LOVELAND MAGAZINE

News and Events from the Loveland, Ohio Area

Without fear or favor
Since 2004

Tag: ohio

  • Quick Facts About The Reds Newest Pitcher: Brady Singer

    Quick Facts About The Reds Newest Pitcher: Brady Singer

    by Chris Ball

    Loveland, Ohio – for those that are late to the party, Jonathan India’s time in a Reds uniform has come to a close. The fan favorite was traded this past week to the Kansas City Royals along with outfielder Joey  Wiemer. It was a trade that no doubt came with a wide array of emotions for fans.

    After winning the Rookie of the Year award in 2021 there was a lot of belief that India could take the next step and be a potential all star in the following seasons. However, he never was able to match his award winning output and most of his numbers declined with each successive year. Despite those struggles no one in Cincinnati questioned India’s dedication to this city and the team as he consistently played through injuries and gave everything he could.

    Despite his popularity there were significant calls to trade him in the offseason. Given the Reds’ surplus of infielders it was an understandable reaction. But the devastating early season injury to Matt McLain changed that very quickly and thrust India back into the starting lineup.

    While it wasn’t a perfect 2024 campaign for him, India was extremely solid. He hit .248 and his on base percentage, OPS+ and BWAR were the highest since his rookie season. It was a much better season than most expected and certainly meant that his potential trade value was the highest it might realistically have been.

    While we all love and will miss Jonathan India, it’s clear that it is now the Matt McLain era at second base is here to stay. It’s time to remember all of the great memories that Jonathan India gave this team, but also recognize that the Reds got a solid pitcher in return.

    Brady Singer might not have dominant numbers, but he brings a lot of what the Reds need on their pitching staff. As MLB.com points out, “In 32 starts and 179 2/3 innings for Kansas City last season, Singer was 9-13 with a 3.71 ERA and 3.1 bWAR. He had more starts and innings than anybody on Cincinnati’s pitching staff in 2024.” This league is all about pitching and establishing depth. Singer provides that for a team that saw a flurry of injuries to its starters all year. He is primarily a ground ball pitcher, something that will be a significant benefit at the hitter-friendly Great American Ballpark.

    Charlie Goldsmith also notes that over the last three years, Singer ranks 24th among big league pitchers in total WAR. There was a real chance that Jonathan India was going to spend a good chunk of the 2025 season on the Reds bench. Now, because of this trade Cincinnati added another decent arm for its pitching staff, something they clearly needed based on what happened in 2024. Time will tell if this trade was a “win” for the team, but at first blush, when you take out the emotion of trading away a fan favorite (struggles or no) and look at the objective reality of it, the move makes good baseball sense.

    ———————-

    Hey readers… have an opinion about sports? How about a topic you’d like to see written about in Loveland Magazine or a thought about one of our articles?

    Just need to vent and get out your frustration about the Reds, Bengals, or any other sports issues?

    Feel free to share with an email to lovelandmagazinesports@gmail.com!

    We would love to hear from our readers, and we thank you for your support and engagement.

    Also, don’t forget to follow us at The Loveland Sports Desk at the below links:

    For Facebook, click here.

    For X, click here.

    For Instagram, click here. 

    Christopher Ball is a longtime Loveland resident and an attorney. He graduated from Loveland High School in 2003 and was a member of the football team before going on to become a coach’s assistant at DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana. He has been following and rooting for the Reds and Bengals since the early 1990s and has been through the many ups and downs that fandom has wrought over the years.

  • Provisions removed from Ohio bill that would add accountability to private schools, voucher program

    Provisions removed from Ohio bill that would add accountability to private schools, voucher program

    Getty Images

    By:  – Ohio Capital Journal

    A Republican bill to provide more accountability for Ohio private schools had several provisions removed in a substitute version passed by committee, including the elimination of funding transparency and standardized testing requirements.

    State Reps. Gayle Manning, R-North Ridgeville, and Bill Seitz, R-Cincinnati, introduced House Bill 407 earlier this year and Rep. Sarah Fowler Arthur, R-Ashtabula, introduced a substitute bill with the changes that was adopted during last week’s Ohio House Primary and Secondary Education Committee Meeting.

    Eliminated from the bill was a provision that would have required private schools to submit an annual report to the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce showing how state funds received from voucher scholarship programs are being used. The bill would also have required DEW to post the reports on its website.

    The substitute bill also removed a provision that would have required private schools to annually report the family income of each EdChoice voucher scholarship student who also got tuition help from scholarship granting organizations to DEW.

    The changes nixed a requirement that voucher scholarship students take the same standardized tests public school students take, which would leave the law unchanged. Private schools are required to test voucher students through either the standardized test or the alternative assessments.

    GET THE MORNING HEADLINES.

     

    The substitute bill kept a provision that requires DEW to issue state report cards for private schools that enroll scholarship students.

    Ohio spent nearly a billion dollars on private school scholarship programs for the 2024 fiscal year, the first full year with near-universal school vouchers. During this time, nonpublic school enrollment increased 2% and public school enrollment declined slightly.

    “The danger of taking public dollars is that over time there’s going to be more and more demands from the public, from the schools that are accepting those dollars,” said state Rep. Sean Patrick Brennan, D-Parma. “They’re demanding accountability for those dollars, and rightfully so.”

    Manning said she introduced the bill because her and Seitz are “fiscal conservatives,” saying no organization asked them to introduce the bill.

    “If we have a superintendent that is being paid $500,000 in Upper Arlington schools, everybody knows about it, and we should,” Manning said. “If we have one that’s being paid $500,000 in a school that’s receiving vouchers, they have every right to do, but if we don’t know about that, and parents don’t have that knowledge, to me, that’s what this is all about. We need the knowledge of where the money is going.”

    She said the purpose of the bill is answer questions about where the money goes — whether it’s going to students, classrooms, or people on the school board.

    Most parents had already decided where they were going to send their child to school by the time the state budget passed last summer that allowed the near-universal vouchers, Vice President for Ohio Policy at the Fordham Institute Chad Aldis said when asked if the students who are receiving vouchers were already attending private schools.

    “I think this year, seeing the number of new students who enter, will be a better indication of who is entering (private schools),” he said.

    After reviewing the bill’s changes, Executive Director of the Ohio Christian Education Network Troy McIntosh went from opposing the bill to being an interested party.

    “We firmly believe that EdChoice serves students best when the state does not over-regulate providers,”he said. “In particular, the bill’s requirement that DEW create a report card for EdChoice providers is concerning, without knowing what the form of that would look like.”

    Despite the changes to the bill, Executive Director for the Ohio Alliance of Independent Schools Dan Dodd, said it would still cause an administrative burden to schools.

    “We would like to focus more of our attention and resources on educating children and less time on paperwork that gets submitted to DEW,” he said. “We don’t think that the education that you receive at a public school district is the same that you receive at a private school. We would reject the idea that apples to apples comparisons on a state website, using test data or some other type of metric is not the best way to determine whether or not a certain type of school or a certain type of education is best for your child.”

    About half of the Ohio Alliance of Independent Schools’ 46 member schools participate in the state’s school voucher program — up from about a third a couple years ago, Dodd said.

    Tuition for member schools of Ohio Alliance of Independent Schools range from between $12,000-$17,000 for elementary school to upwards of $20,000 for high schools he said.

    “Our schools largely don’t make (EdChoice) mandatory, that I’m aware of, for every family to sign up, and those families at the higher income levels that receive less money through the voucher are probably more inclined to not participate,” Dodd said.

    Follow OCJ Reporter Megan Henry on X.

    Megan Henry
    Megan Henry

    Megan Henry is a reporter for the Ohio Capital Journal and has spent the past five years reporting in Ohio on various topics including education, healthcare, business and crime. She previously worked at The Columbus Dispatch, part of the USA Today Network.

    Ohio Capital Journal is part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.

    MORE FROM AUTHOR

  • Operation Santa returns to Symmes Township

    Operation Santa returns to Symmes Township

    Photo by Symmes Township

    Symmes Township, Ohio – Santa and his helpers will be making their annual visit through Symmes Township neighborhoods to spread holiday cheer on Saturday, December 7th from 5 until 8:30 PM.

    In return, Santa hopes residents will help fill his bag back up with new, unwrapped toys and/or cash donations for the Dragonfly Foundation.

    For a list of times and locations, please click here.

  • Winners of Symmes Township photo contest announced

    Winners of Symmes Township photo contest announced

    Symmes Township, Ohio – Congratulations to the winners of the Symmes Township 2024 Photography Contest

    [pdf-embedder url=”https://lovelandmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/2024-Photo-Contest-Entries.pdf” title=”2024 Photo Contest Entries”]

  • New Episode: The Queen City Sports Podcast by Chris Ball & Mark Raines

    New Episode: The Queen City Sports Podcast by Chris Ball & Mark Raines

    by Chris Ball

    Loveland, Ohio – On this week’s episode of the podcast, Chris and Mark wade through the negativity of a weekend that included a crushing Bengals loss to the Chargers, and the Bearcats struggling on the road against Iowa State. The guys get into whether the Cats can become bowl eligible and what is going on with Brendan Sorsby. They also break down what went wrong on Sunday night in Los Angeles and lament more wasted offensive performances from Joe Burrow and company. And they finish by going into just what it could take to get Cincinnati into a competitive position in 2025 and beyond, if this season is truly over (and the numbers look pretty bleak). But they at least start of the pod with some positivity and all the good things that Simas Lukošius and the Cincinnati Bearcats basketball team has been doing in this early season.

    And don’t worry, when you hear Mark go nuts in the middle of our discussion, all was well, it wasn’t someone breaking into his home. He’d just won a nice little wager, so felt the need to celebrate!

    Have a listen and don’t forget to leave your comments and feedback!

    _______________________

    Hey readers… have an opinion about sports? How about a topic you’d like to see written about in Loveland Magazine or a thought about one of our articles?

    Just need to vent and get out your frustration about the Reds, Bengals, or any other sports issues?

    Feel free to share with an email to lovelandmagazinesports@gmail.com!

    We would love to hear from our readers, and we thank you for your support and engagement.

    Also, don’t forget to follow us at The Loveland Sports Desk at the below links:

    For Facebook, click here.

    For X, click here.

    For Instagram, click here. 

    Christopher Ball is a longtime Loveland resident and an attorney. He graduated from Loveland High School in 2003 and was a member of the football team before going on to become a coach’s assistant at DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana. He has been following and rooting for the Reds and Bengals since the early 1990s and has been through the many ups and downs that fandom has wrought over the years.

  • Upcoming Workday at Former Grailville

    Upcoming Workday at Former Grailville

    Date: Saturday, November 23rd

    Time: 9 AM-12 PM

    Location: 930 O’Bannonville Rd. Loveland, OH 45140

    Loveland, Ohio – The Cardinal Land Conservancy staff at their future headquarters in Loveland, is in need of volunteer help clearing debris from two buildings. The work itself will involve clearing broken glass from carpet before cutting up the carpet to be removed and discarded. We will have tools, transportive machinery, and a dumpster on site.

    “We recommend that volunteers bring heavy gloves and wear appropriate foot ware. If you have questions, you can direct them to Facilities Manager, Pat Hill via email or phone (513)535-3729″

  • Follow Chris Ball and his local sports reporting on Instagram

    Follow Chris Ball and his local sports reporting on Instagram

    Loveland, Ohio – Chris Ball the Editor of the Loveland Magazine Sports Desk has taken his stories and podcasts to Instagram. You can find Chris by using the handle @lovelandsportsg.

     

    Hey readers… have an opinion about sports? How about a topic you’d like to see written about in Loveland Magazine or a thought about one of our articles?

    Just need to vent and get out your frustration about the Reds, Bengals, or any other sports issues?

    Feel free to share with an email to lovelandmagazinesports@gmail.com!

    We would love to hear from our readers, and we thank you for your support and engagement.

    Best regards,

    Chris

     

  • What would “mass deportations” do to Ohio’s economy?

    What would “mass deportations” do to Ohio’s economy?

    COMMENTARY

    by Rob Moore Ohio Capital Journal

    The dust has settled on the 2024 presidential election and we now know that Donald Trump will once again be President of the United States.

    Trump has promised many things for his second term in office: deregulation, tax cuts, an end to Russia’s war with Ukraine, tariffs on all goods from other countries. The step he could take that could have the most immediate impact on both human rights and Ohio’s economy, however, would be on immigration.

    Trump has promised to conduct mass deportations of unauthorized migrants, rounding up immigrants in workplaces, schools, homes, and places of worship to send them back to their countries of origin. Local law enforcement will be a key player in determining how “mass deportations” will be carried out in the state of Ohio.

    Municipal police departments, county sheriffs offices, and the state highway patrol will have to decide how much to defer their work from policing violent crimes and property crimes to carry out federal immigration policy. What decisions local law enforcement make around prioritization could have a significant impact on Ohio’s economy.

    Earlier this week, Ohio Capital Journal Reporter Marty Schladen wrote about the important role immigrants play in Ohio’s economy. Immigrants in Ohio are taxpayers, consumers, business owners, doctors, software developers, professors, cooks, health care workers, and college students.

    GET THE MORNING HEADLINES.

     

    An analysis done by researchers at the American Enterprise Institute, Brookings Institution, and Niskanen Center released before the election shines some light on what the new administration’s immigration policy could do to immigration. Trump’s immigration plan is estimated to reduce both authorized and unauthorized immigration, increase removals from the interior, increase adjudication of current cases leading to more removals, and encourage others to leave on their own.

    These researchers estimate this would mean as many as 740,000 fewer immigrants in the United States in the first year of Trump’s presidency. Weighted for Ohio’s foreign-born population as reported in the American Community Survey, that could mean as many as 9,700 fewer immigrants in Ohio in about a year.

    The AEI/Brookings/Niskanen study reports this massive reduction in the number of immigrants in the United States would cost the country 0.1 to 0.4 percentage points in GDP in 2025. In Ohio, weighted for Ohio’s foreign-born population, that would mean somewhere between $330 million and $1.3 billion in lost gross state product.

    For comparison, the Ohio Department of Development estimates 21 counties in Ohio have a gross domestic product of $1.3 billion or less. So if these policies are carried out as planned, Ohio could lose a small county’s worth of its economy in fewer consumers, business owners, and workers. On a per capita basis, this means a cost of $28 to $110 per person in the state. So you can consider this a head tax of $28 to $110 per person to pay for having fewer immigrants living in this state.

    Just because something shrinks the economy doesn’t mean it is bad. We might decide it appropriate to institute policies that trade off economic growth for reductions in poverty and inequality, improvements in environmental quality, or more time for people to spend with their children or elderly parents. But what exactly are we buying for this immigration crackdown? After all the national conversation on this topic, I still don’t have an answer to this question.

    YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE.

    ___________
    Rob Moore
    Rob Moore

    Rob Moore is the principal for Scioto Analysis, a public policy analysis firm based in Columbus. Moore has worked as an analyst in the public and nonprofit sectors and has analyzed diverse issue areas such as economic development, environment, education, and public health. He holds a Master of Public Policy from the University of California Berkeley’s Goldman School of Public Policy and a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy from Denison University.

    MORE FROM AUTHOR

  • Majority of Ohioans are in favor of universal free school meal program, according to poll

    Majority of Ohioans are in favor of universal free school meal program, according to poll

    Students getting their l lunch at a primary school. Photo by Amanda Mills/Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

    By:  – Ohio Capital Journal

    Two-thirds of Ohioans support a universal free school breakfast and lunch program for all public school children, according to a Republican research firm.

    “This is extremely rare in a time where voters are really reluctant to support further spending, either at the state or federal level,” Alexi Donovan, vice president of Tarrance Group Polling, said Monday during the Ohio Legislative Children’s Caucus monthly meeting.

    This month’s meeting heard testimony on the importance of universal school meals and Tarrance Group Polling surveyed 600 Ohio voters about this topic in May.

    “It is clear from the research and the data over the years, universal school meals help students thrive, physically, mentally, socially and educationally,” said John Stanford, director of Children’s Defense Fund–Ohio.

    In Ohio, 1 in 6 children, or about 413,000 kids, live in a household that experiences hunger. Despite that, more than 1 in 3 children who live in a food insecure household do not qualify for school meals, according to a 2023 report from Children’s Defense Fund-Ohio.

    “We believe that in a country as wealthy as we are, we should not have hungry children,” said Lisa Quigley, director of Solving Hunger.

    Exposing students to various fruits and vegetables through school meals helps them get a taste for “food that’s far more nutritious than what a lot of them are bringing to school,” she said.

    “What we’re finding in the schools that are doing universal school meals, the food is getting better,” Quigley said.

    National security

    Children’s hunger is a national security issue, said Cynthia Rees, Ohio’s director for the Council for a Strong America.

    The U.S. Department of Defense conducted a study in 2020 that found 77% of young people between the ages of 17 and 24 are ineligible for military service without a waiver. The most prevalent disqualification rate was for being overweight at 11%, above drug and alcohol abuse (8%) and medical/physical health (7%).

    “It is critical to recognize that overweight and obesity can often be manifestations of malnutrition, food insecurity or the lack of access to affordable healthy foods often result in consuming cheaper and more accessible food, which often lack nutritional value,” Rees said.

    GET THE MORNING HEADLINES.

     

    The food insecurity rate for Ohio children is 15%, with some counties having rates up to 24%, Rees said.

    “Increasing children’s access to fresh and nutritious food now, including through free school meals for all students, could help America recover from the present challenges and bolster national security in the future,” she said. “The military has a long standing interest in the health and nutrition of our nation’s youth.”

    Universal school meals would eliminate the stigma of categorizing students who receive free and reduced meals and those that don’t, Rees said.

    “Instead, all students can just have a meal together,” she said. “When we make school meals accessible to all, we remove that stigma.”

    Ohio legislation

    Last year’s budget bill allowed any student who qualified for free or reduced school breakfast or lunch got those meals for free during the 2023-24 school year.

    Currently in Ohio, children are eligible for free or reduced school meals if their household income is up to 185% of the federal poverty line, which is $57,720 for a family of four, according to the United States Department of Health and Human Services.

    State Reps. Darnell Brewer, D-Cleveland, and Ismail Mohamed, D-Columbus, introduced a bill earlier this year that would require public schools to provide a meal to any student that asks.

    House Bill 408 would also ban a district from throwing away a meal after it was served “because of a student’s inability to pay for the meal or because money is owed for previously provided meals.” The has only had sponsor testimony so far in the House Primary and Secondary Education Committee.

    Follow OCJ Reporter Megan Henry on X.

    Megan Henry
    Megan Henry

    Megan Henry is a reporter for the Ohio Capital Journal and has spent the past five years reporting in Ohio on various topics including education, healthcare, business and crime. She previously worked at The Columbus Dispatch, part of the USA Today Network.

    Ohio Capital Journal is part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.

    MORE FROM AUTHOR

  • Do you know the Winter weather alerts?

    Do you know the Winter weather alerts?

    Loveland, Ohio – Below are the definitions of winter weather “Watch”, “Warnings”, and “Advisories” issued by the National Weather Service and our local forecast.

    Today
    Showers, mainly before 2pm. High near 53. Breezy, with a west wind 10 to 20 mph, with gusts as high as 34 mph. Chance of precipitation is 100%. New precipitation amounts of less than a tenth of an inch possible.
    Tonight
    A chance of snow showers, mainly after 3am. Increasing clouds, with a low around 31. West wind 13 to 17 mph. Chance of precipitation is 40%. New snow accumulation of less than a half inch possible.
    Thursday
    Snow showers, mainly before 1pm. High near 36. Breezy, with a west wind 18 to 22 mph, with gusts as high as 32 mph. Chance of precipitation is 80%. New snow accumulation of less than one inch possible.
    Thursday Night
    Snow showers. Low around 28. Southwest wind 11 to 18 mph becoming northwest after midnight. Chance of precipitation is 90%. New snow accumulation of 1 to 2 inches possible.
    Friday
    A chance of snow showers before 11am, then a chance of rain and snow showers between 11am and 1pm, then a chance of rain showers after 1pm. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 43. West wind 11 to 17 mph, with gusts as high as 28 mph. Chance of precipitation is 50%. New snow accumulation of less than a half inch possible.

    Hazardous Weather Outlook
    National Weather Service Wilmington OH
    848 AM EST Wed Nov 20 2024
    Wayne-Fayette-Union-Franklin-Ripley-Dearborn-Ohio-Switzerland-
    Carroll-Gallatin-Boone-Kenton-Campbell-Owen-Grant-Pendleton-Bracken-
    Robertson-Mason-Lewis-Hardin-Mercer-Auglaize-Darke-Shelby-Logan-
    Delaware-Miami-Champaign-Clark-Madison-Licking-Preble-Montgomery-
    Greene-Pickaway-Fairfield-Butler-Warren-Clinton-Ross-Hocking-
    Hamilton-Clermont-Brown-Highland-Adams-Pike-Scioto-
    848 AM EST Wed Nov 20 2024

    This Hazardous Weather Outlook is for east central Indiana,
    southeast Indiana, northeast Kentucky, northern Kentucky, central
    Ohio, south central Ohio, southwest Ohio and west central Ohio.

    DAY ONE…Today and tonight

    Wind gusts up to 40 mph will be possible this afternoon. Snow
    showers will move into the region overnight tonight bringing some
    minor snow accumulations, mainly on elevated and grassy surfaces.

    DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN…Thursday through Tuesday

    Snow showers are expected Thursday morning and then again Thursday
    night. Snowfall accumulations will be possible, especially on
    elevated and grassy surfaces.

    Winter Weather Warnings, Watches and Advisories

    Winter weather related Warnings, Watches and Advisories are issued by your local National Weather Service office. Each office knows the local area and will issue Warnings, Watches or Advisories based on local criteria. For example, the amount of snow that triggers a “Winter Storm Warning” in the Northern Plains is typically much higher than the amount needed to trigger a “Winter Storm Warning” in the Southeast.

    +Warnings: Take Action!

    +Watches: Be Prepared

    +Advisories: Be Aware

    Here are some more key terms to understand:

    • Freezing Rain: Rain that freezes when it hits the ground; creating a coating of ice on roads, walkways, trees and power lines.
    • Sleet: Rain that turns to ice pellets before reaching the ground. Sleet also causes moisture on roads to freeze and become slippery.
    • Wind Chill: A measure of how cold people feel due to the combined effect of wind and cold temperatures; the Wind Chill Index is based on the rate of heat loss from exposed skin. Both cold temperatures and wind remove heat from the body; as the wind speed increases during cold conditions, a body loses heat more quickly. Eventually, the internal body temperature also falls and hypothermia can develop. Animals also feel the effects of wind chill; but inanimate objects, such as vehicles and buildings, do not. They will only cool to the actual air temperature, although much faster during windy conditions.

    Find the current forecast at weather.gov.