As she was cutting up Donald Trump during a national security speech last week, was Hillary Clinton channeling ... John Kasich?

As she was cutting up Donald Trump during a national security speech last week, was Hillary Clinton channeling ... John Kasich?

One point from her critique of Trump�s proposal to ban Muslim immigrants was the same argument Kasich made several times: We would be alienating some of our best intelligence sources.

And the email follow-up to her San Diego address was entitled �Clinton Contrasts Two Paths Forward For America.� As former Kasich campaign embed Kailani Koenig of NBC pointed out, Kasich himself used the �two paths� description for a New York speech when he sharply contrasted his approach with Trump�s back in April.

DeWine forceful against bathroom advisory

Is Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine still trying to mend fences with conservatives as he gears up for a likely 2018 gubernatorial campaign?

The day he publicized a warning letter to the Obama administration about its advisory on use of bathrooms for transgender students, DeWine called in for a short interview with Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, a leading social conservative group in Washington.

�Really what it is, is blackmail: �You don�t do what we tell you to do in regard to locker rooms and restrooms, we�re going to withhold money from you,� � DeWine told Perkins about �guidance� from the administration to local school districts.

�When the federal government tries to take basic rights away like that it is a very, very scary thing. I would hope that all Ohioans would be offended by this and would speak out,� said DeWine, criticized by some for stances deemed too moderate.

If the Obama administration tries to force Ohio school districts to allow students to use the bathroom, shower or locker room of their gender identity, �We would have a very strong case,� DeWine assured Perkins. �This is just the most absurd thing that even this administration has ever done.�

Records denials block agency�s oversight

Those of us who fight public records battles were struck by how the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction started messing with the Correctional Institution Inspection Committee, which has the statutory duty of, well, inspecting correctional institutions.

After years of few problems, Reporters Alan Johnson and Randy Ludlow discovered that last fall the state agency started denying even routine records requests with language similar to that used when state officials want to keep the general public in the dark.

For instance, the department denied use-of-force records until the investigation was complete � a dubious rationale to hide information from the public, much less the group charged with investigating such things.

Corrections officials wouldn�t even convert information kept by fiscal year into calendar year. That probably conforms with the letter of the law, but really?

A request for �cost-savings initiatives� was deemed too vague to answer. The same response came when the committee asked for any action plans to fix problems pointed out in earlier inspection reports.

Still, one of the all-time take-the-cake responses came when the panel asked for any positive points that prison officials wanted in the report.

They declined, saying the request also was too �vague, ambiguous.�

drowland@dispatch.com

@darrelldrowland