As summer draws to a close and football teams in Highland and surrounding counties put on their helmets and take to the gridiron for two-a-days and scrimmages, the Highland County Press is publishing an SCOL football preview tab.
 Available on newsstands Aug. 20, the tab will feature stories on individual players and season previews on the teams from Hillsboro, McClain, Washington C.H., Madison-Plains, Clinton-Massie, Miami Trace and London. Paint Valley of the Scioto Valley Conference (SVC) will also be featured.

  The finance committee of the Hillsboro City Council has voted to recommend the general fund be cut 10 percent across the board for the remainder of 2010.
       The committee met Wednesday to discuss the pending financial situation the city is in. Committee chairperson Peter Pence said the committee had to reassess the budget after Hillsboro Mayor Dick Zink announced last week that the layoffs of three city employees had been "cancelled."

Seeking a funding resolution on the local costs of the Ohio State University Extension program, county commissioners from Highland, Brown and Clinton counties met this week with representatives from the university and the County Commissioners Association of Ohio.

Highland County's unemployment rate is among Ohio's highest, at 16 percent. In fact, Highland (16), Clinton (16.8), Adams (14.3) and Pike (14.5) are all among the highest unemployed counties in Ohio. The state would allow unemployed workers to get mortgage payment assistance for longer than the three months allowed under the nationwide program.

Former Major League Baseball player Dave "The Cobra" Parker was the guest speaker at the Hillsboro Rotary Tuesday afternoon.
 Parker spoke about his work with youth baseball through his Mason Indoor Baseball program, and the importance of reaching out and being a father figure to inner city kids.

The Ohio Association of REALTORS will sponsor "Short Sales & Foreclosure Resource Certification (SFR)," 9 a.m. - 4 p.m., Aug. 25 at the Ohio Association of REALTORS, 200 East Town St., Columbus. This one-day course is designed to help you evaluate all available options for distressed homeowners and identify the components of an effective short sale package.

The Twelfth District Court of Appeals has affirmed the conviction of a Brown County man for rape, according to a court decision posted Monday.
 On July 8, 2009, according to the court, Dewayne A. Chambers was convicted of one count of rape. The trial court notified Chambers that upon his release from prison, he would be subject to community notification for the rest of his life.

Ohio Congressman Jim Jordan, R-Urbana, will be at the Ponderosa Banquet Center from 8-10 a.m. Friday, Aug. 6 for a breakfast fundraiser for state representative candidate Cliff Rosenberger.

Several Republican congressmen from Ohio, including House Minority Leader John Boehner and U.S. Rep. Steven LaTourette, said this week the stimulus-funded work should not have ended up in Central America, the AP reported. Strickland, a Democrat, said the state will do a better job of investigating companies that get stimulus contracts.