Columbus/Central Ohio : Featured Stories

The Alleviating Poverty Through Entrepreneurship Summit at the Ohio State University is an event designed to engage the public in conversations about market-based solutions to global and local poverty. Here's a short video that describes the summit, scheduled for April 15th in Columbus.

What's "smart grid" and what will it mean for me? The question's an increasingly common one as Ohio utilities prepare to test and implement a new generation of technologies designed for more efficient planning, distribution, monitoring and use of electricity. AEP Ohio, which serves 1.5 million customers throughout the state, is implementing smart grid technology among 110,000 customers in central Ohio as part of its gridSMART demonstration project. We asked project director Karen Sloneker, the company's director of customer services and marketing, to help us understand those efforts.

Give people sandwiches, and you'll feed them for a day. Give people jobs making, selling and delivering delicious, savory sandwiches, and you'll soon have more-employable Ohioans. In Joe DeLoss's case, that compassionate business strategy has led to recognition as one of America's best young entrepreneurs.

At a cost of $1 billion, ProjectOne is the largest construction project in Ohio State University's history. It's also expected to be one of the largest job-generators in central Ohio history, with as many as 10,000 new full-time positions by 2015.

About one third of the food we eat is either directly or indirectly tied to honeybee crop pollination. Bees are under attack, however, by both manmade and natural forces. To help save them, Ohio beekeepers are breeding stronger queens that can withstand the stress our human lifestyles are placing on them.

Of the 10,000 or so African American students who enroll in U.S. engineering programs each year, fewer than 3,500 graduate with engineering degrees. The National Society of Black Engineers wants to change that, and one of its targets is Ohio.

There are good ideas and then there are good ideas with a plan. The former often die on the vine, having nowhere to go. The latter create companies. More and more Ohio entrepreneurs with good ideas are now developing their business acumen through university business plan competitions. They are turning heads. And creating the kinds of enterprises that lead to jobs.

Thousands of Ohioans are flocking to the farm, the farmers market and to restaurants to support locally grown produce. It's a bona fide movement, taking place all over the state � where a local farmer is just around the corner.