Sept. 11, 2022

Mental health:

Lakota East senior Caitlyn Spaulding says she was honored her freshman year to get nominated for Hope Squad, a peer-to-peer suicide prevention program used in schools across the country. With that nomination came the responsibility of checking in on her classmates’ mental health, which she says can be overwhelming attimes.Especiallysinceshe’snoticed her peers’ mental health decline since

When Greater Cincinnati’s leaves will start to change

Are you there, fall?

With the consistent 80-degree days around Greater Cincinnati, not quite yet. But, sweater weather and everything that comes with the first chill in the air is on the way, including fall foliage.

According to the 2022 fall foliage prediction map from SmokeyMountains.com, Greater Cincinnati will begin to see minimal change in leaf colors in the beginning of October and past peak colors by the beginning of November.

As of early September, the fall foliage prediction map currently shows no change in leaf colors for much of the U.S., and minimal leaf change in mostly northern, Canadian-bordering states and some areas of Utah and Colorado. The tool is not exact, but was built as a guide for travelers to better plan trips and have the best opportunity to see peak fall colors in certain areas of the country. Herearemorespecificdatesforwhen

Warm, humid air and the cloudy sky this morning are all signs of the rainmaker to the south that promises numerous showers this afternoon and evening. An isolated shower is possible early today, but more widespread rain will fall after 3pm into the predawn hours of Monday. A few thunderstorms are also possible. Monday and Tuesday there is the chance of a shower but most of the time and in most places the weather will be dry. Wednesday through Friday look to be dry and warmer weather with high temperatures reaching the upper half of the 80s Friday through Tuesday, Sept. 20. Through that stretch rainfall will be hard to come by as a dry, almost hot, late summer weather pattern is established over the Tristate.

CORRECTIONS AND CLARIFICATIONS

The Enquirer is committed to accuracy and will correct all errors of substance. To reach us, contact reader representative Robin Buchanan at 513-768-8308 or email her at accuracy@enquirer.com. Please include whether you are responding to content online, in social media or in the newspaper.

LOTTERIES

we might begin to see changes and peak leaf colors around the Cincinnati area:

h Minimal change: Around Oct. 3.

h Patchy change: Around Oct. 10.

h Partial change: Around Oct. 17.

h Near peak colors: Around Oct. 24.

h Peak colors: Around Oct. 31 (Halloween).

h Past peak colors: Around Nov. 7.

So essentially, we’ll have all of October to enjoy the changes in leaves. And by Nov. 21, the Smoky Mountains map predicts almost all of the mainland U.S. states will be past peak, except for parts of Texas, Louisiana and Florida.

The Farmer’s Almanac also predicts that the tri-state area will see peak fall colors during October, with more specific dates depending on the region. Here are the probable dates:

h Ohio: Oct. 5-21.

h Indiana: Northern Indiana, Oct. 5-21; Southern Indiana, Oct. 12-28.

h Kentucky: Eastern Kentucky, Oct. 5-21; Western Kentucky, Oct. 1228.

– Emily DeLetter

COVID-19 VACCINE DASHBOARD LATEST IN ROLLOUT

OHIO

Doses received: 26,258,255

Residents with one dose: 7,537,987 or 64.5%

Residents fully vaccinated: 6,935,957 or 59.3%

Eligible now: Ages 6 months and up.

To register: Go online to gettheshot.coronavirus.ohio.gov to check eligibility and book an appointment or get a link to vaccine providers. Or call 833-427-5634.

KENTUCKY

Doses received: 10,073,475

Residents with one dose: 3,014,605 or 67.5%

Residents fully vaccinated: 2,610,361 or 58.4%

Eligible now: Ages 6 months and up.

To register: Go online to vaccine.ky.gov, call 855-598-2246 (hearing impaired 855-326-4654

MILLIONS

jackpot is an estimated $231 million.

20 Power Play: 3x

jackpot is an estimated $186 million.

TODAY IN HISTORY

Today is Sunday, Sept. 11, the 254th day of 2022. There are 111 days left in the year. On this date in:

1789: Alexander Hamilton was appointed the first U.S. secretary of the treasury.

1936: Boulder Dam (now Hoover Dam) began operation as President Franklin D. Roosevelt pressed a key in Washington to signal the startup of the dam’s first hydroelectric generator.

1941: Groundbreaking took place for the Pentagon.

2001: Nearly 3,000 people were killed as 19 al-Qaida hijackers seized control of four jetliners, sending two of the planes into New York’s World Trade Center, one into the Pentagon and the fourth into a field in western Pennsylvania.

2006: In a prime-time address, President George W. Bush invoked the memory of the victims of the 9/11 attacks as he staunchly defended the war in Iraq, though he acknowledged that Saddam Hussein was not responsible for the attacks.

2008: Presidential candidates John McCain and Barack Obama put aside politics as they visited ground zero together on the anniversary of 9/11 to honor its victims.

2012: A mob armed with guns and grenades launched a fiery nightlong attack on a U.S. diplomatic outpost and a CIA annex in Benghazi, Libya, killing U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans.

How LPGA will shape future of Kenwood

180-member American Society of Golf Course Architects. (There are currently two female members: Jan Bel Jan, a Florida-based architect and Straka’s predecessor, as well as Cynthia Dye McGarey, a Colorado architect on the ASGCA Board of Governors. But many others exist throughout the world.)

It’s been almost 60 years since Cincinnati’s Kenwood Country Club hosted a major golf tournament. This weekend’s LPGA Kroger Queen City Championship presented by P&G is not only a big win for the region, but functions as a trial run to lure similar events at the 92year-old golf club.

Up until last year when P&G signed onasasponsor,Kenwoodhadn’texpected its newly-renovated Kendale course to see tens of thousands of spectators descend on it for five days straight. Changes on site included restoring the original bunker patterns, widening the fairways, removing overplanted trees and installing a new irrigation system − all to enhance the average Kenwood member’s experience, not necessarily to appeal to the world’s most elite golfers.

But it attracted them anyway.

“When the course was redesigned a few years ago, part of the initial request by the architect was to include a 3-inchhigh rough, which actually matched the LPGA standard,” said Dylan Petrick, Kenwood’s CEO. “It was fortuitous because we didn’t do the renovation looking to get an LPGA tournament.”

Now, thanks to a three-year deal with the LPGA, Cincinnati will see the championship evolve and Kenwood plans to make the most of it by improving the course each year.

“The big goal for this tournament is to have it reflect all the hard work of the staff not just this year but in the past as well,” said Nate Herman, Kenwood’s director of agronomy and grounds. “We also want the membership to feel proud because their course and their home will be nationally recognized. That’s the goal. We’re not gonna get it perfect this year but we’ll take a lot of notes.”

Getting rid of the ‘stigmas’ in golf

Built in 1930, Kenwood’s two 18-hole courses, Kendale and Kenview, were de-

signed by Indianapolis-based golf architect Bill Diddel. The $5 million renovation of Kendale was done largely to restore the course to Diddel’s original design. Its 482 acres now serve 925 members.

The professional golfers will be playing 6,515 yards at Kenwood through this Sunday. (For context, the average course length on the LPGA pre-pandemic was 6,400 yards, according to Golf Week.)

The PGA and LPGA can make courses harder or easier depending on where they place the tee boxes or pins. USGA spokesperson Beth Major said

Some of the biggest modifications done during a professional tournament simply include making room for spectator tents and TV equipment. The bigger the course, the easier it is to set up, Kenwood officials said.

there are no major differences between setting up a course for men or women. Other factors may influence how a course is set up: weather, the skill level of players.

Greater attention is being paid to equity across all athletic fields, not only by the media, but by the professional organizations that regulate them.

Even the architects who design golf courses are trying to flip the narrative.

Jason Straka is a principal of Fry/Straka Global Golf Course Design, the Dublin, Ohio-based firm that led the renovation ofKendale.He’salsothepresidentofthe

“When designing, we’re very cognizant of not saying, ‘here are the ladies’ tees or men’s tees,’” he said. “Instead we’re much more focused on swing speed and skill set when determining where to place certain features on the course.”

This line of thinking corresponds with the Longleaf Tee Initiative, a program from the American Society of Golf Course Architects Foundation, that encourages clubs to expand tee locations and rate tee scores for players of all genders, ages and skill levels.

“In the past, a woman might have gone to what’s called the ‘ladies’ tee,’ which is usually the forwardmost tee, but that’s no longer the case,” said Straka. “We’re trying to get rid of all those stigmas in golf.”

This is why Petrick sees this partnership with the LPGA as so beneficial. Together, they’re trying to get more eyes on and more access to women’s golf.

What course changes we may see for 2023

Kenwood said the club will increase drainage efficiency and improve rolling speeds on the greens. They also want to add bays to the driving range. But these plans were already in the works − tournament or no tournament.

For Petrick, the most important part of hosting the LPGA Kroger Queen City Championship is the opportunity to empower women, families and all of its members to have the same access to golf.

Since day one, our mindset ahead of this week has been to focus on the golf course and treat its maintenance in the same way we’d treat it 52 weeks a year,” he said. “We understand our strengths. We aren’t chasing a PGA event. We simplythinkofthistournamentasagreatfit for our course and for our mission.”

Enquirer Reporter Adam Baum contributed.

During the renovation of Kenwood Country Club’s Kendale course, the original bunker layout from 1930 was restored. PHOTOS BY KAREEM ELGAZZAR/THE ENQUIRER

Late reporter gives us a glimpse into Cincinnati history

Research, recollections made Henderson unique

More than a century ago and under the pseudonym Conteur, which means “storyteller," The Enquirer published a series of articles about Cincinnati’s past. Behind the byline was Edwin Henderson, a veteran reporter and city editor from the old Cincinnati Commercial newspaper, dating back to the Civil War.

He wrote about the city’s prominent early families and influential figures, memorable tragedies and what Fourth Street was like 80 years earlier.

What made Conteur’s stories different was that, in addition to Henderson’s meticulous research, they featured the writer’s own recollections. He wasn’t just a historian; he was an eyewitness to Cincinnati’s history.

His reminiscences carried him back through the fateful days when Cincinnati was in the making, the days when Cincinnati, little more than an infant in swaddling clothes, was striving for an existence,” The Enquirer wrote in Henderson’s obituary in 1926. “His articles dealt with little-known features of the old days … as well as sketches, whimsical touches and drama of the social and business life of the city.”

Newspaper life with famed reporter Lafcadio Hearn

Although he shared his knowledge of people he knew, Henderson was reticent to share much about his own life. His obituary said as much, reporting only that he was born in 1844 in the Northeast, either Vermont or Canada, and attended school at Dartmouth Cikkege.

Henderson came to Cincinnati around 1861 and found work as a journalist at the Cincinnati Gazette.

During the Civil War, he was a copy boy who handled battlefield dispatches from the Gazette’s war correspondent, Whitelaw Reid, writing under the pen name Agate. Reid was later editor of the New York Tribune and ran for vice president in Benjamin Harrison’s unsuccessful reelection campaign in1892.

Henderson moved over to the Commercial as city editor by 1864.

During his tenure there, he hired Lafcadio Hearn in 1875 after the famed reporter had been dismissed from The Enquirer after marrying a Black woman, which was socially unacceptable at the time.

“Edwin Henderson was at least a far more indulgent editor than most,” Hearn biographer Vera McWilliams wrote. Hearn’s new job was as a police reporter, but Henderson gave him “carte blanche in following his own inclinations.” Hearn turned in eloquent stories on Black dock workers and studies of life on the levee – uncommon topics for newspapers, and some of Hearn’s best work.

Hearn’s most famous story for the Commercial was an assignment Henderson gave him, to accompany steeple climbers up the tower of St. Peter in Chains Cathedral. Henderson knew Hearn could make a good story out of it.

Hearn made the harrowing climb with some trepidation. Henderson wrote: “Hearn came back to the office and wrote two columns describing his sensations, and the wonders of the view he had obtained from the steeple top, though he was so nearsighted he could not have seen five feet beyond the tip of his nose.”

As Hearn grew disgruntled with Cincinnati’s harsh weather, Henderson suggested to Commercial owner Murat Halstead to send Hearn to Louisiana as a political consultant in 1877. Henderson and Halstead accompanied Hearn to board a train to Memphis.

“I had to go, sooner or later,” Hearn told his editor, “but it was your description of the sunlight, the delicate odors and melodies and all the delights with which the South appeals to the senses that carried me back to my childhood in the Mediterranean and determined me. I shall feel better in the South, and I know I shall do better work there.”

Hearn went on to a celebrated career writing about New Orleans and then Japan.

Henderson was a witness to Cincinnati's history

Henderson left journalism after becoming Cincinnati’s city clerk in1880, a position he held until 1912, except for one term.

He also penned historic articles, many of them personal recollections, published in The Enquirer from 1903 to

Continued on next page

Edwin Henderson, a former city editor for the Cincinnati Commercial, wrote Cincinnati history under the pen name Conteur for The Enquirer from 1903 to 1925. ENQUIRER FILE

1905, then sporadically until they resumed as a regular feature in 1919 until he retired in 1925.

His research was beyond reproach, not only the textbook history that predated his move to Cincinnati but also institutional knowledge of leaders and regular folks alike.

Henderson took walks with Col. Jeremiah Kiersted, the former chief of police and keeper of Cincinnati history, taking notes about the colonel’s memories of the old neighborhoods. Upon Kiersted’s death in 1905, Henderson wrote: “There is not one surviving him who was so closely in touch with the history of the city and its people as he.”

The torch, perhaps, was passed to Henderson. He had his own memories, and what’s best, he shared them with readers.

About the canal that ran where Central Parkway now lies:

During several decades this canal has been merely an eyesore, and disagreeable to the nostrils, but many citizens will recall the busy scenes of navigation along its smooth, narrow surface and the activities of the mills run by its power, back to the days almost of the Civil War, when from Cheapside (Street) down to the Ohio River the boats were locked up and down so that a cargo could be sent from the Great Lakes on the Ohio River. In his mind’s eye, the writer of this can recall just such scenes.”

About the fire on March 22, 1866, that destroyed Pike’s Opera House along with The Enquirer offices:

“By 11:45 the half square bounded by Fourth, Baker, Vine and Walnut had a luridly gleaming dome, through which shot columns of smoke and from which showers of sparks and bunches of flame floated upward and then descended upon the burning mass and upon the brightly illuminated streets, where thousands had already congregated, gazing with awe and sadness upon the scene.”

For the 40th anniversary of the deadly 1884 Courthouse Riot, he wrote of the events leading to the tragedy. The public was outraged about a lenient verdict in a murder case, and a mob marched to the jail to lynch the accused (but he had already been moved to another jail). The mob rioted and burned down the Hamilton County Court-

house.

Henderson, no longer a journalist at that time, didn’t want to be killed or wounded as a bystander, but he said he was coaxed by friends to view the conflagration of the courthouse that Saturday night.

“On reaching the eastern end of the Court Street Market we stood on a butcher’s block and looked over the densely packed crowd between Walnut and Main, to the big blaze of the Courthouse. Not for long, however, for presently appeared the bayonets of the Fourteenth Militia from Columbus and then we moved rapidly back west and then to the safety of the Grand Hotel. Next morning it turned out that shortly after we had placed a few angles of streets behind us in our flight the volleys from the militia had been the most destructive of life and limb of the whole tragedy. The dead and wounded were plentiful on Court between Main and Walnut.”

Three days of skirmishes between the militia and rioters were deadly. “There must have been at least 50 fatalities in the total. And there were at least 139 wounded who survived to tell the story of those awful days or nights.”

Henderson’s eyes, then his pen, give us a rare glimpse into our history.

Liza Smitherman

Jen Stein

The Hamilton County Courthouse was burned during the rioting in 1884. FILE

Fatal shooting has residents concerned

Mt. Lookout community seeks cause of violence

Knight

Mount Lookout and Hyde Park have remained nearly untouched by gun violence for more than a decade.

But a killing Sept. 3 has left the community questioning what is happening to their neighborhood.

Antonio Johnson, 41, was fatally shot near the Linwood Avenue CVS on Mount Lookout Square, police said. Sherrard Campbell, 27, is charged with murder in the death.

This marks the first fatal shooting in Mount Lookout or Hyde Park since at least 2008, according to Cincinnati policedata.Thereweretwoothershootings in those areas and the victims survived.

Only Columbia Tusculum and Mount Adams can claim fewer shootings. Overthe-Rhine and Avondale have both had more than 600 shootings. On average, each of Cincinnati’s neighborhoods has been116 shootings during that time period.

That works out to just over eight a year per neighborhood.

Troublingly, one of the nonfatal shootings in Mount Lookout and Hyde Park occurred just six months ago at the same intersection as this weekend’s killing.

InMarch,earlyonaSunday,a17-yearold was shot at the corner of Linwood and Delta avenues.

Mount Lookout Community Council President Rob Pasquinucci said residents and business owners are very concerned.

“Our goal is to create a safe environment,” he said.

Pasquinucci said the council is working with police to try to determine the root cause of what’s happening. He said there’s lots of talk about what might be happening after-hours on the square and the council is working to get to the bottom of it.

The official information available about the Sept. 3 killing does not reveal much. The accused, Campbell, lives in Anderson Township, according to court

documents. The victim, Johnson, has an address listed in Hartwell, but it is unclear if this was where he was living. The

documents state the shooting was purposeful. Johnson was shot multiple times.

Capt. Danita Pettis, District 2 commander, said the investigation into the shooting is ongoing and could only say thattwomenhadaverbalaltercationbefore shots were fired.

Reported crime has increased in the neighborhoods steeply this year. In all of 2021,therewere333reportedcrimes,police data show. This year, as of Sept. 5, there have been 321reported crimes putting the two neighborhoods on track to have more than 450 by the end of this year.

However,bothneighborhoodsexperienced a dip in reported crimes in 2020 and2021.Thenumberofreportedcrimes is on par with incidences in 2018.

The neighborhoods have few violent crimes with only 10 aggravated assaults and 16 robberies since the beginning of 2018.

“We are dedicated to keeping our neighborhoodaplacewherethecommunity can live, work and enjoy peacefully,” the Mount Lookout Community Council said in a Facebook post

Bobby Wright has lived in the area for about three years. He was at Mount Lookout Tavern that Saturday and heard 10 to 12 gunshots and the ensuing panic.

“I didn’t know what to do,” Wright said. “It’s ridiculous, everything that’s going on.”

Wright said he’s been contacting area leaders and plans to attend the next community council meeting on Sept. 19. He said having a homicide just after a fatal hit-and-run on Aug. 27 on Linwood Avenue has left people shaken. The family of Ryan Malm who was killed in the crash is offering a reward for information about this incident.

Wright said it seems that things have escalated in the neighborhood in the past six months with minor crimes as well like thefts, nuisance crimes and reckless driving.

I couldn’t really tell you what’s driving that hostility, but it’s happening right in the heart of the square,” Wright said.

A man was fatally shot Sept. 3 near the Linwood Avenue CVS on Mount Lookout Square, police say. An arrest has been made. ALBERT CESARE/THE ENQUIRER

A map shows all of the shootings in Cincinnati since 2008. The two highlighted shootings were at Mount Lookout Square this year. Shootings outside Cincinnati’s jurisdiction are not shown. GOOGLE MAPS

“Our goal is to create a safe environment.”

Rob Pasquinucci Mount Lookout Community Council president

Transcripts: Juror was on cellphone during deliberations

Sittenfeld’s attorneys seek mistrial based on misconduct

Kevin Grasha and Sharon Coolidge Cincinnati Enquirer USA TODAY NETWORK

A juror in P.G Sittenfeld’s federal corruption trial who posted on Facebook throughout the trial used her cellphone during deliberations, according to recently unsealed transcripts.

That revelation came asattorneysfortheformer Cincinnati city councilman questioned two additional jurors on Aug. 17, aspartofaprobeintopossible juror misconduct.

U.S. District Judge Douglas Cole presided over the in-chambers hearing regarding the matter. Late Tuesday, he unsealed transcripts of that hearing.

Sittenfeld’s attorneys are seeking a mistrial based on juror misconduct, and three hearings have now been held. Cole has not yet made a determination. Each of the hearings happened in secret, with transcripts released afterward.

Questions about the jury’s conduct arose after it was revealed that a female juror, referred to in court documents as Juror X, was posting on Facebook during the trial. She said she didn’t read anything about the trial or discuss it with anyone, according to a transcript of a July 8 hearing at which she was questioned. She did testify at that hearing that another juror had “a deep hatred for politicians,” although that juror, identified as JurorY,adamantlydenied it.

With those allegations looming,Coleallowedtwo additional jurors to be randomly selected for questioning about whether jurors talked about information that had not been presented at trial.

One of the unnamed jurors questioned Aug. 17 said Juror X “had her phone out towards the end” of deliberations, which took place over three days. On July 8, a Friday, the jury found Sittenfeld guilty of bribery and attempted extortion, but not guilty on four other counts.

“I don’t know what she wasdoing,orwhoshewas talking to,” the unnamed juror said about Juror X, according to the transcripts. “But she was actually in a hurry to get it done, I think. …And I was sitting fairly close to her.”

The unnamed juror, however, said Juror X did not discuss news accounts about the case.

It’s not known what the juror was doing on her cellphone – Cole would not allow Sittenfeld’s attorneys to have it examined.

Juror asked about exposure to news media

Charles M. Rittgers, Sittenfeld’s attorney, then askedifanyoftheother10 jurors talked about readingnewsarticlesorseeing television news regarding the trial. “No,”the juror replied. “The only thing close to it is – maybe I shouldn’t mention it. Um, no, she didn’t. But yeah, she was on her phone.”

Rittgers asked the juror to elaborate on the “close to it” statement, and she began to describe how another juror was “on the fence” and “could not make her mind up.” Cole then stopped the juror from testifying further, because he had already ruled that there could not be testimony about what the jury discussed during deliberations.

Cole explained that the only question being answered was whether jurorstalkedaboutinformation that had not been presented at trial.

Juror says she was not biased

Court officials discovered that Juror X was posting on Facebook on the third day of deliberations. At an in-chambers hearing immediately after the verdicts were announced, the juror accused of bias, known as Juror Y, testified that she never said she hated any elected official. “I said no such thing,” Juror Y testified on July 8. “And I don’t even feel that.”

Also at the Aug. 17 hearing, the two additional jurors were questioned about whether they heard members of the media talk about the case in the courthouse hallways. Nothing came of that questioning.

Cole has tried to proceed carefully in an effort to respect people who were engaging in a civic duty. “It’s very unusual to allow inquiry with individual jurors after a verdict has been returned,” hesaidattheAug.17hearing. “Out of an abundance of caution, I have allowed some limited inquiry here with regard to, at this point, four members of the jury.”

Also at that hearing, Cole said that based on the testimony of the two

additional jurors he was “not inclined to allow additional evidence gathering ... on this topic.”

He added he believes the jurors see it as “an immense invasion of their privacy ... casting a shadow on their integrity.”

“I think it’s inherently problematic to bring jurors in to discuss what happenedinthejuryroom after a trial is over,” he said, “because I think it leads them to believe that in some way they did not faithfully discharge their duties as jurors.”

Ex-Cincinnati councilman P.G Sittenfeld heads into federal court July 8 before a verdict in his public corruption trial was announced. PHIL DIDION/THE ENQUIRER

Video shows van hit 2 in Kroger lot, killing 1

An Avondale woman accused of hitting two people with her car last month, killing one man and leaving another wounded, was targeting the father of her infant child, according to the Hamilton County Prosecutor’s Office.

Taah’viya Chapman, 24, was indicted Thursday on charges of aggravated murder, murder, felonious assault, attempted murder and endangering children, court records show. One of the victims, Christopher Scott Griffith, 58, died as a result of the incident, police said.

If convicted on all charges, Chapman faces a maximum sentence of life in prison, Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters said during a press conference.

Investigators say Chapman struck Griffith and Jawon Khalid Lunsford near the Spring Grove Village Kroger on Kenard Avenue. Lunsford and Chapman share an 8-month-old child, who was in Chapman’s vehicle during the incident, prosecutors said.

Chapman dropped Lunsford off at the Kroger, Deters said. While he was inside the store, Chapman searched through Lunsford’s cell phone and believed he’d been in an “inappropriate” relationship with her sister, he added.

Video footage shows the vehicle speeding toward Lunsford, exiting the store with grocery bags in hand, and striking him as he attempts to jump out of the way. Griffith, supporting himself with a cane, was walking up to the store when the vehicle hits the curb and runs him over, the video shows.

The vehicle comes to a stop in the parking lot and a woman, identified as Chapman, exits the vehicle, runs over to Lunsford and starts throwing punches, the video shows. She’s then seen getting back into her vehicle before exiting again and attempting to flee the scene, according to the footage. Deters said she was stopped by a “good Samaritan” and arrested by police at the scene.

Prosecutors said Griffith died of his injuries at the University of Cincinnati Hospital Medical Center. Lunsford suf-

fered a broken leg.

In the past year, Chapman was charged separately with child endangering and interference with custody.

In the child endangering case from December 2021, Chapman is accused of hitting a 9-year-old girl with a belt and punching her in the eye. Recent court filingsshowChapmanplanstosayshewas acting in self-defense. It does not appear the two child-endangering cases involved the same juvenile. Prosecutors say she’s currently being held at the Hamilton County Justice Center.

Molly B. True, a close friend and former girlfriend of Griffith’s, said he was a renowned audio engineer who toured with artists such as Aerosmith, Prince and Harry Connick Jr. In 2013, Griffith was getting ready to go back on tour when he was paralyzed from the neck down following a motorcycle crash, True said. He eventually made a recovery and was able to walk with a cane, she said.

Griffith founded Look Twice Cincy, a charity focused on raising awareness of driver safety and helping others who’ve been in motorcycle crashes, True said.

“He saved my life on more than one occasion,” True said. “He was just golden.

“And for something like this to happen,” she said, “it’s just obscene.” Enquirer Reporter Cameron Knight contributed.

Christopher Scott Griffith, 58, pictured with close friend Molly B. True. Griffith died after he was struck by a vehicle Aug. 31. PROVIDED

GOP group aims to rally voters against Vance

Haley BeMiller State Bureau

COLUMBUS – A GOP group aligned with a former staffer for Sen. Rob Portman is hoping to rally Ohio swing voters against J.D. Vance as part of a national effort to block Republican candidates who cast doubt on the 2020 presidential election.

The Republican Accountability Project is launching a $500,000 digital campaignfeaturingRepublicanvotersin Ohio who plan to cast ballots for Vance’s opponent, U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan. The organization hopes to undermine candidates in key states such as Arizona and Pennsylvania who aligned themselves with former President Donald Trump and peddled false claims about election fraud.

“These are all people who voted Republican their entire lives, and they don’trecognizetheparty,”founderSarah Longwell said. “I think 2017 J.D. Vance would say the same thing.”

Among the group’s key backers is John Bridgeland, a Cincinnati native and Republican who worked in Portman’s congressional office. Bridgeland decided to support Ryan after seeing Vance walk back past criticisms of Trump and seek his support in the contentious GOP primary for Portman’s seat.

Bridgeland also worked in the White House under former Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama. In a 2020 essay, he said he was “encouraged” by President Joe Biden’s election victory.

Vance suggested Trump won Ohio in 2020 by a larger margin and told Spectrum News 1 that there was a “massive efforttoshifttheelectionbyverypowerful people.” He’s also criticized donations from Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg that allowed a nonprofit to award grants to local boards of election.

“If we don’t first protect our system and elect people who are willing to protect our system, we’re going to have power grabs and not policy debates within a legitimate system,” Bridgeland said. “I’m worried enough that there’s so many candidates across the country

who are going down that dark path.”

Portman, for his part, is backing Vance after supporting former Ohio Republican Party Chair Jane Timken in the primary. Speaking to reporters this week, he commended Vance’s campaign and argued that his policies on the economy and immigration are more closely aligned with what Ohioans want.

I think he’s on his way to a victory in Ohio, and once the fundraising allows him to be on TV, to level the playing field, I think it’s even more likely that he’ll begin to improve some of the polling we’ve seen,” Portman said.

The money from the Republican Accountability Project is a drop in the bucketcomparedtomillionsbeingspent by national GOP groups to boost Vance as he struggles to match Ryan’s fundraisinghaul.Longwellsaidherorganization is targeting a specific group of voters who are on the fence and may spend more in Ohio if needed.

“Sounds like another Lincoln Project styled grift,” Vance spokesman Luke Schroeder said. “Congratulations to the out of state consultants who will line their pockets though this failing venture!”

OhioRepublicanswhoprovidedtestimonials for the campaign said Vance can’t be trusted because of his inconsistent views on Trump, something the Hillbilly Elegy” author has been open about on the campaign trail. Former state Rep. Joan Lawrence said she’ll support Gov. Mike DeWine and other Republicans in the November election, but she’s unwilling to vote for Vance because of his fealty to the former president.

She also believes the Republican Party as a whole no longer respects the separation of church and state enshrined in the Constitution.

“I really am ashamed to say I’m a Republican,” Lawrence said. “It’s embarrassing.”

Haley BeMiller is a reporter for the USA TODAY Network Ohio Bureau, which serves the Columbus Dispatch, Cincinnati Enquirer, Akron Beacon Journal and 18 other affiliated news organizations across Ohio.

Meet the sisters who help run the Bengals

Blackburns have taken on highly visible projects

The Blackburn sisters have been busy since returning to Cincinnati and joining the family business during the past two and a half years.

The granddaughters of Bengals owner and president Mike Brown quickly made their presence known in the front office by taking on some visible projects, including the Ring of Honor and a new indoor practice facility.

Elizabeth Blackburn, director of strategy and engagement, and Caroline Blackburn, senior manager of digital strategy, discussed their journey home on this week’s episode of The Enquirer’s “That’s So Cincinnati” podcast.

Elizabeth Blackburn said she had four things on her to-do list. Establishing the Bengals Ring of Honor, which last season became a reality with the induction of Anthony Munoz and Paul Brown (the Blackburns’ great-grandfather, who founded the franchise). That allowed her to cross off one of those items.

Winning a playoff game was also on that list, but neither sister imagined that last season would culminate with an AFC Championship win and a trip to

the Super Bowl.

It was vindication for the family, which in the not-so-distant past was the object of harsh criticism from fans, some of whom called on Mike Brown to sell the team. The Bengals went 2-11 in 2019 and 4-11 in 2020.

“It’s painful. That’s the only way to say it,” Elizabeth Blackburn said of the

criticism, noting that theirs is one of the few ownership groups that live in the same city where the team plays. “I hope frankly it never gets anywhere close to that point again. I care too much about our family, about our team and about the community to ever want to (be) in that kind of contentious situation.

“But that was motivating, I will say. It

was painful, it was motivating, and it led to today, and it really makes you appreciate when you are in a good time.”

Caroline Blackburn said that the team’s indoor practice facility should be readybyNovemberandisespeciallyimportant now that the season has been extended to 17 games.

The site is a two-minute walk west from Paycor Stadium between the two bridges.

The sisters covered a variety of topics – from the white helmets that will debut infrontofanationaltelevisionaudience in Game 4 (Thursday Sept. 29 on Amazon Prime) to what it’s like working closely with your sibling. Spoiler alert: Elizabeth has a habit that annoys Caroline.

Neither sister takes for granted the excitement generated by last season’s improbable Super Bowl appearance and its effect on the community.

“Coming out of COVID, it felt so special and needed to bring a positive into people’s lives,” Elizabeth Blackburn said. “That’s what sports are. Sports are hope. Going to a live game is community. And so I really try to focus on the positives and hope that the Bengals are that positive piece of energy and light into people’s lives. That’s what it should be about.”

Listen to The Enquirer’s “That’s So Cincinnati” podcast on Apple, iHeart or your favorite podcast platform.

9/11 events and memorials around Greater Cincinnati

day:

9:10a.m.,9/11Memorial,MemorialDrive, Lebanon. Stand2Serve will host.

Sunday will be the 21st anniversary of Sept. 11, 2001, the attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City and the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, that left thousands dead and more injured.

Around Greater Cincinnati, a number of memorials and events have been plannedtocommemoratetheanniversary.

Here’salistofwhatyoucanexpectto-

9/11 Memorial Scramble Golf Outing, 7 a.m.-4 p.m. Pebble Creek Golf Course, 9799 Prechtel Road, Colerain. A scramble golf outing to support Colerain Veterans Memorial and first responders bit.ly/3TR5Js6

9/11Memorial Stair Climb and Honor Carry, 7:30 a.m.-1 p.m., Observation Tower, 4335 Glendale Milford Road, Blue Ash.BlueAshFireDepartmentandLocal 3203 will host the annual 9/11 Memorial Stair Climb. summitparkblueash.com.

9/11Remembrance Ceremony, 8:30-

(513) 512-5361

Cincinnati 9/11 Peace Jam, 1-4 p.m., 251 Mount Echo Park Drive, East Price Hill. bit.ly/911peacejam

Race for Warriors, 9 a.m., 6249 S. Mason Montgomery Road, Mason. 5K dedicatedtothosewhorisktheirlivesfor the United States. raceplace.com

Steps ‘n Salutes Green Beret 5K, 8 a.m., Nisbet Park, 126 Karl Brown Way, Loveland. Race benefits Green Beret Foundation. lovinlifeloveland.com

Events in the area will commemorate the anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. MIKE

TODAY NETWORK

Why Do I Hear... But Not Understand?

amplifcation, thereby improving speech understanding in noise.

Until recently, there was no practical way to identify dead regions of hearing cells in the ear. However, a new British-developed procedure using standard test equipment now allows for identifcation of dead hearing cell regions. The study suggests that the presence or absence of dead regions may have serious implications in the ftting of hearing aids.

This research reveals that amplifying dead cells is a mistake which will result in poorer speech understanding in noise. A new microcircuit is now available that can be programmed to bypass the dead cells. As a result, the patient’s usable hearing cells receive

“We are employing a like method using a sound feld speech in noise procedure”, said Lowell Scott of Acute Hearing. “This test simulates hearing in a noisy crowd. We are able to achieve maximum speech understanding by frequency shaping this new hearing aid.” The results have been phenomenal. Acute Hearing Centers is offering this new frequency-shaping hearing instrument on a 30-day satisfaction trial. “Your satisfaction is absolutely guaranteed,” Scott said.

If you hear, but are having trouble understanding conversation, take advantage of the complimentary demonstrations offered this week. Call Acute Hearing Centers today to schedule your no-obligation appointment!

Elizabeth Blackburn, director of strategy and engagement for the Cincinnati Bengals, left, and her sister, Caroline Blackburn, senior manager of digital strategy, far right, talk in the studio with Enquirer Bengals beat writer Kelsey Conway and Enquirer Executive Editor Beryl Love. CARA OWSLEY/THE ENQUIRER

Discussing mental health with your child

Experts say normalizing conversations can help

Madeline Mitchell and Terry DeMio Cincinnati

Greater Cincinnati’s children and young adults are struggling with their mental health, just as kids are nationwide. Experts say the best way parents can address the issue is by normalizing conversations around mental health before problems arise.

Most people, kids included, aren’t comfortable being vulnerable, Milford High School Hope Squad member Emma Senter says. Hope Squad is a peerto-peer suicide prevention program used at schools across the nation. Milford High School has about 30 students in the program.

“There’s a lot more going on behind the scenes than they may know of,”Senter says of the typical parent.

Most teens are reserved and resistant to go to their parents for help, so it’s crucial parents ask the right questions and build strong relationships with their kids so they can notice when their child needs support.

Senter and her team are trained to notice the telltale signs of mental health struggles so they can reach out to their

Mental health

Continued from Page 1A

the COVID-19 pandemic.

“When we think someone’s going to commit suicide, it’s a very hard job, but we have to be straight-up with them and be like, ‘Hey, I’m really concerned for you. Are you thinking about hurting yourself? Do you have a plan?’ Like, those are very big questions to ask, especially for a high schooler, I feel like,” Spaulding says.

She says she hasn’t been in a situationwhereshe’shadtoaskthosespecific questions, but she’s trained for it. She has brought friends to the counselor’s office, taken students on walks to destress and consulted with other Hope Squad members when she’s found concerning posts from kids on social media. There are about 80 Hope Squad members districtwide, between both Lakota high schools and the freshmen campuses.

“We say that we would rather lose a friendship than a friend, that’s what we say in Hope Squad,” she says.

The Cincinnati region’s children and young adults are struggling with their mental health, just as kids are nationwide. As students’ needs rise and barriers to help are uncovered, including a lack of mental health professionals in some areas, local schools and community providers reflect on whether enough is being done to save kids from themselves.

“Kids are suffering, and as a community, we need to wrap our arms around them,” says Kate Schroder, president and CEO of Interact for Health, a regional health equity and funding nonprofit based in Kenwood and covering Cincinnati area counties.

A recent survey sheds glaring light on the region’s problem:

h Nearly 1 in 3 local students in grades 7-12 reported a desire to be alone all the time, a Prevention First 2022 student survey shows

h More than 1 in 10 of these students have contemplated suicide, the same survey reveals.

h More than half reported having high levels of stress.

h Almost 1 in 4 responded that they feel sad, hopeless or depressed most of the time.

Kids’ mental health needs were already on an upswing in the United States before the novel coronavirus pandemic hit, but missed school, less social interaction and family and economic troubles exacerbated the problem, experts say. From March through October 2020, the proportion of mental health-related visits to emergency departments increased by 24% for children 5 to 11 years old and by 31% among kids ages12 to17 compared with the previous year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In 2021, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and the Children’s Hospital Association declared a national emergency in children’s mental health. They cited a heavy toll from the COVID-19 pandemic on existing challenges.

But because of stigma, accessibility to treatment in some communities and

peers at school or through social media.

Parents should know these signs, too.

Here’s a list of things to look for, according to experts at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital and Medical Center:

h Large drop in school performance or poor grades.

h Withdrawal from activities, friends, family.

h Sleep problems (night terrors, nightmares, cannot sleep, sleeping a lot).

h Excessive hyperactivity.

h Nonstop or frequent aggression or “acting out.”

h Nonstop or frequent rebellion; opposition to authority and direction.

h Refusal to attend school on a routine or frequent basis.

h Refusal to take part in school and/ or family activities.

h Excessive worry and/or anxiety.

h Excessive, frequent temper tantrums.

h Sexualized behaviors or play.

Other signs to look for in teens, particularly, are substance use (alcohol and drugs), depression, negativity, mood swings, changes in eating habits, destructive behaviors such as vandalism, lying or cheating, frequent anger, threats to self or others, self-harm and running away or making threats to run away.

How to talk to your child about mental health

If you notice any of these signs, you should approach your child to assess if they need mental health support. But conversations around mental health should start well before you notice issues, says Carrie Bunger, director of positive school culture and safety at Cincinnati Public Schools.

Kids agree. Caitlyn Spaulding, a 17year-old Lakota student and member of her school’s Hope Squad, says she’s noticed her peers are more withdrawn and hesitanttoseekhelpsincetheCOVID-19 pandemic. She thinks parents need to talk to their kids, and it can start simply with changing the standard, “How was school, what did you learn?” afterschool prompt to, “How’s school? Is anything stressing you out? Are you finding anything difficult that I can help you with?”

“Parentsarebusy,too,theyhavetheir jobs. But sometimes you’re just too afraid to bring (stressors) up to your parents,” Spaulding says. “I think that (parents)alsoneedtotaketimetopause and listen to their kids because sometimes they’re just, like, screaming for it silently that they need that attention from their parents.”

Talk about your feelings with your kids, Bunger says. Identify emotions

and use “I” statements in regular conversations. Then if you notice your child’s grades slipping, their behavior change or they seem more withdrawn, you’ll have a foundation and vocabulary to use when approaching them.

In those conversations, start with “I notice,” “I wonder” or “I observe” to avoid sounding accusatory, Bunger says.

Keep the conversation developmentally appropriate, and make sure to step back and give your child the time they need to respond. And if it doesn’t work the first time, try again.

“Sometimes your child may not feel comfortable coming to you. So who is that trusted adult in your child’s life? Andyouknowwhothatis,”Bungersays. “As a parent, you have to eat some humble pie around that because you want to be the one that’s in control. But really, if you’re worried about your kid, who cares whether it’s the trusted adult or if it’s you as a parent to find out the information?”

Once the issue is identified, parents can help get their children the help they need.

Bunger says parents should always feel they can reach out to their child’s teachers, principals or school counselors for help if they are struggling to get their kid to talk or are concerned for their mental health.

still a way to go, and Stone says it starts at home where parents can and should have conversations about mental health with their children.

Kids need and want their parents to ask them how they are doing, Spaulding says. While the stigma around mental health has decreased since her freshman year, many students still don’t know how to get the resources they need on their own. A lot of students at Lakota East “don’t even know that we have the therapists,” she says.

Spauldingthinksparentsneedtotalk to their kids, and it can start simply with changing the standard, “How was school, what did you learn?” afterschool prompt to “How’s school? Is anything stressing you out? Are you finding anything difficult that I can help you with?”

communitywidecommitmenttomental health care. Nearly every public school has an embedded mental health program, many of which partner with community providers like MindPeace and Beech Acres Parenting Center.

MindPeace helps schools understand the mental health needs of students and provides schools with support or resources. Beech Acres’ Beyond the Classroom program provides children with assessments for behavioral and mental health conditions and directs their parents to community and schoolservicesthatcouldhelp.Theprogram is in schools in Hamilton, Warren and Clinton counties.

Wynnette Boykin, Beyond the Classroomprogrammanager,saystheagency is seeing an increased need for supportive services, especially since the pandemic, and is involved in more schools as a result. Beyond the Classroom was in 26 schools last school year and expanded to 30 schools this year.

“Parentsarebusy,too,theyhavetheir jobs. But sometimes you’re just too afraid to bring (stressors) up to your parents,” Spaulding says. “I think that (parents)alsoneedtotaketimetopause and listen to their kids because sometimes they’re just, like, screaming for it silently that they need that attention from their parents.”

What else is being done? Inpatient and residential care are a priority

For kids who need inpatient or residential care, Cincinnati Children’s has 100 inpatient beds and 30 residential beds dedicated to people younger than 18. Some residential and stabilization beds are provided through the Lindner Center of Hope in Mason, which collaborates with Cincinnati Children’s.

“Children in acute crisis (can) get into a bed probably more quickly than most places in the country,” Sorter says.

a general misunderstanding of mental health problems, only about half the kids who have mental health conditions receive treatment, and “even fewer receive evidence-based treatment,” says Dr. Michael Sorter, director of the division of child and adolescent psychiatry at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center.

Hope Squad members at Milford High School say there are many reasons kids won’t feel comfortable talking with their parents. Some parents compare their teenage experiences with their kids’ current struggles, which isn’t always accurate, 17-year-old Ariana Carranza says. Social media has been a game changer in the world of teen mental health and has created a lot of stress.

“A lot of the times, kids are scared to go and get professional help,” Milford HighSchoolHopeSquadmemberMacie Bach says.

But they should get it, Sorter says, becausetherightkindoftreatmentusually helps kids get better.

Rural communities struggle to get kids the right treatment

There is some good news: Mental health has “a big footprint” in pediatric care in the Cincinnati region, Sorter says. Pediatricians watch kids closely for mental health needs and there is a

“It definitely has been a challenge,” Boykin says. “We have an increase in struggles. A lot of kids are stressed out.”

These needs are reflected in rural areas near Cincinnati, but access to care in those places is more limited.

Allison Stone, a school psychologist at Grant County Schools in Northern Kentucky, says her district is focused on bringing in school-based therapists through community partnerships because transportation is the main issue for rural students. There is no public transportation in the county, she says, and it could take an hour or longer for parents to get their kids to Cincinnati Children’s for appropriate services, if their insurance covers it in the first place. It’s nearly impossible to manage with some parents’ work schedules and finances, especially with high gas prices.

There are shortfalls with solely school-based support, too, mainly in the realm of consistent care and relationship-building.

“Do I think there’s enough mental health providers? No, absolutely not,” Stone says. But even with the contracted help they do have, when therapists leave, “their client, our student, gets left behind.”

The stigma around mental health has lessened slightly in her community in the last several years, Stone says, which she thinks helps kids feel more comfortable when asking for help. But there’s

And Cincinnati Children’s is building on its mental health and behavioral disorderscarewithanexpansionandre-do of its College Hill facility. Construction is underway, and the design provides much greater space than the previous structure, Sorter said. The new building design gives kids their own rooms, among other improvements. The building includes space for a parent to stay at the hospital while their child is there, Sorter says, and it will have space for occupational, art and other therapies for kids who need it.

Sorter also says the region’s providers are working to reduce the delays for outpatient services for children.

That’s important because some kids really can’t wait.

“I know multiple people that have recently waited a month to get into therapy but then they see somebody and it’s like they don’t feel comfortable enough totalktothembecausetheydon’tmatch their energy, I guess,” Bach says of her peers at Milford. “So then they have to wait another few weeks to get in (with someone else).”

Not all students with mental health struggles need intensive care. Some just need a trusted adult or friend to talk to, which is why Hope Squad efforts at area schools have been so successful for students, including for the Hope Squad members themselves.

“Everyone is really going through something and it helps me see that, like, I’m not alone. And then nobody’s alone, you know what I mean?” Carranza says. “Everyone’s here for each other.”

Caitlyn Spaulding, 17, a senior at Lakota East High School, is a member of the Hope Squad, a peer-to-peer suicide prevention program.

SAM GREENE/THE ENQUIRER

Some fret over trail expansion

Will Wasson Way speed gentrification when it comes to Avondale?

Cincinnati Vice Mayor Jan-Michele Lemon Kearney has been getting a lot of calls from Avondale residents.

A few months ago, an influx of residents called her office to air out their nerves about development projects raising rent prices. More recent callers have amplified those fears.

“They’re saying they have to move,” said Kearney Various development projects are beginning to affect Avondale’s affordability.

The next development project sweeping through is a bike-friendly, pedestrian-friendly one – the Wasson Way trail, which is due to reach Avondale this year.

However, neighborhood enhancements like the Wasson Way come with a price.

“One woman had a letter that said, ‘We love you as a tenant; hope you’ll stay, but by the way, now you’re gonna have to pay $100 more a month,’” said Kearney

“We want to make sure that as these neighborhoods get all these amenities

new bike trail, new businesses – that these neighborhoods are still affordable,” said Kearney, noting that like all development, the Wasson Way project poses the threat of displacement.

Historically, developers have tended to fall short on promises of revitalizing Avondale, instead of pricing people out. Trail advocates are aiming lower; they only hope to provide Avondale with safer access to vital resources, connecting the neighborhood to the rest of the city.

The Wasson Way’s co-founder, Jay Andress, has been to meetings in people’s homes in Avondale to talk up the bike and pedestrian trail. But his recent grassroots advocacy in Avondale looked different from that of the Wasson Way’s start.

“The original dream was basically to hook up the Little Miami Bike Trail, to have an off-road route for not only myself but for (almost)100,000 Cincinnati residents,” said Andress

Inspired by an abandoned rail corridor near his home in Hyde Park, he imagined an off-road trail sheltered from what he calls “treacherous” car traffic.

“We see the Wasson Way as a linear park, a way to get away from cars,” Andress said.

The 3.75-mile trail currently stretches east to west from Ault Park to Xavier University, centered in the neighborhoods of Hyde Park and Oakley.

Tri-State Trails, Cincinnati’s leading trail advocacy group, aims to create a network of trails across the region. The Wasson Way is a major part of its campaign for the Cincinnati Riding Or Walking Network, which envisions a 34-mile citywide loop called the Crown.

Wade Johnston, director of Tri-State Trails, said that the Wasson Way’s initial plans from 2015 didn’t include Avondale. Originally, the trail ended at Montgomery Road in Evanston next to Xavier University, but Tri-State Trails decided to connect the dots. It found that an abandoned rail corridor in Avondale could connect the Wasson Way farther west.

To Johnston, the cross-neighborhood trail connection carries weight.

“Most of the trails in Cincinnati are on the East Side in affluent, predominantly white communities,” Johnston said. “Historically, trails have not touched these communities that are predominantly Black, predominantly lower-income, have high rates of zero car households.”

The trail’s extension along Interstate 71 will stretch right through southeast Avondale. Ending at the east end of Blair Court, it will reach into an expressway-side residential neighborhood.

Avondale residents say they’ve been burned before

“When I moved to Avondale in ’74, I could still smell the smoke” from riots years earlier, said Sandra Jones Mitchell.

She served as president of the Avondale Community Council from 2019 through 2021 and spent over four decades as a member.

What Jones Mitchell witnessed was the aftermath of the Avondale protests, which turned violent over the unkept promises of the civil rights movement in both 1967 and 1968.

Kearney, who also grew up in Avondale, remembers that protesters largely burned down their once-thriving business corridors on Burnet Avenue and Reading Road.

I was just a kid, but what I kept hearing was that we didn’t own those businesses anyway; we didn’t own that property,” said Kearney, noting that most of the businesses were not Blackowned. “A lot of people felt that they were disrespected by the business owners. So, people were furious; that was just a boiling point.”

Less than a decade later, the construction of I-71 physically divided majority-Black Avondale from more affluent neighbors in Hyde Park and Oakley.

“Of course, the highways purposefully came through Black neighborhoods,” Kearney said. “It wasn’t accidental … to divide up black neighborhoods and put highways through,” Kearney said. With Avondale still reeling from the riots, discrimination and disinvestment sent the neighborhood on a downward spiral for decades

The development of the Uptown Innovation Corridor, now part of the second-largest employment hub in the city, promised opportunities for Avondale residents. Over the years, Jones Mitchell believes the businesses have more often displaced than employed residents.

I was there with the elders fighting to keep their homes,” said Jones Mitchell. “And a lot of them lost that battle because of what you see today: the zoo, Children’s, UC Health.”

In 2017, the construction of the I-71 interchange at Martin Luther King

Drive aimed to bring more jobs and people to the Uptown corridor. At the time, urban planners and corporate partners behind the project said its construction would create opportunities for Avondale residents.

“They didn’t give the community enough time to position itself for employment, and by the time we did, it was too late,” Jones Mitchell said.

What we missed was engaging the residents,” she said, noting that the community’s direct involvement in each development project determines whether it helps or hurts Avondale

This lesson applies to the Wasson Way trail.

Preventing the worst side effects of development

With the effects of I-71 and Uptown development still fresh, the Avondale community wants a say going forward. That’s where the Avondale Development Corp. comes in.

They have a very inclusive approach,” said Johnston. He added that the corporation brought a grocery store back to Avondale

Tri-State Trails’ and Wasson Way’s partnership with the development corporation poses the opportunity for trailside affordable housing. But both groups agree that it’s a challenge to pull off, especially in tandem with developer interest along the trail.

It’s going to have unintended consequences,” said Johnston, noting that Tri-State Trails works to give communities a heads up about what trail infrastructure might bring with it.

Rachel Culley, who works with Johnston at Tri-State Trails, also recognizes the risks of developing in neighborhoods like Avondale

The trail will raise property values, and it does have the possibility to displace people if they aren’t able to secure their homes or secure property nearby,” said Culley, noting that Tri-State Trails tries to approach trails with a holistic view.

We’re thinking a lot about different affordable housing policies, economic development policies, zoning that we could potentially get put in place before the trail is acquired or constructed,”she said. However, according to Culley, no residential zoning laws or affordable housing policies have been set in Avondale to protect community members from displacement thus far.

“I think that time will still tell how successful we are with that, but it’s something we’re trying to be really transparent about on the front end,” said Johnston.

Avondale Resident Molly Stephens moved to Avondale in 2019 due to rising rent prices in Northside. For her, the neighborhood’s affordability is important.

“A lot of the people here are here be-

cause they already got gentrified or displaced,” said Stephens, worried that landlords will see the trail as a reason to raise rents.

I think people love to say that they’re going to look into affordable housing, but at the end of the day, the developers are going to buy them out,” she said. “And that’s going to heighten the cost of living in one of the last affordable neighborhoods in the city.”

Avondale’s history of disinvestment led to cheaper rent prices, but it also made the neighborhood an easy target for outside developers. Now, the community wants to maintain that affordability while improving the quality of life in Avondale. According to Kearney, it’s a tough balance to strike.

The Avondale Development Corp. aims to revive the community while keeping residents’ needs at the forefront. In its quality of life plan, the nonprofit developer paired plans for affordable housing with health and safetyfirst developments such as the Wasson Way.

On the city level, Kearney says that city council committees are studying affordable housing solutions to create through Cincinnati’s Affordable Housing Trust Fund. Still, the trail’s longterm effect on the neighborhood’s affordability has yet to be determined.

Safety first while boosting pedestrian connections

Regardless of what happens to property values, the Wasson Way will provide Avondale with a pedestrianfriendly connection to resources. The trail fits the blueprint for one of the Avondale Development Corp.’s core tenants – safety.

There’s a higher amount of traffic crashes, specifically serious injuries and fatalities, of pedestrians and cyclists in African American majority communities and low-income communities,” Culley said. She researched for Tri-State Trails’Crash Dashboard, adding that it’s difficult to navigate Cincinnati without a car, let alone navigate it safely.

“People drive really fast on the main thoroughfares (in Avondale), and it feels unsafe,” said Johnston. The offroad trail will provide a safe space for families to play and ride bikes, he said.

Although protected from car traffic, the trail will run through a wooded corridor next to the highway. When TriState Trails and Wasson Way first reached out to residents, their first concern was with other kinds of safety on the off-road trail.

“They were wondering, is this going to create places for crime or illicit activity to happen?” said Johnston. Avondale residents asked for lighting along their portion of the trail, and Tri-State Trails and Wasson Way are currently trying to find the money for it. Along the rest of the Wasson Way, Andress added that other measures have been taken to ensure safety.

We’ve tried to clear out all of the underbrush,” said Andress. “We plant trees along the trail, but we try to get rid of any places where people can hide.”

According to Johnston, Tri-State Trails has also organized several popup bike shops in Avondale, giving out safety-first equipment such as lights, locks,andhelmetstocommunitymembers.

“We’re hoping that this becomes a safe way to potentially walk to jobs or walk to a shop or walk to get groceries,” Culley said. “It’ll just reopen a lot of opportunities for them that they have been cut off from in the last half of the 20th century.”

With the community’s safety put first, Johnston and Culley hope the trail will provide more than just recreation. They believe it will be especially helpful for residents without cars.

Building connections across Cincinnati

In its first phase, the trail mainly touched Hyde Park and Oakley. But in 2019, Phase 2 extended Wasson Way over I-71with a bridge that reconnected neighborhoods across the expressway. That segment linked Evanston and Norwood to Hyde Park with the trail parallel to Dana Avenue.

Avondale’s the next stop.

“It’s brought those neighborhoods closer together. All these communities that never really engaged with each other,” said Andress. “And there’s some evidence that they tried to disengage from each other because of racial prejudices.”

Once complete, the Wasson Way will touch at least eight eastside

Wasson Way co-founder Jay Andress stands at a path overlooking Victory Parkway in Avondale, where the Wasson Way bicycle and pedestrian corridor could expand. AMANDA ROSSMANN/THE ENQUIRER

The end of Blair Court in Avondale, which is where an extension of Wasson Way trail would end. Interstate 71 is in the background. The dome of Walnut Hills High School, on the east side of the expressway, is visible in the distance. MARK WERT/THE ENQUIRER

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Trail

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communities: Avondale, Evanston, Norwood, Hyde Park, Oakley, Mount Lookout, Fairfax, and Mariemont.

“I could see where we could do a farmers market in Avondale, and people from Norwood and Evanston and Hyde Park and Oakley could use the trail to go,” said Andress.

And yet, the Wasson Way is only one part of Tri-State Trails’ larger vision for connectivity.

Right now, the Tri-State Trails team is in talks with community partners along another big section of the Crown loop – the Mill Creek Valley. The plan is to eventually link the Wasson Way with historically marginalized areas west of Interstate 75 such as South Fairmount and Winton Place. According to Johnston, trail advocacy there is similar to the efforts in Avondale back in 2017.

“Going door to door and saying to families, ‘Hey, how you doing? You know, there’s this great project that’s going to be built in your backyard, and

we want you to be a part of it because you matter,’” said Jones Mitchell. She wants the Avondale community to feel passionately involved, to feel like it’s theirs.

Both she and trail advocates are optimistic, but Jones Mitchell has noticed some inconsistencies with rhetoric and action. Tree removal began along the trail corridor this spring, which residents hadn’t been alerted of.

I don’t care if you paint the sidewalk blue. Tell the person who lives in front of the dang sidewalk,” she said. Trail advocates have stayed on top of emails and been to a few community council meetings, but Jones Mitchell says the council has to keep inviting them.

The average person in Avondale don’t know nothing about Wasson Way,” Jones Mitchell said. “

When the Wasson Way comes through Avondale this fall, Jones Mitchell wants residents invited to a block party. In her view, an involved community will assure history doesn’t repeat itself.

This project is huge, and it’s going to happen with or without you,” she said.

Andress stands in a field near Blair Court in Avondale where the Wasson Way trail could expand. “The original dream was basically to hook up the Little Miami Bike Trail, to have an off-road route for not only myself but for (almost) 100,000 Cincinnati residents,” Andress says of

Wasson Way. AMANDA ROSSMANN/THE ENQUIRER

YOUR HOMETOWN ENQUIRER

BATAVIA

Batavia Rotary honors veterans with appreciation luncheon

The Rotary Club of Batavia, Ohio and the Wyler Family Foundation recently honoredveteransinanappreciationluncheon.

Theeventfeaturedarecordedpresentation by Congressman Brad Wenstrup aswellasakeynoteaddressbyOhioSecretary of State Frank LaRose. Allan Shropshire, president of Batavia Rotary, created the event to raise awareness and funds for two important Veteran programs in Ohio.

The event was held at the Tristate Warbird Museum where those in attendance toured the facility and learned about aviation history. The Rotary Club of Batavia, Ohio hopes to make this luncheon an annual event.

For additional information about any of the organizations, contact (513) 7324921 or email veteranslunch@bataviaohiorotary.

Lisa Davis, Batavia Rotary Public Relations Chair

NORWOOD

Inaugural Norwood International Art Show set for Sept. 17

To celebrate Welcoming Week (Sept. 9-18), Norwood Together, in partnership with Queen City Clay and Off-Pike Market is organizing the inaugural Norwood International Art Show, Sept.17, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m Weareexcitedtowelcomeartistsnew to America (Bhutan, Syria, Peru, India, Venezuela, Ecuador, and Bolivia) as well Our goal is to provide space for emerging artists to showcase their talents and tell their stories.

Welcoming Week is a network of events throughout communities in the U.S. and abroad where communities bring together neighbors of all backgrounds to build strong connections and affirm the importance of welcoming and inclusive places in achieving collective prosperity. Read more about Welcoming Week from Welcoming America.

Norwood Together is part of WelcomingAmerica’sglobalnetworkofnonprofit organizations and government members to transform communities into more welcoming places for all residents, including immigrants.

More information: https://www.norwoodtogether.org/art-show/

Dyah Miller, Norwood Together

PRICE HILL

The Sharing Table – a fundraising event from Santa Maria Community Services, Inc.

Santa Maria Community Services, Inc. is pleased to announce it is hosting its third annual The Sharing Table. The Sharing Table takes place on Thursday, Sept. 15, 2022, from 6 to 9 p.m., at ARCO (Price Hill Will), located at 3301Price Avenue, Cincinnati, OH 45205 in Price Hill. Tickets may be purchased at tinyurl.com/SharingTable

The Sharing Table, presented by Nehemiah Manufacturing, raises awareness about childhood poverty in our region and secures funding for Santa Maria’s programs. O’dell Moreno Owens, M.D., MPH will be the special guest speaker.

WLWT-TV news anchor, Courtis Fuller, will emcee the evening’s festivities, which will include food donated by local restaurants, the sale of hand-crafted mugs and bowls donated by Queen City Clay as well as raffle baskets. Harold Kennedy will be the musical guest.

“After having to cancel The Sharing Table the last two years due to the pandemic, we are so happy to be able to present this year’s event in person,” said H.A Musser, Jr., President and CEO of Santa Maria Community Services. “This fundraiserwillallowustocontinuetoassist more than 2,500 individuals each year in achieving their financial, educational and health goals and moving out of poverty toward self-sufficiency.”

Santa Maria would like to issue special thanks to its 2022 presenting sponsor, Nehemiah Manufacturing. “We could not succeed without the generosity of sponsors like Nehemiah Manufacturing,” Mr. Musser said. “They have been a generous supporter of Santa Maria’s programs over the years and their contribution,aswellasthatofmanyother sponsors and supporters, is vital to continue our important work.”

Dan Meyer, President and CEO of Nehemiah Manufacturing said, “We are

proud to be the sponsor of such a great organization that works tirelessly every day to make a difference to individuals’ and families’ lives.”

ChristyCauley,SantaMariaCommunity Services, Inc.

MIDDLETOWN

Annual Photography & Digital Art Exhibition now open in Middletown

The Middletown Arts Center will feature the top work of professional and amateur photographers and digital artists from the Dayton-Cincinnati region in their “Annual Photography & Digital Art Exhibition” on view Sept. 9 through Oct. 20. The public is invited to a free Preview Event on Friday, September 9th from 6-8 p.m., featuring wine, refreshments and the mellow acoustic music of Mick Salyer

The competitive juried show received over 275 submissions, and includes 120 accepted exhibited entries. Black & white,tonedandcolor,photographiccategories include: Objects in motion, People, Natural Things, Landscapes, Still life, Architectural, Large Format. Digital Artistry entries are original, two-dimensional works utilizing computer technology to craft or manipulate visual images.

Cash awards are given for each category. Visit www.middletownartscentercom for a full list of winners after the opening, including: Best of Show, First Place, Second Place, Third Place and Honorable Mention.

We hope visitors will be transported in time or place and feel the moods and emotions the talented artists have captured. It is exciting to see how individual artists’ choice of presentation highlights their work, some will be canvas, metal, mounted on acrylic, high gloss or matte paper and framed. This exhibition is dependably an impressive showcase of work.

This year’s exhibit was made possible by sponsors John and Pat Dupps. Admission is free to the public and will continue through Oct. 20 during Middletown Arts Center’s regular building hours.

The Middletown Arts Center is an independent, non-profit institution. MAC has been dedicated to enriching Middletown and surrounding communities for over 65 years, providing exceptional educational opportunities for youth, adultsandfamiliestoparticipateinvisual arts and arts experiences with over 15 free exhibitions annually. More information about the MAC and its programs, events, and exhibitions is available at www.middletownartscenter.com or by calling (513) 424-2417.

Kate

Dykes, Middletown Arts Center

BOONE COUNTY

Constitution Week: Sept. 17-23

The Boone County Chapter, NSDAR, will be hosting two Constitution Week displays at the Main and Walton Branch of the Boone County Library.

There will be displays, free copies of the Constitution, bookmarks and trivia foralltoenjoy.Therewillbedisplaysthat recognize the bravery of the signers of this document.

Brochures on the Women’s Right to Vote, the Bill of Rights and Checks and Balances will be available to read, also.

The Constitution is unique in its framework of government for the United States. It has lasted over 230 years with only 27 amendments or changes to it. It has proven its flexibility and endurance.

Rebecca Suiter, The Boone County Chapter, NSDAR

WESTWOOD

Early Cincinnati Snowbirds: The Gamble Family in Florida

The Wednesday, Sept. 14 meeting of the Westwood Historical Society will feature a program on one of the earliest snowbirds” from the Midwest to regularly spend winters in Florida.

Cincinnatian James N. Gamble and his family stayed in the general Daytona area where they maintained a mansion, a hunting lodge, and guest house. They regularly hobnobbed with other wealthy “snowbird” industrialists whose names are legend.

Hear about their parallel lives in the Sunshine State and legacies they left behind that are still evident today including a direct tie to Mary McLeod Bethune whose statue was recently placed in the US Capitol Statuary Hall.

Discover some relevant places to visit if you have the opportunity to travel to the Daytona vicinity.

The meeting takes place at 7 p.m. at Westwood First Presbyterian Church (3011 Harrison Avenue – parking and entrance off of Koenig Avenue).

Liz Kissel, Westwood Historical Society

SHARONVILLE

Sensory open house for families with special needs

Join us Sunday morning before the library opens to the general public for a Sensory Open House uniquely planned for families with special needs.

Explore our library with sensorythemed stations, including crafts, games, and sensory-friendly experiences using sight, smell, sound, taste, and touch.

h https://cincinnatilibrary.bibliocommons.com/ events/62741a40981e17c6841726c9

For all ages, special needs. No registration required.

Annette Meurer, Sharonville Branch Library

CINCINNATI

Local students awarded National DAR Youth Citizenship and ROTC Medals

National Defense Chair Amy Barron of the Cincinnati Chapter of the National Society Daughters of the American Revolution (NSDAR) has announced Cincinnati area winners of Youth Citizenship and ROTC Medals.

Gold ROTC Medals were presented at the University of Cincinnati to Army Cadet Alicia Van’t Riet and to Air Force Cadet Lauren Davis. A gold ROTC Medal was also presented at Xavier University.

A bronze JROTC Medal was presented to Diamond Oaks student Alyssa Henderson, Princeton High School Cadet Ensign Samara Branham (Navy), Scarlet Oaks Cadet Jyoti Sherpa, and one Live Oaks student.

In addition to these, Youth Citizenship Medals were awarded to Elder High School student Jimmy Finley, grade 11, Ryan Schnieder, grade 10, and Toby Brubaker, grade 9. At St. Ignatius, medals were awarded to Nicholas Price, grade 7, and to Natalie Swails, grade 8.

If you are interested in learning more about the DAR, visit the Cincinnati Chapter Web site at: https://www.cincydar.org.

Bettie Hall, Cincinnati Chapter National Society Daughters of the American Revolution

How to share news from your community:

Visit www.cincinnati.com/share to submit news and photos to be considered to run in Your Hometown Enquirer and the Community Press and Recorder. Specific event information can also be submitted at events.cincinnati.com and by emailing calendar@cincinnati.com for consideration in The Enquirer’s Calendar listings.

CINCINNATI

Goodwill Bees buzzing about 2022 Bee-Tique

Ohio Valley Goodwill’s Retail and Marketing teams led by Alleen AdoMako and Tammy Case are busily planning for the debut of the 2022 Goodwill BeeTique at this year’s Queen Bee Expo on Oct. 7 at the Duke Energy Center.

As a Royal Sponsor for the Queen Bee Half Marathon event for the 6th consecutive year, Ohio Valley Goodwill is proud to sponsor this empowering event for women.

Being held Oct. 7-8 in downtown Cincinnati, the Queen Bee Half and 4 Miler event are designed to celebrate women and promote health and fitness. As a proud partner and sponsor of the Queen Bee event, Ohio Valley Goodwill will be presenting it’s ever popular and newly expanded “Bee-Tique” at the Expo on Friday, Oct. 7 featuring an assortment of running gear at unbeatable prices.

Register today at www.queenbeehalfcom

More updates to come soon on Team Goodwill’sfullparticipationinthisyear’s empowering event for women and fitness.

SharonHannon,OhioValleyGoodwill Industries

FOREST PARK

Local MBE/WBE selected as finalist at MIT Solve 2022 Global Challenge

Founder of RE-Assist, Ashley Barrow, iskeepingthemomentummovingonher startup as she is selected as a finalist at the prestigious MIT Solve 2022 Global Challenge.

This won’t be the first time Ashley has made the news, she was featured with her son Aaron Bess Jr in an article by Cincinnati Business Courier last year spotlighting their mom and son team building an app to save lives.

Ashley has been an active member in the StartupCincy ecosystem, being a member of both SoCap and MORTAR’s accelerator programs. She more recently was awarded a Main Street Ventures Launch Grant to support the development of her digital health platform. Her office is based at local top10 global business incubator Alloy Growth Lab.

As a finalist of the MIT Solve 2022 Global Challenge, Ashley is asking her community for support by voting for her care economy solution RE-Assist. The care economy seeks to find solutions for newbusinessmodelsthatimproveaffordability, convenience, and community trust. Supporters can vote for RE-Assist until Sept. 18 by following this link:https://solve.mit.edu/challenges/ the-care-economy/solutions/61157

Trisha Sefakis, Alloy Development Co. CINCINNATI

Entrepreneur’s Organization

welcomes new president, announces new initiatives

The Entrepreneur Organization (EO) of Cincinnati is known for big, bold ideas. The organization of local business owners announced its newest president: JenniferTrowbridge,CFA,ownerofOakley-based RedTree Investment Group.

Trowbridge

As only the third woman to serve as president in the chapter’s history, this year’s priority will focus onelevatingmorefemaleforward narratives and opportunities.

This is a year of high visibility for Cincinnati entrepreneurs, as EO Cincinnati will host the annual XCentric conference Sept. 19-21, welcoming hundreds of regionally-based entrepreneurs to the city for days of learning and experiencing the best Cincinnati has to offer. This is the first time that XCentric has been held in Cincinnati.

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There were 200 people in attendance at the recent Batavia Rotary Veteran Appreciation Luncheon. PROVIDED

YOUR HOMETOWN ENQUIRER

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In addition to XCentric, EO Cincinnati has had runaway success with its EO Acceleratorprogram,nowinitssecondyear and one of the fastest-growing accelerators among EO chapters in the country.

Finally, EO Cincinnati will be launching a new video podcast series, highlighting the unique knowledge within the local entrepreneurial ecosystem in quick, easy-to-digest soundbites.

More information about EO Cincinnati may be found at: www.eocincinnati.org.

For more information about the Entrepreneurs’ Organization, visit www.eocincinnati.org.

Allison Schroeder, Entrepreneur’s Organization

CLIFTON

Central Clinic Behavioral Health’s Child & Family Treatment Center receives $20,000 grant from The Andrew Jergens Foundation

Central Clinic Behavioral Health’s Child & Family Treatment Center has receiveda$20,000grantfromTheAndrew Jergens Foundation to support Central Clinic’s Increasing Access to Mental Health Services initiative.

This grant will provide funding for children and youth whose families are unable to pay for mental health services due to lack of health insurance or insufficient income.

For more information, visit www.centralclinic.org.

Jane Vanderhorst, Central Clinic Behavioral Health

COLLEGE HILL

Mercy McAuley’s Grade School Soccer Night is Sept. 14

Grade school girls are invited to experience the excitement of Mercy McAuley athletics at Mercy McAuley’s Grade School Soccer Night on Sept. 14.

Future Wolves receive free admission to the 6 p.m. Varsity game and will enjoy snacks, activities and giveaways. Grade

school festivities begin at 5:30 p.m.

Registration is not needed.

Patty Thelen, Mercy McAuley High School

DEERFIELD TOWNSHIP

Deerfield Handmade Market FALL to Cottell Park

The Arts Alliance, in partnership with Deerfield Township, will present the Deerfield Handmade Market Fall event on Sunday, September 18th at Cottell Park, 5847 Irwin Simpson Rd., Deerfield Township, Ohio, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.

The event will feature over 75 local and regional fine artists, creatives, and makers, who specialized in works of arts like painting, drawing, ceramics, wood working, jewelry, and will include those artists who create children’s clothing and items, soap makers, artists who repurpose and recycle, and furniture makers, and more.

The artists will be featured in their own individual tents on the grounds of the park and will sell their work.

Plenty of food trucks will be on site. Guests can enjoy a cold beer from16 Lots Brewing.

The Deerfield Handmade Market is free to the community with ample free parking.

Guests will enjoy the sounds of The Remains from 2-4 p.m. The Mason Community Band will play from 4-5 p.m.

Meredith Raffel,

LOVELAND

The Arts Alliance

Interior work begins on City of Loveland’s new Public Works facility

The exterior shell of the City of Loveland’s new Public Works Office/Garage Building is complete, and interior work has begun.

DER Development Company, LLC began excavating the site in January 2022. The new facility is located at the city’s Public Works complex (10980 LovelandMadeira Road), just northwest of the site’s current office building. The facility boasts 2,400 square feet of office space

and 3,800 square feet of garage space.

The facility is expected to be completed in early October, dependent upon supply chain schedules.

A unique feature of the building will be its 40 solar panels, totaling 16,000 watts,ontherearoftheroof.Thecityhas contracted with Melink Solar & Geo based out of Milford, Ohio, to install a system to provide an estimated 85% of the building’s annual electrical needs.

The facility replaces the site’s current building, which is more than 45 years old and prone to flooding. Additionally, the new building will provide storage for equipment that is currently stored outside due to lack of covered space.

For more information about this project, please contact City Engineer Cindy Klopfenstein at (513) 683-0150.

Krista Rose, City of Loveland

INDIAN HILL

Indian Hill names new leader of Indian Hill Middle School

The Indian Hill School District is excited to announce Lauren Gentene as the new building principal for Indian Hill Middle School.

Gentene, who has served students as the head principal of Mason Middle School since 2018 and worked in administration at Mason Middle School since 2015, joins the Brave Family for the 2022-2023 school year.

Prior to her tenure as an administrator at Mason Schools, Gentene served students as a teacher for five years. She began her teaching experience at Mason High School (2010-2014) before serving students as a teacher at Indian Hill High School in 2014, before returning to Mason to join the administrative team.

Gentene earned her Bachelor of Arts from Ohio Wesleyan University (2010); her Master of Arts from Xavier University (2014); she is working towards her Doctorate of Education in Educational Leadership currently at Miami University.

Gentene replaces former IHMS Principal Jennifer Ulland, who announced in thespringsheplannedtotransitionback to the classroom in a teaching role.

Heather Higdon, Indian Hill School District

CINCINNATI

Students with disabilities participate in summer employment

The Summer Employment Program for students with disabilities is underway throughout Ohio. The program provides students (ages 14-21) with a disability the opportunity to explore the world of work and gain on-the-job training.

Approximately 2,700 students across the state are participating in summer jobs, while an additional 1,300 younger students are being supported to explore and prepare for their first job experiences.

In Hamilton County, a total of126 students with disabilities are participating in summer work.

Summer work help students build confidence and learn essential skills in a job setting. Youth are assigned to work sites based on their interests and abilities, and safeguards are in place to promote health and safety.

While working at job sites, students receive support from a job coach and earn minimum wage.

Pre-Employment Transition Services (Pre-ETS) give students with disabilities, as early as age 14, an early start in exploring career interests. Five core services include Job Exploration Counseling, Work-Based Learning, Counseling on Post-Secondary Opportunities, Workplace Readiness Training, and Instruction in Self-Advocacy.

OOD works with 106 vocational rehabilitation providers throughout the state to offer the Summer Youth Employment Program.

To find out more, visit the OOD Students 14+ webpage at https:// ood.ohio.gov/individuals-with-disabilities/services/students-14-plus.

Kim Jump, Opportunities for Ohioans with Disabilities

The Lisa Ibold Team The Jeanne Rieder Team The Hoeting-Wissel Team Marilyn Hoehne Kari Troseth Mike Wright Sylvia Kalker Brian Bazeley Karen Oswald Zach Tyree

Gentene

Sept. 11: Firefighters forever changed

Ohio team members reflect on responding

COLUMBUS–Morethan70members of Ohio Task Force 1 – the elite search and rescue team – responded 21 years ago to the smoldering remains of the World Trade Center. The group included adozenFranklinCountyfirstresponders whose lives have been forever changed.

The all-volunteer Ohio team – and 28 other federally trained urban search and rescue teams nationwide – would dig for remains in “bucket lines,” scour through wreckage, and coordinate supplies and manpower. Their witness to the horrific aftermath of front-line terrorism would follow them both personally and professionally.

Most of those from Franklin County –six of whom were Columbus firefighters

have since retired. Some have fallen ill or taken new jobs. All will be honoring the fallen on this day.

BillVedra,65,helpedcoordinatecommunications among Ohio’s crew after it arrived in Lower Manhattan on Sept. 12. Working from the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center about two miles north of ground zero, the team worked with rescue dogs, pickaxes and shovels, sleeping in tents within the dimmed lights of the convention hall.

“It was probably the most high-energy, high-functioning personalities from across the state,” said Vedra, then a Columbus firefighter and today Grove City’s safety director.

His role of connecting rescue and logistics teams throughout the 15-acre disaster site (also known as the Pile) was a stressful blend of intense focus, small successes and sheer exhaustion. And it was fueled by the gratitude from a city that had a stereotype of being roughedged.

Going to and from work, he said he

witnessed a humanity he wasn’t expecting.

“It was like going through a parade of people waving thank-you signs. It changed my perspective of New York City forever. They were gracious and hospitable.”

Vedra would come back to Columbus and three years later be appointed deputy director for emergency preparedness in the Ohio Department of Homeland Security, later serving as executive director until 2011.

But throughout his executive roles he never lost focus on the humanity of public safety and that in part is due to his 10 days of work following the attacks with Ohio Task Force1, which is based in Dayton and includes experts from the Co-

lumbus and Cincinnati fire departments.

Vedra recalled coming across a New York City firefighter covered in ash.

“He was almost despondent,” Vedra recalled. “He kept asking for a plastic wire tie. That’s all he wanted. It was to hold up a flag or something. And here we were, with all the supplies we had, but I couldn’t help him.”

Another man, a civilian, set up a table with pictures and models of the twin towers and surrounding buildings with information about the businesses that occupied them before the attacks. The apparent architecture enthusiast wanted to share with others his passion, Vedra recalled – his way of coping with the staggering loss of life.

Tobelosingthesebuildingswasdevastating for him. A whole part of his life was just destroyed. He just wanted to share the history of all the buildings.”

Today, Vedra thinks of how both men helped remind him to appreciate those who may struggle.

Whatever it is may have a lot of meaning to them that you may not understand,” he said. “It’s a reminder to be respectful of other people’s perspectives.”

Columbus firefighter Scott Benjamin was glued to a television at Station 6 in North Linden when news broke of the Sept.11disaster. He didn’t hesitate when called to gather his gear.

The drive to the Big Apple was stunning, he recalled.

His team barely spoke. There was no air traffic. The quiet was jarring.

A logistics specialist, Benjamin helped coordinate supplies for the dig crews, gathering donations left on street corners and providing food, gear and other supplies that were needed.

When he was on the rubble pile, the drone of machinery, clanking pails and hammers would halt, signaling a possible sound of life within the pile ... or the discovery of a body part. The teams clung to small victories, a hope for life within the chaos and carnage.

“It made a connection with an actual individual ... even finding photographs floating in the air, and we’d pin them up, hoping somebody would find closure ... hoping that maybe it was something they could cherish.”

The work left in him a profound and renewed respect for his profession, especially after learning that more than 300 New York City firefighters died responding to the attacks.

“It just really drove it home more .... knowing that those guys were climbing those stairs to save as many as they could. I was already dedicated to the fire service. Did it make me more dedicated? Sure.

See FIREFIGHTERS, Page20A

Ohio has high death rates for infants, moms

Possible solutions go beyond health care

Haley BeMiller State Bureau

COLUMBUS – Olivia Atley didn’t feel heard when she gave birth to her first child

Throughout her pregnancy, the Columbus doula said providers made assumptions about her financial status. A nurse doubted her when she went into preterm labor, telling Atley she seemed toohappy”tobeatthatstage.WhenAtley’s water broke two days later, no one believed her until they saw her wet pants.

“They were very condescending and didn’t want to listen to anything I had to say,” Atley said. “I can remember at one point I was probably crying or moaning or whatever and the nurse told me I needed to be quiet, so I didn’t scare the other patients on the floor.”

Atleynowrunsadoulapractice,serving as an advocate for people before, duringandaftertheirpregnancy.Doulas and midwives have become increasingly popular as soon-to-be mothers, particularly Black women, seek alternatives to traditional hospital births. The key reason: They want more autonomy over their bodies and a say in how they deliver their children.

Ohio birth workers say providers’ unwillingness to listen to patients and navigate implicit racial bias is driving high numbers of infant and maternal deaths across the state that exceed the national average. The Ohio Department of Health most recently documented an infant mortality rate of 6.7 per1,000 live births in 2020, a decrease from previous years but still well above the department’s goal of 5 or fewer deaths for every 1,000 births.

Meanwhile, Ohio women died from pregnancyrelated-causessuchasinfection or hemorrhage at a rate of 14.7 per 100,000 births from 2008 to 2016. And Black women and babies were more likely to die than their white counterparts.

Elected officials for years have dedicated resources to combat the issues, but birth workers and advocates say it’ll take structural reform and support out-

side the health care industry to save the lives of mothers and children.

“Ohio has fallen short,” said state Rep. Catherine Ingram, D-Cincinnati. “Our infant mortality rate is shameful, just shameful. And we’ve been talking about this for a long time. How is it that we’re still at the bottom? How is it that Blackmaternalhealthisstilldisparate?”

Ohio infant and maternal deaths:

What’s behind the numbers?

Despite a recent decline, Ohio continues to see one of the worst infant mortality rates in the country

In 2020, 864 Ohio infants died before their first birthday, with Black babies dying almost three times more often than white babies. About half of all deaths were attributed to prematurityrelated conditions and congenital anomalies. The health department’s report also found that 39% of these infants were born to mothers who did not receive prenatal care in the first trimes-

ter.

And babies aren’t the only ones dying. Ohio’s rate of pregnancy-related deaths remained steady from 2008 to 2016, according to the Ohio Department of Health, and many of them were deemed preventable. The report cited multiple factors for these deaths, including delays in diagnosis, inadequate assessments and lack of communication or education from providers.

People who don’t die from pregnancy may instead experience unexpected health consequences from labor and delivery, known as severe maternal morbidities. Ohio’s morbidity rate sat around 71 per 10,000 deliveries from 2016 to 2019. Black women died from pregnancy and grappled with morbidities at more than twice the rate of white women.

Trauma does play a huge part of a lot of pregnant people’s lives,”Canton midwife Jasmine Wagster said.

So, what’s being done?

State officials say they’re trying to at-

tack the problem from multiple angles. As Ohio continues to contend with drug overdoses, the state Department of Medicaid provides funding for a program that allows mothers with substance abuse disorders to seek treatment and stay with their babies. The state increased the number of people eligible for nurse home visits and introduced Medicaid coverage for lactation support and group prenatal care.

The Medicaid program now provides coverage to Ohio mothers up to one year postpartum, instead of the 60 days allowed under previous law. Lawmakers included the provision in last year’s budget, and it’s expected to benefit up to 21,000 low-income and disabled people.

More recently, the Ohio House passed legislation that would create programs within Medicaid and the Department of Rehabilitation and Correction to cover doula services. The Senate has yet to consider the bill.

Ohio joined the Alliance for Innovation in Maternal Health, which allows health care systems to access so-called bundles that outline best practices for how to treat problems such as hypertension. The state Department of Health also provides implicit bias training to providers with a specific focus on maternal health.

Gov. Mike DeWine’s administration acknowledges there’s more work to do to bring down numbers, but they’re proud of what’s been accomplished so far.

When we look at rates, sometimes it doesn’t capture the whole picture,” said LeeAnne Cornyn, interim director of children’s initiatives in DeWine’s cabinet. “But when you’re moving the needle for 20 or 30 or 40 families who have the opportunity to see their child reach their first birthday, it’s incredibly meaningful. So I think there’s a deeper story in there beyond rates.”

Still, barriers remain. Nearly 60% of mothers who lost children in 2020 reported Medicaid as their insurance, but roughly one-third of them did not use the Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children program to access formula, food and other services. This likely means they were eligible for WIC but did not or could not

Members of the search-and-rescue team Ohio Task Force 1 at ground zero in the days following Sept. 11. COURTESY OF JACK REALL

Midwife Jasmine Wagster sits in her Canton home office in March. JULIE VENNITTI BOTOS

Rates

Continued from Page 18A

access that help, the health department’s report stated.

And stakeholders say the problem can’t be fixed by policy or money alone.

“Ohio has to get much more honest, and they have to quit chasing whatever the next new thing is that they think is going to address it and actually refer back to those who have been doing the work and know what addresses the issue,” said Jessica Roach, CEO and founder of Restoring Our Own Through Transformation in Columbus. What are the solutions? They go beyond health care

Throughout the birthing community, stories abound of pregnant people − especially women of color − who felt dismissed or rushed to give birth by their health care providers. Clients are wary of interventions that could lead to a Csection. Atley, the Columbus doula, said people often hear, “That’s normal”when they raise an alarm about a health problem.

“When a woman says something’s not right, she knows,” said Tiffany Becton, a doula in Akron. “She knows what’s going on in her body. She knows it’s supposed to hurt, but there’s something else going on.”

Health care providers recognize Ohio is falling short, but they’re also overtaxed − particularly in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Dr. Kamilah Dixon, an obstetrician and gynecologist at Wexner Medical Center in Columbus, often has patients referred to her because their previous doctor wasn’t listening. Even though it’s challenging, she said, providers need to take time to hear patients out and understand why they have certain concerns.

Dixon also believes the state should require all hospital systems to provide implicit bias training and routine screenings for social determinants of health, such as education and access to transportation or housing. Some systems, including Wexner and OhioHealth, already offer implicit bias or cul-

tural competency training for employees.

“That (racial) disparity has not really decreased, so that’s a point of concern for a lot of us in this space currently,”she said. “It’s all well and good to say we recognize and want to fix it, but it hasn’t moved, so we need to do something different.”

Doulasandmidwivesacrossthestate are working to fill in the gaps, even as they navigate obstacles with insurance and try to make a living wage doing work they love.

Birthing Beautiful Communities in Akron and Cleveland, for instance, provides classes on safe sleeping, breastfeeding and yoga. Jackie Hendon, manager of programs and partnership, said the organization works to address health system and societal barriers that contribute to mortality rates through education, advocacy and engagement.

But no one organization or doula can do it alone. Birth workers want to see a greater emphasis from state officials on prevention and more support outside the medical field so pregnant people or new mothers can earn a living wage, find affordable housing and be free from violence.

However, Democrats contend Ohio’s GOP-controlled Legislature hasn’t done enough to support pregnant people and won’t prioritize these policies. In the wake of Roe v. Wade being overturned, some lawmakers worry the state’s new abortion restrictions will lead to even more infant and maternal deaths

If you have high infant mortality, then all of these other things are not right in the community,” state Rep. Emilia Sykes D-Akron, said. “We’re not setting up a system that allows for women, girls and people who can procreate to be healthiest, therefore limiting our access to new businesses and economies that can grow in a way that is meaningful.”

Mary Jane Sanese, a former fellow in Ohio University’s E.W Scripps School of Journalism Statehouse News Bureau program, contributed.

Haley BeMiller is a reporter for the USA TODAY Network Ohio Bureau, which serves the Columbus Dispatch, Cincinnati Enquirer, Akron Beacon Journal and 18 other affiliated news organizations across Ohio.

bring

513-538-2019

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Ohio county commissioner is on Oath Keepers membership list

Flowers says he isn’t sure how his name was added

COLUMBUS – Leaked membership rolls of the far-right Oath Keepers militia reveal the names of more than a dozen Ohio law enforcement officers as well as a Licking County commissioner, according to a new report

In the report, the Anti-Defamation League Center on Extremism identified 17 people from the membership lists who it believes are currently working in Ohio law enforcement agencies, in addition to two people who are serving in the military from the Buckeye State. While those individuals were not publicly identified by name, Jake Hyman, a spokesperson for the ADL, did provide the name of one elected official whose name appeared on the rolls: Duane Flowers, a commissioner in Licking County.

Flowers told The Dispatch that he’s never been a member of the Oath Keepers, never paid dues to the group and isn’t sure how his name came to be included on their membership list.

“My name may be on that list, but as far as I know, I can’t remember (receiving) any type of documentation or literature from that group,”Flowers said.

In a brief phone interview, Flowers speculated that he may have inadvertently signed up for the militia group after taking a concealed carry class in 2009 or 2010. After taking the class, Flowers said he received literature from other groups that mistook him for being a member.

“Maybe they were promoting that

organizationbackthen,”Flowerssaidof the Oath Keepers, who played a key role in the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. “I totally despise what took place in D.C. I do believe that as elected officials, we need to keep our oath,butsometimesthesegroupsororganizations just get carried away.”

Flowers was first elected to the Licking County Board of Commissioners in 2012. Prior to his time as commissioner, Flowers served as mayor of Hanover for 12 years.

Leading up to the 2016 presidential election, Flowers expressed his dislike for then-candidate Hillary Clinton by saying the former secretary of state, senator and first lady should “be hanging from a tree.”Flowers later expressed regret for the comment, but remained steadfast in his belief that Clinton should have been in prison and not a presidential candidate.

The ADL compiled its report by combing through 38,000 names on Oath Keepers membership lists that were first published in September 2021 by the journalism collective Distributed Denial of Secrets

Just because someone appears in the Oath Keepers’ database does not prove they were an active member of the group or share its ideology. Some people on the list contacted by The Associated Press said they briefly were members years ago and are no longer affiliated with the group. Some said they never paid dues.

“Their views are far too extreme for me,” Shawn Mobley, sheriff of Otero County, Colorado, told the AP in an email. Mobley told the AP he distanced himself from the Oath Keepers years ago over concerns about its involvement in the standoff against the federal government at Bundy Ranch in Nevada, among other things.

The Oath Keepers, as described by the ADL, was founded in 2009 by Stewart Rhodes and is a large but loosely or-

Firefighters

Continued from Page 18A

ganized collection of right-wing, antigovernment extremists who are part of the militia movement, which believes that the federal government has been coopted by a shadowy conspiracy that is trying to strip American citizens of their rights.

What sets the Oath Keepers apart from other extremists is their focus on recruiting current and former military, law enforcement and first responder personnel, according to the ADL Hyman declined to provide the names of the law enforcement officers or military personnel from Ohio who appeared on the list, saying the intent of the report is not to ‘”unmask’ or ‘dox’ rank-and-file personnel.”

“ADL has been in contact with each law enforcement agency affected by our report, and we continue to work with them in addressing the challenges of extremism within their ranks,” Hyman said.

The ADL’s research found that the diffuse group, however, did not just draw supporters from the professions it explicitly targeted.

“Among the many professions held by list members are religious figures, teachers, civil engineers and government employees,” the report reads. “Some individuals reported holding top secret clearances or had jobs that gave them access to critical infrastructure such as nuclear facilities.”

More than two dozen people associatedwiththegroup—includingRhodes — have been charged in connection with the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol Rhodes and four other Oath Keeper members or associates are heading to trialthismonthonseditiousconspiracy charges for what prosecutors have described as a weekslong plot to keep then-President Donald Trump in power. Rhodes and the other Oath Keepers say that they are innocent and that there was no plan to attack the Capitol. The Associated Press contributed.

When you’d see the FDNY guys, you didn’t know what to say,” he continued. “You always hoped they understood that they knew what you were feeling.”

Since Benjamin was a boy, growing up near Battle Creek, Michigan, being a firefighter was all he wanted to do. He followed the career path of his father who died in the line of duty in 1979 when Benjamin was 11.

“At least we had my father’s body, but it’s crazy to not have a loved one to see and say goodbye to,” Benjamin said.

The scale of destruction he saw in the country’s largest city even today keeps him vigilant on each fire run to which he’s called.

“Nowyourheadhastobeonaswivel withallthethingsthatcouldgowrong,” he said. “When you go on that next run, you have to ask what are you going to see. You hope that your training is going to get you through it.”

The 10 days of service with Ohio Task Force1shaped lives for the better, Benjamin said.

“I think in the end all of it has made me a better man, to enjoy life and love your family,” he said. “Sometimes we think we’ve lost some compassion, but somewhere in the back of your head youthinkbackonthosedaysandpullit out. We still want to help.

“You walk away feeling really proud of what you did, even if it was an insignificant or minute thing. We made a difference somewhere, somehow, some way.”

Benjamin, 54, left the task force a yearago,andaftera36-yearcareer–25 of them in Columbus – he’s close to leaving the profession and spending more quality time with his wife and two boys in their home in Sunbury

On Sunday, he’ll be home with his family and relatives visiting from Michigan.

“We’ll kind of chill, have some time together, say a prayer and hope that something like that never happens again.”

Unlike the hearing aids of the past, this new device makes everything sound clearer, not just louder. It uses speechprocessing algorithms to enhance a person’s voice while automatically reducing background noise. You can understand every word clearly, even in noisy environments.

BUSINESS

Distillery adds a ‘New Riff’ to state’s bourbon industry

Newport owners put small spin on old Ky. tradition

NEWPORT – Looking into the stunning floor-to-ceiling windows you could see New Riff Distilling’s impressive 60foot still.

Looking out, you could see its unlikely origin.

The self-proclaimed “new kid on the block”of Kentucky bourbon wasn’t born from a bloodline of bootlegging or a stackofpre-prohibitionwhiskeyrecipes likesomeofitsmoretraditionalcompetitors. Instead, the Northern Kentucky distillery’s roots come from an iconic, warehouse-size retailer – The Party Source with the slogan “everything you need for a party except the guest.”

It’s so close to the distillery you could roll a bourbon barrel from one building tothenext.Makenomistake,NewRiffis very much about the spirits. They’re not drawing in visitors with cheap party tricks or balloons from next door.

When the distillery’s founders left the retail world for production, they did so with the intention of honoring Kentucky’s bourbon heritage while putting their own unique spin on it.

“We’re not here to change the song of whiskey,” our tour guide, Grover Arnold explained. “We’re here to add our subtle riff to give you a better appreciation for the standard.”

Over the next two hours, I saw firsthand how much that “new riff” has rippled through the distillery’s development and inevitably to its bourbon.

‘New riff on an old tradition’

New Riff opened in 2014, just two years before Senate Bill11passed, which opened the door for new distillery experiences and increased tourism.

You could say this new riff struck at just the right time.

That was evident as soon as I entered thedoorsandwasmetbyasmalltasting bar called “The Aquifer.” There, guests couldorderspiritflightsandtheirchoice of cocktails made with New Riff’s spir-

its, which wouldn’t have been possible six years ago before the law changed.

Now,bartenderscanmakeyouanOld Fashioned, a Manhattan or a Kentucky mule if you seek a classic. They wouldn’t be living up to their name, though, if they didn’t have something more eclectic on the lineup. The “Okey Dokey Artichokey,” which is made from an artichoke infused with New Riff’s Kentucky Straight Rye, caught my attention.

According to the menu, it comes off a bit like a negroni. Who knew? But as delightfully curious as that sounded, I followed our guide into the distillery for a tour.Thosefloor-to-ceilingwindowsfollowed us all the way up to where the mash was cooking and the scent of warm, yeast hit you like someone was baking a loaf of bread. Arnold laughed about the time the team clogged up the equipment using an experimental oatmeal-based mash, like you very much wouldn’t hear anywhere else.

That“newriffonanoldtradition”certainly kept things interesting, even from a production standpoint.

From there we stepped briefly into thebarrelroomwherethenewmakefills barrels roughly 35 to 40 times a day. A strong, familiar sense of vanilla hit my nose,whichArnoldsaidwasjustonebig tease to New Riff’s other campus where all the barrels are stored.

What happens at the distillery is only

Message from the coach

h Forum: Zac Taylor says Bengals out to create a memorable season for fans.

Kentucky Bourbon Trail Craft Tour: Northern Region

Boone County Distilling Co.

What: This distillery highlights Northern Kentucky’s Civil War-era heritage of bourbon making. The modern distillery sits on the site of the former Petersburg Distillery, which opened in 1833. In addition to its bourbon, Boone County Distilling is known for its award-winning bourbon cream.

Where: 10601 Toebeen Dr., Independence

Hours: Tuesday-Saturday, 10:30 a.m to 5:30 p.m., Sunday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., closed Monday

Cost: Guided Tasting, $9. Grain to Glass Experience, $14.

More information: boonedistilling.com

Neeley Family Distillery

about10 to15% of the bourbon’s journey, but he says he’s careful never to say that within an earshot of the distillers.

“The hard part begins when we get that new make that’s rushing in the stillhouse now, and we get it in that barrel and begin to age it, and wait and hope we got it right,” he said. “That’s where it gets scary.”

Mother Nature, essentially, handles the rest of the production magic

“Close the doors, kill the lights and crack a window, and wait four years and hope you get it right,” Arnold said. “But the good news is we got it pretty damn right, with those double gold medals shortly after our release.”

Our little group followed him from there in what New Riff called the “Tower Room” with a rooftop view of Newport. There Arnold poured us each two bourbon, two rye and two gin samples to try.

I still had that signature New Riff butterscotch nose lingering in my senses and its broad mouthfeel with a hint of vanilla and rye on my palate when Jay Erisman, one of the company’s founders, tracked me down after the tasting.

The very room we were sitting in and its bird’s-eye view would have been a novelty in bourbon tourism just 15 years ago. One of the perks of being a new-age distillery in Kentucky a decade ago was

Law change galvanized bourbon tours

Visitors to distilleries have nearly doubled since 2016

Dahlia

For a long time, a Kentucky distillery tour included the tour itself, a tasting and not much else.

You weren’t allowed to enjoy a nice Old Fashioned at a distillery bar because distillery bars weren’t allowed. In some instances, you couldn’t even buy certain products directly from the distillery you were visiting.

That changed in 2016 with the passage of Senate Bill11, which removed archaic Prohibition-era laws to allow distilleries to open bars and restaurants to servecocktailsonsite.Packagesalelimitations were increased and distilleries were allowed to give out samples and souvenirs on tours. Suddenly, the sky was the limit on what a bourbon tour could provide. And Kentucky’s distilleries rose to the occasion.

It’s one of the most historic pieces of alcohol legislation ever passed,”said Eric Gregory, president of the Kentucky Distillers’ Association. “It changed the way distilleries look at tourism. This changed the landscape to where it’s become more Napa Valley-esque. Now visitors want to come and spend the entire day, if not longer, at a distillery … really immerse themselves in the experience.”

When the bill passed, Jeptha Creed Distillery, 500 Gordon Lane in Shelbyville, was likely the first distillery to react, as owners Joyce and Autumn Neth-

erly changed plans mid-construction to expand a sample bar into a fully functionalbaranddiningroomwhenthedistillery opened in 2016.

“We went from a nebulous plan of a retail visitor’s center with tastings to a fully operational bar and kitchen,” said Jeptha Creed general manager Bradley Smith. “It was 100% worth it. The only changes I would make would be to make it more functional. Having a bar in your distillery showcases your product even more. You can go into detail and give people ideas of what to drink at home.”

In December 2021, Jeptha Creed updated the bar and doubled its size. The distillery also launched a ticketed barrel tasting program and free spirits tasting experience.Next,theteamisworkingon adding cocktail classes and other tourist experiences. The tourism-focused efforts have paid off: 2021 was the distillery’s best year for case sales, coming in at 27.7% growth over 2019, its previous record year.

It took a few years before the impacts of Senate Bill 11 were felt at larger distilleries,whichhadtocompleteground-up construction projects to create improved visitor experiences. Maker’s Mark Distillery, 3350 Burks Spring Road in Loretto, opened a restaurant in 2017, followed by a new Old Forester bar in downtown Louisville at 119. W. Main St., and a Bardstown Bourbon Company restaurant the next year at its distillery in Bardstown Michter’s Distillery opened a site in downtown Louisville in 2019, and Jim Beam opened a restaurant in Clermont, Kentucky in 2021.

The bourbon industry’s growth has beenastounding.In2009,Kentuckyhad

just 19 distilleries producing a $3 billion bourbon industry, according to the KDA Now, 95 distilleries are scattered across the state, powering a $9 billion bourbon industry.

Everybody from restaurants to the (Frazier History Museum) began to tie into bourbon,” said Louisville Tourism Chief Marketing Officer Stacey Yates. “So much of the hospitality industry has figured out a way to leverage this authentic asset. We’re not an aspirational brand anymore. We’ve evolved from ‘the gateway to bourbon country’ to ‘the bourbon city.’”

According to Louisville Tourism’s 2019 visitor profile data, 44% of visitors traveled to Louisville for bourbon tastings and 39% came for distillery tours. Louisville also scores high on return trips: of those who come to tour Louisville, 70% plan to come back.

Distillery tours have skyrocketed in recent years, too. In 2015, prior to the bill’s passage, just under 900,000 people visited Kentucky distilleries, KDA’s Gregory said. The peak came in 2019 with1.7 million visitors, then hit a record low during the pandemic shutdowns in 2020 with 600,000 visits. But guests came back in a surge in 2021, which brought in 1.5 million visitors over the course of the year.

“Distilleries went to tours being reservationonly(duringthepandemic)and I don’t think we’ll ever go back from that,”Gregory said. “Now people are getting back out and wanting to have fun and go on tours. Back at Kentucky Derby time this year, we were hearing some

What: This distillery is known for its deep bootlegging history in the Eastern Kentucky mountains. It makes moonshine and whiskey in addition to bourbon.

Where: 4360 Highway 1130, Sparta

Hours: Monday-Thursday, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., Friday-Saturday, 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., Sunday, 1-6 p.m

Cost: $20. Lasts anywhere from one hour to one-and-a-half hours.

More information: neeleyfamilydistillery.com

New Riff

What: Founded in 2014, New Riff is led by a team of corporate refugees ranging from craft beer to politics and more. New Riff crafts a range of whiskeys, from bourbon, eye, and eventually malted eye and a host of specialty recipes, as well as Kentucky Wild Gin.

Where: 24 Distillery Way, Newport

Hours: Wednesday-Saturday, 11 a.m to 7 p.m., Sunday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., closed Monday-Tuesday

Cost: Bonded Tour, $20; Barrel Proof Tour, $35; Grain to Glass, $45 More information: newriffdistilling.com

Old Pogue Distillery

What: The Old Pogue Distillery is located on the same grounds where the historic H.E Pogue Distillery was located and drew its water. The Pogue Family produces small-batch rye and bourbon whiskey using the same ingredient combinations and methods found in the recipes of their ancestors.

Where: 705 Germantown Road, Maysville

Hours: Appointments required. Tours are available Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 9 a.m. and 3 p.m

More information: oldpogue.com

Second Sight Distillery

What: This distillery was founded by two Northern Kentucky natives, who once worked in productions in Las Vegas. The whole setup is highly eclectic and themed after fortune tellers. Second Sight is best known for its rum and bourbon barrel-aged rum. The distillery also makes bourbon and a sweet hazelnut liquor called Queen Mab. It also operates a cocktail bar in its lounge

Where: 301 Elm St., Ludlow

Hours: Friday-Saturday, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., Sunday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Closed Monday-Thursday.

COST: Distillery Tour and Tasting

$10; Mid-week Distillery Tour and Tasting, $10; Second Sight Seance, $10

More information: secondsightspirits.com

The New Riff Distillery in Newport on June 30. The Newport distillery opened in 2014. SCOTT UTTERBACK/LOUISVILLE COURIER JOURNAL

Page22A

Medicare won’t cover all retirement healthcare costs

Allworth Advice Amy Wagner & Steve Sprovach Guest columnists

Question:D.A.inHamilton.Ijustretired and started using Medicare. Went to the dentist but found out my cleaning wasn’t covered. Why doesn’t Medicare cover things like this?

A: Well, we can’t answer the ‘why’ –you would have to ask the U.S. government about that one. But we can help shed a bit more light on something you found out the hard way, and that many others find surprising as well: Original Medicare (Parts A & B) doesn’t pay for all your healthcare expenses in retirement.

For example, as you experienced, Medicare doesn’t cover routine dental visits; it also doesn’t cover routine vision care, hearing aids, most long-term care needs, deductibles and co-insurance, and prescription drugs (though you can add Part D for this particular coverage).

That’s a fairly large coverage gap. This is

New Riff

Continued from Page 21A

having the chance to build the distillery in a way that welcomed the community. Today, The Tower Room occasionally doubles as a larger outlet for that cozy TheAquiferBar,butforthemostpart,its served as an event space and a tasting room since the distillery opened in 2014. Erisman laughed as he told me this. When New Riff first opened The Tower Room, the team thought “who’d want to get married in a distillery.”

why, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation,83percentofOriginalMedicare enrollees currently also have some kind of supplemental coverage – either through a Medigap policy (offered through private insurers), an employersponsored retiree healthcare plan, or Medicaid.

So, it sounds like you’re one of the 17 percent of beneficiaries with no supplementalcoverage.Inthiscase,justunderstand that you’ll need to pay out-ofpocket for these expenses moving forward, and you won’t have the protection of any sort of annual out-of-pocket limit.

Therefore, if your budget allows, the AllworthAdviceisthatitcouldbeworthwhile to look into buying supplemental coverage, such as a Medigap policy. (Important note: If you miss your Medigap Open Enrollment window, you’re not guaranteed the ability to buy a policy.)

You could also consider switching to a Medicare Advantage Plan since these typically have more comprehensive coverage than Original Medicare (but not always). But a decision like this shouldn’t bemadeonawhim;youneedtotakeinto account, among other factors, your health, your doctors, medications, budget, and even where you live.

Q:JohnandSamanthafromErlang-

Turns out, a lot of people. Now that the distillery has established itself as a destination and the laws have evolved to meet Kentucky’s tourism boom, he has a different vision for the space.

A place to try new things

Distilleries across the board struggled with operating experiences during the height of the coronavirus pandemic shutdown, but now since it has waned some, he’s excited about the new ventures. Once New Riff closes out the last few weddings it has on the books, he’s eager to recast The Tower Room’s role at

er: We’re new to Medicare. Anything we need to know about using it while traveling?

A: This depends on where you’re traveling and what kind of Medicare coverage you have. For instance, assuming you have Original Medicare (Parts A & B) and you’re traveling around the U.S. (or its territories), you can go to any hospital that accepts Medicare (which are most).

However, it’s a different story if you’re travelingabroad.That’sbecauseOriginal Medicare doesn’t cover you when traveling outside the U.S. (though there are a few exceptions, like if you’re on a ship that’s within six hours of an American port). However, some Medigap policies do offer some kind of limited international travel coverage. And if you have a Medicare Advantage plan (instead of Original Medicare), check your policy –you might be covered for at least medical emergencieswhenabroad.(Andjustasa note: Foreign hospitals are not required to file Medicare claims. So if you do have some coverage and were to need care, be sure to ask for an itemized bill that you can submit for reimbursement once you get home.)

Here’s The Allworth Advice: Depending on your health, if you’re planning on traveling internationally and don’t have

the distillery into something that resembles a watering hole.

Weddings have been fun, Erisman said, but the space should help connect visitors to the whiskey. That doesn’t necessarilyhappenwhenthey’reorderingin cases of domestic beer because that’s whatthebride’sunclelikestodrink.This wouldn’tbea2a.m.kindofjoint,hesaid, but it makes sense that the best New Riff cocktails would come from the people who know the spirits most intimately.

When I asked him to imagine the Tower Room five years from now, he turned our conversation back to everything that was waiting to come out of the

coverage, you could consider buying travel insurance that includes medical emergency coverage. Just be sure to carefully read the fine print and understand what kind of policy (and coverage) you’re actually purchasing.

Every week, Allworth Financial’s Amy Wagner and Steve Sprovach answer your questions. If you, a friend, or someone in your family has a money issue or problem, feel free to send those questions to yourmoney@enquirer.com

Responses are for informational purposes only and individuals should consider whether any general recommendation in these responses are suitable for their particular circumstances based on investment objectives, financial situationandneeds.Totheextentthatareaderhasanyquestionsregardingtheapplicability of any specific issue discussed above to his/her individual situation, he/she is encouraged to consult with the professional advisor of his/her choosing, including a tax advisor and/or attorney. Retirement planning services offered through Allworth Financial a SEC Registered Investment Advisor. Securities offeredthroughAWSecurities,aRegistered Broker/Dealer, member FINRA/SIPC Visit allworthfinancial.com or call (513) 469-7500

warehouse and all of the smaller successes that have led up until this point.

Sure, the distillery has been bringing in double gold medals with its four-year bourbon from the World Spirits Competition, but the oldest spirits in the rickhouses are just eight years old at this point. If you add another five years to those first barrels, those smooth New Riff notes are only going to get smoother.

Eventually, he sees The Tower Room as a bourbon library where the new riffs live on. And not unlike a music library, that bar could be a place where bourbon fanscantrynewthingsandrevisitoldfavorites.

No crime for reporter in Texas asking a question

Strictly Legal

Jack Greiner Guest columnist

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit recently considered the question of whether a reporter could be charged withacrimeforaskingaquestion.Fortunately for the reporter and the First Amendment, the answer is “no.”

At issue in the case was whether police in Laredo, Texas, violated the First Amendment rights of a reporter named Priscilla Villarreal. Villarreal publishes news on her Facebook account to a pretty wide audience.

She has over120,000 followers. She is also a thorn in the side of the Laredo Police department, having written articles criticizing the department’s actions on several occasions.

In April 2017, Villarreal published a story about a man who committed suicide. The story identified the man by name and revealed that he was an agent with the U.S. Border Patrol. Villarreal

Tourism

Continued from Page 21A

distilleries were booked (for tours) through October. We really have to tell people to plan ahead.”

$5.2B in capital investment over the next 10 years

The pandemic pause on tours allowed distillery leaders to consider what they wanted updated sites to look like. It also allowed them to speed through construction that otherwise would have taken much longer.

KDA members spent $1.9 billion over

first uncovered this information from talking to a janitor who worked near the scene of the suicide. She then contacted LPD Officer Barbara Goodman, who confirmed the man’s identity.

The following month, Villarreal published the last name of a family involved in a fatal car accident in Laredo. She first learned the family’s identity from a relative of the family who saw a video that Villarreal had posted.

Again, Villarreal contacted Officer Goodman, and again, the officer verified this information.

Six months later, the Laredo Police issued two arrest warrants for Villarreal for violating Texas Penal Code §39.06(c). The police admitted that local officials had never brought a prosecution under § 39.06(c) in the nearly three-decade history of that provision.

Section 39.06(c) states that “[a] person commits an offense if, with intent to obtain a benefit ... , he solicits or receives from a public servant information that:

(1) the public servant has access to by means of his office or employment; and

(2) has not been made public.”

According to the affidavit in support

thelastfiveyearsconstructingnewfacilities. They plan to spend another $3.3 billion over the next five years for a total of $5.2 billion in capital investment over a 10-year period, a 2022 study showed.

It’s the highest investment spending documented in the KDA’s studies since 2009andincludesabout$100millionset aside specifically for visitor centers.

Those investments are only increasing. Earlier this year, Angel’s Envy finished a four-year, $8.2 million expansion to its downtown visitors center, Heaven Hill announced plans for a new $135 million distillery in Bardstown, and the $40 millionDantCrossingcampussurrounding Log Still Distillery opened for tours and private events.

Even hotels and restaurants have

ofthearrestwarrants,Villarrealsolicited or received the names of the suicide victim and the traffic accident victims (which, according to the affidavit, was “nonpublic” information).

The affidavit further alleged that Villarreal benefited from publishing this information before other news outlets, by gaining additional followers on her Facebook page.

After learning about the warrant, Villarreal turned herself in. During the booking process, Villarreal saw LPD officers taking pictures of her in handcuffs with their cell phones. The officers mocked and laughed at her.

Villarreal was then detained at the Webb County Jail.

Villarreal filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus in the Webb County district court. In March 2018, a judge granted her petition and held that § 39.06(c) was unconstitutionally vague. The government did not appeal.

After the dismissal of the criminal case, Villarreal brought a civil suit against the officers, charging that they violated her First Amendment rights. The trial court found that the officers

hung their hat on bourbon, especially on the rapidly-redeveloping Whiskey Row downtown. Three new hotels have openedonMainStreetsince2019,quickly followed by bars and restaurants like Doc’s Bourbon Room, 129 W. Main St., Expo Bar, 114 W. Main St., and Barrels & Billets, an appointment-only blendyour-own-bourbonexperienceat800W.

Main St.

Gone are the days of 60 people herded through a distillery and tasting an ounce of bourbon at the end. Gargantuan and micro-distilleries alike are prioritizing intimate, unique visitor experiences tailored to what people want these days: something they can’t get anywhere else.

Angel’s Envy couldn’t accommodate about 50,000 people in its first full fiscal

were entitled to qualified immunity.

The Court of Appeals disagreed. It found that the statute was obviously unconstitutional. As it noted, “it is ... obvious that Priscilla Villarreal has a constitutional right to ask questions of public officials.

Yet according to her complaint, Defendants arrested and sought to prosecute Villarreal for doing precisely that— asking questions of public officials.”

The court ruled that where police enforceanobviouslyunconstitutionalstatute, they are not entitled to qualified immunity.

The appellate court, however, went further, and noted that Villarreal did not even violate the statute. She simply soughtcorroborationforinformationshe already knew – there was no economic gain associated with being a good journalist.

Goodtoknowthatthecliché–“itnever hurts to ask”– is apparently true after all.

Jack Greiner is a partner at the Graydon law firm in Cincinnati. He represents Enquirer Media in First Amendment and media issues.

year in operation in 2017-2018, Dee Ford, general manager of Angel’s Envy Brand Home, told the Courier Journal.

Facing the temptation of simply adding more bodies on the 12-person tour to increase capacity, the brand said no. They wanted the experience to stay small, intimate. That’s what led to the massive expansion plan, an $8.2 million, 13,000-square-foot project that doubles the number of annual visitors that can visit Angel’s Envy’s downtown site.

“We purposely opened and started with 12,” Ford said. “And we stayed committed to that number as we have expanded because we recognize that’s key to who we are. Personal, build a relationship.”

Matthew Glowicki contributed.

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Restaurants that opened or closed in August

ga’s chef Jose Salazar grew up with in Queens, New York. Salazar, who co-

MEET ‘THE GUY WHO DRESSED JOE BURROW’

AND IS ON WAY TO 4M TIKTOK FOLLOWERS

TikTok, known for its short-form viral videos, has taken the internet by storm in recent years, and various individuals and groups use the buzzing social media platform to promote their brands and businesses.

Most recently, Hellman Retail Group, a Cincinnati-basedmen’sretailerpopularfordressing celebrities and athletes such as Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow, has used the application as a marketing tool, generating over 4 million followers.

Haadiza Ogwude Cincinnati Enquirer | USA TODAY NETWORK

See HELLMAN, Page10AA

Chuck Hellman, owner of Hellman’s, a high-end clothing store, sits for a portrait in his new store in Montgomery Quarter in Montgomery on Aug. 25. ILLUSTRATION BY CLAY SISK/USA TODAY NETWORK; PHOTOS BY KAREEM ELGAZZAR/THE ENQUIRER

A FIRST IMPRESSION OF ROYCE: Downtown’s most ambitious new restaurant

Royce is a big restaurant with big ambitions. Given its prime location on Fountain Square, next to what will soon be the new Jeff Ruby’s Steakhouse location, expectations are high for the modern-day French brasserie, which is part of a planned renaissance of the struggling business district. That renaissance is being headed by the Cincinnati Center City DevelopmentCorp.,thesamefolkswhoturned Over-the-Rhine into the heart and soul of Greater Cincinnati’s restaurant scene seemingly overnight.

Given that it’s only been open for two weeks, I’ll reserve judgment until Royce gets on its feet. What I can tell you is that the 4,700-square-foot restaurant is sparkling and beautiful and the menu is ripe with dishes such as foiegras($28),moulesandfrites($27) and comforting pates and terrines ($15) that speak to this city’s former role as a Midwestern mecca for French cuisine.

Prices at Royce are reasonable enough for an upscale downtown restaurant, especially with the escalating cost of food these days (a hanger steak is $34, the trout almondine is $28). But Royce does allow for extravagance if you’re in the mood for that sort of thing. The Royce Grand Plateau seafood tower with oysters, poached shrimp, clams and other seafood delicaciesruns$145,or$195ifyouwantto go all out and add caviar.

Raw oysters run $28 for a half dozen, and while $48 for a full dozen might seem steep, these are worth the splurge. I would also recommend the more affordable and equally delicious littleneck clams with zesty salsa verde for $14. The quality of the seafood here is impressive, which makes sense given that Terry Raley also owns Pearl Star Oyster Camp + Bar, in Over-theRhine, which I’ve been raving about since it opened last year. The restaurant is named after Raley’s grandfather, Royce, a steel fabricator and home cook who made rillettes and pates at home long before they became fashionable restaurant fare.

If you’re looking for a brasserie reminiscent of a place you’d tuck into on a rainy day stroll through the streets of Paris, Royce won’t disappoint. The restaurant occupies a gorgeous space, with luxurious red leather banquettes illuminated by elegant brass table lamps and soft hanging pendant lights. The walls are decorated with delicate French-style molding and an open kitchen gives the space energy and theatricality. A bar that opens up to Vine Street and Fountain Square makes it inviting and aims to recreate the brasseries of Paris where you look into the window and wish you were among those enjoying life at the bar or outdoor seating. In that respect, Royce has already succeeded.

While service still shows the kinds of kinks and confusion that are par for the course at any new restaurant, it was both attentive and swift. One thing did bother me, though: My server told me the chefs prefer if you put your entire order in at once, which can be difficult since the menu is divided into so many tempting categories, including charcuterie, a raw bar menu, entreesandsides.Ihopethatchanges. As an intuitive eater, I want to see if the charcuterie, oysters and a few sidesfilledmeupbeforecommittingto anything else.

So, how’s the food?

The kitchen at Royce is under the direction of Gene Turner, a four-year veteran of Boca, with help from David

Kelsey, who has an equally impressive resume as the former executive chef at Metropole. And judging by the dishes my companion and I tried, they are mostly on the right track.

One dish I will definitely order again is one that a charismatic server assistant named Jamelia pointed me toward:thetroutalmondine.Thetrout is sourced from White Creek Farms in Indiana and cooked perfectly, the sauce redolent of citrus and good butter. I also loved the eggs with remoulade sauce and tiny crumbles of pork crisps. One dish that needs a bit of work is the steak tartare, which arrived buried beneath a mound of oversalted potato chips and limp pickle slices. (I think I’d be happier with a toasted baguette and some crunchier pickles.)

Other hits included a rustic pork country pate served on a charcuterie plate with grilled bread from Blue Oven Bakery, addictive marcona almonds tossed in sea salt and lavender and smoked grapes that taste like juicy little campfires. On the list for my next visit are the frisée salad with poached egg and fried wild rice ($15), the moules and frites, the hanger steak with tarragon butter ($34) and the desserts, which I was far too stuffed to try, but included opera cream cake ($16), lemon meringue tart and a classic crème brûlée (both $15).

The wine list at Royce is impressive, though the prices per bottle are a bit steep. While a bottle of cava costs $50, and a 2021 bottle of Bodegas Zudugarai costs $60, most top the $80 mark and many run $100 or more, though you can order a grassy and citrusy glass of Chateau Ducasse Bordeaux Blanc for $14. The cocktail list also looks promising, especially the smoky bugatti chiron, a complex concoction of Old Forester bourbon, Grand Marnier, amaro, bitters “coated in applewood smoke” ($16). Tempting as it sounded, I was more in the mood for an Old Forester old fashioned, which was downright perfect.

It’s too early to tell what, exactly, Royce will become to Greater Cincinnatians: a regular weeknight happy hour spot for oysters and cocktails? A regular date night spot? Or a once- or twice-a-year extravagance? Given my first experience, I think it could easily be all three.

And maybe it’s because it occupies the former Tiffany’s space, but my hope for Royce is that it will become the new jewel that our down-in-thedumps Fountain Square desperately needs to start shining again.

The Veal Sweetbreads with sauce albufera, Maitake mushroom and tarragon at the newly opened Royce. SAM GREENE PHOTOS/THE ENQUIRER

The White Creek Farms Trout at the newly opened Royce restaurant in downtown. Keith Pandolfi Cincinnati Enquirer

The dining room with a view of the open kitchen at the newly opened Royce restaurant in downtown Cincinnati on Sept. 1.

Chef Gene Turner near the open kitchen at the newly opened Royce restaurant.

The Duck Frites at Royce.

The Heirloom Tomato with whipped quark, local heirloom cherry tomato, sherry vinegar and basil oil at Royce.

Do you love gardening? You might want to thank your grandparents

Sunday, Sept. 11, is Grandparents Day. It is a day to show our appreciation forourparents’parents.Inthehierarchy of parental tribute days, unfortunately, I feel like this is the least recognized. This seems kind of out of line to me. The grandparents deserve the credit for creating and raising the parents.

For better or worse, there are traditions in our families that are lost through the passing of generations. In my opinion, this is mostly for the worse. Younger generations are encouraged to find new ways to do things. At the same time, some caution should be exercised when it comes to traditions. Respecting traditions is also respecting the people whocreatedthem.Mostofthetime,this is your grandparents. Sometimes it is your grandparents’ parents.

I have always held the opinion that a love of gardening is something that is inherited from family. When kids grow up in a home gardening with Mom and Dad, they will do the same when they becomeparents.Whenkidsgrowupina house surrounded by flowers in the spring, summer and fall, they will want the same when they have a house and family of their own. If you grow up with fresh vegetables in the backyard, you will note these, too.

Every generation has the desire and an obligation to make life just a little bit easier for the next generation. This has certainly happened with gardening. There were times when people had to grow their own food to survive. I am not referring to pioneer times. This was a necessity during the Great Depression. Victory gardens were also everywhere during the world wars. These too were a

necessity to have food on the table as food was rationed.

After the Depression and when the wars ended, we entered prosperous times. This is when gardening evolved from a necessity to a hobby. Whether gardening is considered a necessity or a hobby, the common reward is the pride we all receive when we are successful, this sense of pride can always be traced back to our grandparents.

We can also thank our grandparents for the healthy competition gardeners have within their neighborhoods. During more relaxing times when almost everyone enjoyed staying home, gardening is how time was occupied. Every

yard in the neighborhood was well groomed with colorful landscapes. Everyone shared their experience and knowledge with each other. This does not happen as much these days. Unfortunately, not all families are as close as they were. The reasons for that are meant for conversations in other places. I would like to say that the close traditional families all have a great appreciation for the generations that proceeded themselves. When we speak of memories, many of those memories live in gardens.

I lived my life deprived of grandparents. Two had passed before I was born. One was gone shortly after I was born.

Thesolesurvivor,GrandmaGinnymade it through 24 years of my life. To be honest, she wasn’t much of a gardener. She did like having a nice yard, She was lucky because she had a son who liked working in the yard, his name was Denny.

Most people are going to go through the day today not even knowing it is Grandparents Day. You will not because you are almost done reading this article. This should be a reminder to you. If you still have your grandparents, you are very lucky. I hope you can reach out to them today. Thank them for your love of gardening and all of the other traditions they have given you.

The older generation has a wealth of gardening knowledge to pass down. UF/IFAS

Greg Dulli talks Afghan Whigs, ’90s music scene in Cincinnati

Cincinnati music legends the Afghan Whigs return to Bogart’s this weekend on the heels of the release of their brand new album, “How Do You Burn?” Songwriter Greg Dulli continues to mix his garage-rock and R&B influences, this time incorporating synths and expansive vocal textures. We recently spoke about the record, his connections to the ‘90s Cincinnati music scene, including the recently defunct Ultrasuede Studio, and his unconventional mix of influences.

Question:TellmeabouttheCincinnati music scene when Afghan Whigs were forming.

Answer: There were a bunch of bands that I loved watching. When I first got to town, my roommate played in this band called Dream 286. My friend Janette Pierce Davis played in that band and her boyfriend at the time was my friend Dave Davis who passed away a few years ago. He had a band called Somebody that was great. There was BPA. There was the Wolverton Brothers. There was Red Mass. There was Human Zoo.

I know I’m going to forget somebody and it’s going to be a bummer. I also loved Auburnaires. They had a great singer named Vince Gray who did my favorite version of “I Put a Spell On You.”It was a really fun place to be a young musician or artist-type person. Back then, the scene was pretty cool. Some people were nicer than others, but the nice people were super nice.

Q: The Whigs came up during the grunge era. “Up In It” was recorded by a Nirvana producer and you subsequently signed to Sub Pop–amajorlabel.Didyougetany flak for, quote, selling out, or was the local scene proud of you moving up?

A: It would not have mattered to me. I don’t need permission to do things. Wondering if someone thinks your choice is cool or not is decidedly uncool.

Q: Being on label opened you up

to collaborations with some other big names of the time. I think of Dave Grohl in particular. And that’s carried on to the present. Yournewalbumhasatonofpeople I know on it. You’ve got Patrick Keeler from Raconteurs playing drums for you and Chris Thorn from Blind Melon on guitar. What do you see as the role of collaboration in your songwriting? When you write songs, do you have ideas that you bring to the band or is it more of a “jam it out” kind of process?

A: I write songs in their entirety, but I do leave lots of room. Whenever I bring a song to the group, I always let the group do what they want. I like for people to have ownership of their parts. So collaborating, it’s a give and take. And I give a lot of leave to these guys because they’re all really smart and intuitive and incredible musicians.

Q: About four years ago, Ultrasuede Studio shut down and merged with the Lodge in Dayton, Kentucky.Partofthebeautyofthe roomwasthehistoryofthepeople who recorded there. Can you tell me about your memories of Ultrasuede?

A: When John Curley first got Ultrasuede, I was psyched. That’s where Midnight Star recorded all of their hits. So I was into that tip. It was a fun studio – just big. John had lots of good gear and a lot of know-how. Werecordedallthewayupto–Ithink the last thing we recorded there was what became “Matamoros” off “Do to the Beast.” So that was probably, wow, now like 9 years ago. Time does move on.

Q: Your new album seems like it had to be a different process from your previous work. You recorded your parts and the drumsinJoshua Tree and then sent it out to the other members. And I’m not really used to the Whigs utilizingheavysynthsandthe echo on the vocals. Was that a product of the inability to meet and jam as a full band over the pandemic?

A: I’ve never made the same record twice. In regards to the recording, first of all, I’ve done remote records before. When the Twilight Singers did the “Powder Burns” record after Hurricane Katrina, I was trapped in New Orleans for a month or so and had to mail parts out. There’s some synthesizer on that record, too.

Q: My favorite track on the album is “Please Baby Please.” It’s super smooth and I can definitely hear your R&B influence. As a kid fromCincinnati,wheredidyouget that influence in your music?

A: I love that song, too. There’s been a lot of R&B in the Cincinnati area. Cincinnati, Dayton – Ohio Players were right up the road. There was a lot of great R&B coming from Ohio, southwestern Ohio in particular, and on the radio a lot. Back when I was a kid, AM radio played everything. You didn’t really think about genres. You just, like, heard songs. But I will say that my mom was a young mother. She was a teenager when I was born, and so I inherited her record collection. She listened to a lot of Motown and a lot of, at the time, modern R&B. It was around my house all the time.

Q: Afghan Whigs have been named as an influence by a ton of contemporary bands – the National, Interpol, My Chemical Romance,JimmyEatWorld.Whatdo you think it is about your music that touched people who ended up makingsomanydifferentstylesof music?

A: All of those groups you named are pretty individual groups. They don’t really sound like anybody else, and I don’t think we sound like anybody else. So, if anything, it was probably to solidify your individuality. I would guess that they saw or heard that it was OK to be who you are.

“There’s been a lot of R&B in the Cincinnati area. Cincinnati, Dayton – Ohio Players were right up the road. There was a lot of great R&B coming from Ohio, southwestern Ohio in particular, and on the radio a lot.”

Greg Dulli

The Afghan Whigs play Bogart’s on Sunday. JOHN CURLEY/PROVIDED

Grief is like a thunderstorm, the sun will bring new life

Isn’t grief like a thunderstorm? There arethosetimesthethunderrumblesuntil you stop your ears, and you are sure it’ll send everything crashing in a split second. You have no vision of life with clear blue skies, and what was once a haven of rest and dreams is only blackness with dark clouds as far as you can see. When lightning strikes, there are only more dark rolling clouds that give you glimpses of the sky beyond.

You’d think pulling the shades would lessen the roar of the clapping thunder. Just like grief, there is no escape. There is no way around it. Finally, in one last attempt, you tell yourself it isn’t so bad a storm after all. How soothing … until there is another giant crash sending you from your perch on the couch. At last, landing on a helpless heap, you cry out to God, who allowed it to storm in the first place.

We question why a good God would ever allow a thing as such in the first place.

Then I tell him this is way beyond what I can bear, my physical body can take it no more. I know fighting it will never work. Never. At last, I search for his eyes, and I see love, I see tenderness as calm as the storm is wild. I hold my breath. Surely not? There is no mistaking it. The peace in his demeanor is unmistakably as accurate as the torrents of rain streaming down the window panes.

Soon, another clap of thunder rattles. I shudder, then looking at my savior, I realize that since life had become a bit easier, I unknowingly took my eyes from the one who guides the storm. “Jesus,” I whisper, clasping his hand tighter I thank him for never leaving me.

The following day, as I stroll outdoors, I’m awed at the fresh beauty I see all around. Lush green grass is growing, flowers that had been dried are watered, and even the birds are singing with extra gusto.

“Do they, too, appreciate the sun

more after a storm like that?” I wonder.

I muse over the beauty brought forth from the devastating storm. Still, I wouldn’t say I like storms, and I would not give up the absolute security I found resting in the arms of the one who allowed it.

Now, as you, my friend, face the storm ahead of you, there’s no need to fear. If we give our complete yes to God, we are beyond safe. Still, our physical bodies ache for the actuality of the

physical presence of the one we miss so deeply, or even of Jesus himself. He understands. Yet, as we seek, God does reveal himself to us in ways we never knew would be possible.

My challenge is often to step from the bustle of life long enough to allow him to do so. This past weekend, we took time off as a family to go camping for a few nights. There is something about just taking the time to drink in the wonder of nature and not having any work to do

Emergency Biscuits

Ingredients

2 cups flour

1 teaspoon salt

4 teaspoon baking powder

6 tablespoons lard or shortening

1 cup milk

Instructions

Mix first 4 ingredients.

Add milk, fold in.

Drop on cookie sheet, or if you are tight on time, just press into a 9-by-9-inch cake pan.

Bake at 350 for 15-20 minutes or until done.

If you’re like me, you’ll enjoy them with a dash of garlic powder or herbs such as basil, parsley or oregano.

Yield: 1 dozen

other than making sure everyone has food and is cared for. The children loved every bit of it besides the reality of having to go home after all their fun fishing, kayaking and splashing in the creek. Cooking over an open fire is relaxing to me, and now with not having two or three babies tugging at my skirts anymore, I can help with more of it. This time, Julia helped me make biscuits in a large cast iron pan over the fire. Instead of making individual biscuits, we patted the dough in a pan, covered it with tin foil and cooked it slowly. We ladled sausage gravy on top and ate it with strips of bacon fried on a rack over the fire. My brother Micah introduced the idea of spritzing (a spritz bottle works best) Worcestershire sauce on top as it browns, complimenting the smoke flavor.

Whether you find a few quiet moments in your backyard or make them in your kitchen, you’ll find these too easy and delicious all the same.

THESE BEERS WERE BORN FOR BENGALS SEASON

Everyone loves a winner. And until recently,thistownhasbeenthirstyfor one.

So when a team like the 2021 Bengals comes along, most Cincinnatians are going to understandably get excited. So they lost in the Super Bowl. That means they made it to the Super Bowl. And they were this close. Who dey, baby! I love this team!

And then the offseason comes along, and at least on paper, it looks like the team is going to be much improved on both sides of the ball. The Achilles' heel of last year’s team, its dismal pass protection, has been addressed. All of the skill position players on offense are back. So are nearly all of the starters on the team’s underrated defensive squad. And how about that draft class!?

A disclaimer before I continue: This is a beer column. Not a sports column. Jason Williams has that gig now, and I wish him the absolute best of luck withit.I’mnotasportscolumnist(not anymore, anyway). I’m just a guy who lovestheBengals.Andbeer.Ilovebeer.

So that being said, the only Super Bowl hangover I want to think about is the one I’ll be nursing the day after our boys secure this city’s first Lombardi Trophy. But there’s a lot of football to be played before we can see Joe Burrow and the boys return to the game’s biggest stage. And that means lots of beer-drinking time in front of the TV ahead for those of us who didn’t manage to score season tickets.

Ah, but what to drink? Don’t worry, I’ve got you covered with local craft beer recommendations to make sure you have some brew-deys to go with your Who Deys.

Here’s looking at you, kid

A few weeks back, I predicted that it would be a mainstay at Queen City tailgates and watch parties, so I’m goingtospeakthatintoexistencebyrecommending Grainworks Brrr Cold IPA. Available in 4-packs of 16-ounce cans, this bright, crisp, clean thirst quencher gives the nod to No. 9. After all, he’s No. 1 in the hearts of Bengals

fans everywhere. Let’s hope that revamped line can give him a pocket as clean as this beer tastes.

It’s completely understandable and unsurprising that a run at the championshipwouldinspireproducts that celebrate said run. Most obvious among them: Brink's Jackpot Joey Golden Ale. After all, the team hit the jackpot on Day 1 of the 2020 draft, right?

If you’d rather go with a lager instead, it’s hard to go wrong with 16 Lots Kenny’s Dey Drinkin’Lager. Concocted in collaboration with the Ken Anderson Alliance, the beer is a classier cousin to the crushable cubes in the macro section.

Also spotted on shelves in Cincinnati is the Tiger Stripe light beer from Wiedemann Brewing Company, home of Bohemian Special Brew, reigning two-time winner of the Cincinnati's

Favorite Beer championship. So, champ on champ, you know?

Finally seasonally appropriate

It’s officially September, which means we’re on the cusp of fall. And what better way to kick off the 2022 NFLseasonthanwithsomefallbeers?

Of course, I’m referring mainly to the many Oktoberfest beers that have hit the shelves in the last month. My favorite? Whichever one’s closest to me. Seriously, it’s hard to find a bad one in Zinzinnati.

If you’re going to twist my arm, I’ll probably ask for a Brinktoberfest from Brink. But I would be equally happy with a Sam Adams or a Rhinegeist Franz … or a Taft’s Oktubberfest … or … you get the point.

If you’d rather go with a pumpkin beer, I won’t judge you … much. If you

must, I would suggest staying local with Third Eye Pumpkin P-eye, which is made with pumpkin pie spices, vanilla and graham crackers (because beer doesn’t have enough carbs, amirite?). Or you could go with MadTree Pumpcan, which uses molasses to really hit that brown sugar note.

Open, crush, repeat

The thing about most of these recommendations is they’re all pretty strong. If you’re worried about the party getting out of hand, you could always stick with something simple. Braxton Garage Beer, Fifty West American Lager, Rhinegeist Cheetah and MadTree Legendary Lager are all available in 12 packs or 15-packs, and theyallhangaroundthe5%ABVlevel. You’ll save a buck or two by buying in bulk.

Tiger Stripe light beer from Wiedemann Brewing Company, aka Wiedemann's Fine Beer. RASPUTIN TODD/THE ENQUIRER

Greater Cincinnati Restaurant Week returns this month. What to know

h DeSha’s American Tavern.

h E+O Kitchen (Hyde Park and The Banks locations).

h Eddie Merlot’s.

Get your appetites ready: Greater Cincinnati Restaurant Week is back

The weeklong celebration of restaurants returns for its fall edition in September, giving locals another chance to enjoy fine dining at a discounted price. So far, over 40 restaurants are participating in the biannual event.

Throughout the week, participating restaurants from Union, Kentucky to Lebanon, Ohio will offer $26, $36 or $46 three-course menus, with $1 from each meal going to the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center. Greater Cincinnati Restaurant Week will also donate an additional $1 per meal to the hospital for the first1,000 meals served.

Here’s everything you need to know

When is fall Greater Cincinnati Restaurant Week?

Greater Cincinnati Restaurant Week takes place Sept. 19-25.

What’s being served?

Greater Cincinnati Restaurant Week is your chance to experience fine dining at a lower cost. All participating restaurants will offer $26, $36 or $46 threecourse prix fixe menus, with a dine-in or carryout option.

Specialty drinks made with Maker’s Mark bourbon will also be available

See menus at greatercincinnatirestaurantweek.com

What restaurants are participating?

Over 40 restaurants are participating so far, but this list could change

h Alfio’s Buon Cibo.

h BrewRiver.

h Brown Dog Cafe.

h Butcher and Barrel.

h Ché (Over-the-Rhine and O’Bryonville locations).

h Coppin’s at Hotel Covington.

h Eighteen at The Radisson.

h Embers.

h Flatiron Cafe.

h Golden Lamb.

h Goose & Elder.

h Ivory House.

h Jag’s Steak & Seafood.

h Khora.

h Kitchen 1883.

h Kona Grill.

h Libby’s Southern Comfort.

h LouVino.

h Matt The Millers.

h Metropole at 21c.

h Mita’s.

h Moerlein Lager House.

h Nicholson’s.

h Nicola’s.

h OKTO.

h Overlook Kitchen.

h Pampa’s Argentine Gastropub.

h Primavista.

h Ripple Wine Bar.

h Salazar.

h Seasons 52.

h Somm Wine Bar.

h Street City Pub.

h Subito.

h The Capital Grille.

h The Melting Pot.

h The View at Shires Garden.

h Trio.

h Via Vite.

How does the app work?

Greater Cincinnati Restaurant Week isonceagainusingitsapp,whichdebuted this spring, to map out restaurant locations, show menus and more.

Use the app to check into restaurants you visit to earn points and prizes. The top 10 point earners receive a chance to win a grand prize, and diners who check into three restaurants also have an opportunity to win a second grand prize.

You can download the app for free on the Apple App Store and Google Play Find more information at greatercincinnatirestaurantweek.com

Introducing the world’s lightest mobility scooter with anti-tip technology

Like millions of older Americans, I struggle with mobility. For years, I watched my quality of life slip away, as I was forced to stay home while friends and family took part in activities I’d once enjoyed. I thought I’d made some progress when I got a mobility scooter, but then I realized how hard it was to transport. Taking it apart and putting it back together was like doing a jigsaw puzzle. Once I had it disassembled, I had to try to put all of the pieces in the trunk of a car, go to wherever I was going, and repeat the process in reverse. Travel scooters were easier to transport, but they were uncomfortable and scary to drive, I always felt like I was ready to tip over. Then I found the So LiteTM Scooter. Now there’s nothing that can hold me back. Years of work by innovative engineers have resulted in a scooter that’s designed with seniors in mind. They created Electronic Stability Control (ESC) that makes it virtually impossible to tip over. If you try to turn too quickly, the scooter automatically slows down to prevent it from tipping over. The battery provides powerful energy at a fraction of the weight of most batteries. With its rugged yet lightweight aluminum frame, the So LiteTM Scooter is the most portable scooter ever—but it can hold up to 265 pounds—yet weighs only 40.8 pounds without the battery! What’s more, it easily folds up for storage in a car seat, trunk or even on an airplane. It folds in seconds without tools and is safe and reliable. Best of all, it’s designed with your safety in mind, from the newest technology and superior craftsmanship. Why spend another day letting your lack of mobility ruin your quality of life? Call now and fnd out how you can get a So LiteTM Scooter of your very own. 855-818-1554

Pan-roasted chicken breast from The View at Shires’ Garden, one of the restaurants participating in Fall Greater Cincinnati Restaurant Week. PROVIDED

A view of Salazar Restaurant and Bar’s crispy skin branzino with harissa roasted carrots, chermoula sauce, and turmeric-pickled cauliflower. Salazar is participating in Greater Cincinnati Restaurant Week. STEPHANIE SCARBROUGH/THE ENQUIRER

THINGS TO DO

CINCY THIS WEEK

Monday, Sept. 12

FILM:TheU.S.andtheHolocaust, 5 p.m., Holocaust and Humanity Center, Union Terminal, 1301 Western Ave., Queensgate. Film screening of the new 3-part documentary by Ken Burns, with panel discussion following. Free, reservations required. Parking is $6. Holocaustandhumanity.org.

MUSIC: Idles, MegaCorp Pavilion.

SPORTS: Cincinnati Reds vs Pittsburgh Pirates, Great American Ball Park. Runs Sept. 12-14.

TOURS: Ohio Open Doors Tour, 3 and 5:30 p.m., Memorial Hall, 1225 Elm St., Over-the-Rhine. Free, but registration required at memorialhallotr.com

Wednesday, Sept. 14

MUSIC: Blackbear, Andrew J. Brady Music Center.

FILM: Lunafest, 7 p.m. Wednesday, 4 p.m. Sunday, The Garfield Theatre, 719 Race St., Downtown. Eight award-winning short films by and about women. Post-film discussion led by members of Women In Film Cincinnati and Black Women Cultivating Change. cincyworldcinema.org

MUSEUMS: Beyond Guilt, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Wednesday-Sunday, National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, 50 E. Freedom Way, Downtown. Six short films by students at Northern Kentucky University and candid photographs taken by local artist/activist Harriet Kaufman tell the powerful and redemptive stories of those impacted by over-sentencing and over-punishment. Runs Aug. 18-Nov. 27. $15, $10.50 ages 3-12. freedomcenter.org

Thursday, Sept. 15

CHARITY: Bricks & Beer: Cincinnati Music Hall History and Hops, 5:30 p.m., Music Hall, Over-the-Rhine. Unique tour experience features building tour and beer selections. Benefits Friends of Music Hall. $40. cincinnatiarts.org

CHARITY: Celebrating Our Beloved Community: Walk Our Blocks, 6 p.m., Washington Park, 1230 Elm St., Overthe-Rhine. Dinner, program and awards. Benefits OTR Community Housing. $75. otrch.org

CHARITY: The Sharing Table, 6-9 p.m., ARCO, 3301 Price Ave., East Price Hill. Benefits Santa Maria Community Services. Tinyurl.com/SharingTable

COMEDY: Sam Tallent, Go Bananas Comedy Club, 8410 Market Place Lane, Montgomery. Runs Sept. 15-18. gobananascomedy.com

DANCE:SalsaontheSquare, 7 p.m., Fountain Square, 520 Vine St., Downtown. Free.

FESTIVALS: September Summer

Music Festival, 6-10 p.m. Ault Park Pavilion, 5090 Observatory Circle, Mount Lookout. Live music by Saffire Express, craft beer, wine, hard seltzer, and local favorite food trucks. Kids’ entertainment will be provided by Cincinnati Circus and Beech Acres from 6-8 p.m. Free admission. aultparkac.org/ events

MUSIC: Josh Roush, Southgate House Revival, Sanctuary.

MUSIC: Jake Shimabukuro, Ludlow Garage.

THEATER: My Way, A Tribute to Frank Sinatra, Covedale Center for the Performing Arts, 4990 Glenway Ave., West Price Hill. Runs Sept. 15-Oct. 9. 513-241-6550. cincinnatilandmarkproductions.com

THEATER: King Lear, Cincinnati Shakespeare Company, 1195 Elm St., Over-the-Rhine. Runs Sept. 9-Oct. 1. cincyshakes.com

Friday, Sept. 16

FESTIVAL: Oktoberfest Zinzinnati, Downtown.11a.m.-11p.m. Friday-Saturday, 11 a.m.-9 p.m. Sunday, Downtown. Running of the Wieners takes place at noon Friday. oktoberfestzinzinnati.com

ART OPENING: Michael Coppage: American*, Weston Art Gallery, 650 Walnut St., Downtown. Exhibition of new and ongoing lens-based projects by Cincinnati artist exploring the negative archetypes and stark racial disparities still operating in the language and psychology of contemporary American cul-

ture. Part of FotoFocus. Runs Sept. 16Nov. 6. Free.

CHARITY: Jazzed About Art, 6-10 p.m., Woodward Theater,1404 Main St., Over-the-Rhine. Evening of jazz music, food and fun. Cash bar. Raffles, bourbon pull, catered dinner. Benefits Art Beyond Boundaries. $75. Woodwardtheater.com

FAMILY: Game Night on the Hill, 6:30-10 p.m., Pyramid Hill Sculpture Park & Museum, 1763 Hamilton-Cleves Road, Hamilton. Play board games and watch board game adventure film. Bring blankets or folding chairs $10, $5 ages 6-12, free members and ages 5-under. pyramidhill.org/familyfunonthehill2022

FESTIVAL: Old Machinery Days, 3 p.m. Friday, 8 a.m. Saturday, 9 a.m. Sunday, Oeders Lake, 1369 State Route 22 & 3, Morrow. Family-friendly fun features antique tractor pulls, food, vendors, working demonstrations of threshing and corn shredding and corn binding, craft vendors, flea market, kids games, swap meet and more. Adult pedal tractor pull on Saturday night. Hosted by Fort Ancient Restored Machinery Club. $5, free ages 12-under. thefarmclub.org

FESTIVAL: St. Timothy Oktoberfest, 10272 State Route 42, Union. 6-11 p.m. Friday, 5:30 p.m.-midnight Saturday, 12:30-6 p.m. Sunday. saint-timothy.org.

FESTIVAL: Oktoberfest, 11 a.m.midnight Friday-Sunday, Hofbrauhaus, 200 E. Third St., Newport. Two weekends of food, beer and fun. Live music all weekend. Face painter and balloon artist from 1-5 p.m. Saturday-Sunday. Runs Sept. 16-18 and Sept. 23-25. hofbrauhausnewport.com

FILM: NightLight513: Bridesmaids, 7:30 p.m., Sawyer Point Park, P&G Pavilion, Downtown. Bring blankets, pillows or chairs with a low back and enjoy outdoor movies on select nights. Beer, wine and food for purchase. No pets. Ages 21-up. $10. nightlight513.com

HALLOWEEN: Brimstone Haunt, 7 p.m., 525 Brimstone Road, Harveysburg. Haunted Hayride, Psychosis, Forgotten Forest, Zombie Assault. Runs Friday-Saturday Sept. 16-Oct. 29. brimsto-

See EVENTS, Page16AA

Grace Thanasiu, left, and Michael Makin, practice dancing the Chicken Dance before “The World’s Largest Chicken Dance” at Oktoberfest Zinzinnati on Sept. 18, 2021, in Downtown Cincinnati. ALBERT CESARE/THE ENQUIRER

Hellman

Chuck Hellman, owner of Hellman Retail Group, has amassed over three decades of experience in the fashion industry in New York City. Originally from the Cincinnati area, Hellman returned to his hometown in 2017 after opening two menswear stores, Blaine’s Fine Men’s Apparel in Montgomery and Hellman Clothiers in the atrium of the Carew Tower, Downtown.

Hellman acquired Blaine’s in 2012 after the owners approached him about purchasing the store. According to Hellman, the store was facing financial hardships.

“I just took a liking to that store and the people in it because it reflected me being from Cincinnati,” Hellman said.

What began as a hobby for him quickly grew into a full-time menswear business with two locations and a viral social media presence. In an effort to rebrand his business, Hellman closed Blaine’s and opened his new store, Hellman’s, in Montgomery on Aug. 15.

“I decided I’m going to build a brand new, fresh store like I did Downtown, build a store from scratch in a beautiful, mixed-use area called Montgomery Quarter,” Hellman said.

‘The guy who dressed Joe Burrow’

The path to his viral following sure wasn’t damaged by his stint as “the guy who dressed Joe Burrow.“ Despite this moniker, Hellman has actually dressed Hollywood stars such as actor Terrence Howard as well several other notable athletes, including MLB legend Albert Pujols, Bengals running back Joe Mixon and University of Cincinnati head football coach Luke Fickell.

Hellman explained that he built a rapport with many of these sports legends during his time in New York City. AfterworkingforMacy’s,hebecamethe

CEO of luxury menswear brand Robert Graham from 2007 to 2012. During this time, he said built professional relationships with up to 70 MLB players.

Although this was before the golden age of social media, Hellman still saw the value in creating a brand and finding influential people to vouch for his goods

and services.

“Back then, social media was not as big as it is now. But some of the guys I got to just have relationships with just ‘cause I thought they were good family people, nice people, young superstars,” Hellman said. “And so that’s how I got to know some of the biggest names in the sports world. Some of those relationships I continued to garner through the years. I got used to dressing these guys.”

Hellman is no longer the official dresser for Burrow, having only agreed to a one-year contract in 2020. Howev-

er,hestilldressesabout15otherBengals players and several Cincinnati Reds players.

“Joe Burrow’s been a hell of a great ambassador for me. He’s referred me so many times for players to come in, even though I’m not dressing directly right now. He’s been a great ambassador for myself and my stores, and I’m grateful,” Hellman said.

“Our community is expecting high quality from us. We don’t just slap somethingtogether....Peoplewhocome in and spend money with me, I want to

make sure they’re getting a hell of an investment.Iguaranteeallmyclothingfor life.Nobodydoesthat.That’showconfident I am in what we’re selling you is going to be great for a very long time. We’re proud of that.”

How TikTok triggered real-world success

Hellman said the idea to start a TikTok account came from his brand director, Christian Barker, who first suggested that they use the growing platform. The content ranges from men’s fashion tips to collaborations with other influencers, such as Josh Morris, also known by his username @josh1morris, and Oneya D’Amelio, also known by his username @angryreactions. However, the group’s account is most famous for creating custom suits based on wellknown pop culture references. Their most viewed video, published in August 2021, was of a custom-made suit inspired by the adult animation series “Rick and Morty” and has been viewed more than 38 million times.

“We got to thinking that’s kind of fun to take a page out of pop culture. ... That’s really where it started. Like, what would we dress these guys as? And then it was just kind of fun for me. Christian tries to get me to do things that motivate me because I’ve seen a lot in fashion over the years. Then it just took on a life of its own,” Hellman said.

According to Hellman, the TikTok videos, which have garnered at least 800,000 views each, prompted him to monetize his efforts. Not only has his influence on the platform led to increased sales but it’s also sparked the development of two projects: Metaluxe, an augmented reality project that includes a collection of 10,000 suit-inspired NFTs (non-fungible tokens) and Rokkit Media, a social media marketing company.

For Hellman, Metaluxe and Rokkit Media are passion projects born out of the desire to remain relevant in the digital age and leave a permanent legacy in the fashion industry beyond traditional tailoring and styling. He said he wanted to create a digital project that anyone could enjoy and teach other small businesses how to develop and monetize their social media presence.

Continued from Page 1AA

Chuck Hellman, owner of Hellman’s, a high-end clothing store, works with a customer in his new store in Montgomery. PHOTOS BY KAREEM ELGAZZAR/THE ENQUIRER

Accessories on display at Hellman’s.

Hellman observes as team members assist a customer in his new store.

Hellman’s offers a wide variety.

For Noah Baumbach, ‘White Noise’ is about life and death

VENICE, Italy – Noah Baumbach started re-reading Don DeLillo’s “White Noise” in the early days of the pandemic. The 1985 novel, a biting satire about a blended middle-class family in suburban America,didn’tfeellikeaperiodpiece.Itfeltrelevant and familiar.

So Baumbach, known for directing original films like “The Squid and the Whale” and “Marriage Story,” started working on his first-ever adaptation.

White Noise” is opening the Venice InternationalFilmFestivalonWednesday night, where it is playing in competition.

The film stars Adam Driver as Jack Gladney, a college professor focused on the study of Adolf Hitler. He lives with his wife, Babette (Greta Gerwig) and their children and stepchildren, Heinrich (Sam Nivola),Denise(RaffeyCassidy)andSteffie (May Nivola).

Like the book, the film is divided into three sections, “Waves and Radiation,” “The Airborne Toxic Event” and “Dylarama,” and how the family deals with variousdangersandthreatsonmacroandmicro levels.

The movie is about life and death and how we have to acknowledge that they’re the same, rather than exist as two separate things,” Baumbach said in Venice on Wednesday. “The movie is about how we create these rituals and strategies to hold off danger and death … and sometimes it comes for us and we don’t know how to react.”

Driver, Gerwig and co-stars Jodie Turner-Smith and Don Cheadle, who play Jack’s colleagues at the university, joined Baumbach to discuss the film before its world premiere.

Gerwig,whosharesachildwithBaumbach and has starred in and co-written several films with him, said she started re-reading the book when he did.

It makes you, while you’re reading it,

Restaurants

Continued from Page 1AA

owns Daylily with Deeper Roots coffee, servesNew-York-stylesandwichessuch as chopped cheese and eggs-andcheese on a roll, as well as pastries, dry goods, beer and wine. It aims to provide a grocery and deli to the neighborhood.

3751 Eastern Ave., Columbia Tusculum, 513-321-1039, daylilydeli.com

Sleepy Bee Cafe, College Hill

Thepopularbreakfastandlunchspot opened its fourth Greater Cincinnati location this month in College Hill, inside the old Brill’s Furniture Store on Hamilton Avenue. Unlike its other locations in Blue Ash and Oakley, the College Hill location will start offering dinner in the next month or two.

5920 Hamilton Ave., College Hill, 513361-1361, sleepybeecafe.com

Barleycorn’s Brewhouse, Wilder, Ky.

Barleycorn’s, the iconic local sports bar chain with locations in Cold Spring, Florence and Lakeside Park, opened its first brewery this month. Located in a former fire station in Wilder, Kentucky, Barleycorn’s will start brewing 700 barrels of beer annually starting next year. Barleycorn’s is owned by One Holland Group, which also owns the Greyhound Tavern, in Fort Mitchell, Kentucky, as well as several Skyline Chili, LaRosa’s, and Dunkin’ locations. Along with lagers, Pilsners and India pale ales, the brewhouse will also serve pub fare such as burgers, sandwiches and wings.

402 Licking Pike, Wilder, 859-2912739, barleycornsbrewhouse.com

Royce, Downtown

This ambitious French brasserie opened its doors to Downtown diners this month with a menu of French classics that echo Cincinnati’s former role as a Midwestern Francophile’s dream. Menu items include terrines, pates, hanger steaks and moules and frites. A raw bar offers raw oysters, littleneck clams and decadent seafood towers. Thereisalsoanextensivewinelistanda beautiful cocktail area that opens up to Vine Street and Fountain Square.

501 Vine St., Downtown, 513-7210888, royce-cincy.com

Senate, Over-the-Rhine

After a brief hiatus from Over-theRhine, Dan and Lana Wright’s popular gourmet hot dog restaurant made a triumphant return to the neighborhood this month in the former space of the Wright’s Forty Thieves restaurant on Liberty Street. Along with Chicago dogs

want to look up and say ‘listen to this.’ It had a performative quality to it. It seemed to be emotional and intellectually exciting,” she said.

Long rehearsals, she added, helped make the characters become real people and less abstract.

Driver, who was reuniting with Baumbach after “Marriage Story,” said he liked getting to play a character who was “so stressed” but “pretending not to be stressed.”

The part of Jack also required some physical transformations, including a wig to simulate a receding hairline and some actual weight gain.

I’m very satisfied where things are go-

and Trailer Park dogs, the new Senate also offers burgers, poutine and the popular falafel from Forty Thieves. After ordering from a window, you can enjoy your food inside the conveniently attached Holiday Spirits bar.

1538 Race St., Over-the-Rhine, 513818-9020

Closed Station Family + Barbecue, Wyoming

After four years, this beloved barbecue restaurant, located in the center of Wyoming, closed its doors citing a lack of money to keep them open.

“We have decided to close our beloved Station Family + BBQ restaurant. We are running out of money, and we have resolved not to borrow anymore,” an Aug. 28 Facebook post read. “... Our hearts are broken. The menu, the space, the experience, the community we have created together is wonderful and extraordinary.”

Station opened in 2018 as a joint project between chef Caitlin Steininger, her sister Kelly Trush and Karen Claus. Since then, Steininger left to work in the kitchen of Dear restaurant, in Hyde Park.

Chili Time, St. Bernard

The iconic St. Bernard chili parlor abruptlyclosedthismonth,simplyleaving a sign on the door that read, “Due to circumstances beyond our control, we will be closed until further notice. We are sorry for the inconvenience. Thank you for your patronage.” The parlor, which opened in 1963, was owned by brothers Harry and Pete Vidas. It is currently for sale.

Listermann Brewing Trail House, Evanston

The restaurant, which served coalfired pizzas, sandwiches and other items, announced it was closing via a Facebook post to focus on its brewery and taproom at 1621 Dana Ave., which remains open.

O-Pie-O, Over-the-Rhine

So where can you get some good pie in this town? Sadly, not O-Pie-O. After closing its East Walnut Hills location last year and turning into a burger joint called Heyday, the Over-the-Rhine spot is gone, too. According to a Facebook post, the bakery’s honey vinegar pie will continue to be available whole or by the slice at Heyday.

Padrino, Oakley

The pizzeria and Italian takeout restaurant shuttered its Oakley Kitchen location this month, noting on its Facebook page that it was meant to be tem-

ing,” Driver said about seeing himself on screenasJack.“Wehadabackupstomach. We didn’t need the backup stomach.”

Some have already noted to Baumbach thatthefilmisadepartureforhim,stylistically and tonally. He said the material had never called for it before, and DeLillo’s material did. The novel’s 1980s setting inspired the look, feel and sound of the film, which was shot on 35mm anamorphic film in Ohio.

The score was done by Danny Elfman, who Baumbach encouraged to revisit some of his own scores from the time period that he had long put to bed – like “Midnight Run” – to inform the music. White Noise” also features LCD

porary as the owners waited to open a full-service space, which will be located in Fort Thomas, Kentucky. That space is scheduled to open this month. In the meantime, Padrino’s Milford location remains open.

Henke Winery, Westwood

30% off

Soundsystem’s first new song in five years, “New Body Rhumba.” Baumbach said he toldtheband’sfrontmanJamesMurphyto “write a really catchy fun song about death”as though he were writing a song in the 80s. He wanted something to go with a dance in a supermarket.

The story is the story of American culture and being surrounded by American culture,” Baumbach said.

The next stop for “White Noise” is the New York Film Festival, where it will also be the opening night film. Netflix is debuting the film in theaters first on Nov. 25, before it is streamlined on Dec. 30.

Henke Winery announced it will close its Westwood winery after a quarter century in business as owner Joe Henke prepares to retire. Local 12 reportedthatEPInvestmentGroup,which also operates Westwood’s Ivory House restaurant, will take over the space Sept. 1 and transform into a new spot called W Bar + Bistro.

Adam Driver, left, stars in director Noah Baumbach’s latest film, “White Noise.” JOEL C RYAN/INVISION/AP

9/11 Memorial Programming

Marathons

History, beginning at 7 a.m.

Nat Geo, beginning at 4 p.m.

Today, History and Nat Geo commemorate the 21st anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks on America with several hours of mostly encore presentations of specials that the networks have aired in previous years.

History’s day features more than 21hours of encore programming, beginning early this morning with America’s 9/11 Flag: Rise From the Ashes and also including other poignant productions such as 9/11: The Legacy, 9/11: Escape

From the Towers 9/11: The Final Minutes of Flight 93, 9/11: Four Flights, 9/11: I Was There, 102 Minutes That Changed America and more. Nat Geo’s 14-hour lineup begins later this afternoon and is highlighted by the premiere special National Geographic Investigates: The Fall of Osama bin Laden at 10 p.m.. Encore specials that Nat Geo will be airing include Inside 9/11: War on America, Inside 9/11: Zero Hour, 9/11: Voices From the Air and others.

Monarch

FOX, 8 p.m. ET (Follows live

NFL doubleheader) h New Series

Tonight marks the first part of the series’ two-part premiere (Part 2 airs Tuesday, Sept. 20). Monarch is an epic, multigenerational musical drama about America’s first family of country music.

The Romans – Dottie (Susan Sarandon) and Albie (Trace Adkins) – are passionate and fiercely talented, but while their name is synonymous with honesty, the very foundation of this family’s success is a lie. When dangerous truths bubble to the surface, the Romans’ reign as country royalty is put in jeopardy.

The Serpent Queen

Starz, 8 p.m. h New Series

This edgy historical drama tells the story of Catherine de Medici (Samantha Morton) who became one of the most powerful and longest-serving monarchs

CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS

in French history. At 14, the young, orphaned Catherine (Liv Hill) marries into the 16th century French court.

Despite her commoner status, her uncle Pope Clement (Charles Dance) has negotiated a large dowry and a geopolitical alliance in return for the union. However, Catherine learns quickly who she can trust while outmaneuvering anyone who underestimates her determination to survive at any cost.

The $100,000 Pyramid

ABC, 9 p.m.

In an all-new episode, Joshua Malina (Inventing Anna) challenges actress Erika Christensen; and later, Michael Ealy from Hulu’s Reasonable Doubt plays against comedian/author Iliza Shlesinger.

American Gigolo Showtime, 9 p.m. h New Series

This new drama stars Jon Bernthal (We Own This City) in the lead role of Julian Kaye, a former escort who was wrongfully convicted and served 15 years in prison. Once out, he struggles to navigate life with his former lover Michelle (Gretchen Mol), his troubled mother and the people who betrayed him.

Sister Wives

WHAT TO WATCH | CONTENT BY TV WEEKLY Learn more at localiq.com/sayhello Local marketing, simplifed.

“Monarch” All times listed are Eastern/Pacific Time. Shows air one hour earlier in Central/ Mountain Time. Get expanded coverage delivered to your door! PREFER TV GRIDS? Order TV Weekly 1-855-524-6304 I tvweekly.com/bestof

TLC, 10 p.m. h Season Premiere

Deanna Durbin Double Feature

TCM, beginning at 8 p.m.

Actress/singer Edna Mae Durbin, better known under her professional name of Deanna Durbin, is highlighted in tonight’s double feature on Turner Classic Movies. The two titles represent bookends of Durbin’s feature film career, which started when she was a teenager in the late 1930s and concluded with her retirement before the age of 30 in the late ’40s. While relatively brief, her stint on the big screen in projects where she often displayed her lyric soprano-level singing skill was very popular and successful; she shared an Academy Juvenile Award with Mickey Rooney in 1939 (in part, per the Academy, for “bringing to the screen the spirit and personification of youth”) and is credited with saving Universal StuCATCH A CLASSIC

dios from bankruptcy thanks to her work in movies like the Three Smart Girls franchise. Up first tonight is Mad About Music, a 1938 musical that was Durbin’s third feature film. Following that is the actress’ final film role before her retirement: For the Love of Mary (1948), a romantic comedy costarring Edmond O’Brien. — Jeff Pfeiffer

MOVIES | CONTENT BY TV WEEKLY

Smokey and the Bandit II (1980, Comedy) Burt Reynolds, Jackie Gleason SUNDANCE, 6 p.m.

Star Trek Beyond (2016, Science fiction) Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto BBCA, 6 p.m.

Step Brothers (2008, Comedy) Will Ferrell, John C. Reilly TNT, 6 p.m.

The Mummy (1999, Adventure) Brendan Fraser, Rachel Weisz SYFY, 7 p.m.

Think Like a Man (2012, Romance-comedy) Michael Ealy, Jerry Ferrara VH1, 7 p.m.

Up (2009, Children) Ed Asner, Christopher Plummer DISNEY, 7 p.m.

Back to the Future Part II (1989, Comedy) Michael J. Fox, Christopher Lloyd PARMT, 7:30 p.m.

Ant-Man (2015, Action) Paul Rudd, Michael Douglas TNT, 8 p.m.

Ant-Man and The Wasp (2018, Action) Paul Rudd, Evangeline Lilly FX, 8 p.m.

Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992, Children) Macaulay Culkin, Joe Pesci CMT, 8 p.m.

Journey 2: The Mysterious Island (2012, Adventure) Dwayne Johnson, Michael Caine NICK, 8 p.m.

Smokey and the Bandit (1977, Comedy) Burt Reynolds, Sally Field SUNDANCE, 8:30 p.m.

The Fugitive (1993, Action) Harrison Ford, Tommy Lee Jones VICE, 9 p.m.

Ted 2 (2015, Comedy) Mark Wahlberg, Seth MacFarlane TNT, 10:30 p.m.

The Greatest Showman (2017, Musical) Hugh Jackman, Zac Efron FXM, 10:30 p.m.

The Waterboy (1998, Comedy) Adam Sandler, Kathy Bates TBS, 11:30 p.m.

All times listed are Eastern/Pacific Time. Shows air one hour earlier in Central/Mountain Time.

Henson

Actor Earl Holliman is 94. Comedian Tom Dreesen is 83. Movie director Brian De Palma is 82. Actor Lola Falana is 80. Drummer Mickey Hart of the Grateful Dead is 79. Guitarist Leo Kottke is 77. Actor Phillip Alford (“To Kill a Mockingbird”) is 74. Actor Amy Madigan is 72. Guitarist Tommy Shaw of Styx is 69. Sports reporter Lesley Visser is 69. Drummer Jon Moss of Culture Club is 65. Actor-director Roxann Dawson (“Star Trek: Voyager”) is 64. Actor Scott Patterson (“Gilmore Girls”) is 64. Keyboardist Mick Talbot (The Style Council, Dexys Midnight Runners) is 64. Actor John Hawkes (“Deadwood”) is 63.

Actor Anne Ramsay (“Mad About You,” “A League of Their Own”) is 62. Actor Virginia Madsen (“Sideways,” “American Dreams”) is 61. Actor Kristy McNichol is 60. Musician Moby is 57. Singer Harry Connick Jr. is 55. Actor Taraji P. Henson is 52. Actor Laura Wright (“Guiding Light”) is 52. Guitarist Jeremy Popoff of Lit is 51. Singer Brad Fischetti of LFO is 47. Rapper Mr. Black is 45. Guitarist Jon Buckland of Coldplay is 45. Rapper Ludacris is 45.

Actor Ariana Richards (“Jurassic Park” films) is 43. Singer Charles Kelley of Lady A is 41. Actor Elizabeth Henstridge is 35.

LAST SUNDAY’S ANSWER

DIRECTIONS: Make a 2- to 7-letter word from the letters in each row. Add points of each word, using scoring directions at right. Finally, 7-letter words get 50-point bonus. “Blanks” used as any letter have no point value. All the words are in the Official SCRABBLE Players Dictionary, 5th Edition.

ASK CAROLYN |CAROLYN HAX

LAST SUNDAY’S ANSWER

This is a theme puzzle with the subject stated at right. Find the listed words in the grid. They may run in any direction but always in a straight line. Some letters are used more than once. Ring each word as you find it and when you have completed the puzzle, there will be 17 letters left over. They spell out the alternative theme of the puzzle. ©australianwordgames.com.au

DEAR ABBY |ABIGAIL VAN BUREN

Line in the sand drawn over sons’ habit of dropping by

Dear Abby: In our 20 years of marriage,mywife’stwosonshavefrequently stopped by or called ahead with literally10 minutes to a half-hour’s notice. It usually happens around mealtime, when we aren’t prepared for feeding multiple people. I plan every meal in advance, and would welcome them to visit with a little common courtesy. We had two lamb chops in the oven and 10 minutes before we were ready to eat when one of the sons and his wife called to stop right over. I was furious, but my wife said they’ll be gone in10 minutes. It turned into an hour. I was waiting for them to leave, but then my wife invited them to stay for dinner. I blew up and hollered loud enough that they all left, which later led to a huge argument. My wife insists family can stop by anytime. I disagree. Common courtesy should be taught, and there’s nothing wrong with saying,“Now’snotgood.Howaboutinan hour or two?” Who’s right?

Husband in the Kitchen

DearHusband: Everyone was wrong in this unfortunate situation. The son and his wife know your routine. They shouldn’t have been stopping by without warning. Your wife should not have allowed them to sit around making small talk for an hour while your dinner was growing cold. For her to have invited them to stay for dinner when there wasn’t enough food was thoughtless. I can’t blame you for losing your temper, if this is something you and your wife have discussed before. However, it

CRYPTOQUIP

could have been handled without raising your voice. In the future, perhaps you could have some prepared meals in your freezer for occasions like this. Or, when family calls to say they are on the way, you can suggest they bring something with them.

Dear Abby: I work at a corporate office, where I’m treated very well. My boss is nothing but polite to me and even takes the time to joke around with me. Although she is kind to me, she’s curtandrudetootherstaff.Twoofthem have quit their positions and expressed that one of the main reasons was how stressed they felt because of how she treated them. Besides being rude, she alsowentoutofherwaytocriticizetheir work. She is now bullying a third staff member, who confided that they, too, aren’t sure they want to stick around. To complicate this further, the head of HR is a close friend of my boss, so no one feels comfortable reporting her. How can I let her know she’s creating a tense atmosphere when I haven’t experienced her behavior myself?

Fretting in Philly

Dear Fretting: Although you like yourbossandareloyaltothecompany,I think it would be unwise to do what you have in mind. From your description of what has been happening, your boss may be behaving this way with certain employees so they will quit and she won’t be required to give them unemployment benefits.

Contact Abby at www.DearAbby.com

Father-in-law’s

unequal wedding toasts offend husband

Dear Carolyn: My sister just got married – three months after my wedding. We love the groom and were very excited for them. The trouble started right after my dad gave his toast. It was a beautiful speech,butIhadn’trealizedmydadfailed to heap similar praise on my husband during our wedding. My husband noticed right away and was deeply hurt.

There were cultural differences that led to my dad’s editing choices. My sister is her husband’s biggest advocate and made it clear he and his family need special treatment and praise. In contrast, my husband is an introvert who waves away compliments. His family is frankly a bit protective. I later found out my dad removedalineinhisspeechcallingmyhusband his “new son”to avoid inflaming the fragile emotions of my in-laws. The speech was beautiful, but largely focused on his relationship with me.

After the wedding, my husband told me it was clear my dad dramatically favored my brother-in-law and this would put a rift between him and my dad. He said he’d be civil and my dad would always be welcome, but his days of having a beer or bonding with my dad were over. The wound is clearly fresh, but I want to somehow make it better. I know my dad was excited to have my husband as a son-in-law. They were on track for a good relationship, and my dad is unaware it derailed. Can I mediate two men’s fragile emotions, or should I just accept and let it be?

Sad Wife & Daughter

Sad Wife & Daughter: Please, please recognize how many red flags are shootingoutofhisresponsetoyourdad’stoast, and how vulnerable you are for your impulse to appease and mediate.

By your husband’s response, I don’t mean the hurt feelings. That’s fine, normal, understandable. And unfortunate. Two toasts nearly back-to-back, and one is (it turns out) deliberately less welcoming? I feel for your husband. But holy controlly on the way he reacted. The favoritism is clear? There will be a rift? The warm connection is over? That is toddler-speak with less flailing and better sentence structure. There are so many mature, emotionally resilient ways to handle an emotional slap:

h “Is it just me, or does your dad’s speechatourweddingseemcolderinret-

rospect? I wonder what that was about.”

h “Did you notice anything different about your dad’s two toasts?”

Or,manyvariationsonsayingnothing:

h Understanding your dad feels closer to the other son-in-law, and resolving to work on the bond with your dad.

h Recognizing it’s normal for some people to be closer than others.

Instead, your husband whipped out the earth-scorcher without even the slightest apparent interest in finding out whether he’s overreacting or there’s more tothestory.Ifyouassumethisrash,accusatory, self-preserving tendency won’t ever be turned against you then you have some wishful thinking to dismantle.

To be fair, you have credit due as well: You responded with openness to the possibility there was more to the story.

This is about about two families with emotional patterns that are problematic and potentially dangerous in combination. I beg you to get individual counseling. “The Gift of Fear” by Gavin de Becker can sharpen your vision, too. Take care.

Email tellme@washpost.com

Difficulty: MEDIUM

Kubok 16 By Davide Coppo

BRIDGE |FRANK STEWART

Cy the Cynic entered the club lounge grinning like a butcher’s dog.

Cy triumphs

“I finally got the better of her,” Cy crowed.

HOROSCOPES |HOLIDAY MATHIS

three diamonds and the ace of clubs.

So at Trick 10 I led a club, and she had to win and lead a diamond from her queen. Making six. Hooray for me!” Cy won that battle. But as to winning the war, I’m betting on Minnie and her glasses.

Aries (March 21-April 19).

vitality of all.

Libra (Sept. 23-Oct. 23).

Cy the Cynic entered the club lounge grinning like a butcher’s dog.

“I finally got the better of her,” Cy crowed.

“The latest installment of the Cy-versus-Minnie saga,” I sighed to Rose.

“The latest installment of the Cy-versus-Minnie saga,” I sighed to Rose. Minnie Bottoms, our senior member, wears a pair of ancient bifocals that make her mix up kings and jacks, often to her opponents’ dismay. Cy has been Minnie’s chief victim: he’s convinced that she’s an expert disguised as a little old lady.

You will find value in advice Taurus (April 20-May 20). You’ll create for the sake of making someone happy.

Gemini (May 21-June 21).

Exceptional communication paves the way for positive relationships.

Scorpio (Oct. 24-Nov. 21).

Capricorn (Dec. 22-Jan. 19). You clearly see the big picture, and you’ll steer projects expertly.

Minnie Bottoms, our senior member, wearsapairofancientbifocalsthatmake her mix up kings and jacks, often to her opponents’dismay.CyhasbeenMinnie’s chief victim: he’s convinced that she’s an expert disguised as a little old lady.

“So let’s hear how you vanquished an 82-year-old lady,” I said.

“I got to six hearts,” Cy said, displaying today’s deal. “With, say, a trump opening lead, I could draw trumps and lead a club. If West took the ace, I would have 12 tricks; if West ducked, I could win and ruff a club to drop the ace for the same result. A diamond opening lead or a low spade wouldn’t help the defense.

Someone will soar to meet their potential as you cheer them on. Cheer yourself on, too.

Cancer (June 22-July 22).

“So let’s hear how you vanquished an 82-year-old lady,” I said.

Figure out a way to communicate better and find respectful solutions.

Sagittarius (Nov. 22-Dec. 21). When you recognize today’s break, grab it and hang on. Your courage will be rewarded.

There’s a fine line between overthinking the future and planning ahead. Planning is light

Aquarius (Jan. 20-Feb. 18). Consider the impact satisfying nutrition has on your health and wellbeing, it’s an investment that’s sure to pay off.

Pisces (Feb. 19-March 20). To ensure consistent results, create a system that works and a habit of using it repeatedly.

“But Minnie was West,” the Cynic went on. “Her opening lead was the KING of spades.”

“She thought she held J-10-8-3,” Rose laughed. “That lead knocked out your entry to the clubs and left you looking at a diamond loser.”

“Igottosixhearts,”Cysaid,displaying today’s deal. “With, say, a trump opening lead,Icoulddrawtrumpsandleadaclub. If West took the ace, I would have 12 tricks; if West ducked, I could win and ruff a club to drop the ace for the same result. A diamond opening lead or a low spade wouldn’t help the defense.

“I wasn’t going to concede,” Cy said grimly. “I took the ace, drew trumps, and cashed the queen of spades and four more trumps. With four tricks to go, Minnie had to save

“But Minnie was West,” the Cynic went on. “Her opening lead was the KING of spades.”

“She thought she held J-10-8-3,”Rose laughed. “That lead knocked out your entry to the clubs and left you looking at a diamond loser.”

I wasn’t going to concede,” Cy said

grimly. “I took the ace, drew trumps, and cashed the queen of spades and four moretrumps.Withfourtrickstogo,Minnie had to save three diamonds and the aceofclubs.SoatTrick10Iledaclub,and she had to win and lead a diamond from her queen. Making six. Hooray for me!”

Cy won that battle. But as to winning the war, I’m betting on Minnie and her glasses.

South dealer

N-S vulnerable

Leo (July 23-Aug. 22).

You are very curious and you have a way of bringing out the most fascinating side of people.

Virgo (Aug. 23-Sept. 22).

The way you defy expectation, disrupt routine and sow a little chaos will create surprise, confound prediction and raise the

David L. Hoyt and Jeff Knurek

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SEPTEMBER

PANDEMIC PIVOTS

COVID-19-induced travel trends that might be here to stay

With COVID-19 testing requirements lifted and mask mandates ending, travel is back in full force. While pandemic memories are something most of us want to forget, there are some COVID-induced travel trends that remain relevant. Meet some pandemic pivots that are worth holding on to. Get out of town fast

Sticking close to home was a driving factor in pandemic vacation choices. High gas prices and airline hassles are keeping a spotlight on getaways that are easy to reach.

Surrounded by farms and rolling hills,Troutbeckisaboutiqueresortonly 90 miles from New York City that feels a million miles away. Relax in a hammock under shady sycamore trees and watch butterflies frolic with the gentle rush of a stream as your soundtrack. It’s no wonder Emerson and Thoreau were frequent guests of the original owners.

Seasons express themselves fully in this corner of the Northeast, adding up to year-round escape potential. A fabulous restaurant, swimming pool and sauna are bonuses.

National parks are a balm

As the virus spread, nature was a salve. National parks saw an increase in visitation and numbers continue to be robust. If you’re craving solitude, consider a winter visit or select a lesserknown park, such as Congaree National Park in South Carolina, an old-growth hardwood forest lined with elevated pathways. Hike, kayak or fish in this forever-wild place of beauty and tranquility.

Hotels with outdoor options

The pandemic was a springboard for outdooractivities,fromwalkingtopickleball. Our collective craving to be in motion in the great outdoors doesn’t seem to be diminishing.

Flathead Lake Lodge is a familyowned dude ranch on the shores of its namesake lake. A range of daily activities, from horseback riding on pinescented trails to sailing in crystal-clear waters to hilltop yoga, immerses guests

in the Montana wilderness as they try pastimes old and new. It’s back-to-nature without roughing it, with delicious meals, fine wines and upscale cabins included.

Retro motor lodges

Whentravelanxietywasatitsheight, the limited interaction of a personal vehicle was perceived as safer, fueling a surge in road trips. Nostalgic roadside motels garnered a spotlight and continue to draw guests.

Bluebird by Lark is a collection of recently-opened roadside lodges that are designed to facilitate the great American road trip. They’ve taken existing properties and spiffed them up while keeping prices within reach of pennypinchers. At Bluebird Sunapee in Newbury, New Hampshire, design-conscious rooms have beds with custom upholstered headboards and Pendleton blankets. An eclectic collection of records, a game room and an indoor saltwater pool enhance communal spaces.

Residential neighborhoods as a vacation base

Once upon a time, hotels in actionpacked downtowns were a magnet for tourists. But an increasing number of people working from home has added vibrancy to neighborhoods that once emptied during the workday.

Staying at a hotel in a residential part of town offers a genuine sense of local life. Just outside of downtown Denver, Cherry Creek North is a mixed-use, walkable, bike-friendly area with the city’s highest concentration of independently-owned shops, art galleries and a flavorful dining scene. Book a room at the ClaytonHotel,withDenver-inspireddecor and an on-site members club, for a bona fide window into the Rocky Mountain lifestyle.

Eye candy outdoor art

When museums locked their doors, hundreds of outdoor sculpture parks continued to present an alfresco art experience in an ideal setting to practice social distancing.

At the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden at Walker Art Center, art is freed from the practical constraints of a traditional museum’s four walls. Claes Oldenburg’ “Spoonbridge and Cherry” serves as the garden’s inventive centerpiece. This gigantic spoon with a cherry presents abstract proportions and whimsy. Admission is free.

Rooftop lounges

The pandemic nudged us to seek fresh air whenever possible. Rooftop loungeshavesprungupathotelsaround the globe. At upscale Brach hotel in the 16th arrondissement of Paris, the rooftop is a respite with a Scandinavianstyle hot tub and breathtaking views of the Eiffel Tower. Aromatic herbs grow in the garden, with freshly snipped basil and mint adding zest to cocktails and nibbles. A trio of happy hens emphasize the country-chic vibe.

Picnics are popping up

Restaurants shifted to outdoor dining early in the pandemic. What started as necessity has sprouted a cottage industry of companies providing luxury picnics. Planning a perfect picnic isn’t easy; selecting foods that complement each other and stay fresh, plus creating floral centerpieces that are sturdy yet pretty, is practically an art form.

Hotels across the country are getting into the act. At The Chanler at Cliff Walk in Newport, Rhode Island, guests may order a picnic served on a lawn with an ocean view. You’ll dine on artisanal

sandwiches and luscious desserts, complete with plush pillows.

Long-term vacation rentals suit digital nomads

A boom of workers with flexible employment arrangements has pushed demand for long-term vacation rentals. High-speed internet allows remote or hybrid workers the chance to get the job done from anywhere. Listings on sites such as Airbnb offer privacy, space and the comforts of home.

In California, desert oasis Palm Springs is one of Airbnb’s top extendedstay nesting spots. It’s on the map of stargazers, fans of mid-century modern architecture and the LGBTQ+ community. A range of fabulous rental properties draws digital nomads like bees to honey.

Upgraded airline seats

Those flying during the pandemic were more likely to splurge on seats in premium cabins in an attempt to facilitate in-air social distancing. Perks like amenity kits and upgraded meals were welcome additions to roomier seats.

Airline passengers continue to pay for upgrades. At La Compagnie, a French carrier that flies from the U.S. to Paris, Nice and Milan, each plane has only 76 seats that go fully flat, providing passengers with personal space in addition to Wi-Fi, Champagne, a mediation channel and gourmet meals. Ticket prices are approximately 50% lower than major carrier’s business fares, for a more affordable luxury travel experience.

10Best is a part of the USA TODAY Network — providing an authentically local point of view on destinations around the world — in addition to travel and lifestyle advice.

Palm Springs is popular with digital nomads AIRBNB; PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY RACHEL VAN BLANKENSHIP/USA TODAY NETWORK; AND GETTY IMAGES

nehaunt.com

MUSIC: Lee Brice, PNC Pavilion. With Michael Ray and Jackson Dean.

MUSIC: Movements, Bogart’s. With Angel Dust, One Step Closer and Snarls.

MUSIC: Watkins Family Hour, Memorial Hall.

MUSIC: Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra: Hear Me Roar: A Celebration of Women in Song, 7:30 p.m.

FridaySaturday, 2 p.m.

Sunday, Music Hall, 1241 Elm St., Over-the-Rhine. cincinnatisymphony.org

NIGHTLIFE:OntheRocks, 6-9 p.m., PromoWest Pavilion at Ovation. New event celebrating the city’s hospitality and bartending scene. Features17 varieties of liquor transformed into 250 creative cocktails and sips, plus small bites from local restaurants and food trucks. Silent disco, oversized outdoor games and more. Price is all-inclusive. $110. cincinnatimagazine.com/ontherocks

TOURS: The Darkside of Brewing Tour, Brewing Heritage Trail Tour Center, 1939 Race St., Over-the-Rhine. 90minute haunted tour features gruesome and macabre events from Cincinnati’s past. Includes visit to abandoned city street, flashlight tour of underground cellar complex of the historic Jackson Brewery and more. Runs Sept. 9-Nov. 5. $29. brewingheritagetrail.org

Saturday, Sept. 17

ART: Norwood International Art Show, 9 a.m.-3 p.m., Victory Park, 2078 Mills Ave., Norwood. Artists from Bhutan, Syria, Peru, India, Venezuela, Ecuador and Bolivia join local artists for this inaugural event. Norwoodtogether.org/ art-show

ENDING: Voices from Czechia, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesday-Friday, 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday, Kennedy Heights Arts Center,6546MontgomeryRoad,Kennedy Heights. Show continues 121 prints by 31 contemporary Czech printmakers who use their art as a voice to reflect on social and cultural reality. Runs July 16Sept. 17. Free.

CHARITY: Teal Power 3K Walk and 5K Run, 9 a.m., Summit Park, Blue Ash. Benefits Ovarian Cancer Alliance of Greater Cincinnati. runsignup.com/ tealpower5k

CHARITY: Cincinnati Pride 5K, 7

Blackbear is playing in Cincinnati this week. SUZANNE CORDEIRO/SPECIAL TO AMERICAN-STATESMAN

a.m., Lunken Playfield, 4740 Playfield Lane, East End. Professionally timed run. All participants get race bib, T-shirt and finisher medal. Pets welcome on leash. cincinnatipride.org

COMEDY: DeRay Davis, Funny Bone Comedy Club, 7518 Bales St., Liberty Township. Runs Sept. 17-18. liberty.funnybone.com

DANCE: Fall Ball, 8 p.m., Music Hall, Over-the-Rhine. Dance the night away at the city’s biggest ballroom dance social event of the year. Attire is formal or semi-formal. Food and drinks for purchase. $50, $45 advance. cincinnatiarts.org

FESTIVAL:OhioRenaissanceFestival, 10:30 a.m.-7 p.m. Saturday-Sunday, Renaissance Park,10542 Stare Route 73, Harveysburg. Runs Sept. 3-Oct. 30. renfestival.com

FESTIVAL: Feast and Fall-y Festival,10 a.m.-7 p.m., E. Mulberry St., Lebanon. Enjoy vendors, food trucks and one-of-a-kind seasonal finds. mainstreetlebanon.org

FESTIVAL: Waynesville Fall Fest. 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Saturday, noon-6 p.m. Sunday, 7392 East State Route 73, Waynesville. Admission includes mega play set, mini golf, pedal cars, ghost town village, corn maze, disc golf, musical mushroom, petting farm, bocce ball, corn crib, giant porch games and more. Runs Sept.

17-Oct. 30. $12, $10 ages 10-under. waynesvillefallfest.com

FESTIVAL: Mason Heritage Festival, 3-10 p.m., Downtown Plaza. Mason. Kids’ activities, vendors, music and more. Festival starts with parade along Mason-Montgomery Road. Free. imaginemason.org

FILM: “Freaky Profiling,” 6 p.m., Memorial Hall, 1225 Elm St., Over-theRhine. Screening of comedy by local filmmaker Cam Marshall. Includes red carpet, cocktail hour and Q&A after screening. $25. memorialhallotr.com

MUSEUMS: Escape the Village, 1:30 and 3 p.m., Heritage Village Museum, 11450 Lebanon Road, Sharonville. Escape room-type challenge. Choose from “Morgan’s Raiders of the Lost Art” or “Leaving the Station.” $25. heritagevillagecincinnati.org

MUSIC: Kevin Gates, MegaCorp Pavilion.

MUSIC:ClintBlack, Hard Rock Casino Ballroom.

MUSIC: Southern Soul Music Festival, Taft Theatre. Featuring Tucka, Nellie Travis, Theodis Ealey, Ronnie Bell, Big Robb and Menny Williams. Hosted by Marvin Dixon.

MUSIC: Christopher Cross, Ludlow Garage.

MUSIC: Michael Moeller & Jimmy Clepper, Southgate House Revival, Sanctuary. With Jordan Merchant.

RECREATION:Hudy14K/7K, Downtown and Over-the-Rhine. Part of the TQL Beer Series. Starts and ends along Cincinnati’s riverfront. Passes many historic brewery sites. Post race party includes brews and snacks.

RECREATION:AliceinWonderland Immersive Experience, 9 a.m.-2 p.m., Downtown. Alice is trapped in Wonderland and time is running out. City’s streets will be transformed into a giant, escape room-style experience where you solve clues, take on mad and mischievous challenges and uncover a dark conspiracy at the heart of Wonderland. $80 per team, up to 6 players. Children play free and are not counted within team numbers. cluedupp.com

SHOPPING: Fall Plant Sale, 9 a.m.-2 p.m., Ammon Nursery, 6089 Camp Ernst Road, Burlington. Plant vendors, food and beer, educational booths and more. Benefits Friends of the Boone County Arboretum. Free admission.

SHOPPING: City Flea, 10 a.m.-4 p.m., Washington Park, 1230 Elm St., Over-the-Rhine. Free admission. thecityflea.com.

SPORTS: Miami RedHawks vs Cincinnati Bearcats, Paycor Stadium.

THEATER: Sweat, Ensemble Theatre, 1127 Vine St., Over-the-Rhine. This powerful drama takes us to the forgotten heart of America, where old friends come together at their favorite bar as they struggle to survive a fraying economy. For decades, they’ve shared secrets and laughs on the factory floor, but now layoffs pit them against one another as inequities of race and class fan the flames. Based on the playwright’s extensive research and interviews with real residents of Reading, Pennsylvania, Sweat is a topical reflection of the present and poignant outcome of America’s economic decline. Runs Sept. 17Oct. 9. ensemblecincinnati.org

Sunday, Sept. 18

OUTDOORS: Ault in Bloom, 1-4 p.m., Ault Park, 5090 Observatory Circle, Mount Lookout. Gardeners, rose lovers and families can enjoy celebration of flowers and gardens, birds of prey visit with Raptors Inc., kids crafts, music, ice cream treats and more. Free. rosesgcra.org

MUSIC: $uicideboy$: Grey Day Tour, MegaCorp Pavilion. With Ski Mask the Slump God, $not, Knocked Loose, Maxo Kream, Code Orange, DJ Scheme.

MUSIC: John Craigie, Madison Live. with Maya de Vitry.

MUSIC: Trinity of Terror Tour, Andrew J. Brady Music Center. Featuring Motionless in White, Ice Nine Kills, Black Veil Brides, Crown the Empire.

SHOPPING: Burlington Antique Show, 8a.m.-3p.m.,BooneCountyFairgrounds, 5819 Idlewild Road, Burlington. Over 200 dealers of antiques, vintage jewelry, primitives, garden and architectural elements, mid-century collectibles, memorabilia, Americana, one of a kind finds and retro furniture. $6 early birds (6 a.m. entry), $4, free ages 12-under. burlingtonantiqueshow.com

SHOPPING: Deerfield Handmade Market, 11 a.m.-5 p.m., Cottell Park, 5847 Irwin Simpson Road, Deerfield Township. Over 75 local and regional fine artists, creatives and makers featuring works of art like painting, drawing, ceramics, woodworking, jewelry, children’s clothing, soap makers, upcyclers, furniture makers and more. Food trucks, beer from 16 Lots Brewing, live music. Free admission and parking. the-arts-alliance.org

Chief justice defends legitimacy of court

Roberts describes last year as unusual, difficult

Colleen Slevin ASSOCIATED PRESS

DENVER – Chief Justice John Roberts defended the authority of the Supreme Court to interpret the Constitution, saying its role should not be called into question just because people disagree with its decisions.

When asked to reflect on the last year at the court in his first public appearance since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, Roberts said Friday he was concerned that lately some critics of the court’s controversial decisions have questioned the legitimacy of the court, which he said was a mistake. He did not mention any specific cases or critics by name.

“If the court doesn’t retain its legitimate function of interpreting the constitution, I’m not sure who would take upthatmantle.Youdon’twantthepolitical branches telling you what the law is, and you don’t want public opinion to be the guide about what the appropriate decision is,”Roberts said while being interviewed by two judges from the Denver-based 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals at its conference in Colorado Springs. Roberts described the last year as an unusual and difficult one, pointing to the public not being allowed inside the court, which was closed in 2020 because of the pandemic, as one hardship. He also said it was “gut wrenching” to drive into the Supreme Court that was surrounded by barricades every day.

The barriers were installed in May when protests erupted outside the court and outside the homes of some Supreme Court justices after there was an

unprecedented leak of a draft opinion indicating the justices were planning to overturn Roe v. Wade

The barriers are gone, and the public will be allowed back inside when the court’s new session begins in October, but an investigation ordered by Roberts into the leak continues.

Speaking at the same conference Thursday, Justice Neil Gorsuch said it is “terribly important”to identify the leaker and said he is expecting a report on the progress of the investigation, “I hope soon.”

Gorsuch condemned the leak, as have other justices who have addressed it publicly. Reporters from The Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg attended the talk.

The leaked draft was largely incorporated into Justice Samuel Alito’s final opinion in June that overturned Roe v. Wade in a case upholding Mississippi’s

NTSB in charge for space accidents

HOUSTON – Two federal agencies agreed Friday which one will lead investigations of accidents in the nascent commercial space business that includes launching tourists far above the Earth. The National Transportation Safety Board will take the lead investigating accidents that involve death or serious injury or that create potentially deadly debris. The Federal Aviation Administration will handle other investigations.

law banning abortion after 15 weeks. The ruling paved the way for severe abortion restrictions or bans in nearly half of U.S. states.

In June’s ruling, Roberts, appointed to the court in 2005 by former President George W. Bush, voted to uphold Mississippi’s law but he did not join the conservative justices in also overturning Roe v. Wade, as well as Planned Parenthood v. Casey, the 1992 decision that reaffirmed the right to end a pregnancy. He wrote that there was no need to overturn the broad precedents to uphold the state law, saying he would take “a more measured course.”

Roberts has spoken out repeatedly abouttheimportanceofthejudiciary’s independence and has rebutted perceptions of the court as a political institution not much different than Congress or the presidency.

UN chief visits flood-battered Pakistan

KARACHI, Pakistan – U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Saturday toured Pakistan’s flood-ravaged Sindh and Baluchistan provinces a day after saying the world is obligated to provide “massive” amounts of relief to the impoverished country.

Guterres was on the second day of a two-day visit to Pakistan, which has been devastated by months of heavy monsoon rains and flooding.

At least1,396 people have been killed, 12,728 injured and millions left homeless.Thewatersalsodestroyedroadand communications infrastructure.

Guterres toured flood-affected areas of the district of Sukkur in southern Sindh province and Osta Mohammad in southwest Baluchistan province – some of the worst affected areas of the country.

“Pakistan needs today massive financial support to overcome this crisis,” he said. “This is not a matter of generosity; this is a matter of justice.”

Miles of cotton and sugarcane crops, banana orchards and vegetable fields in the two provinces were submerged in floodwaters. Thousands of mud and brick homes caved in under the deluge leaving people homeless and sheltering in tents alongside damaged roads.

Guterres’ comments came after he

Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif, center right, and U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, left, interact with children Saturday at a school set up at a flood relief camp in Jaffarabad, Pakistan. Guterres toured Pakistan’s flood-ravaged Sindh and Baluchistan provinces on Saturday as well.

was briefed by chief minister of Sindh province Murad Ali Shah on the destruction in his province. Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif and some of his Cabinet members accompanied the U.N.’s top official during his visit. Pakistan has suffered under extremely heavy monsoon rains which started early this year – in mid-June. Expertshaveblamedglobalwarmingfor the early start and the heavier than normal rains.

NATION & WORLD WATCH FROM WIRE REPORTS

$40K offered for info to find fugitive in Navy bribery case

SAN DIEGO – The U.S. government posted a $40,000 reward Friday for information leading to the arrest of the Malaysian defense contractor nicknamed “Fat Leonard,” who disappeared weeks before he was set to be sentenced for one of the largest bribery scandals in the nation’s military history. Leonard Glenn Francis cut off his ankle monitoring bracelet on Sept.4 at a San Diego home where he was being held, according to the U.S. Marshals Service. U.S. authorities also issued a worldwide red notice for Francis.

Poliovirus detected in more wastewater near New York City

ALBANY, N.Y. – New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said Friday the state was stepping up its polio-fighting efforts as the virus that causes the life-threatening disease was detected in the wastewater of yet another county in the New York City area. Hochul declared a state disasteremergencythatallowsEMSworkers, midwives and pharmacists to administer polio vaccines and allows doctors to issue standing orders for the vaccine. Data on immunizations will be used to focus vaccination efforts where they’re needed the most.

“Humanity has been waging war on nature and nature strikes back,” Guterres said. “We need to stop the madness which we played with nature.”

Guterres expressed solidarity with the Pakistani people and said the U.N. will use its limited resources to help and request that “those who have the capacitytosupportPakistan,doitnow and do it massively.”

So far, U.N. agencies and several countries have sent nearly 60 planeloads of aid, and authorities say the United Arab Emirates has been one of the most generous contributors, sending 26 flights carrying aid for flood victims. Since June, the heavy rains and floods have added a new level of grief to cash-strapped Pakistan and highlighted the disproportionate effect of climate change on impoverished populations.

Experts say Pakistan is responsible for only 0.4% of the world’s historic emissions that are blamed for climate change. The U.S. is responsible for 21.5%, China for 16.5% and the European Union for 15%.

The U.N. chief also visited camps for displaced flood victims in Larkana district. Guterres was briefed there by officials about the situation and threat to the protected archaeological sites of Mohenjo Daro – among the earliest ruins of human civilization.

Suspect in Wisconsin parade attack withdraws insanity plea

WAUKESHA, Wis. – A man accused of killing six people and injuring dozens of others by driving an SUV through a Christmas parade in Wisconsin last year withdrew his insanity plea Friday. Darrell Brooks Jr., 40, appeared in Waukesha County Circuit Court where he’s facing nearly 80 charges, including six homicidecounts,inconnectionwiththe Nov. 21 incident in Waukesha. Brooks had changed his not guilty plea to not guiltybyreasonofmentaldiseaseordefect in June. The judge agreed and pushed the hearing to Sept.19.

The NTSB is currently the primary investigator of crashes involving airplanes and other modes of transportation but has no authority to write regulations. The FAA is the chief safety regulator for the aviation industry.

The two agencies are frequently at odds, usually when the safety board believes its recommendations are being ignored by the FAA.

The agreement announced at NASA’s Mission Control Center in Houston is the first to be signed by the agencies’ leaders in 22 years – before manned commercial space flights began. It also details how they will share information after an accident.

“This agreement is proof that the federal government can keep pace with the exciting advances taking place in the private sector while also prioritizing safety as we enter a new space age,” NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy said in a statement.

Licensed space launches have increased in recent years, with operators including SpaceX, Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin.

Princeton announces more full rides

Natalie Neysa Alund USA TODAY

Starting next year, Princeton University will offer full rides to undergraduates from families earning less than $100,000 a year, the Ivy League school announced last week.

Financial assistance is slated to take effect in the fall of 2023 and expected to include about 1,500 students, according to information released Thursday from the school.

In addition to a full ride, the school said it predicts more than a quarter of its undergraduates will also not pay for tuition, room and board.

The university previously gave the same deal to families earning less than $65,000 a year, according to a Princeton news release.

“The improvements continue Princeton’s national leadership in the area of financial aid as families across theincomespectrumstrugglewithrising college costs,” the university wrote in the release.

In 2001, Princeton was the first university in the country to eliminate loans from its financial aid packages, the release continues. Since then, more than 10,000 undergraduates have benefited from the aid program

Albania reports 2nd cyberattack by Iran, on border systems

TIRANA, Albania – Albania’s Interior Ministry said Saturday that one of its border systems was hit by a cyberattack that came from the same Iranian source as an earlier attack that led the country to break diplomatic relations with Iran. It said in a statement that the previous eveninganAlbanianpolicetransmitting system was found to be “under a cyberattack similar to the one that (government portal) e-Albania suffered in July.” Albania, a NATO member, cut diplomatic ties with Iran and expelled its embassy staff last week.

Chief Justice John Roberts, center, has spoken out repeatedly about the importance of the judiciary’s independence. SAUL LOEB/AP

Taliban close girls schools in the east

ISLAMABAD – Taliban authorities on Saturday shut down girls schools above the sixth grade in eastern Afghanistan’s Paktia province, according to witnesses and social media posts. The schools had briefly opened after a recommendation by tribal elders and school principals.

Earlier this month, four girls schools above grade 6 in Gardez, the provincial capital, and one in the Samkani district began operating without formal permission from the Taliban Education Ministry.

On Saturday, all five schools were once again closed by the Taliban.

Dozens of tearful former students –some in head-to-toe burqas, others in school uniforms and white veils – protested Saturday in the streets of Gardez, according to social media posts.

Mohammad Sediq, a resident of Gardez, said he had been happy that his two sisters could go to school, but the Taliban disappointed him by closing the girls schools. Taliban government spokespersons and Education Ministry officials were not immediately available for comment.

A year after the Taliban took power in Afghanistan, teenage girls are still barred from school and women are required to cover themselves from head to toe in public, with only their eyes showing. Hard-liners appear to hold sway in the Taliban-led government, which imposed severe restrictions on access to education and jobs for girls and women, despite initial promises to the contrary.

Since taking power, the Taliban have struggled to govern and remain internationally isolated.

Oregon adopts Calif. fire tactic, shuts down power

Strategy used to lessen wildfire risk in key areas

Gillian Flaccus ASSOCIATED PRESS

PORTLAND, Ore. – Oregon utilities shut down power to tens of thousands of customers on Friday as dry easterly winds swept into the region in the hopes that it would lessen the risk of wildfires in extremely dry and hot conditions.

Power shut-offs due to extreme fire conditions, common in California, are relatively new to the Pacific Northwest. The plans, which were part of permanent rules approved in May to manage wildfire danger in high-risk areas, mark the new reality in a region better known for its rain and temperate rainforests

Portland General Electric halted power to about 30,000 customers in12 service areas – including the posh West Hills neighborhood of Portland –andPacificPowershutdownserviceto more than 7,000 customers in a small community on the Pacific Coast, where a wildfire burned two years ago, and in pockets southeast of the state capitol of Salem.

Schools in the areas with planned power outages canceled classes, and authorities urged residents to charge cellphones and be ready to evacuate at a moment’s notice.

The winds were whipping up a wildfire southeast of Eugene, Oregon, that had been burning in the wilderness for a month but was now making a run toward the small community of Oakridge, where residents were ordered to evacuate. Gov. Kate Brown declared a fire emergency late Friday

Firefighters use aircraft to battle a wildfire Friday south of Salem, Ore. Climate change is bringing drier conditions to the Pacific Northwest, and that requires strategies that have been common in fire-prone California for the past decade or more, said Erica Fleishman, director of the Oregon Climate Change Research Institute at Oregon State University. ANDREW SELSKY/AP

for the Cedar Creek Fire as it encroached on the 3,200-person town.

Climate change is bringing drier conditions to the Pacific Northwest, and that requires strategies that have been common in fire-prone California for the past decade or more, said Erica Fleishman, director of the Oregon Climate Change Research Institute at Oregon State University.

Wind patterns haven’t changed, but those winds are now coinciding more frequently with drier vegetation and hotter temperatures – a toxic mix for fire ignition, rapid spread and extreme fire behavior, she said.

“I don’t know whether this is the solution, but it’s an interim effort to manage wildfire risk,” Fleishman said. “Peo-

plearegoing,‘Ohmygosh!’Theareaswe thought were safe, they’re realizing those are not immune to fire anymore.

The fire likelihood is changing.”

The proactive power shutoffs were just the second for Portland General Electric ever. The utility shut down power to 5,000 customers in 2020 near Mount Hood during firestorms that ravaged the state.

Extreme winds over Labor Day weekend led to wildfires that burned more than 1 million acres, destroyed 4,000 homes and killed at least11people – and utilities were blamed for some of those fire starts.

Pacific Power, another major utility in Oregon, said the shutoffs Friday were the first the company has ever done.

Charles is formally proclaimed king

Queen’s funeral is set for Sept. 19

LONDON – King Charles III was formally proclaimed sovereign of the United Kingdom on Saturday, as officials unveiled details of the meticulously choreographed ceremonies that will culminate in the state funeral of his mother, Queen ElizabethII, on Sept.19.

InthistimeofsorrowfortheHouseof Windsor, there were hints of a possible family reconciliation.

Prince William and his brother Harry, together with Catherine, now Princess of Wales and Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, delighted mourners near Windsor Castle with a surprise joint appearance to thank the public for their floral tributes and condolences.

It was the first time that the quarreling younger royal generation had worked together publicly since the Sussexes stepped aside from royal duties in 2020 and moved to California. The thousands who flocked to Windsor on a sunny day were in their thrall, as the couples gratefully accepted flowers, talked to parents and children at length, shook hands and accepted heartfelt condolences.

Meghan approached a teenager in the crowd, who put her hand over her mouth in shock.

The pair spoke briefly then the girl said: “Can I have a hug?”Meghan leaned in to give her a big hug.

Catherine, for her part, focused on young children in the crowd, bending downlowtospeaktothemwarmlyfaceto-face.

The late sovereign’s coffin now rests at Balmoral Castle, the summer retreat in the Scottish Highlands where Elizabeth died on Thursday.

Palace officials promised Saturday that the public will have opportunities to see the late monarch’s oak coffin as it journeys from Balmoral Castle to Edinburgh and then to London, where her body will lie in state for four days starting Wednesday.

Edward William Fitzalan-Howard, the official in charge of arrangements, said the ceremonies would be “a fitting farewell to one of the defining figures of our times.”

The queen’s eldest son and successor Charles was officially proclaimed Britain’s monarch Saturday in a pomp-filled ceremony steeped in ancient tradition and political symbolism – and, for the first time, broadcast live on television and online.

The 73-year-old Charles, who spent seven decades as heir apparent, automatically became king when his mother died and vowed to follow her example. But the accession ceremony was a key constitutional and ceremonial step that introduced the new monarch to the country, a relic of a time before mass communications.

“I am deeply aware of this great inheritance and of the duties and heavy responsibilities of sovereignty which have now passed to me,”Charles said as he took on the duties of monarch.

New British Prime Minister Liz Truss and five of her predecessors were among scores of current and former

British politicians who gathered at St. James’s Palace for the meeting of the Accession Council.

Saturday’s accession ceremony ended with a royal official publicly proclaiming King CharlesIII to be the country’s new monarch from a balcony at the palace. In centuries past, this would have been the first official confirmation the public had of their new sovereign.

David White, the Garter King of Arms, made the proclamation, flanked by trumpeters in gold-trimmed robes before leading cheers – “hip, hip, hooray!” – for the new king. Gun salutes rang out in Hyde Park, at the Tower of London and at military sites around the U.K. as he announced the news, and scarlet-robed soldiers in the palace courtyard doffed their bearskin hats in a royal salute.

The proclamation was read at other locations across the U.K., including in the medieval City of London.

The new king formally approved a series of orders, including one declaring the day of his mother’s funeral as a public holiday.

Charles was accompanied at the ceremony by wife Camilla, the Queen Consort, and eldest son Prince William, who is now heir to the throne and known by the title that Charles long held, the Prince of Wales.

In his first statement since his grandmother’s death, William said the queen “was by my side at my happiest moments. And she was by my side during the saddest days of my life”– a clear reference to the death of his mother, Princess Diana, in 1997.

“I knew this day would come, but it will be some time before the reality of life without Grannie will truly feel real,” William said.

People came by the thousands to pay their respects outside Buckingham Palace in London.

Thescenewasrepeatedatotherroyal residences across the U.K. and at British embassies around the world.

For many Britons, the queen’s passing, though long expected, is a destabilizing experience.

Queen ElizabethII is the only monarch most have ever known, and her death comes as many Britons are facing an energy crisis, the soaring cost of living, the uncertainties of the war in Ukraine and the fallout from Brexit.

The country has also just seen a change of leader. Truss was appointed prime minister by the queen on Tuesday, just two days before the monarch died. On Saturday, Truss and other seniorU.K.lawmakerslinedupintheHouse of Commons to take an oath of loyalty to the new king.

Normal parliamentary business has been suspended during a period of mourning for the queen. The House of Commons held a rare Saturday session so lawmakers could pay tribute to the late monarch.

Charles has struck a note of continuity, vowing in a televised address Friday to carry on the queen’s “lifelong service,” with his own modernizing stamp.

The new monarch looked both to the past – noting his mother’s unwavering “dedication and devotion as sovereign” – and the future, seeking to strike a reassuring note of constancy while signaling that his will be a 21st-century monarchy.

Jill Lawless, Danica Kirka and Sylvia Hui ASSOCIATED PRESS

Prince William, center, and Camilla, Queen Consort, watch as King Charles III signs an oath to uphold the security of the Church in Scotland, during a meeting of the Accession Council inside St. James’s Palace in London on Saturday, to proclaim him as the new king. VICTORIA JONES/POOL/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

Russia says it will pull back troops

Counteroffensive has made advances

Karl Ritter and Joanna Kozlowska ASSOCIATED PRESS

KYIV, Ukraine – Russia’s Defense Ministry announced Saturday that it was pulling back troops from two areas in Ukraine’s eastern Kharkiv region where a Ukrainian counteroffensive has made significant advances in the past week.

The news came after days of apparent advances by Ukraine south of Kharkiv, the country’s second-largest city, in what could become the biggest battlefield success for Ukrainian forces since they thwarted a Russian attempt to seize the capital,Kyiv, at the start of the nearly seven-month war.

The Russian army in these days is demonstrating the best that it can do –showing its back,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a video released by his office Saturday night. “And, of course, it’s a good decision for them to run.”

Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said troops would be regrouped from the Balakliya and Izyum areas to the eastern Donetsk region. Izyum was a major base for Russian forces in the Kharkiv region, and last week social media videos showed residents of Balakliya joyfully cheering as Ukrainian troops moved in.

Konashenkov said the Russian move was being made “in order to achieve the stated goals of the special military operation to liberate Donbas,’” one of the eastern Ukraine regions that Russia has declared sovereign.

The claim of a withdrawal to concentrate on Donetsk is similar to the justification Russia gave for pulling back its forces from the Kyiv region earlier this year when they failed to take the capital.

Igor Girkin, a Russian who was an early leader of a Moscow-backed separatist uprising in Donetsk in 2014, sneered at the portrayal of the pullback being strategic. On the messaging app Telegram, he acidly called it “the brilliant (clearlywithintheframeworkoftheplan andevenaheadofschedule)operationto

transfer the cities of Izyum, Balakliya and Kupiansk to respected Ukrainian partners.”

Earlier Saturday, Ukrainian officials claimed major gains in the Kharkiv region, saying their troops had cut off vital supplies to Izyum

Foreign Ministry spokesman Oleh Nikolenko also suggested troops had retaken Kupiansk, a town along the main supply route to Izyum, long a focus on the Russian front line and the site of heavy artillery and other fighting. Nikolenko tweeted a photo showing soldiers in front of what he said was a government building in Kupiansk, 45 miles north of Izyum

The Ukrainian Security Service posted a message hours later saying troops were in Kupiansk, further suggesting it had been seized. The military did not immediately confirm entering the town, a railway hub that Russia seized in February.

Videos on social media appeared to show Ukrainian forces on the outskirts of Izyum at a roadside checkpoint. A large statue with the city’s name could be seen in the images. Ukrainian forces did not acknowledge holding the city.

Report: Chemical safety agency hurt by shortage

Matthew Daly ASSOCIATED PRESS

WASHINGTON – The federal agency that investigates chemical accidents is hindered by a lack of staffing, leadership disputes and a backlog of investigations that threaten its ability to protect people and the environment, according to a new report by a federal watchdog.

The report by the Environmental Protection Agency’s inspector general says the U.S. Chemical Safety Board is “challenged by vacancies in missioncritical positions and an inability to fully use the resources Congress allocated” to it.

Leadership disputes, shoddy internal reviews and reporting backlogs “are impeding the board’s ability to accomplish its mission,” Inspector General Sean O’Donnell said in a letter to the board’s acting head.

O’Donnell’s report, released this week, comes after the board’s former chairwoman resigned this summer amid criticism about extravagant spending, ongoing disputes with other board members and a backlog of investigations.

The board completed one investigation in 2020, three in 2021 and three so far this year, the report said. At least 17 investigations are currently waiting to be closed.

Katherine Lemos, the agency’s former chair, left in July, saying in a resignation letter that disputes with fellow board members “have eroded my confidence in our ability to focus” on the independent agency’s mission. Lemos was appointed by former President Donald Trump and led the agency for two years. Her departure left the fivemember panel with two Senate-confirmed members, both nominated by President Joe Biden. A third Biden nominee is pending before the Senate.

With a $13 million annual budget, the board is the only federal agency charged with investigating the causes of chemical accidents, including factory explosions, refinery fires and other industrial disasters. The agency had a

dozen investigators as of last month, down from more than 20 investigators in the past decade, the inspector general said.

Overall, the agency has 27 staffers out of 44 approved positions.

Trump proposed eliminating the safety board in each of his annual budgets, arguing that its focus on regulation had “frustrated both regulators and industry.” Congress funded the agency throughout Trump’s term, although staffing levels dwindled and Lemos served as the board’s sole member for nearly two years.

“The Chemical Safety Board barely survived the Trump war of attrition against it,” said Jeff Ruch, a top official at Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, a watchdog group of current and former public employees. The watchdog group had sharply criticized Lemos and repeatedly called for her ouster.

The inspector general’s report “underlines that it is difficult for a federal agency, especially a small agency, to function when it is saddled with leadership that is inimical to its mission,” Ruch said in an email.

Thecurrentleadership,includinginterim executive Steve Owens, appears intent to rebuild the agency, Ruch said, although problems remain.

Britain’s Defense Ministry said Saturday that it believed Ukrainian troops had advanced as much as 30 miles south of Kharkiv, and described Russian forces around Izyum as “increasingly isolated.”

“Russian forces were likely taken by surprise. The sector was only lightly held and Ukrainian units have captured or surrounded several towns,” the British military said, adding that the loss of Kupiansk would greatly affect Russian supply lines.

The Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank, likewise referenced sweeping Ukrainian gains, estimating that Kyiv has seized around 965 square miles in its eastern breakthrough. The institute said it appeared that “disorganized Russian forces (were) caught in the rapid Ukrainian advance,” and cited social media images of apparent Russian prisoners seized around Izyum and surrounding towns.

ThesamereportsaidUkrainianforces “may collapse Russian positions around Izyum if they sever Russian ground lines of communication” north and south of the town.

Vladislav Sokolov, head of the Russian-appointed local administration,

said on social media that authorities in Izyum had started evacuating residents to Russia. ThefightingineasternUkrainecomes amid an ongoing offensive around Kherson in the south. Analysts suggest Russiamayhavetakensoldiersfromtheeast to reinforce the latter area, offering the Ukrainians the opportunity to strike a weakened front line.

Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov told the television channel Ukraina that the Russians had no food or fuel for their troops in the area as Kyiv had cut off their supply lines.

“It will be like an avalanche,” he said, predicting a Russian fallback. “One line of defense will shake, and it will fall.”

The Ukrainian military was more circumspect, claiming to have taken “more than 1,000 square kilometers” (386 square miles) from pro-Kremlin forces this week. It said that “in some areas, units of the Defense Forces have penetratedtheenemy’sdefensestoadepthof 50 kilometers,” matching the British assessment,butdidnotdisclosegeographical details.

Officials in Kyiv have for weeks been tight-lipped about plans for a counteroffensive, urging residents to refrain from sharing information on social media.

However, Zelenskyy said Friday that troops had reclaimed more than 30 settlements in the Kharkiv region since the start of the counteroffensive.

Elsewhere, Ukrainian emergency services reported that a 62-year-old woman was killed in a Russian missile strike in the Kharkiv region when her home was flattened overnight.

The Ukrainian governor of Kharkiv, Oleh Syniehubov, accused Moscow of pummeling retaken settlements. He said viaTelegramthatfivecivilianswerehospitalized in the Izyum district, while nine others suffered injuries elsewhere in the region.

In the embattled Donbas, the Ukrainian governor said civilians were killed and wounded overnight by Russian shelling near the city of Bakhmut, a key target of the stalled Russian offensive. Pavlo Kyrylenko said on Telegram that two people died and two were injured in Bakhmut and the neighboring village of Yahidne

Allies seek US weapons after seeing use in Ukraine

WASHINGTON – As other nations see the impact of U.S. weapons in the Ukraine war, the Pentagon is getting more requests for them, including the high-tech, multiple-launch rocket system that Ukrainian forces have successfully used against Russian ammunition depots and other supplies, Defense officials said Friday.

Bill LaPlante, the department’s under secretary for acquisition, told reporters the Pentagon has been working with the defense industry to increase production lines to meet U.S. and international demands for certain weapons. And he said some countries have begun asking about buying the High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, or HIMARS

As a result, he said, the U.S. has to replace the HIMARS systems it sent to Ukraine – at a projected cost so far of about $33million – but also predict the future demands in foreign sales.

According to the Pentagon, the department is working to replace about $7billion in weapons and equipment that was taken off the shelves so it could be delivered quickly to Ukraine. Of that, about $1.2billion has been contracted, and roughly half of that was for Stinger missiles.

Congress provided a total of $12.5billion for such replacements this year,aswellasanother$6billiontobuy weapons and equipment directly from the defense industry to send to Ukraine. The contracted items could take several years to come in.

Some of the money will be spent to invest in the defense industrial base so companies can either expand or accelerate their production.

“We remain committed to getting things on contract as quickly as possible, ultimately to send a clear and persistent demand signal to our partners inindustry,”saidLaPlante.Asanexample, he said, the defense industry is producing about 14,400 rounds of ammunition for the Howitzer artillery gun every month, but the plan is to work up to 36,000 a month in about three years.

Even that amount, he noted, might

not meet demands. So the U.S. Army has contacted other companies around theworldtobuy250,000roundsofthat ammunition.

In some cases, LaPlante said, there are easy solutions to increasing the production capacity and in others it requires more creativity. Restarting the production of Stinger missiles, he said, forced contractors to come up with alternative parts to replace obsolete ones.

Sasha Baker, the defense under secretary for policy, said the new U.S. defense attache in Kyiv, Brig. Gen. Garrick Harmon, is trying to provide greater insight into what capabilities Ukrainian forces are using the most.

She said Harmon, who was appointed in July, gives the U.S. better oversight and the ability to get “real-time information about what the Ukrainians are seeing and experiencing and what they might need.”

LaPlante said he will meet with acquisition and weapons officials from other NATO and allied nations later this monthtotalkabouthowtoresolvesupply chain issues and ramp up production of needed equipment. He said the group will also discuss how the various nations can increase the use of equipment that is interchangeable and operates more easily with other allies’ systems.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, left, and Poland’s Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki visit the “Walk of the Brave” in Kyiv, Ukraine, Friday. The “Walk of the Brave” nameplates mark those who have helped in the struggle against the Russian invasion of Ukraine. UKRAINIAN PRESIDENTIAL PRESS OFFICE VIA AP

The U.S. Chemical Safety Board completed three investigations in 2021, including at the LyondellBasell facility in La Port, Texas. MARK MULLIGAN/HOUSTON CHRONICLE VIA AP, FILE

Lolita C. Baldor ASSOCIATED PRESS

U.S. allies are interested in American-built High Mobility Artillery Rocket System launchers, about a dozen of which were delivered to Ukraine for its war against Russia. MOSA'AB ELSHAMY/AP FILE

Shanksville Borough remains a large family for locals and visitors

in the 1700s with a history that goes back long before Sept.11, 2001, and a future that will carry those memories, along with graduations, first jobs, marriages, babies born and loved ones’ deaths and homes sold, bought and built.

SHANKSVILLE, Pa. – The young couple each held a hand of a little girl walking between them and pulled her up so her feet dangled for a moment resulting in whooping laughter as her feet once again hit the pavement. They walked along one of the streets that eventually would lead to the now-closed back entrance of the Flight 93 National Memorial.

Sitting on a porch of a nearby house, the trio turned and waved to townspeople sitting on a deck enjoying the cooler evening air. They smiled and waved back. A few minutes later, a red Ford truck traveled down the street leading out of town. The driver honked his horn and waved, receiving the same in return.

Welcome to a typical summer evening in Shanksville Borough. The transformation that a devastating and rare worldwide event did to this small, rural town is not visible. If one goes deeper one would see the grit of the residents and the love for their town and for their way of life in a rural community.

Those traits have not changed even with the influx of thousands of visitors and even with the building of a national monument nearby that took nearly 20 years to complete. In fact, those traits seem to have intensified. The monument has increased in visitation almost annually and now draws more than 300,000 people, according to the National Park Service, that governs the memorial.

Twenty-one years ago, the forced crash by four terrorists of United Flight 93 on Sept. 11, 2001, as passengers and airline staff fought a life battle in the skies over Somerset County, did something to the American psyche. A recognition of what was important in their lives came to the forefront and a reemergence of their pride in their communities and in their country.

Just beyond the nearest town of Shanksville Borough, the crash of Flight 93 left behind more than a deep smoking crater in the middle of a field that soon was surrounded by first responders and well-meaning nearby townspeoplealongwiththesmellofdeathand thefeelingofsadnessthatclingstogone dreams.

Inawaythetownbecamepartofhow the world saw the American way of life –people sharing food, warmth and in many cases their homes with strangers simply because it was the right thing to do.

The current mayor of Shanksville Borough was 15 when United Airlines Flight 93 slammed into the earth. Chris Baeckel remembers being in school and how all the kids in his classroom ran over to the window and witnessed what appeared to be a big mushroom cloud rising into the sky.

“I thought it was somebody’s house that blew up,”Baeckel said. Even though only minutes before, they had been watching on television the collapse of the Twin Towers in New York City with their teacher, the teens did not connect the mushroom cloud they were viewing with what was occurring in New York City at the Twin Towers or in Arlington, Virginia, at the Pentagon. But when the teacher told his students to sit down and stay calm something changed and that was when Baeckel said he realized something extraordinary had just occurred.

Later that night, he joined members of the tiny rural community driving drinks and food up the hill to provide comfort for what had rapidly become a small army at the crash site. That first night, he and others on one of the trucks traveled to a location where they could look down on the crash site.

“I remember thinking ‘What was it?’ ‘Where was it?’ It was just a dark hole,” he said. Baeckel, along with others, continued to haul food and drinks to those at the crash site for several nights.

Accolades sprouted forth like water from a fountain when the rescue crews and the investigators left and the townspeople chose to become the stewardsofthelandwheretheplanecrashed and sentinels of the stories that breathed life into the passengers and crew who died as heroes at a time when the nation was reeling from its vulnerability to terrorism.

Year after year since the plane dropped out of the sky into what was an

old coal strip mine, visitors who want more to explain their somber feelings at the memorial still stop and ask the townspeople where they were, what they saw and how they felt when the plane crashed nearby.

It is less now since the back entrance off Lambertsville Road that goes through Shanksville is closed to visitors. A new road was built to enter the memorial from Route 30. Although not all, but a large portion of the traffic is now diverted from the town.

In those early days a temporary memorial was created mainly by the local community along with other Somerset countians. Thousands of visitors came from far and near. They wanted to pay their respects and to leave a little of themselvesbehindintheformofletters, flowers and other momentos

To do so, the visitors basically had to drive through Shanksville Borough to reach the crash site. Often they would stopandaskdirectionsandquestionsof the townspeople. Those acts instilled the connection between the townspeople and the memorial site.

In fact, local residents formed a group soon after the event with their main goal to help visitors learn about what happened there. The volunteers became known as the Flight 93 Ambassadors. The Ambassadors still greet visitors,tellthestoryofthepassengersand crew and answer questions only now as part of the partnership program with the National Park Service that oversees the 2,200-acre memorial.

“I don’t think the memorial changed us as a town,” Baeckel said. “With the temporary memorial there was more involvement and exchange with people who stopped and talked with people in the town. But there are not nearly as many who come through town now with the new route into the memorial.”

Then

On Sept. 11, 2001, Flight 93 took off from New Jersey at 8:42 a.m. Its destination was San Francisco. Among the passengers were four terrorists who took over the plane in flight and set a course for the nation’s capital.

Passengers and crew members began calling their families, friends and authoritiesandfoundoutabouttheother hijacked planes used as missiles by the terrorist. Passengers and crew members voted to fight back. They stormed the cockpit.

United Airlines Flight 93 fell from the

sky over Somerset County. It was 10:03 a.m. when it slammed into an empty fieldofaformercoalsurfaceminingcite, less than 2 miles from the closest town, Shanksville Borough. The plane, struck the ground at a 40 degree angle almost upside down, hitting right wing and nose first, at a speed of between 563 and 580 mph. The plane left a 15-foot deep crater in the earth and very little else. The 40 passengers and crew members perished. Shanksville residents were the first on the scene. Soon crash investigators, police, FBI, media, airline officials, emergency workers, curiosity seekers and an army of volunteers swarmed the area.

Now, thousands upon thousands of visitors stop at the site, governed by the National Park Service. But it seems, on the anniversary of the incident, the numbers are always more. Even 21years later, Shanksville residents brace for a smaller onslaught of visitors than in the past on the anniversary of the day when the town became a global destination.

“Itisasmalltownatmosphere,where everybodythatcomesintotownistreated as neighbors,” Baeckel said about Shanksville’s appeal.

Now

Shanksville Borough lies along the Stonycreek River in the Laurel Highlands of the Allegheny Mountains, 78 miles east of Pittsburgh, 17 miles south of Johnstown and 9.8 miles east of Somerset Borough. The town has a population of somewhere between197 and 245 depending on what report one views for the 2020 U.S. census.

Snida’s Corner Store, known for its food and country comfort, is a gathering place for locals and the only restaurant in town. Municipal business is conducted out of an old bank a few blocks down. There is a post office and ShanksvilleStonycreek Rec Park with ball fields and basketball courts and a place where the Shanksville Volunteer Fire Department holds fundraisers. On a rise at the edge of town, the Shanksville-Stonycreek School District conducts its business to a diminishing number of students, now number around 300. It was at 400 five years ago.

Pride is palpable when one enters the town. Pride in who they are and what they do can be seen everywhere along the town’s streets with well-cared for homes, mowed lawns and lots of colorful flowers. Generational families and new families intermingle in a town built

“People pretty much know everyone. They know if someone is out of place around the kids,” Baeckel said. “Everybody knows what you’re doing even before you do.”

The town’s hubs

Brad Younkin stopped in Snida’s Corner Store for lunch. He owns his own business, Carpentry and Remodeling, based in town, and he is a school board member at Shanksville-Stonycreek schools.

“Pretty much everybody starts their day here,” he said as he sat at one of the three tables in the old-fashion country store. “I usually run into 10 people I know,” he said.

He remembers when Flight 93 crashed he was working at his uncle’s house in Somerset putting in a new door. Then, the radio news was of airplanes crashing into Twin Towers in New York City and the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia. Then news of a crash of a plane near Shanksville

“My wife called. She was scared. She was at home with our son who was a baby then. The pictures were knocked off the walls she told me,” he said.

“We could see the smoke where we were. I jumped in the truck and got home and picked up my wife and we drove out to the site to see if we could help, but there was nothing there,” he said.

Younkin was one of the townspeople who took coffee and food in shifts over the ensuing days up to the crash site.

He is someone who has roots in Shanksville and can’t see being anywhere else.

“I love Shanksville. I wanted my kids to grow up here. The school is like a private school because it has small class sizes, one-on-one,” he said. The school opened up opportunities for his kids and those of his friends who attend there, he said.

He is concerned about the dwindling population at the school.

His son and daughter graduated from Shanksville-Stonycreek School District. His son is working in a local business and his daughter is in college.

“Everybody knows each other. We all are friends. We all get along,” he said about his hometown.

About two blocks away, Angie Zolla is working in her role as secretary to the Shanksville Volunteer Fire Department, thefirstonesatthesceneofthecrashon Sept. 11, 2001.

She was only 2 when the crash happened and she said her family did not discussthattimeoftenasshewasgrowing up. They did attend the annual commemorations at the memorial.

“I love Shanksville,” she said. She grew up on a farm nestled close to the town’s borders.

She is soon to marry Shanksville Fire Chief James Bent and can’t wait.

Zolla and Bent debated moving to Ohio because that was where the jobs were that she wanted – working in a zoo – and for Bent the firefighters positions are paid. He paints tanks here and Zolla works at a veterinarian hospital in Somerset.

“I couldn’t. We love Shanksville. How close everybody is,” she said. She just went to her fifth-year high school reunion. There were 28 graduates in her class from Shanksville-Stonycreek High School. “It was so easy to get everybody together, because they stayed.”

Zolla became a member of the fire department about four years ago. Her little brother, Andy, who is 16, just joined the department three month ago. “He just loves it,” she said.

In many small rural towns’ fire departments are the glue and often the members are generational. Every small town has a fire department and there is alotofcollaborationbecausetheyareso close together. Friendships naturally grow among the departments’ members.

She pointed to the hill of houses running up one side of the firehall

“This whole hill is firemen. It is so easytogetaholdofpeoplebecausethey are all right here. It is such a good community because I know everybody. I could name each and every person in each one of those houses,” she said. “If I need something I could just walk up this hill and I know anyone in the houses would help me.”

Shanksville Borough lies along the Stonycreek River in the Laurel Highlands of the Allegheny Mountains, 78 miles east of Pittsburgh. Thousands upon thousands of visitors stop at the Flight 93 site, governed by the National Park Service. PHOTOS BY JUDY D.J ELLICH/THE DAILY AMERICAN/USA TODAY NETWORK

Accolades sprouted forth when the rescue crews and the investigators left and the townspeople chose to become the stewards of the land where United Airlines Flight 93 crashed.

Congress has ways to keep secrets safe

Protocols are in stark contrast to Trump’s handling of documents

Lisa Mascaro ASSOCIATED PRESS

WASHINGTON – Security-sealed rooms. Lock bags. And in the most rare of circumstances, the ability to handcuff a document pouch to a messenger to transport the nation’s secrets.

These are some of the ways Capitol Hill keeps classified documents secured, an elaborate system of government protocols and high-level security clearances that stands in stark contrast to the storage room stash of secrets at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida.

As the Justice Department’s investigation into the former president’s possession of White House materials deepens, lawmakers of both parties have more questions than answers. Intelligence officials have offered to brief congressional leaders, possibly as soon as this week, senators said, as they launch a lengthy risk assessment. Congress had asked for the briefing soon after the revelation of the unprecedented Aug. 8 search, but it might be delayed by the legal fight between Trump and the government.

“We need to be able to do appropriate oversight for the Intelligence Committee so that we have a better handle on how this particular incident was handled, but so that we avoid problems like this in the future,”said Sen. John Cornyn, RTexas.

A culture of secrecy might not necessarily be expected from Capitol Hill, where 535 elected members of Congress, alongside thousands of aides and countless more visitors broker information on a daily basis as a routine part of governing.

Secrets large and small – from the most mundane details about when an upcoming vote will be scheduled to the parlor intrigue of transitional alliances – are among the more valued bits of currency that pass through the place.

But when it comes to classified materials, the stream of information tends to clamp shut.

Lawmakers who serve on the House and Senate Intelligence committees are traditionally among the most publicly tight-lipped about their work, and staff for those panels must obtain security clearances to handle the documents and perform their jobs. Others serving on committees dealing with military affairs and certain national security funds face similar restrictions.

When members of Congress want to peruse classified materials, they descend deep into the basement of the Capitol to a sensitive compartmented information facility, known as a SCIF Other SCIFs are scattered throughout the Capitol complex.

If documents need to be ferried in or out of secure locations, they are typically transported in a lock bag, a briefcasesized pouch under lock and key.

Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., a member of the Intelligence Committee, said staff will often use a lock bag even to transport materials from committee offices to a SCIF about 30 feet away.

“The idea that anyone would leave any building or any room with those documents not secure – it’s just, the wordis,unfathomable,”Caseysaidinan

interview.

In rare instances, a document pouch can be handcuffed to a person’s wrist for travel, though several senators and staff said they have never seen that happen.

“I’ve only seen that in movies,” said Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, the topranking Republican on the Intelligence Committee.

Trump’s alleged mishandling of the documents has stunned lawmakers of both parties, even those Republicans critical of the Justice Department’s unusual search of a former president. Court filings from the federal government said hundreds of classified records have been retrieved from Trump’s private Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida.

Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., all but warned of Trump’s handling of sensitive documents early in the president’s term.

A photo from a White House press briefing in 2017 showed Trump and others in the Oval Office with a lock bag visible on the desk, the key still attached.

“Never leave a key in a classified lock bag in the presence of noncleared people. #Classified101,” tweeted Heinrich, a

member of the Intelligence Committee, days after the February 2017 incident. He asked for a review.

In an interview this past week, Heinrich said, “It is outrageous to think – the cavalier nature with which the former president treats information, that can have life-or-death consequences for our sources, is unfathomable.”

Trump amassed more than a dozen boxes of papers and other mementos from the White House, many held in a storage room at Mar-a-Lago

The FBI’s search came after a protracted fight over missing documents launched soon after Trump left the White House in 2021.

Trump attorneys insisted early in the summer after the first delivery of returned documents that there was nothing left at the former president’s club. Upon inspection, the FBI asked the storage room to be put under lock and key. Ultimately a search warrant for Mar-aLago was obtained and more than 100 other documents with classified markings were found. Now, the Justice Department is investigating the Trump team’s handling of the documents and possible obstruction.

Cornyn expressed skepticism the stashed documents held critical information.

“It’s hard for me to believe it was particularly sensitive – it’s been sitting at Mar-a-Lago for a year and a half before they do anything about it,” he said.

Still, when it comes to handling classified documents, Cornyn said: “There are ways to secure it, but it’s not – under no circumstance, should it be in your home.”

The intelligence office was expected to provide a bipartisan briefing for the top four leaders of the House and the Senate, along with the House and Senate intelligence committee leaders.

But it is unknown, because of Trump’s litigation, whether the Office of the Director of National Intelligence will be able to continue the assessment or provide the briefing to lawmakers.

Warnersaidhewasaskingforatleast an interim risk assessment.

Senators expect the briefing could happen this week, when the House and Senate are back in session – but only in a secure location.

‘We want all planes on the ground’

“I remember him during some of the catastrophes that occurred,” Reed said, such as the Apollo 1 tragedy in 1967, when a flash fire broke out during a simulation and killed the three American astronauts on board.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – “We want all planes on the ground. Now.”

The call came from the Federal Aviation Administration within several minutes of the second plane hitting the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001.

That morning, Phil Reed did what he does every morning: He looked out his window to check the weather. Depending on what he saw in the sky, he could determine how his day might go as an airline executive located in Memphis, Tennessee, at the hub of a hub-andspoke flight system.

The Louisville native oversaw the scheduling of hundreds of daily flights for Delta Connection, Delta Airlines’ name for its partnerships with regional airlines. He lived less than a mile from Memphis International Airport, where planes flew overhead at all hours: commercialduringtheday,FedExduringthe night.

When he looked out his window that Tuesday morning, it was a beautiful crystal-clear day.

“Oh my goodness. Oh my goodness. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a bluer sky,”he said more than 20 years later.

He was listening to the radio when he heard the news the first plane hit the World Trade Center’s North Tower. His mind kicked into overdrive. He knew there were backstream winds that happen at that end of Manhattan, but that seemed impossible.

“Nobody misses like that,” he said.

When he got to his office and turned on his television, he saw the second airplane hit the South Tower.

“Right instantly, I knew, that it was a terrorist attack,”he said. “There was not a question in my mind. I knew the concept that two aircrafts would hit the samelocationwasimpossibleandithad to be planned.”

his

employees telling them what he knew. Then the phone calls started.

The FAA was calling to tell them to hold everything on the ground that wasn’t in the air.

“I think we had 400 airplanes in the sky at that moment,” he said.

Several minutes later, the FAA called again.

“They wanted us to land our airplanes at the next available station –which meant if you were flying somewhere,youlookedatwhereyouflewand landed your airplane there, regardless of whether that was your destination,” Reed said.

A few minutes later, the phone rang again. That’s when that call came to ground all the flights, immediately.

“Find the first available strip and land,” he said. “That meant you were landing airplanes where you had no employees, no ground crews, no maintenance, no gates, no ground service for operations and no way to handle the customers on the planes.”

Every one of the planes under his direction was on the ground within about 20 minutes.

For the next 31⁄2 days, Reed would compose a plan on the fly: rescheduling flights and booking hotels for employ-

ees was just the beginning.

“All the logistical things started going through your mind,” he said. “How do you get people off the airplane? How do you take the bags off? Where do you park the airplane?”

He didn’t panic. He just started planning.

“We didn’t worry about cash expenditures,” he said. “We worried about our people and keeping our planes in a safe place.”

He planned reunions with food for all the crew members and their families to celebrate their safe return to their home airports. His secretary visited with parents of employees delivering meals and spending time as they waited for their return. Reed was hurt by what happened.

“You’re crushed by the fact that your industry has been used as a weapon against people to harm and kill innocent people,” he said.

The background music of planes flying overhead was gone. The skies were abnormally quiet. Their noise had been replaced with the sound of his ringing phone. He had problems with no plans.

He kept going back to what he learned from his uncle, who he said worked for NASA in the1960s in Florida.

This was his uncle’s advice: “Gather your thoughts every Friday when you head home. Turn your radio off. And think about if you had to do your week better, what would you do differently? Think about what you would have done and gain that experience.”

From HR to safety people, it takes about 76 positions to make a commercial flight successful.

“It was tell me how, tell me when and tell me your plan,” he said. “Speak it out loud so everyone in this room understands what each component is doing.”

His industry changed drastically.

“It was evolutionary – and not in a positive way,” he said of the extraordinary restrictions that began to be implemented.

Immediately following Sept. 11, airlines were required to open every customer’s bag in line before it could go on an airplane. The Transportation Security Administration would be created in response to the terrorist attacks, two months after the towers fell in New York City.

Policies began to morph. Operations changed. Even the planes’ center of gravity had to be readjusted; improvements to make stronger cockpit doors created weights and balance issues.

Swift changes continued for the next two years.

The collaboration and conversations that came as a result changed and guided Reed’s career, but safety remains his first guiding principal.

Reed retired right before the COVID-19 pandemic changed his industry drastically again. He now does consulting and advisory work for airlines globally. Every Friday, he sits in his car and turns off his radio.

“Wherever I’m going, and hopefully I’m going to golf,” he said.

He said he thinks about what he did that week and what he could do better. Then he looks to the sky – where planes continue to fly – and checks the weather.

A lock bag is visible on President Donald Trump’s desk during a meeting with Intel CEO Brian Krzanich in the Oval Office of the White House on Feb. 8, 2017.

PABLO MARTINEZ MONSIVAIS/AP

The Delta Connections VP of airline scheduling, crew operations and communications sent off a quick email to

Phil Reed, of Louisville Ky., was an airline executive for Delta on Sept. 11, 2001. TIMOTHY D. EASLEY/SPECIAL TO THE COURIER-JOURNAL

What happens to Queen Elizabeth II’s

$500M fortune?

Personal assets include 2 estates, jewelry, art

Bailey Schulz USA TODAY

Balmoral Castle in Scotland is just one of the assets that Queen ElizabethII leaves behind after 70 years on the throne. Her personal assets have an estimated worth of $500million, according to Forbes magazine.

The financing that makes up the wealth behind the crown is complex. Here’s a breakdown of how much the late queen was worth, where the money came from and where it may go:

How rich was the queen?

The British Monarchy was valued at roughly $88billion in 2017, according to brand valuation consultancy firm Brand Finance.

The Queen’s personal wealth is closer to $500million from investments, art, jewels and real estate, according to a 2021 estimate from Forbes.

But the queen’s true networthhasneverbeen disclosed. The Guardian reported last year that the queen successfully lobbied the British government in the 1970s to change a draft law in ordertoconcealherprivate wealth from the public, claiming the disclosure would be embarrassing.

A spokesperson for Buckingham Palace told BBC that “any assertion that the sovereign has blocked legislation is simply incorrect.”

How much is the British royal family worth?

Brand Finance reportedin2017thattheBritish Monarchy’s worth has grown “every year” since it began tracking in 2012. The $88 billion figure includes the Crown Estate, the Royal Collection (including the crown jewels) and other assets.

Who inherits the queen’s fortune?

King Charles III inherits the majority of the queen’s $500million, according to Forbes.

How did Elizabeth get money?

The royal family collects fees from The Sovereign Grant Act, a taxpayer fund is used to maintain royal palaces and royal duties such as receptions and travel.

The Sovereign Grant for 2022 to 2023 is just less than $100million. Payments are based on profits from the Crown Estate, a property business that is owned by the monarch but runs independently, according to the BBC.

Beginning in 2017, the queen began receiving 25% of the Crown Estate profits from the previous two years, a deal that was set to last10 years to help pay for the refurbishment of Buckingham Palace. The remainder of the money goes to the government.

The Crown Estate is also part of a $28billion empire run by “The Firm,” or a group of members of the House of

Queen’s funeral will draw spectators, tourists to London

Kathleen Wong and Nathan Diller

Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral plans have been in place since the 1960s. Ithasbeen70yearssince the last monarch’s death, and the ceremonies and processions will be a big draw for spectators and tourists. Here’s what to know if you are planning to travel to London for the queen’s funeral: What are Engkland’s funeral plans for its long-reigning queen?

The queen’s funeral plans are known as Operation London Bridge because of the heavy involvementofthemilitary inorganizingandexecuting processions and ceremonies. Details about what would happen in the 10 days of mourning leakedforthefirsttimein

The Guardian in May 2017.

at $500 million, according to Forbes magazine. One of her personal assets in Balmoral Castle in Scotland, above, where the monarch died Thursday at 96. Another of her properties is Sandringham House, left.

Windsor. Along with the queen, members include King Charles and his wife Camilla, the Queen Consort; Prince William, the Prince of Wales, and his wife Catherine, the Princess of Wales; Princess Anne, the Princess Royal; and the queen’s youngest son, Prince Edward, and his wife Sophie, the Countess of Wessex, Forbes said.

The crown holds, but cannot sell, various assets including:

h The Crown Estate ($19.5billion)

h Buckingham Palace ($4.9billion)

h The Duchy of Cornwall ($1.3billion)

h The Duchy of Lancaster ($748million)

h Kensington Palace ($630million)

h The Crown Estate Scotland ($592million)

The Firm, or “Monarchy PLC,” pumps hundreds of millions of pounds into the United Kingdom’s economy every year through tours of Commonwealth countries and other displays.

The 2018 royal wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex,forinstance,was expected to benefit the British Economy by more than $1billion, according to Brand Finance.

The royal family doesn’t personally benefit from the business, but Forbes reports that they do receive other financial benefits such as free media coverage.

How much money did the queen get from taxpayers?

The Sovereign Grant was set at about $99million for 2021 to 2022, or about $1.50 per person in the U.K., according to the BBC. This does not include security costs.

How much property did Elizabeth own?

Forbes reports that the queen’s personal real

In the coming days, there will be a procession of the casket from Buckingham Palace to the Palace of Westminster, with a service at Westminster Hall to follow, according to information from the Foreign Press Association of London. Elizabeth will lie in state at Westminster Hall and have a state funeral at Westminster Abbey, and the day will be declared a Day of National Mourning. Because the queen died at Balmoral Castle, her body will remain therebeforebeingmoved to London.

Obituaries

JohnBisher

Age71,diedon09/07. Lovinghusbandof Olivia(McLaughlin) .Precededindeathby parentsJackandEdna, andsiblingsCarolyn FrittsandAlvin.SurvivedbysisterLinda Sicklerandniecesand nephews.Hewillalso bemissedbyhissisters andbrothersinlawand hismanygreatnephewsandnieces.Athis requesttherewillbeno service.

What are the requirements for Americans to enter the UK?

U.S. travelers visiting theU.K.musthaveavalid passport for their entire trip, according to the U.S State Department’s website. Tourists do not need a visa if they are staying for less than six months.

If travelers are going to visit other destinations after leaving the U.K., many countries require theirpassportstobevalid for another six months at least, the State Department notes.

The U.K. dropped its remaining COVID-19 travel rules in March, allowing all visitors to enter the country without showing proof of a negative test or filling out a passenger locator form. What might Americans expect when traveling to the UK?

Tim Hentschel, cofounder and CEO at HotelPlanner, said the company has seen a 20% in-

crease in searches for London hotels from IP addressesinNorthAmerica, and about a 32% increase in bookings.

He said HotelPlanner has also seen about a10% to 20% jump in room rates, particularly among four- and five-star hotels, the latter of which he said are going for about $1,160 a night. HotelPlanner is forecasting that rates will double in the next few days across hotel categories, Hentschel said.

He said the easiest path into London is through Heathrow Airport, where travelers will find the most selection of flights. He recommended visitors also consider hotels in that area – close to Windsor Castle – as they are typically 50% to 60% less expensive than those in the city center.

And while a trip to London is cause for excitement, American visitors should also keep in mindthatthisisasomber time.

“People should be reminded that it’s not a party,” Hentschel said.

CINCINNATI -LouisPaulBurkart,89, passedawayTuesday, August30, 2022.Hewas thebeloved husbandof thelateBarbaraJ.Burkartfor55years;lovingfatherofDebbie (Tom),Diana(Mike), Carolyn(Dave),Jenny (Tim),Michaelandthe lateDavidandChris; cherishedgrandfather ofSarah(Brad),Jessica(Pat),Tyler,Ashlie (Brian),Conlin,Anna, Paul,Hunter(Lily), John(Lauren)and Brian(Esya);treasured great-grandfatherof 11;anddearbrother ofIlene(thelateBill) Kempandthelate MaryLou(Bob)Oldendick.Forserviceinformationpleasevisit Mihovk-Rosenacker onlineatwww.mrfh. comorcall513-3850511.

CINCINNATI -Dr. FelixRaulCanestri, bornOctober9,1937, inLaPlata,Argentina, passedawayonSunday September4,2022.A residentofCincinnati foralmost50years,he issurvivedbyhisthree children,FelixCanestri, AndrewCanestri, KatherineCanestri Solerandthreegranddaughters,IsabellaSoler,EliseSolerandSara Canestri.Heisalso survivedbyhisbrother GustavoCanestri.He isprecededindeath byhisbrotherMario Canestri.Adedicated physicianforover50 yearsandclassicalmusicenthusiast,heretired toplayingtennis,readingandspendingtime withfamilyandfriends. Aremembrancewillbe plannedbythefamily laterinOctober.Inlieu offlowers,memorials maybemadetoThe CincinnatiSymphony Orchestra(cincinnatisymphony.org)orHospiceofSWOhio(hswo. org).

JohnWesley Farmer

NEWPORT,KY -John WesleyFarmer,72, passedawayMonday September5th2022 athishomeNewport Kentuckyisproceeded indeathbyhisparents MaryEllenfarmerand hisfatherHerschelBernardfarmerandhissisterAudrey(Pat)HerthelneeFarmerandhis brothersDavidFarmerandFrankFarmer andJamesFarmerand heissurvivedbyhis wifeCharleneFarmerandsonsChristopherFarmerand DavidFarmerandhis daughterFeliciaGrubs andhisbrothersMark FarmerandJeffrey FarmerandRichard FarmerandHerschel Farmer,Jr.andGregory Farmerandhissisters MaryElaineFarmer andPamelaFarmer andAprilFarmerand BarbaraFarmerand ElizabethFarmerand NancyFulmerandhis nephewGregoryDavid FarmerandauntJackieSmithandhisseven grandchildren.Andhe haslotsofniecesand nephewsandgreat niecesandnephews andcousins.

LouisPaulBurkart

Dr.FelixRaul Canestri,M.D.

U.S. travelers visiting the U.K. must have a valid passport for their entire trip, according to the U.S State Department’s website. DAN KITWOOD/GETTY IMAGES

estate assets include two castles: Sandringham House and Balmoral Castle.

Queen Elizabeth II’s wealth is estimated

PHOTOS BY PA VIA AP, FILE

*Additionalinformationindisplayobituaries

NORFOLK,VA -Wilson BertFyke,76,ofNorfolk, Va.,formerlyofCincinnati,diedpeacefullyat homeonSaturday,Aug.

27.Hewasthesonofthe lateWilsonDeanandLillian(Love)FykeofCincinnati.

Bert,ashewasknown toall,issurvivedbyhis children;onebrother, Ed,ofRavenel,S.C.,andwife,Cheri;twosisters, PatriciaHaleofMuncie,Ind.,andOpalSmithof Withamsville,andhusband,Brian;andabeloved sister-in-law,KarenFyke,ofCincinnati.Hewas predeceasedbytwobrothers,KarlFykeandDon Freeman.

BertwasborninCincinnationSept.30,1945, andattendedWesternHillsHighSchoolbefore enlistingintheU.S.Navyatage17.Afterbeing dischargedin1976,heworkedinthetelecommunicationsfieldinMaineandConnecticutfor severaldecadesuntilhisretirement.

AtBert’srequest,therewillbenopublicservices ormemorials.Ifyouwishtomakeadonationin memoryofBert’slife,pleaseconsidersendinga checkormoneyordertoStoningtonLittleLeague, POBox1332,Pawcatuck,CT06379.

Dr.JackL.Gluckman,77,passedawaypeacefully onSeptember7th,2022athisHydeParkhome surroundedbyhiswifeandchildren.

BornonAugust15,1945astheeldestsonofMolly andSamuelGluckman(deceased),Jackwasraisedin SouthAfricawhereheattendedGreyHighSchoolin PortElizabethandmedicalschoolattheUniversity ofCapeTown.In1977,hemovedtoCincinnatifor afellowshipinheadandneckoncologicsurgeryand remainedonthefacultyatUniversityofCincinnati. Ascendingthroughtheacademicranks,hebecame atenuredprofessorin1985andsubsequentlychairmanoftheDepartmentofOtolaryngologyin1991,apostheheldthrough 2004.Duetohisinternationalreputationforexcellence,hisdepartment wasconsistentlythehighestrankedofanyinthetristateareabyU.SNews andWorldReport.

Agiantinhisfieldofheadandnecksurgery,Jackservedontheboardof directorsofmultipleacademicsocieties,authored10textbooks,including manyofwhicharecurrentlyusedintoday’sacademicprogramsofotolaryngology,and290scientificpapers.Hewastherecipientofcountless prestigiousawards,includingtheDrakeMedal,thehighestawardofferedby theUniversityofCincinnati,andanHonoraryFellowshipfromtheRoyal CollegeofSurgeonsofEdinburghforhiscontributionstothefieldofcancer surgery.Ofallhisawardshowever,JackwasmostproudofthelocalHealth CareHeroAwardforBestClinicalPractitionerandforhis1989induction intotheAlphaOmegaAlphaHonorsocietyforhisteachingofmedical studentsandresidents.

Jackisrememberedforhishumor,candorandcompassiontowardhis patients,alwaysemphasizingthehumanityofcancercareratherthanthe heroicsofsurgery.Ashetaughtallofhisstudents,“It’snotaboutthecutting.It’sabouthowtobestguideapatientthroughalife-changingevent, howeveritgoes.”

Friends,family,patientsandacquaintancesweretakenwithJack’scharm andhisnaturalabilitytofindhumorineverything.Jackwasacentralfigure inthelivesofsomany-hiscircleoffriendswasimmeasurable.Hissharp wit,entertainingstoriesandnaturalmagnetismcapturedattention.Henever

MichaelEdisonGulley passedawayonSeptember4th,2022.Bornin Cincinnati,OHonApril 22nd,1957tothelate HarveyandMaryGulley. Precededindeathbyhis sisterKimRobbins.He willbedearlymissedby hischildrenAdamGulley(Erica),MariahHicks (Zach),hisgrandchildren CameronandJordanGulleyandHaileyBrewer. SiblingsVickiChaney,DwightChaney,SueTopits (John),MarkGulley(Terri)andScottGulley (Cindy).Hewillalsobemissedbycountlessaunts, uncles,nieces,nephews,friendsandhisextended familymembersAshley,SophiaandOliverWhite. HewasfondlyknownasGtomany. Hisfavoritepasttimeswerecoachingandwatchinghissonandgrandsonsplaysportsofanykind. HealsoenjoyedNASCARandfootball.Someof hismostcherishedtimeswerespentatthebeach watchingsunsetsanddrinkingpinacoladas.Mike nevermetastranger,hewasalwaysthefirstto welcomeanyonewithasmileandahandshake. Bengalsgameswon’tbethesamewithouthim. VisitationwillbeheldonTuesday,September 13thfrom4:00-7:00PMwithaserviceimmediately followingat7:00PMatPaulR.YoungFuneral Home(Mt.Healthy)7345HamiltonAve,Cincinnati,OH45231.

InlieuofflowerspleaseconsidermakingadonationtotheRogerBaconScholarshipfundin memoryofMikeGulley.

Belovedsonofthe lateStanleyH.and MaryGregory,lovingbrotherofRoger (thelateLinda)GregoryandthelateDannyGregory,longtime friendofthelateGail Marsh.Passedaway Sunday,September4, 2022.Age82.Services willbeprivate.Memorialsmaybemade toElderHighSchool, 3900VincentAvenue, CincinnatiOH45205. www.vittstermeranderson.com

CINCINNATI -Ruth AnnHeusinkveld.Belovedwifeofthelate MerlynR.Heusinkveld for64years.Loving motherofMark(Jan) Heusinkveld,Ann(Ken) Simboski,andDavid (Michelle)Heusinkveld. Devotedgrandmother ofDr.Kristin(Ben) Honaman,MichaelSimboski,MeganHeusinkveld,KelliHeusinkveld, andAshleyHeusinkveld.Passedawaypeacefully Monday,September5,2022,attheageof90.Ruth AnnwasborninSiouxCityIowaandgraduated fromEastHighSchool.SheattendedIowaState Universitywheresheearnedherbachelor’sdegree andcontinuedhereducationatXavierUniversity wheresheearnedhermaster’sdegree.Shewasa highschoolhomeeconomicsteacherandlater librarianformanyyears.RuthAnnservedasElder andDeaconatNorthministerChurch,andalso startedtheprayershawlministryatthechurch. AcelebrationofRuthAnn’slifewillbeheldon October8,2022,at4:00p.m.attheMapleKnoll Chapelwithluncheontofollow.Memorialsmay bemadetoNorthministerChurch,703Compton Road,Cincinnati,OH45231,andP.E.O.International.Sympathymaybeexpressedatwww. springgrove.org.

metastoryhecouldn’tembellish.Hehadanincredibleabilitytoholdcourt, whetherinalecture,acocktailpartyorsittingaroundthebreakfasttable.

Jackwasanadoringhusband,proudfatheranddotinggrandfather,fondly calledGramps,Peepa,orPabyhislovinggrandchildren.Alwayspresentfor hisfamily,hetraveledthecountryforweddings,birthdays,Grandparent’s Days,sportingevents,parties,andjustqualitytimewithhischildrenand grandchildren.Hisgreatestjoywasbeingoutdoorswithfamilyandfriends, whetherboating,hiking,skiing,flyfishing,golfingorjusttakingphotos.

Jacklovedtravelingtheworldwithhiswife,friendsandfamily,particularlyonsafariinhisbelovedAfricaandtotheirhomeinLakeTahoe.He wasagentleman,avidsportsmanandspectator.Hetookannualtripswith hisdearestbuddiestoexcitingdestinationstoflyfish,golfandski.Saturday morningswerededicatedtowatchinghisfavoriterugbyteam,theSouth AfricanSpringboks.OnSundays,afteracherishedweeklyFaceTimewithhis brothers,hecouldbefoundonthecouchsurroundedbyfamilywatching theBengals.Everymorningstartedwithafreshcupofcoffeeanda“Good Morning,Gorgeous”forhisdarlingwifeof23years.

Jacklovedlifeandneverwastedamomentoftime.Hishumor,compassion andlargerthanlifepresencewillbegreatlymissed.Hislegacylivesonwith hiswife,VickieGluckman;hischildren,NickGluckman(Kira),KatePeck (Brad),SimonGluckman(Emily),JonathanGluckman(Chelsea),Samantha Goldfeder(Vitaly),andEddieBuyniski(Olivia),and13grandchildren,Oliver, Stephen,Bryce,Shaye,Jack,Simon,Charlotte,Olivia,Sammy,Alice,Jacob, AlexandraandCeleste;hisbrothers,JontyGluckman(Pam)ofJohannesburg,SA,andDannyGluckman(Laura)ofSydney,AU;andthecountless doctorsthathehasmentoredalongtheway.

ThefamilywouldliketothankDr.WilliamBarrettforhisunwavering support,friendshipandhisextraordinarycarefortheirbelovedJackduring thischallengingtime.Heisatrueexampleofexcellenceandcompassionin thefieldofoncology.

Thefuneralserviceandburialwillbeheldprivatelyatthefamily’srequest.AcelebrationofLifewillbeheldatalaterdate.Inlieuofflowers,the familyrequestsdonationsbemadetoTheJackL.GluckmanLectureshipof HumanismandEthicsinHealthcareatFoundation.UC.edu/Gluckmanor mailedtoUCFoundation-GluckmanLectureshipFund,POBox19970, Cincinnati,OH45219.

WilsonBertFyke

JackL.Gluckman,MD

Robert“Bob” Gregory

MichaelE.Gulley

RuthAnnHeusinkveld

BruceR.Ibold,loving companionofDiane

M.Seifertfor31years. Belovedfatherfigureto

Andrew(Kelly)Seifert andDanielle(Brett)Renzenbrink.Devotedson ofthelateCliffordand

Gloria(neeLohmeier)

Ibold.Belovedbrother ofDianeNieporte(Jack Nieporte),andthelate

Chris,David,andGaryIbold.Dearuncleof ChristopherandJonathan(Shauna)Nieporte. Great-uncleofGreysonNieporte.Alsosurvived bycherishedcousinsandmanydearfriends. PassedawayWednesday,Sept.7,2022.Age65. VisitationwillbeheldWednesday,Sept.14thfrom 5:00–8:00PMatMihovk-RosenackerFuneral Home5527CheviotRoad(45247).FuneralServiceThursday,Sept.15that10:00AMatMonfort HeightsUnitedMethodistChurch3682West ForkRoad(45247).Familysuggestsmemorials maybemadetoBirthdayWithTheBadge,2854 DiehlRoad,Cincinnati,OH45211,ortoMonfort HeightsUnitedMethodistChurchwww.umc.org. Condolencesmaybeexpressedonlineatwww. mrfh.com.

JeanneJaspers

CINCINNATI -Jeanne (neeGriffiths)beloved wifeofthelateJamesA. Jaspers,MotherofJay R.Jaspers,JaniceJaspers,JudyL.Compton andthelateJackJaspers.Alsosurvived bymanyfamilyand friends.Passedaway peacefullyathome surroundedbyfamily, Thursday,Sept.8th, 2022.Age96.Mass ofChristianBurialat 10:30AMatSt.Jude Church(Bridgetown). Inlieuofflowersdonationsmaybemade toSt.JudeChurch 5924BridgetownRd, Cincinnati,OH45248. Mihovk-Rosenacker FuneralHomesserving thefamily.www.mrfh. com

JamesF.KnappJr.

RobertCarroll Ransdell

MASON -Age103 1918-2022Husband toLilaHullRansdell for74years.Father ofCarolynMorgan, TomRansdell,Debbie (John)Norton,Beverly(Linn)Haramis, LoisMerz,Barbara (Paul)Herner.GrandfatherofEric,Caren, Stephanie,Andrew, Kelly,Jessie,Thomas, EllistonandRachel. GreatGrandfather toShokhruth,Sasha, Nolan,ElizabethSky andLucy.Greatgreat grandfathertoTeagan. VisitationTuesdaySept 13at10:00amwiththe funeralat11:00inthe StoneChapelMason ChristianVillage.411 WesternRowRd,MasonOh45040.www. strawserfuneralhome. com

Carol(Mabel)Trent

BELLINGHAM,WA -Carol(Mabel)Trent wasborninHubbard, Texasin1923and diedinBellingham, WashingtononAugust20,2022.Sheand herhusband,Richard Trent,livedinCincinnatiforoverfifty yearsandraisedfive children,allofwhom surviveher:SusanHill (Jim),JoanTrent,Carol Trent(David),Richard Trent(Margaret)and JamesTrent(Elaine). Sheisalsosurvivedby sixgrandchildren,six great-grandchildren andonegreat-great grandchild.

FINNEYTOWN,OH -JanetMechlinWimmer,age91 years, died peacefully inherhome inHiltonHead,South CarolinaonAugust16, 2022.Janetissurvived by her daughtersand sons-in-law,Kathy and SteveWeissofBluffton, SCan d Min dy an d DaveVossofCincinnati,OH.She wasthe proud grandmotherof 5grandchildrenand 6 greatgran d chil d ren. Janetisalsosurvive d by hercousin,Richard Sininger.

Daughterofthelate HarryandHortense Bode,belovedwifeof thelateHarryJ.Laiveling andAllenSeifert,loving momofFrank(Diane) Laiveling,Lisa(John) Konerman,Lori(Doug) Oehler,TimothyLaivelingandPatricia(Mark) Hoar,deargrandmaof Brian(Becca),Melanie (Dani),Kevin,Nick(Christina),Maria,Johnny, Greg,Lizzie,Katie,Megan(Karl),Mary,Nick, Grace(TJ),Harry,Audrey,Sebastian,Kerry(Allie), RosalieandGiGiofOlive,Charlie,Hallie,Nellie, Connor,Brady,Lenny,Henry,Abigail,andOliver, dearsisterofPatBodeandthelateHarry(Lucy), Kenny(Barbara)andsister-in-lawofElaineBode andPatsyGober,alsomanyniecesandnephews. PassedawaySunday,September4,2022.Age86. VisitationwillbeTuesday,September13thatthe Vitt,Stermer&AndersonFuneralHome4619 DelhiPikefrom8:30AMuntil9:30AM.Funeral Masswillfollowat10AMatSt.DominicChurch. Inlieuofflowers,memorialsmaybemadeto SetonHighSchoolorOurDailyBread.www. vittstermeranderson.com

Patricia“Pat”Nolan Noonan,82,diedSept.

7,2022inSt.Elizabeth

EdgewoodHospitalafterseveralillnesses.She leaveshusband,Tom, Hebron,KY;twodaughtersKatieMcGuire(Jim), Hebron,KY,andLaurie Niles(Robert),Pasadena,CA;grandchildren, MadelineMcGuire,NatalieNilesandBrianNiles,brotherMikeNolan, andsisterJeanFerriot.TheNoonansmovedto HebroninJuly2022,afterlivingfor35yearsin TurpinHills,OH.Pat,a1962graduateofOhio University,workedfornewspapersinAthens, OH,andChicagobeforemarryingTomin1967. SheworkedparttimeintheEnglishDept.of highschoolsinAurora,CO,wherethefamily lived1973-87,andinCincinnati.Pathadbeen adocentattheTaftMuseumofArtsince2000. PatwasamemberoftheAndersonTwp.Library Association,DenverWomen’sPressCluband PiBetaPhisorority.Anavidreader,shestarted severalbookclubsandloveddoingpuzzles.Pat andTomtraveledextensivelyinEuropeafterhis retirementin2006.Funeralservicewillbe11 AM.,visitationat10-11AMonWed.Sept.14, atChristChurchCathedralChapel,318E.4th St.,DowntownCincinnati.TPWHITE&SONS FuneralHomeservingthefamily.Donationsmay bemadetotheTaftMuseumofArt.

CINCINNATI -James F.KnappJr.(Jim),65, passedawaypeacefullyinthecomfortofhis home,surroundedby familyonWednesday, August24,2022.

ACelebrationof Lifewillbeheldon Saturday,September 17,2022,atDelhiPark (5125FoleyRoad,Cincinnati,OH45238) underShelter#3from 12:00-4:00pm.

Forthefullobituary, visitwww.cremationcincinnati.com.

CINCINNATI -passed awayonAugust31, 2022,atage90.Janet waspredeceasedbyher parents,herhusband WalterMorgan,and herbrother.Sheissurvivedbyherdaughters, PauletteMorgan(WilliamF.Howard),and ElizabethMorgan,and grandchildrenSamantha,Rebecca,Naomi, andJosephHeilman andKatherineHoward. Friendsandfamilywill bereceivedattheReboldFuneralHome onMondaySept.12, 2022from9:30amto 10:30am.Agraveside servicewillbeheldat BridgetownCemetery at11amonMonday Sept.12,2022.Pastor BryanBucherofficiating.Inlieuofflowers, contributionsmaybe madetotheCincinnati ZooandBotanicalGarden.www.rebold.com

CINCINNATI -MarilynRuthSeebohm (neePille)passed awaypeacefullyinher homeonSeptember 1,2022attheageof 93.Sheisprecededin deathbyherhusband of54years,LouisJohn Seebohm.Sheissurvivedbytwodaughters,MonicaSeebohm (MatthewMiller)and Valerie(Michael)Perry,andthreegrandchildren,BenjaminPerry, OliviaPerryandDaniel Perry.Marilynwasthe dearsistertothelate MarjorieHennel,Joseph,RobertandLawrencePille.Shewasthe matriarchandheartof ourfamilyandwillbe dearlymissed.Aprivate servicewillbeheldfor familymembers.Inlieu offlowers,donations canbemadetotheCincinnatiPublicLibrary. www.springgrove.org

GREEN TOWNSHIPErna (nee Wilke) Vosseberg, beloved wife of the late August J. Vosseberg. Devoted mother of the late Rita Vosseberg, Frank Vosseberg, Paul Vosseberg, Irene (Patrick) Whalen and Ralph Vosseberg. Loving Oma of Elizabeth (Luke), Luke (Bethany), Heather (Ryan), Mary, Isabella (Damian), Joseph, Benjamin, Peter, Jacob and Erik. Great Oma of Harper and Ella. Erna passed away peacefully surrounded by her family on Monday, September 5, 2022, age 92. Mass of Christian Burial at St. Ignatius Church, 5222 North Bend Rd., on Tuesday (Sept. 13) at 11:00 a.m. In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to Old St. Mary Church, 123 E. 13th St., Cincinnati, Ohio 45202 or St. Jude Children Research Hospital, 501 St. Jude Place, Memphis, TN 38105. Special condolences may be expressed at www.frederickfh.com

Family an d frien d s areinvited tojoinina CelebrationofLifeto honorJanetonSaturday September24,2022 at11:30AMatNorthminsterPresby terian Church,903Compton Road.Inlieuofflowers,thefamily requests donationstoHospice ofCincinnati.Forfull obituar y,pleasevisit neidhardyoungfuneralhome.com

CINCINNATI -Wolf, Ilean.BorninLondon, KYMay 1,1949toher lateparentsSamuel and OraProffitt.Belovedw ifeofMichael Wolf.Lovingmother ofChristopher,Jason (Stace y )Wolf.Cherished grandmotherof KayleeWolfand BrennaJohnson.DearsisterofIrene(Stanle y) Philpot,PaulineSmith, Bett y (Michael)Hall, Phillip(Lela),Charlie (Kay),Vernon,Johnny and Jack Proffittand thelateFre daYa den. Passed away September 2,2022.Privatefamily services w illbehel d inLondon,KY.Condolencestohodappfuneralhome.com

InLovingMemory

PATRICIAA.LAMPE(GARRARD) May23,1937-September11,2013

Loveneverdies

BruceR.Ibold

MarieE.LaivelingSeifert

Patricia“Pat”NolanNoonan

JanetAnneMorgan (neeStrzyz)

MarilynRuth Seebohm

Erna Vosseberg

JanetMechlin Wimmer

IleanWolf

The formula to take down the Steelers

will face a formidable front

The Cincinnati Bengals take on the Pittsburgh Steelers for a Week 1 AFC North battle at Paycor Stadium. h Cincinnati will be looking to repeat as AFC North champion and the Steelers are hoping to regain their dominance in the division after being swept by the Bengals in 2021. h As the Bengals look to go 1-0 to start the season, they’ll enter Sunday’s game with all of their starters healthy. The Bengals successfully got through their training camp without any of their key players getting injured. h With a new quarterback starting for Pittsburgh and most of the Bengals’ starting lineup, there’s plenty of interesting storylines heading into the Week 1 matchup.

UC agrees to pay former Bearcats coach Brannen $2.75 million

The University of Cincinnati has agreed to a multimillion-dollar settlement with former Bearcats men’s basketball coach John Brannen as part of the “amicable resolution” between the two parties the school announced Thursday

The university agreed to pay Brannen $2.75 million as part of the settlement agreement to a lawsuit Brannen filed last year, according to documents obtained Friday by The Enquirer through Ohio’s Open Records Act. The Athletic first reported the agreed-upon figure.

UC agreed to pay Brannen within 60 days of when the settlement was signed. Both parties signed the legal resolution Wednesday. The parties will pay their own legal fees, under the settlement. The agreement also specifies the settlement is not an admission by UC of “wrongful acts” against Brannen.

Brannen, who was fired April 9, 2021, originally filed a federal lawsuit against UC, UC Director of Athletics John Cunningham and UC President Neville G. Pinto. He sought compensatory damages, punitive damages and the $5.25 million buyout he said he was due because the “defendants deprived him of his constitutionally protected procedural and substantive due process rights.”

The Enquirer reported in May 2021 that when Cincinnati fired Brannen, it accused the coach of using methods of intimidation against players and making payment of special benefits for an unnamed player.

UC also accused Brannen of jeopardizing or disregarding the well-being, health and safety of his players, according to documents obtained by The Enquirer.

Last October, Brannen dropped the federal suit and refiled a suit in the Ohio Court of Claims against UC and the state. Brannen sought “damages; declaratory, equitable, and injunctive relief; and costs for the bad-faith breach of contract, in violation of the covenant of good faith and fair dealing,” according to the lawsuit.

The Court of Claims handles money claims against the state and its entities. Cases before it are decided by a judge or magistrate; there are no jury trials in this court. Brannen’s case

BENGALS KEYS TO VICTORY

Bengals rookie receiver Ja'Marr Chase catches Joe Burrow's touchdown pass in the back of the end zone during the fourth quarter of last season's game against the 49ers. KAREEM ELGAZZAR/THE ENQUIRER

Reds players react to MLB’s rule changes for ’23 season

MILWAUKEE – With a focus on pace of play and increasing action in games, MajorLeagueBaseballannouncedthree rule changes for the 2023 season after they were tested in the minor leagues.

The league’s competition committee approved a pitch clock, a restriction on defensive shifts and oversized bases.

“There is so much thought, people studiedthis,thatwentintoallthedifferent changes and how it was going to affect the game,”Reds Manager David Bell said. “We got to see some of these things in the minor leagues. So much went into this process. I think that’s the main thing to know.”

Some players, understandably, are wary about the rule changes, especially the pitch clock. It took time for players intheminorleaguestobecomecomfortable with it, and now it’s headed to the sport’s highest level.

Pitchers will have 15 seconds between pitches, 20 with runners on base

The pitch clock drastically cut down on game times in the minor leagues. The average time of game in Triple-A this season is two hours and 43 minutes, according to Baseball America, a drop of 21 minutes from last year. The average time of game dropped 17 minutes at Double-A.

“If everything goes fine, it’s great,” said Reds reliever Derek Law, who is in his sixth big-league season. “I think we played an hour and 58-minute game. I was like this is ridiculous. So, that’s great, but at the same time, there a lot of important parts of those games, especially as a reliever, the fifth inning and on where sometimes you need to take a step off and take a deep breath.”

The players union voted against the pitch clock at the Major League level and the union said in a statement that the league “was unwilling to meaningfully address the areas of concern the players raised.”

Next season, pitchers will have up to 15 seconds to throw between pitches with the bases empty and up to 20 seconds when there are runners on base. Pitchers can step off the rubber twice per plate appearance, which includes pickoff moves, but the third time will result in a balk unless it’s a successful pickoff attempt.

Hitters must be in the batter’s box and ready to hit with at least eight seconds left on the pitch clock. Hitters can call one timeout per plate appearance.

“Just like anything, when it was new, it was a little strange,” Reds rookie catcher Chuckie Robinson said. “It seemed like the game was a little fast. After a week or two, it kind of became normal. You just have to make decisions a little faster. The pace of play is a tick faster, but you get used to it.”

Multiple pitchers who spent time in Triple-A say the difficult part is shaking off signs from the catcher, but still giving themselves enough time to make a pitch without a rushed delivery. PitchCom, a device used this season where catcherspushbuttonstocallsignswhile the pitcher wears an earpiece, may become more of a necessity next year.

“When I signed here in Louisville, I had two new catchers, so trying to get in a rhythm with those guys, I got (an automatic) ball twice in a row,” said Law,

who suggested raising the time between pitches with runners on base to 23 or 24 seconds. “I was like you can’t do anything about that. I couldn’t step up or do anything because I was in the windup. The only thing the catcher can do is call a timeout, but that probably counts as a mound visit or something.”

Younger players anticipate an adjustment period throughout spring training and the first month or two of next season.Playerswillhavetochangeroutines they’ve held their entire lives.

“In the beginning, I got a violation offensively and behind the dish a couple of times because getting used to, OK, this (pitcher) says no, we have to come up with a system on how we are going to relay this message a little bit faster,” Robinson said. “I’d say in the beginning, man,thefirstfivegamesorso,therewas maybe five or six violations a game. Guys have their routines in between pitches, but you just have to find a new routine that accommodates the clock.”

Another question circulating is how players will react when a game is decided on an automatic ball or a balk for stepping off too many times. Testing it in the minor leagues is one thing, but wins and losses there don’t carry as much weight as the Majors.

“When they started calling stuff that was really aggravating for pitchers and for some hitters,” Reds outfielder TJ Friedl said. “It was a big adjustment period. After that, it was kind of just normal life at that point. You get used to it, you adapt to it, you adjust to it, and then you move on.”

Ban the shift: Infielders must stay on the dirt, two to each side of second base

There will be restrictions on defensive shifts. Two infielders must be positioned on each side of second base when the pitch is delivered, and all four infielders must have their feet on the dirt. Teams have increasingly placed an infielder in shallow right field against left-handed hitters who often pull the ball. MLB data counted 65 four-player outfield alignments in 2018 and that number grew to 448 with a month remaining in the 2022 season.

“We love it the way it is but remaining open to just finding ways to make it better and more exciting is the way I’m looking at all of these changes,” Bell said. “We can pick apart each one but a lot this is just trusting that all the thought that went into it is going to make it more exciting, safer and just a better game.”

This is a rule that should be celebrated by left-handed hitters. The infielder in shallow right field almost eliminates hits from balls hit on the ground to the right side. Joey Votto said previously, “I felt like no matter what I was doing it was an out.”

Reds outfielder Jake Fraley, according to Statcast, drew a shift in 70.1% of his plate appearances this season. His weighted on-base percentage is nearly 100 points higher when he’s not facing a shift.

“The amount of hits that are taken away from there are just unbelievable,” Fraley said. “You rip a ball in that (infield) hole, that’s got to be a hit. You see righties bouncing balls, not even hitting them hard, and they bounce through that hole. That’s what that traditional (defense) is like. A lefty doesn’t get that. You’re talking about averages, careers and extra-base hits that you are going to

see come back and that’s awesome.” There has been an increase in shifts for right-handed hitters, but it’s not as extremeastheonetoleftiesbecausethe first baseman can’t leave his base.

“You can rip it past the normal shift and you can hit a ball over100 mph, and the fact he’s literally playing in short right field, that ball isn’t getting past him,” Fraley said. “It changes the whole game, absolutely.”

MLB hopes the restrictions on shifts will have a positive impact for defenses, too.

“Plays can still be made, right?” Bell said. “You can still play on the edge of second base. These guys can still make great plays and take hits away. That’s the point too of taking the shift away. There may be more great defensive plays that show up again.”

Bases will increase by three inches to encourage more steals, prevent injuries

This was the only rule change that was unanimously approved by the competition committee. The bases will increase from a 15-inch square to an 18inch square to prevent collisions at first base and encourage more runners to steal bases.

With bigger bases, injury events on the basepaths decreased by 13%, according to MLB’s data.

Friedl remembers thinking to himself, “well, that’s different,” when he went from the bigger bases to the small ones after he was promoted to the Majors this year.

“It definitely has an impact,” Friedl said. “It’s an extra three inches on your lead that you can comfortably get, maybe, another step and then an extra three inches on your slide. That’s something I noticed, especially on the bang-bang plays at second base on a steal where normally with the smaller bags, you’re getting in there and it’s a close tag. Now your hand is getting in.”

‘No better feeling’: Reds blowout Brewers behind Nick Lodolo

Bobby Nightengale

MILWAUKEE – Nick Lodolo had one of the best starts of his rookie season, but it sure was a lot more comfortable to pitch after he watched his offense in the top of the first inning.

TJ Friedl homered on the third pitch of the game. Jonathan India tripled on the fifth pitch. By the time Milwaukee Brewers starter Jason Alexander threw his 11th pitch, the Reds had a three-run lead.

“There is no better feeling,” Friedl said, “than that.”

It was one of those innings where the Reds could do no wrong on their way to an 8-2 victory. Brewers fans at American Family Field began booing after Donovan Solano, the fifth batter, hit an RBI single. Six consecutive batters reached base before Nick Senzel grounded into a double play. Jose Barrero followed with an RBI single.

The Reds blitzed Alexander in a fiverun first inning, and Lodolo did the rest in Friday’s series opener. The Reds, who totaled 17 hits and had their starting pitcher last eight innings, have won three consecutive games for the first time since the trade deadline.

“Itwasfun,”RedsManagerDavidBell said. “Guys were into it. Our team, it’s a fun group to be around. They grind it out but they enjoy each other.”

Lodolo, following the first-inning offensive onslaught, pitched with confidence and a touch of dominance. He struck out a career-high 11 batters in a career-high eight innings, retiring his final nine batters and 12 of his last 13.

If it wasn’t for the Reds scoring three runs in the top of the ninth inning, Bell planned to give Lodolo a chance at a complete game.

“The last two innings almost looked like his fastball picked up a few miles per hour, but it was just the conviction behind it,” Bell said.

“You can’t finish a game any better than he did.”

Lodolo, a lanky 6-foot-6 lefty, relied essentially on two pitches: a mid-90s fastball he located in all quadrants of the strike zone and an 82-mph curveball darting horizontally across the plate. He recorded seven strikeouts with his fastball and four with his curveball.

Opposing hitters whiffed on 19 of their 57 swings (33.3%) against Lodolo, showing how much his pitches were moving.

It was a tone he set when he struck out his first batter of the evening, Andrew McCutchen, with a 96-mph fastball down the middle of the plate.

“He’s just commanding his stuff to the point where now he’s able to add more behind the pitches and still command them,” catcher Austin Romine said. “We’re seeing it a lot. A lot of heatersup,goodcurveballsdown,guyslooking foolish on swings and getting overpowered. He keeps getting better every start. It’s fun to watch and fun to catch.”

Lodolo felt he needed to grind through parts of his start. There were times where he wasn’t commanding his curveball, so he relied more on his fastball. He gave up a two-run homer to Tyrone Taylor in the third inning, a blast to centerfieldthathitjustshyofthevideoboard, which sits 55 feet high.

After pitching out of the third inning, Lodolo surrendered only one more hit for the remainder of his outing.

“My curveball wasn’t very sharp even from the beginning,” Lodolo said. “I was happy that throughout the game, it all started to come back and get through. In previous outings, I feel like that’s something that has kind of gotten me a little bit, maybe got a little bit away. I thought that was big.”

No Reds reliever warmed up until the eighth inning with the way Lodolo was pitching.

Hethrewafirst-pitchstriketoeachof his final nine batters. Brousseau was the only Brewers batter who didn’t strike out against him in a lineup stacked with eight right-handed hitters.

Lodolo, looking to make up for the two months he missed with an injury, has a 2.43 ERA in his last five starts. He’s filling the strike zone and showing why he was the first pitcher selected in his draft class.

“Honestly, I just feel like I’m in a good rhythm,” Lodolo said. “Maybe I’m not thinking out there as much. Romine does a really good job with me and he knows me really well now. He’s been doing it for a long time. I’m rolling with him. He knows the cues to get back probably that I don’t even know for a reason.That’sprobablyalittlebitofmomentum there with us two rolling pretty well.”

Cincinnati Reds starting pitcher Nick Lodolo (40) delivers a pitch against the Milwaukee Brewers in the first inning at American Family Field on Friday.

MICHAEL MCLOONE/USA TODAY SPORTS

The Reds nearly hit for the cycle in the first inning – Friedl homered, India tripled and three others singled – and they had big contributions throughout the lineup.

Aristides Aquino hit three doubles. Barrero had two hits after he went hitless in his last series.

India, who has seven multi-hit performances in his last 13 games, hammered a 433-foot, two-run homer in the ninth inning over the Brewers’ bullpen in center field.

Twobatterslater,JakeFraleypulled an 86-mph fastball over the right-field wall off lefty reliever Brent Suter for his first extra-base hit against a lefthanded pitcher in 27 plate appearances this season.

“There is no script to it, they played better than us tonight,” Brewers managerCraigCounsellsaid.“Theirstarter did a heck of a job.”

Up next CINCINNATI REDS VS.

MILWAUKEE BREWERS

Game 3 of a 3-game series

When: 2:10 p.m. Sunday

Where: American Family Field, Milwaukee

TV/Radio: BSO/WLW-AM (700)

The Skinny: Justin Dunn, who will make his seventh start of the season, has a 3.20 ERA across his last four outings with 14 strikeouts and 10 walks in 19

2

3 innings. Brewers starter Brandon Woodruff owns a 2.78 ERA since the All-Star break, permitting two or fewer earned runs in eight of his last 10 starts.

Pitching matchup

Reds starter: Justin Dunn

Throws: Right

Record: 1-2

: 4.82 Brewers starter: Brandon Woodruff

Reds Standings

See what new Bob Huggins book reveals about his UC firing

Jason Williams Columnist Cincinnati Enquirer

Bob Huggins headed to the basketball Hall of Fame on Saturday. Ahead of the former University of Cincinnati basketball coach’s well-deserved induction, local author and sportswriter Bill Koch recently released a new book titled “Huggs.” No one in the media knows and understands the coach better than Koch, who covered Huggins’ 16-year tenure at UC for The Enquirer and Cincinnati Post. Koch loves Huggins stories, and “Huggs” dives into the deep, caring relationship the coach has had with his players over 45 years at Walsh College, Akron, UC, Kansas State and West Virginia.

Koch, who retired from The Enquirer in 2014, interviewed nearly 40 former Huggins players, allowing each to tell their personal stories.

The book is a real treat for UC fans because Koch landed interviews with all of Huggins’ legendary Bearcats’ players – Kenyon Martin, Danny Fortson, Nick Van Exel, Corie Blount, Steve Logan and so many others.

Koch also interviewed Huggins, who’s amassed more than 900 career wins and taken his teams to 25 NCAA tournaments.

Asked why he took on the project, Koch said: “Huggs has always fascinated me. He comes across as a simple character. But he’s really complex and smart, and I don’t think people know that. The affection his players have for him is deeper than I realized.”

Here are three take-aways from “Huggs:”

1. Hall of Fame coach Bob Huggins: ‘I care’

Fans of teams who’ve played against Huggins-coached teams love to hate him. He’s demanding. He’s a yeller. He’s a call-’em-like-he-sees’em guy. He’s unscripted. His players had many run-ins with the law while he was at UC. Huggins’ 2004 DUI arrest and subsequent ouster from UC only fueled the negative view some have of him.

ThebookshowsHugginsissomuch more than all that. Koch sums things up perfectly in the last three paragraphs of the book:

During an interview with Huggins as I neared the completion of this book, I told him how impressed I was by the way his former players talked about their experience playing for him, and about what he’s meant to their lives after basketball.

Huggins paused before responding.

“I’m a human being,” he said. “I make mistakes, just like you make mistakes. I’ve certainly never said or portrayed that I didn’t make mistakes. But they damn better never say that I didn’t care. Because I care.”

2. Former All-American Steve Logan: ‘I’m forever grateful to him’

A common theme in “Huggs”is how many of Huggins’ players initially struggled to adapt to his demanding coaching style.

It often led to head-butting and players wanting to quit (or in some cases, quitting and then coming back to the team).

With each guy who bought into Huggins’ style and system, the coach had a poignant moment where he was abletoshowhisloyaltyandloveforthe player.

Logan, the former All-American, is a great example. He was undersized and pudgy, and Huggins was tough on

the Cleveland native.

But Logan became known as one of the toughest, hardest-working and best players in UC history.

The moment came in the 2001 NCAA Tournament when Huggins showed how much he cared for Logan. Huggins allowed Logan to go home to Cleveland to see his dying grandmother for two days while the team was in Southern California preparing for the Sweet Sixteen.

“That’s why I truly love Huggins, man,” Logan told Koch. “He allowed me to go back and see my grandmother before she died. She died like a week later. He allowed me to take the trip to talk to her, to hug her. I’m forever grateful to him for doing that.

“I want people to understand that. That’s the side of him that’s not portrayed in the media. They show him as being hard and mean and tough, which he is. But he has a different side of him when it comes to people that he cares about and loves.”

3. University of Cincinnati firing still hurts Bob Huggins

I asked Koch if anything surprised himinallhisconversationsforthebook. He said he was taken aback by how Huggins still feels hurt about the way things ended at UC nearly two decades ago.

From “Huggs:”

I suggested to Huggins that as painful as his departure from Cincinnati was, an argument could be made that it worked out for the best because he ended up coaching at his alma mater (West Virginia), in his home state, where he mightbelovedevenmorethanhewasin Cincinnati.

“Not really,”he said. “I think my players were vilified and should not have been. I think that was all about (Cincinnati president) Nancy Zimpher and (athletic director) Bob Goin. It was never about me. It was about the university and our basketball program, and the people in the basketball program. Those people made it not about that, but about them.

“I think that’s very selfish. I think that’s very wrong. In a city that loved the Bearcats, it’s never been the same, and it’s got nothing to do with the players. It’s got nothing to do with our coaching staff. It has a lot to do with Bob Goin and Nancy Zimpher because they wanted it to be all about them. I never stepped out and said, ‘This is about me.’ Ever. And my players never did that either.”

“Huggs” is available at Joseph-Beth Booksellers, DuBois Book Store and on Amazon.com.

Contact sports columnist Jason Williams by email at jwilliams@enquirer.com and on Twitter @jwilliamscincy.

Continued from Page 1C

against the university was scheduled to go to trial in May 2023.

With this settlement, Brannen will be responsible for any taxes on the $2.75 million payment, according to the eight-page document outlining the resolution. The settlement represents “a complete, final and irreversible end to any and all claims and/or disputes which arose or could have arisen”from Brannen’s lawsuit, the documents state.

Brannen is not eligible for reinstatement, rehire or re-employment of any kind with the University of Cincinnati, and attorneys representing both parties agree not to comment on or publicly disclose any information about the case, lawsuits or settlement, per the settlement.

The University of Dayton announced Tuesday that Brannen will serve as a program analyst and senior special assistant to Flyers men’s basketball coach Anthony Grant. Grant was an assistant at Marshall under then-head coach Billy Donovan from 1994-96. Brannen played forMarshallfrom1995-97aftertransferring from Morehead State.

The cover of ‘Huggs,’ sportswriter Bill Koch’s newly released book on former University of Cincinnati basketball coach Bob Huggins. PROVIDED

How McPherson became one of NFL’s most electric players

Kelsey Conway

When the varsity team in his hometown needed a kicker, they turned to the best one in town.

He was in eighth grade.

That kid took only 14 games to become Cincinnati’s all-time leader in 50plus yard field goals.

Evan McPherson did it the honest way. He started small.

In the front yard of his Fort Payne, Ala., home, the McPherson boys – three sons born four years apart – took PVC piping and fashioned a makeshift field goal.

And they did a lot of kicking.

So much so that, in practice this year at the Bengals stadium in front of thousands of fans, McPherson kicked a 65yarder to wrap up the day and give the crowd a boost on a hot summer day. Bengals fans have never seen anything like him.

He is the unlikeliest of superstars.

But, make no mistake, he is one.

How popular is Evan McPherson?

A kicker’s jersey sold out

Afterasuccessfulcareerasthekicker at the University of Florida, McPherson wasdraftedinthefifthroundofthe2021

NFL Draft by the Bengals.

Upon his initial visit to Cincinnati, he took a visit to the team store. He joked with Monty Montague, the merchandise manager for the Bengals for 22 years.

“I was giving him a hard time,” said McPherson, “and I was like, where are all my jerseys?”

McPherson said Montague told him they only put out jerseys for players in “really high demand.”

Evan’s response?

“Well, you better get ready to sell a lot of my jerseys by the end of the season.”

No team in the NFL, save for the BaltimoreRavensbecauseofJustinTucker, should have expected such an honor.

So Montague was not ready for what happened as the Bengals’ season wore on.

By December, McPherson’s jerseys were completely sold out.

“Since then, we have continued to carry his jersey as best we can.”

To put into perspective how popular Evan is to the fanbase, he’s in the topfive for most jerseys sold since last fall. The other four players? Joe Burrow, Ja’Marr Chase, Joe Mixon and Tee Higgins.

Quite the category to be associated with.

Last Christmas, Zac Taylor’s thenfourth-grade son asked for a McPherson jersey. Taylor wondered how he would go about getting one because they were sold out and not in youth sizes.

That’s fixed now.

The store now carries his uniforms in all youth sizes and, in the fall, his jersey will be available in women’s sizes as well.

“For us to expand from men’s, to youth to women’s is unprecedented for aspecialteamsplayer,”Monteaguesaid.

How

Bengals

Continued from Page 1C

Here’s how the Bengals can beat the Steelers:Don’t let Pittsburgh’s All-Pro defensive end T.J. Watt wreck the game

In the first meeting between the Bengals and Steelers last season, T.J. Watt didn’t play. The Steelers sorely missed his presence as they fell to Cincinnati. Watt went on to have the best season of his career, racking up 22.5 sacks. He led the NFL in sacks and has the respect of the entire Bengals’ roster and coaching staff.

With Cincinnati’s re-made offensive line not playing together in a game settingyet,itmighttaketheunitsometime to get used to one another. The only remaining starter from the Bengals’ AFC Championship winning team on the offensive line is left tackle Jonah Williams. Cincinnati made it a point to fix the interior of its offensive line in free agency. The first test this new group will

That’s what happens when you take the NFL by storm like McPherson did in his first season.

During the regular season, he made 28 of his 33 field goal attempts, good for 84.8 percent. In the postseason, he was 14 of 14.

Pressure, it seems, didn’t seem to faze him.

Astheseasonkeptgoing,the21-yearold kept making field goals. He became so automatic; he earned the wildly popular nickname ‘Money Mac’and became an instant celebrity in Cincinnati.

Some even called him ‘Shooter McPherson.’

He has talent. But he also has swagger. When, in the AFC Divisional playoff against the Tennessee Titans, the team got within field goal range, he spoke on the sideline to backup quarterback Brandon Allen.

“We’re going to the AFC Championship,” he said.

He then walked onto the field and kicked a 52-yarder with four seconds leftinthegameandtheBengalswonthe game.

So, yeah, between his pure talent and his swagger, McPherson quickly has become one of the most likeable players on the Bengals’ young roster.

The Bengals coveted Evan McPherson in the NFL Draft

With the value of good place kicking, it’s hard to see why he was still around in the fifth round of the draft. But specialistsarenotusuallyamongthosetaken early.

The Bengals had intentionally kept their interest quiet as not to give too much away. But his numbers couldn’t hide.

At Florida as a freshman, McPherson had competed for the kicking job with the Gators’ fifth-year senior kicker. And he beat him out for his job. He then went on to kick for Florida for three seasons before declaring for the draft.

While at Florida, McPherson was nearly perfect. He was 17-of-19 in his first two seasons and 18-of-22 in his final year.

Longtime special teams coordinator

Darrin Simmons was in the market for a new kicker in Cincinnati.

Simmons was set on getting out on the road to personally take the prospects he was interested in through a workout. The Bengals identified McPherson as someone they had their eye on.

After Simmons worked McPherson out in Gainesvillle, the decision was made. Simmons was so impressed he went out of his way not to talk about Evan so other teams wouldn’t try and steal him.

“Obviously, Evan is someone we identified early on in the process,” Simmons said.

“He showed a great deal of self-confidence. He was very, very confident yet loose at the same time. But the first thing that popped out to me was the leg strength. He hit a ball the ball got up in the air faster than anybody I’ve ever seen. That’s something that I can’t coach.”

Last year – his first with the team –he made five game-winning field goals.

Five.

Evan McPherson’s Super Bowl 56 halftime moment

Perhaps McPherson’s most endearing – and People magazine enthralling –moments last year was the Super Bowl.

At the halftime show where McPherson hung and rocked out to Snoop, Dr. Dre, Eminem and Mary J. Blige.

Asked about that, he said, well, he was going to keep to his routine normal at the half. That is, take a bathroom break, eat a Rice Krispies treat and go back on the field to warm up. The only technical difference between regular NFL games and the Super Bowl is the length of halftime.

And there was concert going on so McPherson decided to go watch it.

He’s a normal guy. He said he likes to lay on his couch and watch Netflix. He’s seen every episode of Grey’s Anatomy and loves eating Chipotle. He married his high school sweetheart, Gracie, and they recently just got two puppies that take up a lot of his time.

But the football version of McPherson isn’t necessarily who he is at home.

He doesn’t take himself too seriously and it’s why he’s successful.

“I don’t like to be all tense and stand there like a statue,” Evan said. “I kind of just like to be more free and relaxed out there.”

So, he’s just a normal guy with a once-in-a-generation leg.

Joe Burrow: ‘He’s made me like kickers more’

His younger brother, Alex, is now a kicker at Auburn. Some pundits say he is better than Evan, or was, coming out of high school. (He had offers from Georgia, LSU, Florida and Texas A&M.)

ButAlexleanshardonhisbrother.He saidEvandoesn’ttrytoprovehimselfon every kick. He just goes out there and kicks the ball as far as he can, a lesson he learned and takes with him.

Alex says he knows if he calls Evan with an issue, or is having a rough patch with his own kicking: “I swear he can fix what’s wrong in 10 minutes.”

It’s important to Evan to follow Alex’s career closely. He took time during last season to watch every one of his games on tape. And Alex often sends Evan his practice film to analyze.

The Fort Payne kicking dynasty has a reputation to uphold.

But Alex is not his only admirer.

Count Joe Burrow among his biggest fans.

“As soon as you cross the 50, you know he’s going to put it home,” Joe said.

“He’s the best in the league in my opinion,”he went on. “He works really hard at what he does and it makes it easy on us that we know when we get into the plus territory, we’re going to have points no matter what.”

Then he joked: “He’s made me like kickers more.”

McPherson’s NFL-best nine field goals of 50 or more yards during the 2021 regular season fell one shy of tying for most in a season in NFL history. Those nine field goals were also the most by a Bengal for an entire career.

He continued his dominance in the postseason when he tied Adam Vinatieri’s record for most field goals made in a postseason (14).

For McPherson, the most important goal for the upcoming season is to stay healthy. He doesn’t want to miss any games due to a lower leg injury.

He also hopes to someday break Tucker’s current record (66 yards) for the longest field goal in NFL history.

“I think Justin’s record is going to get broken,”he said. “It’s 66, if it’s not me, it will definitely be someone else. I think it’s a goal for everybody.

“Every kicker that’s ever lived (has the goal of making) the longest field goal.”

The Bengals saw firsthand what a good kicker could do for consecutive years when they had Shayne Graham on therosterfrom2003-2009.Grahamwas a Pro Bowler and earned a spot on the AP’s prestigious first-team All-Pro list.

Because of McPherson’s age, Cincinnati could have McPherson on its roster for way longer than they had Graham. And given he’s only 22, that could be a long time.

Your McPherson jersey will be well worth the money.

InthefinalmeetingbetweentheBengals and Steelers that ended in a 41-10 blowout by Cincinnati, it was Mixon who stole the show. Mixon ran for 165 yards on 28 carries and it was clear with that number of carries, the Bengals knew the best chance to beat the Steelers was by running the ball effectively. Entering his sixth season in the league, Mixon wants to build off his career year in 2021. He wants the offense to run through him and welcomes the responsibility of carrying his team. Look for Mixon to see a lot of carries on Sunday.

Win in the red zone

have happens to be against one of the best defensive lines in football, starting with Watt.

Run Joe Mixon run

Bengals head coach Zac Taylor and

offensive coordinator Brian Callahan’s offensive game plan will start with finding ways to get the ball out of quarterback Joe Burrow’s hands quickly and how to get running back Joe Mixon goingintherungametohelpcombatPittsburgh’s pass rush.

One of the areas the Bengals struggled in on offense last year was the red zone. Evan McPherson bailed Cincinnati’s offense out a number of times because the unit couldn’t score touchdownswhentheyneededto.Thehopeis with a better offensive line, the Bengals will be able to run the ball better in the red zone, leading to more opportunities to score touchdowns, not kick field goals.

Prediction: Bengals win, 27-17

Evan McPherson became ‘Money Mac’

Cincinnati Bengals kicker Evan McPherson (2) kicks a field goal as time expires on Jan. 22 in Nashville. The Cincinnati Bengals defeated the Tennessee Titans, 19-16, to advance to the AFC Championship game. KAREEM ELGAZZAR/THE ENQUIRER

TJ Watt didn’t play in the first game against the Bengals last season but went on to have the best season of his career, racking up 22.5 sacks. USA TODAY SPORTS

BENGALS PREVIEW

‘Zac Taylor offense’ has developed alongside Burrow

Charlie Goldsmith

In the middle of training camp, as Cincinnati Bengals head coach Zac Taylor met with the quarterbacks, he had a realization.

“I think the comment I made this morning specifically to the quarterbacks was that I’ve completed more go routes in the last 12 months than I have in the entirety of my coaching and playing career,” Taylor said.

During the offseason heading into 2021, Taylor took a deep dive into all of the explosive plays across the NFL.

The Bengals had one of the least explosive offenses in the NFL during Taylor’s first two years as a head coach. He looked at deep passes that worked across the NFL, trying to find a way for the Bengals offense to take the next step in 2021.

Thenlastseason,theBengalshadthe most dynamic offense in the NFL. During his second year in the league, BengalsquarterbackJoeBurrowledtheNFL inyardsperattempt,anddeepthrowsto Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins defined the Bengals’ season.

Now, Taylor says the proven ability to take deep shots is the defining characteristic of his offense. He sees the whole point of offense as “trying to be explosive.”

Entering 2022, with the same playmakers and an improved offensive line, Taylor and Burrow see the group making another jump.

“I would say our skill players, if they’re not the best in the league, they’re rivaling every single team in the division and in the league,”Burrow said. “Those guys work really hard to get better at what they do, and you have to pick your poison. If you play two high, you’re going to have to deal with Joe Mixon in the run game. And if you decide to play man (coverage), good luck.”

Taylor said he “promises” that the deeppassesingrainedintheBengalsoffense aren’t just a result of having a talented quarterback and fast receivers. The Bengals have spent three years coaching the wide receivers on how to read coverages. Burrow has spent three years reinforcing to Higgins and Tyler Boyd, and longer with Chase, that he’s going to make difficult throws and trust them to make dynamic plays.

When the Bengals drafted Chase and Higgins, the front office prioritized their playmaking ability. But Chase and Higgins’ athleticism is only a part of the

equation.

“Sometimestheygooffscript,”Taylor said. “And they make it happen. If you look around the league –– as we did in the two years before we had all of those guys –– we saw that going on with a lot of great quarterbacks and great receivers going off script. Now we get to be a part of that.”

During Taylor’s look around the league before the 2021 season, he realized that the only way to hit on deep routes consistently was to have players who can turn nothing into something on a broken play.

In 2022, with an improved offensive line, Burrow is going to get more opportunitiestoscrambleoutsideofthepocket, keep his eyes down the field and find an open receiver.

“Theplayersbringtheschemetolife,” Taylor said. “Sometimes they make bad plays into good plays. Some of the more exciting plays we’ve experienced, maybe in reality the (opponents) busted but they just made it happen. The explosiveness,credittoourcoachingstaff,we work like crazy to put guys in the best position to take full advantage of their talents. But we have really talented

players that make that easier.”

Last season, Burrow and Chase’s connection on these plays was obvious. In highlights against the Bears, Packers, 49ers and Chiefs, their ability to be on the same page led to game-changing touchdowns or a 3rd and 27 conversion.

At this point, Chase said he knows where Burrow is going with the ball before the play starts. During training camp, Chase put that theory to the test, and he was proven right.

“We have had a lot of reps together over the years,” Burrow said. “Based off certain leverage and techniques by the corner, I know exactly how he’s going to run his route based on the same thing. We’ve just accumulated so many reps since his first year in college and my first year starting.”

“Wherever Joe Burrow throws the ball to, it’s our job to go catch it,”Higgins said. “He and Chase had that connection in college, and they’ll always have that connection. Now, me and Burrow and Tyler and Burrow, we’ve all got the connection. We’ve all got that.”

The biggest difference in the Bengals’ offense in 2022 can be that Burrow now has had just as much time with Higgins and Boyd. Entering last season, Burrow had played with Chase at LSU for two seasons between 2018 and 2019. Entering this season, Burrow has played with both Higgins and Boyd since Burrow entered the NFL in 2020.

Just like with Chase, Burrow has faced every type of coverage in just about every situation with Higgins and Boyd. Burrow said he can’t tell much of a difference anymore between his connection with Chase and his connection with Higgins and Boyd.

“When you’re with the same team for two years, you’ve seen so many different looks,” Burrow said. “You talk through so many different techniques and coverages. More reps against different looks. There’s one (past example of a play that worked), and maybe (then) you pull it out again at the end of the year against that same (defensive) look.”

Last year, the Bengals offense reached another gear in the last month of the season. Burrow was at full strength moving outside of the pocket following his knee injury, and Taylor said he became more aggressive throwing the ball on early downs.

The Bengals are set up to take that same approach throughout the 2022 season.

“We got a prolific offense,” Chase said. “It’s in our genes.”

The reputation the defense has developed across the NFL

Charlie Goldsmith Cincinnati Enquirer

Even though Los Angeles Rams Matthew Stafford had faced the Cincinnati Bengals defense in the Super Bowl and againintwojointpracticesduringtraining camp, Stafford said he still wasn’t sure of what he was seeing before the snap.

Stafford compared facing the Bengals’ defense to “mental gymnastics.” What he saw before the snap was completely different from what he was seeing after the snap. He had a lot to process to figure out whether the Bengals were playing man defense or zone defense.

But Stafford said he was glad to have that experience in training camp. He saw it as a way to troubleshoot and prepare for what he expected to face during the regular season.

“They do a great job not letting you trust what you see pre-snap,” Stafford said. “They did some nice stuff when we were under center. They were showing us man coverage and playing zone behind it. And vice versa.”

Stafford said he projects NFL defenses to copy and paste from the scheme that Bengals defensive coordinator Lou Anarumo developed last season. Cincinnati doesn’t just have a top-10 defense. The Bengals have a scheme that the entire league is looking to replicate.

“It’s very rare to create what we’ve created,” Bengals defensive end Sam Hubbard said. “You have to have continuity in the coaching staff and with the players. Then you have to have smart players. Then you have to have players that play well together, that like each other. It’s not an easy task.”

Around the NFL, the Bengals have developed a reputation as one of the most difficult to read defenses in the NFL. They’re known for their ability to overhaul their gameplans on a weekly basis. They’ve proven they’re able to disguise coverages and blitzes as well as any team in the league.

Entering 2022, the Bengals’ defense was nearly perfect in the playoffs and returns all but one of last year’s key contributors. They’re bringing back all11defensive players who started in the Super Bowl. There’s a clear plan for the Bengals defense to take the next step. All offseason, Bengals defensive coordinator Lou Anarumo has reminded the players that his trust in them is going to let the Bengals’ defense add even more wrinkles in 2022.

“It’s more exotic,” Bengals safety Vonn Bell said. “We have a lot of guys who know ball and have a great feel for one another. Lou trusts us. We can morph into a lot of different things because we have guys with great feel and IQ. We know the game and situations, so we can do a lot.”

At this point last year, the Bengals had three starting cornerbacks who had never played together. They had a middle linebacker in his first year as a starter and another linebacker who had to battle for his starting spot in training camp. On the defensive line, the Bengals were starting a new defensive end, anewdefensivetackleandanosetackle who missed most of the 2020 season with an injury.

A few of the Bengals’defensive starters listed a specific game where they realized what they had. Cornerback MikeHiltonsaidherealizedtheBengals’ defense was special when they kept breaking up passes against the Green Bay Packers and limited the team to 25 points.

The Bengals’ first matchup against the Baltimore Ravens last year was a milestone win. Anarumo designed a blitz heavy scheme as well as three linebacker sets that the Bengals had rarely done before. In the following weeks, other NFL defenses copied that approach when they faced the Ravens.

Bell can still visualize Tennessee Titans quarterback Ryan Tannehill droppingbackinthepocket,pattingthefootball and giving the impression that he was thinking, “What am I looking at?’”

“Our reputation grew throughout the season,”Hiltonsaid.“Oncewestartedto learn Lou and how he likes to call plays in certain situations, he learned how to put everybody in their best position to make plays. It goes hand and hand. Him trusting us to be in the right spot and giving us the great calls.”

The wrinkles that define the Bengals defense aren’t always obvious. It’s their ability to switch from man coverage to zone coverage on the fly. It’s their ability to rotate their safeties after the snap to pick up specific routes. It’s Hilton’s ability to disguise blitzes, Bates’ ability to cover the entire field and linebacker Germaine Pratt’s ability to line up at the line of scrimmage and stop the run.

At practice on Thursday, Anarumo watched linebacker Logan Wilson and Pratt hear a call from the offense, communicate a tweak to the scheme “like a coach would have” and make a “doctorate level” play.

“We have to know our enemy,” Bengals cornerback Chidobe Awuzie said. “We’re a very good team at finding out who our enemy is.”

Awuzie said the Bengals defensive backs are breaking down concepts on Monday and Tuesday that other NFL defenses don’t get to until Friday or Saturday. It’s a product of having so many veterans who have played in different

schemes.

Early in the week, the defensive backs break down wide receiver splits. They look at all of the routes that every receiver on the opposing team can run based on where they line up. This week, they’re looking at every decision Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver Diontae Johnson could make when he lines up on the outside of the field, in the slot, with two wide receivers on his side of the field or with three wide receivers on his side of the field.

Then, they break those routes down by first and second downs and third downs. Awuzie said that process is directly what led to Hilton’s interception against the Titans last season on a slot blitz.

“That’s one thing about this team that I really admire,” Awuzie said. “We’re able to talk about advanced concepts and trends. We’ve already moved past the playbook. Now we’re talking about the opposing team and little things we can do to get an edge on them. When a lot of teams are still working out their game plan and the playbook, we understand how we’re going to play.”

There were games last season where the Bengals defense made a halftime adjustment and switched to a concept that they hadn’t even practiced in weeks. The experience and continuity on the Bengals defense is the secret ingredient in making those adjustments work.

Even though concepts from the Bengals defense are spreading across the NFL, Hubbard said it’ll be difficult to replicate what the Bengals have built.

“When you keep chipping away, sometimes you look up and you’re where you want to be,” Hubbard said. “We still feel like we’re chipping away everydayandgettingbetter.Butit’sdefinitely better than it was.”

Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Tee Higgins (85) catches a touchdown pass in the second quarter during a Week 13 NFL football game against the Los Angeles Chargers on Dec. 5 KAREEM ELGAZZAR/THE ENQUIRER

Bengals futures value bets you can make

Jason Hoffman

The Cincinnati Bengals open their AFC championship defense Sunday against the Pittsburgh Steelers, but it’s time to take a look at the Bengals’future betting odds before the season kicks off.

Bettors last season cashed on Joe Burrow winning the NFL Comeback Player of the Year, Ja’Marr Chase winning Offensive Rookie of the Year, the team winning the AFC North, the AFC championship, and over the win total for the season (6.5).

While the Bengals can’t necessarily sneak up on the league this year thanks to a Super Bowl run last year, the bookmakers still don’t see Cincinnati as one of the best teams in the NFL, according to their odds.

Here are five NFL future bets that offer value for Bengals fans and a betting prediction for Sunday’s opener:

Total wins during 2022 regular season (9.5)

AfterwinningtheAFCNorthlastseason, the Bengals earned a first-place schedule this season.

This means the Bengals will face fellow division winners instead of fourthplace finishers like they did last season. While this presents a stiffer challenge on paper, it’s not an insurmountable task.

Five of the Bengals’ seven regularseason losses last season were to nonplayoff teams. Their regular-season record against playoff teams was 4-3. This season, the Bengals will play eight games against seven of last year’s playoff teams (Steelers twice) and it’s not unreasonable to see a 4-4 split in those games. If that happens, the Bengals would need to win six of their other nine games.Canyoufindsixwinsagainstthe Ravens (twice), Browns (twice), Panthers, Dolphins, Jets, Falcons and Saints? I certainly can.

The pick: Bengals over 9.5 regularseason wins

Bengals to win AFC (+1000)

The Buffalo Bills rolled all over the defending Super Bowl champion Los Angeles Rams on Thursday Night Football to open the season and, in the process, ensured the national hype train isn’t going to stop rolling. Add in the Kansas City Chiefs, Denver Broncos, Las Vegas Raiders, Indianapolis Colts, Baltimore Ravens and Los Angeles

Chargers, and it’s easy to see why winning the AFC this season will be an extremely difficult task.

Last season’s AFC championship run was possible because almost unheardof health among Bengals’ starters.

The Bengals also flipped the script on one-score results during the postseason. During the 2021regular season, the Bengals were 4-5 in one-score games, but went 3-1 en route to the Super Bowl appearance.

It’s likely the Bengals will reach the playoffs again. However, it’s highly unlikely they’ll have the same kind of injuryluckandclose-gamemagictheyexperienced last season.

The pick: The +1,000 odds are too much to pass up, so it’s worth the stretch.

Bengals to win Super Bowl 57

(+2200)

If you’ve made it this far, it makes sense to think they’ll finally seal the deal. If they do, the Bengals would join the 1970 Dallas Cowboys, 1972 Dolphins (yes, those Dolphins), and 2017 New

LPGA KROGER QUEEN CITY CHAMPIONSHIP

England Patriots as the only teams to lose the previous Super Bowl and return to win it the next season.

So, if you’re wondering why a $100 bet will net you more than $2,000, that’sonefactor.Theotherfactornotoften discussed is this: Regardless of who wins the AFC, their path will have been more difficult than the NFC champion. While this would seem like an advantage, it’s not necessarily as such. Think of it as a prize fighter who comes off a legendary title fight to lose it a few months later to a supposedly inferior fighter.

The pick: See the AFC title odds decision and double that logic. Other future prop bets worth consideration

Burrow to win MVP (+1200): If you think the Bengals can win the division and be a high seed in the playoffs again, this bet makes sense since it will likely be achieved by Burrow’s command of the offense.

Burrow/Ja’Marr Chase Offensive Player of the Year (+3000): All signs

point to Chase progressing, which should worry opposing defensive coordinators. If you think Burrow can win MVP, “Uno” deserves a look at this award.

Bengals to be highest scoring team (+1300): This is intriguing because of the amount of shootouts one can predict on the Bengals’ schedule. Remember, this has nothing to do with win/loss record, it’s just total points. Last year’s highest-scoring team was the Cowboys.

Bengals-Steelers prediction

The new-look Steelers roll into Paycor Stadium Sunday as 6.5-point underdogs. The over/under point total for the game is set at 44.5.

Much is made of how little contact Bengals starters experienced in the preseason versus what the Steelers did. And everyone saw what happened to the Rams on Thursday. However, while the philosophies might be similar, the Bengals and Rams are in two different places regarding their personnel.

The pick: Bengals -6.5 and under 44.5 points.

A mother, daughter golf story 40 years in the making

MADEIRA, Ohio — Forty years ago, Sharon Hollis was a senior at Bay Village High School, a suburb in Cleveland, Ohio.

Sharon played on the boys’ golf team.

“We didn’t have a girls’ team back then,” she said.

That summer, in 1982, Sharon made the trip to Cincinnati to play in the Ohio Women’s Amateur tournament, which was held at Kenwood Country Club.

This week, Sharon’s back at Kenwood for the LPGA Kroger Queen City Championship.

She followed one group for all18 holes, watching her daughter, Jillian, play the same course that she played 40 years ago.

“I didn’t know that,” Jillian said after her round on Saturday. “It’s pretty special that mom’s played here before.”

Following her daughter, at a course they now have in common, stirred up some old memories.

“I remember being here. I remember the clubhouse. It all looks so different now,” she said.

Golf hasn’t just taken them to the same course four decades apart. It’s taken them on a similar path through life. Sharon played in college at NC State and Ohio State.

Jillian played at Georgia and now she’s on the Epson Tour, the same tour, only a different name, that her mom played on before she met her husband, Mike, and they decided to start their family.

Jillian’s playing at Kenwood this week as a sponsor’s exemption.

But the real reason she’s playing is that her mom taught her about the game, and helped her fall in love with it the same way she fell in love with it.

“She taught me from a young age and I just fell in love with the game and stuck with it,” said Jillian. “She’s pushed me a little bit but has also given me the space to fall in love with it myself.”

Sharon still plays golf. She teaches it too. Now,

though, she loves watching her daughter play.

“It’s always fun watching her play. I just hang out and stand by the trees,” Sharon laughed. “I love it. I’m just super proud. I’m so happy for her when she plays well and I feel bad when she doesn’t. I just love watching her.”

Cincinnati Bengals defensive end Sam Hubbard (94) holds an AFC Championship T-shirt at the conclusion of the AFC championship NFL football game against the Kansas City Chiefs on Jan. 30 at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, Mo. KAREEM ELGAZZAR/THE ENQUIRER

Jillian’s working on earning her LPGA Tour card through her performance on the Epson Tour. So, Jillian might be back at Kenwood next year for the second edition of the Queen City Championship. And if she is, her mom will be here, hanging out by the trees watching her.

Jillian Hollis lines up a putt on hole six on the Kendale Course while her mother looks on during the third round of the Kroger Queen City Championship presented by P&G on Saturday. ALBERT CESARE/THE ENQUIRER

(Fraley), Lodolo (Taylor).

Time—2:42. Attendance—33,660 (41,900). Cincinnati-Milwaukee Runs

to third. Kyle Farmer scores.

Aquino walks. Donovan Solano to second. Nick Senzel grounds out to second base. Aristides Aquino out at second. Donovan Solano to third. Jake Fraley scores. Jose Barrero singles to center field. Donovan Solano scores. Austin Romine called out on strikes.

5 runs, 5 hits, 0 errors, 1 left on. Reds 5,

Brewers 0. Brewers third. Luis Urias singles to left field. Victor Caratini called out on strikes.

Tyrone Taylor homers to center field. Luis Urias scores. Andrew McCutchen strikes out swinging. Willy Adames doubles to deep center field. Christian Yelich strikes out on a foul tip.

2 runs, 3 hits, 0 errors, 1 left on. Reds 5,

Brewers 2.

Reds ninth. TJ Friedl singles to center field. Jonathan India homers to center field. TJ Friedl scores. Kyle Farmer strikes out swinging. Jake Fraley homers to right field. Donovan Solano flies out to center field to Tyrone Taylor. Aristides Aquino doubles to left field. Nick Senzel strikes out swinging. 3 runs, 4 hits, 0 errors, 1 left on. Reds 8, Brewers 2.

This Date in Baseball

Sept. 11

1912 – Eddie Collins set a major league record with six stolen bases for the Philadelphia Athletics in a 9-7 win over the Detroit Tigers. Collins stole six more in a game on Sept. 22.

1918 – The Boston Red Sox beat the Chicago Cubs 2-1 behind the three-hit pitching of Carl Mays to win the World Series in six games. This was Boston’s third championship in a four-year stretch – 1915, 1916 and this season. 1936 – Hod Lisenbee of the Philadelphia A’s tied a major league record for hits allowed, giving up 26 in a17-2 rout by the Chicago White Sox. 1949 – The New York Yankees sent18 men to the plate in the third inning of the first game of a doubleheader against Washington. In the 50-minute half-inning the Senators walked a major-league record 11 batters as the Yankees went on to a 20-5 win. New York won the second game 2-1 in one hour and 22 minutes.

1959 – The Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Pittsburgh Pirates 5-4, putting an end to reliever Roy Face’s 22-game winning streak. It was his only loss of the season as he finished with an 18-1 record.

1974 – It took the St. Louis Cardinals 25 innings – seven hours, four minutes – to beat the New York Mets. A record 202

batters went to the plate, Felix Millan and John Milner had 12 appearances apiece.

1985 – Pete Rose of the Cincinnati Reds became the all-time hit leader with his 4,192nd hit to break Ty Cobb’s record. Rose lined a 2-1 pitch off San Diego pitcher Eric Show to left-center field for a single in the first inning. It was the 57th anniversary of Ty Cobb’s last game in the majors. 1987 – New York Mets third baseman Howard Johnson, with 34 homers, became the first National League infielder to reach 30 home runs and 30 stolenbasesinthesameseason.His30th

stolen base came in the fourth inning of a 6-4, 10-inning loss to the St. Louis Cardinals.

1996 – San Diego’s Ken Caminiti broke his own major league record by homering from both sides of the plate in a game for the fourth time this season. In a 6-5 win over Pittsburgh, Caminiti homered left-handed in the fifth inning, hitting a two-run shot. Batting right-handed in the seventh, he hit a solo shot to break his record set last year.

2008 –AlbertPujolsdroveinhis100thrun with a sixth-inning double in the Cardinals’ 3-2 loss to the Cubs, becoming only the third player in major league history to reach the milestone in his first eight seasons. Pujols also extended his major league-record streak of reaching 30 homers and 100 RBIs in his first eight seasons, two more than any player in history. 2014 – Miami Marlins slugger Giancarlo Stanton sustained multiple facial fractures, dental damage and cuts that neededstitchesafterbeinghitintheface by a pitch. Stanton was hit under the left eye by a fastball from Milwaukee’s Mike Fiers in the fifth inning of a 4-2 loss.

2021 –CorbinBurnsandJoshHaderofthe Milwaukee Brewers throw a combined no-hitter to beat the Cleveland Indians 3-0. It was the record ninth no-hitter of the season.

LEADERS PRIOR TO SATURDAY’S GAMES NATIONAL LEAGUE BATTING—Goldschmidt, St. Louis, .327; Freeman, Los Angeles, .324; McNeil, New York, .316; T.Turner, Los Angeles, .304; J.Iglesias, Colorado, .300; Arenado, St. Louis, .299; M.Machado, San Diego, .297; Bohm, Philadelphia, .294; S.Marte, New York, .292; Hoerner, Chicago, .288.

RUNS—Betts, Los Angeles, 105; Freeman, Los Angeles, 100; Goldschmidt, St. Louis, 100; Swanson, Atlanta, 90; Edman, St. Louis, 87; Yelich, Milwaukee, 87; M.Machado, San Diego, 85; T.Turner, Los Angeles, 85; Nimmo, New York, 84. RBI—Goldschmidt, St. Louis, 109; Alonso, New York, 108; Cron, Colorado, 92; T.Turner, Los Angeles, 91; Arenado, St. Louis, 90; Olson, Atlanta, 90; Riley, Atlanta, 89; Lindor, New York, 89; M.Machado, San Diego, 88; Freeman, Los Angeles, 84. HITS—Freeman,LosAngeles,172;T.Turner, Los Angeles, 168; Goldschmidt, St. Louis, 162; Swanson, Atlanta, 154; Riley, Atlanta, 151; Arenado, St. Louis, 147; Bohm,

DOUBLES—J.Ramírez, Cleveland, 39; Bogaerts, Boston, 37; Devers, Boston, 37; J.Martinez, Boston, 37; Arozarena, Tampa Bay, 36; Bichette, Toronto, 35; Gurriel, Houston, 35; Verdugo, Boston, 35; Bregman, Houston, 34; Altuve, Houston, 33. TRIPLES—Mateo, Baltimore, 7; Rosario, Cleveland, 7; Ohtani, Los Angeles, 6; Witt Jr., Kansas City, 6; Kwan, Cleveland, 5; A.García, Texas, 4; Gordon, Minnesota, 4; R.Greene, Detroit, 4; Isbel, Kansas City, 4; N.Lopez, Kansas City, 4; J.Ramírez, Cleveland, 4; Rengifo, Los Angeles, 4; Semien, Texas, 4. HOME RUNS—Judge, New York, 55; Trout, Los Angeles, 33; Ohtani, Los Angeles, 33; Alvarez, Houston, 31; Rizzo, New York,

2.48; T.Anderson, Los Angeles, 2.74; Webb, San Francisco, 2.90; Burnes, Milwaukee, 2.93; Rodón, San Francisco, 2.93; Me.Kelly, Arizona, 2.94; Wheeler, Philadelphia, 3.07. STRIKEOUTS—Burnes, Milwaukee, 214; Rodón, San Francisco, 212; Aa.Nola, Philadelphia, 200; Strider, Atlanta, 183; Morton, Atlanta, 180; Alcantara, Miami, 177; Darvish, San Diego, 168; Wright, Atlanta, 154; Bassitt, New York, 153; Scherzer, New York, 153. AMERICAN LEAGUE BATTING—Bogaerts, Boston, .318; Arraez, Minnesota, .313; J.Abreu, Chicago, .308; Benintendi, New York, .304; Judge, New York, .304; N.Lowe, Texas, .303; Giménez, Cleveland, .302; Kirk, Toronto, .300; GurrielJr.,Toronto,.291;Alvarez,Houston, 290; Y.Díaz, Tampa Bay, .290. RUNS—Judge, New York, 111; Semien, Texas, 83; Bregman, Houston, 82; Altuve, Houston,81;Bichette,Toronto,79;Ohtani, Los Angeles, 79; Alvarez, Houston, 78; Bogaerts, Boston, 78; Guerrero Jr., Toronto, 77; Seager, Texas, 77. RBI—Judge, New York, 119; J.Ramírez, Cleveland, 108; Tucker, Houston, 88; Ohtani, Los Angeles, 86; A.García, Texas, 84; Bichette, Toronto, 83; Alvarez, Houston, 82; Guerrero Jr., Toronto, 82; Santander, Baltimore, 79; Suárez, Seattle, 79. HITS—J.Abreu, Chicago, 162; Bogaerts, Boston, 156; Bichette, Toronto, 153; N.Lowe, Texas, 152; Judge, New York, 151; Guerrero Jr., Toronto, 149; Arraez, Minnesota, 148; Rosario, Cleveland, 148; Verdugo, Boston, 147; Benintendi, New York, 140; J.Ramírez, Cleveland, 140.

their 40-man rosters.

December TBA — Hall of Fame

Contemporary Baseball/Managers-Umpires-Executives Committee vote announced.

Dec. 15 — International signing period closes, 5 p.m. EST. PRO FOOTBALL AFC NORTH SCHEDULES Cincinnati Bengals

Sept. 11 Pittsburgh, 1 p.m. (CBS)

Sept. 18 at Dallas, 4:25 p.m. (CBS)

Sept. 25 at N.Y. Jets, 1 p.m. (CBS)

Sept. 29 Miami (Thu), 8:15 p.m. (Prime

Video)

Oct. 9 at Baltimore, 8:20 p.m. (NBC*)

Oct. 16 at New Orleans, 1 p.m. (CBS)

Oct. 23 Atlanta, 1 p.m. (FOX)

Oct. 31 at Cleveland (Mon), 8:15 p.m. (ESPN)

Nov. 6 Carolina, 1 p.m. (FOX)

Nov. 13 BYE

Nov. 20 at Pittsburgh, 8:20 p.m. (NBC*)

Nov. 27 at Tennessee, 1 p.m. (CBS)

Dec. 4 Kansas City, 4:25 p.m. (CBS)

Dec. 11

THE BACKSTOP

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UPCOMING

Sun. at Milwaukee, 2:10 p.m.

Mon. vs. Pittsburgh, 6:40 p.m.

Tues. vs. Pittsburgh(DH),12:35 p.m.

Sept. 17 at Salt Lake, 9:30 p.m.

Sept. 21 vs. Chivas, 7 p.m.

Sept. 27 at Seattle, 10 p.m.

Sept. 17 vs. Cincinnati, 12 p.m.

Sept. 24 at Northwestern, TBA

Oct. 1 at Buffalo, 3:30 p.m.

Sept. 17 vs. Toledo, 7 p.m.

Sept. 24 vs. Wisconsin, TBA

Oct. 1 vs. Rytgers, 3:30 p.m.

ON THE AIR

Sun. vs.

Sept.

Sept.

vs.

Sept. 24 vs. Indiana, TBA

Oct. 1 at Tulsa, TBA

Sept. 17 vs. Y’town St., 12 p.m.

Sept. 24 vs. N. Illinois, TB

Oct. 1 at Ole Miss, TBA

Sept. 16 vs. Florida St., 7:30 p.m.

Sept. 24 vs. USF, TBA

Oct. 1 at Boston College, TBA

Townsend and Caty McNally, United States, def. Storm Sanders,

and Caroline Dolehide (12), United States, 1-6, 6-3, 6-3.

straight heats.

1937 – Don Budge beats Gottfried von Cramm in five sets to win his first U.S. Open men’s singles title. Budge wins 6-1, 7-9, 6-1, 3-6, 6-1. 1964 – ABC television cancels Fight of the Week, ending 18 years of regularly scheduled prime-time boxing on U.S. broadcast network television.

1976 – In the third race at Latonia, jockey John Oldham and his wife, Suzanne Picou, become the first husband and wife riding team to compete in a parimutuel race. Oldham finishes second aboard Harvey’s Hope and Picou rides My Girl Carla to an 11th-place finish.

1977 – In the last U.S. Open match played at the West Side Tennis Club in Forest Hills, New York, Guillermo Vilas beats Jimmy Connors, 2-6, 6-3, 7-6, 6-0, for the men’s singles title

1982–ChrisEvertwinshersixthU.S.Open singles title, defeating Hana Mandlikova, 6-3, 6-1.

1982 – In a 23-16 loss to Illinois, Rolf Mojsiejunko of Michigan State kicks a 61-yard field goal in his first collegiate attempt. 1988 – Mats Wilander wins the longest men’s final in U.S. Open history, edging Ivan Lendl, 6-4, 4-6, 6-3, 5-7, 6-4.

Cincinnati’s McNally reaches U.S. Open women’s doubles final

Michael Lewis Enquirer contributor

FLUSHING MEADOWS, N.Y. — Caty

McNally is back in the U.S. Open women’s doubles final.

But she’s got a whole new partner and got there a whole new way.

The Madeira native whose Mom, Lynn, is a pro at Harper’s Point, was in major trouble with her partner Taylor Townsend in their semifinal at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center Friday afternoon, down1-6, 0-2 to Caroline Dolehide and Storm Sanders.

But McNally and Townsend roared back before a few thousand spectators in Armstrong Stadium, to win 1-6, 6-3, 6-3 and advance to Sunday’s final.

“We were fine (after the first set),” McNally said. “In doubles, you always know there’s a whole ‘nother set, and a lot of tennis left. We did a really good job staying together and pumping each other up.”

Townsend added, “I knew we weren’t out of it, we just had to find our footing, and once we did, we got things rolling and I knew we’d be fine.”

The 20-year-old McNally was in this exact spot last year, but with longtime partner Coco Gauff, as the two

lost in the championship match to SamanthaStosurandZhangShuaiinthree sets.

Now, she’ll be back on Ashe Stadium with another chance for a first Slam title.

“It feels different, with the new partnership and everything,” McNally said. “I’m really, looking back at it now, I’m really grateful to be in this position and be in another final. I’m going to look back at what I did last year (in the final) and take that into this year’s final on Sunday.”

“McCoco” was super-popular with tennis fans, but since April this year Gauff has been playing with Jessica Pegula, another Top 20-ranked American, so McNally needed to find a new partner, as her singles ranking dropped a bit (she’s currently No. 22 in doubles and No. 160 in singles).

Gauff has previously talked about the “McCoco” breakup as being she and McNallyjustplayingindifferenttournaments, with McNally trying to gain points at smaller events to boost her singles ranking back up.

But both have repeatedly said they remain good friends, with Gauff texting McNally all week during Townsend and McNally’s doubles run.

WE WANT A MEMORABLE SEASON FOR BENGALS FANS

The easiest path to the playoffs is winning the division, so there is no better way to start the season thanhostinganAFCNorthDivision rival. Home-field advantage is critical in this league and the energy of the crowd propels our team forward. We want The Jungle to besolouditsetsrecords.Thekeyisknowing when to be loud. Quiet on offense, so we can communicate. Loud on defense − stomp, scream, cheer and clap. The objective is to make it as difficult as possible on opposing offenses, especially in critical third-down situations. When those big stops happen, we have to use the crowd as a catapult to capture that momentum and help us to early wins.

It’s go time! The 2022 season is here and we’re ready to attack the new year. We feel the energy behind the team and want to keep the momentum going to create another memorable season for Bengals fans. With success comes high expectations. That’s what you want. That’s why you’re in this league. We have put in the work to make sure we can meet our own expectations and continue to raise our standard. It doesn’t just come based on what you did the previous year. We have to keep going.

The support of Who Dey Nation stretches

See TAYLOR, Page2D

LETTER TO THE EDITOR

‘Yes’ man Chabot doesn’t deserve reelection in District 1

I was dismayed to see not one, but two, rather bland letters to the editor in the Sept. 4 Enquirer, supporting Steve Chabot for Congress, both from Norwood.

Since Congressman Chabot failed to support either the infrastructure package to fix his constituents’ notorious Brent Spence Bridge or cap the cost of insulin − a tried and true drug required for survival by many of his constituents − why should he be returned to Congress? Do we want to reward a “yes” man, only a placeholder, who consistently votes according to directives from his Republican bosses to cut costs/taxes, rather than meet the serious, urgent needs of his district?

How about some fresh air, some fresh ideas from Greg Landsman, who brings a successful background fighting to improve educational options for our children, as well as the independence to focus on what will best serve the constituents of Ohio’s District 1.

Ellen Frankenberg, Finneytown

ILLUSTRATION BY JASON BREDEHOEFT/USA TODAY NETWORK; GETTY IMAGES

DeWine may avoid debates with big poll lead

land. Strickland repeatedly tried to tie Portman to then-nominee Donald Trump, heading the party’s ticket. Portman pulled his endorsement of Trump after Trump’s lewd and crude comments in an old “Access Hollywood” tape surfaced in the campaign’s final weeks.

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine is sounding like a debate-dodger.

The Republican incumbent hasn’t agreed so far to debating his Democratic challenger, former Dayton Mayor Nan Whaley. He hasn’t ruled out formal debates, but he keeps talking about alternativessuchasnewspaperendorsement meetings.

In a recent interview with talk radio host Bill Cunningham on WLW in Cincinnati, DeWine protested that he and his wife, Fran, had just attended the German-American festival in Toledo, and a Mud Hens baseball game, and have been visiting county fairs across Ohio.

Apparently, people should have taken the opportunity to ask the governor aboutOhioinfrastructureneedswhilehe was eating a sauerkraut ball or admiring the 4-H Club members’ market lambs.

“I don’t think there’s been any governor that’s ever had more press conferences than me,” DeWine also said.

That might be true, and DeWine has usually been accessible to the news media over the years.

But that’s not the point.

Debates are an opportunity for voters to compare and contrast candidates in real time; seeing how they answer each other’s challenges to their records, how quick they are thinking on their feet when hit with unexpected questions that go beyond their talking points, and howcleartheyareontheirvisionsforthe state.

And they can produce defining moments, such as the angry nose-to-nose

confrontation this year between former state Treasurer Josh Mandel and businessman Mike Gibbons that made them look decidedly un-senatorial during a Republican primary debate for the Senate nomination. Eventual winner J.D Vance and Democratic opponent U.S Rep.TimRyanhavealreadyagreedtodebate in their tight race.

SowhyisDeWine,whoat75hasbeen running in campaigns in Ohio since Whaley, now 46, was a baby, balking at debating?

If Mike DeWine is afraid to debate me and defend his record as governor, why is he even running for-election?” Whaley asked in a Sept. 2 tweet.

The answer would appear to be the double-digit lead he consistently holds in polls on their race.

In that line of thinking, DeWine’s

campaign would figure he has nothing to gain, while his opponent might gain, in televised debates.

After all, DeWine’s predecessor, RepublicanJohnKasich,declinedtodebate Democrat Ed FitzGerald, then the Cuyahoga County executive, in his 2014 reelection campaign. Kasich was on his waytowinningwith63%ofthevoteover his struggling foe.

But DeWine is part of a current Big Three of Ohio politics that includes retiring Republican Sen. Rob Portman and Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown who have been dominant figures in the state for three decades or more.

Those other two also had steadily led thepollsbutstilldebatedtheirlastopponents.

Portman in 2016 held three debates with Democratic former Gov. Ted Strick-

Portman went on to a surprisingly one-sided 58% to 37% victory, while Trump carried Ohio by 8 points and won the presidential election.

Brown agreed to debate Republican nominee Rep. Jim Renacci in 2018. Renacci, badly outfunded by the wellknown Brown, kept dredging up details of Brown’s acrimonious 1986 divorce in their series of televised meetings. Brown had to be steaming, but he kept his pledgetoparticipateinthreedebates.He defeated Renacci with 53% of the vote.

The last two Republican governors beforeKasich,GeorgeVoinovichandBob Taft, also participated in debates with the Democratic nominees before handily winning reelection.

DeWine could get bruised in debates, where Whaley would likely go after him by charging he hasn’t done enough on gun reforms in the aftermath of the 2019 Dayton mass shooting, or not doing enough to halt Ohio Statehouse corruption. The two also contrast sharply on abortion rights, with Whaley, who is trying to become Ohio’s first elected female governor, advocating for abortion access while DeWine supports anti-abortion measures.

But DeWine has plenty of debate experience, forged against some of the state’s top Democrats over the years. He should show he’s still got game, not just try to run out the clock.

Dan Sewell writes a Sunday Politics column for The Enquirer. He can be reached at his personal email : dsewellrojos@gmail.com

remembered

Most of us recall where we were and what we were doing at 8:46 a.m. Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2001.

We remember the news reports grimly announcing that a plane – American Airlines Flight 11 – had crashed into the North Tower of the World Trade Center in New York City.

We remember how the shock in the reporter’s voice turned to horror, mirroring our own, when, 17 minutes later, a second plane – United Airlines Flight175

struck the South Tower.

We remember watching in silent disbelief as ominous clouds of smoke plumed evilly from the wrecked skyscrapers. What initially appeared to be debris falling through the air turned out to be people jumping from the buildings. My God, people

Over the next hour, two more flights would crash into the Pentagon and in a field in Pennsylvania, the latter diverted from its target – possibly the U.S. Capitol or the White House – by courageous, selfless passengers who attempted to take control of the hijacked aircraft.

It was a day the nation would never forget: Almost 3,000 innocent victims perished at the hands of al-Qaeda terrorists who had meticulously planned the attacks.

Let that sink in for a second. People who were someone’s father, mother, brother, sister … someone’s child, someone’s boyfriend or girlfriend. Someone’s someone

The tragedy really hit home when the painful identification process revealed numerous Ohioans among the fallen. People like you, people like me – some visiting the Big Apple, some in town on business, some going about their daily routines to work, unaware it would be theirlast“Seeyalater,”theirlastmorning goodbye kiss, their last day taking the kids to school. Their last day.

Douglas MacMillan Cherry, 38, from Wooster, Ohio, was living in Maplewood, NewJersey,atthetimeofhisdeath.Ohio

Continued from Page 1D

further than those who will be in the stadium. We certainly gained an appreciation

native Georgine Rose Corrigan, 55, was living in Honolulu. Another Ohioan, KathleenAnneFaragher,33,aresidentof Denver,waskilledwhileattendingaconference in the World Trade Center. Columbus native Robert John Ferris, 63, was living in Long Island at the time. He was at a meeting on the102nd floor of the South Tower when the plane crashed into it.

As the list grows, so does the sadness of imagining the loss, the inconsolable grief of the families, the children left motherless or fatherless, some so young they have no memories to cling to.

Wendy R. Faulkner, 47, Mason, Ohio.

Susan M. Getzendanner, 57, originally from Shaker Heights.

H. Joseph Heller Jr., 37, was born in Lakewood, Ohio.

Clevelander Thomas Warren Hohlweck Jr., 56.

for that during our playoff run when bars and restaurants across Greater Cincinnati, Northern Kentucky and far away citieswerepackedwithBengalsfansand TVs tuned in to our games. That’s an energy you can really embrace, and we’re excited to see it again this year. We have a talented and dynamic team

Terrence M. Lynch, 49, was born in Youngstown and was living in Alexandria, Virginia, working as an Army contractor when he was killed in the Pentagon attack.

Also killed in the Pentagon attack was Teresa M. Martin, 45, born in Millersville, Ohio.

The youngest victim, Mary Lou Hague, 26, was born in Marietta, Ohio.

Ohioan Raymond Joseph Metz III, 37, was living in Trumbull, Connecticut.

William David Moskal, 50, lived in Brecksville, Ohio.

James Robert Paul, 58, was born in Cincinnati, and lived in Manhattan.

Robert David Peraza, 30, a native of Warren County, also was living in New York.

Catherine Patricia Salter, 37, lived in Brooklyn, but was born in East Liverpool, Ohio.

that people enjoy rooting for. Our fanbaseisstrongandwelcomesthenational spotlight. We appreciate all the new fans and recognize those who have supported the team for a long time and created a positive fan environment that makes gamedays fun.

Cincinnati is a special place. The en-

Arlington, Virginia, resident David M. Scales, 44, was born in Cleveland.

George Edward Spencer III, 50, also was born in Cleveland. He was living in West Norwalk, Connecticut.

Alicia Nicole Titus, 28, was from Springfield. She was a part of the flight crew on the plane that crashed into the South Tower of the World Trade Center.

Mary Alice Wahlstrom, 78, was born in Portsmouth.

Todd Christopher Weaver, 30, was originally from North Canton.

These are not just anonymous casualties, not just something bad that happened to someone else.

They were our fellow Buckeyes. They might have been Reds or Bengals or OSU fans.

They should be remembered, not their attackers.

They were Ohioans.

ergy of this city and what it has brought to our team is awesome. It’s up to us to make sure we match that energy and put together another season Bengals fans can be proud of.

Who Dey! Zac Taylor is the head coach of the Cincinnati Bengals.

Politics: The Art of the Possible Dan Sewell Columnist

Ohio Governor Republican candidate Gov. Mike DeWine, left, and Democratic candidate Nan Whaley. ENQUIRER STAFF

9/11: The 21st century’s ‘day of infamy’

Robert Peraza, who lost his son, Warren County native Robert David Peraza, in the attacks at the World Trade Center, pauses at his son’s name at the North Pool of the 9/11 Memorial before the 10th anniversary ceremony at the site on Sunday, Sept. 11, 2011, in New York. COLUMBUS DISPATCH FILE PHOTOS

The front page of the Sept. 12, 2001, Columbus Dispatch with coverage of the 9/11 terror attacks.

I left Republican Party because it has lost its way

I have always supported a woman’s right to choose, and there is no place in the party for a pro-choice Republican given the continued grip the religious right and lobbyists have on the party.

I was a registered Republican until I pulled my first Democratic ballot on May 8, 2018.

Like many reading this, I grew up in suburban neighborhoods that were predominately white and middle class. I grew up listening to Ronald Reagan, George W. Bush and Rush Limbaugh− remember Rush’s bit during the Clinton years about “American Held Hostage?“ I went to a Baptist church on Wednesday nights and Sundays, and I lived in a household where politics wasn’t a dinner table discussion, nor was it something we seemed to ever talk about.

Many of you who identify as Republican or conservative in the wake of Jan. 6, the Trump presidency and the Dobbs decision have asked yourself the same question I began to ask myself in earnest about 15 years ago: Is this Republican Party really the party for me?

The answer has become a clear no for me.

On the economy, my former party has gone rogue.

I began my legal career in 2007 as a consumer bankruptcy attorney − which I still am to this day − working primarily with working-class and middle-class families. I spent the majority of my first four years in practice helping families across the socio-economic spectrum trying to save their homes from foreclosure, their cars from repossession and

collection efforts from banks and corporations, especially payday lenders, who preyed upon these families. As the bailout was happening, I asked myself why the corporations were being bailed out, and families were losing everything.

On middle- and working-class families, my former party has given up.

I have been abhorred by the Republican Party’s, particularly the Ohio GOP’s, outright assault on middle- and working-class families. I witnessed this firsthand in the Ohio Legislature in

2010-2011when I urged passage of a bill that would increase Ohio’s homestead exemption.

After I testified in front of a House committee, I was able to watch floor debates; and, to my absolute horror, I listened as countless Republicans openly attacked Gov. John Kasich over Medicaid expansion and expressed disdain for the needs of our most economically vulnerable Ohioans.

And most recently on women’s rights, my former party has rejected protections for personal rights.

This horror has continued each and every time I have petitioned at the Statehouse, which has included two other memorable meetings: the time I heard an unnamed state senator refer to Ohioans as “you people” during a meeting with corporate lobbyists and two consumer groups about legislation over Ohio’s first data security bill, and a second time where I worked against a payday lending bill only to have the Republican representative repeatedly pause in his questioning as he was getting texts of questions to ask me from the lobbyist in the corner.

MyonlyregretfromMay8,2018,was not making the decision to become a Democrat earlier.

The Republican Party has lost its way, and I’m proud to be working with organizations across our state, like WelcomePAC (https://welcomepac. org/), that are committed to elevating candidates who can protect our state and our democracy from the GOP’s radicalized positions.

It is my hope that sharing parts of my story inspires others to not only ask themselves the hard questions, but to also leave a party that now celebrates greed, corruption and oppression.

Brian Flick is Managing Partner and Cincinnati Office Director of Dann Law, with a practice that focuses on bankruptcy,foreclosuredefense,appellate litigation, and other areas of consumer law.

Enact legislation to protect against costly landslides

Your Turn Eric Russo Guest columnist

The documentary “Living with Landslides”portrays the landslide phenomenon endemic to this region. Our geology and topography are fundamental reasons why we are prone to landslides. When combined with stormwater, gravity and inappropriate human settlement, the results are often destructive andcostly.Theeffectsofclimatechange will continue to make this worse.

Market forces are increasingly driving growth towards hillsides that were once deemed too expensive to engineer, because they are among the last frontiers for development in this region. Some locales possess neither the legislation nor the resources to guide and supervise sound hillside development. A

conspicuous lack of appropriate legislation and professional oversight can lead to costly and ongoing landslides in these places.

Historically, Cincinnati has made mistakes when it comes to developing its hillsides. Some of these mistakes are perpetual liabilities, requiring periodic maintenance and repair. Perhaps nothing exemplifies this more than Columbia Parkway, built nearly a half century before Cincinnati enacted hillside development regulations. In September 2021, the city completed its most recent Columbia Parkway stabilization work at a cost of nearly $18 million.

In the past decade, The Hillside Trust has been called out to several condominium buildings perched high above Columbia Parkway to examine stability issues. While the buildings themselves are indeed stable, it is not uncommon for the surrounding yards to show signs of creeping and slumping. At one condominium, multiple drainpipes extend-

ing laterally from downspouts ended above ground just past the brow of the hillside, which can trigger landslides.

In my years of experience, this unfortunatelyisanall-too-commonphenomenon. In some cases, slope failure was already underway, and it was the reason why I was contacted in the first place. During heavy rainfall, seemingly innocuous drainpipes can become veritable fire hoses with extreme water volume and velocity.

They can oversaturate a hillside within a matter of minutes, downcutting its surface and undermining its stability. Large impervious surfaces that drain at the edge of hillsides, such as parking lots, will also contribute to this problem.

In terms of preventative maintenance, redirecting or extending downspouts and drainpipes are easy and cost-effective measures. A do-it-yourselfer might spend several hundred dollars in materials and an afternoon of la-

bor, depending on the length of slope and the thickness of vegetation. In areas with multiple hillside property owners, it’s imperative to ensure water flow originating uphill is appropriately directed below. Downhill property owners are wise to cooperate, as that’s where landslides terminate.

The Hillside Trust calls on Cincinnati area leaders to enact legislation to require hillside property owners to appropriately direct their downspouts and drainpipes Above Columbia Parkway alone, this would help protect taxpayers’ multi-million-dollar investment in stabilizing the hillside system that periodically slides and shuts down traffic flow. We urge our city and county leaders take action.

Eric Russo is the executive director of The Hillside Trust For more information, resources and in-depth videos on landslides go to HillsideTrust.org. “Living with Landslides” airs at 9 p.m. Sept. 7 on WCPO-9.

Vote Nov. 8 like democracy depends on it, because it does

same landslide margin that had approved a state legislative redistricting amendment three years earlier.

Everyone I knew celebrated. We’d done it! Hooray, no more gerrymandering! Right?

whistle again and again, sending them back to the drawing board.

Nan Whaley are similarly pivotal.

Dang, I’m like a rock star!” I thought. Everywhere I turned, people of all ages were swarming around me, trying to get my attention, asking if I had a pen.

They weren’t asking for my autograph, though. They were trying to give me theirs.

It was a gorgeous sunny day, and I was at a community festival with a small sign pinned to my jacket: “Want to sign the petition to end gerrymandering in Ohio?” Turns out, almost everyone did.

They were Democrats and independents and traditional Republicans, and they all wanted the same thing: fair, unskewed congressional districts, where reasonable candidates who reflected the majority of the population could compete and win.

They wanted, you know … democracy.

The initiative attracted thousands of signatures across the state, and was written into the Ohio Constitution shortly thereafter, with support from more than 70% of Ohio

Butno.Becausewhenitcametimeto actually draw the new maps for congressional and state legislative districts, extremist state legislators and state officials looked at our shiny new constitutional amendments − and the 70% of the Ohio voting population who had voted them into reality − and essentially gave us all the middle finger.

They blew off public meetings. They met in secret. They feigned ignorance of basic math, and drew cartoonishly skewed new maps that didn’t even pretend to comport with the new laws. When our secretary of state (who privately called the new maps “asinine”) and governor had a chance to quash the madness, they instead caved to peer pressure, rubber-stamping maps they knew were completely unconstitutional.

Luckily, there were some grown-ups in the room, some referees to restore order: The Ohio Supreme Court justices, who accurately ruled that the skewed maps were unconstitutional. Each time the gerrymanderers came back with another round of obviously flawed maps, the Ohio Supreme Court blew the

Unfortunately, disingenuous legislators were able to run out the clock this time, leaving Ohioans with at least two more years of blatantly skewed, unconstitutional maps.

But what matters right now is this: The people of Ohio will defeat gerrymandering; it’s just going to take a little longer than we thought. The next round in the fight, a crucial one, is happening this November, with the election of new Ohio Supreme Court justices.

Unless we make sure that there continue to be fair and principled justices on the court going forward, there will be no referees to turn to the next time gerrymanderers come knocking with unconstitutional maps − no one to make sure they get it right the next time, when the maps could last for a decade. Our votes on Nov. 8 for Ohio Supreme Court justices Jennifer Brunner, Marilyn Zayas, and Terri Jamison are crucial.

Just as importantly, we need principled people on the Ohio Redistricting Commission − people strong enough to resist outside pressure and (here’s a crazy thought) follow the constitution. Since the state auditor, secretary of state, and governor automatically serve on this commission, our votes Nov. 8 for Taylor Sappington, Chelsea Clark and

So, write these six names − “Brunner,Zayas,Jamison,Sappington,Clark, and Whaley” − in Sharpie on a Post-it note and stick it on your desk, and text them right now to your spouse, your friends, and your adult children (make sure they are registered to vote). Literally just write: “Brunner, Zayas, Jamison, Sappington, Clark, Whaley. Vote November 8!” And then make sure you and everyone you know votes for all of them.

It is tempting to tell ourselves that the recent redistricting madness is just another example of wacky politicians playing their usual games, but this is something far more serious. The rule of law is being cast aside as if it means nothing. The machinery of our democracy itself is being disfigured in a way that could become permanent if left unchecked.

And right now, the only backstop against further deterioration are the people who comprise the Redistricting Commission and the Ohio Supreme Court.

So keep those six names handy, and vote for all of them − Brunner, Zayas, Jamison, Sappington, Clark, and Whaley − on Nov. 8. Vote like democracy depends on it. Because honestly, it does.

Karen Weese lives in Montgomery.

Supporters of President Donald Trump participate in the Million MAGA March to protest the outcome of the 2020 presidential election on Dec. 12, 2020, in Washington, D.C. OLIVIER DOULIERY, AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

OPINION

SUNDAY+ LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Animal shelter staff goes extra mile during overcrowding crisis

Regarding, “Outdated and Overcrowded: Is Hamilton County animal shelter saving too many dogs?” (Sept. 2): A friend and I, both retirees, find it rewarding to volunteer at Cincinnati Animal Care Humane Society doing one-off fixes and improvements. We do things like assembling propane heaters for the winter,repairingfansforthesummer,installing shade sails over the play yards, mounting safety mirrors at blind corners of kennel walkways, and so forth. Working on these tasks often puts us on site when the public is not around, so I can shareacandidviewofthestaffandoperations. This is my personal opinion, not the shelter’s. No one there has seen it.

What I see day in and day out at CACHS is a kind of mission work being performedbycaringandcompetentpeople. They are largely motivated by their love of animals. They are neither more nor less perfect than the rest of us. Most work hard at their jobs, and the work itself is hard. It can be emotionally draining to see innocent cats and dogs suffering because humans have abused or neglected them. It’s turned me into a passionate supporter of free spay/neuter programs and heavy fines for abusers. I’m not surprised when employees burnout and leave. The turnover reduces CACHS’s effectiveness because it loses its most important asset, experienced employees.

I’vewatchedthestaffgotheextramile during the current overcrowding crisis. There are way too many animals for the number of kennels. There are dogs everywhere: in cramped crates in hallways, staff offices, conference rooms and the garage. Staff members are even taking some home with them. The crates are hard to keep clean and allow little movement, and there aren’t enough volunteer dog walkers to give them the exercise andinteractiontheyneed.Thelongerthe overcrowding goes on, the greater the risk the dogs will develop antisocial tendencies, which makes them harder to find homes for.

I’ve seen the animal behavior team assessing each new arrival for its socialization status and potential risks. These specialists observe behavior in controlled encounters with people, cats and otherdogs.Mostanimalswillfightifprovoked, so the goal is to try to identify any particular triggers. Volunteer dog walkers and fosters are trained to observe dogs for risk indicators, like growling at strangers or kids, or straining at the leash when encountering cats or other dogs. When issues are found, the walkers and fosters work to retrain a dog and advise potential adopters.

As for scratches and bites, no one can guarantee a cat or dog will never injure anyone. Like humans, animals are not entirely predictable, even the ones you raise yourself or come from breeders. I have a friend whose seeing-eye dog bit him when its tail got pinched by a car door, despite being bred and trained for reliability and restraint.

There is a risk in keeping any animal, but adopters I know find the rewards of

WRITING

New Turfway Park facility is very nice, but not fan friendly

The new Turfway Park facility is very nice but is not race-fan friendly. Basically set up as a casino with some off-track betting interests, there are basically no grandstands for horse racing people to watch live racing. Not a good place to bring kids either.

I guess Churchill Downs thinks that high-end rollers will play 800 slots that don’t even resemble typical slots and maybe they are right, but families spend money,too,andeliminating1,000people a night is really rolling the dice. Belterra gaming and race track is a much friendlier venue and has a place for everybody.

Lee Eyerman, Amelia

Voters must do a better job vetting candidates for office

giving an abandoned rescue a home far outweighs the risks.

I continue to find my experience volunteering at Cincinnati Animal Care Humane Society to confirm it deserves my support − as a volunteer, as a donor and as a taxpayer. To be human is to care.

Malcolm

Montgomery,

Clifton Search for city manager business as usual in Cincinnati

Regarding, “Interim city manager departs with $436,000 severance package,” (Sept. 7): The names have changed at City Hall, but the operation has not. The city manager search, as reported, was less than ideal. The city paid a “search”firm that submitted a list of candidates, which did not include one person, excluding Mr. Curp, with the background or credentials to manage a city budget of a billion dollars. The whole process should be investigated. It appears as though our mayor had already made his selection prior to the search, which was rubber stamped by the new City Council, and now we pay the only candidate who actually had the credentials almost a half million dollars to resign.

Richard Witte, Hyde Park

Vance is a fraud who only cares about getting elected

Regarding, “The record is clear: Tim Ryan is no moderate,” (Sept. 4): J.D Vance is a carpet-bagging fraud who is entirely supported by billionaire Peter Thiel and his Silicon Valley cronies. He has zero interest in what is right for Ohio and cares only about being elected.

I would only ask you to look at what Vance had to say about Trump until he needed his backing in the Republican primary.Idoubtyoucouldbemorehypocritical!

Gerry Daly, Lakeside Park, Ky. Ryan’s votes show he is the definition of moderate

Regarding, “The record is clear: Tim Ryan is no moderate,” (Sept. 4): Tim

Ryan is a moderate. Extremists are politicians like Bernie Sanders and Rand Paul. Voting16% of the time with the opposition party is the sign of a moderate. He can think outside of the political box. Look at how two Republican senators who are called moderates vote against their party: Mitt Romney (3.4% in the 116th Congress) and Susan Collins (1% over the last 22 years). Maybe the guest columnist ought to check what the word moderate means.

Dottie Soper, Deerfield Twp. Biden attack on MAGA Republicans smacks of totalitarianism

Joe Biden’s attacks on “MAGA Republicans” and what they supposedly stand for smack of totalitarianism to me, and I’m a Democrat. A Republican friend of mine who doesn’t like Donald Trump at all, calls himself a MAGA supporter and, as he explains it to me, it simply means he puts American interests ahead of the globalist policies that the Biden administration has been pursuing. I can’t disagree with his definition and don’t understand what has happened to the Joe Biden I voted for.

Jane Carlson, Hamilton Girls too often discouraged from pursuing their interests

Regarding, “Say something before it’s too late. I wish that I had,” (Sept. 4): Enquirer columnist Jason Williams knew a young woman who had the potential to be a successful professional basketball player. Recruiting of her abruptly stopped when she was a junior in high school. Years later at the age of 32 she died of a drug overdose.

Williams’ column about his friend brought me to tears. Not because I knew the young woman, but because her story is not unusual. Girls are too often discouraged from pursuing their interests and failing to fulfill their potential becauseofthesentimentthat(whatever)is not a proper pursuit for a girl. If that is the case here, the blame is on us and the loss is ours.

Priscilla O’Donnell, Over-the-Rhine

Our country is being governed by people who have never been officially vetted. When someone chooses to run for office in either state or national government, are they ever vetted? Most of the time, the candidate is someone who is wealthy, has rich supporters who want someone in office to help them or is a high-profile personality of some kind. Millions of dollars are spent to put these people in office. Some of those dollars come from entities from outside of the U.S. who have ulterior motives for influencing elections.

Many times candidates know nothing about government, history, laws, foreign affairs, handling large amounts of money or the military. Some are just high school graduates. These people may be fine but should be properly vetted for the job for which they are seeking. Being a sports figure, TV personality, movie hero or public figure does not qualify a person to run our country. A candidate’s personal affairs, past business history, tax returns, education and physical and mental health certainly are very important. Knowledge of many aspects of running a state and law are a requirement all should have.

Politics has become a dirty organization of people who are hungry for power and will do and say anything to accomplish that goal. I am shocked at the lies that are supported by intelligent, otherwise good people just to keep their powerful positions. These men and women are supposed to be representing their constituents and espousing truth no matter what powerful leader is telling them to say and do. They throw around any kind of gossip they can find to degrade those they want to attack and hide indiscretions of those they want to support. Government is not a game between two teams. It determines our future. We, the citizens, are the winners and losers. We depend on these politicians to do the right thing. Their actions influence whether people live or die, fail or succeed, eat or starve, and deserve rights or not. Every aspect of our lives is in their hands. Yet, we don’t care enough to vet them before we give them that power. Things have to change. It cannot wait. Our democracy is at stake and those who value it must act now.

Shirley Gallagher, Mason

Medical Director Amanda Taylor holds a days-old puppy on July 14 at the Cincinnati Animal CARE shelter on Colerain Avenue in the Northside neighborhood of Cincinnati. KAREEM ELGAZZAR/THE ENQUIRER

LETTERS OR OP-EDS: Letters of up to 200 words may be submitted by filling out the form at static.cincinnati.com/letter/ or emailing letters@enquirer.com. Include name, address, community and daytime phone number. Op-eds are submitted the same way except they should be 500-600 words and also include a one-sentence bio and head shot. Submissions may be edited for space and clarity.