Top of Mind

Columbus Watch Co.

Long before Columbus was seemingly becoming the world’s newest tech hub, we were making pocket watches.

In 1876, German-born watchmaker Dietrich Gruen started what would become the Columbus Watch Company. Gruen had patented a “safety pinion,” a tiny piece of engineering designed to protect a watch’s movement if its mainspring broke. He brought the idea to Columbus and initially set up shop downtown, finishing imported Swiss watch movements and putting them into American-made cases.

Business went pretty well.

By 1882, the company had expanded into a new factory near Thurman Avenue in what is now German Village, where it began manufacturing watch movements here in Columbus. By the 1890s, the operation employed roughly 400 people, making it one of the largest manufacturers on the city’s South Side.

And these weren't novelty watches with “Columbus” slapped on the face.

The company became known for increasingly sophisticated movements, including smaller 16-size watches at a time when chunkier 18-size pocket watches were common. Later models carried names like the Time King, Columbus King, North Star, Champion and Railway King, with some movements containing as many as 25 jewels.

These watches are not completely lost to history either. Columbus Watch Company pocket watches still pop up on eBay today, meaning you can own a tiny piece of Columbus manufacturing history for considerably less than a German Village house.

The good times, unfortunately, did not keep ticking.

The company ran into financial trouble after the Panic of 1893 and reorganized in 1894. Gruen left and eventually established the famous Gruen Watch Company in Cincinnati with his sons. Then, in 1903, the Columbus operation was sold to the Studebaker family. Its machinery, inventory and many of its approximately 150 remaining employees were moved to Indiana, where they helped establish the South Bend Watch Company.

But here's our favorite part.

Part of the old Columbus factory still exists.

More than 120 years after the company left town, portions of the factory at 79 E. Thurman Avenue are still standing.

So the next time you're walking around German Village, remember that Columbus once had hundreds of people sitting nearby building tiny mechanical machines by hand.

And some of them are still keeping time today.

Scarlet Letter Trivia

Before lawmakers settled on “Columbus,” what other name was considered for Ohio’s new capital?

A. Franklin City
B. Ohio City
C. Scioto
D. Central City

Project: SCARLET

Ohio State and Google are getting a little more serious.

On September 29, the university announced a major new partnership with Google Cloud designed to expand AI research, give students access to new tools and create a physical Google presence inside Ohio State’s Innovation District.

Ohio State says it is one of the largest partnerships between Google Public Sector and any U.S. university.

That includes a new on-campus AI space where Ohio State researchers will work alongside Google Cloud engineers and have access to technology developed by Google DeepMind.

And the amount of computing power involved here is not small.

Ohio State researchers will gain access to more than 200 AI models, AI-optimized supercomputing systems and DeepMind tools including AlphaFold, Google Earth Engine and AlphaEvolve. The university says those tools will be used across fields including biomedical engineering, earth sciences and even the humanities.

Ohio State will also be among an initial group of major research universities getting enterprise access to Google's AI research agents through Gemini Enterprise. Those tools can help researchers generate and test scientific hypotheses, essentially attempting to shrink the amount of time between having an idea and figuring out whether that idea actually works.

Then there is the part with the coolest name.

Project SCARLET.

Ohio State Athletics and the university's Human Performance Collaborative are working with Google to build an AI-powered human performance platform for Buckeye athletes.

The system will use predictive models, computer vision and advanced analytics to study training, recovery and athlete health across all 36 Ohio State sports.

So yes, somewhere inside this enormous AI partnership is technology designed to help the Buckeyes figure out whether a linebacker needs another recovery day.

Frankly, that feels like an appropriate use of artificial intelligence in Ohio.

Students outside the athletic department will see plenty of changes too.

Select students, faculty and staff will get access to tools including Gemini Enterprise, and Ohio State plans to launch a 24/7 AI-powered virtual assistant that can help students with academic advising, registrar services and career planning.

There will also be a new student research ambassador program, which Ohio State describes as the first of its kind for Google Public Sector. Students selected for the program will get to work directly alongside Google teams and gain hands-on experience with the technology.

And the partnership goes beyond research and classrooms. Google will also work with Ohio State on cybersecurity automation, campus infrastructure and other university operations.

Zoom out a little and this starts to fit into a much bigger Columbus story.

Central Ohio has spent the past few years collecting some very large technology investments, from semiconductor manufacturing to data centers, defense technology and now one of Google's biggest university partnerships.

Apparently Columbus is still taking that whole “Silicon Heartland” thing pretty seriously.

And if Project SCARLET works as planned, Ohio State won't just be teaching students how to use AI.

It wants to help figure out what AI gets used for next.

The Bison Boom

There is currently something of a bison baby boom happening in southeastern Ohio.

At The Wilds, the nearly 10,000-acre conservation center east of Columbus, staff recently counted around 30 baby bison, with expectations that the number could eventually double as the breeding season continues. One group alone now has roughly 100 bison roaming together across the property. AOL.com

Which means there is a hillside in Ohio right now that looks considerably more like South Dakota than Muskingum County.

The boom is intentional.

This year, The Wilds introduced new bulls descended from Yellowstone bison, bringing an important new genetic line into its herd. Yellowstone's animals are especially significant because they descend from one of the few wild bison populations that survived the species' collapse in the late 1800s.

At one point, tens of millions of bison roamed North America. By the end of the 19th century, hunting and westward expansion had reduced that population to only a tiny fraction of its former size.

The Wilds is now trying to help build some of it back.

And these bison don't necessarily stay in Ohio.

In 2024, 74 bison born at The Wilds were transferred to the Cheyenne River Sioux Reservation in South Dakota. Then in October 2025, another 62 yearlings made the same trip, helping strengthen the Tribe's herd and introduce additional genetic diversity. Columbus Zoo

Another Wilds herd is currently on loan to the Appalachian Hills Wildlife Area in southeastern Ohio. Ten adults arrived there this spring, and by September they had already produced six calves. The Post

So apparently Ohio is now exporting bison.

The setting makes the whole thing even stranger.

The Wilds sits on land that was once heavily surface-mined for coal. Today, that reclaimed landscape supports rhinos, giraffes, cheetahs and herds of bison wandering across thousands of acres of rolling grassland. The Wilds

It is difficult to appreciate the scale until you actually see it. The Wilds' animal management director recently described looking across a herd of roughly 100 animals and realizing that even that is only a tiny glimpse of what North America's prairies once looked like. AOL.com

And if this year's projected baby boom plays out, that glimpse is about to get considerably bigger.

Not bad for an old coal mine in Ohio.

Answer: B. Ohio City

In 1812, lawmakers considered calling the new capital Ohio City before ultimately choosing Columbus.

Top of Mind

THE CREW WINS!

Lionel Messi came to Columbus, scored the sort of impossible goal people pay hundreds of dollars to witness and still went home without the points.

The Columbus Crew defeated Inter Miami 2-1 Sunday night before a sellout crowd at ScottsMiracle-Gro Field. The victory arrived late enough that some fans may already have been considering the traffic outside the stadium.

Josef Martínez opened the scoring with a penalty in the 28th minute. Miami’s Yannick Bright pulled Martínez down in front of the goal during a corner kick, although play continued until officials reviewed the incident. Martínez converted the penalty for his 131st MLS goal and his first in nine matches with Columbus.

Five minutes later, Messi reminded everyone why half the stadium appeared to be wearing his shirt.

Standing near the right side of the field at an angle that suggested a cross rather than a shot, Messi curled a free kick over the defense and inside the far upper corner. Crew goalkeeper Patrick Schulte could do little more than watch it arrive. The goal was Messi’s league-leading 21st of the season.

For a while, that seemed destined to be the moment everyone remembered. Messi had appeared in Columbus, delivered the required piece of magic and restored order to the traveling collection of international stars wearing Miami pink.

The Crew had other plans—and considerably more stoppage time than anyone expected.

Miami’s Santiago Morales received two yellow cards within three minutes late in the match, reducing the visitors to 10 players. Then, in the eighth minute of second-half stoppage time, Brais Méndez drove a shot toward goal. Miami goalkeeper Rocco Ríos Novo failed to secure it, and substitute Jamal Thiaré buried the rebound.

Thiaré had entered the match only 15 minutes earlier. That was apparently sufficient time to study the situation and conclude that Columbus would prefer to win.

The numbers suggest the result was not a fluke. Columbus outshot Miami 14-5, placed six attempts on target and earned nine corner kicks to Miami’s one. Miami held slightly more possession, but the Crew created most of the evening’s opportunities.

The victory was Columbus’ first in league play against Miami since August 2022. More importantly, it kept the Crew within four points of the Eastern Conference’s final playoff position with seven regular-season matches remaining.

Miami arrived with Messi, Luis Suárez, Casemiro and Rodrigo De Paul. Columbus countered with pressure, persistence and one very alert substitute.

Messi supplied the masterpiece. The Crew kept the result.

It was a useful reminder that soccer is played by 11 people, lasts at least 90 minutes and occasionally continues until Miami loses.

Scarlet Letter Trivia

The design of Columbus’ Palace Theatre was inspired by which European landmark?

A. Buckingham Palace
B. The Palace of Versailles
C. The Roman Colosseum
D. Neuschwanstein Castle

OHIO CONSIDERS A HOLIDAY AT THE PUMP

Ohio lawmakers are interrupting their election-season recess to consider giving drivers a 90-day vacation from the state gas tax.

The proposal would temporarily eliminate Ohio’s tax of 38.5 cents per gallon of gasoline and 47 cents per gallon of diesel. Legislative leaders plan to return to Columbus for a Sept. 30 vote, with the suspension potentially beginning in October and continuing through the holiday season.

The appeal is obvious. Regular gasoline recently averaged approximately $4.50 per gallon in Ohio, substantially higher than it was a year ago. Nearly every product eventually spends time inside a truck, meaning higher fuel prices reach consumers even if they never personally approach a gas pump.

A driver filling a 15-gallon tank would save about $5.78 if the entire tax reduction reached the retail price. Over several months, the savings would become meaningful for commuters and families operating multiple vehicles.

The phrase doing most of the work in that sentence is “if the entire tax reduction reached the retail price.” Gas prices respond to oil markets, regional supplies, transportation costs and retailer decisions. Eliminating a tax does not guarantee that every station will reduce its posted price by precisely 38.5 cents.

The political support is nevertheless broad. Both major candidates for governor favor some version of a gas-tax holiday. Democrat Amy Acton called for emergency relief before Republican Vivek Ramaswamy announced a more detailed 90-day proposal with legislative leaders.

The disagreement begins when someone asks who pays for it.

Ohio uses fuel-tax revenue to maintain highways and bridges while distributing portions to counties, cities, villages and townships. House Speaker Matt Huffman estimates that a 90-day suspension would eliminate between $640 million and $700 million in revenue.

Ramaswamy has suggested replacing the money with a combination of Ohio Department of Transportation funds, general state revenue and, if necessary, money from the rainy-day fund. He has also discussed recovering money lost to Medicaid fraud, although questions remain about how much could be recovered and whether the federal government would allow it to be spent on roads.

Gov. Mike DeWine agrees that drivers need relief. He is considerably less enthusiastic about the financing plan.

DeWine called the use of ODOT money a “very, very bad idea,” arguing that the agency does not have hundreds of millions of dollars sitting around without a purpose. Its available money has already been assigned to construction, maintenance and safety projects requested by communities across Ohio.

He estimates that as much as $750 million could be removed from transportation funding and warns that the next governor would inherit the resulting crisis.

Supporters insist the state can cover the temporary loss without stopping road projects. Opponents worry that a three-month discount will create years of delayed repairs—and that local governments will discover the missing money only after the ceremonial bill signing is complete.

The debate therefore presents Ohioans with two familiar complaints: Gas costs too much, and the roads are terrible.

The state may soon make progress on one by risking the other.

FREE TREES, SOME ASSEMBLY REQUIRED

Franklin County residents can add a tree to their property this fall without adding anything to their credit-card balance.

Green Columbus is giving away 3,000 young native trees raised by volunteers at the nonprofit’s Linden nursery. The annual program is intended to expand the region’s tree canopy and create cooler, healthier neighborhoods.

The remaining giveaways are scheduled for Oct. 4 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. in Franklinton and Oct. 11 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. in Linden. Any Franklin County resident can participate, although reserving a tree online before arriving is recommended.

The trees are between four and six feet tall, meaning recipients receive both a free plant and an immediate transportation puzzle. Compact-car owners may wish to bring a friend with a truck—or a friend who owes them a significant favor.

The giveaway serves a larger purpose. Trees provide shade, absorb stormwater, reduce erosion, filter pollutants and create habitat for birds and other wildlife. A mature canopy can also lower neighborhood temperatures during the hottest months, when streets, roofs and parking lots retain heat.

Those benefits are not distributed evenly throughout Columbus. Older and wealthier neighborhoods often have more mature trees, while neighborhoods with fewer trees experience hotter summer temperatures and higher energy costs. Planting trees cannot correct every environmental inequality, but it is one of the simplest improvements a homeowner can make.

There is, of course, a delay between planting a young tree and reclining beneath a magnificent canopy. Trees operate on a schedule generally incompatible with modern expectations of immediate delivery.

That patience is part of their value. Planting one is an investment made for a future resident, a future family or a future version of the person holding the shovel.

The program also offers Columbus residents the increasingly rare opportunity to obtain something valuable for free without entering a promotional code, sitting through a sales presentation or agreeing to a subscription that becomes impossible to cancel.

The tree costs nothing. Digging the hole remains between you, the soil and your lower back.

MAC, CHEESE AND A GOOD CAUSE

The Columbus Mac & Cheese Festival returns to The Yard at Easton from 4–7:30 p.m. Friday, Sept. 25.

Now in its ninth year, the festival brings together local restaurants competing for the coveted title of Best Mac & Cheese in Columbus—a distinction carrying considerable prestige and, presumably, considerable lactose.

The event attracts more than 2,000 people annually and has raised over $591,000 for the Adolescent and Young Adult Cancer Program at the OSUCCC–James. Guests can enjoy local mac and cheese, live music and the satisfaction of supporting young cancer patients and their families.

Get tickets for the Columbus Mac & Cheese Festival.

Answer: B — The Palace of Versailles.

The Palace brought a taste of French royal architecture to downtown Columbus in 1926. Unlike Versailles, it offers nearby parking—although neither experience can be described as inexpensive.

Top of Mind

THE GULF OF CLEVELAND

Cleveland City Council has renamed part of Lake Erie the “Gulf of Cleveland,” proving once again that geography is merely politics with water in it.

The new gulf extends across the city’s shoreline and two miles into the lake—or into the gulf, as municipal employees must now presumably call it. The emergency resolution declares the name permanent, directs city departments to use it in official documents and asks Apple and Google to update their maps.

It took fifteen minutes and cost nothing, which already makes it one of the more efficient government projects in Cleveland history.

Councilman Kris Harsh introduced the measure after President Trump renamed the Gulf of Mexico the “Gulf of America” and Lake Ontario “Lake America.” Harsh’s resolution borrows the same logic: If powerful men can rename ancient bodies of water by decree, why shouldn’t Cleveland get wet?

Critics complained that Lake Erie is not a gulf. They are correct, but they have misunderstood the rules. Under the new American geography, a body of water is whatever the last politician with a Sharpie says it is.

Harsh insists the resolution is satire. This became necessary to explain because satire now looks exactly like government policy. He crossed “Lake Erie” off a map, wrote in the new name and waited to see whether the world’s technology companies would obey. The joke is that they might.

Still, Cleveland should embrace its promotion. A gulf sounds warmer than a lake. It suggests beaches, palm trees and drinks served inside hollowed-out fruit. “Gulf-effect snow” also has a pleasantly tropical quality, right up until it buries your car.

For now, Lake Erie remains Lake Erie everywhere beyond Cleveland’s paperwork and Councilman Harsh’s Sharpie. But the Gulf of Cleveland has already accurately charted the distance between absurdity and authority.

These days, it is about two miles wide.

Scarlet Letter Trivia

Lake Erie is the shallowest of the Great Lakes. What is its average depth?

A. 32 feet
B. 62 feet
C. 162 feet
D. 262 feet

BARCELONA TURNS 30

Barcelona Restaurant & Bar is celebrating 30 years in German Village with special dinners, tastings and receptions throughout October and November.

The Spanish- and Mediterranean-inspired restaurant opened in 1996 and was purchased by current owner Scott Heimlich in 2002. Over three decades, Barcelona estimates it has welcomed 1.5 million guests and opened roughly 6,000 bottles of wine each year.

Its home at 259 and 263 E. Whittier St. has an even longer history. The two buildings have served as a saloon, recreation center, pharmacy, grocery store, and neighborhood gathering place. Barcelona has preserved reminders of that past, including exposed brick, an original tin ceiling, and a historic oak bar.

Some things haven’t changed: the Barcelona Paella and Pastel de Chocolate have remained on the menu since opening day. The paella is now the restaurant’s bestselling dish—further evidence that a good recipe may be the secret to surviving three decades in the restaurant business.

OHIO’S CRAFT-BEER BOOM LOSES ITS HEAD

For more than a decade, Ohio treated an empty warehouse, a chalkboard menu and six aggressively named IPAs as a complete business plan.

For a while, it worked.

The number of craft breweries operating nationwide nearly doubled from 4,803 in 2015 to a peak of 9,796 in 2024. Ohio became one of the centers of the boom, filling former factories, garages and storefronts with taprooms—and giving every neighborhood somewhere to order a flight from a bartender with extensive forearm tattoos.

The market has now begun requesting additional details.

The national brewery count fell to 9,578 in 2025, its first significant contraction in decades. Only 300 breweries opened while 481 closed. Craft-beer production declined 4%, and six out of every 10 breweries produced less beer than the year before.

Ohio is feeling the correction. Brewery closings exceeded openings in the state for the first time in 2025. Central Ohio has lost Granville Brewing, Walking Distance Brewing in Marysville, Trek Brewing in Newark and several BrewDog taprooms. Nocterra recently closed its locations in Powell and at Scioto Audubon Metro Park.

It isn’t simply that Ohioans have finally encountered every possible combination of hops.

Americans are drinking less. Gallup reports that just 54% of adults now say they drink alcohol, matching a record low. Younger adults have led the decline, while beer competes with cocktails, seltzers, THC beverages and an expanding selection of drinks designed to resemble alcohol without producing any of its regrettable decisions.

Costs have also climbed. Brewers face expensive ingredients, cans, equipment and labor. Small Ohio breweries say the state’s restrictive distributor agreements make adapting even harder, prompting an effort to revise the law through Senate Bill 23.

The keg is not empty. Ohio still has more than 400 craft breweries, produces nearly 1.3 million barrels annually, and ranks fourth nationally in craft-beer production. Columbus-based Garage Beer has grown into one of the country’s largest craft brands.

But the easy-growth years are over. Making good beer is no longer enough when good beer is everywhere. The survivors will need strong brands, sensible expansion plans, and reasons for customers to return after photographing the mural.

Ohio’s craft-beer revolution succeeded beyond anyone’s expectations. Its problem is that everybody joined it.

MAC, CHEESE AND A GOOD CAUSE

The Columbus Mac & Cheese Festival returns to The Yard at Easton from 4–7:30 p.m. Friday, Sept. 25.

Now in its ninth year, the festival brings together local restaurants competing for the coveted title of Best Mac & Cheese in Columbus—a distinction carrying considerable prestige and, presumably, considerable lactose.

The event attracts more than 2,000 people annually and has raised over $591,000 for the Adolescent and Young Adult Cancer Program at the OSUCCC–James. Guests can enjoy local mac and cheese, live music and the satisfaction of supporting young cancer patients and their families.

Get tickets for the Columbus Mac & Cheese Festival.

Answer: B — 62 feet.

Despite covering 9,910 square miles, Lake Erie contains less water than any other Great Lake. Its shallow western basin averages only 24 feet deep, and water remains in the lake for approximately 2.6 years—the shortest retention time in the Great Lakes system.

Apparently, becoming the Gulf of Cleveland did not earn it a deep end.

Top of Mind

Columbus Is Quietly Winning the Jobs Race

For all the talk about whether Columbus is about to become a major American city, the employment numbers are starting to suggest we may already be living through the part people will eventually point back to.

From March 2025 to March 2026, the Columbus metro added nearly 12,000 jobs, an increase of about 1.1%.

That may not sound explosive until you compare it with the rest of the country.

National employment grew just 0.1% over that same period, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Across Ohio, employment actually fell 0.2%. Franklin County still managed to grow employment by 0.6%, while much of the state went the other direction.

Then there is Licking County.

The county immediately east of Franklin County, and home to much of Central Ohio's ongoing industrial development, posted 3.6% job growth between March 2025 and March 2026.

That wasn't just good for Ohio.

It was the highest employment growth rate among all 376 of the nation's largest counties measured by the BLS.

Licking County reached about 77,000 jobs, with its largest gains coming from trade, transportation and utilities.

For comparison, Monterey County, California came in second at 3.4%.

Central Ohio has spent the last several years collecting gigantic economic-development announcements like Pokémon cards. Intel, Honda and LG, data centers, logistics operations, advanced manufacturing projects and all the suppliers, contractors and businesses that follow them.

The important part now is that some of that promised economic activity is beginning to show up in actual employment numbers.

And Columbus isn't growing in isolation. The increasingly important story is the larger region stretching from Franklin County into Delaware and Licking counties.

Franklin County remains Ohio's largest employment center with nearly 785,000 jobs, but some of the fastest percentage growth is happening around it.

Which creates a pretty interesting situation.

Ohio as a whole can lose jobs while Central Ohio adds them. The national job market can crawl while Columbus keeps moving.

There are still plenty of questions about infrastructure, housing and whether the region can comfortably absorb all of this growth.

Funny enough, that brings us directly to Worthington.

Scarlet Letter Trivia

What was Columbus’ first public park?
A. Schiller Park
B. Goodale Park
C. Franklin Park
D. Whetstone Park

Worthington Would Like More Housing. Just Maybe Not That Housing.

Central Ohio has spent years talking about its housing shortage.

Then somebody proposes 246 homes and everybody remembers that housing has to physically go somewhere.

The latest example is unfolding in Worthington, where Elford Development wants to redevelop about 20.4 acres at 445 E. Granville Road, part of the former Harding Hospital and current Boundless campus.

The proposal calls for 246 residential units, mostly apartments spread across two- and three-story buildings, plus two single-family lots.

The apartment mix would be roughly 60% one-bedroom, 30% two-bedroom and 10% three-bedroom units. The development would also include an 11-foot-wide multi-use path through the property. Vehicle access would come from East Granville Road, with no normal access onto Indianola Avenue.

This was not exactly slipped through city government at 4:59 on a Friday.

Worthington's Municipal Planning Commission considered the proposal across several meetings beginning in January. It ultimately recommended approval 4-1 in June, and Worthington City Council approved the rezoning in July.

But some nearby residents, particularly in Colonial Hills, argue that the project is still too dense and could worsen traffic and change the character of the surrounding neighborhood.

A group called Democracy Before Developers is now trying to force a referendum on the rezoning.

And that is where this otherwise pretty normal suburban development fight gets much more interesting.

Ohio recently changed the rules.

The state's latest budget increased the number of signatures required for many local referendum petitions from 10% to 35% of the voters who participated in the previous gubernatorial election.

Worthington does not currently have its own charter language establishing a lower requirement, meaning residents challenging the development are staring at a dramatically higher bar than they would have faced before the change.

Residents have already pushed a separate Worthington charter amendment concerning referendum signature requirements onto the November 3 ballot.

So one 20-acre development has now become a housing debate, traffic debate, zoning debate and voting-rights debate simultaneously.

Which feels appropriately Central Ohio in 2026.

The region needs more housing because it keeps adding people and jobs. Developers respond by proposing more housing. Existing residents then have completely legitimate questions about traffic, density and neighborhood impact.

There isn't a neat villain in that equation.

But there is a larger reality Worthington, Columbus and nearly every suburb around them will keep running into:

Growth is much easier to support in theory than it is when the bulldozers show up down the street.

This 148-Year-Old Jail Might Become a Speakeasy

Meanwhile in Delaware, someone looked at an old jail full of iron-barred cells and thought:

You know what this needs? Cocktails.

The Historic Jail and Sheriff's Residence at 20 W. Central Avenue has been sold to Westwood Collective principal Andy Warnock, a Delaware native who plans to give the building another life while preserving its historic features.

And this is not some little holding cell behind an old courthouse.

The 8,500-square-foot building was constructed in 1878, operated as a jail until 1988, and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1990.

Architect David Gibbs designed the building primarily in the Italianate style, with Gothic Revival and Second Empire details.

It also contains 18 original jail cells, 16 built for men and two for women.

But the strangest part of the building may be how the jail itself operated.

It was built during an era of prison reform associated with Ohio Gov. Rutherford B. Hayes, who happened to be born and raised in Delaware.

The sheriff and his family actually lived inside the complex.

The sheriff's wife served as the jail's "Matron," preparing meals and helping care for prisoners.

So imagine your spouse saying they got a new job and the company housing comes with 18 jail cells.

Westwood plans to convert the former residential portion into eight private offices, along with a kitchenette, conference room and lounge.

The cells themselves will come later.

Ideas being considered include an art gallery, maker space or, gloriously, a Prohibition-era speakeasy inside the former jail.

The building has already had a surprisingly strange retirement.

The Delaware County Historical Society acquired it in 2021, operated tours and exhibits there, hosted paranormal investigations and even turned it into a wedding venue.

On Halloween 2025, nine couples got married inside the old jail, with courthouse employees dressing in costumes and decorating the cells.

Now it may become offices and a bar.

Which is arguably the ideal fate for an old Central Ohio government building.

After 110 years of locking people in, it might finally specialize in convincing people to stay voluntarily.

Trivia Answer D. Answer: B. Goodale Park. Dr. Lincoln Goodale donated the land to Columbus in 1851, making it the city’s first park. He was also Columbus’ first physician.

Top of Mind

COLUMBUS SHUTS DOWN ITS FLOCK CAMERAS

Columbus spent most of the summer trying to convince residents that its Flock camera network could be controlled.

Then one of its own officers allegedly searched the same license plate more than 270 times.

Now all 65 city-controlled Flock cameras are being covered with black bags.

Mayor Andrew Ginther ordered Columbus Police to immediately suspend use of the automated license plate readers after an investigation found Officer Melvin Tellis had repeatedly searched one vehicle between November 2023 and December 2024. Police say the searches do not currently appear to have been connected to a legitimate investigation.

Tellis has been relieved of duty while the investigation continues.

For anyone who has been following this newsletter, this is now chapter three of a story that has gotten progressively harder for the city to defend.

Earlier this summer, Columbus audited nearly 19.6 million Flock searches dating back to 2023 and identified as many as 15,577 searches that could have been immigration-related. Most came from outside agencies, including federal law enforcement and departments participating in ICE's 287(g) program.

That created an obvious problem for a city that has prohibited using city resources for civil immigration enforcement since 2017.

That does not mean Columbus is about to build 119,000 apartments. Zoning does not build anything. Developers, financing, demand, infrastructure and approximately 47 meetings eventually do that.

What it means is Columbus would legally allow dramatically more housing to be built on land where the current code makes that difficult or impossible.

The city started this process in 2024, when the first phase of Zone In changed rules along many of Columbus' major commercial corridors. That included allowing taller and denser buildings in certain areas and removing requirements that officials argued were making housing more difficult and expensive to build.

Phase 2 goes much bigger geographically.

Mayor Andrew Ginther called zoning an "invisible force" shaping where homes get built, where businesses invest and how neighborhoods evolve. That is a pretty good description of why something this boring on paper matters so much in real life.

Columbus is growing quickly, but land is not appearing alongside the new residents. The choice is increasingly between building more densely in existing parts of the city or pushing development farther outward into Central Ohio.

And this still is not the part of Zone In that will generate the biggest neighborhood fights.

Columbus responded by shutting off nationwide sharing. Then statewide sharing. Mayor Ginther proposed cutting data retention from 30 days to seven, requiring permission before outside agencies could access Columbus data, adding regular independent audits and canceling plans for 11 more cameras.

The argument was basically that Flock was powerful, but Columbus could build enough guardrails around it to make the system safe.

Then those guardrails apparently failed to catch one of the most concerning examples of potential misuse yet.

The suspicious searches were reportedly discovered after journalists analyzed Flock records, not through the city's own audit.

That seems to be what finally changed the conversation.

Ginther, who had defended keeping the cameras just days earlier, said the allegations had “shaken my trust.” The city's 65 cameras were suspended, then physically covered so they could no longer collect vehicle data.

The cameras are not technically gone yet. Columbus has a two-year, $228,000 contract with Flock that expires in December. But even before this latest investigation, seven of the nine members of Columbus City Council were reportedly leaning toward ending it.

There is still a public-safety argument for keeping the technology.

Columbus Police says Flock assisted investigations in roughly 60% of the city's homicides last year. The system has helped officers locate stolen cars, suspects and missing people by allowing investigators to trace where vehicles have appeared around the city.

That effectiveness is also exactly what makes the privacy question so difficult.

A network capable of helping police reconstruct where a murder suspect traveled can also reconstruct where almost anyone traveled if someone with access decides to search for them.

For months, Columbus has been debating whether that power could be responsibly controlled.

For now, the city appears to have its answer sitting along Columbus roadsides inside 65 black plastic bags.

Scarlet Letter Trivia

Ohio technically wasn’t formally admitted to the Union until what year?

A) 1803
B) 1812
C) 1865
D) 1953

SHADOWBOX IS GOING FULL SPOOKY SEASON

Shadowbox Live is getting an early start on Halloween this year, and honestly, we respect the commitment.

This summer and fall, the Brewery District theater is rolling out two very different shows that both feel perfectly built for spooky season.

First up is Screamers, a nightmare-fueled mix of sketch comedy and live music featuring nine original comedy sketches and nine songs pulled from artists including The Doors, Livingston, Sweet, Jonathan Coulton and Badflower.

The show leans into everything strange, creepy and ridiculous about Halloween while still keeping the high-energy rock-and-comedy formula Shadowbox has built its name around.

Screamers runs through Nov. 14, giving you plenty of time to turn it into a fall night out.

Then there’s Speak of the Devil, opening Sept. 10 and running through Nov. 15. The 90-minute production is a full tribute to Ozzy Osbourne and Black Sabbath, with 20 songs including Crazy Train, Paranoid, No More Tears and Iron Man. Racksquared Spring Street, which is located downtown. Expect heavy metal, dance, theatrical production, and enough dark energy to make it feel especially appropriate once October rolls around.

And if you haven’t been to Shadowbox before, it is a little different from your standard theater experience. The performers are not just on stage. They are part of the whole operation, helping create the atmosphere, serving food and drinks, and turning the night into something that feels more like a full experience than simply sitting down for a show.

Shadowbox also offers its Art for All program on select Thursday performances, allowing guests to choose an admission price that fits their budget, starting at $20.

If your fall calendar could use a little less pumpkin patch and a little more rock, comedy, and controlled chaos, Shadowbox Live has two very good excuses to spend a night in the Brewery District.

Tickets HERE:

LES WEXNER RETURNS TO OHIO STATE

Les Wexner returned to an Ohio State Wexner Medical Center board meeting on Sept. 1 for the first time in more than a year.

Six months earlier, he had spent nearly six hours answering questions under congressional subpoena about his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein.

Less than two weeks before the meeting, Wexner announced he was stepping down as chairman of the medical center board.

And when he finally returned?

Ohio State gave him a standing ovation.

Wexner had not attended a board meeting since May 2025. He missed the first two meetings of 2026 and had attended only one meeting in all of 2025, despite serving as chairman.

When he addressed the room, he apologized for missing meetings, but then offered a defense that is hard to ignore coming from the person leading the board.

“For me, the least productive time, and this is 40 years of history with Ohio State, is in board meetings.”

He also told members:

“Even if I’m not at meetings, my head goes with me everywhere I am.”

Ohio State leadership did not use his return to publicly distance the university from him.

Quite the opposite.

Incoming board chairman Robert Schottenstein praised Wexner’s decades of involvement with Ohio State and told the room:

“There is no better Buckeye.”

Wexner then received a standing ovation.

That applause came while questions surrounding Wexner’s relationship with Jeffrey Epstein are once again very much alive.

Earlier this year, the House Oversight Committee subpoenaed Wexner and questioned him for hours about the relationship, including Epstein’s involvement in his finances, property and personal affairs.

Wexner has denied knowing about or participating in Epstein’s crimes and has not been charged with any crime connected to Epstein.

But Epstein was not some distant acquaintance.

He managed major portions of Wexner’s financial life, held extraordinarily broad power of attorney over his affairs and lived in a Manhattan townhouse previously owned by Wexner. Their relationship has been examined for years because of just how much access and authority Epstein was given.

That scrutiny has also followed Wexner back to Ohio State.

Students, faculty and others have called for his name to be removed from university buildings, including the medical center that still carries it.

So when WOSU caught Wexner leaving the meeting and asked what he thought about those calls, he did not offer a defense of his legacy or explain why his name should remain.

He said:

“I don’t think about it.”

Then he got into his vehicle and left.

Wexner is technically stepping down as chairman, but he is not disappearing from Ohio State. He will remain connected to the medical center as chair emeritus while Robert Schottenstein takes over the board.

And that is what makes this story harder to brush aside as a simple leadership transition.

One of the most powerful men in Columbus spent more than a year largely absent from the board he chaired. He was then subpoenaed by Congress and questioned for hours about Jeffrey Epstein. He returned to the institution bearing his name while people inside and outside Ohio State continue asking whether that name should still be there.

Inside the meeting room, the response was not distance.

It was applause.

“There is no better Buckeye.”

Standing ovation.

And outside the room, when asked about people who want his name removed:

“I don’t think about it.”

Trivia Answer D. Ohio had operated as a state since 1803, but Congress discovered during the 150th anniversary that the formal admission resolution had never actually been completed, so it was fixed retroactively in 1953.

Top of Mind

COLUMBUS IS REWRITING THE RULES UNDER 40% OF THE CITY

Most people will never read a zoning code.

Unfortunately, zoning codes have been reading us for decades.

They decide where apartments can go, how tall buildings can be, where businesses can open and, in a city expecting hundreds of thousands of new residents, whether there is actually somewhere for all those people to live.

Columbus just proposed changing those rules across more than 40% of the city's land area.

This is Phase 2 of Zone In Columbus, the city's enormous rewrite of a zoning code largely built for a much smaller version of Columbus. The new proposal creates nine zoning districts covering additional commercial corridors, industrial areas, warehouses, hospitals, universities and major employment centers like Polaris and Tuttle.

But the number that really matters is housing.

City officials estimate the land included in this phase could accommodate around 13,000 new homes over the next decade under today's zoning.

Under the proposed zoning?

Approximately 119,000.

That does not mean Columbus is about to build 119,000 apartments. Zoning does not build anything. Developers, financing, demand, infrastructure and approximately 47 meetings eventually do that.

What it means is Columbus would legally allow dramatically more housing to be built on land where the current code makes that difficult or impossible.

The city started this process in 2024, when the first phase of Zone In changed rules along many of Columbus' major commercial corridors. That included allowing taller and denser buildings in certain areas and removing requirements that officials argued were making housing more difficult and expensive to build.

Phase 2 goes much bigger geographically.

Mayor Andrew Ginther called zoning an "invisible force" shaping where homes get built, where businesses invest and how neighborhoods evolve. That is a pretty good description of why something this boring on paper matters so much in real life.

Columbus is growing quickly, but land is not appearing alongside the new residents. The choice is increasingly between building more densely in existing parts of the city or pushing development farther outward into Central Ohio.

And this still is not the part of Zone In that will generate the biggest neighborhood fights.

Traditional single-family neighborhoods are largely being saved for a future phase, when Columbus is expected to tackle questions like accessory dwelling units and whether more kinds of housing should be permitted inside residential neighborhoods.

So if Phase 2 changes what can happen on 40% of Columbus, consider it the warm-up.

For decades, Columbus built outward.

Now the city is preparing to build upward, inward, and on a whole lot of land where the old rules basically said no.

The skyline gets the attention.

The zoning code decides whether it ever gets built.

Scarlet Letter Trivia

In 1905, Columbus hosted what is considered the first race of its kind in the United States?

A) A 24-hour automobile endurance race
B) A nighttime motorcycle race
C) A coast-to-coast airplane race
D) A 500-mile stock car race

SOUTHERN OHIO MAY BE GETTING A $500 BILLION COMPUTER

Ohio's transition from cornfields to server farms has officially reached a scale where the numbers start sounding fake.

A massive artificial intelligence data-center campus is being developed on federal land near Piketon in Pike County, at the site of the former Portsmouth uranium-enrichment complex.

The companies involved are not exactly small.

SB Energy, owned by SoftBank, is developing it. OpenAI is expected to lease capacity there. Nvidia will provide the computing hardware and has agreed to invest $1.5 billion in SB Energy, while also providing enormous financial guarantees supporting the project.

Current plans could eventually provide OpenAI with as much as 8 gigawatts of computing capacity. Earlier development plans contemplated as much as 10 gigawatts.

For perspective, one gigawatt is one billion watts.

Eight of them is less "server room" and more "build an energy system and attach computers to it."

Estimates for a complete buildout have climbed as high as $500 billion, depending on how much of the campus is ultimately developed and what future chips, power infrastructure, construction and equipment cost.

The first 800-megawatt phase is expected to begin operating in 2028.

And then there are the jobs.

Reporting on the current proposal estimates roughly 35,000 construction jobs during development and around 2,500 permanent positions once operations ramp up. That would land in Pike County, an Appalachian Ohio community that has spent decades dealing with the economic and environmental legacy of the uranium facility that once dominated the area.

That history makes the location particularly interesting.

Beginning in the 1950s, the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant enriched uranium for America's nuclear weapons program, Navy submarines and eventually commercial nuclear power. The federal government is now cleaning up the decommissioned site.

So a piece of Ohio land once central to the nuclear age could become central to the artificial-intelligence age.

There is also a small matter of powering the thing.

SB Energy's plans call for billions of dollars in new power infrastructure, including large amounts of natural-gas generation. That has already created concerns about emissions, water use, housing pressure and whether nearby communities will see enough of the economic upside to justify hosting one of the largest computing projects ever attempted.

Supporters see something very different: thousands of jobs and a once-in-a-generation investment in a part of Ohio that rarely lands projects with this kind of money attached.

Either way, the scale is difficult to ignore.

We've spent the last few years watching Intel, Amazon, Google, Microsoft and others turn Central Ohio into what politicians lovingly call the "Silicon Heartland."

Now southern Ohio may be getting a project so large that $100 billion no longer sounds particularly impressive.

For a state that spent the last century making steel, cars, tires and glass, the next great Ohio factory might make nothing you can actually hold.

Just intelligence. Lots and lots of very electricity-hungry intelligence.

OHIO WOULD LIKE TO REMOVE A YEAR FROM COLLEGE

The four-year college degree has been called a four-year degree for so long that nobody really bothered questioning the number.

Ohio is questioning the number.

State universities are exploring new bachelor's degrees requiring around 90 credit hours instead of the traditional 120, potentially allowing students to graduate in three years without cramming four years of classes into three.

Ohio State and the University of Cincinnati are among the schools examining how the model could work, with the state aiming to have at least two 90-credit bachelor's programs available by spring 2028.

The argument is fairly simple.

College costs a lot of money.

Average in-state tuition at Ohio universities is around $13,000 per year, before you add housing, food, books and all the other expenses attached to spending another year on campus.

Remove a year and, theoretically, you remove a sizable chunk of the bill while putting graduates into the workforce sooner.

The state's research suggests the model would make the most sense in fields like business and technology, where programs could focus more heavily on coursework directly tied to a degree or career.

But chopping 30 credits also means something has to disappear.

Critics worry shorter degrees could eliminate electives, humanities courses and other parts of college intended to provide a broader education. There are also practical questions about whether graduate programs will accept 90-credit degrees and whether those credits will transfer cleanly between universities.

And nobody is proposing that every degree suddenly become a three-year program. Engineering, medicine and other heavily regulated or specialized fields are much harder to squeeze.

Still, the idea represents a pretty major rethink of something Americans have treated as standard for generations.

For years, the conversation around college affordability has mostly focused on financial aid, scholarships, loan forgiveness and tuition.

Ohio is trying a different question:

What if college simply took less time?

Three years. Ninety credits. One fewer football season.

Depending on the price tag, some students may be willing to make that trade.

Trivia Answer A. 24-hour automobile endurance race

Top of Mind

COLUMBUS IS TAKING ANOTHER LOOK AT FLOCK

A few weeks ago, we broke down Columbus’ growing Flock camera network and the privacy concerns surrounding it.

Now City Council is asking many of the same questions.

Columbus police currently operate 65 Flock license plate readers, with 11 more planned. But the city’s cameras are only part of a much larger network. Hundreds of automated plate readers are scattered across Franklin County, collecting license plates, vehicle descriptions, locations and timestamps as cars pass by.

The argument for them has not changed much. Columbus police say Flock has become an important investigative tool, helping officers locate stolen vehicles, missing people and suspects in serious crimes. Police officials have said the technology assisted in roughly 60% of Columbus homicide investigations last year.

The concern is what happens after all that information enters the system.

An audit of roughly 19.6 million searches across the broader Flock network identified more than 15,000 searches potentially connected to immigration enforcement. While the audit did not show ICE directly logging into Columbus’ cameras, federal agencies had access to information shared through the wider network.

That revelation pushed Mayor Andrew Ginther to order CPD to stop sharing Columbus camera data statewide. Nationwide sharing had already been shut off earlier this summer.

Then came City Council.

At an August hearing lasting nearly six hours, dozens of residents testified about the technology, overwhelmingly asking the city to reconsider its relationship with Flock. Council members are now weighing everything from stricter rules and limits on data sharing to ending the contract altogether.

And there is a deadline.

Columbus’ two-year, $228,000 contract with Flock expires in December, meaning the city will soon have to make an actual decision instead of continuing the debate indefinitely.

That is really where this story has moved since we last covered it.

The question is no longer whether Flock cameras are watching Columbus. We already know they are.

Now the question is what Columbus plans to do about it.But Tuesday showed that straight-line winds approaching 100 mph can tear through a city with nearly the same destructive force.

There probably is not one person or agency to blame for everything that happened. Forecasting a rapidly developing storm is difficult, and warnings are issued with imperfect information in real time.

But after the amount of damage Columbus just experienced, it is fair to expect a serious review of what happened, how residents were warned and whether people fully understood just how dangerous Tuesday's storm had become.

The goal should not be finding someone to punish.

It should be making sure the next storm this powerful does not catch Columbus quite as off guard.

Scarlet Letter Trivia

What is Ohio’s official state fish?

A. Walleye

B. Perch

C. No State Fish

D. Smallmouth Bass

A PREHISTORIC GIANT IS COMING BACK TO THE SCIOTO

Alum Creek Marina Summer Series

There was a time when one of the strangest fish in North America swam right through the Scioto River.

The lake sturgeon has been around for at least 150 million years, meaning versions of this fish were cruising through ancient waterways while dinosaurs still walked the planet. Adults can grow six to seven feet long, weigh more than 200 pounds and, in rare cases, live past 100 years old.

And historically, they were here.

Records show lake sturgeon lived in the Scioto River system, including waters south of Columbus in Pickaway County, before disappearing from the river by the early 1900s. One historical review lists the species in the Scioto prior to 1916.

Their disappearance was part of a much bigger collapse.

For decades, the Scioto downstream from Columbus was hammered by sewage, industrial pollution, dams and habitat destruction. Researchers estimate that nearly 100 fish species disappeared from stretches of the river below Columbus during its worst years. Water-quality improvements beginning in the 1970s eventually helped the river make a remarkable recovery.

Now Ohio wants to bring one of its biggest missing residents back.

As part of a broader state restoration effort, young lake sturgeon are planned for release into the Scioto River, returning the species to a watershed where it has been absent for more than a century.

And these things are wonderfully weird.

Instead of normal fish scales, sturgeon have rows of hard, bony plates called scutes, giving them an almost armored appearance. Their tails look more like a shark's than a typical freshwater fish, and four whisker-like barbels hang beneath their snouts to help detect food along the river bottom. Their mouths actually extend outward like a small vacuum cleaner, sucking up insects, snails, crayfish, mussels and other bottom-dwelling food.

They are also in absolutely no rush to grow up.

Lake sturgeon may not reproduce until they are 10 to 30 years old, and females do not necessarily spawn every year. They can also travel long distances before returning to the same general river where they were born to reproduce.

That means restoring them to the Scioto is not a project measured in summers.

It could take decades.

Which makes the whole thing even cooler.

The Scioto flowing through Downtown today looks nothing like the river Columbus abused for much of the 20th century. Dams have been removed, habitat has been restored and water quality has improved enough that wildlife once pushed out of the system has a chance to return.

A six-foot, armored fish swimming past Columbus probably sounds a little ridiculous.

Historically, though, that would actually be the normal part.

We are the ones who made them disappear.

OHIO JUST ESCAPED THE DROUGHT MAP

This might be the least surprising drought update imaginable.

First, Central Ohio got hammered by storms strong enough to flip a car on I-71, knock out power to thousands and produce a tornado in Upper Arlington.

Then came the rain that flooded streets, neighborhoods and businesses across the region.

Now we have the official result:

Ohio is no longer in drought.

According to the latest U.S. Drought Monitor, not a single part of Ohio is classified as Moderate Drought or worse. That puts us among just a small handful of states completely outside official drought conditions.

Which feels like quite the plot twist considering where we were two years ago.

In 2024, Ohio experienced D4 Exceptional Drought for the first time since the U.S. Drought Monitor began tracking conditions in 2000. Streams shrank, crops struggled, lawns turned brown and trees started dropping their leaves before fall had even arrived.

Then this summer, drought conditions started creeping back into Ohio again.

Apparently the atmosphere took that personally.

Repeated rounds of storms have dumped inches of rain across the state, with some parts of Central and Southeast Ohio receiving 5 to 7 inches during a single stretch in August. The result has been a rapid erasing of the dry conditions that remained on the map.

And while Ohio has gone from drought to flooded intersections, much of America is still dry.

As of August 18, 42 states still had at least some Moderate Drought or worse, while more than half of the Lower 48 was experiencing drought conditions.

There is one technical catch. Parts of a state can still be labeled D0, “Abnormally Dry,” without officially being considered in drought. Actual drought begins at D1.

But after watching wind flip cars, tornadoes touch down, power lines fall and floodwater pour through Central Ohio over the last few weeks, nobody here was exactly waiting for the government map to confirm things had gotten wet.

Two years ago we were asking where the rain went.

This month we found it.

All of it.

Trivia Answer C. No State Fish

Top of Mind

Tuesday Had the Damage. Saturday Had the Warning.

After this week, there is a fair question hanging over Columbus:

How did one of the most damaging storms in decades move through the city without a tornado warning, while a less destructive storm days later triggered one?

Tuesday morning was brutal.

Trees came down across Central Ohio. Cars were flipped. Power lines were ripped apart. Tens of thousands of people lost electricity. Upper Arlington was hit especially hard, with the National Weather Service estimating straight-line winds of 90 to 100 mph.

Then came another piece of information: there actually was a tornado.

The National Weather Service later confirmed an EF1 tornado touched down in south Columbus, with estimated winds around 100 mph and a damage path stretching nearly two miles.

But there was no tornado warning for it.

That does not mean forecasters ignored the storm. A Destructive Severe Thunderstorm Warning was issued, including warnings for winds around 80 mph. Those alerts are serious and are designed to reach phones because winds at that level can cause major damage and injuries.

Still, when residents look around at entire blocks covered in fallen trees, damaged homes, crushed cars and neighborhoods that spent days without power, it is understandable to ask whether the warning matched the threat.

Then Saturday happened.

Radar showed rotation near Canal Winchester, a tornado warning was issued, sirens sounded and phones went off across parts of Franklin County. People were told, very clearly, to take shelter.

That storm did not produce anything close to Tuesday's widespread damage.

The difference comes down to how warnings work. Tornado warnings are based largely on radar-detected rotation or reliable reports of a tornado, not simply on how strong the wind is. Tuesday's tornado was small, fast-moving and apparently difficult to identify quickly enough on radar. Saturday's storm showed the kind of rotation meteorologists are trained to react to.

That explains what happened.

It does not necessarily make the outcome feel any better.

Tuesday exposed an uncomfortable gap between the way people understand weather warnings and the way storms actually behave. Most of us hear "severe thunderstorm" and think heavy rain, lightning and maybe a branch in the yard. We hear "tornado warning" and immediately head downstairs.

But Tuesday showed that straight-line winds approaching 100 mph can tear through a city with nearly the same destructive force.

There probably is not one person or agency to blame for everything that happened. Forecasting a rapidly developing storm is difficult, and warnings are issued with imperfect information in real time.

But after the amount of damage Columbus just experienced, it is fair to expect a serious review of what happened, how residents were warned and whether people fully understood just how dangerous Tuesday's storm had become.

The goal should not be finding someone to punish.

It should be making sure the next storm this powerful does not catch Columbus quite as off guard.

Scarlet Letter Trivia

What is the highest ever recorded wind speed in Ohio?

A. 139 mph

B. 237 mph

C. 317 mph

D. 293 mph

ALUM CREEK IS WAY BIGGER THAN YOU THINK

Alum Creek Marina Summer Series

About 25 minutes north of Columbus, Alum Creek Marina is turning its docks into one of the better live-music spots around Central Ohio.

The marina sits on the west side of Alum Creek and has about 240 slips, fuel, boat supplies and rentals, including pontoons, kayaks, canoes and paddleboards. Some of the pontoons can carry groups of up to 14 people, making this less “quiet afternoon on the lake” and more “someone definitely brought a speaker.”

The marina also got a major upgrade in 2022, adding new retail and rental space, food service, public restrooms and showers, plus outdoor gathering areas right on the water.

This summer, those gathering areas are hosting the free Alum Creek Marina Summer Series, with shows running from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m.

• Aug. 13: Drew Allan

• Aug. 14: The Usual Suspects

• Sept. 17: Tim Owings

So if you needed an excuse to head north, rent a boat, grab some food and catch live music on the water, Alum Creek has you covered.

Ohio Is the 42nd-Best State in America, Apparently

Ohio was just named the No. 1 state for business by CNBC.

So naturally, another national ranking has now placed us at No. 42 overall.

Welcome to the annual American tradition of publishing state rankings until every state has been declared both incredible and terrible at least once.

This one comes from U.S. News & World Report, which ranked all 50 states using 71 metrics across eight categories: health care, education, economy, infrastructure, opportunity, fiscal stability, crime and corrections, and natural environment.

And Ohio did not exactly crush it.

The state landed 42nd overall, putting us firmly in the bottom 10 nationally.

Which is a little jarring considering the headlines Ohio has been collecting lately.

We have major investments from Intel, Honda and Anduril. Central Ohio is exploding with data centers. Columbus keeps growing. CNBC looked at the business climate and recently crowned Ohio the best state in America for business.

U.S. News apparently looked at everything else and said, "Let's not get carried away."

That is the important distinction.

Ohio can be extremely attractive to companies while still struggling in the broader categories that shape everyday life. U.S. News is measuring things like educational outcomes, health care access, infrastructure, household opportunity and public safety alongside economic performance.

In other words, landing the factory is one thing.

Making sure the people living around it are healthy, educated, mobile and financially secure is another.

Meanwhile, Utah Is Apparently Perfect

At the other end of the list sits Utah, ranked No. 1 in America for the fourth straight year.

Utah did not actually finish first in any of the eight major categories.

Instead, it was just annoyingly good at nearly everything.

Utah ranked No. 2 in economy, No. 2 in fiscal stability, No. 4 in infrastructure and No. 6 in education, giving it enough strength across the board to take the overall crown.

Apparently the secret to becoming America's best state is having a booming economy, strong schools, solid roads and enough functioning government finances to avoid appearing in investigative news stories.

Wild concept.

Utah even ranked near the bottom in natural environment and still won, which feels especially unfair considering they have actual mountains.

Ohio has cornfields, Cedar Point and several very committed highway interchanges. We are doing our best.

So Is Ohio Great or Terrible?

Probably neither.

And that may be the real lesson from the endless supply of "Best States" lists.

CNBC heavily evaluates states from the perspective of businesses. U.S. News looks much more broadly at quality of life and government performance. Change the categories, change the weighting, change the winner.

Give us another week and someone will probably publish America's Best States for Gas Station Snacks, where Ohio will immediately return to the top five.

Still, finishing 42nd should not simply be shrugged off.

Ohio has clearly become better at attracting investment and major employers. The bigger question is whether that economic momentum is improving life across the entire state.

Because collecting billion-dollar projects looks great in a press release.

Eventually, the rankings that matter most are the ones people can actually feel.

Trivia Answer C. 317 mph in a hurricane that touched down in Xenia, Ohio, in 1974.

Top of Mind

A Tail Of Two Tuttles

At some point, “Tuttle” stopped sounding like a person and started sounding like a section of Columbus.

Tuttle Park. Tuttle Pool. Tuttle Recreation Center. Tuttle Park the neighborhood.

Then head northwest, and you get Tuttle Road, Tuttle Crossing Boulevard and, of course, The Mall at Tuttle Crossing.

You would be forgiven for assuming one wildly successful Tuttle family once owned half the city.

They did not.

In fact, Columbus appears to have two completely different Tuttle stories that somehow ended up sharing the same map.

TUTTLE NO. 1: THE SPORTSWRITER

The Tuttle behind Tuttle Park was George Clyde Tuttle, a Columbus newspaperman who arrived here in 1906 to work as a court reporter for the Ohio State Journal.

He had previously worked in sports journalism in Springfield and eventually found his way back to the sports desk in Columbus, where he became one of the city’s best-known sportswriters.

And Clyde Tuttle may have played a small but fascinating role in Ohio State football history.

In the late 1920s, Ohio State was reportedly trying to convince legendary Notre Dame coach Knute Rockne to come coach the Buckeyes.

The talks were supposed to remain secret.

Tuttle found out.

Tuttle published it.

Once the negotiations became public, the deal fell apart, and Rockne stayed at Notre Dame.

So there is a legitimate chance that Tuttle Park is named after the Columbus sportswriter who helped keep one of the most famous coaches in college football history from coming to Ohio State.

That is one way to get your name on a park.

Tuttle died in 1929, but Columbus clearly remembered him. Within a few years, city records were referring to the area as Clyde Tuttle Field, and the city continued acquiring land around it.

Today his name survives on the park, pool, recreation center and surrounding neighborhood.

Case closed.

Except there is still that whole other Tuttle.

TUTTLE NO. 2: SOME GUY WITH A FARM

Tuttle Crossing has nothing to do with Clyde.

An 1880 history of Franklin County describes an early settler named Alexander Bassett clearing land roughly a mile southwest of Dublin before selling it to a man identified only as “Mr. Tuttle.”

That location puts the property near the modern Dublin Road and Tuttle Road corridor.

Unfortunately, whoever wrote the history apparently decided “Mr. Tuttle” was enough information for people 146 years later trying to figure out why an entire part of Columbus is named after him.

What we do know is that Tuttle Road existed as a rural road long before malls, interstate exits and suburban development arrived.

As northwest Columbus grew, the old farm-road name came along for the ride.

Tuttle Road led to Tuttle Crossing Boulevard.

Then in 1997, The Mall at Tuttle Crossing opened and turned the surname of an obscure early landowner into something generations of Central Ohio teenagers would associate with food courts and Abercrombie.

The mall did not create Tuttle.

It inherited him.

And Tuttle is not alone.

Nearby Hayden Run traces its name back to another early settler, Joab Hayden.

Which means parts of northwest Columbus are basically still giving directions using the surnames of farmers who lived there roughly 200 years ago.

So there you have it.

The Tuttle near Ohio State was a beloved sportswriter who may have blown up Ohio State’s attempt to hire Knute Rockne.

The Tuttle near Dublin appears to have been an early landowner whose first name has managed to disappear while his last name ended up on a road, boulevard and mall.

Two Tuttles.

No apparent connection.

One very confusing city map.

And now you can never hear someone say “Tuttle” without asking which one.

Scarlet Letter Trivia

How many gallons of water does Ohio use each day?

A. 13 billion

B. 10 billion

C. 18 billion

D. 17 billion

ALUM CREEK IS WAY BIGGER THAN YOU THINK

About 25 minutes north of Columbus sits roughly 26.6 billion gallons of water.

That would be Alum Creek.

At its summer recreation level, the reservoir covers about 3,387 acres and holds around 81,700 acre-feet of water. That is enough to fill roughly 40,000 Olympic swimming pools.

And somehow most of us still think of it as just a lake up by Polaris.

Alum Creek State Park wraps another 4,630 acres of land around that water, giving Central Ohio one of its biggest outdoor recreation areas for boating, fishing, camping, hiking and swimming.

The scale gets even more impressive when you look at the infrastructure.

At maximum flood-control capacity, Alum Creek can hold nearly 44 billion gallons of water. The dam itself is about 93 feet tall and 10,200 feet long, and was completed in 1974. The lake was filled by summer 1976.

It also plays a real role in Central Ohio’s water system. Columbus has an allocation that allows withdrawals of up to 35 million gallons per day, with water able to be transferred toward Hoover Reservoir. Delaware County and Westerville also use the system.

Then there is the beach.

Alum Creek has a 3,000-foot beach, the largest inland beach in Ohio’s state park system. That is more than half a mile of sand sitting in Delaware County.

The lake gets deeper than you might expect too, reaching about 60 feet near the dam, with much of it sitting in the 20-to-40-foot range.

And then there is the marina.

THE MARINA IS BASICALLY ITS OWN DESTINATION

Alum Creek Marina sits on the west side of the lake on Hollenback Road and includes about 240 slips, fuel, courtesy docks, boat supplies and rentals.

It also bills itself as having Central Ohio’s largest boat-rental fleet, with pontoons, kayaks, canoes and paddleboards available. Some pontoons can carry groups of up to 14 people.

The marina got a major upgrade in 2022 with a new building that added retail and rental space, food service, public restrooms and showers, plus outdoor gathering areas right on the water.

And this summer, the dock is doubling as a stage.

The remaining Alum Creek Marina Summer Series performances are free and run from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m.:

• Aug. 13: Drew Allan, pop, rock, blues, country, soul and island vibes

• Aug. 14: The Usual Suspects, a 10-piece Columbus band playing rock, soul, Motown and blues

• Sept. 17: Tim Owings, an acoustic one-man-band set closing out the season

So yes, Central Ohio has a nearly 3,400-acre lake, tens of billions of gallons of water, the largest inland state-park beach in Ohio, a full-service marina and free live music on the dock.

Maybe Alum Creek deserves a little more credit than “that lake up by Polaris.”

THE OHIO STATE FAIR IS BIG BUSINESS, AND THE FAIRGROUNDS JUST GOT A MASSIVE OVERHAUL

The Ohio State Fair is one of those Columbus institutions that feels permanent.

Butter cow. Giant slide. Corn dogs. A million people wandering around in 90-degree heat.

But behind all of that is a pretty serious economic engine.

The most commonly cited economic-impact study puts the Ohio State Fair’s contribution to the state economy at about $68.5 million annually. In 2023, the fair drew a record 1,006,228 visitors over 12 days. Even in 2025, attendance was still nearly 970,000 people.

And once people get through the gate, they spend.

At the 2025 fair alone, roughly 350 vendors sold more than $8.3 million in concessions, while midway rides generated more than $3 million. The livestock Sale of Champions brought in another $498,000.

But the fair is only part of what happens there.

The Ohio Expo Center hosts nearly 200 events a year, drawing millions of visitors from Ohio, across the country and even internationally. That includes things like the All American Quarter Horse Congress, Equine Affaire, livestock shows, trade events and consumer expos.

And now the entire place is being rebuilt for that bigger role.

EXPO 2050

Ohio has poured major money into what it calls the Expo 2050 master plan, a multi-phase effort to modernize the State Fairgrounds and turn it into a stronger year-round destination.

The state approved about $196.35 million for the first major phase alone, on top of earlier funding already committed to the project.

The changes are much bigger than fresh paint and new bathrooms.

The project includes a new signature north entrance, permanent ticketing, a central Town Square, new underground infrastructure, expanded Wi-Fi and fiber, accessibility improvements and major renovations to existing buildings.

The biggest additions are two new centerpiece buildings:

The Ohio Agriculture Center, designed to highlight Ohio farming, food and agricultural industries.

And the Ohio Showcase Building, which adds flexible event space, exhibits, galleries and a new food hall. Together, the redevelopment is adding more than 100,000 square feet of flexible year-round event space.

The historic Dairy Products Building and Bricker Building were also renovated, while a new carousel building and gathering spaces were added throughout the grounds. Full completion of this major phase was scheduled for 2026.

And if you went to the fair this year, you could finally see what all that construction was for.

The new Showcase Building includes the Shaping Ohio museum, elevated views across the fairgrounds and an air-conditioned food hall filled with Ohio businesses. The Agriculture Center includes the Taste of Ohio Café, Ohio-made products and space focused on the state’s agricultural industry.

That is really the bigger story.

Ohio is not spending nearly $200 million just to make the fair nicer for two weeks every summer.

It is rebuilding a complex that already attracts millions of people through nearly 200 events every year, while giving the Ohio State Fair itself a much more modern home.

The butter cow is still there.

The building around it is just getting considerably more expensive.

Trivia Answer A. 13 billion

Top of Mind

COLUMBUS SENTENCES ITS NEW COURTHOUSE TO LIFE WITHOUT CONSTRUCTION

After years of planning, design work and public funding, Columbus has officially canceled its proposed Franklin County Municipal Court building.

The eight-story courthouse was supposed to rise at South High and East Mound streets, replacing an aging court complex that city officials had spent years describing as overcrowded and outdated. Construction was expected to begin this fall, with the new building opening around 2030.

Then the estimated cost reached $335 million.

When the project was first proposed in 2018, it was expected to cost approximately $200 million. Inflation, construction prices and the general experience of trying to build anything larger than a backyard shed pushed that number up by more than $135 million. Mayor Andrew Ginther now says the city will renovate the existing courthouse and neighboring James A. Karnes Building instead.

That renovation is expected to cost approximately $260 million, which would save the city at least $75 million. Ginther says the savings could support parks, sidewalks, recreation centers, public-safety equipment and other neighborhood projects.

On paper, that sounds sensible. Spending $260 million is, technically, cheaper than spending $335 million.

The messier part is everything Columbus did before reaching that conclusion.

Voters approved bond packages that included money for a new courthouse. The city allocated hundreds of millions of dollars, approved the building’s final design, filed demolition permits and began preparing the site. Crews had already started work around the Karnes Building before the city pulled the plug.

The Franklin County Municipal Court says it invested years of staff time and resources into planning the facility and was deeply disappointed by the decision. The court must now continue operating in the same complex officials previously argued was no longer adequate.

Renovation will not necessarily be faster, either. The new courthouse was expected to open in 2030. The renovated court spaces may not be completed in phases until 2034 or 2035.

Saving $75 million could absolutely be the responsible decision. But it is fair to ask why Columbus spent years developing a voter-approved project before fully confronting what it would cost.

The city did not simply reject a proposal. It designed the building, funded the plan, prepared the land and then looked across the street at the old courthouse and decided it still had a few good decades left in it.

Scarlet Letter Trivia

How much does a commercial building permit cost in Columbus?

A. $250 base fee covering the first 500 sq. ft., plus $3.00 per 10 sq. ft. after. Foundation-only permits are capped at $25,000.

B. $500 base fee covering the first 1,000 sq. ft., plus $4.50 per 10 sq. ft. after. Foundation-only permits are capped at $40,000.

C. $650 base fee covering the first 1,000 sq. ft., plus $6.00 per 10 sq. ft. after. Foundation-only permits use the same pricing and are capped at $50,000.

D. $1,000 base fee covering the first 2,000 sq. ft., plus $8.00 per 10 sq. ft. after. Foundation-only permits are capped at $75,000.

COLUMBUS STATE’S FREE-COLLEGE PLAN DROPS OUT EARLY

For roughly two weeks, Columbus State Community College had a plan to make tuition free for new high school graduates throughout Franklin County.

Then it did not.

In July, the college proposed a 10-year, 1.9-mill property-tax levy that would have generated approximately $95 million annually. The money would have eliminated tuition for new Franklin County high school graduates and reduced tuition for other county residents.

The idea was ambitious and easy to understand. Central Ohio needs nurses, manufacturing workers, technicians and other skilled employees. College remains financially out of reach for many families. Columbus State wanted to create a broad, affordable path between graduating high school and beginning a career.

The funding method was less charming.

The levy would have cost homeowners approximately $67 annually for every $100,000 in property value. For a home valued at Franklin County’s median of $288,000, that came to nearly $200 every year.

That is not an enormous amount compared with the cost of college, but it arrived while Franklin County homeowners were already staring at higher valuations and a growing collection of property-tax bills. Ohio lawmakers are also under pressure to reform the state’s property-tax system as residents continue raising concerns about affordability.

Columbus State’s Board of Trustees initially delayed its decision on whether to place the levy on the November ballot. Days later, the college ended the effort entirely. President David Harrison said the school remained committed to affordable, career-focused education but concluded that this was not the right moment to move forward.

The proposal’s collapse does not necessarily mean the idea was bad. It means free college became much harder to sell once the property-tax bill arrived.

The decision also leaves questions about the future of Columbus Promise, the existing program that provides free Columbus State tuition and additional support to graduates of Columbus City Schools. The program currently offers free tuition and a $500-per-semester scholarship for up to six semesters.

Columbus State managed to fit an entire election campaign into less than two weeks: announce free college, calculate the homeowner cost and decide everyone had probably heard enough.

The goal remains compelling. The challenge is finding a way to pay for it that does not begin with asking Franklin County homeowners to check their latest property valuation.

COLUMBUS STATE IS TURNING A PARKING LOT INTO SOMETHING STUDENTS CAN USE.

Not every Columbus State project disappeared this summer.

The college and YMCA of Central Ohio are moving ahead with plans for a new YMCA on the downtown campus. The approximately 50,000-square-foot facility is expected to include a gymnasium, fitness areas, wellness studios, an indoor track, aquatic facilities and outdoor recreation space.

There will be pickleball courts, naturally. No modern development may legally proceed without them.

But the most important feature is not the pool, gym or suspended running track. It is the childcare.

Eligible Columbus State students would be able to use free drop-in childcare for up to five hours per day. That could allow a parent to attend a class, complete a lab or meet with an adviser without arranging and paying for an entire day of daycare.

For community-college students, that kind of flexibility matters. Many are balancing school with jobs, children and other responsibilities. A missed class is not always caused by a lack of motivation. Sometimes a babysitter cancels, a work schedule changes or the complicated machinery holding someone’s week together simply stops cooperating.

The facility is expected to open in fall 2028 and would be funded primarily through a student recreation fee of up to $65 per semester. Students voted overwhelmingly in favor of the proposal in 2025, although only a small portion of eligible students participated in the election.

Students began receiving access to YMCA locations throughout Central Ohio in summer 2026, two years before the planned campus facility opens. The new building still depends on final project approvals, but it is further along than a simple campus wish list.

It will also replace part of the large surface-parking footprint surrounding the downtown campus. That alone feels like a minor Columbus miracle.

There are reasonable questions about the student fee, limited voter participation and final construction costs. Still, the YMCA is designed around a real problem: students cannot finish their education when basic needs consistently pull them away from it.

In a week when Columbus canceled one major building and Columbus State abandoned another ambitious proposal, the YMCA offers a more encouraging ending.

The city may not be getting a new courthouse. Franklin County graduates are not getting universal free tuition. But a downtown parking lot could become childcare, recreation space and a place that makes staying in school a little easier.

Around here, we will take the win.

Trivia Answer C. $650 base fee covering the first 1,000 sq. ft., plus $6.00 per 10 sq. ft. after. Foundation-only permits use the same pricing and are capped at $50,000.

Top of Mind

Flock Cameras,

Columbus has prohibited city resources from being used for federal immigration enforcement since 2017.

But a recent audit found that data from the city’s automated license plate cameras was searched 15,577 times for reasons that may have been connected to immigration enforcement.

Only 20 of those searches came from inside the Columbus Division of Police. The rest were conducted by outside agencies with access to Columbus data through Flock Safety’s wider sharing network.

Police say ICE did not directly search the cameras. The audit did, however, identify searches involving the Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Border Patrol and agencies participating in ICE’s 287(g) program, which allows local law enforcement officers to perform certain federal immigration duties.

That distinction matters, but it does not erase the larger problem.

Columbus bought the cameras. Columbus collected the data. Yet thousands of searches were conducted by agencies outside the city, for purposes that may have conflicted with Columbus policy.

Mayor Andrew Ginther responded by suspending statewide sharing of the city’s Flock data. Columbus had previously stopped sharing its information nationwide and will now limit access to individually approved agencies.

The city is also launching a public portal where residents can review information about camera use, data retention and outside access.

Columbus signed a two-year, $228,000 contract with Flock in 2024. Across Franklin County, nearly 600 automated license plate readers have been mapped along roads, intersections and neighborhood entrances.

The cameras capture more than plate numbers. They can record where and when a vehicle was seen, along with its make, model, color and identifying features. Police say the system helps investigate stolen vehicles, robberies, assaults, homicides and missing-person cases.

That can make the cameras valuable. It can also make their data highly revealing.

Flock users are required to enter a reason before conducting a search, but the explanation is typed into a text box by the officer performing it. That means the safeguard depends heavily on users accurately describing their own activity and agencies consistently reviewing it.

The audit shows what can happen when a local surveillance system becomes part of a much larger network. Columbus may set its own policies, but those policies mean little if outside agencies can still use city data for purposes local leaders have rejected.

City Council has scheduled an August 10 public hearing and invited Flock representatives to answer questions.

The portal may tell residents how the cameras are supposed to work. The hearing needs to explain how 15,577 questionable searches were allowed to happen, who was responsible for monitoring them and what will be different the next time an outside agency asks Columbus to look the other way.

Scarlet Letter Trivia

Question: How many traffic cameras are in Columbus, Ohio?
A. 102
B. 131
C. 144
D. 166

16 W Salon Is Officially Open

Say hello to 16 W Salon, a brand-new, solo-owned salon at 16 W Poplar Ave. Now in its second week, the salon has a team of six specializing in color, extensions, and bridal hair.

The vibe is funky, earthy, welcoming, and proudly LGBTQ friendly. There is also usually a golden retriever on-site, which feels like reason enough to book. Go support a new local salon and check out 16 W Salon.

The GIF Was Created in Columbus. Its Creator Says You’re Pronouncing It Wrong.

Before GIFs became the internet’s favorite way to communicate shock, joy, secondhand embarrassment and people slowly disappearing into bushes, they were created to solve a much less exciting problem.

Pictures were too big.

In 1987, a team at Columbus-based CompuServe developed the Graphics Interchange Format, better known as the GIF. Led by software engineer Steve Wilhite, the team needed a way to send color images quickly across different computers at a time when dial-up connections moved at roughly the speed of a government permitting office.

The format debuted on June 15, 1987.

GIFs used a compression system that reduced file sizes without making images blurry. That made them useful for early weather maps, stock charts, logos and other graphics viewed through CompuServe, one of the world’s first major online services.

This was years before most households had internet access. CompuServe users connected through telephone lines, often using modems that squealed, hissed and then charged by the hour. A smaller image file was not merely convenient. It could save real time and real money.

The original GIF was not animated. That feature came later, after an updated version of the format allowed multiple images to be stored in one file. Web browsers eventually made those frames loop automatically, opening the door for flashing banners, spinning email icons, dancing babies and nearly every questionable design choice of the early internet.

The format was technically limited. A GIF could display only 256 colors, making it a poor choice for detailed photographs. But it was compact, widely supported and easy to share. Those limitations eventually became part of its identity.

By the 2010s, GIFs had evolved into a language of their own. Instead of describing how you feel, you could send Michael Jackson eating popcorn or a confused John Travolta and move on with your day.

Then came the argument that may outlive the format itself.

Is GIF pronounced with a hard G, like “gift,” or a soft G, like the peanut butter brand Jif?

Wilhite gave a direct answer while accepting a lifetime achievement award at the 2013 Webby Awards.

“It’s pronounced JIF, not GIF.”

He later said dictionaries were wrong to accept both pronunciations. The creator had spoken. The internet listened carefully and continued pronouncing it however it wanted.

CompuServe’s former Upper Arlington headquarters now has an Ohio historical marker recognizing the company’s role in the development of early online services, including the GIF.

That means one of the internet’s most recognizable inventions was not born in Silicon Valley, Seattle or a glamorous California garage.

It was built in Central Ohio to help pictures move a little faster.

And according to the man who led its creation, it’s the same as the peanut butter.

Springfield’s Haitian Community Loses Its Protection

Thousands of Haitian immigrants in Springfield could begin losing their legal ability to work and remain in the country after Temporary Protected Status expires Monday.

Springfield is home to an estimated 12,000 to 15,000 Haitian residents. Many work in manufacturing, health care, food service and other industries that have struggled to find workers.

TPS allows immigrants to live and work legally when conditions in their home country make returning unsafe. Haiti has held the designation since the 2010 earthquake and remains under a U.S. “Do Not Travel” advisory because of violence, kidnapping and political instability.

The Trump administration argues that the protection was always meant to be temporary. The Supreme Court agreed the federal government has broad authority to end it, rejecting claims that the decision was driven by racial hostility.

The ruling has drawn criticism from Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, who said removing people who work, buy homes, start businesses and support their families is not in Ohio’s interest.

For Springfield, the question is no longer theoretical. Employers could lose workers, families could lose income and thousands of residents could face deportation to a country the United States still warns its own citizens not to visit.

The protection was temporary.

The lives built under it were not.

Trivia Answer: B 131

Top of Mind

Columbus Has Been Fighting Cancer for More Than 50 Years

Long before The James became one of the largest cancer hospitals in the country, Ohio State’s cancer program began with a group of researchers and a fairly audacious idea: Columbus could become a national center for cancer science.

By 1971, more than 100 investigators from seven Ohio State colleges had joined the effort. Two years later, they created a formal Cancer Research Center, and in 1976, the National Cancer Institute named Ohio State one of only 18 comprehensive cancer centers in the United States.

What followed was not simply the construction of a hospital. It was decades of discoveries that changed how certain cancers are understood, diagnosed and treated.

During the 1980s, Ohio State researchers helped develop pentostatin, a drug that produced complete remission in more than 90% of patients with hairy cell leukemia. The disease went from being largely untreatable to one patients could regularly survive while maintaining fairly normal lives.

In 1990, the original James Cancer Hospital opened with 17 patients on its first day. It was named for Dr. Arthur G. James, a surgical oncologist who had spent nearly 40 years pushing for a dedicated cancer hospital in Central Ohio.

From there, the breakthroughs accelerated. Ohio State researchers helped prove that combining chemotherapy and radiation improved survival for advanced head and neck cancer. They contributed to research showing tamoxifen could reduce breast cancer cases among high-risk women by 45%, making it the first drug known to prevent, rather than simply treat, breast cancer. Their leukemia research helped doctors identify genetic markers, tailor treatments and move some patients from a median survival of nine months to cure rates around 50%.

Ohio State scientists also played a major role in the development and testing of ibrutinib, one of the first targeted treatments for chronic lymphocytic leukemia. The drug attacks a protein cancer cells need to survive, offering patients an alternative to traditional chemotherapy.

In 2014, the current James opened. At 1.1 million square feet with 356 beds, it became the third-largest cancer hospital in the country, placing researchers, physicians and patients inside one enormous system designed to move discoveries from the laboratory into treatment faster.

The remarkable part of this history is not just the size of the building or the number of studies. It is how much of modern cancer care has been influenced by work done here in Columbus.

The James did not appear overnight, fully formed beside Ohio Stadium. It grew from a century of persistence, thousands of researchers and one doctor who believed Central Ohio deserved a hospital dedicated entirely to cancer.

Today, people travel to Columbus searching for answers that may not exist anywhere else yet. That is a heavy responsibility, but it is also one of this city’s greatest contributions to the world.

Scarlet Letter Trivia

Question: Which popular digital image format was created by a Columbus-based company in 1987?
A. JPEG
B. PNG
C. GIF
D. TIFF

Hear Them Before Everyone Else Does

Music Columbus is bringing back The Unheard, a free, all-ages showcase built to give emerging musicians something more valuable than exposure alone: paid stage time, professional photography and a full performance video they can use to promote their work.

Since launching in 2021, the series has featured more than 180 performers at respected Columbus venues, helping local artists build an audience while giving the rest of us a chance to discover them early.

This year, nine artists were selected from 93 applicants for three showcase nights across the summer and fall.

The lineups are officially here. Learn the names now, then act impressed when everyone else catches up.

Jerrie Mock Flew Around the World and Brought Columbus With Her

In 1964, a 38-year-old mother of three from Bexley climbed into a small, single-engine airplane at Port Columbus Airport and set out to do something no woman had ever accomplished.

Fly around the world alone.

Geraldine “Jerrie” Mock was not a celebrity pilot backed by a massive aviation company. She had about 750 hours of flight experience, a newly earned instrument rating and a modified 1953 Cessna 180 named the Spirit of Columbus. She called the plane “Charlie,” after the final letter in its registration number, N1538C.

On March 19, 1964, Mock took off from Columbus and headed east carrying maps, survival equipment, extra fuel and the expectations of everyone who believed long-distance aviation still belonged almost entirely to men.

Over the next 29 days, 11 hours and 59 minutes, she flew 23,103 miles across the Atlantic, through North Africa and the Middle East, over Asia and across the Pacific. She battled thunderstorms, equipment problems, icing, exhaustion and long stretches of open water with only one engine keeping her in the sky.

The trip also required navigating the expectations placed on women in 1964. Mock often flew in slacks but changed into a skirt and jacket before landing in certain countries, presenting herself as both a serious pilot and the socially acceptable version of a woman adventurer that officials expected to meet.

She landed back at Port Columbus on April 17, greeted by a crowd celebrating the first woman to complete a solo flight around the world.

Mock had not simply finished the journey. She had broken a barrier Amelia Earhart had famously pursued but never completed.

President Lyndon B. Johnson later presented Mock with the Federal Aviation Administration’s Exceptional Service Decoration at the White House. She continued flying and set several additional aviation records between 1964 and 1969. She also became the first woman and first American to receive the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale’s Louis Blériot Silver Medal.

The Spirit of Columbus now hangs inside the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum, suspended above visitors as one of the most historically significant small aircraft ever flown.

Her story should be as familiar in Ohio as those of the Wright brothers, John Glenn or Neil Armstrong. Yet Mock spent decades receiving far less attention than her achievement deserved.

Maybe that is because she did not look like the era’s idea of a daring explorer. She looked like a suburban Ohio mother who decided she wanted to see the world and happened to have the skill, nerve and stubbornness to fly herself around it.

She named her airplane the Spirit of Columbus, but the name eventually came to describe her just as well.

Quietly ambitious. Technically gifted. Slightly underestimated.

Then suddenly, unmistakably, historic.

Boys And Girls Clup Teams up with Jimmy Johns

The Boys & Girls Clubs of Central Ohio celebrates being selected as one of only three organizations nationwide to receive a $15,000 grant from the Jimmy John’s Foundation. Through a nomination by local Jimmy John’s franchise partner Brad Caulley, Owner/Operator of Three Amigos Venture Inc., the grant recognizes the Club’s impact on young people across

Central Ohio and supports its mission to help youth achieve success in school, careers, and in life. Beyond this generous support, Brad has been a valued partner with the Boys & Girls Clubs of Central Ohio’s work, specifically in the Life & Workforce Readiness effort. He has welcomed teens into his Columbus and Newark locations, offering them hands-on experience to learn about restaurant operations and management. This opportunity has also allowed Club kids to enjoy the meals they prepare. Brad’s personal story of overcoming adversity has enabled him to uniquely identify with youth, inspire them in their futures, and show them that their circumstances don’t define their potential.

This grant will allow the Boys & Girls Clubs of Central Ohio to continue important programs and resources that support academic, social, emotional, and leadership development of young people within our community. The $15,000 check was presented to the Boys & Girls Clubs of Central Ohio on July 7, 2026 at The Champion Companies Milo-Grogan Clubhouse.

Trivia Answer: C. GIF. Steve Wilhite and his team developed the GIF at CompuServe, a pioneering online-services company headquartered in Central Ohio.

Top of Mind

Columbus Built a Machine to Kill “Forever”

“Forever chemicals” earned the nickname for a reason.

They resist heat, water, oil, and nearly every natural process that would normally break a chemical down. That durability made PFAS useful in everything from nonstick pans and waterproof clothing to food packaging and firefighting foam. It also helped the chemicals spread into soil, rivers, wildlife, and drinking water across the country.

Now, a Columbus company believes it has found a way to make “forever” considerably shorter.

Revive Environmental operates a PFAS destruction facility on the city’s West Side, where its ominously named PFAS Annihilator uses extreme heat and pressure to break apart some of the strongest chemical bonds known to science. The company says the process can reduce PFAS in concentrated waste to nondetectable levels in seconds, leaving behind water, inert salts, and a small amount of carbon dioxide.

That is different from how PFAS are usually handled.

Traditional water-treatment systems can capture the chemicals using carbon filters or specialized resins. But capture is not destruction. The contaminated material still has to be stored, transported, buried, or incinerated, which can move the problem somewhere else without fully eliminating it.

Revive’s technology uses a process called supercritical water oxidation. Water is heated and pressurized until it enters a state that is neither fully liquid nor gas. In that environment, chemical reactions happen rapidly enough to split the carbon-fluorine bonds that make PFAS so stubborn. It sounds like science fiction, but the system has been operating commercially since 2023.

Earlier this month, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin, U.S. Sen. Jon Husted, Ohio EPA officials, and leaders from Battelle toured the Columbus facility to watch the process in action. Revive says treated water is independently tested before being discharged, and the facility operates under permits from both the Ohio EPA and the City of Columbus.

The first target is not the water coming directly from your kitchen faucet. Revive is currently processing concentrated PFAS waste, including old firefighting foam collected from fire departments, airports, industrial sites, contaminated groundwater, and landfill runoff. Ohio’s firefighting-foam collection program alone has sent thousands of gallons toward destruction.

That distinction matters. Columbus currently says its three drinking-water plants comply with federal PFAS requirements, although very low levels of the chemicals have been detected and the city has tested proactively since 2019. PFAS exposure is also much larger than drinking water alone. The chemicals have been used in household products since the 1940s and are now found throughout the environment and in the blood of people and animals around the world.

The cleanup problem is enormous. The EPA recently made more than $20 million available for Ohio communities to test for and address PFAS and other emerging contaminants. Across the country, water systems are facing expensive decisions about new treatment equipment, disposal, and who ultimately pays for contamination created decades ago.

Revive does not solve every part of that problem. PFAS still need to be removed from drinking water, collected, concentrated, and delivered for treatment. Preventing manufacturers from releasing more of the chemicals remains far cheaper than cleaning them up afterward.

But destroying them is a major step beyond simply trapping them in another container and handing the problem to the next generation.

For years, Columbus has watched companies arrive promising to build the technologies of the future. This one is already running on the West Side, taking one of the most persistent pollutants ever created and attempting to give it an expiration date.

Scarlet Letter Trivia

Question: What year was Ohio’s worst in economic terms?
A. 2009
B. 1997
C. 2010
D. 1983

The Columbus Food Truck Festival Is Back

The Columbus Food Truck Festival returns to the Franklin County Fairgrounds on August 14 and 15, bringing together more than 45 food trucks, live music, local makers, and an expanded Kids Zone.

Now celebrating its 15th year, the festival has grown from its original home at Columbus Commons into one of Central Ohio’s biggest food events, drawing more than 25,000 people each year. It has also donated more than $115,000 to local charities along the way.

The festival runs from 4 to 10 p.m. Friday and 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Saturday at the Franklin County Fairgrounds in Hilliard.

Come hungry, bring a few friends, and buy your tickets before the lines start forming.

Ohio Is Officially America’s Best State for Business

Ohio has spent years trying to turn “The Heart of It All” into more than a tourism slogan. According to CNBC, it may finally have the receipts.

Ohio has been named America’s No. 1 state for business in 2026, climbing from fifth place last year and 34th place in 2010. It is the first time Ohio has topped CNBC’s annual rankings since the study began in 2007, and the first win for a Midwestern state since Minnesota in 2015.

CNBC evaluated every state using 138 measurements across 10 categories. Ohio earned the top ranking in both infrastructure and cost of doing business, while also finishing ninth in the economy, access to capital, and cost of living.

The infrastructure win was especially important this year. For the first time, CNBC made it the study’s most heavily weighted category, examining roads, railroads, airports, utilities, available development sites, electrical capacity, and the speed of state permitting. Ohio earned an A+ and the top spot nationally.

The state benefits from the country’s fourth-largest interstate highway system, one of its largest freight-rail networks, and a location within a one-day drive of 60% of the U.S. and Canadian populations. It also offers relatively affordable housing, shovel-ready industrial sites, and no traditional corporate income tax.B) Stewarts Grove

That combination has helped Ohio land projects from Intel, Anduril, Joby Aviation, and the Honda-LG battery operation. Between 2019 and 2025, JobsOhio says its projects created 159,000 direct jobs and generated more than $99 billion in capital investment.

Of course, being good for business does not automatically mean every Ohio worker, neighborhood, or small town is feeling the boom. A ranking can measure roads, taxes, investment, and available land. It cannot guarantee that the jobs pay enough, the growth reaches every county, or the giant projects arrive on schedule.

Still, going from No. 34 to No. 1 in 16 years is not nothing.

Ohio is no longer merely promising companies that it is a good place to build. This year, CNBC looked at the entire country and agreed.

What the Boys & Girls Clubs Offer Columbus Families

For working parents, the hours between the final school bell and the end of the workday can create a daily childcare problem.

The Boys & Girls Clubs of Central Ohio help fill that gap with supervised after-school programs where children can finish homework, eat, play sports, explore STEM and art, and spend time with trained staff.

The organization operates eight locations across Columbus, including three traditional neighborhood Clubhouses in Milo-Grogan, the South Side, and the Hilltop. These locations generally stay open until 7 or 7:30 p.m. during the school year, making them the closest option to traditional after-school childcare.

Programs include homework help, tutoring, physical activity, leadership development, financial literacy, career preparation, and college planning.

Summer care may be the biggest resource for families. The 2026 program runs for nine weeks, Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. The listed cost is $125 per child for the entire summer and includes breakfast, lunch, activities, and field trips.

Yes, $125 for nine weeks.

The Boys & Girls Clubs are not simply places for children to wait until pickup. They provide structured, affordable care while giving young people access to mentors, academic support, health programs, and a consistent place to belong.

Top of Mind

The Hottest Golf Accessory at Scioto Started in a Columbus Basement

Golf has always been a sport of tiny obsessions.

The grip. The stance. The wind. The read. The one blade of grass that apparently ruined your entire personality on hole 14.

But for Columbus’ Justin “J” Orlando, one of golf’s smallest details became the whole thing.

Orlando, a local teacher, high school golf coach, father of four, and proud blue-collar maker, turns ball markers into tiny pieces of functional art. Not the plastic circles you grab from the pro shop counter. Not the random quarter you found in your cup holder. Hand-stamped, highly customized, inch-and-a-quarter metal coins that look like something between a keepsake, a lucky charm, and a very small museum exhibit.

The hobby started in 2015, when Orlando’s son, Rocco, met PGA Tour pro Rocco Mediate at a U.S. Open qualifier at Ohio State Golf Club. Mediate invited him to walk along, and a year later, at the U.S. Senior Open at Scioto Country Club, Orlando tracked him down again and handed him a custom ball marker.

Mediate told him he needed to make more.

That was apparently solid advice.

Today, J. Orlando Made markers are used by more than 250 touring professionals and elite golfers, including Justin Thomas, Akshay Bhatia, Jason Day, and former Buckeye Neil Shipley. Adam Sandler and LeBron James have reportedly carried them too, because once your tiny golf coins reach both PGA greens and Happy Gilmore-adjacent celebrity territory, the bit has officially become a business.

Each marker is made by hand in Orlando’s spare time, often at home with a 146-pound anvil, metal stamps, coins, and whatever precise vision a client brings him. The whole process is part craft, part therapy, part hand-eye-coordination gauntlet. Orlando told NBC4 that he has to take a full idea and fit it onto a circle barely bigger than an inch.

Somehow, the demand is much bigger than that.

His waitlist has reportedly grown to more than 5,000 names, which means getting one is less “add to cart” and more “apply for citizenship in a tiny golf kingdom.” But this week, with the U.S. Senior Open at Scioto Country Club, Orlando has been set up inside the merchandise tent making commemorative coins for the championship.

It’s a very Columbus kind of success story: a teacher, a coach, a basement workshop, an anvil, one good piece of advice from a pro golfer, and suddenly something handmade here is showing up on greens all over the world.

Golf may be a game of inches, but in this case, the inch and a quarter is doing most of the talking.

Cincinnati has a lot of public art that makes sense.

Murals. Fountains. War memorials. Park sculptures. The usual civic decoration package.

And then, in Eden Park, there is a bronze statue of a wolf nursing the mythical founders of Rome, sent to Cincinnati during the reign of Benito Mussolini.

Which is a lot to ask from a casual walk near Twin Lakes.

The statue is Cincinnati’s Capitoline Wolf, a replica of the famous Roman sculpture showing the she-wolf who, according to legend, rescued and nursed Romulus and Remus before they went on to found Rome. Cincinnati got one because the city is named for Cincinnatus, the Roman leader celebrated for leaving his farm, saving the republic, and then giving up power to go back to farming.

Mussolini, never one to see Roman imagery and not make it everyone’s problem, used the Capitoline Wolf as part of Italy’s fascist-era branding campaign. His government sent replicas to places with Roman ties, including Cincinnati. The version in Eden Park was presented in 1931, and the base includes the inscription “Anno X,” meaning the tenth year of Italy’s Fascist era. Subtle, it was not.

So for decades, Cincinnati had a very strange little landmark: part ancient mythology, part Italian-American civic history, part fascist propaganda souvenir, all sitting quietly in an Ohio park like that is a normal combination of things.

Then, in June 2022, the story somehow became even more Ohio.

Someone stole the wolf.

Scarlet Letter Trivia

Question: How many professional Golfers are from Columbus, Ohio?
A. 13
B. 9
C. 11
D. 16

Columbus Is Throwing a Party for People Who Still Smell Books

Quick reminder for everyone whose weekend plans could use more books, iced coffee, and financially questionable tote bag behavior: the Columbus Book Festival is back this weekend.

The free two-day festival takes over Main Library and Topiary Park on July 11 and 12, with more than 120 authors, panels, signings, food trucks, Indie Author Alley, local bookstores, vendors, and plenty of opportunities to buy books you absolutely swear you are going to read soon.

Saturday runs from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Sunday runs from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. All activities, panels, and author talks are free, though some headliner sessions require free tickets because space is limited.

There is even free event parking in Main Library’s attached garage and nearby surface lots, which may be the most dramatic plot twist of the whole weekend.

Grab a tote. Clear a shelf. Lie gently to yourself about your unread pile.

Kroger is buying Giant Eagle, which feels less like a merger and more like grocery store Pokémon

Columbus grocery shoppers may soon live in a world where Kroger and Giant Eagle are technically rivals in the same way siblings are rivals when one parent owns the house.

Kroger announced last week that it has reached a definitive agreement to buy Giant Eagle in a deal valued at $1.65 billion. That includes $1.25 billion in cash and about $400 million in assumed liabilities, which is corporate-speak for “yes, the grocery aisle just got even more complicated.”

Giant Eagle brings a pretty sizable cart to the checkout line: 197 supermarkets, 11 standalone pharmacies, about $9 billion in annual sales, and a footprint across northern Ohio, western Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Maryland, and Indiana. Kroger, already the largest traditional supermarket chain in the country, gets a bigger hold on the Midwest and Mid-Atlantic without trying to swallow something as massive as Albertsons again.

For shoppers, the weirdest part may be how normal everything looks at first. Kroger says Giant Eagle stores are expected to keep the Giant Eagle name, so your Market District probably will not wake up one morning wearing a blue Kroger polo. The deal is expected to close in 2027, pending regulatory approval, and Kroger has already said it may divest a limited number of Giant Eagle stores to help get that approval.

Still, for central Ohio, this is a strange little grocery plot twist. Kroger has long been the default Columbus grocery setting, while Giant Eagle carved out its own lane here after Big Bear disappeared from the local landscape. Now two of the area’s most familiar grocery names could end up under one corporate roof.

And no, this does not mean the end of the GetGo conversation. Giant Eagle already sold its GetGo convenience-store business to Couche-Tard, a separate move that included hundreds of fuel and convenience locations across the region.

The big question now is whether this actually means lower prices, better pharmacy access, and smoother operations, as Kroger says, or whether Columbus just gets to watch another beloved regional brand become part of a much larger grocery machine.

Either way, the next time someone says they are “just running to the store,” there may be a decent chance they are technically running to Kroger, no matter what the sign says.

The Wolf, the Dictator, and the Ohio Park

Cincinnati has a lot of public art that makes sense.

Murals. Fountains. War memorials. Park sculptures. The usual civic decoration package.

And then, in Eden Park, there is a bronze statue of a wolf nursing the mythical founders of Rome, sent to Cincinnati during the reign of Benito Mussolini.

Which is a lot to ask from a casual walk near Twin Lakes.

The statue is Cincinnati’s Capitoline Wolf, a replica of the famous Roman sculpture showing the she-wolf who, according to legend, rescued and nursed Romulus and Remus before they went on to found Rome. Cincinnati got one because the city is named for Cincinnatus, the Roman leader celebrated for leaving his farm, saving the republic, and then giving up power to go back to farming.

Mussolini, never one to see Roman imagery and not make it everyone’s problem, used the Capitoline Wolf as part of Italy’s fascist-era branding campaign. His government sent replicas to places with Roman ties, including Cincinnati. The version in Eden Park was presented in 1931, and the base includes the inscription “Anno X,” meaning the tenth year of Italy’s Fascist era. Subtle, it was not.

So for decades, Cincinnati had a very strange little landmark: part ancient mythology, part Italian-American civic history, part fascist propaganda souvenir, all sitting quietly in an Ohio park like that is a normal combination of things.

Then, in June 2022, the story somehow became even more Ohio.

Someone stole the wolf.

Not the twins. Not the base. Just the wolf. The bronze animal was cut off at the paws and taken, leaving Romulus and Remus behind in what may be the most dramatic public-art parenting failure in state history. Cincinnati Police never recovered the original, and officials believed it may have been stolen for scrap.

Cincinnati, to its credit, did not simply shrug and accept a wolf-less Roman origin myth. Cincinnati Parks, the Cincinnati Parks Foundation, and the Order Sons and Daughters of Italy worked to replace it. A new wolf was made near Florence, Italy, using the same mold as the original and incorporating the remaining bronze paws. It returned to Eden Park in 2023.

Which means Cincinnati once again has its Mussolini-era Roman wolf replica overlooking the Ohio River, now with an added theft-and-resurrection subplot.

It is ancient legend, immigrant history, dictator branding, park art, scrap-metal crime, and civic restoration all in one deeply strange statue.

In other words, exactly the kind of Ohio landmark that sounds fake until you are standing in front of it.

C) 11!

Top of Mind

Columbus Is About to Get Slow-Cooked

Ohio is about to be placed under a weather lid and slow-cooked until further notice.

Meteorologists call it a “heat dome,” which sounds fake, dramatic, and exactly like something your uncle would blame on the government. But it is very real, and this week it is parking itself over the Midwest like a giant invisible Crock-Pot.

A heat dome happens when a ridge of high pressure traps hot air in place. The air sinks, warms, and gets compressed closer to the ground. Since sinking air also keeps clouds and storms from forming, the heat has nowhere to go. It just sits there, reheats itself, and turns the city into a convection oven with scooters.

Columbus is expected to see highs in the mid-to-upper 90s this week, with the heat index pushing over 100 degrees multiple days in a row. Wednesday looks like the worst of it, with temperatures flirting with 98 degrees, which is less “summer fun” and more “why does the steering wheel feel legally dangerous?”

And Columbus is especially good at making heat worse. All our pavement, rooftops, parking lots, and treeless stretches soak up the sun during the day and radiate it back at night. That is the urban heat island effect, which is a polite scientific way of saying the city stores heat like a cast iron skillet.

That matters because the danger is not just the afternoon high. It is the fact that overnight lows may stay in the mid-to-upper 70s, giving homes, apartments, and bodies very little time to recover. Heat becomes more dangerous when it stacks day after day, especially for older adults, kids, outdoor workers, people without reliable air conditioning, and anyone living in a top-floor apartment that turns into an Easy-Bake Oven by dinner.

Columbus is opening cooling centers at several community centers, including Dodge, Driving Park, Glenwood, Linden, and Marion Franklin, with extended hours from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. City pools will also stay open later, from 1 to 8 p.m., with free admission starting July 2 while the heat sticks around. You still need a free Leisure Card, because even in dangerous heat, bureaucracy refuses to sweat.

This is the kind of weather where the boring advice becomes important. Drink water before you feel thirsty. Check on older neighbors. Bring pets inside. Do not walk your dog on pavement hot enough to fry a pierogi. And if you know someone without reliable air conditioning, check on them for real, not just in the “hope they’re good” way.

The good news is that storm chances may creep back in by the holiday weekend. The bad news is that in Ohio, “relief” often arrives wearing humidity and carrying lightning.

Until then, treat this heat like the threat it is. Stay inside when you can. Check on people who might not be okay. And remember: summer is no longer flirting with us.

Scarlet Letter Trivia

Question: What percentage of Ohio homes own guns?
A. 40%
B. 27%
C. 30%
D. 64%

Columbus Is Throwing a Party for People Who Still Smell Books

Good news for everyone whose idea of a perfect weekend involves wandering around with an iced coffee, buying three books they absolutely do not have room for, and saying, “I’ve been meaning to read this.”

The Columbus Book Festival is back July 11 and 12, taking over Main Library and Topiary Park for a free two-day celebration of books, authors, readers, and people who treat tote bags like a personality trait.

And honestly? We love it.

The festival brings together more than 120 national and Ohio-based authors for panels, talks, signings, and conversations across just about every genre. This year’s headliners include Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw, Laura Dave, TJ Klune, Paul Tremblay, and Lisa See, which is a pretty serious lineup for an event that costs exactly zero dollars to attend.

Outside in Topiary Park, the Festival Marketplace will feature more than 100 independent authors in Indie Author Alley, along with exhibitors, bookish vendors, food trucks, drinks, and family-friendly entertainment. Basically, it is a farmers’ market for people who have strong opinions about dust jackets.

There will also be an Official Festival Bookstore run in partnership with local independent bookstores, including The Book Loft, Cover to Cover, Gramercy Books, and Prologue Bookshop. So yes, you can support the library, support local bookstores, meet authors, buy books, and still pretend this was a financially responsible outing.

The whole thing started in 2023 as part of Columbus Metropolitan Library’s 150th birthday celebration, and it has quickly become one of the better summer events in the city. Not because it is flashy. Not because it is trying too hard. But because it feels like Columbus at its best: curious, local, free, a little nerdy, and spread across one of the prettiest public spaces downtown.

The practical details are simple. Saturday runs from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday runs from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. All activities, panels, and author talks are free, though some headliner sessions require free tickets because space is limited.

There is also free event parking in Main Library’s attached garage and several nearby surface lots, which is maybe the most shocking plot twist of the whole festival.

So if your summer plans need something that does not involve sweating in a parking lot or pretending to enjoy cornhole, this is it.

Grab a tote bag. Clear a shelf. Lie to yourself about how many unread books you already own.

Ohio Found Rare Common Ground on Guns

Gun bills do not usually glide through the Ohio Statehouse.

They drag. They spark outrage. They turn into the kind of debate where everyone already knows what they are going to say before anyone else starts talking.

But Senate Bill 273, the Keep Them Safe Act, did something rare. It passed the Ohio House and Senate unanimously before Governor Mike DeWine signed it into law on June 18.

The law is built around a simple idea: put time and distance between a person in crisis and a firearm.

It allows Ohio gun owners to voluntarily and temporarily store firearms with participating federally licensed gun dealers or law enforcement agencies. It is not mandatory. It is not confiscation. It is an option for people who know they need space from a gun, or for families trying to help someone survive a dangerous moment.

That matters because suicide prevention often comes down to minutes. A crisis can be intense and temporary. A firearm makes it much easier for that temporary crisis to become permanent.

Until now, the advice to “get the gun out of the house” came with a very real problem: where?

Some gun shops were hesitant to store firearms because of liability concerns. SB273 gives participating gun dealers and law enforcement agencies civil immunity, meaning they can offer temporary storage without fearing a lawsuit if something happens later.

That is why the bill found support from groups that rarely line up together. Mental health advocates backed it. Gun violence prevention groups backed it. Second Amendment supporters backed it. Senator Kyle Koehler, a Republican from Springfield, sponsored it. Whitney Austin, a Cincinnati mass shooting survivor and founder of Whitney/Strong, helped push it forward.

The veteran angle is especially urgent. Veterans make up roughly 14% of suicide deaths in Ohio, and around three-fourths of Ohio veteran suicides involve a firearm. For families, this law answers a heartbreaking but practical question: when someone you love is spiraling and there is a gun in the home, what can you actually do right now?

This law will not fix Ohio’s mental health system. It will not end suicide. It will only work if gun shops and law enforcement agencies participate, and if people know the option exists.

But it is a tool. A voluntary one. A practical one. And in a state where gun politics usually turns into a shouting match, Ohio found a small patch of common ground and stood on it long enough to pass something useful.

That alone is worth paying attention to.

A) 40% of Ohio homes own at least one gun…Seems a little too high…

Top of Mind

Columbus Tries to Keep Summer From Going Sideways

Columbus has reached the part of summer where city leaders are asking one of the hardest questions in local government: how do you keep young people safe, accountable, occupied, and out of trouble without turning every neighborhood event into a police state. 

That question got louder after St. Catharine Catholic Church’s annual FunFest was shut down earlier this month when multiple fights broke out among groups of teenagers. Columbus police said the event drew a huge crowd of juveniles, with one estimate around 300. Bexley Mayor Ben Kessler said there may have been 500 to 800 teenagers there, most of whom were peaceful, which feels important to say before everyone starts talking like every 14-year-old in Central Ohio arrived with a tactical plan.

Most of the teenagers there were not fighting, stealing, or causing damage. They were doing what teenagers have done forever: showing up somewhere in a pack, burning off summer energy, and making adults nervous by existing in large numbers. But when a small portion of that crowd crossed the line, the whole event paid for it.

The fight broke out around 7 p.m. at the festival on South Gould Road, near the Columbus and Bexley border. Initial reports mentioned possible gunshots, but Bexley officials later said there was no evidence of a weapon. Still, the night unraveled fast. Eleven people were arrested after the fights, nearby reports of theft, and vandalism at businesses along Main Street, including a CVS and Giant Eagle.

More than 100 police cruisers and officers reportedly responded to help disperse the crowd. No injuries were reported, which matters. A lot. The police response was large, fast, and, thankfully, ended with everyone making it home safely. But the disruption was still enough for St. Catharine to cancel the rest of the 2026 FunFest, ending a neighborhood tradition early because safety had to come first.

Now, the Columbus City Council is weighing changes to the city’s youth curfew, including moving it from midnight to 10 p.m. Leaders are also discussing ways to hold parents accountable when children repeatedly violate curfew.

Parent accountability is part of the conversation too, though even that is more complicated than it sounds. Some parents are checked out. Some are working late. Some are trying their best and still losing the nightly battle against phones, group chats, and whatever plan their kid definitely did not fully explain before leaving the house.

That is what makes this story difficult. The easiest thing to do is point fingers. The more useful thing to do is admit the obvious: raising kids, policing crowds, running public events, and keeping a growing city safe are all hard. Despite that, Columbus is trying anyway.

Council President Shannon Hardin has framed the issue as part of a larger conversation about youth safety, safe places, parent accountability, and what the city can do before small problems turn into big police responses. And to the city’s credit, Columbus is not treating this like a problem that starts at 10 p.m. and disappears at 10:01.

This year, the city announced nearly $7.5 million in Summer Youth Program Grants for 105 nonprofit organizations offering academic support, career readiness, youth development, violence prevention, and other programming. Those grants are part of a broader youth engagement strategy that has been around since 2020. In 2025, city-sponsored programs recorded more than 21,000 summer camp registrations, served more than 205,000 meals, and reached tens of thousands of young people through afterschool programs, sports leagues, and outreach.

That is the important context. The curfew is not the whole plan. It is one tool in a much bigger toolbox, sitting somewhere between summer camps, violence prevention, police response, community nonprofits, parents, schools, and the eternal civic hope that teenagers will make one good decision before midnight.

The city is also dealing with a tricky set of numbers. Columbus has seen real progress on violent crime overall. Police officials said the city recorded 84 homicides in 2025, the lowest number in more than a decade. But youth involvement in serious violence remains a concern. CPD officials told council that nearly half of homicide and felonious assault suspects were 21 and under, and that young people made up 28% of homicide suspects and 32% of homicide victims in 2025.

That is why this debate is bigger than one church festival. It is about preventing the next chaotic crowd, yes, but it is also about keeping kids from becoming suspects, victims, or names in another grim city presentation.

Of course, curfews alone are not a miracle cure. Moving the line from midnight to 10 p.m. might help police manage large crowds earlier. It might give parents and officers a clearer standard. It might make certain public spaces easier to protect. But it will not create more teen jobs, more mentors, more transportation, more mental health support, or more places where young people can go without needing money, a car, or a fully developed frontal lobe.Scarlet Letter Trivia

That seems to be the balance Columbus is trying to strike. The city is not pretending that a curfew will fix everything. It is trying to respond to a real problem while still investing in the slower, less headline-friendly work of prevention.

Nobody wants a city where kids have nowhere to go, parents feel outmatched, police become the default babysitters, and neighborhood festivals need a line item for tear gas. Columbus is trying to avoid that future, the only way cities can: imperfectly, publicly, and with a mix of rules, resources, and hope that the next summer night goes better than the last one.

Which, honestly, is about all you can ask from a city in June: keep the kids safe, keep the festivals open, and maybe get through one weekend without needing 100 cruisers near the funnel cake stand.

Question: The Famous Shiller park is named after the German poet Friedrich Schiller. What was its previous name?
A. Marks Flatt
B. Stewarts Grove
C. Jacobs Creek
D. Little Dresden

Das Haus und Garten Tour

One of Columbus’s most beloved summer traditions returns this weekend with the German Village Society’s annual Haus und Garten Tour.

On Sunday, June 28, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., guests can stroll through German Village and explore featured homes and gardens that showcase the charm, history, and character of one of the city’s most treasured neighborhoods.

The tour is the German Village Society’s largest fundraiser, supporting the ongoing preservation and care of German Village’s historic homes, brick streets, gardens, and community spaces.

For an elevated experience, PreTour offers an exclusive early preview on Saturday, June 27, featuring a private tour, celebratory cocktail party, and the option to attend an intimate private dinner with fellow attendees and hosts.

Tickets for the Haus und Garten Tour are $25 per person, or $90 for a four-pack. It is a beautiful way to spend a summer Sunday, support historic preservation, and celebrate the homes, gardens, and people that make German Village so special.

Content Warning: This One Is Rough

We are not going to link to the video in this story, mostly because it is sad, gross, and not something anyone needs dropped into their inbox between local events and restaurant news. Just Google Chickens Logan County if you’re brave enough.

But the story itself is too strange, disturbing, and Ohio-specific not to talk about.

A video circulating out of Logan County appears to show hundreds of dead and live chickens being dumped at the Republic Services Landfill near Bellefontaine. In the footage, a truck unloads the birds into the landfill, and some of the chickens can be seen walking around afterward.

The Ohio Department of Agriculture is now investigating the procedures used to euthanize the chickens before they were transported and dumped. An ODA spokesperson said the agency has been in contact with industry representatives about the incident, specifically because not all of the birds were euthanized before transport and disposal. The agency has directed the people involved to be retrained on proper euthanasia, loading, and disposal procedures.

Which is a bureaucratic way of saying: the part where live chickens ended up walking around a landfill was not supposed to happen.

Republic Services, which owns the landfill, said the Bellefontaine facility received a shipment on Tuesday, June 16, that had been profiled as euthanized animal waste. The company said the landfill is permitted to accept that type of waste, but video from the shipment appeared to show a small number of live chickens. According to Republic, the birds died shortly after the video was filmed, and all remains were buried as part of normal landfill operations.

The company also said it has halted shipments from the customer involved until it can confirm there is a consistent process in place that meets landfill requirements.

Officials have said it is legal under Ohio law to dispose of properly euthanized, non-diseased poultry in an approved landfill. The Ohio Department of Agriculture has also said the birds were not diseased and were at the end of their lay cycle, which means they had reached the end of their productive life in the egg industry.

That may explain the industry process. It does not make the video easier to stomach.

Neighbors near the landfill have questioned whether the disposal was humane, and honestly, that seems like a very fair question when the public explanation involves the phrase “not all birds were euthanized prior to transport and disposal.”

The Logan County Sheriff’s Office said it contacted the Ohio Department of Agriculture after becoming aware of the video, but the sheriff’s office is not conducting the investigation. Local health officials have also said they do not have enforcement authority in this situation, and the Ohio EPA has indicated that no violations have been identified under its authority at this time.

So for now, the investigation sits with the state agriculture department, while the public waits for clearer answers about where the chickens came from, who was responsible for the transport, and how a process that is supposed to be regulated ended with live animals being dumped in a landfill.

It is a grim story. It is also a reminder that a lot of industrial food systems operate completely out of sight until something goes wrong, someone records it, and everyone suddenly has to confront the part of the process that usually stays hidden.

Hopefully, the investigation leads to more than a sternly worded retraining session. At a minimum, it should answer the basic question everyone is asking:

How did this happen, and how do we make sure it does not happen again?

B) Stewarts Grove

Top of Mind

Ohio Officials Announce $50 Million in Alleged Fraud Cases

Ohio and federal officials announced charges against 14 people last week in a group of alleged fraud schemes tied to Medicaid, behavioral health services, COVID relief money, and online romance scams.

Altogether, prosecutors say the cases involve more than $50 million.

The announcement was made in Whitehall, where Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost was joined by interim U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche, FBI Director Kash Patel, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz, Small Business Administration Administrator Kelly Loeffler, and federal prosecutors from Ohio.

The largest cases involve public health care money.

In Butler County, Robert Haley of Cincinnati is facing 31 felony charges. Prosecutors say Haley, a health care provider, allegedly billed Ohio Medicaid for more than 60,000 claims for services that were not provided. The alleged fraud totaled more than $12 million.

A few hours after the press conference, Ohio Medicaid said it had suspended payments to 49 home health providers. The agency said the billing patterns from those providers raised concerns and that investigations are ongoing.

The second major case involves behavioral health funding. Prosecutors say four people, including two employees of the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services, were federally indicted in the Southern District of Ohio for allegedly stealing more than $30 million from money meant for behavioral health services. The alleged fraud took place in 2024 and 2025.

Authorities said they identified 14 luxury vehicles and nearly $470,000 in three bank accounts connected to that casByrnes spent 23 hours in the Franklin County Jail before being released on bond Tuesday. He had planned to hold a post-release press conference at the Statehouse, but canceled it on the advice of counsel. A wise move, probably. When your legal situation involves elected officials, alleged harassment, and animated ogre anatomy, fewer microphones may be best.

After his release, Byrnes issued a brief statement thanking supporters and saying, “I believe that the facts presented in court will show that I’m innocent of the misdemeanor charge of telecommunications harassment.”

There are serious questions here about harassment laws, political speech, public officials, and how far online provocation can go before it turns into a criminal case. But there is also the unavoidable fact that an Ohio political blogger named The Rooster was arrested at the Statehouse over what may involve Shrek’s private swamp business.

From Shrek’s swamp to Ohio’s political swamp, this case has taken a journey no civics textbook was brave enough to predict.

Officials also discussed a separate indictment from May 26 involving four people accused of stealing more than $1.4 million in COVID-19 relief funds in 2021.

Another case, announced May 14 in the Northern District of Ohio, involves three people from Ghana charged in an alleged $15 million romance fraud scheme. Two others are awaiting extradition. Prosecutors say the group targeted 130 older Americans through social media and dating sites between July 2024 and April 2026.

In that case, authorities said they seized a house in Ghana, jewelry, and four luxury vehicles.

The announcement comes as Medicaid fraud has become a major political issue in Ohio. A 2024 report about alleged fraud among home health care providers brought renewed attention to billing practices in the program, especially in central Ohio.

Republicans have controlled Ohio state government since 2011, but state leaders are now publicly split over who bears responsibility for oversight failures. Legislative leaders have criticized Gov. Mike DeWine and former Medicaid Director Maureen Corcoran, who left the administration last year, for not doing more to stop fraud earlier.

DeWine has issued an executive order allowing Medicaid to suspend payments when claims raise red flags. Lawmakers are also considering a Republican-backed anti-fraud bill introduced in March. That bill would require electronic visit verification for providers and would ban family members from being paid by Medicaid to provide personal care services, including care for disabled Ohioans.

The broader question now is how much of the alleged fraud is isolated criminal activity, and how much reflects weaknesses in state oversight systems.

Federal officials said the priority is not only recovering money after fraud occurs, but stopping questionable payments before they go out.

As Blanche put it during the announcement, “We’re not going to recover everything.” That leaves Ohio with a difficult and expensive problem: identifying fraud without cutting off legitimate care for people who rely on Medicaid, behavioral health services, and home health support.

For now, the investigations are continuing, the indictments are moving forward, and state officials are under pressure to prove that Ohio’s safety-net programs can protect both taxpayers and the people they were created to serve.

Scarlet Letter Trivia

Question: What’s the rainiest summer in Columbus, Ohio’s history?
A. 1992
B. 2008
C. 2026
D. 1958

Ohio’s Newest Absolute Unit Is a 576-Pound Bear

Ohio wildlife officials recently tagged a black bear in Ashtabula County that weighed 576 pounds, which is almost twice the average size of an adult male black bear.

In other words, Ohio did not just get a bear sighting. We got a bear who looks like he has a favorite recliner, strong opinions about property taxes, and a standing order at Texas Roadhouse.

The bear was collared by the Ohio Department of Natural Resources Division of Wildlife and researchers from the University of Dayton, who will now track his movements and behavior. Wildlife biologist Katie Dennison said she “didn’t expect to see a male bear this big” in Ohio, which feels fair. Most of us barely expect to see a bear in Ohio at all, let alone one built like a defensive tackle.

But this bear is not just a one-off woodland celebrity. He is part of a much bigger story happening across the state: black bears are coming back.

According to ODNR’s latest Black Bear Monitoring Report, Ohio had 537 reported bear sightings in 2025 across 69 counties, the most ever recorded in the state. That is up from 370 sightings in 2024, meaning the bears are not just passing through anymore. They are browsing Zillow, checking school districts, and strongly considering northeast Ohio.

For a long time, black bears were effectively gone from Ohio. By the 1850s, deforestation and hunting had pushed them out of the state, because settlers looked at a functioning ecosystem and immediately asked, “What if we made this worse?”

Now, as bear populations grow in neighboring Pennsylvania and West Virginia, they are wandering back into Ohio. ODNR estimates the state now has between 50 and 100 black bears, with consistent evidence that females are establishing permanent homes in northeast Ohio.

That last part matters. A wandering male bear is one thing. A female bear with cubs is a sign that the species is setting up shop. ODNR has confirmed black bears with cubs in Ashtabula County in 2016 and every year from 2018 through 2025. Females with cubs have also been documented in Geauga County for the past three years.

Translation: Ohio’s bear era is not theoretical anymore. It is here, and it may occasionally be standing in someone’s backyard trying to steal a bird feeder.

Central Ohio is not exactly Bear Country yet, but sightings are creeping closer. In 2025, a black bear was spotted near Pataskala for the first time in 20 years. Another was caught on a trail camera in Knox County, about 60 miles northeast of Columbus. Bears have also been reported near Cincinnati, Mansfield, Youngstown, Aurora, and across northeast Ohio.

So what should you do if you see one?

First, do not panic. Black bears are usually afraid of people and attacks are rare. They do not want to fight you. They do not want your drama. They mostly want berries, insects, trash, bird seed, and the satisfaction of knocking over something you thought was secure.

ODNR recommends staying calm, backing away slowly, giving the bear space, and making sure it has an escape route. Do not run. Do not climb a tree. Do not attempt the most Ohio sentence imaginable: “I think I can get closer for a video.”

If a bear is near your home, the real key is removing easy food. That means bringing in bird feeders, securing garbage, keeping pet food inside, cleaning grills, and protecting beehives or crops. Basically, stop turning your backyard into a Golden Corral for wildlife.

The return of black bears is strange, exciting, and honestly kind of encouraging. It means Ohio’s wild spaces are still connected enough for large animals to move, settle, and reproduce. It also means our relationship with nature may need to mature beyond “Look, a bear! Let’s ruin its day with flash photography.”

For now, the 576-pound Ashtabula bear is wearing a collar, wandering Ohio, and helping scientists better understand where the state’s recovering bear population is headed next.

And if the answer is “toward Columbus,” please start securing your trash now. We already have enough problems with raccoons acting like tiny landlords.

Gahanna Celebrates Juneteenth at Creekside

Gahanna’s Juneteenth celebration returns for its second year during the Creekside Blues & Jazz Festival, honoring African American history and culture with music, dance, spoken word, games, and community.

The celebration takes place on the Creekside Stage, with games from 5:30 to 7 p.m. and the main program beginning at 7 p.m. Active and retired military members get in free with an ID, and kids 10 and under also get free admission.

New this year is a kid-friendly silent disco on the lower level of Creekside Plaza by the lagoon from 6 to 9 p.m. Friday and Saturday, sponsored by Pathways Financial Credit Union.

The event will also continue its live art mural tradition. Each year’s murals are preserved and placed around select Gahanna parks, keeping the celebration visible long after the festival ends.

Not a bad way to spend a summer evening: music at Creekside, art in the parks, and a celebration built around history, freedom, and community.

Dillon Beck Turns an Alley Into Art

Columbus artist Dillon Beck has built a reputation for making work that feels both futuristic and familiar. His paintings and murals sit somewhere between the real world and a video game loading screen, which is to say they look great in a gallery, on a wall, or apparently, wrapped around a mini golf hole in a Downtown alley.

Beck is a Columbus-based artist, muralist, and designer known for bold color, clean geometry, and work that blends graphic design with traditional painting. You may have seen his murals around town, including “Altitude” in Italian Village, a large public piece that turns stairways, elevation, and perspective into something that feels part cityscape, part dream sequence.

This summer, his work is showing up in a slightly more playable format.

Lafayette Lounge, a limited-time pop-up park between Jackie O’s and Pins Mechanical Co. Downtown, opened June 4 and runs through July 31. The alleyway at 150 E. Lafayette St. has mini golf, ping pong, yard games, local art, and free Thursday evening events.

At the entrance is a small putt-putt course designed by Beck, which feels like the right kind of Columbus summer project: public art, but with a putter in your hand.

The lounge is open daily from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m., with free Thursday night programming from 6 to 8 p.m. Upcoming events include trivia, silent disco nights, and themed programming. It is also located in a DORA zone, meaning visitors can grab drinks from nearby spots like Pins, Jackie O’s, Slammers, or Wolf’s Ridge Brewing and wander over.

That is the best version of Downtown activation: take an underused alley, add local artists, games, seating, drinks, and a reason to stay awhile.

For Beck, it is another reminder that public art does not always have to be something you stare at quietly with your hands behind your back. Sometimes, it can be colorful, interactive, temporary, and wedged between a brewery and a bowling bar.

And honestly, Columbus could use more of that.

D) 1958! (its nice to look at things like this to get perspective sometimes!)

Top of Mind

The Rooster Spent a Night in Jail, Which Is Not a Metaphor

Ohio politics already has plenty of odd birds, but this week, one of them actually spent the night in jail.

D.J. Byrnes, better known online as The Rooster, was arrested Monday, June 1st, at the Ohio Statehouse by the Ohio State Highway Patrol on an outstanding misdemeanor warrant for telecommunications harassment. Byrnes, a political blogger on Substack, is known for confronting politicians in the halls of Columbus City Hall, Ohio State University, and the Statehouse, which is to say he has made a career out of being exactly where public officials would probably prefer he wasn’t.

The case appears to center on an alleged text exchange with State Sen. Jerry Cirino, a Republican from Kirtland. According to Byrnes’ colleague Max Littman, the issue stems from Byrnes allegedly texting Cirino an image of cartoon character Shrek’s penis. The warrant says Byrnes sent photos to a victim identified as “J.C.” Littman also shared what he said was a text exchange between Byrnes and Cirino, including the image, followed by Cirino’s alleged reply: “I don’t know who this is, but I’m certain you’re a moron.”

Which, as legal filings go, is not exactly Brown v. Board of Education.The dry stretch is being helped along by a stubborn high-pressure pattern sitting over the region, the weather equivalent of a bouncer keeping rain clouds out of the club. Similar dry weather is affecting parts of the Midwest, with meteorologists pointing to an “omega block” pattern that can hold warm, dry conditions in place for days.

The good news: Ohio is not currently back in the drought panic zone that made last summer feel like someone left the state in an air fryer. The bad news: dry spells in early June can turn quickly if they stick around, especially for farmers, gardeners, and anyone who recently spent money on mulch and now feels personally threatened by the sun.

Still, after a spring full of rain, storms, and weather alerts that sounded like they were written by a nervous intern, a week of sunshine is not exactly a tragedy. It is rare, strange, and very Ohio that the entire country has rain somewhere in the forecast except us.

So enjoy it. Open the windows. Take a walk. Sit on a patio. Pretend you’re the kind of person who “really makes the most of good weather.”

Byrnes spent 23 hours in the Franklin County Jail before being released on bond Tuesday. He had planned to hold a post-release press conference at the Statehouse, but canceled it on the advice of counsel. A wise move, probably. When your legal situation involves elected officials, alleged harassment, and animated ogre anatomy, fewer microphones may be best.

After his release, Byrnes issued a brief statement thanking supporters and saying, “I believe that the facts presented in court will show that I’m innocent of the misdemeanor charge of telecommunications harassment.”

There are serious questions here about harassment laws, political speech, public officials, and how far online provocation can go before it turns into a criminal case. But there is also the unavoidable fact that an Ohio political blogger named The Rooster was arrested at the Statehouse over what may involve Shrek’s private swamp business.

From Shrek’s swamp to Ohio’s political swamp, this case has taken a journey no civics textbook was brave enough to predict.

Scarlet Letter Trivia

Question: What’s the rarest animal ever born at the Columbus Zoo?
A. Okapis
B. Bornean Orangutan
C. Dama Gazelle
D. Gold Fish

The Columbus Zoo Would Like You to Name a Baby Giraffe, and One Option Is Tim

The Columbus Zoo has a new baby Masai giraffe, and naturally, the public has been handed the sacred responsibility of choosing his name.

The male calf was born March 10 in the Heart of Africa region to 15-year-old Zuri, and after a few months of getting to know him, the zoo has narrowed the name choices down to four: BJ St. Pierre, Jasper, Patches, and Tim. Voting runs through June 15, with the winning name set to be announced on June 21, also known as World Giraffe Day.

Let’s review the candidates.

BJ St. Pierre is named after his father, Bobbie, with what the zoo calls “a distinguished twist.” Very elegant. Very country club. Very “this giraffe has opinions about linen.”

Jasper is inspired by the gemstone, a nod to the calf’s natural patterns. Solid choice. Respectable. Feels like he might own a bookstore.

Patches is the obvious cute option, since giraffes do, in fact, come pre-patched.

And then there’s Tim.

Now Tim holds a special place in my heart, it's my dad's name, and guys, I love my dad. He's the best guy ever and my hero.

… It's also the name of the guy I do onlyincbus with.

Now, while both Tims are important to me, one has taught me how to be a man and someone I aspire to be like every day.

The other… is like a weird older brother that I have to help at restaurants 

And while I care about both, this puts us in a difficult position. But Im genetically and emotionally obligated to insist you all vote for Tim! 

A baby giraffe. An endangered species. A rare, long-necked miracle of conservation born at one of the best zoos in the country. And they might name him Tim.

Is Tim the most majestic name for a giraffe? Maybe not. 

This giraffe could be Jasper, elegant and gemstone-coded. He could be Patches, cute and obvious. He could be BJ St. Pierre, which sounds like he summers in Nantucket and has strong opinions about boat shoes.

But Tim?

Tim is a working man’s giraffe.

Tim pays his taxes. Tim brings his own folding chair. Tim knows a guy who can fix your gutters. Tim may stand 18 feet tall one day, but he still feels like he would help you move a couch.

And frankly, that is the kind of guy Columbus needs right now.

The zoo says Masai giraffes are endangered, so this birth is bigger than a cute naming contest. It is part of a larger conservation story, and a reminder that these animals are becoming increasingly rare in the wild.

Still, Columbus now has a civic duty. Vote wisely. Vote daily. Vote with the seriousness this moment deserves.

Or vote Tim. For the zoo. For conservation. For dads everywhere. And for the onlyIncbus founder who now has a chance to share a name with a baby giraffe, which feels about as special as “local media” gets.

Father’s Day, But Make It Bourbon

If Dad doesn’t need another golf shirt, grill gadget, or mug that says something legally adjacent to “World’s Best,” Hilton Columbus Downtown has a better idea.

On Thursday, June 18 at 6 p.m., Hilton Columbus Downtown is hosting a Bardstown Whiskey Trail, a four-stop tasting journey through its signature bars. For $50 per person, guests will enjoy curated 0.5 oz pours from Bardstown Distillery at Gallerie Bar, Spark, FYR Short North, and Stories on High.

The lineup includes Kentucky Straight Bourbon, Rye Whiskey aged in cherry wood barrels, Bottled in Bond Wheated Bourbon, and Bardstown High Wheat Bourbon. Each guest also gets a snack, a keepsake tasting glass, a tobacco truffle, and a whiskey caramel bon bon.

Four bars. Four pours. One very solid excuse to call it a Father’s Day gift.

Ohio’s Data Center Boom Hits the “Wait, Are We Sure About This?” Phase

For the past few years, Ohio has been selling itself as the future of American tech.

Data centers. AI. Silicon Heartland. Server farms rising from former farmland like somebody asked ChatGPT to design a cornfield with no corn.

But this week, Ohioans showed up at the Statehouse to ask a pretty reasonable question:

What exactly are we giving up to power all of this?

At a June 1 hearing before a newly formed bipartisan Select Committee on Data Centers, more than 35 residents signed up to speak, with another 70 submitting written testimony. Their concerns were wide-ranging but familiar: water use, energy demand, tax breaks, loss of rural land, lack of transparency, and whether Ohio is building the future or just turning itself into a very large charging brick.

The pushback is no longer just a few neighbors yelling at zoning boards. A grassroots effort is now collecting signatures for a constitutional amendment that would ban large data centers. Organizer Jessica Baker said the movement is bringing together Republicans, Democrats, Libertarians, farmers, environmentalists, and small business owners, which is impressive considering most of those groups can barely agree on what temperature to set the thermostat.

One of the most striking moments came from 12-year-old Samuel Menges of Lorain County, who told lawmakers he wants to be a farmer when he grows up and does not want Ohio to lose more farmland to massive developments. He warned about what could happen decades from now if natural waterways dry up, farmland disappears, and communities are left dealing with consequences no one fully studied at the start.

That is the uncomfortable heart of this story.

Data centers are not imaginary villains. They power the internet, cloud computing, AI, streaming, search, storage, and basically every modern convenience we pretend is weightless. But they are not weightless. They require land. They require power. They require water. They require public infrastructure. And in Ohio, they have also required a whole lot of public generosity.

According to the article, Ohio has the sixth-most data centers in the country, with 232 statewide and 137 in central Ohio alone. Meta’s New Albany data center, which is being expanded, sits on 766 acres, more than one square mile.

That is not “just a building.” That is a land use decision with consequences.

Even Gov. Mike DeWine has tapped the brakes, recently pausing a controversial data center tax break that reportedly cost nearly $1.6 billion last year.

Now lawmakers are trying to figure out what comes next. The committee is expected to hear from representatives from Amazon, Meta, Google, and Microsoft on June 4, followed by local government officials, including representatives from New Albany, on June 8.

And that is where this gets interesting.

For years, Ohio leaders have talked about data centers like they are pure economic magic. New investment. New jobs. New relevance. The kind of thing that makes ribbon-cutting scissors tremble with excitement.

But the public is starting to ask for the receipt.

How much water? How much power? How much farmland? How many tax breaks? How many permanent jobs? How much local control? And who actually benefits when the servers hum, the lights stay on, and the bills come due?

Ohio wants to be part of the future. That part makes sense.

But maybe the future should have to answer a few questions before it gets another 1,000 acres and a tax incentive.

C) Dama Gazelle! Widely recognized as the rarest of all gazelle species.

Top of Mind

Ohio’s Rain-Free Flex

Ohio has found a new way to be weird, and this time it does not involve a highway sausage drop, a rogue deer, or someone driving into a building.

According to the National Weather Service, Ohio is the only state in the country with no rain in the forecast through June 5. That’s right. Out of all 50 states, Ohio looked at the sky, saw every other state getting at least a chance of precipitation, and said, “No thanks, we’re trying something.”

For most of this week, central Ohio is expected to stay sunny, warm, and agreeably pleasant. Highs will climb through the 70s and into the 80s, with dry air hanging around long enough to make your lawn start asking hard questions. It is the kind of forecast people dream about in February, right up until they remember they own grass, allergies, and outdoor plants with the survival instincts of a Victorian child.

The dry stretch is being helped along by a stubborn high-pressure pattern sitting over the region, the weather equivalent of a bouncer keeping rain clouds out of the club. Similar dry weather is affecting parts of the Midwest, with meteorologists pointing to an “omega block” pattern that can hold warm, dry conditions in place for days.

The good news: Ohio is not currently back in the drought panic zone that made last summer feel like someone left the state in an air fryer. The bad news: dry spells in early June can turn quickly if they stick around, especially for farmers, gardeners, and anyone who recently spent money on mulch and now feels personally threatened by the sun.

Still, after a spring full of rain, storms, and weather alerts that sounded like they were written by a nervous intern, a week of sunshine is not exactly a tragedy. It is rare, strange, and very Ohio that the entire country has rain somewhere in the forecast except us.

So enjoy it. Open the windows. Take a walk. Sit on a patio. Pretend you’re the kind of person who “really makes the most of good weather.”

Scarlet Letter Trivia

Question: How many miles of active railroad track are in Ohio?
A. 5,112 miles
B. 3,788 miles
C. 6,241 miles
D. 4,652 miles

Columbus’ Largest Pothole: The Hole Truth

After last week’s story and trivia about Columbus’ largest pothole, we couldn’t resist going back to the day Broad Street tried to eat a Mercedes.

It was the morning of July 9, 1986. Downtown Columbus was doing downtown Columbus things. Lawyers heading to offices. Traffic moving past the LeVeque Tower. Everyone is pretending West Broad Street was a normal road and not secretly a trapdoor.

Then, around 8:15 a.m., attorney Michael Schmidt was driving to work in his gold Mercedes 190E when the pavement in front of him started collapsing. Not cracking. Not buckling. Collapsing.

Beneath the street, a pair of century-old brick sewers had finally given up, taking a 40-by-30-foot section of West Broad with them. The road dropped 26 feet. Schmidt tried to swerve, but there are only so many evasive driving techniques available when the street becomes a sinkhole in real time.

The Mercedes went in, flipped once, and landed back on its wheels at the bottom of the crater.

Somehow, Schmidt walked away unhurt. He had been wearing his seat belt, which turned what could have been a tragedy into one of the most Columbus stories ever recorded. The car, sadly, did not survive. The $27,000 Mercedes was totaled, which feels fair after being swallowed by municipal infrastructure.

The hole became an instant attraction. People came downtown for days to stare into it. Food carts showed up nearby, because if Columbus sees a crowd, Columbus sees lunch. Newspapers around the world picked up the story, and the South China Morning Post ran the photo under the headline: “The hole truth: Mercedes bends.”

Perfect. No notes.

Schmidt handled the whole thing with almost unreasonable grace. He later helped promote seat belt use and only asked the city for $464.30, enough to cover his insurance deductible, a loaner car, and dry cleaning for his suit.

The Mercedes even got one last job before retirement. State Farm loaned the wrecked car to the Greater Columbus Convention & Visitors Bureau for a promotional stunt called “Land Your Hole Convention in Columbus.” Attendees at a Dayton convention posed in the car in front of a painted backdrop of the crater, which is either brilliant tourism marketing or proof that 1986 had no adult supervision.

As for the actual hole, fixing it took 51 workers, 1,838 hours, 13 days, and more than $100,000. Afterward, the city stepped up its sewer inspections, eventually checking the full system every five to seven years.

So yes, Columbus has potholes. We all know that. We dodge them, curse them, and occasionally name them in our heads.

But only one became an international headline, a tourist attraction, a convention gimmick, and a reminder that under every normal-looking street, there may be a 100-year-old sewer quietly considering retirement.

Watch Out! Big Boy is Comthing Through

The last story this week is for Tim Trad!

Union Pacific’s Big Boy No. 4014, the world’s largest operating steam locomotive, is coming through Ohio this month as part of its 2026 coast-to-coast tour celebrating America’s 250th anniversary. The tour marks Big Boy’s first trip to the East Coast, with stops across 10 states and more than 50 whistle-stops along the way.

And yes, it is actually called Big Boy. Subtlety was not a major design principle when building a 1.2-million-pound steam locomotive.

Big Boy No. 4014 was built in the 1940s to haul massive freight trains over the mountains between Wyoming and Utah. Union Pacific originally had 25 of these locomotives, but only eight still exist today. No. 4014 is the only one still operating, after being restored in 2019 and brought back as a rolling piece of American industrial history.

It is hard to overstate how absurdly large this thing is. Big Boy is 132 feet long, weighs more than a million pounds, and looks less like a train engine and more like a steel apartment building that learned how to breathe fire. If you have ever stood next to a normal locomotive and thought, “Wow, that’s big,” Big Boy is here to make that locomotive feel insecure.

Ohio will get a few chances to see it. Big Boy is scheduled to make a whistle-stop in Euclid on June 8 from 2:30 to 3 p.m. at the Chardon Road Crossing, just north of Euclid Avenue. Later this summer, it will return for a major public display in Fostoria on July 14.

The whole tour is part history lesson, part engineering flex, and part “your grandpa is about to have the best day of his life.” It is also a reminder of just how much railroads shaped the country. Before highways, airports, and Amazon trucks treating every neighborhood like a delivery obstacle course, trains were the backbone of American growth. They moved goods, connected cities, and made places like Ohio central to the flow of people and commerce.

Now, seeing Big Boy roll through Ohio is less about transportation and more about spectacle. It is a rare chance to watch one of the most powerful steam locomotives ever built move under its own power, loud, massive, and completely unnecessary in the best possible way.

When Big Boy rolls through Ohio, people will gather near the tracks with cameras, lawn chairs, and the emotional energy of a child seeing a dinosaur. And honestly, fair. A 1.2-million-pound steam locomotive crossing the state under its own power is not something you see every day.

Big Boy is coming through Ohio.

A) 5,112 miles of track on 43 railroads

Top of Mind

Grandview Gets Its Own Little Portal to the Underworld

Grandview Heights had a very normal Memorial Day weekend until the ground decided to open a small side business at the corner of Fairview Avenue and Merrick Road.

The city closed the intersection on May 23 after a sinkhole formed near the sidewalk. According to Grandview Heights, the closure will remain in place until at least May 26, when crews are expected to evaluate the site and figure out what caused it.

A resident reported the sinkhole shortly after 1 p.m. on May 23. And while the hole appears to be near the sidewalk, the city closed the road out of caution due to safety concerns and forecasted rain.

Which is reasonable. If there is one thing you do not want to hear after the ground starts caving in, it is, “Don’t worry, more rain is coming.”

The intersection sits a few blocks southeast of the Grandview Heights Public Library, near West First Avenue. For now, drivers will need to find another route while crews inspect the site.

As for what caused it, the city does not know yet. Sinkholes can form when water erodes underground material, creating empty spaces beneath the surface. Over time, the ground above those voids can become unstable and collapse. Sometimes it happens slowly. Sometimes it happens all at once, which is rude, but efficient.

The good news is that the city caught it, closed the area, and is waiting for crews to assess the damage before reopening the road.

The bad news is that Grandview now has a reminder that even its sidewalks are apparently capable of drama.

Scarlet Letter Trivia

Question: In 1986, Columbus had a sinkhole so massive it was nicknamed the “Big Hole” and the “world’s largest pothole.” Where did it happen?
A. High Street near Ohio State
B. West Broad Street in front of the LeVeque Tower
C. Cleveland Avenue near Linden
D. Third Street outside the Statehouse

Pilot Dogs Is Expanding Its Franklinton Home

Since 1950, Pilot Dogs has been helping people who are blind or visually impaired move through the world with more confidence, independence, and support.

Now, the long-standing Columbus nonprofit is celebrating a major expansion and renovation of its headquarters in Franklinton, which feels fitting for an organization built around one very simple idea: helping people move forward.

Pilot Dogs will host a ribbon cutting and open house on Thursday, May 28 at 11 a.m. at its headquarters at 625 W. Town St. The event will include remarks from CEO Jim Alloway, representatives from the Columbus Fire Department, a Co-Pilot Program participant, and a Pilot Dogs graduate.

For those unfamiliar, Pilot Dogs provides expertly trained guide dogs, orientation and mobility training, and other services for people who are blind or visually impaired. But before those dogs are ready to guide someone through busy sidewalks, crosswalks, grocery stores, airports, and every other daily obstacle course humans invented for themselves, they start as puppies.

That is where the Co-Pilot Program comes in.

Co-Pilots are volunteer puppy raisers who welcome Pilot Puppies into their homes from around 2 months old until they are about 16 to 18 months old. During that time, the puppies learn household manners, get real-world experience, and start building the habits they will need for advanced guide dog training.

The volunteers come from all over: college students, retirees, teachers, nurses, empty nesters, and regular people who looked at a puppy and thought, “Yes, I can handle this,” which is both noble and, depending on the puppy, deeply optimistic.

Pilot Dogs makes sure Co-Pilots are not doing it alone. Volunteers receive supplies, free veterinary care, boarding support, hands-on obedience training, and ongoing guidance from the organization. Also, technically not listed as a formal benefit but obviously included: puppy kisses.

The newly renovated facility will help Pilot Dogs continue that work from its historic Franklinton home, training guide dogs and supporting the people who will one day rely on them.

It is a big moment for a Columbus nonprofit that has spent more than seven decades doing quiet, life-changing work.

And now, with more space, more support, and presumably more very good dogs, Pilot Dogs is ready for its next chapter.

Two Central Ohio Massage Parlors Shut Down Amid Trafficking Investigation.

Two Central Ohio massage parlors have been shut down and boarded up after a court order tied to allegations of prostitution and possible human trafficking.

The businesses, Rejuvenation Spa at 5841 Karric Square Drive near Dublin and Red Bean Spa at 1066 Norton Road on Columbus’ west side, were searched and padlocked Thursday by investigators from Columbus Police and the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation. Authorities say both locations have now been declared public nuisances and hazards.

According to court records, the two spas had extensive histories of prostitution complaints and were allegedly connected by the same owners. The case is currently in Franklin County Environmental Court, where Columbus City Attorney Zach Klein and Franklin County Prosecuting Attorney Shayla Favor filed a public nuisance complaint against the businesses, their operators, and property owners.

Klein called the reports of prostitution and possible human trafficking “abhorrent,” saying the city would continue cracking down on businesses that threaten public safety.

Which is legal-speak for: the “spa” part of the business model was apparently doing a lot of heavy lifting.

Court filings name six people connected to the spas, along with Red Beans Spa LLC and Du Wellness LLC. Investigators say the history at the locations dates back to 2019, with years of complaints, surveillance, and inspections raising red flags.

At Rejuvenation Spa, authorities say they received complaints involving possible trafficking, prostitution, and sexual imposition. In 2023, the Central Ohio Human Trafficking Task Force and Columbus License Division inspected the business and found evidence that people were living inside the premises, which investigators described as a common warning sign in trafficking cases involving massage parlors.

By late 2025, similar reports began involving Red Bean Spa. From December 2025 through May 2026, the Human Trafficking Task Force conducted surveillance at both locations and observed activity they said was consistent with prostitution and possible human trafficking operations. Investigators also said they saw owners and staff transporting workers between the two businesses.

Court documents also describe online posts and reviews connected to the spas that authorities say pointed to illicit activity, including advertisements as recent as April 2026.

For now, this is a nuisance abatement case, not a criminal prosecution. But officials said criminal charges could still follow.

Favor said investigators documented “a pattern of deliberate, organized exploitation of vulnerable populations,” and warned that similar businesses in Franklin County are being watched.

Both spas remain padlocked under court order, with the defendants expected back in Franklin County Environmental Court next Thursday.

The larger story here is not just that two businesses got boarded up. It is that authorities believe these storefronts may have been used as cover for exploitation, hiding in plain sight behind strip-mall signage, soft lighting, and the kind of bland business names most people drive past without thinking twice.

Now, at least for these two locations, the lights are off.

Shadowbox Live Wants Your Canned Goods With Your 90s Nostalgia

Shadowbox Live is turning its next show into more than a night of music, theater, and carefully weaponized flannel.

The Brewery District theater is partnering with the Mid-Ohio Food Collective on a new initiative called Art Feeds the Soul, encouraging audiences to bring canned goods and essential items to every performance to help support local families facing food insecurity.

The program launches with Flannel: A 90s Rock Musical, Shadowbox’s new show built around the sound and mood of the grunge era. The production follows Chance, a Rolling Stone photographer who returns to his small hometown to face the family, friends, and past he left behind. Naturally, the soundtrack leans into Nirvana, Jane’s Addiction, Smashing Pumpkins, and the emotional damage of an entire generation that somehow processed everything through distorted guitars and oversized shirts.

Which, honestly, feels like the correct setting for a food drive. Nothing says “community support” quite like remembering a decade when everyone dressed like they were either starting a band or heading to a very intense bonfire.

To thank guests who donate, Shadowbox has created the 5/5 - 10/10 program. Bring five items, and you’ll receive a $5 gift card. Bring 10 items, and you’ll get a $10 gift card that can be used toward food and drinks that night.

Shadowbox has always billed itself as more than just a show. Between the curated galleries, the intimate theater setting, and the fact that the performers also help serve the handcrafted menu before curtain, it is already one of the more unique nights out in Columbus.

Now, with Art Feeds the Soul, that night out can also help stock shelves for families right here in the community.

So yes, go for the 90s rock musical. Stay for the food, drinks, and live performance. But maybe bring a few canned goods too.

Turns out flannel can still be useful after all.

B) West Broad Street in front of the LeVeque Tower