The News rounds out its candidate spotlights this week with a brief profile of Democratic state senatorial candidate Charles Ballard.

The current and future status of the Review, which has a national and international reputation for literary excellence, is unclear to the magazine’s longtime editor — furloughed since April — and longtime production staff.

The News continues its election coverage this week with profiles of two more area candidates. Both candidates are Democrats with support among Yellow Springs’ heavily Democratic voters.

Last Thursday, Oct. 15, Ohio elevated Greene County to “red” on the Ohio Health Advisory System for the first time since the system was put in place in early July. The state flagged four different indicators of increased COVID-19 spread here, out of a seven-indicator risk profile.

COVID-19 cases continue to rise in the county. The virus was slow to take hold here, but the county saw a spike in June, a larger spike in July, some moderating in August and a surge beginning in late August that hasn’t let up.

Election Day — Tuesday, Nov. 3 — is less than a month away, and election season in Ohio is in full swing.

With COVID-19 cases surging in Greene County, the county was elevated to “red” in the state’s warning system for the first time on Oct. 15. Greene County is seeing “very high exposure and spread” of the virus.

Antioch University Midwest, or AUM, has been largely eliminated as a separate campus in the Antioch University system, and the Yellow Springs building is once again for sale, after being taken on and off the market several times in recent years.

Public feedback has emphasized the need for a broader economic base, more diversity of housing types and prices and municipal broadband, among other priorities.

Since announcing in June a return to residential learning for the fall term, Antioch has been finalizing its reopening plans, which now have been rolled out with few hitches.