funded prison tablet program after reports that inmates used them to sexually exploit women and minors.Chairmen @RepJamesComer, @RepBrandonGill, and @RepTimBurchett are demanding answers from Gov. Newsom @CAgovernor. pic.twitter.com/8NcheOVB1m— Oversight Committee (@GOPoversight) May 26, 2026 “Congress did not authorize the Byrne JAG program, the Second Chance Act, or any other federal criminal justice grant so California could build an environment for convicted felons to use state-issued, taxpayer-funded devices to sexually exploit children or view pornography,” the lawmakers wrote to Newsom. The letter cites an example from the City Journal investigation involving Nathaniel Ray Diaz, who was convicted in 2023 of sexual crimes against a 12-year-old girl. Diaz allegedly used his state-issued tablet to contact the victim from his jail cell, sexually exploiting her thousands of times through messages and phone calls. The Oversight Committee has launched multiple investigations into states allegedly taking advantage of federal programs and propping up institutions accused of defrauding the federal government. Gill, newly appointed chairman of the Task Force on Defending Constitutional Rights and Exposing Institutional Abuses, recently launched an investigation into a $250 million Medicare fraud scheme uncovered in Ohio. Foreign fraudsters have been stealing from American taxpayers for years.It’s time to hold them accountable.https://t.co/0TyhkEy8oM— Congressman Brandon Gill (@RepBrandonGill) May 21, 2026 Burchett serves as chairman of the Subcommittee on Delivering on Government Efficiency. Nearly a year after initiating an investigation into Planned Parenthood’s alleged misuse of $800 million in federal funding, the organization has yet to fully comply with document requests. “As of now—nearly one year later—Planned Parenthood has yet to fully comply with the subcommittee’s letter and provide the requested documents and communications,” Burchett said. The committee’s letter to Newsom notes that under House Rule X, the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform is the principal oversight committee of the U.S. House of Representatives and has broad authority to investigate “any matter [at] any time.” Newsom did not immediately return the Daily Signal’s request for comment.

A few weeks ago, the New York Times reported on a new trend of young adults returning to or joining the Catholic Church, despite decades-long cultural attacks on that institution from political and cultural elites. The article quotes Archbishop Mitchell Thomas Rozanski of St. Louis, who said, “In our age of uncertainty, and in our age of great anxiety, is a thirst and hunger for God and stability that faith brings to people’s lives,” said Archbishop Mitchell Thomas Rozanski of St. Louis. It would seem that this is not just wishful thinking. The overall percentage of Gen Z identifying as Christians has increased in recent years. Around 45% identified as such in 2023, with 51% doing so in 2025. What is driving this return to faith? Young adults, tired of digital isolation and cultural cynicism, desire authentic faith and community.  They want more than the world has to offer—a higher purpose than the cultural mantra of “you do you.” They desire community beyond text messages and swiping right on their smartphones. I would like to think that they are yearning for God and the stability that faith brings in a world of increasing chaos. Why? Because, as Alexis de Tocqueville noted back in the early 1800s in his observations about America, churches and other faith communities “form a society,” and without them, society disintegrates into individualism and moral confusion—which pretty much sums up our current political and cultural state. As I write in my new book, “What Really Matters: Restoring a Legacy of Faith, Freedom, and Family”, it is faith that gives us purpose, molds men into strong and compassionate leaders, provides protection and provision for women and children, and binds us together rather than pulls us apart. And as Tocqueville witnessed, America was built on civic groups and other associations such as churches. Without them, society quickly becomes morally, emotionally, and physically adrift. In contrast, when a nation has a vibrant and unifying faith, the “all about me” mantra that results in increasing isolation and disillusionment becomes increasingly less appealing. That is what I believe is happening with these young adults. What else might be driving these young people back to faith? The answer can perhaps be found in these words from the late James Q. Wilson, written in 2002: “The right and best way for a culture to restore itself is for it to be rebuilt, not from the top down by government policies, but by the bottom up by personal decisions. On the side of that effort, we can find churches—or at least many of them—and the common experience of adults that the essence of marriage is not sex, or money, or even children: it is commitment.” Being committed to a church body strengthens other commitments in life—as Wilson noted—to marriages and families, which provide the cornerstone upon which a healthy society is constructed. Membership in a faith community can provide the cure for isolation and loneliness. It is faith that provides the spiritual and emotional bonds between two adults, who make a lifelong marital commitment to each other, and in turn to nurturing and raising emotionally and spiritually healthy children. It is faith that results in good personal decisions, rather than disastrous ones. It is faith that brings personal and cultural restoration, rather than placing a government-subsidized bandage to try to stem the bleeding while ignoring the cause of the problem in the first place. Most of all, it is faith that builds a solid personal foundation upon which positive life-changing results can be built—results that are not possible from secular governmental solutions, which offer no antidote or hope for an empty and searching soul, but instead pit neighbor against neighbor in a zero-sum war. That is why we need to look at the current trend of increased interest in faith by young adults as a long-term investment instead of a short-term gain. With so many cultural headwinds seeking to drive them away from faith, we need to seize the opportunity to help keep them on the path of faith, rather than letting their commitment be strangled by the thorns of this world. It is this faith that will allow young people—and our society—to flourish and commit to the common good, rather than to wither and succumb to selfish desires. To do that, we must continue to provide young adults with not a watered-down faith, but one that provides hope, community, and moral certainty—which is what a society built upon the foundation of “faith, freedom, and family” exemplifies.  We publish a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of the Daily Signal.

When a horde of agitators took over a St. Paul, Minn., church service in January, shouting, “Who shut this down? We shut this down!” they unwittingly inspired a nationwide effort to defend the sanctity of church services. Four states have already passed laws cracking down on disrupting church services, and more legislatures are considering action. While the agitators who invaded Cities Church in St. Paul face federal criminal charges, the incident highlighted the potential insufficiency of state law, which should already prevent such disruptions. The Cities Church Invasion Dozens of agitators entered Cities Church, a reformed evangelical church affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention, on Jan. 18 in the middle of a Sunday service. The invaders said they aimed to protest Immigration and Customs Enforcement amid the surge of agents to Minneapolis. A pastor at the church also reportedly works for the agency. According to a federal indictment based on videos the agitators themselves posted online, the agitators paraded down the aisles, blocked worshipers from leaving, and screamed in the faces of crying children. One agitator reportedly asked children, “Do you know your parents are Nazis, they’re going to burn in hell?” At least one father told investigators that his children were traumatized. One of them said to him, “Daddy, I thought you were going to die.” The agitators allegedly refused to leave when asked. They allegedly blocked parents from getting to their children in Sunday school. They reportedly stood in the middle of the sanctuary chanting, “ICE Out!” and “Who shut this down? We shut this down!” A federal grand jury indicted 39 people, including Lemon, on two charges: violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act, which also protects access to churches; and violating the Ku Klux Klan Act, which criminalizes efforts to deprive Americans of their fundamental rights—in this case, the right to the free exercise of religion. (A judge dismissed the charges against one defendant due to mistaken identity.) The Church Protection Bills Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt, a Republican, signed Senate Bill 743 in February. The law criminalizes disruption of church services and imposes up to a $500 fine or up to one year in county jail for a first offense, with higher penalties for repeat offenses. The law also bans the use of profanity and rude or indecent acts during worship services. Idaho Senate Bill 1296, which the state’s Republican governor, Brad Little, signed in March, makes it a misdemeanor to intrude into a church or house of worship with the intent to intimidate, harass, or disrupt the service. The law, which goes into effect on July 1, imposes up to six months in jail and fines ranging from $500 to $1,000 for a first offense, with escalating penalties for repeat offenses. Louisiana House Bill 294 strengthens existing laws to give churches, synagogues, and other places of worship clear authority to quickly remove disruptive individuals. HB 68, meanwhile, imposes harsher penalties for intentional disruptions, adding a mandatory 30-day jail sentence to disturbing-the-peace charges for incidents at houses of worship. Gov. Jeff Landry, a Republican, signed both bills last month. The Kansas Legislature overwhelmingly passed House Bill 2018, which criminalizes interference with the conduct of a religious assembly, in March. Gov. Laura Kelly, a Democrat, allowed the law to take effect without her signature. She warned that the law “prioritizes” one fundamental right—to freely practice religion—over another, the right to freedom of expression. While Americans have the right to protest and engage in free speech, that does not extend to invading church services and taking them over. Legislators have introduced similar bills in at least seven states, the Associated Press reported. Meanwhile, the New York Civil Liberties Union has filed a lawsuit to block a similar ordinance passed in Nassau County, New York. That ordinance, passed two days before the Cities Church invasion, appears to have come in response to harassment against a Manhattan synagogue. While the Cities Church invasion may represent the most egregious church invasion in recent memory, it is far from the first. Pro-abortion agitators have disrupted services, and some agitators who support the traditional Christian view of sexuality have disrupted pro-LGBTQ churches. Whatever they believe, Americans have the right to worship God in peace. Agitators should not disturb churches, synagogues, mosques, or other houses of worship, and it is inspiring to see lawmakers across the country take this threat seriously.