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.

• Open Air Village eyes home-based move

  By Lauren ShowsMarch 13, 2026

  

  Beginning this summer, Open Air Village expects to relocate to a home on President Street, provided the Village approves a zoning variance that would allow the Gays to operate an in-home child care program there.

• Art auction to benefit Senior Center

  By Lauren ShowsMarch 12, 2026

  

  The Ageless Art Auction will be held Thursday, Feb. 19, 6:30–9 p.m., at the Mills Park Hotel. Tickets are $50 in advance and $75 at the door.

• MTFR responds to second fire of the year

  By Lauren Shows

  

  A Jan. 19 house fire at 3711 State Route 72 N., just outside Clifton, was quickly contained thanks to a rapid response, Miami Township Fire Chief James Cannell told trustees at their Jan. 21 meeting.

• Schools stage revue to celebrate musicals past

  By Lauren Shows

  

  “Fearless Then, Fearless Now,” set for 7 p.m. Thursday–Saturday, March 12–14, and 3 p.m. Sunday, March 15, in Westminster Hall at First Presbyterian Church, is a revue: a theatrical collage of songs linked by a shared spirit.

• ‘Jesus Christ Superstar’ to return to village, one last time

  By Lauren ShowsMarch 4, 2026

  

  On Palm Sunday weekend, actor Ted Neeley will once again step into Little Art Theatre to screen the film to which he’s been inextricably tied in the title role for five decades, “Jesus Christ Superstar.”

• State property tax laws to affect district’s budget forecast

  By Lauren ShowsMarch 3, 2026

  

  Yellow Springs Schools Treasurer Jacob McGrath told school board members at their Feb. 18 meeting that the district remains financially stable through the end of the decade. At the same time, he said the district faces growing uncertainty as new state property tax laws begin to affect both local revenues and the district’s future levy options.

• 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.