A West Chester insurance provider will talk about his life during a book signing and reception at the clubhouse of The Villas at Park Place condominiums Saturday.
John Dodsworth, author of “Transitions – A Journey of Joy,” will talk about his book during a 5-9 p.m., signing and reception at the West Chester Township clubhouse, 7955 Beckett Road.
Dodsworth, 71, wrote about his personal life journey, trials, triumphs and faith through a series of short stories.
The book will be available for sale, $12.95, at the reception and signing or can be purchased online at www.createspace.com/3827694.
Learn more about risk factors as well as how to properly manage diabetes during two free seminars offered at the West Chester Hospital Saturday, May 19, and Thursday, May 24.
This seminars, called “Demystifying Diabetes,” will take place from 9 to 10:30 a.m. this Saturday and then repeat from 7 to 8:30 p.m. Thursday. Space is limited for the seminars. To reserve a seat, call 513-298-3000.
Below is information provided in the release from the hospital:
The seminars will feature the region’s leading physician specialists and registered dietitians who will discuss diabetes, why the body can become resistant to insulin, the impact diabetes has on the organs and systems, and how diabetes is managed long-term.
Other topics include: What is prediabetes and how do you know if you are at risk? Why it is important for diabetics to follow a healthy nutrition and exercise plan? Why does depression often accompany a diabetes diagnosis?
Diabetes is a chronic disease that affects more than 25 million people. Many risk factors such as age, weight, high blood pressure, high cholesterol and family history can impact the likelihood of being diagnosed, making Type 2 diabetes one of the fastest growing diseases in the United States.
For information about West Chester Hospital, visit www.uchealth.com or call 513-298-3000.
West Chester Hospital is located at 7700 University Drive.
DV8 will kick off the 2012 season of the First Financial Bank After-Hours on The Square concert series in West Chester next Thursday, May 24. The band will perform from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. at The Square at Union Centre.
The concert series will then take place every Thursday night through Aug. 23.
The Square at Union Centre is located at 9285 Centre Pointe Drive, adjacent to the West Chester Library. No alcohol is permitted on The Square unless purchased at the event. Beer sales also help support the event and local non-profit groups.
Below is the 2012 After-Hours on The Square schedule:
The farmers’ market season in West Chester Township is officially underway.
The weekly market will take place every Saturday through October from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at The Square at Union Centre.
The forecast for this Saturday, according to the National Weather Service in Wilmington, is mostly sunny with a high around 85 and a low around 59.
The farmers’ market (picture above from market season) features all local vendors with produce and meats grown and raised locally and products made by hand. The availability of produce is dependent upon weather conditions, but shoppers can choose from a variety of foods including homemade breads and desserts, honey, jams and jellies.
Vendors listed on the farmers’ market website includes Adopt-a-Plant (hydroponic lettuces), Backyard Orchard (located in Rising Sun, Ind.), Blackbird Pond (soaps), Chesapeake Popcorn (gourmet seasonal popcorn), Chestnut Cakery (cakes, cookies, scones, whoopie pies, etc.), Crisenberry Baking Company (organic artisan breads and cookies), Chris’ Honey (local honey and bee wax products), Dienger Gardens at Double J Farm (greens, beets, leeks, onions, carrots, tomatoes, sweet corn, melons, pumpkins, potatoes, etc.), Gravel Knolls Farm (locally-grown produce), The Jam & Jelly Lady (homemade preserves), Millbranch Farm (produce, olive oil based soaps and lotions), Morning Sun Farm (organic beef, chicken, lamb, pork, lard, eggs and turkey; ground wheat and spelt flour; homemade cereals), Ohio Farm Direct (organic cheeses, yogurt, syrup, lettuce and tomatoes), Torta (bakery), True Nature Dog Treats (homemade treats for dogs), Webber’s Farm (vegetables) and Wooden Shoe Baked Goods (baked to order cookies and scones).
Lakota West students launched the redesign of lakotawesthigh.com May 16, 2012.
After five months of work, Lakota West students showed off their new design for its official high school website Wednesday in front of classmates, teachers and Lakota administrators in the high school’s theatre.
The redesigned lakotawesthigh.com launched after the presentation made by students from Lakota West’s web design 2 class. Improvements to the website include social media integration, introduction of a mobile platform, a featured news slider and a banner that includes outlines of both the high school and freshman campuses.
“Being able to work together as a big team and actually pull this together was a really great experience for myself and I am sure for everybody else,“ Lakota West senior Daniel Lewandowski said.
“Going from being able to find a template and start putting things together to now and to be finally finished, it feels really good.”
During the presentation, Lewandowski and his classmates commented that they wanted the redesign to have the feel of a college website. Their teacher, Todd Hummer, believed his students accomplished that goal among others.
“I think this site is a lot more visually appealing than the old site, it has a really modern touch to it,” Hummer said. “The featured content slider, which you see on a lot of the college sites these days, seems to be many of the kids favorite part. My personal favorite part is the banner and how it incorporates the main campus and the freshman campus. That was also one of our main goals.”
Besides those features, Lewandowski and his classmates agreed that the “simplified” new design makes it easier for online visitors to navigate through the website.
“A lot of work and a lot of time went into it and I am really proud of the final product,” Lakota West junior Scott Johnson said.
“This new website is a lot less cluttered and more simpler than the old website, making it much easier to find information. On the old site, you used to be able to click through six sections and find the same thing in two spots. It just wasn’t that easy to get around compared to the new one.”
For those interested, below is a screen shot of the old design.
Award-winning blues bands, including Chuck Brisbin and the Tuna Project, G. Miles and the Hitmen, Leo Clarks Band and Them Bones will perform throughout the Bash.
There will be activities for children, including inflatable rides, pony rides and face painting.
Furthermore, there will be K-9 demonstrations, little league hitting and pitching instruction, a petting zoo and balloon artists.
BBQ platters will be provided by City Barbeque, with proceeds going to charity. There will also be ice cream, kettle corn and local beer.
Admission is $5 per car or $2 for walk-ins. Visitors can bring chair and blankets, but cannot bring coolers or pets.
The VOA Museum is located in Voice of America Park at 8070 Tylersville Road.
A Lakota East High School teacher has been charged with a misdemeanor count of theft in connection with missing money from the school’s prom fund.
Heather Schoell-Schroeder. Photo provided
Heather Schoell-Schroeder, 45, of Liberty Township was charged after she and her attorney met with sheriff’s investigators Monday. The Lakota Board of Education is expected to accept her resignation at its meeting tonight, retroactive to May 7.
“Our investigation has concluded,’’ said Sgt. Monte Mayer, spokesman for the Butler County Sheriff’s office. “No other charges are pending.”
Administrators first learned money may have been missing when students arrived at the April 28 prom and had trouble getting in, according to district officials. When students complained to the teacher at least two were asked not to report her, according to a statement from the district.
School officials said the amount missing is about $800 and involved payment for 20 tickets, according to the statement. It is believed that Schoell-Schroeder encouraged students to pay her directly for prom admission instead of waiting in line to buy tickets in the lunchroom.
Even if the students had purchased tickets in the lunchroom, no paper ticket would have been issued because it was credited electronically. Schoell-Schroeder may have told the students to see her at the prom to gain entrance instead of going through the check-in process.
After conducting an internal investigation that began April 30, school officials turned over their information to the sheriff’s office.
Schoell-Schroeder has not been in the classroom since the prom. A substitute teacher has taken over her classroom duties.
Since then, a relative of the teacher has returned $160 to the district, officials said.
School officials are reviewing prom ticket sales to see if changes need to be made.
A Lakota East High School teacher is the focus of an investigation by police in connection with missing funds from the Butler County school’s prom fund.
The teacher, who resigned earlier this week, was not named by Lakota school officials in their released statement Friday.
According to Lakota officials, they “could not initially account for $800 in ticket sale proceeds from the Lakota East High School prom fund. The district has recovered $160 and officials “will continue to pursue the remainder.”
“We take all matters involving potential illegal activity very seriously,” said Lakota Superintendent Karen Mantia. “We acted with urgency to handle this situation appropriately. We are cooperating fully with the (Butler County) Sheriff’s office.”
House Speaker John Boehner Friday accused President Obama of being “AWOL for about eight months” as he campaigns non-stop for re-election.
Boehner’s remarks came during a visit to United Performance Metals here where he listened to the concerns of local small business owners.
During the open forum, business owners asked questions about the upcoming presidential election, President Obama’s health care law, and the uncertainty of the economy, among other items.
Before opening the forum for questions, Boehner began by slamming President Barack Obama for being “campaigning 24/7.” The West Chester Republican added that Obama is trying “to make this election about everything other than his policies,” which the Speaker said “have failed.”
The Ohio Democratic Party countered that thanks to Obama, Ohio has added 140,000 jobs over the last two years and the state’s unemployment rate has fallen from 8.6 percent when he took office to 7.5 percent today.
“While President Obama has helped our economy start to turn the corner, Speaker Boehner, Robert Portman and Mitt Romney want to bring back the failed policies that sparked the economic crisis,” Ohio Democratic Party Chairman Chris Redfern said in a statement.
Boehner told the group of business owners that the country had racked up more than $5 trillion in national debt in the last three and a half years and has a $1.3 trillion deficit for this year.
“While the president and I tried mightily to reduce this giant debt, it is continuing to build,” Boehner said. “In the year and a half that I have been Speaker, my biggest disappointment is that I couldn’t come to an agreement with the President to reduce our debt and our deficit so we could get America on a firmer fiscal path.”
During the forum itself, the upcoming presidential election was brought up. In response, Boehner shared his confidence in Romney.
“For Mitt Romney to be basically tied with the President of the United States today, after getting his rear end kicked from one end of the country to the other by his political opponents in the primary, is really pretty remarkable,” Boehner said.
“This election is going to be about the economy. It is going to be about jobs. The president’s policies have failed and have actually made things worse. I believe Mitt Romney has a great success story and a great economic plan that will stand in sharp contrast to the President. Watch it all unfold. I think it will unfold pretty well.”
House Speaker John Boehner visited United Performance Metals in Hamilton May 11, 2012, to listen to the concerns of local small business owners. Photo taken by Adam Kiefaber.
One of those policies discussed during the forum, was the President’s 2010 health care reform law.
“Under ‘Obamacare’ it would be more attractive to our company to violate federal law then pay a $340,000 a year fine to not provide healthcare to our employees than to face the rising costs and decreasing benefits that we see every single year,” said Laura Doerger-Roberts, president of Hamilton-based Vinylmax Windows, which employs around 170 workers.
“It eliminates choice for the employee and the employer about what type of health care is appropriate for an individual’s needs.”
Doerger-Roberts said her company currently pays $7,000 per employee to provide health insurance. Under the health care reform law, Doerger-Roberts claims that she could pay a $2,000 fine and remove that benefit.
Boehner agreed with the small business owner and wanted those healthcare decisions to be out of the government’s hands.
“In my opinion, it will the ruin the best health care delivery system the world has ever seen and it will bankrupt our country,” Boehner said.
“There are flaws in our current system, but we can fix those flaws without putting the government in charge of our healthcare.”
One of the last items brought up by the group of business owners was the uncertainty of the economy and its affect on their businesses.
“One of the things that is killing all of us is the uncertainty and our reluctance therefore to hire people because we don’t know what is around the corner,” said Trevor Stansbury, president and founder of Supply Dynamics in Loveland.
Cincinnati Reds starting pitcher Mat Latos felt the pressure to perform early this season after his current ballclub traded away four players to acquire his services this offseason.
In his first start for the Reds, Latos gave up four runs, seven hits and walked two in what turned out to be an 8-3 loss to the Miami Marlins April 7. The Reds went on to lose his next two starts, 3-2 at Washington and 11-1 at St. Louis.
“If there isn’t enough pressure as is (in Major League Baseball), you were also traded for four different guys,” said Latos at a signing event in West Chester Thursday. “It was difficult to put into words, how much pressure there was going into the season. The main thing is to just get on task and perform.”
After those first three loses, Latos and the Reds have won the three games he has started since. The latest win, a 5-0 victory at Pittsburgh, Latos struck out 11 batters and gave up only two hits in 6 and 1/3rd innings despite being sick.
Besides the pregame vomiting, Latos said he finally felt like himself on the mound.
Reds fan Corey Skurow talks to pitcher Mat Latos during a signing event at the Sports Gallery in West Chester May 10, 2012. Photo taken by Adam Kiefaber.
The pressure for Latos continued to dissipate Thursday when he meet some of his newest fans during an autograph session at the Sports Gallery in West Chester.
“A lot of people showed their appreciation. It took a little bit of weight off my shoulders from the trade and everything,” Latos said. “It was really fun to get out and sign a bunch of autographs for people that support me.”
Latos will start this Saturday when the Reds host the Washington Nationals at Great American Ball Park at 7:10 p.m.
Earlier on Saturday, fellow starting pitcher Johnny Cueto will host a signing session at the Sports Gallery, 7967 Cincinnati-Dayton Road, from 12:30 to 2:30 p.m. At the event, Cueto will sign any item for $35.
In addition to Latos and Cueto, Sports Gallery co-owner Mark Fugate recently announced that the store would also host rookie catcher Devin Mesoraco and slugging outfielder Jay Bruce for additional signing sessions this summer.
Mesoraco is currently scheduled to host a signing from 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. Monday, June 6. Bruce will host his signing session from 12 p.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, July 14.
The Sports Gallery will have baseballs, bats, photos, cards, helmets and other Reds collectibles available for purchase during the signings.
For information about mail order items or to buy tickets, which are limited, call 513-759-4256.
