Today From The Ohio Newsroom

Marcela Funes, 3, wears an earpiece allowing her to listen to an interpreter during a presentation at Akron’s Findley Community Learning Center on Tuesday, Dec. 12, 2023. To the right, Marcela's mother, Sheila Soto, holds her infant nephew Ian Hernandez. Sitting to the left are Sheila's son Yago Soto, 5, and the son a of family friend, Erick Hernandez, 10.

How Ohio schools are adapting to serve more English learners

The lunchroom at Akron’s Findley Community Learning Center is filled with the sound of different languages being spoken: Spanish, Swahili, Nepalese.

Cardell Belfoure interviewed Fred Ward, director of Building Freedom Ohio, about his activism and helped him write poetry about his reentry experience.

For these Ohioans, poetry offers a post-prison path

When Cardell Belfoure was imprisoned at Grafton Correctional Institute in northeast Ohio, poetry was his refuge. Now that he has reentered society, he’s using his literary talent to center the stories of other formerly incarcerated people.

More Ohio cities are implementing legislation to protect tenants' rights.

A third of Ohioans are renters. Small cities are taking action to protect them

Lima city councilwoman Carla Thompson said many renters in her city are struggling against unsafe housing conditions. With an older housing stock and a growing rental population, she said tenants are vulnerable.

“I have seen multiple roach and rat infestations that no human should be living through,” Thompson said.

Atlee Kaufman walks from his home to his business next door, Bentwood Solutions.

Amish and other Plain people help grow businesses in Holmes County

Atlee Kaufman opened Bentwood Solutions four decades ago. The Millersburg business’s original product was bending buggy shafts, which connect the carriages of Amish people like Kaufman to their horses. A few years later, he expanded to table and chair parts at a local Amish furniture maker’s request. He was so successful he sold off the buggy shaft division.

Since 2005, the U.S. has lost about a third of its newspapers. Ohio has lost an even greater share.

Ohio lost dozens of local newspapers last year. What comes next?

Ohio lost 30 newspapers between 2022 and 2023.

The Cincinnati Museum Center's concert organ console sits in the rotunda of the 94-year-old train station.

Ohio has eleven historic world-class organs – tonight’s a chance to hear one

Behind the sweeping walls of Cincinnati’s Union Terminal, something beautiful has been holding its breath.

Since the late 1980s, the Art Deco train station housing the Cincinnati Museum Center has been home to an enormous pipe organ built by the renowned E.M. Skinner company. The first concert in the station drew more than a thousand people in the 1990s.

People living in tents on Superior in Cleveland face a brutal winter without permanent housing. Unhoused people will be counted across the state in the annual Point in Time Count.

Homelessness in Ohio surged last year. Advocates don’t see an end in sight

Ohio housing advocates are predicting a greater number of unhoused people in this year’s annual survey of homelessness.

Since 2013, the Trumbull Neighborhood Partnership has worked to reduce the number of vacant properties in the city of Warren, renovating some and demolishing others, turning them instead into green spaces.

How one northeast Ohio city is tackling urban blight

A decade ago, there were more than 1,500 vacant homes in the northeast Ohio city of Warren.

The area’s population fell rapidly following the industrial decline of the 1980s, leaving behind a trail of empty buildings.

But one local organization is working to address those vacancies.

The Center for Community Solutions, a nonprofit think tank, released fact sheets on the status of women in each of Ohio's 88 counties. It found that, although women are making progress in the state, they still earn less than men and are not equally represented in public office.

The paradox of womanhood in Ohio

Women in Ohio hold most of the state’s college degrees, but they’re also more likely than men to live in poverty and less likely to hold public office.

Preston Ficeti, a sophomore at McDonald High School in Trumbull County, holds a drone in the palm of his hand. He learned how to fly it last year by participating in a drone racing league.

A drone program in northeast Ohio is taking off

Ohio has a strong history of flying. From the Wright brothers to John Glenn, it's been home to aviators for more than a century.

But these days, a newer technology is taking off in one Ohio county: drones.

The federal government recently allocated $650,000 to the Trumbull County Educational Service Center with the explicit purpose of teaching kids about the technology.