Cincinnati Edition

According to a report from the Federal Reserve, education debt held by U.S. households went up more than six times from 2001 to 2016. And many parents are either going into debt or not putting money into their retirement savings in order to help their children pay for college.

This season you may notice Major League Baseball players wearing a patch on their uniforms that reads "MLB 150."

Now that we are into the growing season the first thing most of us notice is just how well the weeds are doing in our yards and gardens. While some of us tackle the job of clearing dandelions, nut grass and clover by hand, others rely on chemicals to eliminate weeds. And many of them will go about it the wrong way, applying too much, too little or too often.

Eight women from the Cincinnati area will be honored as the 2019 YWCA Greater Cincinnati Women of Achievement next month. The annual celebratory luncheon will feature a keynote address by Erin Gruwell, whose life was portrayed by actress Hillary Swank in the 2007 film Freedom Writers , based on Gruwell’s 1999 work, The Freedom Writers Diary: How a Teacher and 150 Teens Used Writing to Change Themselves and the World Around Them .

A construction labor shortage in the U.S. in recent years means secure, good-paying jobs are available for young people who want to learn the trade. For students who may not be college-bound, entering a trade right out of high school mean gaining job experience with no college debt.

Star Wars: A New Hope was released in 1977. In 1979, to celebrate Margaret Thatcher's election as Britain's first female prime minister, her party placed an ad in the London Evening News that read, "May the Fourth Be With You, Maggie. Congratulations." That's how popular the movie, and the phrase, "May the force be with you," had become.

FC Cincinnati submits a request to the City Planning Commission for a zoning change to the property north of its future stadium in the West End. Neighbors, angry about displacement, spoke out against the proposal. That prompted a majority on City Council to pass a motion declaring they will not approve the zoning request unless the team finds homes for the people being displaced.

An exchange earlier this month between Northern Kentucky Congressman Thomas Massie and former Secretary of State John Kerry, during House testimony on climate change, went viral on social media . The back-and-forth, which centered around whether Kerry’s bachelor of science degree made him a "scientist" qualified to discuss the matter, resulted in supporters of both politicians claiming victory. Kerry asked Massie at one point, "Are you serious?"

This May, a new wave of students will graduate from college as many Americans reach retirement age and employees are in demand. This time it is Generation Z, the group of young people born between 1995 and 2012, who will join the ranks of Baby Boomers, Gen X'ers and Millennials on the job. So, who is this new generation of employees poised to enter the workforce en masse and how do employers retain fresh young talent?

Last Saturday marked the 20th anniversary of the mass shooting at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado. Since then, there have been more than 80 mass shootings – defined by the FBI as an incident in which there are at least four shooting victims who are either killed or wounded – in the United States.