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.

• ‘Village Voices’ event series at Senior Center open to all

  By Lauren ShowsFebruary 20, 2025

  

  Max Mullin will present “Demystifying AI” as part of the monthly “Village Voices” series Thursday, Feb 20, beginning at 7 p.m. at the Senior Center. All are welcome and encouraged to attend.

• Yellow Springs group focuses on immigrant rights

  By Lauren Shows

  

  Yellow Springs Community Coalition for Immigrant Support began meeting in late December, and is set to host a teach-in event Saturday, Feb. 22, at the library. The event aims to educate local residents on immigrant rights and how to help neighbors who may be at risk.

• A little cheer

  By Lauren Shows

  

  Local sports fans were treated to a special halftime show during a Friday, Jan. 17 varsity boys basketball game: a performance from participants in this year’s mini cheer camp led by cheer coach Naomi Hyatt.

• Fire chief placed on administrative leave

  By Lauren ShowsFebruary 19, 2025

  

  Following a special meeting of the Miami Township Trustees on Tuesday, Jan. 28, Fire Chief Dennis Powell has been placed on paid administrative leave due to an internal complaint.

• Yellow Springs director brings ‘Rocky Horror’ to the John Legend Theater

  By Lauren ShowsFebruary 12, 2025

  

  The Springfield Civic Theatre will present the cult-comic musical “The Rocky Horror Show” Thursday–Saturday, Feb. 13–15, at the John Legend Theater. The production — directed by Yellow Springs’ own Lorrie Sparrow-Knapp — features a cast of Springfield and Yellow Springs actors and musicians.

• Summit at Antioch College to envision ‘Another World’

  By Lauren ShowsFebruary 11, 2025

  

  An upcoming four-day summit hosted by Antioch College’s Coretta Scott King Center  for Cultural and Intellectual Freedom aims to inspire students, artists, researchers, activists, organizers, educators and scholars not only to envision, but also to help create — as author Toni Morrison once told a group of collegiate graduates — “the world as it ought to be.”

• YS Schools join statewide voucher lawsuit

  By Lauren ShowsFebruary 8, 2025

  

  Yellow Springs Schools is one of the districts that has joined the growing coalition as it works to bring a lawsuit against the state — a lawsuit that questions the wisdom, and the fairness, of using public dollars to pay for private school tuition.

• Higher Learning Commission alerts Antioch College to ‘financial distress’

  By Lauren ShowsFebruary 7, 2025

  

  The News spoke this week with Antioch College President Jane Fernandes, who said of the designation: “It’s information that we have some financial work to do — that our financials are not just flowing, and now we have to make them work.”

• School board censures member Amy Magnus

  By Lauren ShowsJanuary 31, 2025

  

  The school board’s most recent meeting Thursday, Jan. 9, included an agenda item that concerned an apology offered by board member Amy Magnus. The discussion of that agenda item ended in a 4–0 vote in favor of censuring Magnus, with Magnus abstaining from the vote.

• Miami Township Trustees settle first-of-year business

  By Lauren Shows

  

  With deep snow on the ground throughout Miami Township that night, the Board of Trustees held its first meeting of the new year Monday, Jan. 6. At the forefront of the meeting’s agenda was the handling of first-of-year business.