Ohio
Ohio pizzeria named 25th-best in the world at international competition
Is it a pizza? Or is it a cookie?
This April Fool’s Day collab between Lion Cub’s Cookies and Mikey’s Late Night Slice is a sweet and savory bit of the flavors of both.
Tucked away about an hour south of Columbus, one small pizzeria is making big headlines.
Lievita, an Italian-American restaurant in Chillicothe, competed in the 2026 International Pizza Expo Pizza Challenge last week, where it says it beat out hundreds of competitors from across the globe. Its cheese pizza, entered in the Best Cheese Pizza Division, won 25th-best in the world and third-best in the Midwest, according to a Facebook post from the restaurant.
The International Pizza Challenge, which debuted in 2007, is described as the largest and one of the most esteemed pizza-making competitions in North America “and possibly the world,” according to the expo’s website.
The bake-off features 680 of the world’s top pizza-makers baking their signature pizza live at the expo, with pies judged by a panel of renowned and accredited chefs. The competition took place over three days from March 24-26.
This year’s results have not yet been released on the International Pizza Expo’s official website.
A couple days after announcing its victory, Lievita shared that it gained around 700 new followers on Facebook, pushing its audience to over 5,000.
The restaurant, located at 85 N. Paint St., also changed its hours to adjust for the “surge in demand” for its pizza, according to an April 1 post. Lievita will close one hour earlier every day except Sunday to optimize labor hours and better manage inventory and prep to avoid running out of items.
The restaurant’s new hours are 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Thursday and Sunday, and 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Friday and Saturday.
This isn’t the first time central Ohio’s pizza has recently picked up national attention. Just a few days ago, the New York Post praised Columbus-style pie in an article about the city’s unique pizza, characterized by a thin crust, toppings to the edge and a square cut.
Reporter Emma Wozniak can be reached at ewozniak@dispatch.com or @emma_wozniak_ on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Ohio
Woman dies after Monday morning crash in Columbiana County
PERRY TWP., Ohio (WKBN) — The Ohio State Highway Patrol is investigating a Monday morning crash involving a semi-truck that resulted in a woman’s death.
Yolanda Medina Matos, 58, of Campbell, died at the hospital Monday as a result of injuries from a crash around 10 a.m. Monday. The two-vehicle crash happened on state Route 344 at the intersection of Cunningham Road.
A release from authorities states the other driver, a 51-year-old Salem man, was taken to the hospital as a precaution with no apparent injuries.
The release states a car driven by Matos failed to yield at a stop sign at the intersection and was hit by a semi-truck.
In its news release, OSHP reminded drivers of the importance of coming to a complete stop at stop signs and only proceeding through an intersection when it is clear of traffic.
Ohio
St. Peter’s student places third in Ohio coloring contest
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USA TODAY
Antonio Brent, a second grader at St. Peter’s School in Mansfield, has won third place in the 2026 Imagine Engineering Coloring Contest.
Brent’s drawing was selected from a record-breaking 10,269 entries from second graders across Ohio, according to a community announcement. He will be recognized at an awards luncheon June 13 in Columbus.
Brent’s drawing depicts an engineer visiting a construction site. The central figure, wearing personal protective equipment, reviews plans and specifications while a crew works with heavy equipment in the background.
As a third-place winner, Brent will receive a National Geographic Mega Science Lab with 75 STEM experiments.
Imagine Engineering program introduced in 1999
The Imagine Engineering program was founded by the Engineers Foundation of Ohio in 1999. Since then, the Ohio Society of Professional Engineers has enlisted its members to visit local classrooms and explain what engineers do for a living.
The program is designed to help second graders understand what engineering is and how it impacts their everyday lives. It also aims to inspire students to consider careers in engineering by introducing them to real engineers and hands-on experiments.
In 2021, EFO updated the program by adding an educational resource video titled “Imagine Engineering.” The video features Ohio professional engineers who explain engineering at a fundamental level and demonstrate hands-on experiments that support the second-grade curriculum.
In 2023, EFO received a grant from the P&G Fund of the Greater Cincinnati Foundation to expand the program to include Ohio’s Spanish-speaking second graders. The Spanish translation of the video includes a Spanish-speaking engineer to narrate the lesson and subtitles for the experiments.
“Imagine Engineering is a children’s program that is unique to Ohio, having been created by the Engineers Foundation of Ohio in the late 1990s,” EFO President Joe Cherry said in the announcement. “Over the last quarter of a century, Imagine Engineering has helped ignite the imaginations of tens of thousands of children statewide, encouraging them to focus on math and science – and perhaps a career in engineering.”
For more information about the Imagine Engineering program, visit ohioengineer.com.
This story was created with the assistance of Artificial Intelligence (AI). Journalists were involved in every step of the information gathering, review, editing and publishing process. Learn more at cm.usatoday.com/ethical-conduct.
Ohio
Miami moves past Ohio State, climbs in national team recruiting rankings
Miami has moved up in the Rivals Industry national team recruiting rankings.
The Hurricanes added a big piece to the puzzle when Top 100 Dothan (Ala.) High cornerback Ai’King Hall flipped his commitment from Oregon to Miami on Sunday afternoon.
With Hall now in the fold, Miami jumped up one spot from No. 7 to No. 6 in the rankings.
Miami surged past Ohio State and boasts the No. 1 recruiting class in the ACC.
The Hurricanes are less than a point behind No. 5 ranked Notre Dame.
At 5-foot-11, 190 pounds, Hall is ranked as the No. 7 cornerback and No. 39 overall prospect nationally, per Rivals. He is also ranked as the No. 1 overall recruit in the state of Alabama this cycle.
Miami now has 12 commitments in the 2027 recruiting class — Hall, five-star Long Beach (Calif.) Poly cornerback Donte Wright, five-star Miami (Fla.) Carol City wide receiver Nick Lennear, Top 100 Lombard (Ill.) Montini Catholic quarterback Israel Abrams, , Rivals300 Houston (Texas) Langham Creek defensive lineman Ezekiel Ayangbile, Rivals300 Poplarville (Miss.) High running back Ty Keys, Rivals300 Fort Pierce (Fla.) John Carroll offensive lineman Sean Tatum, four-star Fort Lauderdale (Fla.) Cardinal Gibbons tight end Demarcus Deroche, four-star Davie (Fla.) McArthur defensive back Jaylyn Jones, three-star Gainesville (Ga.) High offensive lineman Tyler Ford, three-star Key West (Fla.) High defensive lineman Josh Johnson and three-star Davie (Fla.) McArthur defensive back Sherrod Gourdine.
Miami will have a chance to keep moving up the rankings as it gears up to host several top targets for official visits this summer.
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