Thursday, September 17th, 2026

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On this day in 1920, the American Professional Football Association—later renamed the NFL—was founded in Canton, Ohio, launching professional American football.

Top of the Fold: 49ers owner Denise York unseats Les Wexner as Ohio's richest person, plus Ohio's volunteer fire departments struggle to recruit as ranks thin statewide.

And Lima and Pioneer become the latest Ohio towns to pause data center development, plus Ohio's 2026 report cards show statewide literacy gains alongside the same old suburban-urban divide.

COLUMBUS — Ohio's 2026 school report cards show statewide math proficiency at 56.4% and reading proficiency at 62.2%, the state's best literacy mark in five years, driven by the Science of Reading approach. 

Chronic absenteeism fell for a fourth straight year to 23.9%, but the familiar suburban-urban gap held statewide, with affluent districts scoring five stars and big-city districts like Columbus, Cleveland and Dayton lagging. 

More on the school rankings in today's Education section.

NEW ALBANY — Les Wexner is no longer Ohio's richest person after five-plus years atop the list. 

San Francisco 49ers majority owner Denise York, of Youngstown, passed him with $10 billion, while Wexner's fortune held steady at $9.3 billion. 

Bengals owner Mike Brown ($7.6 billion) and Medpace CEO August Troendle ($4.5 billion), both of Cincinnati, also made Forbes' national ranking.

MAPLEWOOD — Across Ohio, volunteer fire departments are running thin on people. 

State Fire Marshal Kevin Reardon says the state has nearly 1,300 fire departments, 70% of them volunteer, and Ohio loses one or two every year. 

In Shelby County, 10 of 11 departments are volunteer-run, including Maplewood's 13-person crew. 

Chief Jeff Noah, who's volunteered for 30 years, put it simply: you get a T-shirt and a cap, nothing more.

LIMA — Add Lima and the village of Pioneer to the growing list of northwest Ohio towns hitting pause on data centers. Both councils voted Monday night unanimously, though Lima Councilman Jesse Lowe abstained. Lima's moratorium runs 18 months; Pioneer's runs six.

Lima Mayor Sharetta Smith requested the pause to set clear standards for water, power and land use before the city commits further resources. Council President Jamie Dixon called it "thoughtful and intentional," not a rejection of development; a data center already under construction isn't affected.

Pioneer's case started when a real estate firm began shopping a former AquaBounty site to data center developers, saying it could land one by January. That timeline pushed the council to act. Councilman Brock Zuver said he doesn't want anything fast-tracked: "I want people to feel safe when they live here." The village also ordered an electrical study before any deal moves forward.

Cleveland and Clermont County have passed similar pauses this year.

This story first appeared in The Toledo Blade, reported by Tom Henry, [email protected]

COLUMBUS — Ohio released its 2026 school report cards Tuesday, rating districts and schools one to five stars in half-star increments across six components, alongside new statewide proficiency data covering the 2025-26 school year.

Math proficiency climbed to 56.4% statewide, and English language arts proficiency reached 62.2% — Ohio's highest literacy mark in five years, according to Gov. Mike DeWine. Melissa Cropper, president of the Ohio Federation of Teachers, tied the gain to the state's first full year built on the Science of Reading approach, saying educators have concentrated on making sure students are getting what they need. 

The improvement wasn't isolated: literacy proficiency rose across all 10 demographic groups the state tracks, and math proficiency rose in nine of them. Cropper cautioned that gaps persist because students who come from low socioeconomic backgrounds haven't had the same opportunities in early childhood and tutoring access.

Chronic absenteeism fell for a fourth straight year, from 25.1% to 23.9%, though Aaron Churchill, Ohio research director for the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, noted that about a quarter of students are still chronically absent each year — a drag, he said, on teachers' ability to keep instruction on track. Churchill also flagged that year-over-year consistency remains rare: districts often gain ground one year and lose it the next, since sustained improvement takes time and steady leadership commitment.

The same divide that's defined Ohio's report cards since 2021 holds across every region.

Read the full article here.

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