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.

• Ohio budget bill targets housing affordable housing funds

  By Lauren ShowsMay 24, 2025

  

  HB 96 includes a provision that would eliminate a requirement for counties to contribute 50% of county recorder fees to the state’s Ohio Housing Trust Fund — a central state funding source that supports affordable housing opportunities and services for low-income residents.

• Donnell Land to return this weekend

  By Lauren ShowsMay 22, 2025

  

  Organized by comedian and local resident Donnell Rawlings, the four-day event blends comedy, community spirit, outdoor fun and — this year — support for comedians in need.

• Clifton buildings get makeovers

  By Lauren Shows

  

  Renovations are now underway at the Clifton Opera House and the nearby 153-year-old Clifton Union Schoolhouse, both projects funded by the state’s One Time Strategic Community Investment Fund.

• Antioch College’s financial distress designation removed

  By Lauren ShowsMay 18, 2025

  

  Good news came down for Antioch College last week: The Higher Learning Commission has removed the financial distress designation it assigned to the college in November 2024.

• Miami Township Trustees commit $127k to Tecumseh Land Trust

  By Lauren ShowsMay 16, 2025

  

  Ultimately — with a 2–1 vote — the three-member board approved a resolution to set aside $127,419 from its general fund to be used “for the exclusive purpose to fund [the trustees’] commitment to partner with the Tecumseh Land Trust to acquire conservation easements on all or part of the township parcels referred to as the [Welch] Farm.’”

• School leaders urge against budget cap

  By Lauren ShowsMay 13, 2025

  

  The budget bill — passed by the Ohio House in April — will, if passed by the Senate as written, affect Ohio’s public school districts by eschewing the Fair School Funding Act, which aims to address the state’s overwhelming reliance on local property taxes to fund public schools.

• Tuvergen Band ‘gallops’ to the Foundry Theater

  By Lauren ShowsMay 8, 2025

  

  The band’s name holds special significance, connecting its trio of members — Tamir Hargana, Naizal Hargana and Brent Roman — to their music’s roots in Mongolian culture, for which horses are central figures in history, mythology and, naturally, its folk music.

• ‘Last Warmth’ — A love letter to School Forest

  By Lauren ShowsMay 6, 2025

  

  This month, a new documentary — helmed by and starring School Foresters themselves — debuts, giving local residents a behind-the-scenes look at the School Forest Club’s work tending the forest from seedling to tree, and every stage in between.

• Miami Township Trustees dispute Tecumseh Land Trust funding

  By Lauren ShowsMay 5, 2025

  

  During an often fraught two-hour special meeting Tuesday, April 29 — which was attended by about two dozen local residents — the Miami Township Trustees discussed at length both the possibility and the fiscal feasibility of funding conservation easements for local farmland preservation nonprofit Tecumseh Land Trust.

• Life after assisted death

  By Lauren ShowsMay 1, 2025

  

  The day the News spoke with Thomas Macaulay was almost a year to the day after Ardis Macaulay’s death. Very early on the morning of March 28, 2024, Ardis chose to die on her own terms, with her husband present.