Today’s News
Understanding the latest offering in your 401(k): the Roth 401(k)
If you are saving for retirement, you probably know about the 401(k) and the Roth IRA too. But are you familiar with a Roth 401(k)? It’s a bit of a mashup — a Roth product available through your traditional 401(k). It allows people to save after-tax money through their workplace plan that can then be withdrawn tax-free in retirement. Although it has been around for years, its availability has picked up steam of late. There’s [...]
Many gardeners hate hoeing, but may be using the wrong hoe
Hopefully, I’ve caught you in time, before your weeds have grown lusty. I want you to consider the much maligned hoe. Wait! Don’t stop reading. I know hoeing is the activity that (perhaps because they had to do it when they were young) makes too many adults give up gardening altogether. Hoeing was undoubtedly in Charles Dudley Warner’s mind when he wrote, over 100 years ago in “My Summer in the Garden,” that what a [...]
Number of overdose deaths appears to be falling slightly
NEW YORK (AP) — Overdose deaths last year likely fell for the first time in nearly three decades, preliminary statistics suggest. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Wednesday posted the provisional numbers showing nearly 68,000 drug overdose deaths were reported last year. The number may go up as more investigations are completed, but the agency expects the tally will end up below 69,000. Overdose deaths had been climbing each year since 1990, topping [...]
Newark quarries are home to fish used to harvest their caviar
From a garage to 1,000 acres of water, Renee Koerner’s caviar business has grown from its small beginnings over the last dozen years. Utilizing research from Kentucky State University, the founder of Big Fish Farms in Clermont County contracts with owners of lakes and large ponds to host American paddlefish, keeping them for a decade when it’s time to harvest their eggs to make caviar. “It takes so long to get to the end,” Koerner [...]
Congress grills Big Tech over competition, money, societal influence and power
Big Tech faced tough questions Tuesday as federal lawmakers focused on issues of potentially anticompetitive behavior by technology giants and expressed bipartisan skepticism over Facebook’s plan for a new digital currency. Companies such as Apple, Google, Facebook and Amazon have long enjoyed nearly unbridled growth and a mythic stature as once-scrappy startups — born in garages and a dorm room and a road trip across the United States — that grew up to dominate their [...]
As housing market wavers, brokers strategize to get buyers
NEW YORK (AP) — The persistently slow housing market has Debra Goodwin creating cooking videos to try to sell a house. Glenn Phillips finds himself explaining to sellers the reasons why they might have to take a loss on their homes. Real estate agents have developed new strategies as they contend with a housing market that still hasn’t fully recovered from the crash that began in 2006. For many, revenue is flat because of a [...]
Will Trump allow Chevron stay in Venezuela amid sanctions?
WASHINGTON — Chevron was nearly booted from Venezuela in 2007 during a nationalization drive led by the late socialist President Hugo Chavez. Twelve years later, it faces a similar threat from an unlikely corner: the White House. The Trump administration is facing a July 27 deadline to renew a license granting Chevron permission to continue operating in Venezuela despite U.S. sanctions aimed at ousting President Nicolas Maduro by choking off revenue from the world’s largest [...]
Feds: Moving interior Department will save money, improve decisions
DENVER — The Trump administration said this week that it can save taxpayers millions of dollars, make better decisions and trim a “top heavy” office in Washington by moving the headquarters of the nation’s biggest land agency to Colorado and dispersing scores of jobs across 11 states in the U.S. West. Interior Department officials said they hope to open the new Bureau of Land Management headquarters in the western Colorado town of Grand Junction and [...]
Proposal would eliminate identifiers of sexual assaults on police reports
Ohio senators this week heard from a woman who describes herself as a rape victim and supports a seemingly straightforward bill that would eliminate nearly all personal identifiers of victims of sexual assault in law enforcement online reports. Alisa Alfaro suggested shielding identifying information about sexual assault and domestic violence victims would allow for them to keep some shred of dignity and privacy while working through the criminal justice system and afterward. “First, as victims [...]
Legal News
Nonopioid directive sought for patients in Ohio
A legislative measure resurrected from the previous session of the Ohio Legislature’s General Assembly would require state Health officials to develop a nonopioid directive for [...]
High court to settle postrelease control conflict
The Ohio public defender’s office was successful in getting its appeal of a 10th District Court of Appeal decision that conflicted with a ruling by [...]
Ambiguous language about moral character may be replaced
With about one in five Ohioans requiring a state-issued occupational license in order to work, a Springfield legislator believes it’s time to make more clear [...]
Business News
Columbus firm refurbishes roofs on historical, government buildings
Over the course of its 30-plus history, the Columbus-based Durable Group has worked on more 10,000 plain house roofs and has done multimillion-dollar historical restorations, [...]
Several local companies rank high for women workers
Seven companies based in central Ohio are among the top employers for women, according to Forbes magazine. The publication ranked 300 businesses for its America’s [...]
Auto workers union, Detroit 3 at odds as contract talks open
DETROIT (AP) — In recent years, Detroit automakers have been at relative peace with the United Auto Workers union because times have been good and [...]
Real Estate
BIA Foundation awards grant to Franklinton nonprofit
The Building Industry Association Foundation is awarding a grant to a nonprofit company focused on mentoring and training in the building trades. Franklinton Rising will [...]
Central Ohio home sales up slightly in May
Home sales in central Ohio have ticked up slightly this year despite increasingly higher prices and a stubbornly low number of homes for sale. Homes [...]
Columbus renters leasing in September pay more
Renters in central Ohio may want avoid signing a new lease in September, according to a recent study. “The rental market in Columbus doesn’t peak [...]
Politics
Anxious immigrants wait to learn effect of new asylum policy
Dozens of immigrants lined up Tuesday at a major Mexico border crossing, waiting to learn how the Trump administration’s plans to end most asylum protections [...]
House Democrats who tangled with leader not backing down
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Days after tensions with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi boiled over publicly, several House Democrats sent a message to Washington: We’re not backing [...]
Cabinet of curiosities: 15,000 ink samples at Secret Service
WASHINGTON (AP) — In a cabinet inside a modest laboratory in downtown Washington are rows and rows of ink samples in plastic squeeze bottles and [...]
