In these days of ATMs and on-line banking, Huntington announced this weekend that it will open its Cleveland branches seven days a week, and extend weekday hours. It may be setting itself up for stronger competition in the market with PNC. (more )

The Obama Administration is pledging more than 78 million dollars to fight the spread of Asian carp from the Mississippi River into the Great Lakes.

Monday's announcement followed a meeting by EPA and other administration officials with Great Lakes governors, who fear the massive fish is about to leap through Chicago shipping channels into the Great Lakes. The fish can devour more than half its weight and has no predators here. The governors are concerned it will destroy the $7 billion Great Lakes fishing industry.

Nearly a billion of that is in Lake Erie alone, and Charlie Wooley of the National Fish and Wildlife Service says the carp already have been found in the shallower water of Lake Erie. (more )

The grants are being made through the state of Ohio's Industry Energy Efficiency Awards (more )

Ohio has an estimated 850,000 small businesses, and the Obama administration is hoping they see a lot to like in a plan to expand small-business tax credits and lending. (more )

The 2010 campaigns haven't really started heating up yet, but Ohio is already quite the hot spot for high profile political figures right now. (more )

Ohio legislators this week plan to look at more than 60 proposals for new state laws. The action will take place in House and Senate committees. (more )

The 3C personal train plan got a big boost with $400 million in federal stimulus dollars. The plan still needs to be approved by the lawmakers on the state controlling board, and it has plenty of critics. Statehouse correspondent Karen Kasler sat down with two lawmakers with different perspectives on the proposal to bring passenger rail back to Ohio. (more )

Quicken Loans Arena has shut down its drinking fountains. (more )

A Cleveland non-profit that helps people with low incomes has hit major financial problems of its own. (more )

A 22-year old Mentor woman who wants to make history with a cross-Atlantic Ocean row has reached the half-way point of her journey. Katie Spotz left Senegal, Africa, around the first of the year and will arrive in Brazil in about six weeks. WKSU's Amanda Rabinowitz catches up with Spotz through her close friend and fellow ocean rower Sam Williams. (more )

- ODOT says new stimulus money for passenger train service is on the way
- A third candidate for Cuyahoga County Executive is in the race
- Akron City Council looks to breathe new life into the Soap Box Derby
- NE Ohio plays big role in Super Bowl XLIV
(more )

The Pro Football Hall of Fame's Class of 2010 includes two players eligible in their first year -- Jerry Rice and Emmitt Smith -- and two who have been out of the game for more than three decades. (more )

Ohio's largest county may have more of that wild-west feel this weekend. The Ashtabula County sheriff's office was forced to lay-off 16 deputies this week, leaving one cruiser per shift available for calls. (more )

A shortfall in state income tax revenues is sparking a disturbing question - could Ohio be headed into yet another state budget mess? Ohio legislators as well as Governor Strickland thought all the holes in the budget were filled, but a new one has emerged. Revenues from the graduated income tax came in $139 million below estimates in January, creating a nearly $100 million shortfall in the state budget. John Kohlstrand from the tax department says there's no need to panic. (more )

The field of candidates for Cuyahoga County's first county executive will officially grow to three next week.... (more )

Advocacy groups on the political left and right are up in arms over a proposal by one Ohio legislator that would make it much harder for activists to get their ballot proposals approved by voters. It would require that future statewide ballot measures garner a super-majority before they take effect (more )

Some property owners in downtown Cleveland say they are willing to pay to keep the business district clean and attractive to shoppers. (more )

A decision by state regulators caused utility bills to spike for thousands of owners of all electric-homes. And two Northeast Ohio lawmakers have scheduled hearings next week to examine why and to discuss alternatives. (more )

The Cleveland Cavs have their longest winning streak of the season at 10 games. Thursday night, LeBron James got the best of Dwyane Wade - his friend and another player at the top of this year's extraordinary class of free agents. It gave the Cavs their third win over the Heat this season. (more )

Folk singer Pete Seeger was hoping to help out the country of Haiti but is helping out the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as well. A few weeks ago, Seeger had placed his famous banjo head on eBay to raise money for planting trees in Haiti. But after the bidding went above $5,000, he decided to find other ways to raise money for Haiti. (more )

Ohio has put to death a man who killed a convenience store owner and clerk after bragging he would copy a scene from a gang related movie. 37 year-old Mark Aaron Brown from Youngstown died by lethal injection at 10:20am for gunning down 32 year-old store owner Isam Salman in Youngstown in 1994. Brown had also been sentenced to life in prison for shooting a clerk in the store at the same time. Alan Johnson is a reporter from the Columbus Dispatch and has witnessed several executions, including Thursday's. He described it as "calm, fast and peaceful". (more )

Folk singer Pete Seeger was hoping to help out the country of Haiti but is helping out the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as well. A few weeks ago Seeger had placed his famous banjo head on E-Bay to raise money for planting trees in Haiti. But after the bidding went above 5 thousand dollars he decided to find other ways to raise money for Haiti.... (more )

Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown is introducing a bill to try to side-step a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision that strips away most of the limits on corporate spending on political campaigns. WKSU's M.L. Schultze reports (more )

In his budget released this week, President Obama proposed spending 300 million dollars next year on improving the Great Lakes. That's a reduction of the 475 million approved for 2010, the first year of his Great Lakes Restoration Initiative. The money will go toward improving the region's environment and economy, it's a balance that can happen according to Jeff Skelding of the the Healing Our Waters / Great Lakes Coaltion says. Lake Erie is home to more than half of the fish in the entire Great Lakes system, and is estimated to generate $50 billion dollars in economic activity each year. (more )

The Ohio Inspector General says the former head of the Ohio Department of Public Safety might have committed criminal acts in the way he conducted business while in that office. But some people think the IG's report is based on a flawed and insufficient investigation. (more )

Ohio is set to go forward with a second execution in as many months, and it could be the third one to use Ohio's new single drug method. (more )

The design of everyday products is often determined by factors like controlling the cost of raw materials or meeting rigid production deadlines. Living things, on the other hand, follow a different set of design rules, and enjoy millions of years of product development. A growing number of scientists and entrepreneurs in Northeast Ohio think the region's economy could be improved by learning how nature solves industrial design problems. The new field is called Biomimicry. (more )

A neighbor has been arrested in an arson explosion that ripped through a Westside Cleveland neighborhood last week. (more )

The director of the NASA Glenn Research Center in Brook Park is transferring to Washington. (more )

The state Highway Patrol has announced another big marijuana bust. (more )

It's now official - Ohio voters will indeed decide the fate of a plan for the state to once again borrow hundreds of millions of dollars and funnel it to high-tech companies and university researcher, in hopes they'll create jobs. Legislators gave final approval to a compromise version of the plan Wednesday. (more )

But, the district's superintendent says enrollment erosion and tight finances are still facts of life for Northeast Ohio's second largest district (more )

The planned multi-billion-dollar sale of the company that owns Cedar Point looks increasingly shaky. A second investment firm has come out opposing the $2.4 billion deal between Cedar Fair to Apollo Management.

Q Funding and Neuberger Berman control about one-quarter of Cedar Fair stock. And both are now saying they'll vote against the sale. Cedar Fair needs those who own two-thirds of its stock to vote yes for the sale -- and any votes that are not cast at all will count as "no" votes.

Cedar Fair is based in Sandusky and got its start with Cedar Point. It now owns about a dozen parks, including Kings Island outside Cincinnati. It accumulated a massive debt in its expansion. (more )

Diebold is trying to shed the most public part of its troubles -- its electronic voting business. But today's earnings report and layoff notices underscore that it's not in the clear yet. (more )

Franklin County Probate Judge Eric Brown wants to be the next Chief Justice on the Ohio Supreme Court. There aren't any Democrats on the Ohio Supreme Court right now. Brown says his life experience as a Northeast Ohio businessman, school board president, and a lawyer working for both a Democrat and a Republican attorney general would allow him to bring a different perspective to the state's highest court. (more )

With just hours to go before a deadline to make the May ballot, lawmakers in Columbus struck a deal on the high-tech Third Frontier jobs program. (more )

A citizens group is being formed in Akron to improve communications between the community and police. (more )

A campaign to eliminate traffic cameras is picking up steam in Northeast Ohio. (more )