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Ohio agency sounds off on SOBE

Latest News

YOUNGSTOWN — With disconnection notices sent to two downtown residential buildings, the Office of the Ohio Consumers’ Counsel is “very concerned about Youngstown residents who could lose heat and hot water because their building owner has not paid bills for steam service.” Among the four buildings that recently received disconnection notices from SOBE Thermal Energy Systems LLC for failure to pay their bills in at least the last 60 days were Wick Tower and Erie Terminal Place. They each have 40 residential units in addition to commercial space. The other two are the former ...

Xi says 2 giant pandas from China will arrive at Atlanta’s zoo in the coming days

National News

ATLANTA (AP) — Chinese President Xi Jinping said Thursday that two giant pandas from China will arrive at Zoo Atlanta in the coming days, bolstering a loan program that at one time had lapsed as part of tensions between Beijing and Washington. China and the zoo had said in April that Ping Ping, a male, and Fu Shuang, a female, would go to the United States. But Xi’s announcement at the White House, in opening remarks before talks with President Donald Trump, marked the first public confirmation of the timing. Beijing had reclaimed four pandas from Atlanta in 2024, the last of the ...

‘Catman’ to the rescue, as man pulls stuck Long Island pet to safety after long ordeal

National News

He doesn’t wear a mask or cape, but John DeBacker is a hero to one Long Island family. Wearing his “Catman” T-shirt, DeBacker pulled off the intricate rescue of a frightened and exhausted cat named Lola who had spent about five days trapped, likely upside down for most of that time, behind a wall in her family’s old home in the New York City suburbs. Lola’s ordeal began about two weeks before the rescue, when she ducked under a floorboard while the family was moving out of their second-floor apartment in Franklin Square. That’s when DeBacker and his team were called ...

Starbucks to shutter 250 stores this week in 2nd wave of closings

Business News

Starbucks plans to close 250 North American stores later this week. It is the second big round of store closures under Starbucks Chairman and CEO Brian Niccol, who joined the company in 2024. Last September, Starbucks closed 627 stores in North America and Europe. In a letter to employees, Starbucks Chief Operating Officer Mike Grams said the locations targeted either aren’t delivering acceptable financial results or can’t provide the kind of experience that Starbucks wants for customers and employees. The company didn’t say Thursday which coffeehouses will close or how many ...

McKinley Birthplace Memorial is site and a subject for author talk

Local News

Bill Clevlen’s latest book was inspired by empty ChapStick tubes and some wires. Clevlen is a former radio host turned travel writer, and his eight books include “100 Things to Do in America Before You Die” and “The Ultimate American Music Bucket List.” His latest is “Presidential Road Trips: 100 Places to Explore and Experience the History of American Presidents,” and he will talk about the book at noon Saturday at one of the locations featured in it —- the National McKinley Birthplace Memorial & Museum in Niles. “Had I known how popular presidential trivia and ...

Residents want an independent assessment of McDonald Steel property

Local News

McDONALD — While village residents thanked council for placing a one-year moratorium on data centers, they want officials to next prepare a strategic plan and have an independent environmental assessment done on the former U.S. Steel property to determine what business would best be suited there. Oppidan officials last week conducted a presentation at McDonald High School and showed proposed plans of wanting to locate several data centers on the property off Ohio Avenue. Residents are now asking for an environmental assessment to explore the effects that many data centers would ...