Today From The Ohio Newsroom

American Lung Association gives Ohio an ‘F’ grade for tobacco cessation programming

Tobacco use is the leading cause of preventable death in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

‘Keep Ya Head Up’: Honest conversations about gun violence in Ohio

Gun violence is a leading cause of death for young people in Ohio.

The problem is especially severe in Cuyahoga County, where the gun homicide rate is more than twice the state average.

Repurposed wheelchairs and hospital beds are bridging Ohio’s rural health care gaps

Ed Newman enjoys his weekly drives, darting from hospitals in eastern Washington County to nursing homes on Ohio’s southern border. He sees it as a scavenger hunt: each stop is a chance to find a discarded piece of medical equipment.

“It’s too important not to salvage that,” Newman said.

How Dayton became the funk capital of the world

In the mid-1960s, James Brown was creating a new style of music — funk.

Instead of turning elaborate melodies, he turned his focus to syncopated rhythms with a strong emphasis on the down beat.

“Like James Brown says, funk is on the one,” said David Webb.

Scientists want to monitor microplastics in the Great Lakes. Here’s why it matters

Research suggests the concentration of microplastics in Lake Erie rivals the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.

The particles are present in all five Great Lakes, but there’s no coordinated, region-wide effort to monitor the pollutant.

Ohio's forgotten Black cemeteries hold rich history of the state's pioneers

For decades, students at Upper Arlington High School walked across their campus, unaware of the history buried beneath their very own feet. The land—now home to classrooms and athletic fields—once held the graves of Black Ohioans who built businesses and communities despite the denial of basic civil rights.

‘Going with God,’ conservative Amish sue Ohio over lights law

In the 1960s, the Swartzentrubers — one of the most conservative subgroups of Old Order Amish — worked out a deal with the Ohio government: instead of marking their vehicles with an orange slow moving vehicle emblem and bright battery-operated blinkers, they would instead stick reflective tape on their buggies and use kerosene lanterns as headlights.

That agreement stood for decades.

Sick of winter? One Ohio city’s solution is to burn it to the ground

At the end of February, Port Clinton residents hold a bonfire like no other in the state: they set a 30-foot snowman on fire.

It’s the Ohio city’s way of saying goodbye to the bitter cold of winter, and a nod to the famed “Burning Man" festival, hosted in the blistering heat of Nevada’s Black Rock Desert.

How Ohio mothers secured their children’s education – with two years of marching

Virginia Harewood was eight years old in 1954 when the Supreme Court Case Brown v. Board of Education supposedly ended segregation in schools. But despite that, her elementary school in the southwestern city of Hillsboro was still divided.

Haitian-Americans in Springfield tell their own stories in new series

The Haitians in the Heartland series is a result of six months of close collaboration between the Eichelberger Center for Community Voices at WYSO with a group of Springfield residents from Haiti, who had been involved in an Internet radio station in Springfield called New Diaspora Live.