One local organization went out just after sunrise this morning to set up a couple of patriotic scenes that honor and salute our area veterans. The Lima Exchange Club hammered stakes into the ground and placed around 50 American flags at Springview Manor and Primrose Retirement Community of Lima. This is part of the "Flags for Soldiers" project they've been doing for around 20 years. Club members say they're glad to offer this service because they know that as the stars and stripes fly, the hearts of our local veterans have been touched.

In honor of Flag Day, the village of Elida teamed up with local veterans to hold a flag exchange for residents to come and properly dispose of their old worn-out flags and offer new flags to purchase.

Allen County swears in their new EMA and Homeland Security Director

Secretary of State Frank LaRose has announced the formation of the "Public Integrity Division" that will focus on campaign finance reporting, voting system certification, and voter registration integrity, among other functions of the election process. He says he has been able to add the new division by re-arranging current departments. The investigation of possible fraud is at the forefront of the state.

The program started with around 50 shops in 2020 in the mists of the pandemic and has grown to around 250 shops across the state, including Bug's Barbershop on North Main Street in Lima. LaRose says Ohio has led the nation in many ways in getting people to register to vote, and this is just another example.

An Ohio senator says other NATO nations need to follow the U.S. in cutting ties with Russian energy.  In a press conference this week, Senator Rob Portman encouraged President Biden to talk with his NATO colleagues to convince them to embargo the Russian energy.  He says that U.S. producers can play a key role in not only supporting our domestic energy security, but also supporting our allies overseas transition away from their reliance on Russian energy.