Morning News and Stuff

It’s not even two weeks since Gov. John Kasich signed the two-year state budget, and he’s already

pushing for the federally funded Medicaid expansion again

. Kasich, a Republican, called on fellow advocates and Democrats to lobby Republican legislators into supporting the expansion. The administration says it would need legislation passed by the end of the summer if it’s to get federal approval for an expansion by Jan. 1. Studies found the expansion would save the state money and insure nearly half a million Ohioans in the next decade. But Republican legislators passed on it, claiming the federal government can’t afford the expansion even though the federal government has long upheld its commitment to Medicaid. CityBeat covered the state budget and Medicaid expansion in greater detail

here

.

Hamilton County commissioners are

expected later today to repeal a funding hold on sewer projects

, just a couple months after the hold was passed in response to controversial city laws. The city and county originally reached a compromise over the laws, but the deal appeared to have fallen through when City Council

failed to approve its end of the bargain

. Still, commissioners are moving forward with removing the funding hold, according to WVXU. CityBeat covered the city-county conflict in greater detail

here

.

Designers, engineers and architects will compete over how they’ll cover Fort Washington Way in a few months, and Business Courier

has some possibilities

for where the project may go. The project is supposed to connect downtown and the riverfront, maximize economic development, encourage recreational activities, preserve openness and more. Although the first phase is just finishing, The Banks has

already won awards

, making the final connection between the area and downtown all the more important to city and county officials.

The Ohio-Kentucky-Indiana Regional Council of Governments (OKI) will

hold a meeting tonight for its regional strategic plan

. Details are sparse, but OKI’s first plan since 2005 will likely put a big emphasis on Cincinnati. A draft of the plan will likely be available in 2014. The meeting will be at Memorial Hall from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.

MSNBC pundit Rachel Maddow was

caught in a “pants on fire” statement

by Cleveland’s The Plain Dealer after she claimed Ohio’s budget mandates women seeking an abortion to undergo a vaginal probe. The budget

imposes new limits on legal abortions in Ohio

and effectively defunds contraceptive care, cancer screenings and other non-abortion medical services at family planning clinics like Planned Parenthood, but it doesn’t require women undergo a transvaginal ultrasound.

Cincinnati

topped Terminix’s annual bed bug list

for most calls related to the critters, but it avoided a spot on another list for the highest increase in calls.

Warren County’s racino is

now hiring

.

One good thing that came out of Mitt Romney’s 2012 presidential campaign:

swag for needy Kenyan youth

.

Antimatter particles were detected erupting from solar flares

.

One major problem in brain training studies: People always realize they’re

being tested

, particularly if they’re playing Tetris for hours.