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WYSO is partnering with Stats and Stories, a podcast produced at Miami University.

We swim in a virtual stew of data. From voting data, to health data, to crime data, there’s likely a number somewhere that, with a little crunching, can get you a better understanding of your community. The task of crunching those numbers and making them intelligible for a broad audience is the focus of this episode of Stats and Stories. Rosemary Pennington is joined in the studio are regular panelists John Bailer, Chair of Miami Statistics Department, and Richard Campbell, former Chair of Media, Journalism and Film. Their guest today is Simon Rogers, a data journalist who authored the book Facts Are Sacred, which quote, “reveals how data has changed our world and what it tells us”. He’s currently a data editor at Google, and before joining that new media giant, Rogers served as a data editor at Twitter, and worked at The Guardian where he created the newspaper’s data blog. 

Oakwood city officials are promising to review police policies and continue a program in anti-bias training for officers.

At an Oakwood City Council meeting Monday night, officials addressed a report released this fall by the nonprofit Legal Aid firm Advocates for Basic Legal Equality, or ABLE, which found one-third of all Oakwood traffic tickets written in 2016 went to black drivers in a city with a black population of less than 1 percent.

Oakwood officials dispute the report’s methodology and say its data isn’t comprehensive or conclusive.

I wander into the fields and woods this soft and cloudy morning.

Clover is keeping the paths green, along with some dandelions, some plantain. Wind rustles the dry grass and the brittle leaves. I can hear distant crows but no other birds for the first miles. Then the whinny of a robin as though it were frightened or had been attacked.

Craneflies follow me up into High Prairie. Moss is still bright beside me, becomes the dominant green in the woods. A few red raspberry branches and a bank of honeysuckles keep their leaves.

Editor's note, Dec. 10, 2019: This story has been updated to reflect factual corrections provided Tuesday by Montgomery County. The original version included inaccurate information from county officials about the grant program and its deadlines.   

Funding is still available for home repair and reconstruction across the Miami Valley tornado zone. Dozens of homeowners and renters could be eligible for the funding, Montgomery County officials say.  

ReEntry Stories is a series on WYSO that features conversations between people who were once in prison. Today we meet Latisha Ellis and James Clay. Latisha went to prison right after high school and participated in the Sinclair Program which helped her discover her passion for poetry.  James went to prison much later in life and honed a passion for public speaking by ministering to other incarcerated men. He continues to do this as a mentor at The Dayton Collaboratory’s X Factor initiative.

Marty Wingate made her first appearance on the program to discuss her latest mystery novel, "The Bodies in the Library." This is the initial installment in her First Edition Library series and fans of mysteries might recognize the title is an homage to that Queen of Mystery; Agatha Christie.

WYSO is partnering with Stats and Stories, a podcast produced at Miami University.

Variety magazine tells us there’s only one TV executive who’s has the chance to work in one capacity or another with all six of the hosts of NBC’s Tonight Show, from Steve Allen all the way up to Jimmy Fallon. In this encore episode of Stats and Stories, Bob Long, John Bailer and Richard Campbell are joined by NBC consultant Rick Ludwin, the former senior vice president for late night programming and specials. Ludwin was a Miami University alum and shared his unique perspective on that sixty year history of the popular late night network television show.