Welcome back to your business newsletter. Here’s hoping you had a great long weekend. My long weekends are always too short, for some reason.

Earlier this year, pollster Gallup found that “significantly more Americans name immigration as the most important problem facing the U.S. (28%)” than it did a month previously.

I don’t know if Gallup connected with anyone from Springfield, but immigration has been at or near the top of that community’s civic agenda for some time.

Immigration touches multiple dimensions of life, including business — more workers mean more output, but there are downsides. So it’s no surprise that people talk about it.

Immigration: Here’s where candidates Brown, Moreno, Harris and Trump stand

Reporter Lynn Hulsey recently examined where four major party candidates — the Republican and Democratic nominees for U.S. president, and the parties’ nominees for one of Ohio’s U.S. Senate seats — stand on immigration. A brief sampling:

Quote 1: “The open-border policies of this administration have allowed violent crime to skyrocket, an influx of illicit fentanyl, and lawless individuals who cross our border illegally to be rewarded,” said Reagan McCarthy, spokeswoman for Republican Senate nominee Bernie Moreno. “As a legal immigrant whose family came to America the right way, Bernie wholeheartedly supports legal immigration.”

Quote 2: Matt Keyes, spokesman for Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown’s campaign responded: “Bernie Moreno is lying about Sherrod’s record to distract from the fact that he opposed the strongest bipartisan border security bill in decades, which was endorsed by border patrol agents, and opposed the bill to protect Ohioans from fentanyl because he only looks out for himself.”

Read the story.

Also: ‘There’s a lot of hyperbole.’

Lowering of interest rates ‘too little, too late’ for commercial properties, one local CEO says

Interest rates will likely go down starting this month. Is this good news for the economy? That depends on whom you ask.

Thanks, no thanks: “(Fed) chairman (Jerome) Powell lowering interest rates now is symbolic of the government being behind the power curve to the real economy that every American deals with daily,” said Chris Riegel, chief executive of Stratacache and a owner of downtown Dayton properties.

The benefit is baked in: “It is a big deal, although to be clear, the markets have been anticipating this for a year,” said Jeff Haymond, a Cedarville University economics professor. “So that’s not necessarily going to have as big an effect as you might think.”

Great news, actually: “It’s really interest rates across the board — mortgages, corporate bonds, municipals bonds, U.S. treasurys — all of those go down, even before the Fed eases,” said Henry Willmore, a University of Dayton lecturer in economics.

Read the story.

LINK Dayton bike-share program to suspend operations next month

Need a ride? I don’t know if you remember the Life Enrichment Center’s yellow bike-sharing program. That was back in 2011, so admittedly, it’s been a minute.

Well, sure: All 125 of those bikes disappeared in the first month.

The LINK bikeshare program was different, relying less on the honor system and more on credit cards.

Unfortunately, the program is coming to an end, reporters Cornelius Frolik and Sydney Dawes tell us.

Read the story.

Ohio workers wages grew, caught up with national median in 2023

If you’re a business reporter in Ohio, the annual State of Working Ohio report by Policy Matters Ohio feels pretty traditional by now.

Growing wages: Workers in Ohio finally came within pennies of the national average on median wages in 2023, and their pay outpaced inflation in the state, that report found this year.

Why we should care: This is the first time since 2001 that Ohio wages came that close to the national median, the report found.

Read the story.

Oakwood zeroing in on next city manager

The next city manager in Oakwood will likely be a familiar name.

Who: Oakwood Law Director Robert Jacques, Springdale Finance Director Katie Smiddy, Centerville Public Works Director Patrick Turnbull and former Vandalia City Manager Daniel Wendt remain in the running from an original 23 applicants.

When: Council plans to meet Wednesday in executive session with the goal of determining its next steps in picking a successor for Nobert Klopsch.

Read the story.

Contact me: Thank you once again for making this newsletter possible. (We would look pretty silly without you.) You can reach me at tom.gnau@coxinc.com. I’m also on X and a couple of places on Facebook, here and (with my colleagues) here.

Quick hits

Humidity and court volleyball don’t mix: David Jablonski explains.

We had a ‘cool spell’ in July? Yeah, I missed that, somehow.

The Dayton Greek Festival: It is so back.

How far could former Reds manager Lou Pinella throw a base? Someone asked Hal McCoy.

The National Aviation Hall of Fame: is looking different these days.