Student Union | Photo by Monica Brutto | The Wright State Guardian

From local happenings to national topics and global events, here is the news worth knowing from the week of July 1, 2024. 

Local

Campaign to get new political mapmaking system in Ohio reaches 700,000 signatures 

On Monday, July 1, backers of a proposal to change Ohio’s troubled political mapmaking system delivered hundreds of thousands of signatures in hopes of getting it on the statewide ballot this fall, according to the Associated Press. 

The proposed amendment aims to replace the current Ohio Redistricting Commission, made up of three statewide officeholders and four state lawmakers, with an independent body selected directly by citizens. The new panel’s members would be diversified by party affiliation and geography.

National 

Kansas' highest court rejects two anti-abortion laws

On Friday, July 5,  Kansas’ highest court struck down state laws regulating abortion providers more strictly than other health care professionals and a ban on a common second-trimester procedure, according to the Associated Press. 

“We stand by our conclusion that section 1 of the Kansas Constitution Bill of Rights protects a fundamental right to personal autonomy, which includes a pregnant person’s right to terminate a pregnancy,” Justice Eric Rosen wrote for the majority in overturning the ban on a certain type of dilation and evacuation. 

Global 

Hurricane Beryl makes landfall in Mexico

On Friday, July 5, Hurricane Beryl made its way to the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico as a category 2 storm, according to the Associated Press. The storm has left a trail of destruction that killed at least 11 people in the Caribbean. 

Beryl spread destruction in Jamaica, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and Barbados earlier in the week after becoming the earliest storm to develop into a Category 5 hurricane in the Atlantic.