5 things you might have missed: 3/24
Top articles from this weekend's editions of The Blade
3/24/20141. Toledo winter ranked No. 1 in U.S.
Congratulations, Toledo-area residents, you are hardy cold-weather warriors and survivors of the worst Mother Nature could dish out, according to rankings by the most-received cable channel in the country.
The Weather Channel announced Friday that Toledo’s winter of 2013-14 has been the worst of any major city in the United States this year.
Toledo was “the winter misery champ” because of its record-breaking snowfall and significant cold throughout the season, the weather-focused channel pronounced in placing the city atop a list of the 10 U.S. cities with the nastiest weather during the season just ended.
The Weather Channel ranked cities with populations of at least 100,000 in the West, Midwest, and Northeast and pitted them against each other by examining their December-February departure-from-average temperatures and season snowfalls through Tuesday. READ MORE
2. Meet the new captain of Rocket Ventures
From his 15th floor office in the Edison Plaza office tower in downtown Toledo, Bob Savage, Jr., can see the Maumee River, East Toledo, and Oregon.
But as the man recently tapped to oversee all of the Regional Growth Partnership’s Rocket Ventures operations, Mr. Savage has a vision that extends much farther than just a few miles.
As part of a mandate by the state of Ohio, Rocket Ventures — a venture capital operation with the task of fostering and nurturing entrepreneurs and early-stage start-up companies — is trying harder to look farther out in the region to better serve the 18 northwest Ohio counties that make up its service area. READ MORE
3. Titanic exhibit stirs sadness, wonder in downtown Toledo
More than a century after the RMS Titanic struck an iceberg and plunged to the bottom of the North Atlantic, interest in the tragedy remains unsinkable.
The public continues to clamor for details about the ship and its passengers — the estimated 705 who survived and the 1,500 who perished in the icy waters 453 miles southeast of Newfoundland on April 15, 1912. Through June 15, artifacts recovered from the wreck and the ocean floor are on display at Imagination Station in downtown Toledo.
“Titanic: The Artifact Exhibition” stirs sadness and wonder. Visitors will grieve for those who died and be curious about the passengers who once touched the artifacts that are in the exhibit. Who was the woman who walked in those shoes, the traveler who owned the hand-held mirror, the man whose shaving brush once lathered his face? READ MORE
4. UT President Lloyd Jacobs stepping down
For the first time since it merged with the Medical College of Ohio, the University of Toledo must find a new leader.
Dr. Lloyd Jacobs, 72, who has led UT as president since 2006, will step down effective June 30, 2015, the university announced Friday. Dr. Jacobs’ contract was extended in 2011 to run through June 30, 2016, meaning he will leave about a year before his contract ends. He earns $392,700 annually.
The announcement follows recent closed-door board of trustees meetings to discuss personnel matters. University officials gave no reason for Dr. Jacobs’ early departure.
“My time in Toledo has been among the most personally rewarding years of my life, and Ola and I are looking forward to many more at UT and in the community,” Dr. Jacobs said in a statement, mentioning his wife. “I’m excited by a new opportunity to help UT and other universities adapt to the financial and resource pressures that will grow only more challenging over time.” READ MORE
5. UT medical students meet their residency match
There were tears of joy and frantic hugs as 167 fourth-year medical students at the University of Toledo opened envelopes and learned simultaneously where they will spend the next three to seven years of their journeys to become physicians.
The Residency Match Reception is an annual event, with students usually waiting until noon Friday in the Stranahan Theater’s Great Hall to receive the envelope holding the key to their futures. Adrenaline was so high, however, that students were allowed to get the news about five minutes early.
“Today I found out that I match at my first choice of physical medicine and rehab at Emory University,” said 27-year-old Michael Bush-Arnold. “That means that I will be helping to treat patients with chronic diseases like spinal cord injuries, post-polio syndrome, sports medicine, kind of an array of all types of things.”