Buzz

The Paris Air Show, held every June, draws the biggest names in the aviation and aerospace industries. Start-ups from Ohio rarely make an appearance, but this year one from Kent did, reports Kent Patch.

Thanks to a partnership with Ohio Aerospace Institute, Anderson Aerospace President Richard Anderson and Senior Vice President Matthew Flannery attended the 2011 show.

Read the full story here.

Jamming carbon deep underground has long been a proposed solution to our emissions problems, but it's expensive and rarely used. Now we can use the Earth's heat to make that gas work for us, reports Fast Company.

The publication reports on a geothermal project that includes Akron-based Echogen Power Systems, which is designing a turbine for the process.

Read the full story here.

The Air Force Research Laboratory has awarded the University of Dayton Research Institute a $24.5-million contract to test, evaluate and develop polymer materials and paints, following up on a contract that had expired in June, reports the Dayton Daily News.

The deal continues UDRI's 10-year operation for the Air Force, under various contracts, of coatings technology, testing and erosion analysis laboratories on Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.

Read the full story here.

Companies could get a discount on electricity if they meet benchmarks for new hiring or investment under a plan being considered by the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio, reports the Columbus Dispatch.

The plan, which supporters hope will encourage job growth, offers electricity discounts of up to 20 percent, most of which would phase out over five years. That amount would largely be offset by a charge on other electricity customers.

Read the full story here.

The owners of Ohio Commerce Park -- where ground was broken for construction of the $28-million Anderson-Dubose warehouse that will serve McDonald's -- are exploring ways to capitalize on the rich Marcellus and Utica shale natural gas deposits in the region, reports the Youngstown Business Journal.

Spiro Bakeris, co-owner of the industrial park, says the park is considering various companies involved in shale activity, which is expected to increase after Chesapeake Energy Corp.'s recent announcement that the discovery of a major new liquids-rich play in the Utica Shale formation could add as much as $20 billion to the company's value.

Read the full story here.

Colleges and universities are flooding into the Interstate 75 corridor between Cincinnati and Dayton, competing for a growing number of students as higher education increasingly becomes a necessity for employment, reports the Dayton Daily News.

The boom is part of a trend throughout the region and the state. Enrollments at regional campuses and community colleges, which often serve older students at multiple locations, leapt from 74,000 in 2000 to 252,000 in 2010, according to Ohio Board of Regents data.

Read the full story here. 

With 55 percent of Ohio's total agriculture exports coming from soybeans, a free trade agreement proposal with Panama, South Korea and Colombia is getting high praise from Ohio growers and the Ohio Soybean Association, reports the Lancaster Eagle-Gazette.

The 2010 bean crop was one of the most profitable on record in Ohio, and soybeans were the second-largest commodity in the U.S. in terms of annual acreage and value, with 78 million acres planted and a market value of almost $39 billion in 2010, the association says.

Read the full story here. 

The Kasich administration has formally begun efforts to determine whether "leveraging" the Ohio Turnpike would be an effective way to generate new revenue for state coffers, reports the Toledo Blade.

In a joint statement from the Ohio Department of Transportation and the Office of Management and Budget, the administration said an "adviser team" would work with those two agencies to "determine the true value of the Ohio Turnpike and the preferred option for leveraging the turnpike as a state asset."

Read the full story here. 

Work by University of Cincinnati researchers to create a fast feedback sensor for the presence and levels of heavy metals -- specifically manganese -- in humans is published in the August issue of Biomedical Microdevices, reports MicrOHscope.

The article describes the development of a low-cost, disposable lab-on-a-chip sensor that detects highly electronegative heavy metals more quickly than current technology generally available in health-care settings. It's envisioned that the new UC sensor technology will be used in point-of-care devices that provide needed feedback within about ten minutes.

Read the full story here.

CFM International, a joint venture company of General Electric Co. and French manufacturer Snecma, says one of its engines in development has a promising new market now that American Airlines is ordering 200 new aircraft from Boeing Co., reports the Dayton Daily News.

The airline ordered a new generation of Boeing 737 aircraft that will be powered by CFM's new LEAP engine that is in development. Fifty percent of all CFM engines are assembled at GE's Evendale jet engine plant in suburban Cincinnati.

Read the full story here.

A new study shows Ohio residents increasingly are connected to the Internet, although people in some groups and areas across the state remain slow adopters of the computer age, reports the Cincinnati Enquirer.

The 2011 Residential Technology Assessment report made for Connect Ohio, a nonprofit that promotes broadband Internet use, indicates Ohio's digital divide is widest for poor people without children, older people and people with disabilities.

Read the full story here.

 
State lawmakers are calling on Ohio's colleges and universities to help drive economic development by establishing degree programs that better prepare students for existing jobs and forming partnerships with outside entities, reports the Dayton Daily News.

Gov. John Kasich outlined his plans for improving workforce development at a recent forum for area elected leaders and business officials at Sinclair Community College. Earlier that same day, Wright State University took two big steps toward fulfilling Kasich's goals for higher education, announcing a new research partnership and spearheading a statewide program to better serve Wright-Patterson Air Force Base and surrounding industries.

Read the full story here.

 
A tax-incentive program has brought a taste of Hollywood to Ohio, reports WBNS-10TV.

Since a $30-million film tax credit was approved for 2010-11, several movies have been shot in the state. "The Avengers" is set for a 2012 release and is being shot in Cleveland, featuring Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Scarlett Johansson and Samuel L. Jackson.

Read the full story here.

 
A collaboration of local businesses in the Cincinnati region have joined together to bolster not only environmental sustainability efforts, but their bottom lines as well, reports The Oxford Press.

The group, which says it focuses on "people, profit and planet" is the first of its kind in the region and one of several similar networks across the country.

Read the full story here.

 
Gov. John Kasich has vetoed a bill that would have allowed Ohio factories to pull more water out of Lake Erie, amid pressure from governors from other Great Lakes states who expressed concerned about the measure, reports the Associated Press.

Kasich said he was vetoing the bill because the legislation "lacks clear standards for conservation and withdrawals and does not allow for sufficient evaluation and monitoring of withdrawals or usage."

Read the full story here.