Portage County will start offering vaccines to people at the highest risk of developing severe Covid-19 next week, though the countywide supply is a fraction of the need, officials said in a press briefing Thursday. The second phase of vaccine distribution, 1B, includes members of the general population who are…

Reflections on The Portager, a ‘very online’ year and lessons to carry forward — Journalists everywhere are writing year-end reflections, and I also feel compelled to write one for all the usual reasons. Columns and “listicles” about the “biggest stories of 2020” provide a sense of closure and finality that doesn’t occur in nature, unless you’re particularly attuned to the harvest and the revolutions…

UH Portage frontline workers are the first to receive the vaccine, made by Moderna — The wait for a Covid-19 vaccine is over for Portage County’s frontline medical workers. On Wednesday, University Hospitals announced it had administered the first vaccines at UH Portage, in line with the distribution priorities set by the Ohio Health Department, the CDC and other institutions.

The Ravenna school district is in mourning the week before winter break, and investigators are focusing on the driver’s culpability — By Ben Wolford and Carter Eugene Adams A single-vehicle crash in Shalersville that killed three people, including two middle schoolers, was “completely preventable,” said a state trooper investigating the incident that has left the Ravenna school community in mourning.

Dozens of Portage County homeowners have taken advantage of a local co-op group and federal tax credits for savings on solar. But the federal incentive program is set to expire. — In a little over a year, a lucrative government subsidy for residential solar installations will expire. …

I sat down to talk with Randolph Township Trustee Susan White about taxes, fire departments and schools — Susan White is a Realtor and member of the Randolph Township Board of Trustees. I spoke with her on Sunday for last week’s podcast, but things didn’t go exactly as planned. Unfortunately the recording is unusable, but luckily we were able to pull the transcript and share it with you. …

‘Abstaining is not leading,’ wrote John Kennedy, a Democratic challenger for the county commission seat — Last week, the Democratic candidate for Portage County Commissioner, John Kennedy, published an article on his website arguing that his opponent may have abstained from a vote to declare racism a public health crisis for reasons other than the one she gave. There’s a lot of ground to cover here…

‘Kids are going to grow up in this town like I did, and I want to create a community for them where they’re excited and proud to come home.’ — Editor’s note: This interview was mistakenly published from the wrong author account, and Medium does not permit revisions to this once the article is published. The author of this piece is correctly identified below. By Richie Koch After the killings of George Floyd and Breonna Tayler earlier this summer, Black…

Superintendent confirms the decision was his, in consultation with a portion of the board members — By Michael Indriolo and Ben Wolford Rootstown Superintendent Andrew Hawkins said for the first time publicly that he reversed a disciplinary action against a football player who called teammates the n-word. The confirmation came during a special Board of Education meeting Monday night, in which the board unanimously voted to…