The donation was approved by the Boys & Women Clubs of Youngstown’s Jim Hen, CEO and govt director Wanda Wellman, useful resource enhancement and advertising and marketing director Jacquetta Peoples, membership coordinator and various little ones at the facility positioned at 2105 Oak Hill Ave.
“It’s seriously significant that we assist companies like this,” Steve Rotunno, new-motor vehicle supervisor at Greenwood’s Hubbard Chevrolet, said in a news launch. “The Boys & Girls Club does so a lot to assist kids suitable right here in the Valley, so building a donation to aid them was a no-brainer.”
Chicken reported his firm is “grateful” for the donation.
“Imagine my surprise when we bought the phone from Steve at Hubbard Chevrolet telling us that we had been preferred as their 12 months-finish charity,” he explained.
Harbor Freight to open new retail store in Boardman
BOARDMAN — Harbor Freight announced it will open up a new retail store at 317 Boardman-Poland Street.
Construction has started on the new retail store, and it is predicted to open up in late winter season. An formal date will be declared closer to the opening, a information release states.
“We’ve been wanting to open up a place in Boardman for a amount of several years so that we can give the applications and gear at tremendous values to the neighborhood,” Trey Feiler, senior vice president of actual estate and development for Harbor Freight, claimed in the launch. “In addition to locating a excellent locale, we were attracted by the availability of great associates in the Boardman region, and we seem forward to obtaining them be a part of the Harbor Freight workforce.”
The store is now choosing. Interested applicants can implement right here. Research for “Boardman, OH.”
Youngstown Place Jewish Federation receives grants
The teleheath undertaking has been supported by The Legacy Heritage Fund, the Thomases Spouse and children Endowment of the Youngstown Place Jewish Federation and The Youngstown Foundation.
Telehealth is an emerging and important portion of the health care procedure, and there is a rising want to integrate these technological advancements into day to day health care, a news launch states.
Heritage Manor and Levy Gardens are including systems that assistance to decrease the range of falls and improve stability enrich clinical outcomes to minimize medical center re-admissions enhance conversation between personnel, people and people and extend their pursuits programming in written content and variety.
— Do you have an announcement about your company or organization you’d like to share? Electronic mail news@mahoningmatters.com.
Ford not long ago produced its 2022 Searching More with Ford (F) report, marking the 10th year the legacy automaker has surveyed worldwide customers to discover traits among the important demographics. In accordance to Ford Chief Futurist Sheryl Connelly, local climate and environmental problems continue to be at the major of consumers’ minds.
“So it can be definitely ‘climate, weather, weather,’” Connelly informed Yahoo Finance Stay. “We have been accomplishing this report for a number of yrs, and what we found is that in modern decades 67{1b90e59fe8a6c14b55fbbae1d9373c165823754d058ebf80beecafc6dee5063a} of individuals that we speak to even before COVID were telling us that they were overwhelmed by modifications having area in the earth.”
She described the confluence of the COVID-19 pandemic, polarized politics, and weather transform issues as a “low-quality fever of worry” that buyers have been living with for the previous yr. Heading into 2022, Ford identified that 81{1b90e59fe8a6c14b55fbbae1d9373c165823754d058ebf80beecafc6dee5063a} of persons surveyed from 15 unique nations around the world nonetheless cited weather change as their prime worry.
Ford also uncovered that in 2021, 70{1b90e59fe8a6c14b55fbbae1d9373c165823754d058ebf80beecafc6dee5063a} of folks surveyed all over the world reported that they have been actively transforming their actions to struggle local climate change. Nonetheless, a handful of years prior, they observed that only 48{1b90e59fe8a6c14b55fbbae1d9373c165823754d058ebf80beecafc6dee5063a} of Individuals explained they were ready to get on sustainability initiatives if the inconvenience to them was “small or non-existent.”
Connelly spoke to the American sentiment bordering sustainability as it pertains to electrical cars.
“And I imagine that’s truly the most significant essential below, is that folks want to do their portion but they want to make it practical,” Connelly said. “They want to make guaranteed that they are not nervous about the length of the cost, the charging variety they’ll get, and that there’ll be possibilities for them to demand.”
An all-electric F-150 Lightning on display screen at the Motor Bella event in Pontiac, Michigan on September 21, 2021. – The North American International Auto Clearly show (NAIAS) did not keep its 2021 car exhibit as prepared owing to Covid-19 considerations but as a substitute, they are internet hosting an car-centric event referred to as Motor Bella. (Image by JEFF KOWALSKY / AFP) (Image by JEFF KOWALSKY/AFP via Getty Pictures)
The EV drive
With Ford saying that it intends to ramp up its EV output to 600,000 by 2023 — the corporation expects EVs to comprise 40{1b90e59fe8a6c14b55fbbae1d9373c165823754d058ebf80beecafc6dee5063a} of the global motor vehicle blend by 2030 — its tendencies report was intrigued in surveying customers about their views on issues surrounding the adoption of EVs.
“We did check with folks close to the earth when [they] think charging stations will outnumber the number of petrol stations in the earth 13{1b90e59fe8a6c14b55fbbae1d9373c165823754d058ebf80beecafc6dee5063a} of Individuals mentioned that will materialize by 2030 … But if you appear to a put like Germany, 34{1b90e59fe8a6c14b55fbbae1d9373c165823754d058ebf80beecafc6dee5063a} of the people reported it’s going to occur by the conclusion of the decade,” Connelly mentioned.
She cited authorities dedication ranges as remaining the key cause behind this distinction in consumer sentiment. For instance, the German federal government proceeds to revamp its incentive payments for buyers of electrical and hybrid automobiles and necessary every single gasoline station in the place to install electrical motor vehicle charging stations as portion of its 130 billion euro pandemic stimulus strategy again in June 2020.
In accordance to Conelly, the crucial to catalyzing the EV force is exhibiting individuals that goods like the Mustang Mach-E, the Ford F-150 Lightning, and the Ford E-Transit van can supply on the identical level as a V6 or V8-run car or truck, and that there does not will need to be a trade-off among “mileage and muscle.”
To that stop, Connelly mentioned how the F-150 Lightning was ready to gain goodwill from the folks of Texas through the winter season storms in February 2021 by means of its onboard generator.
“Our area sellers dispatched F-150 Lightnings into the neighborhood to help folks get power back into their homes. And I imagine all those alerts definitely get started to transform your anticipations about what a motor vehicle can do for you,” she stated.
Thomas Hum is a author at Yahoo Finance. Observe him on Twitter @thomashumTV
Read through the latest economic and business news from Yahoo Finance
Here’s a prescription for money contentment in 2022: Accept the actuality that you will likely commit extra income than you did in 2021.
With inflation driving up the price of meals, rent and a lot more, pressures are mounting on our wallets, so anticipating your spending to continue to be in line with the previous year is the two unrealistic and a recipe for sensation guilt and self-recrimination. The important, money planners and scientists say, is contemplating ahead about in which that additional shelling out will materialize and quieting the voice in your head evaluating your bills from a person calendar year to the up coming.
“What’s heading on proper now that is so outrageous is that no one even has an strategy of what the baseline ought to be. The past could or may perhaps not be suitable to the upcoming,” said Abigail Sussman, affiliate professor of internet marketing at the University of Chicago who experiments how shoppers make judgments.
Economical industry experts advise that future budgets allot additional to needs, these kinds of as bigger rent, as very well as needs, such as travel. Below are some ways to do just that.
Maintain on Conserving
You may perhaps have saved a large amount of cash in the past yr, many thanks to a robust labor marketplace, rising wages and record-significant personal savings costs. You can help you save much more in 2022.
Adding extra to your existing discounts can tranquil a good deal of fears people may have about paying out far more income in other cost types, claimed Sarah Behr, economical planner and founder of Simplify Economic in San Francisco. As you are viewing that financial savings account improve, you can chill out figuring out that need to catastrophe strike, you have a cushion.
Check out in on your savings development from the former 12 months. Are you pleased with the amount you established apart? Do you want to boost your price savings level or manage the present just one? Even as you develop your spending plan, conserve initially just before paying on other points. You can set up regularly scheduled withdrawals to automate the approach and do away with annoying choices.
Prevent Contemplating in Pounds
Acquiring frugal behavior will help ward off lifestyle creep. Still you may be hanging on to outdated strategies about how numerous bucks to expend in diverse regions of life. The past two decades may have lowered your shelling out on vacation, going out and amusement, but these situations aren’t permanent.
Investing a lot more dollars than you have formerly can lead to emotions of shame or shame, Ms. Behr claimed. She’s previously talked to shoppers who have moved up from meager suggests and struggled to alter to the new latitude much more cash affords them.
“I’m the just one declaring, ‘Whoa, whoa, whoa, you can find the money for to go out to take in, you can find the money for a new motor vehicle, you never have to drive your 2015 Prius,’” Ms. Behr reported. “[Clients] are saving, and they’re squirreling away, but there is no adjust in perspective.”
Malik Lee, a controlling principal and adviser at Felton & Peel Wealth Management Inc., suggests seeking at budgets in conditions of percentages of your in general revenue, somewhat than greenback amounts.
He points to the 20-30-50 model, a tenet of private finance that encourages placing at the very least 20{1b90e59fe8a6c14b55fbbae1d9373c165823754d058ebf80beecafc6dee5063a} of your take-house shell out into personal savings allotting 30{1b90e59fe8a6c14b55fbbae1d9373c165823754d058ebf80beecafc6dee5063a} for “wants” like travel and socializing and designating the ultimate 50{1b90e59fe8a6c14b55fbbae1d9373c165823754d058ebf80beecafc6dee5063a} to fixed fees this kind of as housing and payments.
“Thinking in percentages of money makes this a lot less complicated, and it would make it versatile,” Mr. Lee said. “As you are escalating your income, that will make sure that your cost savings will enhance with that, and the other ‘good’ categories will improve, also.”
Choose Your Splurges
Most of us have exercise downsizing budgets and cutting bills. Less of us have invested time setting up what we’ll shell out more on, specially in conditions of luxuries like travel or entertainment, what Ms. Sussman refers to as “pre-committing to indulgence.”
This does not suggest splashing out on every thing, but thinking meticulously about the paying that will have the most optimistic effect, these as placing apart money for a lengthy-awaited holiday.
Instead, consider the shelling out that provides you the most pleasure, these as vacations, property-fitness equipment or some other precedence. Allotting much more cash to goods like individuals can make your budget sense fulfilling, Ms. Sussman reported, so that when you are earning trade-offs in other places of your life—like cutting again on going-out fees to put more toward your new, even larger apartment—it feels fewer like a loss and far more like a pivot.
Allot money to individuals personal savings goals—“I’ll commit additional on journey in 2022” or “I want to preserve for a even bigger apartment”—by producing a separate bucket for these funds. Title it some thing enjoyable in your preferred budgeting app or spreadsheet. This way, as you are looking at the revenue expand in the account, you can sprinkle some extra anticipation on the potential success.
Past, a Piece of Guidance
Whichever spending budget will work ideal for you, Ms. Behr warns against measuring your own shelling out or saving versus peers’.
“A ton of people question me, ‘Do we shell out far too a lot money?’ or ‘How a lot do other persons shell out?’” she claimed. Worrying about spending is all-natural, but comparing the sizing of your cost savings with others is generally unproductive, she included. “It’s like that old declaring: ‘Comparison is the thief of joy.’”
Compose to Julia Carpenter at julia.carpenter@wsj.com
SHARE YOUR Ideas
How are you approaching your funds in the new 12 months?
1st-time unemployment filings fell by 8,000 promises from the earlier week’s studying, marking the 2nd most affordable print for the duration of the pandemic and signaling ongoing restoration in the labor marketplace as superior demand from customers for employees pours into the new year.
The Labor Division introduced its most recent report on original and continuing promises on Thursday at 8:30 a.m. ET. Listed here were the most important metrics from the print, as opposed to consensus estimates compiled by Bloomberg:
Preliminary jobless promises, 7 days ended Dec. 25: 198,000 vs. 206,000 envisioned and upwardly revised to 206,000 throughout prior 7 days
Continuing promises, 7 days finished Dec. 18: 1.716 million vs. 1.875 million predicted and downwardly revised to 1.856 million for the duration of prior 7 days
The newest print provides the four-7 days shifting normal to 199,300 in the 7 days ending Dec. 25, Bloomberg knowledge mirrored. Continuing claims dropped to a contemporary pandemic small of 1.716 million. Forecasts for this week’s jobless promises launch ranged from 190,000-225,000 from 22 economists surveyed by Bloomberg.
Very first-time filings for unemployment remained down below the 2019 ordinary of 218,000, when the unemployment charge was at a 50 percent-century minimal of 3.5{1b90e59fe8a6c14b55fbbae1d9373c165823754d058ebf80beecafc6dee5063a}, according to Bloomberg. The present-day unemployment level is also predicted to edge down to 4.1{1b90e59fe8a6c14b55fbbae1d9373c165823754d058ebf80beecafc6dee5063a} in December as the labor sector continues to tighten.
At 205,000, last week’s preliminary unemployment claims ended up on par with economist forecasts and down below pre-pandemic concentrations nonetheless once again. Earlier in December, jobless claims fell sharply to 188,000, the most affordable stage given that 1969. The prints serve an early sign of the relative strength anticipated to present in December’s careers report, nevertheless the economic influence of the virus continues to be unclear.
“Fortunately, there’s no proof in this data of a new wave of new occupation decline,” Bankrate senior financial analyst Mark Hamrick reported, commenting on past week’s figures. “New claims are only a little over the most affordable place in decades notched a pair of months ago.”
“With so significantly uncertainty now and the substantial amount of worry about the Omicron variant, we’ll get balance when we can get it,” Hamrick additional.
Before this month, JPMorgan chief U.S. economist Michael Feroli predicted the unemployment price could fall to all around 3{1b90e59fe8a6c14b55fbbae1d9373c165823754d058ebf80beecafc6dee5063a}.
“It’s spectacular to see how a lot the amount has fallen in the final 5 months,” he informed Yahoo Finance Reside. “We hope that rate of decrease to gradual, but it would not acquire much to get beneath 4{1b90e59fe8a6c14b55fbbae1d9373c165823754d058ebf80beecafc6dee5063a}, even with a tick up in the labor participation level, which has been frustrated more than the final yr and a fifty percent.”
File circumstances of COVID-19 may possibly discourage workers from looking for function as U.S. homes proceed to cite worry of COVID or virus-similar caretaking requirements as causes for remaining out of the work market place.
“The pandemic’s resurgence is affecting the economic system,” Hamrick reported in a note final week. “The issue is for how extended and how a lot, and it is much too early to know the answers.”
This post is breaking. Test back for updates.
Alexandra Semenova is a reporter for Yahoo Finance. Follow her on Twitter @alexandraandnyc
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➤ Business interruption coverage is probable to stay a “fairly nascent” item right up until additional data can far better determine pricing for severity and frequency, Coterie’s CEO reported.
➤ Coterie’s leading government expects more improvements close to business enterprise interruption, a products that can be complicated for a lot of organization house owners to afford.
A couple of a long time in advance of the COVID-19 pandemic commenced, CEO David McFarland co-founded Coterie, an insurtech that focuses on compact enterprise coverage. The firm a short while ago accomplished a $50 million collection B funding spherical.
S&P Global Sector Intelligence spoke with McFarland to examine how smaller business enterprise insurance policies might evolve in 2022, Coterie’s future ideas and the impact COVID-19 had on the company’s merchandise and operation.
S&P Worldwide Sector Intelligence: How did the pandemic direct to an evolution in the products you provide?
Coterie CEO and co-founder David McFarland Source: Coterie
David McFarland: Right before the pandemic strike, we were very considerably at the starting of the item, marketing common liability insurance policies and business enterprise entrepreneurs procedures, and our merchandise was substantially a lot more simplified.
COVID really kind of compelled us to get started increasing into other spots simply because we weren’t seriously certain what was going to take place from a distribution standpoint. We were being capable to truly buckle down and say, “Hey, we want to develop the appetite promptly to make confident that we can get the ideal sum of income, as properly as continue on to develop out far more for these diverse channel associates.”
What is the capacity like in the present-day market for your merchandise?
So the capability suitable now just isn’t far too poor. You know, $1 million or $2 million restrictions are not as well challenging to appear by. What we are seeing while is more of the organization relocating a lot more toward non-admitted as opposed to admitted. This is not always a bad point, but we do not want to throw tons of enterprise in the non-admitted space.
We want to offer the insureds an admitted product or service that offers a little little bit extra safety than non-admitted, just with the insurance plan regulators powering it. With regard to our items, we are able to provide some factors that other individuals are unable to.
I would say we do have a broader course urge for food than most. Exactly where some folks are putting much more into non-admitted, we truly place these into the admitted. We believe that we have a really potent merchandise for that.
Will it be feasible for compact firms to get coverage for the challenges they are most anxious about in the potential, like small business interruption?
Business enterprise interruption coverage is, at least because of to pandemic, undoubtedly not in the very affordable classification ideal now. I imagine we are almost certainly going to see much more breakthroughs on that. Ideal now, we are dealing with a minimal quantity of details details. The severity is ultra-superior. So it is going to be a fairly nascent product or service for a when as we get much more knowledge and check out to figure out what we need to have to do from a pricing standpoint. Frequency is another part, and figuring out the frequency behind these matters will be important as nicely. It can be hard to say how extended it is likely to choose the market to respond to these varieties of issues.
How do you deal with the elaborate requires that modest enterprises can have?
With the info that exists out there, it is not just a make any difference of an agent typing in a predetermined code into a research bar. What we can do now is we can pull knowledge on these firms and specific addresses, and say, “That is a venue that serves meals, gives liquor and has dwell new music from 11 o’clock at night till two in the morning.” Businesses have all distinct styles of exposures to pitfalls that we have to have to be cognizant of. When we fully grasp them far more, we can deliver a product that is commensurate with the challenges we are taking on, and that that will help out the insured a lot extra than just hoping to cram in various codes. We are seriously energized about the info that’s available suitable now, and we are going to be releasing some solutions towards the beginning of next year that is likely to intensely benefit from that information and facts.
What are the most important strategies you feel small organization insurance plan will evolve in 2022?
Knowledge and technological know-how are likely to proceed to be major pushers in the evolution of insurance policy. The different kinds of aggregators that are out there that brokers and brokers can use, like ValuePenguin and other folks, are likely to be adopted far more broadly. Men and women are going to be looking at the pros and disadvantages and figuring out the very best insurance company to go with. That will be an interesting chapter in the evolution of small commercial.
Cyber is going to be an appealing ingredient of what happens in 2022, as properly as developments on organization interruption coverage. I cannot say at all for specific wherever items are going to go possibly with cyber or small business interruption, but I think we are going to absolutely see some evolution in people markets.
From the diminished presence of Ohio’s richest man in the local business scene to the bankruptcy of the owner of Polaris Fashion Place and several other local malls, 2021 was packed with business stories that changed Columbus. Here’s a sampling.
The Columbus Dispatch investigated claims of racial discrimination made by current and former employees of Equitas Health, a Columbus-based health-care provider for the LGBTQ community. Following the report, former CEO Bill Hardy and other senior leaders resigned from the organization. The board hired an interim chief people and culture officer and employed a law firm to conduct an independent investigation of the alleged racist culture in the workplace.
In September, Mayor Ginther signed an executive order on Friday that would require everyone, regardless of vaccination status, to wear masks inside publicly accessible buildings. While business owners said supported the decision amid surging cases of COVID-19, they expressed concern about enforcement. They told stories of customers starting fights, damaging property—and even spraying mace.
Washington Prime Group, the Columbus-based, publicly traded owner of Polaris Fashion Place and 100 other shopping centers, filed for bankruptcy protection in June, after struggling for more than a year with pandemic-reduced traffic and sales. Washington Prime operated as usual as it worked out an arrangement with creditors, and Polaris even added two major tenants: FieldhouseUSA and Public Lands. In November, the company emerged from bankruptcy as a private company under the direction of its largest creditor, the investment firm SVPGlobal. In addition to Polaris, Washington Prime Washington Prime also owns Indian Mound Mall in Heath; the Mall at Fairfield Commons in Beavercreek; Dayton Mall; New Towne Mall in New Philadelphia; Lima Mall and Lima Center; Great Lakes Mall in Mentor; and Southern Park Mall in Youngstown.
Shortages, delays and rising prices became common throughout much of the economy, whether it’s cars, new homes or grocery stores running short on basics, such as toilet paper, because of surging demand and not enough workers.
Work began in earnest on The Peninsula, the 26-acre development next to COSI in Franklinton. Significant construction progress was made on the first six buildings in the development: two apartment buildings, a hotel, an office building and two parking garages. Developers were pleased enough with early tenant interest that in November they announced the next phase: a 30-story apartment building and a seven-story office building, both built atop a four-story parking garage. When completed, the development is expected to include up to 2 million square feet of offices, 1,800 residences, 200,000 square feet of retail space and 400 hotel rooms.
The Columbus-area housing market spent the year smashing records, as a mountain of buyers competed for a hill of homes by offering incentives such as appraisal gaps, no-remedy inspections and escalation clauses. In the first 11 months of the year, the median sales price of a home in Greater Columbus was $260,000, up from $231,750 in the previous year. Columbus-area homes sold for an average of 102{1b90e59fe8a6c14b55fbbae1d9373c165823754d058ebf80beecafc6dee5063a} of their asking price and in an average of 16 days in 2021. The market was so super-charged that in the spring, homes were selling faster in the Columbus area than anywhere else. Buyers received discouraging news at the end of the year, when the listing service Realtor.com projected the Columbus area to be one of the nation’s hottest housing markets in 2022.
Schoedinger Funeral & Cremation Service, Columbus’ oldest family-owned business, announced in December that it had reached an agreement to be acquired by the Houston company Service Corporation International, the nation’s largest operator of funeral homes. Founded in 1855, Schoedinger is now run by its sixth generation. Schoedinger said the sale will be largely invisible to customers. All 12 Schoedinger funeral homes will remain, along with the company’s 180 employees, including five family members. Service Corp. International, which also goes by the trade name Dignity, operates more than 1,900 funeral homes and cemeteries in 45 states and eight Canadian provinces.
As white-collar employees continued to work from home, office vacancies in Greater Columbus continued to climb. By fall, more than 20{1b90e59fe8a6c14b55fbbae1d9373c165823754d058ebf80beecafc6dee5063a} of offices in the area were vacant, not including those that sat empty but were still paying rent. Meanwhile, developers continued to build new offices in the hopes that companies would still be drawn to new space with new amenities. While vacancies could be found throughout the Columbus area, they were especially acute in some Capital Square towers; during the third quarter, four high-rises around the Statehouse were at least 60{1b90e59fe8a6c14b55fbbae1d9373c165823754d058ebf80beecafc6dee5063a} vacant. By the end of the year, corporate employers showed little appetite for returning to offices as some retreated from scheduled back-to-work plans.
Renewable energy company Savion is moving ahead with plans to build one of the biggest solar farms in the U.S. on farmland in Madison County that includes land owned by Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates. The 10,000-acre Oak Run solar farm would be built north of London near Plumwood and would cost at least $1 billion to build. The project includes 6,300 acres owned by Gates. If approved by state regulators, construction could begin in 2024 or ’25.
Google announced it will invest an additional $1 billion in New Albany for its data-center operations while buying additional land in Columbus and Lancaster for more data centers. Rising demand is behind Google’s $1 billion expansion in New Albany that will triple the size of those operations. The Columbus site is the home of the old Hartman Farm off of South High Street. Google said its purchase of 618 acres in Columbus and Lancaster will be for future potential development for data centers, and will give the tech giant more than 1,000 acres of land in the Columbus region.
There were so many fraudulent claims for unemployment benefits filed in Ohio that claims were even filed in the names of Gov. Mike DeWine and Lt. Gov. Jon Husted. At one point last January, 796,000 claims out of 1.4 million filed under a federal pandemic unemployment program were flagged for potential fraud. Meanwhile, the state struggled under the weight of legitimate claims for benefits with unemployed workers complaining of lengthy wait times to collect benefits.
COVID-19 has created a plethora of problems from global supply chain bottlenecks to labor shortages so severe that Greater Columbus businesses have struggled to meet surging demand. Beyond delays and shortages, soaring transportation prices are pushing up costs, further frustrating customers, say business executives. The problem dates to the early days of the pandemic in March 2020 when the global economy was largely shut down. Then the unexpected happened: One of the steepest, quickest downturns in U.S. history was followed by a snapback nearly as sharp, even as COVID-19 cases raged out of control.
Sheetz officially entered the Greater Columbus market in April when it opened its first store in Delaware. The Altoona, Pennsylvania-based restaurant, convenience store and gas station company had nine stores opened in the Columbus area by the end of the year and is on its way to 50 stores by 2025. The store is known for its avid fans called Sheetz freakz.
In January the Columbus city council approved a 15{1b90e59fe8a6c14b55fbbae1d9373c165823754d058ebf80beecafc6dee5063a} on third party delivery service fees, but the law only applied to contracts negotiated after the rule’s passage. As a result, most Columbus restaurants did not benefit from the rule because they were unwilling to renegotiate their agreements for fear of losing them altogether. While restaurateurs felt the third party services were exploiting a loophole in the law, the companies said they were following the rule as it was written.
Ohioans filed to start their own business in record numbers during the pandemic, but economists are divided on what exactly the surge means. Many of the startups have no web presence and their owners did not return messages seeking comment, but others said they started their own business because they wanted greater flexibility or the ability to work from home during a global pandemic.
Restaurants across Ohio had to close in 2021 because they couldn’t find enough workers, a problem that some business owners attributed to enhanced unemployment benefits. When those benefits, expired, however, the hiring woes continued. Workers who left the industry cited a raft of reasons for their decision, including a lack of childcare, rude customers and low pay.
The coronavirus pandemic exacerbated some of the stresses farmers face as commodity prices skyrocketed lockdowns cut off their support networks. Now Ohio State University’s extension service is training its workers to better spot some of the signs of mental illness and offer help to farmers who need it. Farmers are already more likely to die by suicide than the general population, and experts fear COVID will make the problem worse.
Record levels of adoptions in Ohio inspired feel-good headlines about shelter animals finding good homes. But as the owners of those pets returned to the offices and social activities they abandoned for much of 2020, the so-called “COVID puppies” needed more medical care, inundating animal hospitals and veterinarians offices across the state and resulting in weekslong wait times.
Gale King, former Nationwide Insurance executive vice president and chief administrative officer, announced her retirement after 37 years at the company. She was celebrated for leading diversity, equity and inclusion efforts, creating an engaging work culture and mentoring leaders in the company and beyond. Her impact was praised by current mayor, former mayor a former Ohio Supreme Court justice and many others.
The construction of the Columbus Crew’s new $313.9 million, 20,000-seat stadium and $34.2 million training facility were completed with the help of 54 minority-owned enterprises and 27 women-owned enterprises in central Ohio, throughout the state and beyond. A total of 117 contracts were awarded to minority- and women-owned contractors (79 minority-owned contracts, 38 women-owned contracts) amounting to over $74 million in spending. Beyond the financial benefit, underrepresented companies said these efforts have given them access to key players in the industry.
The Ohio RISE Survey, created by the Alliance of Black Businesswomen & Entrepreneurs (ABBE) Ohio, tracked the impact of the pandemic on Black women-owned businesses and assessed their needs for survival moving forward. The research found that nearly 70{1b90e59fe8a6c14b55fbbae1d9373c165823754d058ebf80beecafc6dee5063a} of responding businesses reported a loss of revenue, and 30{1b90e59fe8a6c14b55fbbae1d9373c165823754d058ebf80beecafc6dee5063a} were forced to close temporarily. And their most pressing needs were access to capital, greater business operational support (including technical assistance) and an equitable opportunity to get private and public contracts.
Dispatch business reporters Jim Weiker, Erica Thompson, Patrick Cooley and Mark Williams contributed to this report.
