Lauren Shows was born to a preacher and a preacher's wife, and spent the majority of her earliest childhood years rollin' 'round the bible belt, to end up in Panama City, Florida. After graduating from Florida State University in Tallahassee, she spent the next several months in existential crisis, making lattes for snowbirds and spring-breakers, before moving to Kentucky to get an MFA in writing from Spalding University. A chance meeting at Spalding landed her in Yellow Springs. She was graciously hired by the News, though her only previous dealing with newspaper publication was in third grade, when she wrote a story about a bunch of skeletons rising from the dead on Halloween, which was printed in the Owenton News-Herald. Lauren enjoys cheese, giant squid, and Michael J. Fox.

• Meet your new community paramedic

  By Lauren ShowsMarch 2, 2026

  

  Steffinie Brewer began work late last year as MTFR’s first community paramedic, a position Fire Chief James Cannell pitched to Township Trustees as a prevention-focused complement to the department’s ongoing emergency response work.

• Ohio Underground Film Fest to debut in Yellow Springs

  By Lauren ShowsMarch 1, 2026

  

  A new film festival will make its first appearance in the village next month — accompanied not by a red carpet, but by $5 admission and films made far outside the mainstream. The Ohio Underground Film Fest will debut Saturday, March 28, noon–9 p.m., in Glen Helen’s Vernet Center.

• Tweedle D’s joins referendum effort

  By Lauren ShowsFebruary 28, 2026

  

  Downtown store Tweedle D’s is currently collecting signatures for a statewide referendum effort that aims to overturn some parts of Ohio’s recently passed marijuana and hemp law, which moved through the Legislature last year as Senate Bill 56.

• Avant-garde musicians MacKay, Neutrals to play at Herdon

  By Lauren ShowsFebruary 27, 2026

  

  On Saturday, Feb. 28, two acts — Chicago-based guitarist, songwriter and composer Bill MacKay and area experimental percussion duo Neutrals — will take the stage in Herndon Gallery at Antioch College for an avant-garde double bill that promises approaches to sound and structure that, at turns, overlap and diverge.

• Poetry, hip hop at Herndon

  By Lauren ShowsFebruary 26, 2026

  

  A poetry event on Thursday, Feb. 20, and a hip-hop performance on Friday, Feb. 21, originally slated for the Foundry Theater, will now be held at the Herndon Gallery after a boiler malfunction and subsequent water damage closed the Foundry, as well as the Wellness Center and the Art and Science Building.

• Friends Care Community looks to the future

  By Lauren ShowsFebruary 20, 2026

  

  “How can Friends Care survive and thrive into the future, and what role will the community play in that effort?”

• School district talks start time, bus changes

  By Lauren ShowsFebruary 13, 2026

  

  At a Jan. 28 work session, the school board continued a discussion of a proposal that was brought forward by district administrators last month: A possible change of start and end times at both campuses, and consolidation of school bussing into one, K–12 route.

• Community forum on Israel and Palestine held at Antioch

  By Lauren ShowsFebruary 12, 2026

  

  “Advocacy for a Just and Sustainable Middle East Peace,” a community forum focused on Israel and Palestine, will be held Feb. 15 from 4–6 p.m. at the Herndon Gallery at Antioch College. The event will feature short presentations from guest speakers followed by audience questions.

• Miami Township— MTFR battles third fire of the year, fiscal officer resigns

  By Lauren Shows

  

  According to an email from Fire Chief James Cannell, firefighters were dispatched to 4710 Snypp Road shortly after 8:30 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 28. Cannell wrote that the Miami Township Fire-Rescue on-duty crew arrived at the scene “within six minutes.”

• Ohio Arts Council award funds new work for Casselli

  By Lauren ShowsFebruary 7, 2026

  

  “Landline” is taking shape to live up to similar descriptions. The core image of the in-progress work is simple: glowing forms hovering in a line outdoors, sized and spaced uniformly so that they reveal the rising and falling shape of the land they cross.