OH Really?

The Ohio hamburger favorite, founded in 1934, is either Swensons or Swenson's

Kamm's Corner and Lakewood Heights Blvd. are the latest examples.

About a third of the county's communities include the word "Heights" in their names.

The added fees took effect in 2020.

Finding a barbershop is not always easy

A listener asks whether coastal delays related to the pandemic are impacting Cleveland.

A listener asks how the iconic Northeast Ohio venue is protected from winter.

The Ohio Department of Transportation is installing many of these intersections in Summit and surrounding counties.

And was the area in the CVNP haunted?

Some items cannot or will not be burned into ash.

WKSU Sports Commentator Terry Pluto discusses the city's AHL teams.

What was once a small rural airstrip is causing headaches for one drone user in Canton.

A listener asks about getting a Johnson & Johnson shot after already completing both doses of the Pfizer vaccine.

A listener asks about the Serbian delicacy from Summit County.

Amid concerns about learning days lost because of the pandemic, a listener and former teacher asked "OH Really?" if now might be a good time to consider moving to a year-round school calendar.

A listener asks about some information he received about injections being reserved for second doses.

Ohio voters have twice approved a new way of drawing legislative district maps at the state and federal levels. But nothing has happened yet. A listener wondered why. WKSU's OH Really? helped her find out.

How and where to get vaccinated

In Geauga County, there's already a sign-up web survey

The county recently moved from the highest coronavirus threat level, down to the second highest

WKSU listeners have been sending in questions about voting this fall, from what happens to absentee ballot applications to the security of each county’s dropbox. We’re answering in our first "OH Really?" election-protection conversation. Jen Miller, director of the Ohio League of Women Voters, begins by discussing why some people are getting multiple absentee ballot applications . Miller says it’s not uncommon to get multiple applications from different sources. The key is just to ensure you fill it out correctly and – especially this year – send it back as soon as possible. If a letter or application does arrive from the Board of Elections, it could be a notice that there’s an issue with your application and you need to re-apply. A list of important dates for requesting ballots, changing voter information, and other deadlines is here . Applications must be received at Boards of Election (not merely postmarked) by October 31 at noon. However -- as with the entire process this year --

The Akron Police Department has confiscated 469 guns so far this year, an increase of 20 percent. A listener asked our OH Really ? team, what happens to all those firearms?

As employees return to work in Ohio, questions remain about how 2020 tax returns could be affected by the stimulus money that many Americans got as part of the CARES Act. We ask an expert in this edition of “OH Really?” The stimulus payments, or Economic Impact Payments, were sent out this spring during the coronavirus pandemic. They’re what’s known -- from a tax standpoint -- as an “advance payment of a refundable credit.” University of Akron Tax Professor Melanie McCoskey says if you received stimulus money – or even if you were supposed to, but haven’t yet – you won’t have to pay tax on it, and it won’t decrease any refunds you might get on the tax return you’ll file next year. “Let’s say that your refund, as you regularly calculate it, was $1000. Then you say, ‘I was supposed to get $1200 [and] I did get $1200, so there’s no change to my refund.’” McCoskey’s advice is to keep track of how much you received, since it’s unlikely the government will send out statements to taxpayers.

Businesses in Ohio are re-opening and schools are making plans for this fall. But you’ve still got questions about the future of telemedicine, and when and how libraries will reopen amid the coronavirus pandemic. We answer those questions and more in this week’s edition of “ OH Really? ”

For decades, factories in Cleveland's Industrial Valley have sent smoke and even fire out of their smokestacks – a process known as “flaring.” Margaret Liske from Hudson has always wondered about the smokestacks along I-77 near Cleveland. “They belch out huge, high billows of smoke and -- at night -- fire. Why is this potential heat not somehow recycled [or] reused?” For the answer, we asked Krishna Rao, a chemical engineer who recently retired as president of Valley View-based plastics firm, Nanofilm. “There’s this constant push-and-pull about what’s good for the environment versus what’s good for the company in trying to reduce their costs. It’s more expensive to burn it and use it as a source of energy because they have access to lower cost fuel. Or if they decide to ship it somewhere else, the cost of transportation – whether through tankers or through pipelines – will require a lot more investment. That’s been the [classic] argument.” Rao says other countries, including Russia and

Ohio businesses continue to re-open this week, and you’ve still got questions about how coronavirus will affect everything from your pets to homeless people.

As some of Ohio’s nonessential businesses reopen, you’ve still got questions about how coronavirus will affect everything from mortgages to license plates.

As some of Ohio’s non-essential businesses reopen, you’ve still got questions about how coronavirus will affect everything from college tuition refunds to child custody hearings.

As some of Ohio’s nonessential businesses prepare to reopen, you’ve still got questions about how coronavirus will affect everything from dental appointments to funerals. Listener James Little asked how the current pandemic is affecting mortuary services. To find out, we spoke with Gary Burr, president of the Ohio Funeral Directors Association . “The whole purpose of embalming is preservation and disinfection. So that’s something that happens all the time," Burr said. "The chemicals that we use for a person who passes away from a heart attack are no different than what we’d use for someone who has an infectious disease. We just have to be a little more cognizant of making sure that when we handle the person that we don’t let any air get expelled from their lungs. Just as a protection for our staff. And we try not to let family members get too close to the remains. The latest information that we received from the CDC recommends that people who pass away from coronavirus not be touched

Gov. Mike DeWine has signaled that Ohio nonessential businesses could start reopening by the end of next week. And you’ve been asking what that means for coronavirus testing, the state’s farmers and even Cuyahoga Valley National Park. Now, Sarah Taylor and Kabir Bhatia from our newsroom answer questions you’ve sent in for “OH Really?”

With nonessential businesses closed and much of Ohio shut down due to COVID-19, a lot of people are out of work right now. Last week in Ohio, 226,000 people filed applications to receive unemployment benefits . It’s not an easy task because the system has been overwhelmed.

It’s been another week of closed businesses, self-quarantine and “Wine with DeWine” in Ohio. And another week of changes in the state’s battle against coronavirus. Here are answers to questions you've submitted to OH Really?

The effects of the coronavirus are being felt everywhere from our region's parks to small businesses. This week we're answering listener questions on a range of topics being impacted by the virus. Even before Gov. Mike DeWine ordered nonessential businesses to close , we started getting emails from people who felt they were being forced to work when they should have been staying home, or working from home.

Life as we knew it in Northeast Ohio has been grinding to a halt because of the coronavirus. You’ve been asking WKSU’s OH Really? about everything from risk factors to home remedies. We've been gathering answers to your questions about the virus.

The news of how the coronavirus is affecting Northeast Ohio is changing daily. One week ago, only a few dozen tests had been conducted in the state. And schools, bars, restaurants and sporting events were all operating as usual. As of this past weekend, all of that has changed.

To paraphrase a quote from the 1990s sitcom "NewsRadio": Winter in Northeast Ohio is the best seven months of the year. But that may not be true in the future. The four warmest winters on record occurred in the past decade. This edition of WKSU’s OH Really ? answers a listener question about how climate change might affect Northeast Ohio in the future.

About 60,000 drivers pass through northern Summit County on Route 8 each day. For the past year, a $58 million reconstruction project has closed a third of the expressway. The roadwork was delayed last week, but is expected to begin Monday night.

A changing trade deal with China has put a strain on Ohio agriculture, but farmers are experimenting with new uses for soybeans to reduce the reliance on Chinese buyers. And a WKSU listener asked us where consumers can find products made with soy. This edition of OH Really? explores where those soybeans go. For consumers, it’s not always apparent where soybeans go since they’re not the most common item at grocery stores, but they end up in more products than you might expect. Dave Dotterer is a Wayne County farmer and member of the United Soybean Board . “Our goal is to just keep striving to come up with new products. So, the soybean is quite a product. You know, there’s printer inks made with it,” he said. Soybean oil is mainly used in cooking oils, and farmers are starting to grow a healthier high-oleic soy with benefits similar to olive oil. Research groups in the Ohio Soybean Council have also found other uses for soybean oil from roofing protectant to a petroleum substitute used

When it comes to recycling plastic, most people check for a number on the bottom of every container. But what does that number actually mean, and why are some plastics not recyclable? This installment of our series, Reduce, Reuse, Refocus traces the life cycle of a piece of plastic.

North Akron has been home to immigrants from Nepal, Italy, and – 200 years ago -- Ireland. So what happened to the area that was once known as Old Dublin?

This story was originally published on January 22, 2019. Castalia, Ohio, is home to The Blue Hole, which was a tourist attraction for almost a century. WKSU’s “OH Really?” finds out why it’s been off-limits to the public for the last 29 years.

Deer hunting season is winding down in Ohio . As it does, we’re considering a question about Ohio wildlife from a WKSU listener. Nicholas Kavalec asked our OH Really? team about apex predators—those at the top of the food chain. We connected him with a wildlife manager at the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) in Akron.

Raw, unpasteurized goat milk can be bought in Ohio for use as pet food. But between the teat and the street, farmers have to do a lot of work to make the milk safe for human consumption. In this installment of WKSU’s “OH Really?,” we try to help a listener who wants to “drink local” and buy fresh, raw goat milk right from the farm.

It's a joint that's spun into one of the region’s most popular fast-food chains. But at some point during its 85-year history, something about Swensons changed. Many people probably never noticed, but one man did, and he reached out to us. In this installment of “ OH Really? ,” we try to solve the case of the missing apostrophe.

Heavy rain this spring pushed local waterways to higher-than normal levels , and listener Patrick Pierquet from Wooster asks “ OH Really? ” how that could affect wildlife. Pierquet was an avid kayaker who still checks water levels every day. “They’ve been high or very high for the last four months, which is very unusual. So my thought was: how does that change the ecology of rivers?” The Cuyahoga’s levels have spiked several times in that period – including on the 50 th anniversary of the last river fire, in June. It was so high that day, Meg Plona had to carry the ceremonial 50 th anniversary torch alongside the river, instead of in it. She’s a biologist with the Cuyahoga Valley National Park . She says high water levels are recorded on the river every year. Most animals can move to higher ground and adapt. But in the spring, when there are extended periods of flooding, Plona says the effects can be devastating. “To ground-nesting birds such as turkeys or ducks; things that are