Today From The Ohio Newsroom

Scioto County was the ‘epicenter’ of the opioid epidemic. Some think it deserves more settlement

As Portsmouth resident Jay Hash drives through town, he’s quick to show off the city’s history and charm, from its famous floodwall murals to historic breweries.

Between the attractions, he points out the abundance of treatment facilities — an indicator of how the city has transformed since the opioid epidemic first hit.

This Ohio library book was returned nearly a century after its due date

Librarians at the Westwood and Price Hill branches of the Cincinnati & Hamilton County Public Library got quite a surprise late last year. A copy of "Wild West" by Bertrand W. Sinclair was returned after 98 years.

More Ohio deer are dying from Chronic Wasting Disease. Here’s why that matters

Ohio deer are testing positive for Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD), a neurological disease that is always fatal to animals like deer, moose and elk. It has infected more than 20 whitetail deer in five Ohio counties this past hunting season.

Meet the "bounty hunter" filing lawsuits in the name of government transparency

Brian Ames has spent the last decade filing upwards of 160 lawsuits against local governments.

“I go find public bodies that are not following the Open Meetings Act, and I bring cases against them that require them to comply with the law,” he explained.

One project is changing Ohioans perspective on prison — through conversation

The courtyard at Pickaway Correctional Institution hummed with activity on a sunny Wednesday in March. The prison’s residents stretched their legs under the warm sun and greeted this week’s visitors with the same ease of neighbors passing on the street.

Ohio child care workers share pandemic lessons in Library of Congress collection

Five years ago this month, Ohio issued an emergency stay-at-home order in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Schools shut down. Child care providers stopped operating. Libraries paused their programming.

An Ohio conservation program makes protecting the state’s forests more profitable

In a swampy wooded area in Athens County, David Funk moves swiftly past sycamores coming-of-age, and the frogs belting below them, to a small stand of walnut trees.

With the snip of his pruning shears, he clears off a low-hanging branch. It may seem destructive, but it’s a part of Funk’s forest management plan.

An Ohio public school district is out of money. Others worry their funds will run dry too

Public school districts across Ohio say they’re running out of money. From the largest city districts to the smallest ones in urban and rural communities, schools are preparing to make cuts.

How tariffs could impact Ohio’s soybean growers

As foreign countries threaten and impose retaliatory tariffs on U.S. products, some Ohio soybean farmers are growing concerned.

Soybeans are the state’s top-produced crop: Ohio farmers planted upwards of 5 million acres of the legume last year, compared to about 3.5 million acres of corn.

From coal to community forest: how one Ohio organization is reclaiming former mine land

The woods behind Weston Lombard’s farm in Athens County is expansive.

“If you look around, we're just surrounded by oak trees and hickory trees and walnuts,” he said.

Birds dance through tangles of branches that reach toward the sky. A tiny snail curls up on the ground.

But it wasn’t always this way.