Iconic Cleveland toy store is closing after 27 years

Feb 6, 2018
Operating a small business, especially in a niche industry, can go either really well or not. For a couple decades, business at Steve Presser’s vintage toy store in Cleveland was booming, despite the challenges. We checked in on him on several occasions to see what it was like to be a small business owner in America’s heartland. Now […]
The view from outside the Big Fun Toy Store in the suburb of Cleveland Heights, Ohio.
Charlton Thorp/Marketplace

What happens when a town loses its only grocery store?

Dec 6, 2017
You may think of food deserts as an urban phenomenon. But they exist in rural towns too.
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

In Ohio's opioid crisis, Medicaid cutbacks could be disastrous

Jun 30, 2017
At the epicenter of the opioid crisis, a Medicaid rollback could be terrible for Ohioans
Activists and family members of loved ones who died in the opioid/heroin epidemic take part in a "Fed Up!" rally at Capitol Hill on Sept. 18, 2016, in Washington, D.C.
John Moore/Getty Images

Two small business owners with different views of Trump

Dec 19, 2016
In suburban Ohio, some see a windfall with his election, while others fear the worst.
Greg Knox owns Knox Machinery in a northern suburb of Cincinnati. He believes Trump will be good for his business.
Lewis Wallace/Marketplace

Dayton has welcomed immigrants, but many are now in limbo

Dec 14, 2016
The city has a program called "Welcome Dayton" that encourages immigrants to settle down there.
A view of Dayton, Ohio.
Doug Kerr/Flickr

The lay of the land in Florida and Ohio

Mar 15, 2016
It's another super Tuesday. Here's what's on primary voters' minds.
Governor John Kasich and Marco Rubio campaign in Youngstown, Ohio and Miami, Florida, respectively, days before each will compete in their home state's primary contest.
Angelo Merendino and Rhoda Wise/AFP/Getty Images

Mobile home park residents see erratic water service

Feb 24, 2016
Ohio mobile home park resident said water routinely turned off without notice
One study found that mobile home park residents are more than three times as likely as others to  experience at least one water outage a year. 
Sean Gallup/Getty Images

For public good, not for profit.

In Dayton, empty homes hurt recovery

Jan 25, 2016
While developers focus on the city center, historic neighborhoods are suffering.
In Wolf Creek, an historic Dayton neighborhood, hundreds of homes still stand empty following the Great Recession and mortgage crisis. 
Juliet Fromholt, WYSO

"Bitcoin Boulevard" no longer booming

Jan 8, 2016
When businesses in a Cleveland suburb began accepting bitcoin, the response was huge

Nuclear cleanup work sustains ailing Ohio town

Dec 4, 2015
One town in Ohio is holding on to remnants of Cold War-era uranium enrichment.
Norm and Betty Jo Anderson have lived in Piketon since the mid-1950s, when Norm started working at the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant.
Lewis Wallace