A best-selling author spoke at the City Mission of Findlay and shared his story of hope and redemption.

Ron Hall wrote the book “Same Kind of Different As Me” which tells the true story of his relationship with a homeless man, Denver Moore, and how they changed each other’s lives.

Ron encourages people to open their eyes and be willing to look at homeless people in a different way, in the way God looks at them.

“We are all the same kind of different when you get right down to it,” he said.

Ron has spoken at more than 500 homeless shelters across the country and has raised millions of dollars for the homeless.

The book “Same Kind of Different As Me” was made into a movie starring Greg Kinnear, Renee Zellweger, Djimon Hounsou and Jon Voight.

Ron will also be speaking at the City Mission of Findlay on Thursday and more details can be obtained here. 

Learn more about Ron’s story and his books here.

Marathon Petroleum is shedding jobs as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to hurt its business operations and financial position.

The company says it will be eliminating approximately 2,050 jobs across its operations.

The staff reductions will impact just under 300 of the 2,200 employees at Marathon’s headquarters in Findlay.

The company said, even after the reductions, they will continue to employ more people in Findlay than in any other community in which they operate, given that the Findlay campus remains their headquarters.

“We know our company and our people play important roles in the communities where we operate,” said CEO Mike Hennigan. “We also know these staffing reductions affect not just our people, but also families, colleagues and neighbors. These decisions were extremely difficult, and we are committed to supporting our employees during this difficult time.”

Marathon says it’s working with Findlay-Hancock Economic Development to establish a resource that will match impacted employees with local job opportunities.

The company had a dismal second quarter thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic.

In August Marathon reported a net income of $9 million in the second quarter of 2020.

That $9 million compares to $1.1 billion in net income for the second quarter of 2019.

The company will announce its third-quarter financial results on November 2nd.

Marathon announced in August that it was selling its Speedway gas stations to 7-Eleven.

Amusement park fans can buy a piece of Kings Island’s now defunct Vortex roller coaster.

The park says they’ll be selling track slices of the steel coaster that was enjoyed by millions of people from 1987 to 2019.

The pieces will cost about $200 a piece and can be purchased at the park this weekend.

The Vortex gave 46 million rides in its 33 seasons of operation.

The Vortex gave its final rides on October 27th, 2019 and was demolished prior to the 2020 season.

(above picture courtesy of Kings Island)

Two more Hancock County residents have died of COVID-19.

The total number of deaths in the county from the virus as of Wednesday stands at 12.

Hancock Public Health is reporting a total of 743 cases in the county, of which 69 are active cases.

An active case involves a patient that is currently under quarantine or isolation.

A total of 62 people have been hospitalized from the virus since the beginning of the pandemic and 12 have died.

Hancock County is still at level 2, or orange, on the state’s COVID-19 alert map.

State data shows Putnam County had 626 cases and 25 deaths as of Wednesday.

Putnam County is still at level 3, or the red level on the alert map.

The new map will be released by the governor on Thursday.

This story has been updated with a statement from Marathon Petroleum.

Marathon Petroleum is making job cuts.

Reuters is reporting that Marathon began eliminating jobs across the company on Tuesday.

It’s not yet clear how the company headquarters in Findlay will be affected.

The ongoing pandemic continues to depress demand for products and services in the petroleum industry.

The company says it will announce its third-quarter financial results on November 2nd.

Marathon announced in August that it was selling its Speedway gas stations to 7-Eleven.

You can read more about that deal here. 

UPDATE:  Marathon Petroleum provided WFIN News with the following statement:

We are in the process of communicating with our employees about measures we announced earlier this year to strengthen Marathon Petroleum for short-term and long-term success. These measures include an evaluation of how roles throughout our company will support the future-focused activities we have prioritized. In the interest of ensuring we communicate these changes to our employees first, we don’t have additional information to provide at this time.

The Hancock County Board of Elections says, as of Tuesday, it’s already had 9,162 voters request an absentee ballot for the upcoming election.

Jody O’Brien, Republican Director of the Hancock County Board of Elections, says absentee ballots will start to be mailed out to voters on October 6th, which is the same day early voting begins.

She’s asking people to not procrastinate in filling out their ballot and sending it back.

She says the last day an absentee ballot can be postmarked is November 2nd, the day before the election, or just drop it in the drop box outside the board of elections at 201 East Lincoln Street in Findlay.

Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose announced on Tuesday that more than 2 million Ohioans had requested an absentee ballot.

At the same time during the 2016 election, 957,260 absentee ballots had been requested.

The Maumee Watershed Conservancy District recently met virtually for its annual meeting.

There was discussion about the Eagle Creek Dry Storage Basin project just south of Findlay which is still in the preliminary engineering phase.

Project Manager Steve Wilson says the project is mostly in a holding pattern for now but they could do some additional engineering with the grant money previously allocated.

He says the project is estimated to cost around $60 million but the state has awarded only $15 million in grant money so far.

Wilson believes if it wasn’t for the pandemic, the rest of the grant money would’ve already been allocated and the project would be further along.

He believes the storage basin will have a great impact on flood reduction in Findlay once it’s completed.

“It will reduce the 100-year flood elevation at Main Street by around a foot and a half, and that would be on top of the reductions we’re seeing with the work that’s currently being done along the Blanchard River.”

The 600 to 800-acre floodwater storage basin would be constructed west of U.S. 68 and just north of Township Road 49.

Ohio restaurants and bars are still having trouble making ends meet as the pandemic drags on.

The latest poll from the Ohio Restaurant Association shows 80 percent of restaurants don’t even expect to break even this year.

President John Barker says the limits on eateries and bars put into place because of the pandemic are making it so owners can’t make enough money.

He says more than half of those who responded to the poll say they’ve lost 20 to 70 percent of their business during the pandemic.

56 percent of restaurants believe they’ll be forced to close within nine months if they continue operating at their current capacity.

Less than 25 percent of restaurants think they can stay open indefinitely.

After a week at number 2, Putnam County is back at the top of the list of Ohio counties with the highest occurrence of COVID cases based on population.

In his COVID-19 update Tuesday, the governor said Putnam County is at a rate of 286.5 cases per 100,000 people and has had 97 cases from September 14th through the 27th.

Putnam County’s population is 33,861.

Wood County comes in at number 4, Seneca County at number 18 and Allen County at number 19.

State data shows Putnam County has had 625 cases of the coronavirus and 23 deaths.

Putnam County is still at level 3, or the red level, on the state’s COVID-19 alert map.

In the most recent numbers released by Hancock Public Health, Hancock County has had 696 cases of the virus in the county and ten deaths.

Hancock County is still at level 2, or orange, on the state’s COVID-19 alert map.

The Findlay Trojans football team is ready to get back on the field on Friday.

The team missed the last two games, against Central Catholic on September 18th and Clay on September 25th, because they were under quarantine after a player came down with the coronavirus.

The Trojans, 2-1, haven’t played since September 11th when they lost by one point to St. John’s at home.

The Trojans host Lima Senior at Donnell Stadium at 7 Friday night in a game you can hear on WFIN.

The volleyball team also had its season suspended after a player got the virus.

Their season will resume on Tuesday as they host Defiance.

Findlay City Schools has a dashboard where you can see how many students and staff in the district have the virus.