More than 22,000 Licking County calls have come this year to the 211 crisis hot line center, which joined the national 211 network two years ago, just in time to provide help during an economic downturn and recession. Full Story »
NEWARK -- For Ruth Mason, running the Thistledown Young Actors Theatre has been a labor of love. But Dec. 13 will be her final curtain call. Full Story »
NEWARK --Dressed in a red cloak and bonnet and carrying a lantern, Belinda Paisley lead a group of more than 150 people around downtown Newark on Thursday night, singing carols as she went. Full Story »
WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama warned Thursday that some of the nearly 8 million jobs lost during the two-year recession might not return without a series of new government initiatives to jump-start private sector hiring. Full Story »
GRANVILLE -- About 60 feet of copper wire was stripped from electrical grounds and other components of a American Electric Power substation by someone apparently intending to sell it for scrap value, according to the Licking County Sheriff's Office. Full Story »
COLUMBUS -- A condemned Ohio man asked a federal judge Thursday for an emergency order to stop next week's planned execution, arguing the state is rushing too fast to use its new, one-drug lethal injection process. Full Story »
PATASKALA -- The city's funding woes are starting to worry surrounding townships, particularly as they relate to police coverage. Full Story »
NEWARK -- Natalie Law sees her business as a way of giving back to the community, and especially to the women within it. Full Story »
COLUMBUS -- Columbia Gas of Ohio will start using a new system to buy natural gas beginning in February. Full Story »
NEWARK -- Patricia Ross has a special name for the people who work at the Salvation Army of Licking County. She calls them her guardian angels. Full Story »
PATASKALA -- An area woman wants the Pataskala Public Library to toss out a book she considers obscene. The book in question is Eric Marlowe Garrison's "Mastering Multiple Position Sex," billed on its back cover as a lovemaking guide. Full Story »
COLUMBUS -- A proposal to overhaul the way Ohio conducts contracting for state construction projects became the major sticking point on Wednesday in ongoing negotiations on filling the state budget gap. Full Story »
GRANVILLE -- "The state of our health care is similar to an ill patient," said Dr. Patrick Scarpitti, of Cherry Westgate Family. "Right now we are trying to study how to help that patient, and we need to engage our country at a level that's never been seen at this point." Full Story »
COLUMBUS -- A Kentucky woman is suing a Pataskala police sergeant in federal court, saying he instigated a search of her Cincinnati home for marijuana without probable cause, violating her constitutional rights. Full Story »
NEWARK -- Teresa Stidham has had a year of tragedy, first losing her husband in January because of a double brain bleed and then losing her oldest son, Randall Stidham, on Oct. 21 when he was killed in a motorcycle crash on North 21st Street. Full Story »
NEWARK -- Licking County residents already might know the story about the hat Abraham Lincoln once left in Licking County or the bear that picked up a baby, but even historians are bound to find new information about the county in the Licking County Bicentennial Commission's most recent book. Full Story »
LANCASTER -- When Anthony Howard enrolled in a prison exchange program that brought inmates and college students together, he was leery, thinking he and other inmates might be put under a microscope. Full Story »
GRANVILLE --Collegiality and professionalism were cited by one Granville Village Councilwoman as strengths that merited Melissa Hartfield a third term as mayor of Granville. Full Story »
GRANVILLE --Although the village's revenues are projected to remain flat in 2010, it nonetheless will be able to accomplish a $1 million reconstruction project on College Street, Village Assistant Manager/Finance Director Molly Roberts told the Granville Village Council at its meeting Wednesday. Full Story »
NEWARK -- For Rose Sparks, President Barack Obama's announcement Tuesday night that he would send 30,000 additional troops to Afghanistan hit close to home. Full Story »
NEWARK -- Newark employees won't be receiving across-the-board increases in 2010. Negotiations with the three city unions have resulted in one-year contract extensions for the three groups, meaning employees will continue to be paid at the 2009 pay scale. Full Story »
WASHINGTON -- With echoes of George W. Bush's post-Sept. 11 call to arms, President Barack Obama worked diligently Tuesday night to make his wartime address sound like an endgame rather than what it was -- a striking escalation of the U.S. presence in Afghanistan. Full Story »
NEWARK -- When the contracts with the three unions representing Newark were approved by the Newark City Council Personnel Committee on Monday, Advocate requests for the documents initially were denied. Full Story »
CINCINNATI -- Childhood lead exposure causes permanent brain damage with lifelong consequences, according to new research from Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center. Full Story »
WASHINGTON -- Like many long-term unemployed Ohioans, Milford resident Tim Wolffrum is bracing for his health insurance bills to skyrocket this month. Full Story »
Holiday lights illuminate the Denver City/County Building in downtown Denver. AP Photo/David Zalubowski
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