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Cincinnati Mayor Mark Mallory is touting the success of a program he helped launch more than a year ago to get “unbanked” residents to have a relationship with a financial institution.

Mallory said Monday during a press conference “Bank on Greater Cincinnati”  has helped nearly 1,000 unbanked residents open accounts since it launched in April 2011.

Cincinnati is expanding its Task Force on Healthy Living to include several organizations.  The newest members represent the public schools, the city's parks and recreation departments and the soft drink industry. 

Council Member Wendell Young chairs the task force.

Attorneys for the Anna Louise Inn will go before the Cincinnati Historic Conservation Board this afternoon for a second time. The board issued a favorable report last week. The 103 year old building housing low-income women is in need of renovation and attorney Tim Burke is trying a new tactic.

"Now we're asking the city to approve the entire Anna Louise Inn as a conditional use or a special assistance shelter but the uses won't change."

This Wednesday Cincinnati State and Technical College will open a Middletown Campus.  Director Michael Chikeleze says the new campus will have nearly 200 new students when it opens this week.  Students will also be able to take classes at the Main Campus in Cincinnati as well as online. It will be the only Community and Technical College in Butler County.

Cincinnati Children's Hospital is part of a national effort to create a kind of mini-patient to test drugs.  Each partner is concentrating on creating a different part of the human body.

Researchers at Cincinnati Children's are in the process of making what's called an organoid. An organoid is a structure that resembles an organ. This one mimics the stomach and intestine.

Ohio's delegation to the Republican National Convention - set to begin Monday at the Tampa Bay Times Forum in downtown Tampa - is already gathering in the city on the bay, hoping for a convention that will give its presidential candidate, Mitt Romney, a bounce in the polls.

They're also hoping to stave off disaster - natural disaster, in this case, which is entirely possible given the fact that Tropical Storm Isaac could be at hurricane status by the time it passes by the Tampa Bay area in the Gulf of Mexico, probably on Monday.

ZEROlandfill Cincinnati is back for a fifth year. The recycling initiative makes design samples and materials available to artists, teachers, students, or anyone who's interested.

The group says the goal is to divert waste from area landfills and promote material re-purposing. It says more than 130,000 pounds of waste has been diverted over the past four years.

University of Cincinnati classes begin Monday. Friday, interim President Santa Ono greeted the incoming first year class during Convocation.

Ono takes the helm from Gregory Williams who resigned suddenly Tuesday. Ono says the transition will be pretty seamless.

“Gregory Williams and I were very, very strong partners. We were a team. We wrote and created the academic master plan together. I intend to continue to support that. We’ve worked very hard and we will continue the momentum with that academic master plan, ‘UC 2019,”’ he says.

Supporters say they hope an event Saturday morning on the city's riverfront will help promote a healthy, active lifestyle. 

Council Member P.G. Sittenfeld is partnering with city departments, businesses and non-profits for “Let’s Move, Cincinnati.”

It's part of First Lady Michelle Obama's national initiative designed to fight the growing problem of childhood obesity.

Georgetown will dedicate a statue Saturday honoring Ulysses S. Grant, who spent part of his childhood in the village about 50 miles east of Cincinnati.

Village officials and historians worked for several years on getting a statue to honor Grant.  It’s located in the downtown area next to the historic Brown County Courthouse.

Grant was born in Point Pleasant, Ohio, in 1822 and his family moved to Georgetown about a year after we was born.  He lived there until age 17 when he left for the United States Military Academy at West Point.

A current Cincinnati assistant police chief is leaving the department to be the director of security at the new downtown casino.

Horseshoe Cincinnati announced Thursday in a press release Richard Janke will start the new job on Sept. 10th.

“Richard’s law enforcement experience, in-depth understanding of Cincinnati and his commitment to the vitality and safety of downtown makes him a great addition to our team,” said casino General Manager Kevin Kline in a written statement. 

Dayton may have been passed over to receive a space shuttle but the National Museum of the United States Air Force now has the next best thing. For more than 30 years Crew Compartment Trainer One was used to teach astronauts how to fly orbiters and operate equipment in space. Astronaut Greg Johnson was on hand Wednesday as CCT-1 arrived on the NASA Super Guppy aircraft. Johnson says he spent almost more time in the trainer than in actual space.

A number of people close to Tall Stacks have indicated the music, arts and heritage festival has been cancelled. It had been scheduled for October of 2013.

Sources tell WVXU  the World Choir Games took much of the city's available funding, and the stagnant economy has made it difficult to get corporate sponsors. Tall Stacks Chairman Fred Craig is out of the country and could not be reached for comment.

A state senator from Cincinnati is introducing a bill that would let taxpayers get their income tax refund on a prepaid debit card. 

Sen. Eric Kearney said the state needs to adjust to the marketplace.

“This prepaid debit card program will benefit those citizens that do not have a bank account for direct deposit, or for those who wish to avoid the hassle with paper checks and check cashing fees,” Kearney said in a statement.  “They will also be able to use their prepaid debit cards in stores, online, over the phone, or anywhere that accepts debit cards.”

Add Hamilton County to the list of places in Ohio which have identified human cases of the West Nile Virus.

Hamilton County reports two cases coming from the western side of town. That brings the number of Ohio cases to eleven.

Hamilton County Commissioners are navigating the budget process for next year. No decisions have been made but they're already responding to comments from outgoing Sheriff Simon Leis that they plan to gut his department.

Leis threatens proposed cuts would mean laying off employees and reducing space at the overcrowded county jail.

Commissioner Chris Monzel says public safety is a top priority.

Home sales in Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky are up this July compared to the same time last year. In a release, the Cincinnati Area board of Realtors says sales were up more than 13 percent from July 2011 and the Northern Kentucky Association of Realtors show a seven percent increase for the same time period. This is the 13th consecutive month where home sales increased on a month to month comparison in Cincinnati.

For many Tri-State students today was the first day of school.

Thirty-three thousand kids in the Cincinnati Public School District returned to class. Highlights include four new or renovated buildings.  Western Hills High School is now a 7-12 school. Next year CPS will convert all its high schools to the 7-12 model.

Here are some pictures of kids in the Forest Hills School District, Anderson Township. Please post your first day  pictures on the WVXU Facebook page.

University of Cincinnati president Gregory Williams is resigning. The announcement comes less than a week before classes begin.

In a statement, the university says Williams is resigning because of personal reasons.

UC's Board of Trustees met for several hours Tuesday. Provost Santa Ono will fill the position in the interim.

Hamilton County Commissioners are considering a proposal that would cover the projected 2013 deficit in the stadium fund.

Howard Wilkinson talks about Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted's decision on voting hours, Paul Ryan as the Republican Vice Presidential nominee and the Republican Convention which begins in a week.