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360-degree video interactive: A journey to revitalization on an Ohio River tributary
By Jeffrey Boggess, Ariel Cifala, Bijan Fandey, Shae McClain and Mark Schoenster The Cheat River courses through one of the largest undammed watersheds in the eastern United States. The river forms from tributaries high in the Allegheny Mountains of eastern West Virginia and flows northward to meet with the Monongahela River just before crossing into…
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One Ohio River town that’s using outdoor recreation to boost its economy
By Julie Grant Every September, tourists flock to historic Marietta, along the banks of the Ohio River, for a celebration that harkens back to the Ohio Valley’s early days. The 44th annual Ohio River Sternwheel Festival held this year attracted an estimated 30,000 visitors to the small southeastern Ohio city. The streets buzzed with activity…
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‘That’s vinegar’: The Ohio River’s history of contamination and progress made
By April Johnston In 1958, researchers from the University of Louisville and the Ohio River Valley Water Sanitation Commission gathered at a lock on the Monongahela River for routine collecting, counting and comparing of fish species. At the time, the best way to accomplish this was what’s called lock chamber sampling, or filling a 350-by-56-foot…
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The water is cleaner but the politics are messier: A look back at the Clean Water Act movement after 50 years
This is first in our Good River: Stories of the Ohio Series By Lucia Walinchus In June 1969, a Time Magazine article garnered national attention when it brought to light the water quality conditions in Ohio: a river had literally caught fire. Oil-soaked debris ignited after sparks, likely from a passing train, set the slick…
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Down But Not Out in East Cleveland
Three years after its failed bid at a merger with Cleveland, the poorest city in the state of Ohio ventures a comeback By Jordan Heller EAST CLEVELAND — After dropping off a “wet one” (a man high on PCP) at University Hospitals Emergency Room, the ambulance pulled northeast onto Euclid Avenue near Cleveland’s border with…
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Hidden Charges: What’s on Your Electric Bill?
By Kathiann M. Kowalski Ohioans’ electric bills charge for more than the cost of making and delivering the electricity. With different utilities serving specific parts of the state, Ohioans’ electric bills and the tariffs that govern them vary. But they all have one thing in common: They’re hard for many people to understand. And the…
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Why Did Utility Bills Go Up As Electricity Prices Went Down?
A look at how affiliate arrangements, subsidies and riders led to higher electric bills in Ohio — even as power prices declined By Kathiann M. Kowalski In a residential neighborhood south of downtown Cleveland, a decorative lamppost provides a stark illustration of what critics say is an abusive system of surcharges that have created billions…
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Fewer Invasive Species Reach the Great Lakes, but Those Here Continue to Spread
Scientists, Regulators and Industry Representatives Debate if Ballast Water Treatment is an Option By Jim Malewitz, Sarah Whites-Koditschek More than $375 billion in cargo — iron ore, coal, cement, stone, grain and more — has flowed between Great Lakes ports and foreign nations since 1959. That’s when Queen Elizabeth and U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower…
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How Much are you Overpaying in Property Tax?
Commercial Property Sales Loophole Costs Small Business Owners Thousands This investigation made possible via a grant from the Pulitzer Center for Crisis Reporting. By Lucia Walinchus, Lukas Udstuen, Samantha Raudins, Ashton Nichols, and Chen Chang When Palmer Square, LLC recently wanted to sell their apartment building at 4121 Palmer Park Circle East in Columbus, they…
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Eye On the Elderly: Ohio Increasingly Relies on Volunteers to Handle Aging Adult Affairs
By Katie Ellington Malcolm Tanksley visited Ruby at the nursing home nearly every weekend. The pair didn’t meet until Ruby was in her seventies, but for the last decade of her life, he was the only family she had. “After thirteen years as her guardian, she thought I was really family,” Tanksley said. “She had…