February 2026

A large crowd celebrates and dances in front of a stage

Michael Barhorst never tired of standing near the covered stage in the natural amphitheater on his property in rural Shelby County, watching thousands of country music fans enjoy the Country Concert he organized every year.

Fans came there to enjoy headliners, old favorites, and newcomers to the country music scene, to camp out and have fun with friends, and to share their love for the music with a massive crowd. “It is so rewarding,” Barhorst often remarked to friends and family, “to watch thousands of people take a shared emotional journey through the power of a song.”

A lizard sits perched on a rock

In 1951, a young boy was vacationing with his family near Milan, Italy. The boy, George Rau, was a scion of the well-known Lazarus family, which, for generations, ran one of the largest department store chains in Ohio.

Rau became enchanted with the docile lizards that sunned themselves on the rocky walls around Milan, and so he tucked 10 of them into a sock and brought them back to Cincinnati, where he released them in his family’s Torrence Court backyard.

Lavender grows in a pot.

The late spring and summer season are great times to fill your outdoor living space with the lively colors, textures, and fragrances of herbs grown in containers. Potted herbs bring instant visual attraction to your outdoors, and their portability allows you to position plants where they grow and look their best.

Just about any herb can be grown in a container, as long as the pot is sized right for the plant. Most culinary herbs are prime picks, especially familiar favorites like chives, parsley, mint, oregano, sage, thyme, rosemary, and basil.

Cardinal Plant Manager Bethany Schunn and Sustainability Lead Julie Jones smile together for a picture.

Part of the process of removing sulfur dioxide (SO2) from emissions at the Cardinal Power Plant involves the use of limestone. The process is complicated and can be messy, and when heavy deposits build up in the scrubber, the entire generating unit must come offline.

An employee at the plant suggested adding a chemical to the process that not only would allow for less limestone to be used, it would reduce those deposits in the scrubber — meaning lower maintenance time and cost.