CELINA - A hometown company is harnessing its wellspring of ingenuity to churn out new products to protect retail workers, health care professionals and the public during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond.

Visions/AwardCraft, a leading global manu [More]

Ohio State pitcher Seth Lonsway has declared for the 2020 Major League Baseball Draft, the left-hander from Celina confirmed with the newspaper on Wednesday.

Prior to this season being canceled, Lonsway had made four starts and posted a 1-2 record with a 3.00 earned run average, 42 strikeouts and 18 walks in 18 innings. His strikeout total was tied for 10th in the NCAA, and he had significantly less innings pitched than those in front of him. [More]

YORKSHIRE - Seeking out a new medical experience, Premier Health X-ray technician Lauren Bohman landed her first travel assignment in New Orleans.

Little did the 24-year-old Versailles High School graduate know her eight-week placement in The Big Easy's second-largest hospital would put her on the front line of a hellish, unfathomable pandemic with sickened patients descending upon the emergency room in droves. [More]

CELINA - Mercer County Health District officials have reported two new positive cases of COVID-19, bringing Mercer County's total number of positive cases to four.

Auglaize County officials also reported a new case, bringing its total to three.

The Mercer County district reported the third positive patient is a woman between 30 and 40 and the fourth is a woman between the ages of 20 and 30. Both are in self-isolation at home, according to Kristy Fryman, district public information officer. [More]

Compiled by Gary R. Rasberry

Ohio High School Athletic Association Executive Director Jerry Snodgrass has been the public face at state tournaments in presenting trophies and honoring teams.

Of late, it has also meant making announcements and answering questions about the status of high school sports in the state due to the COVID-19 outbreak, which has shuttered all of the state's schools until at least May 1. [More]

CELINA - The first wave of absentee ballots left the Mercer County Board of Elections office on Monday in accordance with recently enacted state legislation that, among other provisions, extends absentee voting-by-mail for the primary election due to the coronavirus pandemic. [More]

CELINA - Ohioans who didn't get to cast a ballot in the presidential primary election on March 17 because the polls were ordered closed can do so via an absentee ballot that can be delivered or mailed to the board of elections.

In light of extended voting opportunities, Mercer County elections officials gave a rundown of how to request and fill out an absentee ballot, particularly for people accustomed to voting in-person at their polling location on Election Day. [More]

Parkway senior forward Caleb Kinney has piqued the interest of college basketball programs, but he has yet to commit. 

His final high school season was more important.

"He was really trying to focus on making his senior year a memorable one and winning as many games as he could," explained Parkway coach Doug Hughes last week. [More]

Teachers, parents and students are cooperating as schools have students learn from home.

Schools have been closed since Gov. Mike DeWine ordered that all public, community and private K-12 schools close at the end of the school day March 16 and remain closed through at least April 3. The order stipulated that during the closure, teachers should educate through alternative means. [More]