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With the Covid-19 delta variant increasing rapidly in Portage County, can the government force you — against your will — to spend hours indoors in a room filled with total strangers, half of whom, statistically, have not been vaccinated (according to the Ohio Department of Health on Aug. 20)?

In a span of a few short years, Kreiner went from placing in three events at the state tournament as a senior at Mogadore High School in 1995, to trying a new event — javelin — as a freshman at Kent State University the next year, to becoming the best javelin thrower in the country by 2001.

“The Personal Librarian” by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray is a fictionalized biography of a real person, set in the years 1905 to 1948. Belle da Costa Greene was the personal librarian for the financier J.P. Morgan. But she was born Belle Marion Greener. Why did she change her name?

Kent City Council members unanimously voted Wednesday to consider whether the city should implement a mask mandate during a Health and Safety Committee meeting on Sept. 1. 

Mike Beder’s efforts to bring new retail to downtown Kent and further the decades-long mission of creating a “town and gown” community should be applauded. I believe the ARB’s objections to the facade’s color scheme are subjective, and indeed, misguided.

Ten days after adopting a masks-optional policy for the school year, Kent City Schools reversed course and decided to mandate universal masking for all students and staff members, regardless of vaccination status. In doing so, they were diverging from nearly every other school system in the county. What changed Superintendent George Joseph’s mind? 

Backyard chickens are still on Streetsboro City Council’s mind as the city’s service committee is floating yet another poultry-oriented ordinance.

Here are a couple tales from my career in journalism to help take the edge off, something I plan to do from time to time to keep things light.

Out of Portage County’s 12 public school systems, only Kent City Schools and Bio-Med Science Academy will require students to wear masks. Those two districts flipped their original decisions after public outcry against masks-optional policies. The remaining school districts, including Aurora, said that until they are required to enforce a mask mandate, they will leave the masking decision up to parents.

Ravenna City Schools’ former Superintendent Dennis Honkala and the Portage County NAACP have teamed up to add more civil rights education to the curriculum by purchasing 250 social justice coloring books to use in the 2021 school year.

Portage County residents will be driving in style Summer 2022 as PARTA introduces three trolley buses to its fleet. The trolleys will replace buses that are no longer in service and will bring a modern twist to the downtown Kent and Ravenna area.

Score a win for Streetsboro Mayor Glenn Broska, who recently took Portage County commissioners to task over reduced recycling pickups without any commensurate reduction in the price of the service.

The union representing Kent State professors issued a forceful call to action against Ohio House Bills 322 and 327, which mimic a nationwide effort to ban teaching critical race theory in classrooms.

Longtime Kent businessman Mike Beder has recently opened Kent Sportswear on South Water Street, selling university-themed apparel to the student market returning this fall.

If we have learned anything since March 2020, it is this: We need each other. The pandemic has revealed in large and small ways that our society and our very lives are an interdependent web tethered to one another.

As a parent of two young, unvaccinated children in Aurora’s public schools, I strongly urge our superintendent and school board to rethink the decision to not mandate the use of masks among this group of unvaccinated children.

As of July 26, JFS was responsible for 191 children, including 33 in foster homes in Portage County and 67 in out-of-county homes operated by for-profit agencies. Eleven children are in residential treatment facilities, seven are in group homes, 70 are with relatives, two are incarcerated, and one is with a family that is pursuing adoption.

About 175 musicians and friends of Rockin’ Robin Montgomery gathered at Kent’s Plum Creek Park on Sunday for a celebration of life to honor a great musician gone too soon.

Gregg Isler, serving as acting league commissioner of a potential new PCL, along with assistant commissioners Brittany Dye and Tom Nader, have been moving forward this summer with their aim of drumming up support to bring back the league that existed from 1922 to 2005.

With the 20th anniversary of 9/11 fast approaching, Streetsboro is holding a 9.11-mile Remembrance Run. Streetsboro City Council approved legislation for the Run on Monday, setting the date for Sept. 11.