Friday, July 10th, 2026

Welcome to Friday’s edition of The Pennant. To listen to this newsletter, click the “Listen Online” link in the top right corner of this email.

On this day in 1962, Telstar, the first communications satellite to relay live TV across the Atlantic, launched into orbit.

An Ohio task force spent four days undercover, and it ended with 25 people charged, several from Northeast Ohio. Ohio was also just named the nation's No. 1 state for business. Read both in the Top of the Fold.

Graeter's, Jeni's, Dairy Queen, and the great scoop-vs-soft-serve divide. The Pennant Ice Cream Committee settles it for National Ice Cream Month, in the Peach Section.

CLEVELAND — Twenty-five people, several from Northeast Ohio, have been charged in an undercover operation targeting adults who allegedly tried to arrange sex with children online, the Cuyahoga County Prosecutor's Office said Wednesday.

The four-day sting, dubbed "Operation Guardians' Watch" and led by the Ohio Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, resulted in charges including attempted unlawful sexual conduct with a minor, importuning, and compelling prostitution after the suspects solicited undercover agents posing as children.

MCARTHUR — Gary Siders Sr., one of four family members charged after 16 children were found living in squalor in a Vinton County home, was released from jail Wednesday and taken to a hospital after a fall, Vinton County Prosecutor William Archer said.

Archer said the county switched Siders' $300,000 cash bond to a recognizance bond because the 73-year-old's medical care could "potentially bankrupt Vinton County," and said he will be fitted with a GPS monitor.

Siders' attorney, Dorian Baum, has separately raised concerns about his client's competency and mental health, saying Siders struggled to answer the judge's questions in court and weighing a possible defense of not guilty by reason of insanity.

COLUMBUS — Ohio has been named the No. 1 state for business in CNBC's 2026 America's Top States for Business rankings, the first time the state has held the top spot since the study began in 2007.

The Buckeye State climbed from No. 5 last year to first this year, edging out North Carolina by nine points on the strength of first-place finishes in infrastructure and cost of doing business, the two most heavily weighted categories.

State leaders credited years of investment in shovel-ready sites, low business costs, and the data center boom, though CNBC noted Ohio's workforce still ranks 34th, dragged down by slow population growth.

The average American puts away about 23 pounds of ice cream a year, and most of that damage happens right about now. July is the busiest month in the business, and Ronald Reagan made it official in 1984 when he named it National Ice Cream Month. A survey this year found 95% of us eat at least one scoop a week. We are not moderate people about this.

Most of it comes from the grocery freezer and gets eaten on the couch. The tub is the workhorse. But the shop is the occasion, and that's where the personalities come out.

First, the label thing, because it explains everything downstream. To be called "ice cream," a product needs at least 10% milkfat — real cream. Miss that mark, and it's legally "frozen dairy dessert," the quiet fine print on a lot of cheaper cartons. Those stretch the cream with milk, whey, and extra whipped-in air the trade calls overrun. It's cheaper, and your spoon knows.

That's why Graeter's tastes like a different food group. The Cincinnati company still uses its French pot process, tiny batches with almost no air, which is how you get those boulder chocolate chips folded through its signature Black Raspberry Chocolate Chip. Jeni's, out of Columbus, bets everything on cream and charges for it. Velvet, made up in Utica, has been the quiet Ohio default for generations.

Which brings us to the great divide: soft serve people and scoop people.

Continue reading the article here.

COLUMBUS — Breeze Airways is marking its fifth anniversary at John Glenn Columbus International Airport this month with discounted fares and two new nonstop routes. 

The low-cost carrier, founded by David Neeleman, said travelers can find one-way "anniversary fares" starting at $59, and it has added nonstop service to Savannah, Georgia, and Tampa, Florida. The Savannah flights leave at 9:54 a.m. Wednesdays and Saturdays, from $64 one-way, while Tampa departs at 10:10 a.m. Mondays and Fridays, from $84. 

Breeze now flies nonstop to 14 destinations from Columbus. It launched its first flight in May 2021 and has since grown from 16 cities to 88.

Do you have any unclaimed state funds?
- Yes, I need to get them - 40%
- No - 20%
- I'm not sure, I need to check - 40%

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