Delhi press 07/28/21 by Enquirer Media

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WEDNESDAY, JULY 28, 2021 | BECAUSE COMMUNITY MATTERS | PART OF THE USA TODAY NETWORK

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LIVES REMEMBERED

Making superstars, ordinary guys look ﬁ ne suited ‘Peppe’ Ramundo West Side tailor was third-generation clothier Kaitlin Lewis Cincinnati Enquirer USA TODAY NETWORK

Real estate agent Don Johnson displays a rendering of a new home slated to be built during a ground breaking ceremony in East Price Hill's Incline District in Cincinnati on Monday, July 19. A series of new, modern homes with two-car garages, multiple bathrooms and bedrooms are slated to be built in the west side neighborhood, the group announced. PHOTOS BY SAM GREENE/THE ENQUIRER

Local developer plans new homes in East Price Hill Rachel Smith Cincinnati Enquirer USA TODAY NETWORK

A local developer has plans to boost redevelopment in East Price Hill’s Incline District, beginning with the construction of over two dozen single-family homes. The homes will be within eight blocks of each other and are estimated to be in the $400,000 price range, according to a recent release by Autumnwood Group. Kim Knoppe, home builder and Cincinnati native, hosted a groundbreaking ceremony July 19 at 658 Hawthorne Avenue. Knoppe said he wanted to create a “wonderful single-family community” that would raise local home values and motivate young people to remain in the area. In the release, Knoppe described the project as “something that would lift up the entire neighborhood.” According to a news release the new construction includes plans for: h A gated community at Price and Mt. Hope Avenues which will include eight, single-family homes featuring rear-loaded two-car garages, wood and beam ceilings, and some rooftop terraces; h Ten single-family, three-ﬂ oor homes at the end of Grand Avenue in Cityscape, which will include wood and beam ceilings and rooftop terraces; h Eight three-story homes within Price, Chateau and Summit Avenues. These three-bedroom houses will include 2 1⁄ 2 baths, a two-car tandem garage, and wood and beam ceilings in the kitchen and living room; h Two a three-story condo building with elevators and rooftop terraces with a view of the city and Ohio River at the end of Grand Avenue; and h A 2,700 square foot, single-family home on West Eighth near the Incline Public House which will include three bedrooms, two baths, wood and beam ceilings, elevator and rooftop terrace with a view of the city and Ohio River. Like many neighborhoods in Cincinnati, the Price Hill area has been trying to raise home values for years since recession-era losses resulted in foreclosures. East Price Hill’s Incline District

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Kim Knoppe, owner of the Autumnwood Group, takes about his long history of growing up and living in the neighborhood during a ground breaking ceremony in East Price Hill's Incline District in Cincinnati on July 19.

Beloved West Side tailor Joseph “Peppe” Ramundo died peacefully on Tuesday, July 20, surrounded by his family. He was 94 years old. Ramundo was born in Fuscaldo, Italy, and grew up watching his father work as a tailor, who learned his skills from his grandfather. Ramundo learned side-by-side with his father for many years and brought the art of tailoring with him to Cincinnati in the early 1950s. Ramundo’s son, Carmen, who is now a fourth-generation tailor, said his father arrived in Cincinnati with only $30 in his pocket and no knowledge of how to speak English. Decades later, Ramundo has made a name for his family at his business, Peppe Ramundo Custom Tailors, in West Price Hill. “He came a long way, from kind of rags to riches,” Carmen Ramundo said. “I know he would never say that, but he really did.” Ramundo ﬁ rst started in Cincinnati working as many as three jobs at a time, his son said. He eventually grew some roots at Hyde Park Clothes in Newport, where Ramundo worked as head designer. His son said he heard his father was encouraged by many while working at Hyde Park Clothes to create his own business. Hyde Park Clothes even donated a majority of the machinery Ramundo needed to get started when he left to start his business. In 1967, Ramundo established Peppe Ramundo Custom Tailors across the street from Western Hills University High School. His son shared that his father’s work was recognized by many early on. GQ magazine even asked Ramundo to design a suit to be worn in their 1970 edition. Ramundo’s talent has caught the eye of many well-known names in Cincinnati as well, including Reds Hall-ofFamer Pete Rose, who Carmen Ramundo said ended up being a close family friend. Rose even let Carmen borrow his Rolls Royce to drive on his wedding day. Ramundo went on to pass the family trade to Carmen, who worked sideby-side with his father for over 40 years and will continue to work the family business. See TAILOR, Page 2A

Mayoral candidate David Mann speaks about the upcoming development in the neighborhood during a ground breaking ceremony in East Price Hill's Incline District in Cincinnati on Monday, July 19.

Cincinnati City Council Member Betsy Sundermann talks about her experiences living in the neighborhood during a ground breaking ceremony in East Price Hill's Incline District in Cincinnati.

speciﬁ cally has inspired other redevelopment projects like the live-work dwellings by developer KB Partners, which aimed to attract entrepreneurs and artists to the area in 2016. Knoppe has bought 76 lots with

plans to buy more. “I can’t tell you what a warm feeling it gives me to be able to go into my old neighborhood and build all of these homes within blocks of where I was born,” Knoppe said in the release.

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Peppe Ramundo at work at his shop in Western Hills. CARMEN RAMUNDO

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Group asserts ‘massive racial disparities’ in Cincinnati Police use of force Cameron Knight Cincinnati Enquirer USA TODAY NETWORK

Use of force data from dozens of police departments across the country compiled by a police accountability group shows overall Cincinnati police use force less often than many other departments, but that use of force is disproportionately used against Black people. “The Cincinnati Police Department’s data reveals massive racial disparities in the use of force against civilians,” Accountable Now said in a press release this week. “Despite Black people comprising 42% of Cincinnati’s population, per 2019 Census Bureau estimates, 73% of the subjects of police use of force in between 2017 and 2019 were Black.” The disparity in Cincinnati is greater than Dayton, Cleveland, Indianapolis and seven other cities on the group’s website. All of the cities had a gap of at least 20 percentage points, while Cincinnati had a gap of 27 points.

Five cities had a larger disparity: Minneapolis, Dallas, Omaha, Orlando and Stockton, Calif. All incidents involving Cincinnati police use of force are documented in a public online police database that is maintained by the city of Cincinnati. The database shows that between 2016 until June 29, 2021 there were 2,212 use of force incidents involving Cincinnati police offi cers. h 75% of the subjects were Black h 15% of the subjects were juveniles. Census data show 22% of the population of the city is under 18 h In 33% of the incidents, the offi cers were Black. h The neighborhoods with the most incidents were Westwood, West Price Hill, Over-the-Rhine, East Price Hill, Downtown and Avondale, but neighborhood data was missing from about a third of the entries. Accountable Now allows users of its site to compare cities. Using the organization’s metric of “individuals aff ected per capita,” Cincinnati ranks favorable. Of the 13 cities available in the com-

parison tool, seven have a worse ranking throughout all of 2017, 2018, 2019. And only two of the cities consistently ranked better: Omaha and Tulsa. Accountable Now is an eff ort by the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, established in 1950, to better track use of force on a national level. In policing, force can mean a variety of things. When an offi cer uses a Taser or forces a person to the ground to compel someone to submit, that is reported as a use of force – at least in Cincinnati. But the term covers a wide range of actions – from shooting and killing someone to an injury a person may have suff ered falling during foot pursuit. Reporting standards also vary widely between jurisdictions and states. Some jurisdiction consider it a use of force when an offi cer draws their weapon, others, like Cincinnati, don’t. An Enquirer report from 2020 showed that use of force in Cincinnati had been steadily declining for two decades along with the number of arrests and crime.

At the time, Cincinnati civil right attorney Al Gerhardstein pointed out that racial disparities and other problematic trends still exist when it comes to the department’s use of force. For instance, police used force against juveniles 40 times in 2019. In 36 of those instances, the juveniles were Black. Gerhardstein said the last three people shot and killed by Cincinnati police – Omar Santa Perez, James Clay and Jawari Porter – all suff ered from mental health issues. The Enquirer requested a comment from the Cincinnati Police Department. Police offi cials directed the publication to the Cincinnati City Manager’s Offi ce. “Cincinnati’s use-of-force incidents are on a three-year decline and are documented as some of the lowest numbers in the country because the City remains committed to continuous improvement in bias free policing, the improvement of community-police relations, and to building a more fair and equitable public safety system,” City Manager Chief of Staff Kelly Carr said in a statement.

Vaccines urged as COVID-19 cases rise Experts blaming more contagious delta strain Jackie Borchardt State Bureau

COLUMBUS – COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations are on the climb again in Ohio, and although the numbers are much smaller than their peak during the winter or even a few months ago, health oﬃ cials are concerned by the rate at which they are increasing. Two weeks ago, the number of new COVID-19 cases per 100,000 residents in the previous two weeks was 17.6. That more than doubled to 37.8 Wednesday. The test positivity rate has also risen from 1.6% to 2.6% during the same time. The number of COVID-19-positive patients receiving care in Ohio hospitals has increased from 203 on July 7 to 348 on Tuesday. That’s a 71% increase in two weeks but far below the peak of 5,308 in December. State health oﬃ cials are attributing the rising numbers to the more contagious B.1.167.2 variant, known as the delta variant. The variant made up 15% of all variants sequenced during a twoweek period in June, according to the Ohio Department of Health. That’s up to 36% during the two weeks ending July 3, but fewer than 300

Ohio's COVID-19 numbers are much lower than they were in December or even a few months ago, but a recent uptick in cases and hospitalizations has health officials urging Ohioans to get vaccinated. MEG VOGEL/THE ENQUIRER

samples were sequenced, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. State health offi cials aren’t planning to enact any mandates or health orders but are encouraging vaccination. “COVID-19 is essentially a vaccinepreventable illness,” Ohio’s Chief Medical Offi cer Dr. Bruce Vanderhoff said during a Wednesday news conference. About 57% of Ohioans age 12 and up have received at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccine, according to the CDC;

54% have been fully vaccinated. Although “breakthrough” COVID-19 cases have been identiﬁ ed in people who were fully vaccinated, the large majority of people who are hospitalized or die from COVID-19 haven’t been vaccinated. “We are now looking at a pandemic of the unvaccinated,” Vanderhoﬀ said, noting how the delta variant tore through India and is now infecting large numbers of people in other states where vaccination rates are low. Should fully vaccinated Ohioans

wear masks and change their behavior? Vanderhoff said there’s no need to do that because the data show vaccinated people are “very unlikely” to develop serious illness if they get the virus. Pediatricians who joined Vanderhoff Wednesday encouraged parents to get vaccinated to help protect their children who are too young to get the shot. “Kids are not immune. Kids are not immune,” said Dr. Amy Edwards, associate medical director of pediatric infection control at UH Rainbow Babies and Children’s Hospital in Cleveland. Vanderhoff said the Ohio Department of Health is reviewing back-toschool recommendations from the American Academy of Pediatrics, which included requiring masks for students over age 2 and staff , regardless of vaccination status. The department plans to release guidance for schools “in the near future,” but they won’t be mandated. “As ODH it’s our role to evaluate the info and off er people the best guidance and recommendations that we can,” Vanderhoff said. “That will be the approach we will be taking. Obviously it will fall to the schools themselves and other entities to examine that information and make the decisions themselves.” Jackie Borchardt is the bureau chief for the USA TODAY Network Ohio Bureau.

Tailor Continued from Page 1A

Peppe Ramundo Custom Tailors continues to attract celebrities, including John Travolta. His son said, however, his father made sure to never get caught up in who walked into his store, and made sure he and his son treated every day like it was new. “No matter if they are a superstar, we treat everybody the same,” his son said. “We always had that more personal family attitude toward people.” Ramundo and wife Yvonne were married 55 years before she died in 2008. In addition to his son, survivors include daughter Mary Jo Kathman, three grandchildren and ﬁ ve greatgrandchildren. Visitation was 9 a.m. Tuesday at St. Antoninus Church, 1500 Linneman Road in Green Township, followed by Mass of Christian Burial at 10:30 a.m. Memorials can be made to St. Antoninus Church or the American Heart As-

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In 1967, Ramundo established his store in Western Hills.

sociation. Mihovk-Rosenacker Funeral Home serving the family.

Peppe Ramundo, left, standing with his son Carmen, right, in the 1970s. PHOTOS COURTESY OF CARMEN RAMUNDO

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WEDNESDAY, JULY 28, 2021

Seeing smoky skies, colorful sunsets? Here’s why Sarah Brookbank Cincinnati Enquirer USA TODAY NETWORK

If you’ve been noticing more colorful sunsets and a haze on the horizon in Greater Cincinnati, you can blame wildfi re smoke. Expect it to stick around. Skies across the Eastern U.S. will see haze through the fi rst half of the week as smoke from fi res across the Pacifi c Northwest and Canada migrate across the country. “The haze you see in the sky is indeed wildfi re smoke high up in the atmosphere. According to our models, this haze will increase over the coming days, likely leading to some colorful sunrises and sunsets,” local forecasters said. According to the National Weather Service’s High-Resolution Rapid Refresh Smoke model, the smoke reached the Greater Cincinnati area last week. The map does not show smoke just at the surface. It shows vertically integrated smoke — the total smoke from the ground up through the atmosphere. “These measurements are mapped to a three-dimensional grid that extends nearly 16 miles into the atmosphere. What results is a detailed forecast of the amount of smoke produced, the direction it should travel, and its plume height,” according to NASA. Due to the height of the smoke, it will likely cause hazy skies and very colorful sunsets due to the particles in the atmosphere. More than 80 wildfi res were burning through 1,157,976 acres in 13 states, battled by almost 20,000 fi refi ghters, according to USA TODAY. Generally, unstable weather conditions could add to the misery in the coming days, the National Interagency Fire Center warned. The Dixie Fire has grown to 29 square miles, largely in remote wilderness. Located in north-central California, it was threatening more than 800 homes and other structures. In Oregon, the Bootleg Fire has burned almost 500 square miles and is among the largest blazes in Oregon history, but it’s located in a remote area

Skies across the Eastern U.S. will see haze through the fi rst half of the week as smoke from fi res across the Pacifi c Northwest and Canada migrate across the country. ENQUIRER FILE

away from population masses. At least 2,000 homes have been evacuated at some point during the fi re and another 5,000 threatened. USA TODAY reported that powerful storms in the forecast for parts of the drought-stricken West this week could actually do more harm than good as “fi re clouds” and dry lightning sweep across a region already dotted with wildfi res fueled by parched vegetation, heat and winds.

According to the National Weather Service's HRRR-smoke model, smoke from recent and ongoing wildﬁ res out west has reached the Greater Cincinnati area. PROVIDED BY THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE

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This library is better known outside Cincinnati than here at home About Us Kathrine Nero Cincinnati Enquirer USA TODAY NETWORK

You’ve probably driven past one of the world’s most renowned libraries and never even known it. Hidden in a 1960s-era building a block from City Hall is the Lloyd Library and Museum. It holds centuries of information, illustrations, rare books and research that people travel from across the world to access. The library was founded in the late 1800s by the three Lloyd brothers, who started as pharmacists and used their research to develop and manufacture plant-based medicines. “We’re called ‘the plant library,’ but the reality is that we really are a nature library,” says Lloyd executive director Patricia Van Skaik. “Because plants don't exist in a vacuum. We have all sorts of things on nature and we also have a really extensive entomology, or bug collection.” I’ve passed by the Lloyd Library probably hundreds of times over the years, and its compact, cantilevered building would catch my eye. I always wondered what was inside. And I’m not alone. “We’re better known outside Cincinnati than we are inside,” Van Skaik said, as she excitedly showed me some of their materials that date back 400 years. In 2019, researchers from 21 states and four countries visited this building, and online, 108 countries accessed its information. “We get requests for materials from all over the world, from hospitals to the department of natural resources,” Van Skaik explains. Its catalog and website have been translated into more than 100 languages, showing the scope and the timeliness of its work, even 150 years after its founding. “We are considered a scientiﬁ c independent research library. But that

The Lloyd Library and Museum in downtown Cincinnati.

doesn’t represent at all who uses us,” Van Skaik said. Visitors to the Lloyd are artists, gardeners, students, environmentalists, historians and – these days – those interested in cicadas. Incredible Insects is a cicada exhibition, both online and in person at the Lloyd through Aug. 4, featuring work from Mount St. Joseph professor and cicada expert Dr. Gene Kritsky and others. This exhibition follows one detailing the history of medical marijuana. “The collections we have are critically important to answering the challenging issues of today’s world,” Van Skaik said. “In the last few years, it’s been really important to us to make our collections relevant to today.” And nothing keeps you more relevant these days than social media, right? The Lloyd is ﬁ nding a new audience there, with more than 18,000 followers on Instagram, and an ongoing digital dialogue about ﬂ ora and fauna that wouldn’t be possible in person.

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The Lloyd Library and Museum in downtown Cincinnati. PHOTOS BY KATHRINE NERO

It’s also started a podcast and created digital exhibits to reach a greater audience. Plants don’t exist in a vacuum, and neither does learning about them. You can ﬁ nd the Lloyd Library and Museum at 917 Plum St. downtown, and

you can fi nd Kathrine happily cicadafree (no off ense, guys), weekday mornings at 10 a.m. on The Enquirer's Facebook page for Coff ee break with Kathrine. You can also sign up to receive her weekly e-newsletter at cincinnati.com/newsletters.

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Small-batch chocolate mocha pots de crème Rita’s Kitchen Rita Heikenfeld Guest columnist

If you’re growing herbs, this is the time of year they fl ower abundantly. When fl ower production hits peak on herbs, leaf production declines and so does fl avor and with that, nutrients. So be vigilant about removing the fl owers (yes, they’re edible) especially with herbs like basil and oregano. Am I preaching to the choir here? You may already be pinching back the fl owers on herbs, but there might be some novices here, so that’s the reason for the reminder. I pruned my miniature rose bush in the Bible section of my herb garden, too. I got a nice bouquet of fl owers for the effort, and I’ll see a new fl ush of fl ower growth soon. Along with the bouquet, I used some of the edible rose petals and lemon verbena leaves to garnish some chocolate pots de creme I made. The recipe I’m sharing today is a small-batch one. (Requests for smallbatch recipes seem to be the trend). It’s for a reader who wanted to make my larger-batch recipe but said “I’m having a small dinner, just four people and I don’t want to be tempted by leftovers of this delicious dessert.” I tested the recipe, dividing it in half. It worked. Another lovely dessert for summer.

Pictured is mocha pots de creme garnished with rose and lemon verbena PHOTOS BY RITA HEIKENFELD

Small-batch chocolate mocha pots de crème Use ramekins, punch cups, wine glasses, whatever. It’s important for the eggs to be room temperature and the coffee very hot to “cook” the eggs to a safe degree and to make a smooth crème. Recipe doubles easily. Ingredients 6 oz. bittersweet or semisweet chocolate chips or combination of both (I used both) 2 large eggs, room temperature

Pour coffee slowly in thin stream. That way, the eggs won’t curdle. Blend until smooth.

1 teaspoon vanilla Dash salt ⁄ 2 cup strong, very hot coffee

Instructions Place eggs in blender. Add chocolate chips, vanilla and salt. Blend on high until mixture looks gritty, so that all the chips are ground up ﬁ ne; otherwise they’ll be too large for coffee to melt them. You may have to scrape it down a time or 2. Mixture will be thick.

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Vanilla whipped cream

Pour into containers, cover tightly and refrigerate 4 hours or up to 3 days. To serve: garnish with dollop of whipped cream, fruit, edible flower, etc. Tip from Rita’s kitchen: What if mixture curdles a bit? Just push it through a strainer. The hot coffee was poured in too fast.

No need to sweeten this, as the pots de creme are plenty sweet. Ingredients 1 cup whipping cream ⁄ 2 teaspoon vanilla

Instructions Whip just until stiff. Continued whipping will give you butter!

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Pour mobile bar brings bartending services to you Randy Tucker Cincinnati Enquirer USA TODAY NETWORK

Still leery about hitting the bars while the pandemic lingers? Then have the bar come to you. Pour Mobile Wine Bar, a new mobile bar service in Cincinnati, will bring a bartender and all the accessories to serve drinks at your next party. And they’ll do it from a 1968 Santa Fe trailer. Owner Zonieke Alston-Betts, 51, hopes to capitalize on the food-truck boom and other pandemic-era dining and drinking trends by providing a fl exible, open-air bar service for outdoor weddings, graduation parties and other events. “There’s a whole community out there that I’m proud to be part of providing opportunities for people to move around in wide open spaces and really have a great time,” said Alston-Betts, who lives in College Hill. “We can bring our mobile bar to your home, on the river or set up in the parking lot at a sporting event. The possibilities are limitless.” Pour, which launched in April, doesn’t supply alcohol. Instead, it provides expert mixologists certifi ed through the ServSafe Alcohol program for bartenders and all the necessary bartending equipment, including serving ware, ice, garnishes, and mixers for craft cocktails. Pour specializes in creating bar menus based on each customer’s event needs and preferences. “We can customize the menu to provide pour service for beer and wine only or pour service for a couple of signature cocktails or pour service for both,” Alston-Betts said. “We are really open to being creative and using the space for all event needs.’’ Prices start at about $450 for beer and wine pour service for two hours for up to 50 people, she said, noting she can customize packages to fi t smaller group sizes and budgets. Pour doesn’t need a liquor license because it doesn’t supply alcohol for events, according to Alston-Betts. However, Pour carries general and liquor liability insurance, which is included in the cost of the service, she said. In addition to bartending services, Pour also off ers wine tastings, cocktail making classes and classes on pairing

Zonieke Alston-Bettz, right, poses in her 1968 Sante Fe trailer in June. Alston-Bettz started her Pour Mobile Wine Bar in April. She said it took about a year to restore the trailer, but now she's ready to cater special events. Clients supply the wine, she supplies the bartending, glasses, napkins, etc. The trailer is parked in Northside when not in use. PHOTOS BY LIZ DUFOUR/THE ENQUIRER

bourbon and wine with cigars – even candle-making classes. “I wanted to off er something diff erent,” the owner said. “We are really open to being creative and using the mobile bar for all event needs.’’ Alston-Betts started her mobile bar journey in 2019 when she began working two full-time jobs to raise money for the vintage trailer that she bought last year for $4,000 from a dealer in Shelbyville, Ind. She spent the next year restoring and customizing the trailer with the help of skilled craftsmen at Northsidebased nonprofi t art organization, PAR-Projects, where the trailer stays parked when not in use. In addition to two walk-up wooden bar tops, Pour also comes with a 36-bottle wine fridge, a commercial Kegerator with two beer taps and a custom-made humidor that holds about 125 cigars. Pour catered its fi rst event at a ParProject open house, where it served beer and wine. Pour also served “mocktails” at the family-friendly “Mobile Black Wall Street: Juneteenth Festival” held in June at Esoteric Brewing in Walnut

Hills. Coming up, Pour has been booked for a launch party for The Scout Guide Cincinnati online city guide and business publication. And inquiries are coming in daily, Alston-Betts said. Alston-Betts, who operated a dance studio in Denver and a convenience store in Chicago before launching Pour, said she did a lot of research into mobile bars and even networked with other mobile bar owners around the country before launching her latest business venture. She thinks the demand for mobile bar services is here to stay, even as pandemic restrictions lift. “People have gotten use to the idea of eating and drinking outside since the pandemic began and they like it, and that’s where mobile bars have the edge,” she said. Alston-Betts said her long-term goal is to add another camper to the business, and she has already purchased a 1968 Serro Scotty trailer that she plans to convert to a mobile bar. In the meantime, she plans to upgrade the business with new uniforms

and bar kits for the bartenders and an electric trailer dolly to move her trailer into specifi c positions or line it up with the trailer hitch on the truck she uses to tow it. “We’re moving the trailer around manually now, and that can be quite the task,” she said. Alston-Betts said the $2,500 she won for placing second in the inaugural Financial Fortitude Delta Pitch Small Business Grant competition will go a long way toward helping her fi nance future upgrades. The competition was sponsored by the local chapter of the Delta Sigma Theta Sorority - a historically Black sorority founded on the principles of public service, particularly in Black society. “The women of Delta Sigma Theta have been really active in the community, and I was really honored to be a fi nalist in the competition,” Alston-Betts said. “I’m all about women connecting and pouring into each other and giving back to the community. That’s how I came up with the name for my business. Pour into someone who will pour into you.”

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Just Q'in BBQ's "best of taste" winning brisket at Taste of Cincinnati, May 27, 2019. RYAN TERHUNE / THE ENQUIRER

Cincinnati ranked as top 4 city for ... barbecue? USA TODAY NETWORK

When people think of Cincinnati, they may think of the Reds or Bengals. Perhaps Skyline Chili or Graeter’s Ice Cream. Maybe even Fiona the hippo or the city’s prominent arts scene. But barbecue? That’s new. Austin-based lawn care company LawnStarter conducted its latest study on “2021’s Best BBQ Cities in America” and Cincinnati was ranked fourth among 199 of the country’s largest cities. The rankings considered each city based on 14 metrics, including the number of barbecue restaurants and smokehouses per 100,000 residents, median consumer rating for these establishments and the number of barbecue festivals and competitions held. Cincinnati earned 35.88 points out of the maximum 100, ranking behind Kansas City, Missouri (60 points), Chicago (46 points) and Houston (38 points). The Queen City edged out Memphis, Tennessee (34 points) and Louisville, Kentucky (31 points), which took ﬁ fth and sixth. What brought Cincinnati to the top

of the list? It ranked ﬁ rst in the number of barbecue festivals and median smokehouse rating, second in number of top-rated smokehouses (those with an average rating of at least 4.5/5) and ﬁ fth in the number of National Barbecue and Grilling Association (NBBQA) Excellence Award winners. LawnStarter used NBBQA as one of its sources, in addition to Yelp!, Kansas City Barbecue Society and the American Royal Association. What business does a lawn care company have conducting a study on barbecue? “There’s no better place to enjoy barbecue than in our backyards this coming Fourth of July,” according to a LawnStarter news release. The motivation behind the lawn care company’s plethora of other studies, including the best cities for pizza addicts (Cincinnati ranked fourth), the best places for summer “vaxcations” (No, that’s not a typo), the best biking cities and the best cities for new moms, isn’t quite as clear. While you await the next Cincinnati barbecue festival, check out Station Family + BBQ, Alabama Que, Just Q’in BBQ or Eli’s BBQ for some of the city’s most popular barbecue.

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COMMUNITY PRESS WEST

WEDNESDAY, JULY 28, 2021

‘WE’RE IN TWO COMMUNITIES’ How violence divides Cincinnati’s neighborhoods

Dan Horn and Sharon Coolidge Cincinnati Enquirer USA TODAY NETWORK

Editor’s note: Information included refl ects this article’s original publication date – July 11 (updated July 12). Marcella Thompson believes what happened to her son in the early evening of June 12 could happen to any child on any street in any Cincinnati neighborhood. She believes the stray bullet that struck 8-year-old Marcellus, a thirdgrader who loves Disney movies and Pee Wee football, could have found another mother’s son, and turned another family inside out with grief and worry. But Thompson, who lives in East Westwood, also believes not everyone shares that risk equally. The way she sees it, her city is divided between places where the violence that seriously injured her son is tolerated, and places where it is not. “Why are we diff erent?” Thompson asked last week, soon after she returned home from the hospital wearing the “24hour visitor” badge that allows her to see her bedridden son anytime, day or night. “We’re all human. We all bleed the same blood.” And yet, she said, “we’re in two diff erent communities.” The divide is more than the hunch of a grieving mom. It shows up in the numbers, too. An Enquirer analysis of crime statistics found that aggravated assaults, which include shootings like the one that wounded Marcellus, are skyrocketing in a few Cincinnati neighborhoods, even as many others see little or no change. Westwood, Over-the-Rhine and Walnut Hills account for one of every four aggravated assaults in Cincinnati so far this year. Together, those three neighborhoods have seen a 73% increase in aggravated assaults over last year. The city’s 52 neighborhoods overall have seen an increase of about 5%. It’s no surprise to police or to residents that some neighborhoods are more violent than others, or that neighborhoods that have historically struggled with violent crime are among those struggling now. But the sudden surge in only a handful of those neighborhoods is hard to explain. The motives behind the assaults, according to police, run the gamut from domestic disputes to drug-related feuds to arguments that turn into gunfi ghts and end up maiming and killing bystanders, even if they’re only 8 years old. The pandemic can’t be blamed, either. Aggravated assaults in Westwood, Overthe-Rhine and Walnut Hills are signifi cantly higher compared not only to last year but also to the average of the previous three years. The wave of violence in those neighborhoods is especially confounding because it comes at a time when, statistically speaking, the city overall is holding its own against violent crime. While homicides are down citywide and aggravated assaults are up slightly, that’s not the case in Westwood, Overthe-Rhine and Walnut Hills. Those three neighborhoods are suff ering in ways other neighborhoods are not, and so are the families that live there. For Thompson, the divide is personal. She sees the consequences every day when she sits in the hospital room with her son, wires dangling from his head and arms, his long hair shaved so doctors can monitor the bullet wound in his head. And she sees them every night, when she settles into the chair next to Marcellus’s bed, watching her son’s chest rise and fall as she dozes off . “Some days,” she said, “I don’t know if he’s going to make it through the night.”

‘Is this really happening?’ A few hours before Marcellus was shot, Thompson took her son shopping. They bought a white polo shirt and shorts for family pictures, which were supposed to be taken on the Fourth of July, and some chips and cheese for movie night nachos that evening. Around 6 p.m., Marcellus’s big brother, 17-year-old Marcello, told his mom he was going to walk to the convenience store at the corner of McHenry and Cavanaugh to meet a friend and bring her back to the house for the movie. Marcellus, who everyone calls “MJ,” asked if he could tag along. Thompson rarely allowed Marcellus to go anywhere without her, especially this summer. While she can’t cite the statistics – aggravated assaults are up 11% in East Westwood so far this year and 33% in nearby Westwood – she knows that her immediate world is dangerous.

Marcellus "MJ" Whitehead, 8. PROVIDED BY MARCELLA THOMPSON

Marcella Thompson kisses her son Marcellus Whitehead, 8, who is receiving treatment at Cincinnati Children's Hospital for a serious brain injury after being shot in the head and leg in East Westwood. PROVIDED BY MARCELLA THOMPSON

Marcella Thompson, the mother of Marcellus Whitehead, stands in the living room of her home on Thursday, July 8, in East Westwood. On June 12, Marcellus, 8, was shot in the head and leg while walking to his neighborhood corner store with his brother. He is receiving treatment at Cincinnati Children's Hospital for a serious brain injury. Thompson said, "He may never walk again. He may never talk again. He may never be able to see us again, hear us again...We're dependent on God. That's all we can do." MEG VOGEL/THE ENQUIRER

But this was just a quick trip down the street. Marcellus wanted to go. She said yes. Soon after Marcellus and his brother got to the parking lot of the convenience store, the shooting started. Two teenagers had been arguing, one drew a gun and opened fi re. Within seconds, a teenager, Marcellus and two other young children were shot. Thompson rushed to the scene, and then to Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, where doctors told her Marcellus had been shot in the head and had a serious brain injury. “Oh, my God,” she thought. “Is this really happening?” The scene outside the convenience store that day was familiar to police, who say shootings with multiple victims are driving up the city’s total number of aggravated assaults. Cincinnati has had six mass shootings so far in 2021 (). At a Cincinnati City Council committee meeting in June, about two weeks after Marcellus was shot, Police Chief Eliot Isaac said his offi cers have seized 750 guns this year and that gun crime was “at epidemic proportions.” They’d soon get another reminder. After a long day of celebrating the Fourth of July, two young men opened fi re on one another as they stood in a crowd that had gathered in Cincinnati’s Smale Riverfront Park. When it was over, both youths were dead and three bystanders were wounded. The violence in the heart of Cincinnati stunned city offi cials and became a major news story. Thompson, who was still spending most of each day at her son’s hospital bedside, was saddened but not surprised. No one is immune from gun violence, she said, even if only a few neighborhoods are bearing the brunt of it.

In the days that followed, Thompson watched and listened to the outcry over the Smale Park shootings, and she wondered why there’d been no comparable outcry over the shooting of her son and the other kids in the convenience store parking lot. She thinks she knows the answer now. Through the fi rst six months of this year, Westwood and East Westwood reported 54 aggravated assaults. Downtown and the riverfront reported 12. Thompson said people expect violence in neighborhoods like hers. They’ve grown accustomed to it. Why did it take the shooting at Smale Park to get everyone’s attention? “Because we’re in two diff erent communities, two diff erent ways of living,” Thompson said. “I live here. They live there.”

Police target criminals with guns Sometimes, the divide is within the neighborhoods themselves. In Over-the-Rhine, which has been transformed by new homes, bars and restaurants in the past decade, the dividing line is Liberty Street, which separates more gentrifi ed areas in the south from poorer areas in the north, where crime tends to be higher. “Same zoning, same historic district, same police district,” said Brian Conner, an Over-the-Rhine resident and community council member. “Two totally diff erent worlds.” Aggravated assaults in Over-theRhine have almost doubled compared to the fi rst six months of last year, from 18 to 35. Conner, who sits on a community council committee that’s studying the increased violence, said many of Overthe-Rhine’s problems involve people who aren’t from the neighborhood but

who come there to party and stir up trouble. “Everybody is terrifi ed,” he said. “We’re past the point of people complaining about it. People are starting to get quite anxious and angry.” Chief Isaac announced last week that police will try to address trouble spots in hard-hit neighborhoods by adding dozens of offi cers to weekend shifts. “Our department’s biggest asset is our presence,” Isaac said. In Walnut Hills, where a nearly 150% increase in aggravated assaults is the largest in the city, the goal is to take guns and the people who wield them off the street. “We all want the same thing,” said Lt. Jonathan Cunningham, who leads the investigative unit in Police District 4, which includes Walnut Hills. “We all want gun violence to stop.” Cunningham said his offi cers use ShotSpotter to track gunshots, their own data to identify hot spots and community outreach to encourage witnesses to come forward. The work is hard, he said, but it’s the only way to make progress. “In a perfect world, we’d have an offi cer on every street corner and community members calling every time they saw someone with a gun tucked under their shirt,” Cunningham said. “But we don’t live in that perfect world.” Hamilton County Common Pleas Judge Melba Marsh, who lives in Walnut Hills, has a habit of jotting down the location of every violent crime case that comes to her courtroom. Lately, she said, she’s seen more cases than usual from Westwood, Over-the-Rhine and her own neighborhood. “It seems to have exploded,” she said. Marsh said she’s concerned both as a judge who sees the aftermath of violent assaults and as a resident who must be more careful about jogging or walking near her home. “My sense of security is heightened,” she said. “I’m more conscious of it.”

Five minutes from home Late last week, Thompson attended a community council meeting to talk about what can be done about the violence. The meeting drew more than 50 residents from Westwood and East Westwood. They gathered in a small Presbyterian church with a sign over the front door that read, “Enough. Stop the violence.” People in the meeting turned to her for guidance. Exhausted from so many trips to the hospital to see her child, she didn’t have an answer. “I feel like the community should come together and just do better,” she told the crowd. Thompson said she prays every day for her son to get better, and for kids everywhere to be safe in their homes and their neighborhoods. She wants to do something to help those kids. She wants to make a diﬀ erence. She’s talked to other moms whose kids have been hurt. She’s talked about making some noise with politicians. “I want them to stop the violence,” she said. “I want them to care about every neighborhood.” The parking lot where Marcellus was shot is ﬁ ve minutes from his house. Her son took a short walk to the corner store and now the boy who once won Pee Wee football trophies may not walk again. He may never be able to see or speak or hear his mother’s voice. Thompson thinks about that often, about how a child’s life can change in an instant because someone he never met got mad and pulled a trigger. She wants everyone in Cincinnati to think about it, too, no matter where they live or where they’re raising their children. She wants them to know that it was her child this time. But next time, it will be someone else’s.

WEDNESDAY, JULY 28, 2021

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###

SPORTS Caisja Chandler becomes ﬁ rst UC studentathlete to pocket NIL deal Keith Jenkins Cincinnati Enquirer USA TODAY NETWORK

“I’m so grateful and excited. I grew up here in Greater Cincinnati. I know what high school football, high school basketball and high school sports mean to this area,” Thom Brennaman said. AP

Chatterbox Sports hires former Reds announcer Thom Brennaman Scott Springer Cincinnati Enquirer USA TODAY NETWORK

Former Reds announcer Thom Brennaman will be back behind the microphone soon in Greater Cincinnati. This time, he’ll be calling high school events via Chatterbox Sports. The subscription-based service made the announcement Tuesday evening via Twitter. Chatterbox Sports broadcasts numerous high school events and also oﬀ ers podcasts. Recently new University of Cincinnati basketball coach Wes Miller, UC women’s basketball coach Michele Clark-Heard and former UC quarterback Tony Pike have been featured guests. Brennaman appeared at the end of the announcement. “I’m so grateful and excited,” Brennaman said. “I grew up here in Greater Cincinnati. I know what high school football, high school basketball and high school sports mean to this area. This is what I was doing at Channel 5 when my career started. Here we are coming full circle getting back out to high school sports.” Brennaman ended the announcement with a subtle reference to his 2020

Cincinnati Reds Hall of Fame broadcaster Marty Brennaman is handed an authenticated, game-used baseball from his son, Thom, before he takes the ﬁ eld for postgame ceremonies commemorating his retirement after 46 years in the booth, Sept. 26, 2019, at Great American Ball Park in Cincinnati. KAREEM ELGAZZAR/THE ENQUIRER

misfortune saying, “by the way, I think Castellanos just hit a home run to left.” Brennaman resigned from his Fox Sports Ohio TV play-by-play job in Sep-

tember 2020 a month after he was suspended for using a homophobic slur on a live mic prior to cutting an open to a broadcast. He apologized later in the game when informed it went over the air. He also wrote a letter that appeared in The Enquirer shortly thereafter. Brennaman is a graduate of Anderson High School and Ohio University. He began his career at WLWT then began doing Reds games on TV with Hall of Famer Johnny Bench as his partner. From there his baseball career took him to the Cubs and WGN, then later to the Arizona Diamondbacks where he was their ﬁ rst announcer. He returned to Cincinnati with his family in 2006 to do Reds games on TV. At Fox Sports he did Major League Baseball, the NFL and college football including Boise State’s famous Orange Bowl upset of Oklahoma. He later worked on the Big Ten Network in football. In between, he did a few seasons of college basketball, including the University of Cincinnati’s Final Four run in 1992 with Bob Huggins. The son of Hall of Fame announcer Marty Brennaman recently watched his son play on a state championship lacrosse team with Mariemont.

The time has come for college athletes to cash in on their name, image and likeness, and sprinter Caisja Chandler became the ﬁ rst University of Cincinnati student-athlete to do so. A week after the NCAA Board of Directors suspended the NCAA’s antiquated rules prohibiting student-athletes from selling their NIL rights, Chandler tweeted July 7 that she received a payment through Klout Machine, a marketplace that allows student-athletes to make money from their social media posts, speaking engagements or simply just eating at local restaurants. “It’s a one-time thing,” Chandler told The Enquirer on July 8. “(I’m) just hoping to put the brand out there and get it some publicity, help them get their followers up, and get more athletes to follow them and want to sign up with them.” Chandler, Ohio State defensive end Tyreke Smith, another endorser of the company, and Klout Machine co-founder and COO Noah Weisblat are all from the Cleveland area. Chandler and Weisblat connected after Chandler posted her credential from the U.S. Olympic Trials last month on social media. “It went viral on Twitter,” said Chandler, who owns six UC records in the sprint events and is an All-American in the indoor 200-meter dash. “... A lot of people from Cleveland were retweeting it and showing a bunch of love, so I think that helped put me out there.” Chandler, who was named both the American Athletic Conference Indoor Track and Field Freshman of the Year and the AAC Outdoor Track and Field Freshman of the Year in 2019, would not disclose the amount she received from Klout Machine for the one-time promotional post, but said she is happy she and other college athletes can now earn money oﬀ of the work they put in See CHANDLER, Page 2B

University of Cincinnati sprinter Caisja Chandler holds six school records in the sprint events and is an All-American in the indoor 200-meter dash. PROVIDED/UNIVERSITY OF CINCINNATI

Return to the sandlot, 50 years later Mike Bass Special to the Cincinnati Enquirer USA TODAY NETWORK

Editor’s note: This is a weekly column from former sports reporter and editor Mike Bass. Bass will be contributing to The Enquirer by off ering advice for sports fans, athletes and youth sports parents and coaches through a weekly Q&A. You can reach him at mbass@mikebasscoaching.com or on Twitter @SportsFanCoach1. We are missing Gary today. “Glob,” everyone used to call him. Glob so loved playing ball with us, the story goes, he would walk to our old primary school and shovel the infi eld when he thought it was time for “spring training.” A group of us are reuniting today to play baseball together for the fi rst time in some 50 years. This is Fourth of July

weekend 2021, and this could just as easily be 1971. We come with gloves, baseballs, bats and whatever we feel like wearing. Same as always. Except Glob is not here. Gary Glochowsky died last year. Pancreatic cancer. In many ways, Glob is with us. Sanford brought one of Glob’s old baseballs, a National League model inscribed with Charles S. Feeney’s signature. Chub Feeney became NL president in 1970. This is perfect. The ball shows wear. Then again, so do we. Five of us are here today. We parried COVID-19 isolation together, Zooming on Sunday nights and messaging when our teams were on TV. Now we can reassemble. This had been easier when we grew up in the same village, but I moved back to the area for good a few years ago, Laurence is visiting from Georgia, so it’s Play Ball. We came in cars instead of by feet or

bicycles, but we came to play. We always came to play back then, too. Those days were some of the best of my life. Up to six or eight of us might show up, or as few as two. We would create fair sides and rules. We had just enough gear and imagination to concoct some version of any sport. Baseball. Football. Basketball. Hockey. We could play Home Run Derby using a basketball court across the street from me, Wall Ball using a strike zone painted on the side of our primary school. There were no coaches, no parents, no politics, no trophies. Oh, we cared who won or lost, we argued and fought, but eventually we got over it. Eventually. Sometimes, we just hit fungoes. Or took “infi eld practice.” Glob loved infi eld practice. We’d take turns hitting ground balls to each other, then maybe try to throw out an imaginary runner at fi rst. We lived “The Sandlot.”

I loved sports. I loved to play them, and I loved to watch them. I played Little League baseball until I was overmatched, but kept playing pickup games with my friends. I enjoyed both versions, but if it were all about organized sports, as it is now, my childhood would have been emptier. I needed this then. I need this today. COVID fatigue is real. Being outside and playing alongside my friends again is a joy. It is not just the nostalgia. It is the experience. We decide to play catch and hit fungoes instead of playing a game. The thermometer is pushing 90, and though we all try to stay active, we are not stupid. I already did stupid. Three years ago, Sanford and I hit fungoes to each other. I lunged for a ball, tumbled to the ground and sprained my See BASS, Page 2B

WEDNESDAY, JULY 28, 2021

COMMUNITY PRESS WEST

Chandler Continued from Page 1B

Aiken head football coach Harry McCall is a big fan of the Honest Game program that has created a program that tracks real-time academic results to provide eligibility status as high school athletes seek admission. TONY TRIBBLE FOR THE ENQUIRER

New partnership helping CPS athletes’ academics Alex Harrison Cincinnati Enquirer USA TODAY NETWORK

Harry McCall was doing his job as head football coach of the Aiken Falcons. No, McCall wasn’t running a practice or a fi lm session. He was deep in spreadsheets and numbers, calculating a player’s grade point average. McCall, Aiken athletic director Paul Brownfi eld and a player, Ja’Quan Bennett, got together to manually go through transcripts and fi nd the GPA numbers needed to confi rm Bennett was eligible to play collegiately at Division I Arkansas-Pine Bluff . “We took that whole day of going, ‘OK, we can use that math. We can use that science. We can use that natural science. We can use that history class. We can’t use that elective; that doesn’t count.’ We single-handedly counted up those letter grades, averaging them out and coming up with a GPA,” McCall said. Now, McCall and all other Cincinnati Public Schools coaches, administrators and athletes will have a partner in keeping academic eligibility clear and easily communicated. CPS partnered with education startup Honest Game. Honest Game, founded in 2019, created a program that tracks real-time academic results to provide eligibility status as high school athletes

seek admission in NCAA Division I, II and III schools as well as NAIA programs. Honest Game creates a CARE Plan, which can also show projections of how GPAs can be aﬀ ected by achieving certain grades for the semester, making for easier goal planning. The partnership has already made life easier for coaches like McCall. “I think it’s huge,” he l said of plans. “It gives (athletes) a little bit more hope and a little bit more understanding of how this process works. A lot of kids didn’t understand what it takes academically to get to some of these goals they had in mind and it breaks them down so tremendously.” Cincinnati Public Schools started its own program in 2018, the AAA Program, that gave athletes mentoring for nextlevel advancement. With the existing AAA Program, Honest Game’s implementation was smoother and with an immediate impact. “Nearly one million student-athletes are deemed academically ineligible every year,” Honest Game CEO Kim Michelson said in a release. “Honest Game exists to help decrease that statistic by providing schools like CPS with the resources they need to help ensure these students reach their full potential. CPS is providing life-changing opportunities

for student-athletes through its AAA Pathway program, and we are proud that Honest Game is a crucial part of that. Working with dedicated school districts like CPS who go the extra mile to address the needs of its students is one of the many reasons why we created Honest Game, and we could not be more excited to see this partnership ﬂ ourish.” Anthony Mason, a senior lineman at Aiken under McCall, is one of those athletes using the plans to set goals and demonstrate his eligibility. In a year of remote learning, Mason faced those academic challenges head-on and used the Honest Game program to grow his GPA. “It showed me where I could be at,” Mason said of viewing his academics on the CARE Plan. “Once I saw that, I got the work done and got what I needed.” Mason was in communication with Division II and NAIA programs and the ability to share his academics grew the interest. With Honest Game’s inﬂ uence, coaches like McCall will have more time to devote to Xs and Os and mentoring young men and women while athletes like Mason have the worry of surprise ineligibilities behind them and can continue to grow GPAs with real-time visuals and results.

Here is the Bengals schedule for 2021 preseason and training camp Charlie Goldsmith Cincinnati Enquirer USA TODAY NETWORK

Before the 2021 season, the NFL cut the preseason from four games to three games. As a result, there’s a new set of important dates for training camp and roster cuts in 2021. This season, 29 teams including the Cincinnati Bengals can report to training camp on July 27. Since there are only three preseason games this year, the Bengals will have to make roster cuts on an earlier schedule. Here is the Bengals schedule for the 2021 preseason and training camp July 27: Bengals report to training camp July 31: “Back Together Saturday”: Open Bengals practice with fans invited to Paul Brown Stadium Aug. 7 and 8: Limited number of fans able to attend practice at Paul Brown Stadium

Cincinnati Bengals head coach Zac Taylor wraps up practice during the ﬁ rst day of Cincinnati Bengals OTAs at the Paul Brown Stadium practice ﬁ eld in downtown Cincinnati on May 2. SAM GREENE/THE ENQUIRER

Aug. 14: Preseason Game 1: Bengals at Tampa Bay Buccaneers Aug. 17: Roster cut from 90 players to 85 Aug. 20: Preseason Game 2: Bengals at Washington Football Team

Aug. 24: Roster cut from 85 to 80 Aug.29: Preseason Game 3: Miami Dolphins at Bengals Aug. 31: Roster cut from 80 to 53 Sept. 12: Regular season Week 1: Minnesota Vikings at Bengals

on their respective playing surface. “Us athletes, we work day in and day out,” Chandler said. “We put in so many hours, a lot of hard work, and then we’re not able to get paid for it. But now that we’re able to get money, it’s a good thing. Our families, a lot of people can benefi t from it.” The Job Center, which specializes in light industrial staffi ng in warehouses and other general labor positions, recently announced that it has signed Cincinnati men’s basketball guard and former Moeller High School standout Jeremiah Davenport to a brand ambassador deal. The Job Center Staffi ng has 22 locations across nine states, including nine locations in Ohio and eight more in Kentucky and Indiana. Several former UC student-athletes who weren’t able to capitalize fi nancially off of their name, image and likeness while in school are thrilled to see the seismic shift in the collegiate sports landscape. Kim Geiger, who was a three-year captain of the Cincinnati women’s soccer team during her UC career (200508), said it’s an exciting time to be a student-athlete. “With tools like Instagram, TikTok and YouTube at their fi ngertips -- as well as more traditional means of monetizing their brand -- I’m watching to see how resourceful some studentathletes will likely become,” Geiger told The Enquirer. “It’s a huge opportunity for them.” Jordan Thompson, the only AllAmerican in the history of the UC volleyball program, left Cincinnati and started her professional volleyball career in Turkey in 2020. Thompson, who will compete with the U.S. Olympic Women’s Indoor Volleyball Team at the Summer Olympics in Tokyo later this month, said she too is happy to see college athletes fi nally be able to reap the fi nancial benefi ts of their work outside of the classroom. “Being a student-athlete, it’s diffi cult to try to balance a job, athletics and school. I never even tried because I knew that was going to be really, really diffi cult,” Thompson said. “So for athletes to have the opportunity to have another avenue of income to support not only themselves but their families, I think it’s going to be huge. I think it’s honestly about time.” Editor’s note: Information included refl ects this article’s original publication date – July 8 (updated July 9). Visit Cincinnati.com for possible updates.

Bass Continued from Page 1B

AC joint. My left shoulder is not 100% yet. OK, I do a little stupid today. I reach too high for one throw, and my shoulder barks at me. I wince. Otherwise, I am smart. I try to protect any other ailing body part. Bob goes out of his way to cover for me on any errant balls. I am playing shortstop, barely on the outfi eld grass. One line drive heads toward me. I amble a step to my right, open my glove and feel the ball smack into the pocket. It stings that familiar sting. It hurts so good. The others cheer. This is what friends do, 50 years later. We understand the drops. We appreciate the nice catches. We support each other. When it is time to stop, we stop. This is smart, because the coming days would bring the soreness and bruises expected from a layoff and age. But fi rst, someone laments how our performance has deteriorated since the last time we did this. I off er a diff erent perspective. “If you had told us 50 years ago that we could come out here and do this now, at this age,” I say, “we would have been pretty darn impressed.” Glob would have, too, I am guessing. I did not know him as well as some of the other guys, so I enjoyed hearing their stories about him later, including Howard’s about Glob shoveling the fi eld. If Glob could not join us today, we are glad one of the baseballs we used was his. “Maybe,” Sanford wrote later, “he really was looking down on us that day.” Remember to email Bass at mbass@mikebasscoaching.com or reach out to him @SportsFanCoach1 on Twitter if you want to be included next week. His website is MikeBassCoaching.com.

COMMUNITY PRESS WEST

From left: Morning winners Nick Binkley (Mount Lookout), Todd Block (Terrace Park), Charlie Rittgers (Columbia-Tusculum) and George Musekamp (Indian Hill).

WEDNESDAY, JULY 28, 2021

Afternoon winners (from left): Joe Jankowski (Loveland), Shannon Morgan (Milford), Jr Joy and Joseph Jankowski (Loveland). PHOTOS PROVIDED

Golfers from around the nation raise over $82K for Stepping Stones Adam Hesselbrock Stepping Stones Inc.

Stepping Stones hosted its 20th Annual Golf Classic on June 7 at the O’Bannon Creek Golf Club. Stepping Stones netted more than $82,000 to beneﬁ t year-round programming for children, teens and adults with disabilities. Golfers participated in a raﬄ e with eleven excellent packages and four

challenges with luxury prizes. As the tournament came to a close, golfers relaxed in the clubhouse where dinner was provided and awards were handed out for top golfers. Nick Binkley, Todd Block, George Musekamp and Charlie Rittgers won the morning tournament and Joe Jankowski, Joseph Jankowski, Jr Joy and Shannon Morgan won the afternoon tournament. Major sponsors from the event in-

cluded the August A. Rendigs, Jr. Foundation, Edgewell Private Brands, JTG Daugherty Racing and Niagara Bottling, LLC. “I am so thankful to everyone who came to support Stepping Stones and their much-needed programs,” said event chair Steve Mennen. “We had golf foursomes from all around the country this year which truly shows the impact of the organization.”

Stepping Stones is a United Way partner agency serving more than 1,100 people with disabilities in day and overnight programs that increase independence and promote inclusion. Founded in 1963, the agency provides educational, recreational and social programs at locations in Batavia, Indian Hill, Norwood and Western Hills. For more information, visit www.SteppingStonesOhio.org.

COMMUNITY NEWS Cincinnati Coffee Festival coming to Music Hall Oct. 22-24 Coff ee and tea lovers from all over the region join world-class roasters, coff ee shops, purveyors of fi ne food and professional baristas at the 2021 Cincinnati Coff ee Festival. Held at Cincinnati Music Hall, attendees will enjoy hundreds of free tastings of the fi nest coff ees, teas, pastries, chocolates and savory foods. The weekend will include live music, latte art demos, and demonstrations with industry experts. See the latest equipment and accessories and taste the best coff ees, teas and treats. Vote for your favorite brew in the People’s Choice event. The Cincinnati Coff ee Festival is the largest and most entertaining coff ee event in the Midwest and is the largest fundraiser for Ohio River Foundation. As our tag line says, “without great water, you can’t have great coff ee.” The event will be from Friday, Oct. 22 - Sunday, Oct. 24. Friday’s events will be from 9 a.m. - 7 p.m. Saturday’s events will be from 9 a.m. - 4 p.m. Sunday’s events will be from 10 a.m. - 1:30 p.m. Tickets will be limited to prevent overcrowding, so we encourage you to purchase your tickets in advance to reserve your space. We hope you’ll join us at this incredible caff einated event. Emily Janssen, Ohio River Foundation

Combine faith, ﬁ tness

328-4853. Website: westsidecommunityband.org

Christine Jette, Westside Community Band

Join SoulCore Leaders Julie Schneider and Michele Vollmer on Saturday, Sept. 11 at 9:30-11 a.m. to nourish body, mind & soul with SoulCore - a prayer experience in which the prayers of the rosary will be combined with core strengthening, stretching and functional movement. We guide the class through the entire session and participants are silent so no need to worry if unfamiliar with how to pray the rosary. It’s a great way to learn. We will meet in the main hall of Our Lady of Victory’s Convocation Center and begin with information about SoulCore and then go through an actual session. No fi tness level or experience required. All are welcome! Dress in comfortable clothing and bring a fi tness mat if you have one. Modifi cations will be given for those who want to sit in a chair. Bring light hand weights if you want to incorporate them. Contact Michele at 513-706-1324 or Julie at julie@soulcore.com for additional information or to reserve a spot in the class. Visit www.SoulCore.com for more info about SoulCore and follow us on the SoulCore Cincinnati group page on Facebook. SoulCore can be for all ages and we are open to holding sessions for retreats, parish groups, special events, schools, etc. and regularly scheduled sessions at local parishes, parks, gyms and other locations in the Cincinnati area. Additionally, If you are interested in fi nding more about how to become a leader, please contact us. Julie Schneider, SoulCore

nary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test as juniors. College scholarships range from $500 to $2,000 per year, with most renewable for up to four years. The exact amounts of those scholarships are not released by National Merit. Listed by high school, are the students, college awarding the scholarship, and the student’s probable career ﬁ eld. There were no recipients in this round from high schools in southeast Indiana. Ohio *Cincinnati Christian: Casey Anderson, University of Alabama, medicine *Cincinnati Country Day: Abhimanyu Jetty, Carleton College, activism *Cincinnati Hills Christian Academy: University of Cincinnati, business *Harrison: Tyler Ferry, University of Cincinnati, chemical engineering *Kings: Stephen Sims, University of Alabama, biochemistry;

*Lakota East: Audrey Earnest, University of Wyoming, undecided; Christopher Mages, University of Cincinnati, chemical engineering *Loveland: Jacob Aldrich, University of Cincinnati, music *Mason: Noah Erdman, University of Cincinnati, medicine; Samuel Graier, University of Cincinnati, computer science; Julie Krueger, University of Cincinnati, interior design *McNicholas: University of Cincinnati, engineering *Milford: Vishnu Rajkumar, University of Cincinnati, medicine *Seven Hills: Megan Tan, Brandeis University, undecided *Springboro: Elliot Phillips, University of Alabama, secondary education *Summit Country Day: Grant Gerhard, Kenyon College, conservation *St. Xavier: William Eckert, University of Florida, banking; Colin Sorensen, University of Cincinnati, engineering;

Owen McClain, University of Cincinnati, physical therapy *Sycamore: Niyati Kanchan, University of Cincinnati, medicine *Turpin: Daniel Creelman, University of Cincinnati, marketing; Hannah Hazelwood, University of Alabama, undecided *Walnut Hills: Adham Atwan, University of Cincinnati, medicine; James Baur, Case Western Reserve University, aerospace engineering; Kaden Clark, Northeaster University, bioengineering; Angelo Geis, University of Miami, economics; Ajai Nelson, Oberlin College, computer science; Evelyn Wheatley, Miami University, computer science *Wyoming: Alexander Rhodes, Colorado College, religious service Northern Kentucky *Ryle: Collin Huﬀ , University of Cincinnati, aerospace engineering Sue Kiesewetter, Enquirer contributor

Pictured is the Westside Community Band in concert with director Kenny Bierschenk. PROVIDED

Westside Community Band: New members wanted Westside Community Band rehearsals begin Monday, Aug 9, 7:30-9:30 p.m. at Mount St. Joseph University, 5701 Delhi Road. All adults welcome, no auditions. For more information, call (513)

A Mini kids SoulCore session at Our Lady of Victory. PROVIDED

SCHOOL NEWS Last round of National Merit scholarship winners announced Twenty-nine students from southwest Ohio and one from Northern Kentucky were among 1,000 students nationally who are receiving college scholarships after being named fi nalists in the National Merit Scholarship program. They join 3,100 fi nalists who received college and university scholarship recipients were announced last month. This is the last round of recipients in the 2021 program, now in its 66th year. There were three previous announcements of corporate and National Merit Scholarship Corporation awards made earlier this year. Scholarship recipients are selected from among the 17,000 fi nalists from across the country. More than 1.5 million juniors in 21,000 high schools entered the 2021 competition by taking the 2019 Prelimi-

WEDNESDAY, JULY 28, 2021

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Bridgetown - Ranch situated on 1 acre lot in Green Township. Partially ﬁnished basement, 2 full baths 3 or 4 bedrooms. $166,900 H-1781 Brian Bazeley

Bridgetown - Rare ﬁnd in Oak Hills School District, Green Township. 3.9 acres of total privacy. Minutes to highway, shopping & restaurants $89,900 H-1629 Doug Rolfes

PENDING

Bridgetown Easy carefree affordable living! 5rm, 2bdrm, 1.5ba. Bright remdled white kit w/ new appl. Fresh paint/ new WWC! 2 new AC units! The Jeanne $69,900 H-1775

Bridgetown - Rare ﬁne! 4 bd 3 full/2 half bath quad, completely updated on .66 acres! Hdwd ﬂrs! Fin LL w/wet bar. 3 wbfp! 6 gar spaces & a workshop! The Lisa $425,000 H-1772

Bridgetown - Great street appeal/ prime location! 3Bd, 2Ba, 2 car garage, covered rear porch ovrlking private level yard! Finished LL! Newer roof/HVAC! The Jeanne $255,000 H-1767

Rieder Team

Ibold Team

WEDNESDAY, JULY 28, 2021

PENDING

Rieder Team

Bridgetown - Complete remodel. Custm Kit. w/ 7ft. Island. Fin LL. New Windows, Siding, Carpet, Paint, 3 New Ba.Refnshed Hdwd floors. Giant Custom Deck! The Hoeting$339,900 H-1777

Cheviot - 4 Bd, 1 ½ Ba, Hard wood ﬂoors in LR/DR, Fenced Backyard, 1 car garage! Full shower and work room in Basement! New HWH! $145,000 H-1769 Doug Rolfes

Wissel Team

PENDING

Cheviot - Well maintained brick duplex w/2 bdrms in each unit! Separate elec, furnaces & a/c.Hdwd ﬂrs thru-out! 1 car gar! Fully leased thru 3/22. $167,500 H-1774

Covedale - Move in ready! 3 BR/2 BA w/part ﬁn LL.Large MBR w/built-ins & skylight. Recently renovated. Tiered deck & nice yd for entertaining. $169,900 H-1780

Delhi - 4 Bedroom, 3 Bath 2 Story. Complete in-law suite w/2nd kitchen. 2 car garage. Very nice condition. Cul-de-sac! $210,000 H-1782

Delhi - 3 BD, 3 BA, private ¾ acres. Master BA & full bath attached to 2nd Bdrm, ideal in-law suite. Rare property. $295,000 H-1773

Beth BoyerFutrell

Shawna Cox

Mike Wright

Hyde Park - Hyde Park single family homesite. Convenient to I-71/Dana Ave. Perfect spot to own a piece of Hyde Park. $30,000 H-1665

Monfort Hgts. - Mixed usage. Residential, office. Could be 5 separate residential lots. Public sewer available. Level. $199,900 H-1708

Price Hill - Vacation 365 with this fantastic condo with breathtaking panoramic city views from your own bdrm. Priv veranda and ingr pool overlooking city. The Hoeting$120,000 H-1755

Price Hill - 2 City view lots with water & sewer tap. Lots must be sold together. 5-minutes to downtown. $35,000 H-1325

PENDING

Westwood Lovely Tudor on gorgeous lot. One of the most desirable streets in Westwood. 3 bd, 1.5 bath, newer elec, 1st ﬂ FR, 1 car gar w/ workshop. The Hoeting$230,000 H-1779

White Oak - 3Bd, 2Ba Ranch with remodeled baths and kitchen! Finished LL. Quiet Cul-de-sac street. $185,000 H-1770

The Lisa Ibold Team

Tiffany Lang

Sedamsville - 3 River view lots to be sold together. 75’ total frontage. Area of potential redevelopment $30,000 H-1329 Mike Wright

Steve Florian

Mike Wright

Wissel Team

Sharonville - Nice Brick 3bdrm, 1ba Rnch. Hdw Flrs, Lrg FR w/ WB FP, Cvrd Patio, Full unfnshd bsmt, detchd 2 car gar, Starter or dwnszng home. Must see! Jeff $195,000 H-1778 Obermeyer

Wissel Team

Tiffany Lang

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Your generous monetary donation provides shoes, coats, glasses and basic necessities to neediest kids right here in the Tri-state. With so many children living in poverty, it’s a great way for you to help the children who need it most. So, step up for Neediest Kids of All and send your donation today!

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WEDNESDAY, JULY 28, 2021

COMMUNITY PRESS WEST

NEW YORK TIMES CROSSWORD PUZZLE

ANSWERS ON PAGE 7B

No. 0725 DIG IN

BY JESSE GOLDBERG / EDITED BY WILL SHORTZ

60 Filmmaker with a distinctive style 1 Certain music royalties collector, for short 62 Affixes, as a cloth 6 Viva ____ (aloud) patch 10 Dirty look 64 Something that’s gone bad if it floats when 15 Even once placed in a bowl of 19 Part of R.I. water 20 Big exporter of 65 ‘‘If you’re alone in the saffron kitchen and you drop 21 Sci-fi intro to the lamb, you can ‘‘forming’’ always just pick it 22 Foul up. ____?’’ 23 ‘‘Enjoy the food!’’ 71 Word mistakenly 25 Sportscaster who heard at a memorably asked, Springsteen concert ‘‘Do you believe in 74 Under way miracles?’’ 75 Beethoven’s Third 27 Crush 79 Reverse 28 Emmy-winning FX series created by 81 Tons Donald Glover 82 Seriously hurt 29 ‘‘Curses!’’ 86 Move quickly, 30 Challenger astronaut informally Judith 87 ____ o’clock (when 31 ‘‘With enough butter, happy hour begins) ____’’ 88 Host’s offer at a 34 Commanded housewarming 36 Fuel-economy 89 Spongelike authority, for short 91 Focal points 37 Main artery 38 ‘‘A party without cake 92 ‘‘I enjoy cooking with wine. Sometimes I is ____’’ ____’’ 48 Retin-A target 96 ‘‘Same here’’ 49 Healthful property of 99 Word with noodle or a beach town nap 50 Chicken or veal dish, 100 ____ lepton in brief (elementary 51 Merit particle) 55 Boardroom plot? 101 ‘‘The only time to 57 Hangout rooms eat diet food is while 58 Pair of quads you’re waiting for 59 The Powerpuff Girls, ____’’ e.g. 108 Stamps (out) Online subscriptions: Today’s 113 One of Abraham Lincoln’s is in the puzzle and more Smithsonian than 4,000 past puzzles, nytimes.com/crosswords 114 ‘‘Welcome to the ($39.95 a year). Jungle’’ rocker

Jesse Goldberg is a software engineer in San Francisco. Last year, finding himself between jobs, he tackled a big project he’d been thinking about for 30 years — creating an app to assist in designing and filling crossword grids. The result, Crosserville, is available online (free for now). Jesse isn’t the first person to build a crossword-construction app, but his is a highly versatile one. This is Jesse’s second puzzle for The Times. — W.S.

ACROSS

RELEASE DATE: 8/1/2021

17 Page who became the first openly trans man to appear on the cover of Time magazine (2021) 18 L.A. neighborhood referenced in Tom Petty’s ‘‘Free Fallin’ ’’ 24 Coolers 26 Comedian Minhaj 28 How some bonds are sold 32 Himalayan legends 33 Fetch 35 Provided tunes for a party, in brief 38 Backbone of Indian classical music 39 Earth tone 40 Body sci. 41 Toon first introduced in the 1945 short ‘‘Odor-able Kitty’’ DOWN 42 Neighbor of Oman: 1 Shady spot Abbr. 2 Less-than-subtle 43 Japanese honorific basketball foul 44 Florida attraction 3 Temporary road with 11 themed markers pavilions 4 ‘‘I don’t give ____!’’ 45 ‘‘His wife could ____ lean’’ 5 Pharmaceutical pickerupper 46 Family name in Steinbeck’s ‘‘East of 6 Penthouse perk Eden’’ 7 ‘‘Coffee ____?’’ 47 ‘‘That’s it for me’’ 8 Stone memorial 52 Exist 9 Suffix with exist 10 Actor Jason who was 53 Outfit 54 Drink garnished with once on Britain’s nutmeg national diving team 56 Quizzical responses 11 Four-stringed instruments 58 Part of NGO: Abbr. 12 Financial adviser 61 Change from portrait Suze to landscape, say 13 Dry with a twist 62 Neither red nor blue: 14 Milk: Prefix Abbr. 15 NASA spacewalk 63 Benchmark 16 Try to win 66 Locks-up shop?

69 75 82

88 92

113

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115

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67 Any set of elements in a column on the periodic table 68 Japanese port near Sapporo 69 War zone danger, for short 70 ‘‘A Room of One’s Own’’ novelist 71 Mac 72 Gastric acid, on the pH scale 73 Tribute in verse 76 Classic Langston Hughes poem 77 First name in fashion

112

100

114

117

111

91 95

99 102

110

101

64 70

62 67

36 42

115 Born with a silver spoon in one’s mouth 117 Cause of a smartphone ding, perhaps 119 Chef quoted in this puzzle’s italicized clues 120 Guitar part 121 Member of la famiglia 122 Letters on an F-22 Raptor 123 One given onboarding 124 1975 Wimbledon champ 125 Like voile and chiffon 126 What may make the grade 127 Direct

78 Saharan 80 Snacks that sometimes come in sleeves 82 Words to live by 83 The Cardinals, on scoreboards 84 Large Hadron Collider bit 85 Many a rescue dog 89 It’s not the whole thing 90 Mount ____, California volcano 93 Critical

Imagine your home, totally organized!

94 Rank for a rear admiral 95 What the Unsullied warriors are on ‘‘Game of Thrones’’ 96 She turned Arachne into a spider after losing a weaving contest 97 Wags a finger at 98 Separate 102 Tough period of the school year 103 Bayt ____ (destination for a Muslim pilgrim)

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104 Krispy ____ 105 Crooner Mel 106 Handy 107 Caffeine-rich nuts 109 Still alive, in dodge ball 110 Laissez-____ 111 N.J. city on the Hudson 112 Meal at which parsley is dipped in salt water 116 Serious divide 118 Candy-aisle name 119 Protrude

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WEDNESDAY, JULY 28, 2021

Here’s a list of counties in Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana reporting sick or dying birds Ohio

Emily DeLetter Cincinnati Enquirer USA TODAY NETWORK

Wildlife experts are cautioning people to continue to keep bird feeders and bird baths empty, for now, as a growing number of birds are being aff ected by a mysterious illness in the tristate area. A number of species of birds in Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana — including common backyard birds, blue jays, common grackles, European starlings, American robins and potentially house sparrows — have been found to have the unidentifi ed illness. Symptoms include eye swelling and crusty discharge, neurological signs, and in some cases, sunkenin eyes. The cause of the illness is still unknown. Laura Kearns, a wildlife biologist with the Ohio Department of Natural Resources’ Division of Wildlife, previously told the Enquirer experts have not ruled out the Brood X cicadas as a potential cause. “At this point in time, anything is a possibility,” Kearns said. “We’re looking into that. We know there’s a fungus that aff ects some cicadas, and it could be related to that.” In addition to being kept empty, bird feeders and bird baths should be cleaned with a 10% bleach cleaning solution. Here are the counties in Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana that have reported the illness:

The Ohio State University’s Buckeye Yard and Garden Online have reported sick or dying birds in these counties: h Brown h Butler h Clark h Clermont h Delaware h Franklin h Greene h Hamilton h Montgomery h Warren People are asked to report any sick or dead birds to the state through the Ohio Department of Natural Resources’ Division of Wildlife website. Photographs and videos can be included in the report as well as latitude and longitude coordinates to help wildlife biologists quickly verify the sighting.

Kentucky Sick or dead birds have been reported in these counties: h Bullitt h Campbell h Madison h Boone

h Jeff erson h Kenton Kentucky Fish and Wildlife identifi ed approximately 250 cases of the mysterious illness out of over 1,400 reported dead birds as of July 2. The department has so far ruled out the following diseases: salmonella and chlamydia (bacterial pathogens); avian infl uenza virus, West Nile virus and other fl aviviruses, Newcastle disease virus and other paramyxoviruses, herpesviruses and poxviruses; and Trichomonas parasites. The 1,150 cases that Kentucky Fish and Wildlife did not fl ag were either identifi ed as “normal causes of mortality” or were inconclusive. Reports of sick or dead birds in Kentucky can be made through the Kentucky Fish and Wildlife online portal, research.net/r/2021KYSickBirdReports.

Indiana The state has reported over 285 cases of sick or dead birds in 53 counties, including several that border Ohio. Early laboratory tests of a dozen samples sent from the Indiana Department of Natural Resources to the Indiana Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory have so far ruled out avian ﬂ u and West Nile virus. The department is tracking the number on its website. The department asks anyone who sees a sick or dead bird to report it at on.IN.gov/sickwildlife.

REAL ESTATE TRANSFERS Information provided by Hamilton County Auditor Dusty Rhodes

Nick & Laura Carpentieri; $240,000 4389 Glenhaven Rd: Walter Amy P to Champion Alycia Anne & Scott Alan; $190,000 5002 Bonaventure Ct: Moore Gregory A & Melody E to Leuthold Justin; $245,000 5078 Tammy Ct: Luster Marilyn K to Zillow Homes Property Trust; $264,000 5260 Serenade Dr: Larkin Ronald W & Catherine A to Powell Jason T & Katherine Glenn; $225,000 911 Pontius Rd: Emig Carrie L to Kleisinger Tammy L; $185,000 945 Villa View Ct: Giffin Casey E & Samantha to Lindner Julie Anne & Kory Lee Phelps; $110,000

Cheviot 3323 Augusta Ave: Duffy Dwellings LLC to Kirn Kimberly A; $80,000 3455 Alta Vista Ave: Kelly Brittany to Evans Katelyn N; $162,000 3509 Bruestle Ave: Blakeley Jeff & Patrick Metz to Walters Kadyn J & Nicole M Baer; $73,300 3608 Robb Ave: Dellecave Marc W to Schneider Group Rai LLC; $85,000 3661 Herbert Ave: Dillard Elizabeth K to Lubbers Corey; $91,000 3948 Kenkel Ave: Wright Holly & Gary to Petrusch Aaron; $150,000 4058 Washington Ave: Doyle Gordon E to Gutierrez Morgan & Emily; $150,000 4143 St Martins Pl: Jlc Enterprise LLC to A3t Capital Parnters LLC; $110,000

East Price Hill 1670 Atson Ln: West Tower Investments LLC to Vb One LLC; $94,600 1709 Atson Ln: Carter Diana M Tr to Sfr3-030 LLC; $52,000 3808 Liberty St: Idealogiz Group LLC to Teklemichael Tadesse & Senait Sahle; $75,000 815 Mt Hope Ave: Aka Shah LLC to Nf Capital Investments LLC; $130,000

Cleves 39 Timberline Ct: Wessels Ashley G to Stewart Lawrence A & Lisa; $178,000 530 Miami Ave: Richards Claire M Tr to Sfr3-030 LLC; $90,000

East Westwood

Crosby Township

3397 Mchenry Ave: Kincade Wesley J & Carmen D to Kweinavah Thompson; $17,500

10544 Brigade Ct: Nvr Inc to Kaufman Fletcher & Samantha; $370,725 10588 Brigade Ct: Nvr Inc to Laine Jerad M & Alicia; $363,855

English Woods 2027 Baltimore Ave: Walker James H to Sfr3030 LLC; $47,500

Delhi Township 1215 Hickorylake Dr: Drescher Steven M & Deborah E to Carpentieri

Green Township 2260 Fayhill Dr: Rabbani

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S E D E R

Khyrunnessa to Ellis Roderick; $195,000 2330 Sylved Ln: Wuebbling Toni M & Ruth A to Dressman Daniel Gerard; $112,500 2530 South Rd: Harris Frederick N to Treinen Adam C & Ruby Khoury; $540,000 2749 Topichills Dr: Schultes Bonnie R to Nelson Stephanie; $254,900 2758 Roseann Ln: Walton Marci K to Arellano Nayeli @ 3; $206,000 2830 Blackberry Tl: Rork Kathleen Marie & James H Fagedes to Rork Kathleen Marie; $61,303 2867 Springwood Ct: Vasiliou Ioannis to Saveliff Katharine Wheeler &; $365,000 2955 Gilligan Ave: Mcdaniel Karen S & Michael M Sagers to Hughes Kyle W & Alexis Eilzabeth Hance; $300,000 3084 North Bend Rd: Hughes Helen June to Perez Luis Enrique; $46,000 3260 Westbourne Dr: Family Medical Group Real Estate Holdings LLC The to Thoroughbred Real Estate Partners LLC; $549,000 3314 North Bend Rd: Bihr Shirley A to Wessel Beulah; $99,000 3352 Emerald Lakes Dr: Kessler Jacob L to Weisker Heather L; $106,000 3395 Tallahassee Dr: Grause Anthony J & Leslie A Lohbeck to Hillman Jacob Dean; $210,000 3736 Reemelin Rd: Leviton Mary A to Cameron Christopher G & Megan A; $213,500 3968 Drew Ave: Kremer Joseph H to Weber Tim; $139,900 3978 Janett Ave: Crozier Jennifer L to Bessey Andrew W; $154,500 4350 Regency Ridge Ct: Vena Irene Ruberg Family Trust The to Buchanan Lawrence P & Martha M; $130,000 4506 Clearwater Pl: Spicable Me LLC to Frickman Darleen M; $168,500 4681 Hampton Pointe Dr: Dress Company The to Trisko Darryl Roger & Nao Ogawa; $483,694 4701 Hampton Pointe Dr: Drees Company The to Rensing Michael P; $408,669 5296 Race Rd: Cuellar Jonathan to Mattlin Christine F; $187,000 5424 Lever Ct: Collins Clarence Jr to Scheidt Kelsey; $152,000 5425 Bluesky Dr: Dixon

Kelly L to Haynes Alisha L; $93,750 5440 Romilda Dr: Kwiatkoskii Mary James Tr to Lee Taylor S & Lindsey M Niehaus; $145,000 5708 Werk Rd: Gutekunst Tina M to Fatora Jerome F III & Julie; $305,000 5826 West Fork Rd: Jdela LLC to Miller Eric & Nicole; $195,000 5860 Gaines Rd: Prewitt Lauren A to Zillow Homes Property Trust; $332,600 5942 Harrison Ave: Gamel Austin J to Bibbs Tyron; $92,000 6000 Lawrence Rd: Combs Melissa J to Coleman Lauren; $175,000 6040 Brierly Creek Rd: Meyer Matthew to Tenner David W; $157,000 6189 Mernic Dr: Winch Matthew M Tr & Laurel E Tr to St Clair Jonathan & Erin; $154,000 6265 Taylor Rd: Sparks Marcia M to Engelhardt Erik Frederick & Jodi; $390,000 6603 Hearne Rd: Dehler Family LLC to Ramsey Victoria; $55,000 6796 Perinwood Dr: Volz Nancy D to Doyle Gordon E Jr & Carin Moore; $316,000 6830 Wesselman Rd: Williams Perry to Johnson David; $171,000 7738 Bridge Point Dr: Foreman Michael to Doyle Nicholas S; $145,000

Harrison Whitewater Trails Blvd: Nvr Inc to Cairns Andrew & Emmy; $316,215 1113 South Branch: Westhaven Development LLC to Nvr Inc; $71,587 115 Washington St: Schuck Jeffrey R & Andrea to Smart Maureen L; $166,500 1166 South Branch: Nvr Inc to Leppert Wendy; $425,980 375 Industrial Ln: 375 Industrial Drive LLC & Edward J Cummings Iii to 375 Industrial Drive LLC; $150,000 506 Miami Tr: Scheibenzuber Stephen R & Linda S to Mcguire Teresa; $300,000 506 Miami Trace: Scheibenzuber Stephen R & Linda S to Mcguire Teresa; $300,000 648 Heritage Sq: Mcarthur Violet Ruth to Hartke Keith & Della Hardke; $185,000 8966 Camberley St: Nvr Inc to Lawson Scot & Amber; $267,845 8971 Camberley St: Westhaven Development

LLC to Nvr Inc; $56,228 8978 Camberley St: Westhaven Development LLC to Nvr Inc; $56,228

Harrison Township 10599 Brittney Dr: Betscher Andrew J to Schmid Norb & Ronda; $75,000

Miami Township Legendary Ridge Ln: Neville Donna & Richard to Youngblood Cameron S & Lorin K; $70,000 Miami Township 2509 Cliff Rd: Nickoson Marlene A to Topolski Alan; $284,000 3024 Triplecrown Dr: Fonseca Cindie L to Brammer Randall Scott & Sherrie Conner; $310,000 3226 Brunsman Wy: Witzig Properties LLC to Jenkins Rhanesha; $180,000 3789 Tower Rd: Westerhaus Realty LLC to Combs Grayson & Beth; $405,000 4304 Miami River Rd: Middleton Floyd & Jennifer to Lee Nicholas; $30,000 7924 Rio Grande Dr: Trentman Robert & Wendy M to Docter Douglas J & Julie E; $368,000 7941 Rio Grande Dr: Docter Douglas J & Julie E to Katsetos Alyssa & Ryan; $306,000

North Bend 33 Muirfield Dr: Oehler Carol J Tr & Richard C Tr to Neville Richard & Donna; $529,900

North Fairmount 1753 Denham St: Atkinson Geoffrey to Winkler Ethan; $102,500

South Fairmount Spring Grove Ave: Haskamp John H & Dennis P to The Compound LLC; $85,000 2612 Spring Grove Ave: Haskamp John H & Dennis P to The Compound LLC; $85,000

West End 1036 Dayton St: Jameco Properties LLC to Integrity Trust Homes LLC; $110,000 1935 Freeman Ave: Black T I E Protective Services Inc to 1935 Freeman Avenue LLC; $22,000 913 Charlotte St: Champion Fannie to Aim High Properties LLC; $125,000

West Price Hill 1014 Gilsey Ave: Serenh LLC to Ramirez Wilmer Matias & Estela Florencio

Temaj; $70,000 1066 Benz Ave: Moore Eric & Danielle to Bailey Rodney; $149,900 1120 Sunset Ave: Zhu Zhenqi & Yuehong Wu to Aguilar Ismael Arturo Bamaca &; $85,000 1231 Gilsey Ave: Rl Global Investing LLC to Cowgill Thomas G @ 4; $69,000 4004 Akochia Ave: Perry Allyson R & Domenico G Salzano to Mendez Eduardo S; $40,000 4043 Eighth St: H & M Eight LLC to Key West Properties Inc; $124,023 4242 Loubell Ln: Wagner Stuart M to Neumann Brothers LLC; $134,900 4244 Loubell Ln: Wagner Stuart M to Neumann Brothers LLC; $134,900 4748 Clevesdale Dr: Rueve Martin T to Lacey Brienne I; $158,000 848 Beech Ave: U S Bank National Association Tr Truman 2016 Sc6 Title Trust to Sfr3-030 LLC; $85,000

Westwood 2472 Boudinot Ave: Schirmer Vincent R Tr to Cux Properties LLC; $125,000 2724 Shaffer Ave: Suburban Homes LLC to Vb One LLC; $94,800 2875 St Catherine Pl: Skyline Real Estate Ltd to Sfr3-000 LLC; $123,000 2905 Lafeuille Ave: Sullivan Steve A to Henley Ethan C & Melissa; $324,900 3011 Irvella Pl: Hillenbrand John W to Mcgill Clarence; $134,000 3037 Aquadale Ln: Richards Michael James to Mod-rs Holdings LLC; $50,000 3110 Ramona Ave: Tschumper Mary J Tr to Dicarlo Gabriel D & Alyssa R Zang; $205,000 3118 Daytona Ave: Moore Ellen Mary to Grube Leslie Marie; $160,000 3127 Wooster Pl: Corporate Saving Solutions LLC to Hamer Joshua; $32,200 3353 Meyer Pl: Besl James P & Jan Conversano Besl to Purnhagen Tara; $125,000 3470 Stathem Ave: Wagner D Cecilia to Mundstock Jaclyn A; $175,000

Whitewater Township 8542 Strimple Rd: Bloomfield John Tyler & Katherine A to Frederick Kristin Ann; $430,000 8730 Harrison Ave: Hood Stephanie E Tr to Noes Bradley; $45,000

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