Today’s News
Grandview animation firm continues to grow
Someone opens a laptop, revealing the Ohio Lottery’s logo on the screen. Lottery tickets in the waste bin, on the countertop or lying crinkled on the floor come to life. Together the animated slips jump into the laptop as the narrator explains the latest promotion for old lottery tickets. The animated commercial is one of the many projects Pixel Park has worked on since Matt Hoelter started the creative studio in 2013. The firm occupies [...]
China’s Huawei soft power push raises hard questions
TORONTO — Canada’s national game — brought to you by China’s Huawei. As a nasty diplomatic feud deepens between the two countries over the tech company, involving arrests and execution orders, it hasn’t gone unnoticed that Huawei’s bright red fan-shaped logo is plastered prominently on the set of “Hockey Night in Canada.” TV hosts regularly remind the 1.8 million weekly viewers that program segments are “presented by Huawei smartphones.” The cheery corporate message contrasts with [...]
States seek more oversight of struggling small colleges
POULTNEY, Vt. (AP) — After 185 years of educating students on its campus of brick buildings on Poultney’s main street, Green Mountain College announced last month it would close after this academic year, leaving hundreds of students scrambling to figure out where to go next. The liberal arts college, which saw enrollment drop 43 percent over the last decade, is going the way of some other small schools that have struggled to stay afloat amid [...]
Glass houses: London’s Tate Modern wins privacy fight over viewing platform
LONDON — A British judge ruled this week that people who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw legal stones, rejecting a claim that a viewing platform at London’s Tate Modern art gallery invaded the privacy of residents in luxury apartments next door. Owners of four glass-walled apartments in the Neo Bankside complex sought to force the gallery to block off part of a terrace that offers visitors views over London — and into their homes. [...]
No escape? El Chapo likely off to ‘prison of all prisons’ at federal complex in Colorado
NEW YORK (AP) — In the world of corrections, there are inmates who pose security risks, and then there’s “El Chapo.” Drug lord Joaquin Guzman has an unparalleled record of jailbreaks, having escaped two high-security Mexican prisons before his ultimate capture and extradition to the United States. So with Guzman convicted Tuesday of drug trafficking and staring at an expected life sentence, where will the U.S. imprison a larger-than-life kingpin with a Houdini-like tendency to [...]
Hometown all-Star game marks latest milestone for Michael Jordan
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Buzz Peterson knew Michael Jordan as well as anyone when they were in college. Roommates and teammates at North Carolina, they spent countless days competing on the basketball court in practice and endless hours talking hoops. Their nights often included shooting pool and tossing cards in their Granville Towers South dorm room. There often were arcade games — before the home video game craze hit — at the Pump House on Franklin [...]
Democrats question pledges in $26.5B T-Mobile-Sprint deal
WASHINGTON (AP) — Democratic lawmakers are challenging a pledge by T-Mobile and Sprint not to raise prices or hurt competition if their $26.5 billion merger goes through. Although T-Mobile says it won’t raise prices for three years, Rep. Frank Pallone, D-N.J., chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, said he isn’t sure that Trump administration regulators are willing to hold T-Mobile to that promise. “How can we be sure that consumers who can least [...]
Senate GOP looks to 86 economy-stunting regs
It’s indisputable Senate Republicans at the Ohio Statehouse are serious about nixing unnecessary and cumbersome regulation — Senate Bill 1, the first legislation of the new session, aims at cutting existing red tape by about a third. Napoleon Sen. Rob McColley revived Senate Bill 293, which failed to advance beyond a first hearing in the lower chamber during the 132nd General Assembly. The legislation proposed the same 30 percent cut in agency regulations over a [...]
Analysis: Missing piece in Trump’s wall is GOP support
WASHINGTON — Republicans in Congress never really wanted to build the wall. It wasn’t a priority like tax cuts, which are a raison d’etre of Republican domestic policy. And it wasn’t their own campaign pledge to voters, like the vow to repeal and replace Obamacare that became hard to keep. President Donald Trump’s signature campaign rally cry — “Build the Wall!” — was always more of a slogan than a policy. A “metaphor,” Republicans have [...]
Legal News
Long-term care rape in Arizona spurs video surveillance push
PHOENIX (AP) — Arizona is trying to catch up to 10 states with laws allowing electronic monitoring and other technology aimed at deterring abuse of [...]
U.A. Christian school seeks High Court ruling in religious suit
Lawyers from the organization that successfully argued the religious discrimination case of a Colorado cake baker before the U.S. Supreme Court have asked the high [...]
Pilot programs intended to address changing family court dynamics
Today’s families don’t necessarily reflect the family model around which family courts throughout the United States were developed, a nonprofit organization championing the administration of [...]
Business News
From humble beginnings, Columbus’ Wolf Metals has reached capacity again
Starting out in a two-care garage in the early 1970s, Wolf Metals now has outgrown its 70,000-square-foot facility on Columbus’ west side. “We’re out of [...]
Few companies offer phased-retirement that lets workers ease into sunset
Plenty has been written about workers’ failure to plan adequately for retirement. Their employers seem to be doing an even worse job. Only 1 in [...]
Grab a soda and go: Convenience stores get more convenient
SAN FRANCISCO — Get ready to say good riddance to the checkout line. A year after Amazon opened its first cashier-less store, startups and retailers [...]
Real Estate
Columbus is good market for first-time homebuyers
The Columbus area was identified as a top area for first-time homebuyers, according to an online loan marketplace. LendingTree ranked the city seventh among the [...]
Often due to location, Columbus studio apartments more expensive than one-bedroom ones
The rental of a one-bedroom apartment or home is cheaper than a studio apartment in central Ohio, according to one study. The median monthly rent [...]
Another report shows downside to Columbus’ hot housing market
A $1,000 increase in the cost of a new homes would push more than 1,300 prospective homebuyers out of central Ohio’s market, according to a [...]
Politics
Iowa Democrats propose ‘virtual’ caucuses in 2020
DES MOINES, Iowa — The Iowa Democratic Party this week proposed the biggest changes to the state’s famed caucuses in nearly 50 years by recommending [...]
Board of Elections rolls out new voting machines ahead of May primary
Franklin County Board of Elections officials took to the road earlier this week to reveal to eager voters and curious onlookers alike the new voting [...]
State’s highway budget shortfall has Ohio farmers concerned
As the nascent 133rd General Assembly of the Ohio Legislature begins meeting in regular sessions this week, the Ohio Farm Bureau has announced the legislative [...]
