Ohio
Get ready for June’s North Central Ohio Soap Box Derby with Builder’s Day in late April
North Central Ohio Soap Box Derby was Saturday downtown Mansfield.
North Central Ohio Soap Box Derby was Saturday
Lou Whitmire, Reporter
The North Central Ohio Soap Box Derby returns for its 86th year of racing and family fun in downtown Mansfield.
This year’s Soap Box Derby is scheduled for June 22 at 9:30 a.m. Racers will drive their cars on North Main Street between Fourth and Sixth streets. June 23 is the rain date.
The soap box derby is open to children between 7 and 18 who live in Richland, Ashland, Crawford, Huron, Knox, Marion and Morrow counties.
The event offers two divisions: a stock division for racers 7 to 13 and a super stock division for racers 9 to 18. Winners of each division will race July 20 at the First Energy All American Soap Box Derby in Akron.
2023: North Central Ohio Soap Box Derby races into downtown
Russ, Ruth Kinsey have volunteered for more than four decades
This is Mansfeld resident Ruth Kinsey’s 49th year helping to organize the derby. The race has taken place at that location since 1993. Her husband, Russ Kinsey, has volunteered even longer, she said.
Builder’s Day set for April 27-28 at Richland County Fairgrounds
Ahead of race day, new racers can build their cars and racers from previous years can update their cars on Builder’s Day April 27-28 at the Richland County Fairgrounds.
Look for derby signs when you arrive at the fairgrounds. Lunch will be provided. Both days will be noon to 4:30 p.m.
If your last name begins with M-Z, your Builder’s Day will be April 27. If your last name begins with A-L, your builder’s Day will be April 28, according to Ruth Kinsey. Participants will work on their own cars. Any racer is invited and encouraged to attend to make any necessary updates so they will be ready for inspection. There will be knowledgeable derby people on hand to assist racers.
Deadline to order a car kit is Sunday
Deadline to order a car for the 2024 race is Sunday. Call Ruth Kinsey at 419-564-3304. She said the sponsor fee is due by this date in order for the North Central Ohio Soap Box Derby Association to order the kit or parts and have them available for the participants on Builder’s Day.
The 2024 rule book and plans are available at www.soapboxderby.org. Sponsors are Skipper Buds and Meyer Bait of the Port Clinton area.
lwhitmir@gannett.com
419-521-7223
X (formerly Twitter): @lwhitmir
STRYKER, Ohio (WKRC) – An Ohio woman allegedly broke into her ex-husband’s home while he was sleeping and threatened to kill him before opening fire.
According to a criminal complaint obtained by Law&Crime, 31-year-old Amanda Heller broke into a man’s home on April 26. The man was identified as Heller’s ex-husband by local outlet WTOL.
After the victim woke up, Heller allegedly threatened to kill him before taking out a handgun and firing twice.
No injuries were reported in connection to the shooting, Law&Crime reported. Nobody else was in the home at the time of the incident, authorities reported.
Heller was arrested and charged with felonious assault, attempted aggravated murder, aggravated burglary, domestic violence, and improperly discharging a weapon at or into a habitation or school.
AI influencers are all over your feed
AI influencers may not change minds — but they can amplify division and inflame political tensions online.
We can’t believe our eyes
Re “AI political ads bring fears over ’26 election,” May 27: I fully support House Bill 185. It probably doesn’t go far enough. This is a prime example of “don’t believe everything you see on the Internet.”
I am being inundated with emails and text messages from organizations and people I do not know. I block them as spam, but it doesn’t seem to do any good. About the only way to combat this is to attend a live debate between candidates, but most people do not have the time to do that.
I use AI every day with caution. We need better ways of identifying AI-created falsehoods.
Edwin Heller, Dublin
Tell voters what’s real
Re “AI political ads bring fears over ’26 election,” May 27: I don’t think AI should be used in political ads, but there is no way to stop it.What we can and should do is require campaigns to certify that their ad did or did not use AI to generate or edit content that:
- Makes a real person appear to say or do something they didn’t say or do.
- Alters footage of a real event or place.
- Generates a realistic-looking scene that didn’t actually occur.
We grade movie content. Why not political advertising? The public needs a way to help distinguish truth from fiction.
Richard Wires, Columbus
Ban political ads, already
Re “AI political ads bring fears over ’26 election,” May 27: Political ads should be banned. Those using – AI-generated or not. I don’t trust anything I read online anymore, and especially political ads.
People read/see those ads, don’t research the information in them, and vote according to, oftentimes, the misinformation in those ads. The huge amounts of money being spent on ads is sinful!
Lyn Miller, Smithville
Food cuts hurt hungry families
While President Donald Trump and Republicans continually find new ways to enrich their billionaire funders and friends, they’ve made the largest cuts to SNAP in history, making it more difficult for over 40 million Americans, including 16 million children and 8 million seniors, to access healthy foods and forcing them to rely on the cheapest foods (usually the most ultra-processed}.
They’re especially hurting American children and setting them up for worse health outcomes than previous generations by making it harder for them to access healthy foods.
They’ve cut funding to support farm-to-school programs and food banks, passed the largest cut to food assistance in history, and are pushing to end the decades-old practice of putting fluoride in water to reduce tooth decay. Most appalling, they’ve even allowed food companies to use cancer-causing chemicals in snack foods targeted to children.
Meanwhile, they’ve allowed food companies to take advantage of inflation to raise prices to increase their profits. A Kroger executive suggested that inflation is good for business when he testified the chain has hiked the milk and eggs prices beyond the costs from inflation.
This is one more reason that we must do all we can to get Republicans out of office.
Russ Smith, Strongsville
TOLEDO, Ohio (WTVG) – The FBI was part of a search of multiple properties related to Stansley Mining on Friday, a spokesperson for the agency confirmed.
A Public Affairs Officer for the FBI Cleveland Division confirmed to the 13 Action News I-TEAM that authorities searched a business in the area of Siliva Road in Sylvania, as well as property in Ottawa County by State Route 590 in Benton Township.
Officials with the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation told the 13 Action News I-TEAM that they executed a search warrant at the property in Benton Township. Ohio BCI’s environmental division and the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency were involved in the search.
It’s unclear exactly what officials were looking for. The FBI spokesperson said there wasn’t additional information to share at this point, but added there is no threat to the public.
Stansley Mining is the entity that owns Rocky Ridge Development, a company at the center of extensive 13 Action News coverage after its South Toledo mining operation was improperly working in a residentially-zoned area.
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