News Blogs

Damaged West Union bars were set to undergo bystander intervention training

By Heather Hare | Nov. 17, 2014

Safer Spaces is trying to reduce harassment situations by training bartenders to intervene.

League of Women Voters: You should care about redistricting

By William T. Perkins | Nov. 17, 2014

An event sponsored by the League of Women Voters of Athens County Monday night sought to tackle issues of unfair political representation in Ohio — or at least make them easier to understand.As the state prepares to redraw congressional and legislative districts, some say that the process, if not handled correctly, will result in further political bias by allowing the major party — which would be the Republicans — to construct districts in their favor. District maps are redrawn every ten years. The event featured Ann Henkener, a board member at the state chapter of the league. About 35 people attended the meeting at the Athens Community Center, 701 E. State St.“I look at Ohio as a very 50-50 state,” Henkener said, “I look at Ohio as a battleground state … Where did the battle go?”Henkener said that there has been a decrease in competitiveness in Ohio politics due to biased appropriation of congressional districts to favor the majority party in Congress — a technique known as gerrymandering.She explained that gerrymandering happens when members of the state’s appropriation board set up district lines so that there are more districts that will vote for the majority party, rather than the minority party. The board is composed of the governor, secretary of state, state auditor and a democratic and republican appointee.Henkener provided examples of several past attempts to prevent gerrymandering, including a plan proposed in 1981 by former Athens resident and Ohio State professor David Horn, which would have required that each party draw up their own district lines, with the most competitive party winning.The measure drew opposition from the state legislature, but Ellsworth Holden, a co-president of the League of Women Voters of Athens County, said he thinks it could have passed if there had been an interim period between when it was passed and when it was enacted.Mary Costello, a co-president of the League of Women Voters of Athens County, said she thought the event helped to clarify a murky issue to Athens locals.Henkener said that she wants to make the issue clear enough so that a person could have a conversation about it with someone on the way to his or her car in a parking lot, although she admitted that was no easy task.“You either have it done by people who are good and kind and generous … the bipartisan angels … or you have very strict regulation,” she said. “We’re working on the angles, but we haven’t found them yet.”@wtperkinswp198712@ohio.edu

Ohio University medical college offers web-based health care

By Kaitlin Coward | Nov. 17, 2014

A faculty member is able to treat patients from Circleville while still in Athens thanks to technology.

The 911 calls

Nov. 17, 2014

The sounds of the coughs are chilling. Audio files of the 911 calls related to the massive Sunday fire across five structures on West Union Street detail what those in the buildings were experiencing. The calls, obtained by The Post, detail panic, worry and desperate pleas for help. Names of the callers were not obtained by Athens County 911 because they were fleeing the area when they called, authorities said in an email. The audio files are on our website. Here’s a partial transcription of those calls: