Early in-person voting began Tuesday in an election in Ohio to determine whether to make it more difficult to amend the state’s constitution, the results of which could have immediate consequences for an abortion rights amendment in the works.

If approved, Issue 1 would raise the threshold for passing future constitutional changes from a simple majority in place since 1912 to a 60% supermajority.

Proponents of the measure, represented by the Protect Our Constitution coalition, argue that the increased percentage will keep deep-pocketed interest groups from pushing unwanted abortion, gun control, minimum wage, farm and other policies on Ohioans.

One Person One Vote, the opposition campaign, says the rushed effort in an off-year election is intended to prevent passing policies that are popular with a majority of average Ohioans but opposed by the increasingly conservative GOP supermajority at the Statehouse.

Since the landmark Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortion was overturned last summer, amendments protecting access to abortion in other states, even conservative ones, have passed handily — but generally with less than 60% of the vote.

The way the constitutional amendment issue was rushed onto an off-year, summer ballot could mean a tiny percentage of Ohio voters will decide the issue, the opponents contend. County election boards reported initial turnout was steady to robust in an Aug. 8 contest not initially on the 2023 calendar.

The high-stakes election also is taking place under sweeping election law changes enacted in January. Some of those affected registration, which closed Monday.

Eligible Ohioans using a paper form to register or update a registration were required to provide additional identification for the first time this year: either an Ohio driver’s license, ID number or the last four digits of their Social Security number. Also, they needed to use a paper form that conformed with the one developed by Republican Secretary of State Frank LaRose, his office said.

The language appearing on voters’ August ballots has been the subject of litigation. Though the Ohio Supreme Court agreed to order some minor tweaks, justices let stand a description of the amendment as ‘elevating’ the standards for qualifying and passing future constitutional amendments in the state. One Person One Vote had argued that the term carries a positive connotation that could bias voters toward a ‘yes’ vote, but justices said it means basically the same thing as ‘raising’ or ‘increasing.’

The election date also was the subject of a lawsuit, which argued it violated a law eliminating most August elections that state legislators passed only last year. Backers of that law, who initially included LaRose, argued such elections are costly, cause extra work for overburdened county election boards and inspire chronically low turnouts.

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Democratic St. Louis Mayor Tishaura Jones’ support of gun control is coming into question after an open records request released thousands of her personal texts, including one that argued gun crackdowns are ineffective.

‘Chicago has strict gun laws as well but that doesn’t deter gun violence,’ Jones texted in a group chat to her dad, Virvus Jones and advisor Richard Callow on March 21, KSDK reported. ‘It’s about investing in the people.’

Thousands of Jones’ texts from her personal cellphone were publicly released last week after KSDK and the St. Louis Business Journal filed separate Sunshine Act requests for her communications regarding the political appointment process for a Circuit Attorney.

Her private message appears to contradict public comments she has made in the past, including after a mass shooting in the city last month that killed one and left 11 others injured.

‘Our state’s lax gun laws make our challenge even more difficult,’ Jones said in June following the shooting. ‘The legislature’s lack of action on gun safety laws encourages the proliferation of guns on our streets and puts our responding officers directly in harm’s way.’

Jones also joined other cities across the country in declaring June 3 as ‘Gun Violence Awareness Day,’ where the mayor argued the Senate ‘must protect our families’ by ‘expanding background checks to all gun sales, regulating assault weapons, and passing a federal red flag law.’ 

In another text to her father and Callow, Jones recounted how Newark, New Jersey, has similar demographics to St. Louis, but far fewer murders, citing Newark’s investment in violence prevention programs.

‘Newark, NJ has the same size population, same size police force, and similar racial demographics, yet had 50 murders in 2022,’ she wrote, KSDK reported. ‘I visited these programs first hand and I know that they work. We just need the will….’

St. Louis recorded 200 homicides in 2022, 201 in 2021, and 263 in 2020, according to data published by the St. Louis Police Department. The city often has one of the highest murder rates in the nation, alongside cities such as Chicago and Baltimore.

The mayor’s office has since gone into ‘damage control mode,’ according to KSDK, with Jones’ spokesman releasing a statement last week clarifying the mayor’s stance on gun control.

‘Gun laws are just one part of the solution,’ Jones spokesman Nick Desideri said. ‘There’s a difference between deterring behavior and making it harder to get firearms and weaponry; for example, there’s no doubt that gun laws in the blue region around Newark help reduce violence as opposed to here.’

In other texts, Jones appeared to agree with her public statements in support of gun control.

‘We have way too many guns on our streets and no way to take them away,’ she said in a text message on May 10, according to KSDK.

They mayor also took issue with an op-ed written by Republican state Sen. Cindy O’Laughlin, which argued for city leaders to emphasize education, employment training and economic development to reverse crime trends in St. Louis. 

‘St. Louis needs to clean up its act in many ways. It starts with reducing crime. We are also working to improve our schools statewide and there’s no better place to start than in St. Louis. The costs of crime and an unskilled workforce is costing the entire state in many ways,’ O’Laughlin wrote in The Missouri Times. 

Jones mocked the op-ed on text, summing it up as ‘basically’ saying, ”Thanks for staying in STL even tho we’re responsible for the horrific amount of guns on your streets.” 

Desideri took to Twitter last week to share a message from Jones, which stated the texts were released due to an ‘honest mistake.’

‘I’ve never been one to hide my feelings,’ the message relayed by the spokesman stated. ‘Through an honest mistake, text messages between my family and close friends were released to the public. Sometimes my words can be terse, and my text messages speak for themselves. I understand the impact of some of my comments, and will contact the relevant parties to ensure productive dialogue moving forward.’ 

The texts between Jones, her father and Callow were gathered following the open records requests in connection to Kim Gardner stepping down in May as St. Louis circuit attorney. Typically, such materials are reviewed and portions redacted before they are released to the public, but the texts were published wholesale in a 135-page PDF document, according to KSDK.

The PDF was removed just a couple days after it was published and replaced with a shorter and redacted version.

The mayor’s office did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for additional comment on the matter.

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The sales tax in Milwaukee will go up 2 cents per dollar next year after the Common Council voted Tuesday to raise the rate as part of a bipartisan plan to avoid bankruptcy.

City leaders who pushed for approval of the higher sales tax warned of looming deep cuts to core services, including police and fire protection. Opponents objected to strings attached to additional state funding, including curbing spending on diversity, equity and inclusion efforts.

‘The wolf is at the door,’ Milwaukee Alderman Robert Bauman argued in support of the sales tax. ‘You can’t chase the wolf away anymore, and we are dealing with some serious challenges that have to be addressed.’

Milwaukee is struggling with an underfunded pension system and not enough money to maintain essential police, fire and emergency services. Milwaukee has increasingly become reliant on federal pandemic aid to fund its essential services, which city leaders have said cost $150 million more per year to maintain.

The state Legislature and Gov. Tony Evers negotiated for months over a deal signed into law last month that gave the city the option to raise the local sales tax to help it avoid insolvency in 2025. The bill signed by the Democrat Evers, and passed by the Republican-controlled Legislature, boosts state aid to local governments by $275 million and ties future aid payments to the state sales tax.

Leaders, including Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson and U.S. Rep. Gwen Moore, who represents Milwaukee, urged adoption of the higher local sales tax to avoid bankruptcy like Detroit in 2013. They warned of catastrophic cuts including laying off 700 police officers, 250 firefighters and 400 other city workers. They also warned of possible library closures and reductions in other basic services like trash pickup and snow removal.

The Milwaukee Common Council voted 12-3 on Tuesday to approve the higher sales tax. That was two more than the two-thirds majority needed to succeed.

Alderwoman Andrea Pratt argued against raising sales taxes, saying it would disproportionately affect those on fixed income.

‘I do not want to see us fail,’ she said. ‘I also do not want to save a city by rejecting citizens.’

The state sales tax is 5%. If the county goes along with the city and approves the higher sales tax rate, sales taxes in the city of Milwaukee would be 7.9%.

The additional sales tax in the city of Milwaukee will bring in nearly $200 million more in revenue next year, which the city has to use to pay for its pension and to increase the number of police officers and firefighters.

Milwaukee was the only city of its size in the country without the power to raise its own sales tax before the Legislature granted it the power to raise the rate by 2%. However, many Democrats and city leaders complained that the plan came with too many strings attached, keeping the success of Tuesday’s vote in doubt until the last minute.

Those include limiting funding for diversity, equity and inclusion efforts and Milwaukee’s streetcar, requiring police officers to return to Milwaukee Public Schools and requiring a minimum level of police and firefighter staffing.

Council members criticized those provisions, which took effect regardless of whether the sales tax increase won approval.

Bauman called the mandates imposed by the Republican-controlled Legislature ‘outrageous,’ and had ‘an air of racism about them.’

‘They caused many of us to have a sense of anger, sadness and even depression,’ he said.

Milwaukee County, which also faces the potential of deep cuts, was also given the power to nearly double the current 0.5% countywide sales tax to 0.9%. The county board was expected to vote on that this summer.

Detroit’s bankruptcy loomed over the debate about what to do in Milwaukee.

Detroit was the largest municipal bankruptcy filing in U.S. history. The city emerged from bankruptcy in December 2014, having restructured or wiped out $7 billion in debt. Detroit was forced to follow a state-monitored spending plan and has been able to build cash surpluses.

Wisconsin state law does not allow for cities to declare bankruptcy, which means the Legislature would have to vote to allow Milwaukee to take that step if the city were to run out of money.

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The nation’s largest teachers unions have set their sights on battling so-called ‘racist’ and ‘homophobic’ education initiatives as students have fallen behind academically during the pandemic and struggle to make up lost ground.

The New York Times reported Tuesday that students in the United States have shown ‘slower than average growth in math and reading’ compared to before the pandemic and that learning gaps ‘may be widening’ despite billions of federal dollars going towards the problem.  

‘We are actually seeing evidence of backsliding,’ NWEA’s Center for School and Student Progress director Karyn Lewis told the publication. 

But as students nationwide grapple with the pandemic-induced learning loss, the National Education Association (NEA) and American Federation of Teachers (AFT) are focusing on Republican education initiatives they say target the likes of LGBTQ+ students. 

NEA president Becky Pringle zeroed in on the issue last week while addressing the union’s representative assembly in Orlando, Florida. 

During the speech, Pringle said the Sunshine State is ‘our ground zero for shameful, racist, homophobic, misogynistic, xenophobic rhetoric and dangerous actions,’ and that is why NEA leaders met there, according to their website.

‘We have come here because our children are here. We have come here because our colleagues are here,’ Pringle said. ‘We have come here because educators, students, and their communities are being attacked by laws that threaten their safety, question their humanity, and block their access to every basic right that defines the word freedom. Right here in Florida, we will preserve and strengthen a democracy that was steeped in the power of ‘We the People.” 

Pringle’s prepared remarks did not mention students’ learning loss stemming from the pandemic, according to her speech transcript. The NEA did not respond to a Fox News Digital request for comment. 

The AFT, meanwhile, has recently joined forces with a left-wing dark money group initially formed to push back against opponents of critical race theory in K-12 schools.

The union teamed up with Campaign for Our Shared Future, a so-called ‘nonpartisan’ group founded to combat a wave of ‘culture wars attacks’ on communities, children, and the K-12 system, for an initiative to provide aid to educators they say are under attack from Republicans across the country.

‘Attacks on public education in America by extremists and culture-war peddling politicians have reached new heights (‘lows’ may be more apt), but they are not new,’ AFT President Randi Weingarten wrote on the union’s website in April. ‘The difference today is that the attacks are intended not just to undermine public education but to destroy it.’

‘From book bans and censorship of honest history to the removal and rejection of Black, LGBTQIA+ and minority students’ existence and experiences, MAGA lawmakers have used culture wars to divide communities and enact schemes that drain resources from public education,’ Weingarten said.

The Campaign for Our Shared Future announced the formation of the Educator Defense Fund earlier this year to provide assistance ranging from legal support to threat evaluations. A spokesperson for the group previously told Fox News Digital the fund is separate from the hotline, which AFT runs.

‘Schools have become a flashpoint for politicians looking to advance their agendas, and they are using scare tactics to target teachers and school staff who are focused on preparing our students for the future,’ Campaign for Our Shared Future said of its Educator Defense Fund in March.

‘These dangerous antics show radical politicians are willing to use anything to win office, including jeopardizing the safety of educators and students,’ the group added. ‘COSF is uniquely positioned to connect education professionals with rapid support in response to deeply concerning developments in the field. The Educator Defense Fund will offer our educators a helping hand to oppose these attacks.’

Campaign for Our Shared Future is part of a massive liberal dark money network. Its 501(c)(3) educational arm is fiscally sponsored by the New Venture Fund. Campaign for Our Shared Future Action Fund, its 501(c)(4) advocacy arm, falls under the Sixteen Thirty Fund. 

The New Venture Fund and Sixteen Thirty Fund are nonprofit incubators providing their tax and legal status to numerous left-wing nonprofits. The groups they fiscally sponsor are exempt from providing tax records to the IRS, further shielding information such as their finances from the public. 

THE LARGEST TEACHERS UNIONS IN AMERICA RECOMMENDED EDUCATORS INCLUDE ‘GENDER QUEER’ IN THEIR SUMMER READING 

Fox News Digital previously reported that Campaign for Our Shared Future initially launched last summer following conservative parents flooding school board meetings in multiple states over what they said is their local schools teaching critical race theory to children, which liberals have maintained is not the case.

Weingarten’s post attacking ‘extremists’ and ‘culture-war peddlers’ did reference a speech she gave in defense of public education where she outlined a ‘four-part plan to help young people recover from learning loss.’

According to the post, her speech called for ‘a vast expansion of community schools; experiential learning for all kids, including career and technical education; the revival and restoration of the teaching profession; and deepened partnerships with parents and the community.’

A supplemental budget signed into law by Democratic Maine Gov. Janet Mills allows most workers up to 12 weeks of paid family and medical leave.The program takes effect in 2026.‘I know firsthand the challenges of providing care to loved ones while trying to manage all the unexpected ups and downs that are simply facts of life,’ Mills wrote in an op-ed.

Most Maine workers swill get up to 12 weeks of paid time off for family or medical reasons as part of a supplemental budget Democratic Gov. Janet Mills signed into law on Tuesday.

The spending bill included $25 million in startup costs for the state program which allows workers — starting in 2026 — to receive paid leave to deal with illness, to care for a relative, or for the birth of a child.

Maine joins a dozen other states that have paid family and medical leave programs. The focus of legislation has been at the state level after failure to gain traction in Congress.

The program caught the attention of the White House, where press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre applauded the state’s action.

‘Paid family and medical leave improves the lives of working families and strengthens our workforce and economy,’ she said, adding that the Biden administration has worked to make the federal government a model by supporting federal workers in accessing needed leave.

Putting it in personal terms, Mills said that she deeply understood the need for the program — having dealt with the loss of a husband following a debilitating stroke, the realities of raising fives stepdaughters on her own and caring for her own aging parents, all while working full time.

‘I know firsthand the challenges of providing care to loved ones while trying to manage all the unexpected ups and downs that are simply facts of life,’ she previously wrote in a newspaper op-ed.

The Democratic-led Legislature already approved a nearly $10 billion essential services budget that went into effect on July 1. That budget was approved along party lines in March, Democrats said, to prevent any late partisan attempt to use a government shutdown as a bargaining tactic.

The budgetary addendum, about $445 million dealing with extras, likely won’t go into effect until late October because it failed to muster a two-thirds majority in the Legislature it would’ve needed to go into effect immediately.

It includes language to start the paid leave program that will be funded through a payroll tax split between workers and employers and capped at 1% of wages. Qualifying conditions include the birth or adoption of a child, a serious illness, care for a sick relative or transition from military deployment.

Businesses with fewer than 15 employees are not required to make employer contributions to the program. Companies that already offer comparable benefits can just stick with their current plans.

Key to support were several tax-related proposals including one that raised the amount of pension income that’s exempt from state income taxes from $30,000 to $35,000. Lawmakers also included money to double the pay of childcare workers, as well as funding for the governor’s proposed Dirigo Business Tax Incentive Plan, which would replace the existing Pine Tree Development Zones.

The governor initially balked at the paid leave proposal, which was opposed by the Maine State Chamber of Commerce and others in the business community, but the bill was tweaked to win her support.

‘I am over the moon,’ said state Sen. Mattie Daughtry, D-Brunswick, after taking a congratulatory call from the White House and attending the signing ceremony. She sponsored the bill with Rep. Kristen Cloutier, D-Lewiston.

Together, the essential services budget and supplemental budget takes spending to historic levels — about $10.3 billion — but it remains balanced and the state’s rainy day fund remains at a record-high level, said Kirsten Figueroa, commissioner for the Department of Administrative and Financial Services.

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State Rep. Bob Young was arrested and charged with domestic violence over the weekend, accused of assaulting a family member, according to court records.

Police said Young struck the person in the face Thursday and then threw her phone into a pool to prevent her from calling 911.

Young, who appeared in court Saturday, is now subject to several protection orders, meaning he cannot be near or make contact with the person he allegedly assaulted.

The Summit County Republican’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment, and he could not be reached by phone. No lawyer was listed on court documents for him.

House Speaker Jason Stephens, a fellow Republican, called on Young to resign. The incident took place following a fundraiser for Young and another lawmaker at which Stephens was a special guest, though Stephens said he left beforehand.

‘Although I believe that people are innocent until proven guilty, I asked Bob for his resignation as state representative so he can focus on his family at this time,’ Stephens said Sunday in a statement.

A message seeking comment was left for the Summit County sheriff’s office.

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Several lawmakers excoriated a federal appeals court ruling Monday granting a coalition of environmental groups’ request to block construction of a major natural gas pipeline green-lit under the bipartisan debt ceiling package passed last month.

The deb ceiling bill — the so-called Fiscal Responsibility Act which suspended the limit on federal debt through early 2025 — included a provision automatically approving any outstanding federal environmental permits for the 303-mile Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) running from West Virginia to Virginia. However, on Monday evening, the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals issued a stay blocking MVP construction from proceeding.

‘This was a piece of legislation that was passed in a bipartisan, bicameral fashion and signed into law by the president of the United States,’ Rep. John Joyce, R-Pa., told Fox News Digital in an interview Tuesday. ‘When, on June 3, the Fiscal Responsibility Act became law, it stated the Fourth Circuit was no longer able to rule on these issues.’

‘This is an activist court,’ Joyce added. ‘It’s a court that stood in the way of this construction too many times. So, the Mountain Valley pipeline obtained all the necessary state, all the necessary federal permits before starting construction way back in 2018, where the cost was estimated to be at $3 billion.’

In addition to guaranteeing permits for the MVP project, the Fiscal Responsibility Act included language from legislation Joyce previously authored which transfers the jurisdiction for judicial review from the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

The legislation states the D.C. Circuit Court ‘shall have original and exclusive jurisdiction over any claim alleging the invalidity of’ the provision approving MVP. 

‘It was legislation that I wrote that stripped the 4th Circuit’s jurisdiction in this project,’ Joyce continued. ‘Yesterday, even though specifically spelled out, the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled to halt the Mountain Valley Pipeline.’

‘It’s going to slow the whole process down again,’ he said. ‘That seems to be really one of the agendas that the 4th Circuit has so adamantly pursued: ‘Let’s just slow this process down.’ But again, they’re not allowing individuals who need these energy supplies, the energy supplies that are under the feet of my constituents, they’re not allowing the energy independence that America so desperately needs.’

In addition, Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., who played a key role ensuring MVP approval was included in the Fiscal Responsibility Act, also criticized the ruling as ‘unlawful.’

‘The law passed by Congress and signed by the President is clear — the 4th Circuit no longer has jurisdiction over Mountain Valley Pipeline’s construction permits,’ Manchin said. ‘This new order halting construction is unlawful, and regardless of your position on the Mountain Valley Pipeline, it should alarm every American when a court ignores the law.’

And West Virginia Republicans Sen. Shelley Moore Capito and Rep. Carol Miller also blasted the ruling.

‘Language we included in Sec. 324 of the Fiscal Responsibility Act was crystal clear: fed agencies were to issue remaining permits, the construction of the Mountain Valley Pipeline can proceed w/out further delay, & this critical energy project can finally get up & running,’ Capito tweeted. ‘This latest effort by the activist Fourth Circuit Court flies in the face of the law that was passed by a bipartisan Congress and signed by President Biden.’

‘Because the Fiscal Responsibility Act was signed into law, the radical 4th circuit court no longer has jurisdiction over the Mountain Valley Pipeline. These activist judges are blatantly disregarding the law and stopping American energy production,’ Miller added in a tweet. ‘I urge all parties involved with the construction of #MVP to ignore the 4th circuit and continue as scheduled. This ruling will not stand.’

According to Equitrans Midstream, the pipeline’s developer, MVP will transport about 2 billion cubic feet per day of natural gas from West Virginia to consumers in the Mid- and South Atlantic. The pipeline is projected to generate $40 million in new tax revenue for West Virginia, $10 million in new tax revenue for Virginia and up to $250 million in royalties for West Virginia landowners.

A gun-rights advocacy group issued a ‘travel advisory’ for Massachusetts after a Democrat lawmaker filed a bill that would put more restrictions on firearms.

The National Association for Gun Rights issued the advisory on Tuesday and said the law would be among the most restrictive in the U.S.

‘The National Association for Gun Rights has issued a Travel Advisory for gun owners to and within Massachusetts in response to the State Legislature’s 140-page bill, House Docket 4420. HD 4420 is a comprehensive gun control bill that would ostensibly ban more guns than any current law in the United States,’ the organization said in a press release.

According to the Boston Globe, the bill would do the following:

Require receivers and barrels of a gun to be registered and have serial numbers.Further expand Massachusett’s ‘red flag law’ and include school administrators, medical professionals and employers to be on the list of individuals who can request an emergency protective order against gun owners who might present a risk of harming themselves or others.Close loopholes that open the door for people to modify a legal gun into an illegal automatic weapon.For 18- to 21-year-olds, the bill would remove shotguns or semiautomatic rifles from the new long-gun permit.Prohibit guns in polling places, government buildings, schools and private property without permission from an owner.Penalties for failing to report lost or stolen guns would be increased.Allow people to surrender illegal guns anonymously without facing prosecution under an updated firearm surrender program.People seeking to obtain a license to own a gun would be required to complete a live firearm training and complete a written exam.State police, instead of local police, would be tasked with the oversight of gun dealers.

Dudley Brown, president of the National Association for Gun Rights, said in a statement, ‘This is probably the biggest and worst package of gun control regulation I have ever seen.’

‘A ban on almost all guns, registration of every gun and magazine in the state (old and new) and a de facto ban on firearms carry are in the bill. Massachusetts just secured [the] top position as the most hostile state in the union to gun owners,’ Brown wrote. ‘Your gun rights and your freedom are at serious risk in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. If you live there you might want to pack your bags and if you are thinking of traveling there, you need to reconsider.’

The bill’s author, Democrat Rep. Michael Day, told FOX Affiliate Boston 25, ‘We’re not trying to go after or criminalize proper license [holders], people who can responsibly carry a firearm.’

‘This is really intending to get at those that are evading our code of laws through the advancement of technology and criminal behavior,’ Day said.

Fox News Digital reached out to Day for comment.