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More ECOT Shutdown Fallout, "Right To Work" Comes Up Again, And Cracking Down On Human Trafficking

The closure of the Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow has sparked a crisis in Ohio where thousands of students are looking for new schools. And ECOT and the Ohio Department of Education are still trading jabs over who’s to blame and what happens next for the school. Statehouse correspondent Andy Chow reports.

There are now no Democrats in state-level statewide offices, with the appointment of Mary DeGenaro to the Ohio Supreme Court by Gov. John Kasich. Mike Gibbons, who at one point looked like the Republican Party’s leading candidate for US Senate filed his paperwork to run this week.

It’s been more than seven years since Ohio voters overwhelmingly repealed an anti-union law that limited the collective bargaining rights of public employees. Now two of the more conservative Republican lawmakers at the Statehouse want to put six different issues before voters, all toward making Ohio a so-called “right to work” state. Statehouse correspondent Jo Ingles has details.

It’s been called modern day slavery. Human trafficking is the third largest criminal activity in the world, and it’s a grave violation of human rights. And while it doesn’t claim a huge number of victims, but the ones it does are horribly abused and exploited – through forced prostitution and sex work or other kinds of labor, such as in factories, salons, restaurants and farms, and in landscaping and domestic housework. And often victims have escaped only to face penalties for crimes they were compelled to commit. Reps. Tavia Galonski (D-Akron) and Theresa Gavarone (R-Bowling Green) talk about the efforts they're working on to crack down on human trafficking in Ohio and to help survivors.