A union representing Dayton school bus drivers has declared intent to strike after months of failed contract negotiations with the district. The announcement comes less than a year after the district narrowly avoided a teacher strike.
The deadline to register to vote in Ohio’s May 8 primary election is quickly approaching. Voters must register by April 9 by going to a local board of elections or registering online through the Secretary of State’s office. There will be one statewide issue that would change the process for drawing lines for Congressional districts. And voters will decide party primaries for candidates for all of the state’s top offices, including governor. Ohioans who are seventeen now but will be 18 by the November election can register now and vote for candidates in the May primary but not for issues.
Transgender Ohioans who want to change their birth certificates to reflect the gender with which they identify are filing a lawsuit against the state over that policy. The ACLU and Lambda Legal filed the lawsuit. Ohio Public Radio’s Jo Ingles has details.
More than half of Ohio counties don’t have enough dentists for the population. Numbers show the dental shortages are especially severe in many rural and low-income communities. To close this dental-care gap, some states are experimenting with a new approach. It’s called “dental therapy.” And some advocates want the practice legalized in Ohio. They say it would make routine dentistry more accessible and affordable for the most underserved Ohioans. In today’s installment of our Scratch innovation series, WYSO's April Laissle explains the push for dental therapy is not without controversy.
When the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issues a report on the number of overdoses in the U.S., it’s only as good as the data states send in. This year, the CDC reported that overdoses from opioids, such as prescription painkillers or heroin, jumped nearly 30 percent in 2016. More than 42,000 people died. But those are the deaths that the CDC can definitively say were opioid-related. As Jake Harper of Side Effects Public Media reports, the real number...could be much higher.
Ohio is at the top of the CDC’s ranking for drug deaths per state. The people who are left behind; parents, children and spouses carry the pain from these losses. For Dayton Youth Radio, here’s project coordinator Basim Blunt.
This week on Senior Voices, Sharon Christian remembers growing up in Dayton’s Westwood neighborhood during the 1960s and 70s. Sharon spoke with volunteer interviewer Barbara Gerla at the Wesley Community Center, near where she grew up.
WYSO Development Director Luke Dennis visits the studio to talk about the upcoming WYSO Serious event, April 7.
