Jolene Almendarez

It was the 1950s in Roselawn. You could pay a nickel for a pickle out of barrel at the pharmacy. There were at least five kosher butcher shops on or near Reading Road, and Jewish refugees fleeing Europe set up bakeries to sell traditional goods like braided challah and mandel bread, a Jewish version of biscotti.

Rabbi Irvin Wise, 72, says his family moved to Roselawn in the fall of 1962 during the heyday of the Jewish community in the neighborhood.

The Lebanon City Council unanimously voted for an ordinance that bans abortion and abortion providers from setting up shop in the city. A city council member said breaking the newly passed ordinance could result in six months in jail and a $1,000 fine.

It's a Saturday morning and Roselawn Community Council trustees are pulling weeds, picking up cans and getting rid of garbage along Reading Road. Council Trustee Carla Foster has a weed sprayer strapped to her back.

"It used to be a destination spot," she said of Roselawn. "I grew up in Avondale, so growing up this is where you wanted to move and I did. And now it's not the way it was." 

A first generation American whose parents fled a civil war. A Black woman in a gentrifying neighborhood. A white woman concerned about trans rights. They all bring their lived experience to how they trust — or don’t trust — local government.

Cuc Le is a 74-year-old woman who's about four feet tall with a slight body. She wears jade bracelets that clink while she cooks Vietnamese staples at her restaurant in Roselawn.

She, her husband, Anthony, and their young family left Saigon as refugees just after the Vietnam War in the fall of 1975. She hardly spoke any English as they moved through military bases when they first arrived in the United States. But then, Saint Antoninus Catholic Church on the West Side of Cincinnati sponsored them and the city became their home.

Hamilton County Sheriff Charmaine McGuffey made national headlines after being the first openly LGBTQ sheriff in Ohio and running on a progressive platform. It's been 100 days since she took office and, she said during a Facebook Live Q&A, she's made changes for the betterment of the department and community.

Early during the pandemic, drone footage outside of a Freestore Foodbank's mass distribution site showed lines of cars stretched down roadways. A surge of people, many of whom were facing food insecurity for the first time, waited for boxes with pantry staples. Since then, over 600 pantries in the Tri-State have provided almost 38 million meals, and the need for more food availability hasn't dwindled much.

It's been 20 years since a Cincinnati police officer killed Timothy Thomas, an unarmed Black teen in Over-the-Rhine – at the time, one of many deaths of Black men by police in the city – sparking demonstrations and protests. Last summer, police use of force was pushed into the national spotlight again after officers killed Breonna Taylor and George Floyd. Earlier this month, several young people spoke in a roundtable discussion about how the 2001 civil unrest intersects with similar calls for justice now.

People sat outside an eatery sipping beer near the alleyway where Timothy Thomas was killed by a police officer 20 years ago. Bright lights beamed onto the streets. And a few blocks away at Washington Park, a yoga class had just finished when demonstrators arrived, Wednesday night. Organizers who were among the first to respond to Thomas' death 20 years ago say the gentrified neighborhood and continued police violence against Black people are in stark contrast of each other.

It's been 105 days since St. Elizabeth Healthcare offered 96 vaccines the first day they were available. Now, it can provide 1,400 per day. Senator Mitch McConnell visited St. Elizabeth's Training and Education Center in Erlanger Wednesday morning to commend workers for their efforts distributing the COVID-19 vaccine and helping put a stopper on the pandemic.

They're hidden among staircases and curbs in the Mansion Hill neighborhood of Newport, Ky.: fairy doors, the size of your hand or smaller. Children knock on them, but story has it, the winged creatures only come out at night.

Hooch, chamber pots, and buttons were among many artifacts recently found at two outdoor toilet sites, known as privies, in Newport. They were discovered at the former Green Derby Kentucky Bistro a few weeks ago. Northern Kentucky University students are getting a rare hands-on experience cleaning and sorting for an exhibit in May.

Hundreds stood in solidarity with people of Asian descent during the Stop Asian Hate gathering at the Freedome Center in downtown Cincinnati Sunday. There wasn't enough time for everyone who wanted to share their experience with anti-Asian racism to speak at the podium. But those who made it to the microphone said their children are mocked for having Asian features, they're blamed for the global spread of the COVID-19 virus, and they're sexualized or minimized by the "model minority" stereotype.

First, it was a whisper. Hospitals started screening patients to see if they'd been overseas because a new virus had been found in China. Shortly after, confirmed cases were in the United States. Doctors who'd worked with contagious diseases in other countries started regularly wearing N-95 masks, which would soon be in short supply. Within a few weeks, hospitals started combining ICU units to make room for COVID 19-patients.

It's been a year since the start of the pandemic and, at long last, some nursing home residents can see their loved ones in person again. That, coupled with the reopening of social spaces like dining halls and wellness facilities, has made a world of difference to residents.