MasonBuzz.com

Clynn Yeoh, with her winning Google Doodle art entry. Clynn won the contest’s state award and is now in the running for the national award. The Enquirer/Tony Jones

Google announced its winners of its Doodle 4 Google art competition shortly before 1 p.m. today on its website.

Kings Junior High student Clynn Yeoh’s doodle was not selected as a finalist in the grade 6-7 category.

Only finalists from each of five age groups were eligible for the top prize: a $30,000 scholarship for the student and a $50,000 technology grant for the school.  That top prize went to Sabrina Brady of Sparta, Wisconsin.

But it didn’t dampen the spirit at Kings Junior High where Clynn was a seventh grader and placed first in Ohio in the contest.

“We are very proud of her. She is an excellent representative of Kings Junior High,” said Principal Tim Spinner. “It’s still quite an honor to be selected as the top representative for the State of Ohio.”

Clynn was still in New York and could not be reached for comment.

Posted in: Uncategorized |

Tags:

Kevin Kelly reports:

When the Mason boys’ lacrosse team traveled to top-ranked Upper Arlington to play the defending state champions on Friday, coach Randy Hubbard’s players were determined to return home with a signature victory.

The Comets improved to 9-0 this season with a 6-5 victory.

“It’s a great one considering how long Upper Arlington has had lacrosse and how many state championships they have won,” Hubbard said. “It really has kind of boosted our kids’ confidence a little bit that we can go up there and do that.”

The Comets are now ranked No. 1 in the state by LaxPower.com and play Mariemont on Wednesday before facing a pair of Indiana powerhouses in Carmel and Culver Academies on Friday and Saturday. Culver Academies is ranked No. 1 in Indiana by LaxPower.com and Carmel is No. 3.

Mason has reached the state semifinals twice in the past three seasons. Its success this season isn’t attributable to one player, Hubbard said.

Seniors Tom Hirsch (attack), Adam Osika (midfield) and DeClan O’Grady (attack) are leading the way on offense while seniors Joey Leitch and Luke Biggers and junior Ben Randall have anchored the defense. In goal, junior Steven Glandorf finished with 12 saves against Upper Arlington.

The girls’ lacrosse team from Mason is enjoying an equally stellar season.

Led by coach Paul Limpert, the Comets are 13-0 and ranked No. 2 in the state by LaxPower.com with two regular season games remaining against Ursuline on Thursday and St. Ursula on Monday.

“There’s a lot more work to do,” he said. “Our goal is to get beyond regionals and get up to state this year. I think we have a team that can do that.”

The Comets have five players with 20 or more points this season led by juniors Tori Blakeman (36 goals, 19 assists), Allie Specht (37 goals, 14 assists) and Lindsey Zeltwanger (33 goals, 16 assists). Limpert said the team is doing a better job gaining control of the ball at the draw circle.

“A lot of different people are stepping up there,” Limpert said. “Jackie Leitch has really done well in that department and she’s helped us maintain over 60 percent of the draws, which has always been our goal but we’ve never been able to do that….We’re really taking care of the ball where it matters, and I think it has a lot to do with the maturity of this team.”

Posted in: Uncategorized |

Tags: Tags: Adam Osika, allie specht, ben randall, boys lacrosse, comets, declan o'grady, jackie leitch, joey leitch, lacrosse, laxpower.com, lindsey zeltwanger, luke biggers, mariemont, mason, mason high school, paul limpert, randy hubbard, sports, steven glandorf, tom hirsch, tori blakeman

After eight years of declines, more young people are dying on roads in the nation and in our region

Michael D. Clark reports:

Former high school sports star John Garrison struggles each day with one of the gallery of misfortunes that worry parents whose teenagers drive: Brain damage from a car crash.

Alex Thesken, a senior plays the role of the drunk driver, juniors and seniors at Lakota West High School in West Chester got a shook lesson on drinking or texting while driving. The West Chester Fire and Police stage a fatal accident scene the included one student being killed and other seriously injured. The Enquirer/Tony Jones

Garrison, now 20 years old, is still a student at Northwest High School. A 2009 car crash – with a teen behind the wheel and Garrison a passenger unsecured by a seat belt – hurled him through a window of the SUV. His head injuries were so grave attending paramedics thought he had died at the crash site.

It’s a nightmare scenario that will haunt high school parents in the coming weeks through the prom and graduation season. Thousands of area teen drivers will hit the road, many of them excited and dangerously distracted.

Feeding parents’ fears are national studies showing that after years of safer driving, more teens today are dying on roadways. And Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky reflect the grim trend.

When Garrison speaks to younger students at his school, the room grows silent when they notice his teary eyes.

“I used to play football and wrestle. And I used to be smart,” Garrison tells classmates in a halting voice.

“I probably would have had a college scholarship to play football. But I lost it all in a second.”

Garrison is a cautionary tale that parents and school officials hope cuts through the often distracted consciousness of teen drivers this time of year.

Schools try to combat the rising death toll on the nation’s roads with the now-familiar programs highlighting the perils of distracted or drunken driving.

Some teen-driving experts, however, question the timing of traditional spring driver safety programs and their overall effectiveness in light of the uptick in the number of fatalities involving teens.

(more…)

Posted in: Uncategorized |

Tags: Tags: accidents, car crashes, death, distracted driving, drivers, john garrison, lakota west, motor vehicle accidents, northwest, teen crashes, teenage, Texting, tire rack street survival

Mason gymnastics team / Photo provided

Marc Hardin reports:

Audrey Harpen and Lindsey Colton helped their Mason teammates hold the trophy Saturday after the Comets won their fifth consecutive gymnastics city championship with 139.525 points at Cincinnati Country Day.

Harpen, winner on the vault, floor and all-around, posed for pictures. Colton, sixth all-around, hugged teammates. Off to the side, Mason coach Kelly Wones cheered their accomplishments.

“The girls who started this five years ago raised the bar at our school and set it really high,” Wones said. “That brought a lot of attention to the program, and more girls started coming out for gymnastics. These are those girls and they really want to keep that tradition of winning the city.”

Harpen, a junior, scored 9.25 while winning the vault for the second year in a row. She won the floor exercise with a score of 9.15. She finished fifth on the balance beam and 11th on the uneven bars. She repeated as all-around champion with a score of 35.050.

“It gives me a lot of confidence because I want to get back to state,” said Harpen, who qualified for last year’s OHSAA meet in the floor, vault and all-around events, helping Mason place fourth.

Colton’s top finishes at the city championships were fourth on the uneven bars, ninth on the floor and 10th on vault. Mason had the top four on the vault with runner-up Brook Middleton, third-place Gaby Sora and Maggie Fewell.

The district meet is Saturday at Lakota East. The state championships are the following week in Columbus.

Rounding out the top five at Saturday’s 12-team event were runner-up Lakota East (131), third-place Anderson (129.125), fourth-place Turpin (122.225) and Hamilton (115.950).

Junior Natalie Potts, a state qualifier as a freshman, won the balance beam and was second in the floor exercise for Lakota East. She missed last year’s city meet with a bulging disc in her back.

“I’m very delighted,” Potts said. “I just made sure I worked all summer to get my strength back.”

Emily Caggiano, second in the all-round, third on the uneven bars and sixth on the beam, paced Anderson. Turpin’s Rebecca Swertfeger won on the uneven bars and was third all-around.

Posted in: Uncategorized |

Tags: Tags: audrey harpen, cincinnati country day, city championship, comets, emily caggiano, gymnastics, kelly wones, lindsey colton, mason, mason high school, natalie potts, ohsaa

Sue Kiesewetter reports:

Gabe Stacy picked out an arrow from the quiver in front of him, placed it on the bow, aimed, and slowly released it.

Bull’s-eye!

Gabe Stacy, an eighth-grader at Kings Junior High School, shoots a bow and arrow during a demonstration by members of Grace Chapel in Mason.

It was only the Kings Junior High School eighth-grader’s second day in an archery unit of his physical education class.

“I was surprised,’’ Gabe said. “I didn’t expect to get a bull’s eye.”

It is an experience Kevin Schwieger would like to give to students in grades 4-12 across Greater Cincinnati through His Pins, a project of the Heart of the Outdoors ministry, which he directs.

• Photos: Ministry hits bulls-eye

The ministry began an archery program for adults in 2004. Last summer Schwieger added a youth division and began an archery club at Mason’s Grace Chapel, where he serves as an associate pastor.

When school began, Schwieger started contacting junior and senior high school physical educator instructors and administrators to see if they would allow him to introduce archery to their students. His first demonstration was in October at Mason Middle School.

Over two days, 1,100 students – including special needs children – attended his presentation. Every student shot at least twice, some as many as six arrows.

“The students were thrilled with this opportunity. They were still talking about it two days after,’’ wrote Ellen Humphrey, Mason Schools’ physical education and health department chairman, in a letter to Schwieger. “I had students who had been absent come up and ask me if they were ever going to get this opportunity again.”

(more…)

Posted in: Uncategorized |

Tags:

The records of the new JobsOhio agency created by Gov. John R. Kasich are out of reach of the public. / Enquirer file photo

Paul E. Kostyu reports:

Consider this:

Ohio legislators created an arson offender registry much like the state’s sex offender registry, supposedly to deter the crime. But unlike the older one, the names of those making the arson list will not be public. That means you won’t know if your neighbor is an arsonist.

Or this:

The Ohio Supreme Court ruled recently that asking for the emails sent to and from public officials is too “ambiguous.”

What’s going on?

Those are just two of many examples of how government is becoming more secretive as lawmakers and the courts turn transparent government to opaque in Ohio.

It means you can’t see what your government is doing or where it’s spending your money or what deals are being cut. In fact, some public officials even want you to pay for accessing what are now free online records – such as the deed to your house or your military discharge papers – if you print them in your own home.

Since the state first enacted its public records law (Ohio Revised Code 149.43) in 1963, the number of legal exemptions spelled out in the law has grown from the first one – medical records – to 29, but that doesn’t include hundreds of other exemptions.

Those fall under a catch-all section that says exemptions found in other state and federal laws also apply. One expert on Ohio records law expects the list to grow. But Greg R. Lawson, policy analyst for the Buckeye Institute for Public Policy Solutions, said he thought access was “probably about the same (as it always has been) or getting a little bit better.”

The latest exemption? The records of the new JobsOhio agency carved by Gov. John R. Kasich from the former Department of Development are out of reach of the public. Ohio’s top court said that’s OK, because JobsOhio is a private entity, whereas the department was a public one.

(more…)

Posted in: Uncategorized |

Tags: Tags: arson, arsonist, crime, dennis hetzel, department of development, Governor John Kasich, jobsohio, ohio, ohio supreme court, open records, secrets, sex offender registry

Cliff Peale reports:

Posted in: Uncategorized |

Tags: Tags: bethesda north, fired, flu shot, flu vaccine, good samaritan, group health associates, health, hospice of cincinnati, mason, queen city physicians, termnation, trihealth

Barry M. Horstman reports:

The U.S. Supreme Court today cleared the way for Ohioans to cast early in-person absentee ballots on the final three days before the Nov. 6 election.

In a major legal victory for President Barack Obama’s campaign, Justice Elena Kagan denied Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted’s request to overturn or put on hold lower federal court rulings that authorized early voting on the final Saturday through Monday before Election Day.

Shortly after the court ruled, Husted set uniform early voting hours for those days in all 88 counties: 8 a.m.-2 p.m. Saturday, 1 p.m.-5 p.m. Sunday and 8 a.m-2 p.m. Monday.

The U.S. Supreme Court today sealed a legal victory for President Barack Obama’s campaign in the pivotal state of Ohio, leaving intact a ruling that restored early voting rights for the weekend before the Nov. 6 election.

Ohio Republicans had sought to cancel early voting that weekend for everyone except members of the military. A U.S. appeals court in Cincinnati blocked the plan last week, saying it probably violated the constitutional rights of non-military voters. In a one-sentence order, the Supreme Court rejected a challenge to that ruling, filed by Ohio’s Republican secretary of state and attorney general.

Democrats and Republicans have jockeyed in Ohio for months over early voting, an option used heavily by blacks, women, the elderly and low-income people, according to the appeals court. A trial judge cited an estimate that 100,000 Ohioans would vote in the three days leading up to Election Day.

No Republican has ever won the White House without capturing Ohio, which controls 18 of the 270 Electoral College votes needed to win the presidency.

(more…)

Posted in: Uncategorized |

Tags: Tags: absentee, ballot, barack obama, democrat, early voting, election, election 2012, election day, jon husted, mitt romney, ohio supreme court, presidential, republican, secretary of state, weekend

Dave Young is a Warren County commissioner.

We hear a lot these days about collaboration – regional cooperation, bipartisan teamwork, the list goes on. Too often, though, those ideals are more talk than action.

I’m part of a project team that truly is working across geographic and political lines to improve the quality of life for the people of Southwest Ohio.

The improvements taking place at the Fields Ertel and Mason-Montgomery roads interchange at Interstate 71 are truly an example of regional and bipartisan cooperation. I believe this project is the single most important infrastructure improvement in our region. The improvements will ease congestion, expand access to business and shopping, and improve safety for all who travel through the Fields Ertel/Mason-Montgomery roads area.

You may have already noticed a few of the changes – a new northbound lane has been added on Mason-Montgomery Road between Fields Ertel and Parkway Drive, and we’re working with the Ohio Department of Transportation to upgrade the traffic signals at 22 different places throughout the area. I’ve heard from numerous residents and commuters that those changes are already making a difference and reducing their travel time through the area.

But we’re not finished. Multiple roadway improvements have been approved – and funded! – and will continue over the next few years.

I’d like to invite you to learn more about these changes at an upcoming community meeting that will take place this evening. I’ll be there, along with many of my colleagues from Warren County, Hamilton County, Deerfield and Symmes townships – this project wouldn’t be happening without their support and cooperation. (You can also find out more about the project at www.AdvancingFieldsErtel.com.)

I believe working to ensure the safety of people traveling to and from home and work is one of the central functions of government. I can assure you that your tax dollars are being used wisely and constructively to improve the quality of life for people who live and work in the Fields Ertel/Mason-Montgomery roads area.

Warren and Hamilton counties are ripe for continued investment and job growth. These roadway improvements will support job creation and stimulate regional development.

Posted in: Uncategorized |

Tags: Tags: commute, construction, dave young, deerfield township, exit, fields ertel road, i-71, mason, mason-montgomery road, Ohio Department of Transportation, symmes, traffic, warren county commissioner

Do TV shows like TLC’s “Cake Boss” or Food Network’s “Cupcake Wars” leave you in awe?

Learn how to decorate like the pros with a class offered by the Mason Community Center.

Pastry chef and professional cake decorator Jennifer Warren will lead weekly one-hour cake decorating classes for adults, teens and children.

The first session meets on Thursdays from Aug. 9-30.  A second session will be held on Thursdays from Sept. 6-27.  The children’s class meets at 5 p.m.; the teens’ class meets at 6 p.m. and the adults’ class meets at 7 p.m.

Cost is $50 for premier members; $58 for basic members; $73 for Mason residents and $87 for non-residents.

Register online at www.imaginemason.org (activity 631110 for kids, 631111 for teens and 631112 for adults).  Registrations accepted through Aug.2 for the first session and Aug. 31 for the second session.

The Mason Community Center is at 6050 Mason-Montgomery Road and can be reached at 513-229-8555.

Posted in: Uncategorized |

Tags: Tags: cake decorating, children, class, jennifer warren, mason community center, pastry, teens, wilton