Akron Beacon Journal
Iran suspends talks over Israeli attacks on Lebanon
Iran halted indirect talks with the United States over Israel’s intensifying attacks on Lebanon, according to Iranian media reports, signaling a possible breakdown in diplomatic efforts to end the 3-month-old war. The Iranian semi-official Tasnim news...
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FADE AWAY
PISCATAWAY, NJ – From the robed procession to the conferring of degrees to the keynote speech meant to inspire students to reflect on their lives and contributions to society, graduation ceremonies are a grand and cherished tradition. But...
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RESTORING HOMES,
Husband-and-wife team Lana and Brendan Jeter have no patience for negligent landlords. “They’re our enemies,” Lana said. “We want them out of our area. We want them out of every area.” Brendan said these “turn-and-burn” landlords bought properties and...
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Artist finds spotlight with Buckets fixtures
The mantra of the LeBron James Family Foundation is “We are Family.” h So, it was only fitting that it turned to an Akron artist to create the lighting theme inside of the new Buckets Restaurant, which opened in April inside of House Three Thirty in...
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APS students give input for design of ‘The Bowl’
Adesign for Akron’s first Community Schoolyard that includes features students suggested was unveiled May 27 at Jennings Community Learning Center. h Akron Public Schools joined with Trust for Public Land, a nonprofit that works to connect the public...
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Firestone Country Club faces end of era
It’s going to be a little quieter on the greens of one of golf ’s iconic professional showplaces in 2027. h The PGA Tour announced May 26 that Firestone Country Club will no longer host the Senior Players Championship next year, after the current deal...
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Theater displays droids built by Stow man
Going to see “The Mandalorian and Grogu” at the Regal Cinema in Hudson? Or any movie there? You will see several life-sized Star Wars droids near the entrance. These droids — which include an astromech, a B-1 Series Battle Droid (”Roger Roger!”), a...
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Honoring Akron’s ‘everyday’ families
Stan Hywet Hall and Gardens is a monument to one of Akron’s most famous families. Its Manor House is frozen in time when Goodyear Tire co-founder F.A. Seiberling and his wife, Gertrude, and their family roamed the halls of the rambling estate back in...
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Police dogs leap at the chance to compete
Mattis, a K-9 officer for the Tallmadge Police Department, locked his eyes on the man in the padded suit as his handler, officer Nate Ickes, patted the suspect’s legs and pockets. The 8-year-old German shepherd kept his chin near the ground and eyes...
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Within school zone limits
Dozens of sex offenders live illegally near Summit County schools. But county authorities say Ohio’s sex offender laws limit their ability to force the offenders to move. The Akron Beacon Journal has identified 36 sex offenders who are living within...
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Age is just a number
They just wanna … they just wanna … h Girls just wanna have fun. h And you know what? So do women. h The Crones, an all-female band from Northeast Ohio, have a blast while playing cover songs from the 1980s. Ranging in age from 55 to 70, the group...
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Summit Metro Parks officers update look
Recent visitors to Summit County’s Metro Parks might notice that its safety personnel rangers look a little different lately in their all-black uniforms, and that they’re going by a new name. h Joshua Hamblen, chief of the 29-officer park police force,...
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Malik announces plan for housing
Improving Akron’s housing landscape has long been a priority of Mayor Shammas Malik and his administration, and he just announced new ways the city intends to tackle the issue. h This summer, he said, the city will launch a down payment assistance...
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‘THERE’S NOTHING YOU CAN DO ABOUT IT’
If you are driving over Memorial Day weekend, be prepared to pay almost $5 a gallon for gas. Gas prices are expected to increase once again as we head into the Memorial Day holiday weekend, according to AAA East Central’s Gas Price Report. “Drivers...
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MEMENTOS and MEMORIES
Longtime employees of the Spaghetti Warehouse in Akron have spent many a day and night with their colleagues. So much so that some of them have taken vacations together, fixed each other’s cars and told each other “I love you” when they left at...
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Ohio politicians forced to rethink data centers
MOUNT ORAB, Ohio – Residents of this rural Southwest Ohio village filled a cramped, gray room with their worries, frustrations and prayers. The topic at this February village council meeting: data centers. The room only held 33 people; dozens more...
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LOOKINGi BACK, f
University of Akron President R.J. Nemer cringes a bit when visitors say they are surprised by all the activities, programming and academic opportunities the campus offers. “I think they were expecting it to be less than it is,” said Nemer, a sports...
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2 aboard plane die as it strikes Akron home
Two people were killed May 14 when a small airplane crashed into a home in the Coventry Crossing development near Firestone Country Club, authorities have confirmed. The Akron Fire Department said two people who were aboard the plane died. It was not...
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‘Not just a dining experience’
LeBron James has invited you over to dinner. And you can forget any cloth napkins or highbrow fancy entrees in some huge mansion. This dinner is not with the NBA superstar. Instead, you are dining with young LeBron. That “Just a Kid from Akron” who...
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Dinosaurs, monkeys star in Akron Zoo’s summer
Summer may still be a month away. But it unofficially arrives May 16 at the Akron Zoo. After months of work and helping new critters settle in, the zoo has wrapped up renovations of its Legends of the Wild section. Some of the section’s residents...
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Girls flag football teams seeking state tourney
The sounds of fall could be heard echoing throughout the University of Akron football stadium May 11. The cheers, the passion and the game were all on display as the Cleveland Browns presented the 2026 Browns Girls High School Flag Football...
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MAKING IT SPARKLE
Aweek ago, Megan Piccione was in a suite at the Plaza Hotel in New York City. h The Ravenna native, 31, and her husband, Giancarlo, started the day with a slow breakfast. h “We had a very calm morning. We were not going to get crazy,” she chuckled. h...
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April brings new Akron restaurant openings
A quintuplet of restaurants opened in the Akron area in April. Restaurateurs ushered in an eclectic European bakery, a celebrity-themed fried chicken spot, a Nashvillethemed hot chicken restaurant, a Mediterranean shawarma eatery and the reopening of...
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LASTING LESSONS
When Pawan Handa’s aging mom needed help at her modest home in New Delhi, her family hired a woman to clean and do other chores. Handa, a retired Goodyear executive, said his mother — Sudershan Kumari Handa — accepted this help, but also made a point...
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She turns gym class struggles into a career
Julia Michalak is being mentored at Woodridge Elementary in Peninsula as she pursues her desire to become a PE teacher. Some students would say gym class is the highlight of the school day. For others, it is a time of dread and one to avoid if at all...
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Akron businesses avoid sting from high gas costs
Charly Murphy says he expects summertime fuel costs to nearly double from last year for the food truck enterprise he owns and operates with Alicia Kennedy. They have four Akron-based food trucks – Akron Pickle, Big Blue BBQ by Stray Dog, Snakron and...
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Judge McLaughlin holds off challenger
Summit County Common Pleas Judge Kelly McLaughlin decisively held off challenger L. Mialon Morris in a May 5 primary that spotlighted a rift in the local Democratic Party. Summit County Board of Elections’ unofficial final results show McLaughlin...
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Northside Marketplace facing financial woes
Vendors who have sold goods at the Northside Marketplace in Akron say the the market is holding onto money they are rightfully owed. Brent Wesley, who goes by “Wesley the Keeper” and co-owns Akron Honey with his wife, Rebecca Wesley, said he pulled...
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KENT STATE SHOOTINGS
Russ Miller, brother of Jeffrey Miller, who was among the four killed in the May 4, 1970, shootings, rings the Victory Bell at the Kent State May 4 Commemoration on May 4. Asomber crowd gathered under a cloudless sky on Monday, May 4, at the Kent...
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Akron neighbors build new bonds
Sue Lacy said she’s been a community organizer for decades, getting her start during the Reagan years. In her experience, Akron’s Civic Assembly has done something unique – created a bond between participants that extends beyond the assembly’s...
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Housing mogul under scrutiny
Frank Sinito, the son of a feared Mafia capo, tried to shed his father’s legacy of crime decades ago. h The younger Sinito graduated from college with an economics degree in 1989 and spent the following decades building a fortune, mostly through...
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Browns break ground on domed stadium
A bit of Cleveland sports history was made at 6:01 p.m. Thursday, April 30, when the ceremonial groundbreaking for the new Browns stadium in Brook Park officially took place. Truth be told, work has already started to transform the former site of a...
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Luigi’s reluctantly joins credit card crowd
Luigi’s manager Jim Corl talks about accepting credit cards for the first time in the Akron restaurant’s 77-year history. Luigi’s Restaurant, which used to be one of the last holdouts in town, is finally accepting credit cards after operating as a...
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Forever foster program cares for older animals
Holly, a stout brindle American pit bull terrier mix, loves people big and small. Each day, volunteers or potential adopters visit the 10-year-old dog. She is brought food or water or taken on a walk. When people are near, her powdered-sugar muzzle...
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Area leaders feed Cleveland Fed policy
Familiar — and influential — faces from in and around Akron are taking on new roles with the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland. h The Federal Reserve System’s board of governors appointed Richard Kramer, former chairman, CEO and president of The...
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Collector preserves amusement park relics
It doesn’t look like much just yet. But tucked under the tarps and boxes are pieces and parts of childhood memories for generations of Ohioans. These relics of the past are stacked from floor to ceiling inside of a garage and an outbuilding. And...
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Food aid doesn’t make people loafers
Millie Morales believes in hard work. h “I feel that as an American citizen, we all have a great opportunity to be able to improve our life,” the 58-year-old woman explained in an interview I conducted with her in 2025. “Are you willing to put in the...
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Teacher’s paid leave questioned
Akron Public Schools left a social studies teacher on paid leave for more than a year without ever taking disciplinary action or clearing him of wrongdoing. Benjamin Flossie, a social studies teacher at Garfield Community Learning Center, was placed...
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Housing Stability Fund supports area patients
When Akron resident DeAngelo Guest was diagnosed with a kidney disease in June 2023, he didn’t know that getting healthy would mean losing his apartment. About two months after he started dialysis, he lost his job as a customer success manager for an...
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Dreamers start NFL journey to colossus
This story is part of the Iconic Brands series, a USA TODAY network project showcasing the companies and brands that helped shape the nation’s identity, economy and culture. The series celebrates American ingenuity with a deeply reported examination of...
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Forum tackles public school woes
Nearly every Summit County traditional public school district expects to face financial trouble within the next few school years, state financial figures show. Nine of the 17 school districts are in danger of running out of money by July 2029, while...
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From liver recipient to transplant nurse
Hannah Fleming doesn’t remember the first few times she was in an operating room. At 8 months old, she received a liver transplant that saved her life — and it wasn’t her first surgery. h Now, the Tallmadge resident is working with liver transplant...
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Green community grieves loss of 9-year-old boy
They came to mourn. They came seeking comfort. And, in the end, they received a sign of hope. A slow and steady cold drizzle fell on the hundreds gathered in the evening April 19 at the Central Park Amphitheater in Green. They gathered as a...
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Trump pledge falls flat for Ohio plant
EASTLAKE, OH – When Keith Czika learned the brass instrument factory where he had worked for nearly 18 years was closing and his job was headed to China, the 62-year-old Ohioan focused on what he saw as a source of leverage: the plant’s ultimate owner,...
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Healthy kitchens
As an environmental health specialist at Summit County Public Health, Rachel Kellogg has witnessed the best and worst of what local restaurants have to offer. Her experiences as an inspector run the gamut from shining stainless steel kitchens to a...
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Innerbelt plan could squeeze APS parking
An Akron Public Schools leader said she supports the plan the city unveiled last month to redevelop the Innerbelt corridor, but she wants to make sure the school district’s headquarters isn’t infringed upon. h Debra Foulk, APS’ executive director of...
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Hoppin’ Frog splashes into 20th anniversary
Much is in the hopper for Hoppin’ Frog as the Akron brewery celebrates its 20th anniversary this year. Known for its wide-ranging beer selection, Hoppin’ Frog continues to concoct and release new beers as it makes various changes to freshen up its...
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Downtown towers on track for a comeback?
The Cascade Plaza corridor of downtown Akron is ripe for new development and activity, with ownership and tenant changes in the works for office buildings that define the city skyline. The Trailhead Community Health Foundation of Greater Akron aims to...
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2 historic locomotives at CVSR to be electrified
Nearly 180 years after rail service first came to the Cuyahoga Valley, electric battery-powered locomotives will move passengers through the national park for the first time. The nonprofit Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad plans to finish its conversion...
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Summit Lake housing overhaul plan hits snag
A plan by the Akron Metropolitan Housing Authority (AMHA) to revitalize Summit Lake Apartments and construct new housing on many of the neighborhood’s vacant lots has hit a snag. There’s no money to support the project. However, AMHA Board President...
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Alum, cartoonist celebrates KSU paper
KENT − Before most of today’s Kent State University students were born, Patrick O’Connor’s editorial cartoons were being published in the Daily Kent Stater and The Record-Courier, offering humorous and sometimes biting takes on the issues. On April 9,...
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Akron apartment complex owner faces mounting tenant complaints
Pablo Paredes said living at the Towers at Summit Ridge apartment complex is like “living in a third world country.” It’s an experience he knows all too well, having fled a fraught political situation in Ecuador in 2024 for the United...
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New renderings reveal vision for Quaker Square
With an embrace of the modern and a nod to the past, new drawings show what a revived Quaker Square could look like. Towering windows, a courtyard and a high-end rooftop restaurant are all entering the mix for consideration in the rebirth of the...
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Offering Safe Passages to Buchtel CLC students
On weekday mornings and again in the afternoons, adults in neon orange vests will be standing at the corners and along the sidewalks of the busy streets that surround Buchtel Community Learning Center. h They aren’t crossing guards, nor are they...
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Celebrated designer speaks to Akron roots
“The reason that I’m here at this time is to express how important my connection to Akron, my upbringing, just everything about what this community gave me to then carry forward to touch lives globally.”
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How do sports bettors really watch games?
Remember when watching sports was a simple thing? Nowadays, broadcasts of pro sports games are accompanied by statistics on the screen showing the over and under of players or the odds of either team winning, followed by a huge logo for sports betting...
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Spring into Akron’s food scene
Summit County welcomed five new restaurants to its food scene in March. One of them is a returning steakhouse serving American Wagyu steaks, flaming butter cake and smoked cocktails in Bath Township. Northfield Center became home to a new eatery...
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ANGRY
In early April 2024, Nolan Jones was in a Chicago hotel room after a brutally rough first few games to start the season for him. It was a low point, and it was about to get much, much worse. Jones, then an outfielder with the Colorado Rockies, had...
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Baseball feels right at home once again
Baseball is back in Northeast Ohio – and the fans are, too, with the Cleveland Guardians and their minor-league affiliate Akron RubberDucks marking their first home stands of the season. h Summerlike temperatures in the upper 70s greeted the...
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Foundation created by Summa sale starts path
Staff at the Trailhead Community Health Foundation of Greater Akron have been hard at work growing their team and setting up the organization since its creation in October. h The health grantmaking and fundraising organization launched with proceeds...
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Forewoman discusses FirstEnergy mistrial
The jury forewoman in the bribery trial of two former FirstEnergy executives said she wanted to convict on nearly all charges up through the March 31 hung jury announcement. “I felt that there should have been conviction,” said Jackie Steward, Juror...
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Hung jury dismissed in FirstEnergy execs’ trial
State prosecutors plan to retry two former FirstEnergy executives on bribery and other charges after jurors in the weekslong trial announced March 31 they couldn’t reach a verdict on any of the charges. The jury deliberated for nine days, telling...
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Drag performer decries bill to restrict shows
When drag queen Bryanna Nagy, 25, of Cuyahoga Falls first learned of an Ohio bill that would restrict drag shows deemed obscene, she was disgusted and disheartened. Nagy, whose stage name is Lady B Davenport, said the bill that restricts drag shows to...
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Large Cuyahoga Falls crowd protests Trump
An estimated 2,000 people rallied in downtown Cuyahoga Falls at the amphitheater as part of the nationwide No Kings protests on March 28. Among the signs seen were “We are melting the wrong ICE,” “No War with Iran,” “This is not the America I want to...
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War spurs India to rekindle Russia ties
NEW DELHI – As India’s diplomats negotiated an accord that would ease punitive U.S. tariffs on the South Asian country’s exports in January, New Delhi slashed its purchases of Russian crude oil in a move that was widely seen as a painful concession to...
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Owner lives in a castle; tenants live with risks
Residents of Spring Hill Apartments live about 200 miles from their building’s owner, but a galaxy away. Spring Hill sits in one of Akron’s poorest ZIP codes, where the median household income is $20,000 to $25,000 per year. Gerald Krueger – the...
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This courtside cop has all of the right moves
Cavaliers fans have likely spotted Cleveland police officer Chris Porter’s dance moves as he works security for home games at Rocket Arena or seen him in videos on social media. So what’s the story behind the Cavs’ dancing cop? “It became an...
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Innerbelt Master Plan receives mixed reviews
The Rev. Gregory Harrison grew up in the neighborhood decimated by the construction of the Innerbelt. The recently released Innerbelt Master Plan — a guidebook to the city’s redevelopment of the area — doesn’t adequately account for the harm done by...
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Teen’s mom pushes for sextortion bill
The mother of a Streetsboro teen who took his life after becoming a victim of sextortion has given hundreds of presentations to schools and organizations. She and her husband started a foundation that has awarded $25,000 in scholarships. Now, Tamia...
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ICE agents deployed to Cleveland Hopkins
Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Homeland Security Investigations agents showed up at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport on March 23 to help provide security, but not all travelers welcomed their arrival. Cleveland Hopkins is reportedly...
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‘Carrying his light and joy forward’
George Howley was never one to stay quiet when his family needed him. The first time he and his parents were in the intensive care unit due to George’s rare genetic mitochondrial disorder, his temperature was bottoming out, and he was showing signs of...
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MILLIONS IN REVENUE, BUT AT WHAT COST?
Sports betting is big business in the Buckeye State. h Ohio’s sports gaming market surpassed $10.3 billion in total wagers in 2025, just two years after sports betting became legal in the state, according to the Ohio Casino Control Commission. That’s a...
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Could pharmacists offer more than meds?
Ohioans feeling sick need to make an appointment with a primary care doctor or visit an urgent care or emergency room to get tested for common illnesses. That could soon change if state lawmakers pass a bill to allow pharmacists to test and treat...
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Zippy mascot, artist show staying power
Zippy, the kangaroo mascot of the University of Akron, is a symbol of perseverance and determination. So is the artist behind the beloved character. Joseph T. Dick, 96, better known as “Joe,” is a celebrity at the Gardens at Cuyahoga Falls, a senior...
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Ground zero for meteorite hunters
You could separate the rookie meteorite hunters from the pros by the tools they carried March 18 at River Styx Park in southern Medina County. Metal detectors were mostly for folks new to space rocks, like a man who said he took off work to search for...
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