Shelby Gene Smith, 68 years, of Edgerton, passed away Friday, January 9, 2015 at Parkview Nursing Center, Edgerton.  Shelby was born July 25, 1946 in Aberdeen, Kentucky, the son of the late James and Ethel (Phelps) Smith.  He was a 1964 graduate of Butler County High School, Morgantown, Kentucky.  Shelby served in the …

Eugene M. Stevenson, 84, of Montpelier passed away Wednesday night at the Community Hospitals and Wellness Centers in Bryan.  He was born on April 10, 1930 in Monroe County, Michigan to Milo and Josey Emma (Justice) Stevenson.  Eugene proudly served his country in the United States Army.  On December 29, 1951 he married …

Gov­er­nor John Kasich has taken the oath of office for a sec­ond term. In his inau­gu­ra­tion address, he has requested an infu­sion of basic val­ues like respon­si­bil­ity, resiliency, and empa­thy in order to meet challenges. Kasich says his fel­low Repub­li­cans some­times mis­take eco­nomic pros­per­ity as the end goal. He describes …

The ani­mals who have sur­vived the Titan Tire oil spill go home soon. John Win­dau in the DNR’s Wildlife Com­mu­ni­ca­tions Office says offi­cials intend to release the first group of birds back into the wild on Thursday. This release takes place at some spot on the Maumee River. Win­dau says …

The National Alliance on Men­tal Ill­ness next month holds a free edu­ca­tional sem­i­nar for fam­ily and friends of those with men­tal illness. The class has the title “Fam­ily to Family.” It begins Feb. 5 at 6 o’clock at Sher­wood State Bank in Defiance. The 12-week course meets for two and …

The state­house speaker has named Tony Burkley vice chair of the House Agri­cul­ture & Rural Devel­op­ment Committee. Burkley says he feels hon­ored, and that he looks for­ward to find­ing ways to help agri­cul­ture remains the state’s top industry. He has started his sec­ond term in the House.

Three fires in Defi­ance County kept fire­fight­ers busy on Friday. One of these fires sig­nif­i­cantly dam­aged a home on Rosedale Road in Edger­ton, but fire depart­ments appar­ently put it out quickly. That fire sup­pos­edly started with the cou­ple liv­ing there not at home. A sec­ond fire destroyed a pole barn …

The Bryan Com­mu­nity Cen­ter holds a series of classes on dia­betes management. Reg­is­tered dietit­ian and dia­betes edu­ca­tor Michelle Price focuses on help­ing peo­ple man­age their dia­betes through 10 classes on Tues­day evenings and Wednes­day mornings. The first one takes place this Wednes­day at 11 o’clock with a fit­ting title: “Diabetes/Pre-Diabetes …

Over a mil­lion dol­lars in fed­eral fund­ing has gone to 79 schools across the state, as well as other providers par­tic­i­pat­ing in the National School Lunch Program. The state’s edu­ca­tion depart­ment says the com­pet­i­tive grants have gone to eli­gi­ble schools to help buy food ser­vice equip­ment. This includes ovens, dish­wash­ers, …

Cold and freez­ing rain did not pre­vent 200 peo­ple from attend­ing John Kasich’s for­mal mid­night swearing-in ceremony. How­ever, weather may put a damper on the big­ger pro­duc­tion the gov­er­nor has for his inau­gu­ra­tion cel­e­bra­tion today. Last night, Kasich told those in atten­dance that he hand­picked every one of them because …