Karen Kasler
Bureau ChiefContact Karen at 614-578-6375 or at kkasler@statehousenews.org.
Karen Kasler grew up in Lancaster, attended Otterbein College in Westerville, and found her professional break at WCBE-FM in Columbus. Karen was selected as a Fellow in the Kiplinger Master's Degree Program for Mid-Career Journalists at Ohio State University in 1994. She worked at WTVN-AM and WBNS-TV, both in Columbus, then for eight years was the afternoon drive anchor and assignment editor for WTAM-AM, Cleveland.
Since returning to Columbus in 2004, Karen has covered major elections and the controversies surrounding them. She served as moderator for the Ohio Debate Commission's Republican US Senate debate in 2022, its Supreme Court debate in 2020 and its gubernatorial debate in 2018. She was also a moderator or panelist for US Senate debates for the last four Senatorial elections and for a gubernatorial debate in 2006. She's also led debates and discussions on statewide issues such as drug sentencing, marijuana legalization, redistricting and the collective bargaining law known as Senate Bill 5. Each year she anchors the Bureau's live coverage of the Governor's State of the State, and has led coverage of the inaugurations of the last three governors.
She's produced features for NPR and "Marketplace", and has been interviewed by NPR, the BBC, CBS, NBC and stations around the country. She's a regular panelist on ideastream's "The Sound of Ideas" and a frequent guest on WOSU-TV’s “Columbus on the Record”, WOSU-FM's "All Sides with Ann Fisher" and WVXU's "Cincinnati Edition".
Karen has been honored by the Cleveland Press Club, the Society of Professional Journalists and the Association of Capitol Editors and Reporters, and holds a National Headliner Award. She's won several awards from the Ohio AP, and is a four-time winner of the AP's Best Broadcast Writing award. She's a three-time Emmy nominee for "The State of Ohio". She's a past president of the Ohio Associated Press and has served on the Board of Directors for the Central Ohio Society of Professional Journalists. Karen is also a former adjunct professor at Capital University in Columbus.
Karen, her husband and their son Jack live on Columbus' northeast side.
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The federal funds released by the Ohio Controlling Board will be used by the state's food banks to buy dairy products, eggs and chicken - the prices of which have been soaring. -
New bill aims to prevent breeders in Ohio from doing painful surgeries on puppies without anesthesiaThe bill would prevent high-volume puppy breeders from removing dewclaws or docking tails without giving puppies anesthesia or pain medication.
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Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) is hoping for a vote by the end of the year on the bill, which is supported by all Democrats but only a handful of Republicans in the Senate.
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The ruling reverses an original decision Terpsehore "Tore" Maras had challenged that dismissed signatures from her petitions, which previously made her ineligible for the November ballot.
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Ohio's state auditor announced a special audit of the State Teachers Retirement System after months of outrage from retired teachers.
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The announcement of the sudden departure of FirstEnergy CEO Steve Strah came the day before his departure in an SEC filing.
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It's the third time in the last ten years that the rating system for Ohio schools and buildings has changed, with each change said to be a way of making the system of grading schools easier to understand.
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The 19-member board will consider a resolution from one of its members that would reject new federal guidelines ordering investigation of claims of anti-LGBTQ bias or risk losing funding for food programs.
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The law, which also dramatically lowers the training requirements and puts money into the state's school safety center, was opposed by education and law enforcement groups.
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All 88 county boards of elections in Ohio have gotten small numbers of requests for public records from 2020, but they're asking for huge amounts of information and they're identical.
