Today’s News
Columbus firm refurbishes computers with a purpose
Large and small businesses have the burden of disposing of their electronics responsibly. Commercial-grade equipment, from printers to desktop computers, often have data and software licensing that need to be erased, otherwise it could pose a security and privacy risk for the company. But Columbus-based SAGE Sustainable Electronics goes a step further. Its leaders express their dislike for recycling or placing an old computer in a dark closet to collect dust for five years. The [...]
Drones, supercomputers and sonar deployed against floods
MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — An arsenal of new technology is being put to the test fighting floods this year as rivers inundate towns and farm fields across the central United States. Drones, supercomputers and sonar that scans deep under water are helping to maintain flood control projects and predict just where rivers will roar out of their banks. Together, these tools are putting detailed information to use in real time, enabling emergency managers and people [...]
Poll: Church membership in America has plummeted over past 20 years
NEW YORK (AP) — The percentage of adults who belong to a church or other religious institution has plunged by 20 percentage points over the past two decades, hitting a low of 50 percent last year, according to a new Gallup poll. Among major demographic groups, the biggest drops were recorded among Democrats and Hispanics. Gallup said church membership in the United States was 70 percent in 1999 — and close to or higher than [...]
Study: Genetic test predicts middle-aged obesity risk
NEW YORK (AP) — Can a genetic test identify newborns at risk of becoming severely obese by middle age? Researchers say they have come up with one, and that it might allow interventions in childhood to avoid that fate. The test examines more than 2 million spots in a person’s genetic code, seeking variants that individually nudge a person’s obesity risk up by a tiny amount. The researchers drew on previously published data about those [...]
Who owns aloha? Hawaii eyes protections for native culture
HONOLULU — Last year, much of Hawaii was shocked to learn a Chicago restaurant chain owner had trademarked the name “Aloha Poke” and wrote to cubed fish shops around the country demanding that they stop using the Hawaiian language moniker for their own eateries. The cease-and-desist letters targeted a downtown Honolulu restaurant and a Native Hawaiian-operated restaurant in Anchorage, among others. Now, Hawaii lawmakers are considering adopting a resolution calling for the creation of legal [...]
Competing proposals could dictate sports betting in Ohio
TOLEDO — While questions remain about whether sports betting can be legalized in Ohio without a statewide vote, competing proposals in the General Assembly would do just that. Both spell out how wagers would be taxed, where betting could take place and fees for operators. One big difference is who would oversee all of it. One of the proposals would put it in the hands of the state commission that oversees casinos, while the other [...]
Electric scooters have zipped by docked bikes in popularity
NEW YORK — Love them or hate them, electric scooters are everywhere — zipping along city streets and littered on sidewalks, to the dismay of pedestrians and drivers who must share the road. And now they have overtaken station-based bicycles as the most popular form of shared transportation outside transit and cars in the U.S. According to a new report by the National Association of City Transportation Officials, riders took 38.5 million trips on shared [...]
Justices pass on 2nd Amendment challenge in gun collection dispute
The state’s high court turned down a Solon man’s challenge to confiscation of his firearms as a term of his probation after pleading guilty to disorderly conduct. A 5-2 majority of the Supreme Court of Ohio found no merit in John Broderick’s assertion that the city significantly curtailed his 2nd Amendment right to bear arms by confiscating his collection of 15 firearms for an offense that did not involve a gun. Mayfield Heights attorney Bryan [...]
Machines could fuel comeback of textile industry in South
ATLANTA (AP) — Machines are transforming the way textiles are produced — and they could fuel a comeback for the Southern textile industry. Automation and artificial intelligence are revolutionizing the workplace in the United States, as machines perform tasks once done by humans, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported. Now, automated sewing could breathe new life into the South’s garment industry, which has been decimated in recent decades as jobs went to cheaper workers overseas. But it [...]
Legal News
Fashion capital New York considers banning sale of all new fur products
NEW YORK (AP) — A burgeoning movement to outlaw fur is seeking to make its biggest statement yet in the fashion mecca of New York [...]
Bipartisan plan would protect state’s war relics
A proposal in the Ohio House of Representatives acknowledges the state’s fallen sons and daughters and the role Ohio veterans have played in wars since [...]
Dissenting opinions: Ruling erroneously dictates workers’ compensation payouts
The Supreme Court of Ohio narrowly dismissed the appeal of an Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation ruling that centered on the manner in which the [...]
Business News
Lewis Center wellness firm evolves as trends change
Alyfe Wellbeing Strategies, a Lewis Center company that started 15 years ago as a community wellness center, has evolved into a firm that takes a [...]
Some local television stations plan to implement new broadcast technology
Some Columbus TV stations are expected to be among many stations across the country implement a new generation of broadcast technology, including the ability to [...]
Mainstream retailers embrace marijuana’s less taboo cousin
NEW YORK — Mainstream retailers are leaping into the world of products such as skin creams and oils that tout such benefits as reducing anxiety [...]
Real Estate
Report: Costs for selling a home in central Ohio are below national average
Central Ohio’s hidden costs for selling a home is below the national average, according to a new report. Local homeowners spend about $16,813 to sell [...]
Indianapolis’ historic downtown White Castle building sells
INDIANAPOLIS — The visually unavoidable but itty-bitty historic White Castle building at the corner of Fort Wayne Avenue and Delaware Street here finally sold after [...]
Group asks state to spend more money on affordable housing
The Coalition on Homelessness and Housing in Ohio, or COHHIO, is calling on state and federal leaders for actionable steps to expand affordable housing in [...]
Politics
Dem activists eye a 2020 election focus beyond ‘getting rid of Trump’
WASHINGTON (AP) — Leaders of a prominent liberal group are urging Democratic presidential contenders who are pitching massive policy changes to also focus on more [...]
Bill would providing privacy shield to mental health workers
A bipartisan effort to expand privacy protections for certain mental health workers cleared the Ohio House of Representatives last week and awaits Senate consideration. By [...]
United States to China: Don’t steal trade secrets the way we used to do
WASHINGTON (AP) — The upstart nation was a den of intellectual piracy. One of its top officials urged his countrymen to steal and copy foreign [...]
