akron
UA course
AKRON: Three well-known politicos will teach a continuing education course this year at the University of Akron, tracking track the 2012 presidential campaign .
John Green, who heads UA’s Bliss Institute of Applied Politics, will teach the class with Jerry Austin, a Democratic political strategist and adviser, and Mark Weaver, a Republican political consultant and election attorney. Austin and Weaver are the Bliss Institute’s Distinguished Chairs of Applied Politics this year.
The class, called Campaign Battleground, will focus this spring on the presidential primary, probing the strategy, tactics and conduct of the top political contenders. The instructors will track developments week-by-week. A special focus will be on Ohio as a battleground state.
“It may be trite, but it is often said, ‘As Ohio goes, so goes the nation,’” Green said in a news release. “There is no better place than Akron, Ohio to offer this course and help the public understand how campaign analysis works.”
The course is $50 for the 14-week session. The class will meet from 5:20 to 7:50 p.m. Thursdays, beginning this week through April 26. Class won’t be held March 15.
The class will be offered again this fall, with the focus shifting to the general election in November.
For information or to register, visit www.uakron.edu/ce/classes/classes-detail.dot?id=2120411.

District meetings
AKRON: Summit County Councilman Frank Comunale will host two district meetings in Akron.
They are:
• A district Block Watch meeting will be from 6 to 8 p.m. Tuesday at Georgetown Condominiums, 35 Menlo Park Drive. The guest speaker will be sheriff’s Lt. Doug Smith.
• A district meeting will be 6 to 8 p.m. Wednesday at the Highland Square Branch of the Akron-Summit Public Library, 807 W. Market St. The guest speakers will be Akron police Lt. Cynthia Christman and Common Pleas Judge Mary Margaret Rowlands.
For details, call 330-643-2725.

Barberton
Benefit for kids
BARBERTON: Akron Scottish Rite Masons will host a Bidz for Kidz dinner and silent basket auction on Jan. 21.
The event will be at the Barberton Masonic temple, 107 Fifth St. NW.
Doors will open at 5 p.m. with dinner starting at 6 p.m.
Themed baskets will be up for auction. The dinner features cabbage rolls or stuffed chicken.
Tickets are $15 per person or $25 per couple. For information or reservations, call 330-666-8443 by Jan. 16.
Proceeds support the Children’s Dyslexia Center of Akron.

PORTAGE COUNTY
Meeting set
RAVENNA: The Portage County TEA Party will host 11 nonpartisan public meetings this year to allow Portage County citizens to meet in person with candidates running for local, state and federal office in Portage County.
The schedule starts on Tuesday, with the sheriff and primary candidates for the county recorder speaking and taking questions from the audience.
The meeting will be held at 7 p.m. at the Maplewood Career Center at 7075 State Route 88.
The other meetings will be confirmed once facilities are determined for those dates.
For more information, contact Tom Zawistowsk at TomZ@portageCounty-
TEAParty.com or call 800-846-4630, ext. 104.

STARK COUNTY
New digs
CANTON: The American Red Cross Stark County Chapter will host an open house from 4 to 6 p.m. Jan. 18 at its new location at the Community Campus, 408 Ninth St. SW.
The new facility will house the volunteers and staff of the chapter and is equipped with enough space to facilitate the Emergency, Rape Crisis, Transportation, Military Communications/Outreach, Health and Safety and Administration services offered to the community, officials said.
The Community Campus is home to 17 nonprofit agencies. Officials say this type of close-knit community fosters collaboration among local agencies.

AROUND OHIO
No STD funds
CINCINNATI: The Cincinnati health department has lost control of nearly $737,000 in annual grants for curbing sexually transmitted diseases because the state says it has done a poor job of prevention and administration.
The Cincinnati Enquirer reports the department has received the funding from the state for decades. But a state health department official says a review shows the city did such a poor job that there was no way to justify giving it the grants again.
Administration of the 2012 grants was awarded to a nearby county’s health department with the stipulation that 90 percent of funds go to Hamilton County, which includes Cincinnati.
Cincinnati’s health commissioner disputes nearly everything in the review and says a state scoring system is faulty.

TV intern
HEATH: A four-month stint as an intern on ABC’s Cougar Town television show has encouraged an Ohio college student to pursue her hopes for a career in the film industry.
Paige Kelley, a junior at Ohio University in Athens, just wrapped up her internship last month on the set of the comedy show starring Courteney Cox, the Advocate of Newark reported.
“I honestly didn’t know what to expect going into it, but whatever it was, this was 20,000 times better,” Kelley said.
Kelley, 21, of Heath, said she met Ohio alumnus Randall Winston, a lead producer of Cougar Town, during a spring trip to Los Angeles to meet with media professionals. She stayed in touch through a professor and later was invited to the internship.
Kelley arrived in Los Angeles in August and began her duties, including handing out scripts and giving cues to the actors. Kelley also worked with the show’s production assistants and was hired as an official production assistant for her last episode.
“I got to see the inside and outside of this show I’ve come to know through television,” she said.
The behind-the-scenes experience gave Kelley a new perspective, and she was inspired to work even harder when production assistants joked that she should get out of the business while she could, she said.

Tiger cubs
TOLEDO: Two tiger cubs are making their public debut at the Toledo Zoo.
The zoo says visitors can now see the male and female cubs born in late September.
Zoo officials say the pair are continuing to gain in weight and are moving around more every day.
The zoo says Viktor and his sister Talya were given names that reflect the eastern Russia habitat of the critically endangered Amur tigers, formerly known as Siberian tigers.