A yearlong Dispatch investigation maps what’s legal outside but barred inside Ohio prisons and highlights a deadly contraband trend: drug‑soaked paper. Officials are digitizing mail and beefing up security amid lawsuits.

Mild today, then a much warmer, windier and wetter stretch arrives early next week. Tuesday into Wednesday looks gusty with periods of rain.

A state audit says Ohio may have up to $4 billion in questionable Medicaid costs, citing eligibility errors and payments for residents who had died.

House Democrats unveiled a plan to pause utility cost-recovery for 12 months and send a $150 electric credit, funded by hiking the oil-and-gas severance tax. Lawmakers say it would raise roughly $650 million and fund well-plugging work.

NWS survey teams confirmed three tornado touchdowns across central Ohio during Thursday night storms, including an EF1 in Morrow County. No injuries were reported.

Thirteen years after Christine Malone was found beaten and strangled near East 93rd and Bessemer, her daughters will hold a memorial and press police for tips.

Renderings show a hotel, about 75 apartments, retail and a 10,000‑sq‑ft glass restaurant atop Akron's Quaker Square silos.

Commissioners approved a $1.495M land purchase to advance due diligence on a potential regional wastewater plant in Vermilion.

Sandusky has broken ground on The Landing, a 27‑acre waterfront park with trails, boardwalks, kayak launches and a Sandusky Bay Pathway connection.

A brief round of light snow is possible Saturday morning, then a warm weekend and a storm window Tuesday night into Wednesday.

Manet & Morisot comes to the Cleveland Museum of Art March 29–July 5. Thirty-six paintings and drawings trace the artists’ close creative exchange.

Western Reserve Area Agency on Aging bought Moen's former North Olmsted headquarters for $6.6M and will relocate its downtown offices to the suburban campus.

A NEJM‑published LATITUDE trial shows monthly cabotegravir‑rilpivirine injections reduced regimen failures among people who struggle with daily oral HIV therapy. University of Cincinnati clinicians were among the lead sites.