The WYSO news team recently returned from Kansas City, Missouri, where the team received one first-place and three second-place awards from the Public Media Journalists Association, or PMJA.

James R. Cannell Jr., a seasoned firefighter with more than three decades of experience at the Columbus Division of Fire, began Monday, June 30, what is planned to be a year-long tenure at the helm of Miami Township Fire-Rescue.

Last week, local farmland conservation nonprofit Tecumseh Land Trust announced that the group secured an easement on 36 acres of land near the intersection of state routes 343 and 370, less than two miles east of Yellow Springs limits.

“The Fourth of July is a celebration of freedom — not a celebration of the hope of freedom, not the promise of freedom, and certainly not the illusion of freedom.”

“This year, we have only a smattering of periodical cicadas in town, but they increase in abundance as you head south toward Cincinnati. These are members of Brood XIV.”

The longest day of the year arrived with about as idyllic a summer evening as you could imagine. We got to enjoy warm weather, sunny skies and a terrific game of T-ball at Gaunt Park.

The next Village Council meeting — when the group will give second readings and hold public hearings regarding Windsor’s proposed apartment plans at Antioch College’s Charles F. Kettering and former Student Union buildings — will be Monday, July 7, at 6 p.m.

This summer, local organizers hope to help chart a constructive path with the launch of the Civil Discourse Pilot Program, an initiative designed to foster more thoughtful dialogue by modeling civil discourse through a series of public events.

In a packed Foundry Theater, 15 outgoing Antiochians graduated from the college on Saturday, June 21.

This year’s supply drive continues the PTO’s tradition of providing free school supplies to families who need them, but also introduces a new option for all Mills Lawn families to order bulk school supplies through the PTO.