Coming up next on NewsDepth.... Early voting starts for the midterm elections.

Ohio's government system has several layers that ensure services for residents.

Women are breaking barriers in career fields.

And a Northeast Ohio Filipino-American creates an app to connect with his culture.

NewsDepth is now.

With governor Mike DeWine's two terms coming to an end, Ohio will elect a new governor next month.

Hello, everyone.

I'm Gabriel Kramer.

Thank you all for joining us.

Ohio's race for governor is part of the 2026 midterm elections.

Midterm elections are national elections that take place halfway through a president's four year term.

The general elections for the midterms are on November 3rd.

The midterms help determine who works for Congress and state level positions like governor and local races, which sometimes means the mayor or other leadership roles for a city, town or county.

They can also cover other ballot issues like constitutional amendments or local tax proposals.

Although midterm elections often have less voter turnout than presidential elections, they still shape our country and are important to follow.

The midterms determine who controls Congress, which affects what the president can accomplish, and they shape national policy for the next two years.

On the ballot this year in Ohio, voters will elect the positions of governor, lieutenant governor, secretary of state, state attorney general, state auditor, state treasurer, and two Ohio Supreme Court justices.

The candidates for governor of Ohio are Democrat Amy Acton and Republican Vivek Ramaswamy.

Both candidates won their party's official nominations through Ohio's primary elections back in May.

Acton previously served as a director of the Ohio Department of Health under Governor DeWine.

Ramaswamy is a biotech entrepreneur who ran for president in 2024 and backed Donald Trump after losing to him in the presidential primary elections.

Voting is already underway across the country as November's election approaches.

More than 6 million ballots have already been cast in 40 states, including mail-in ballots and early in-person votes.

That's according to the University of Florida Election Lab.

Many voters say they chose to vote early because they believe every vote counts and want to make sure their voices are heard on important issues.

Early voting has become increasingly popular.

In Georgia, for example, most voters have cast their ballots before Election Day in recent elections.

Maddie Gannon and has the latest from the White House.

Some voters at a polling site in Decatur, Georgia, lining up before dawn Tuesday to mark the first day of in-person early voting in the Peach State.

Because of the different issues that are going on in our country.

So I feel like every vote counts.

Every vote does count for sure.

Georgia is home to one of this year's most closely watched Senate races, and it's one of ten states allowing in-person voting in this year's midterm elections to get underway this week.

That includes several other states with some of this year's most competitive races.

Many Democrats are feeling optimistic about their chances in purple and even some traditionally red states.

The White House on Tuesday is continuing its red state tour.

President Donald Trump is visiting Alaska while Vice President JD Vance is in Texas.

Two historically red states with competitive Senate races this election.

Thanks for the report, Maddie.

Local government is a huge part of your cities or towns, whether you know about it or not.

Ohio's local government system has several layers that work together to provide services for residents.

The state is divided into 88 counties, all of which contain townships and municipalities.

Your mayor and city council manage operations in the city, such as managing its budget, creating local laws, and even ensuring the water in your house is running every day.

Understanding these different levels of government helps explain how services are managed across Ohio.

Conor Morris has this week's Politics on Point explaining Ohio's government breakdown.

Have you ever looked at an Ohio address and wondered how counties, townships, cities and villages all fit together?

I know I have.

Ohio's local government structure has a lot of moving parts, but once you understand what each layer does, it starts to make a lot more sense.

Let's break it down.

Ohio is divided into 88 counties.

A county is a large area that helps organize local government and provides services to residents.

Services such as courts, elections, public records, public health departments, and county roads.

Most counties are governed by elected county commissioners.

Within those counties, there are townships.

Ohio has 1308 townships.

Think of townships as local governments that primarily serve areas outside cities and villages.

Township governments often maintain local roads, provide fire and emergency services, operate cemeteries, and manage zoning outside of the cities, and they are typically governed by a board of trustees and a fiscal officer elected by residents.

Next are the municipalities.

A municipality is a community with its own local government like cities and villages.

In Ohio, a community with a population of 5000 or more is classified as a city and a community with fewer than 5000 residents would be a village.

Municipalities can create local laws, provide police and fire services, maintain streets and deliver other services directly to residents.

They are typically governed by a mayor and a city or village council elected by residents.

Now this is where things can get confusing because some of these boundaries can overlap.

Every location in Ohio is inside a county.

Many locations are also inside a township, but not all cities and villages are inside townships?

And some can even cross township lines or county lines?

Okay.

Let's see.

The city of Dublin is located in Franklin, Delaware and Union counties, so this one city extends across three county lines.

There's also one more layer worth knowing about school districts.

School district boundaries are separate from counties, townships, and municipalities.

They are responsible for running public schools, and they may include parts of multiple communities.

Okay, that was a little bit more confusing than I thought.

Let's break down what we just learned.

The state of Ohio is first divided into 88 counties.

Counties contain townships and municipalities.

And municipalities are either cities or villages, and school districts operate separately.

So I guess the most important thing that I learned today is that the local government has layers that ensure Ohio residents are provided with services we rely on every day.

So NewsDepth headquarters is located in the city of Cleveland, which is in Cuyahoga County.

Thank you, Conor.

For our write-to-us this week, we'd like you to think like an elected official.

What service in your community would you try to improve and why?

Students can use our inbox form online at newsdepth.org to share their answers.

Last week, Ygal took us to the International Women's Air and Space Museum in Cleveland to learn about groundbreaking female pilots.

And we asked you what challenges you think early female aviation pioneers may have faced.

Let's see what you had to say by flying over to our inbox.

A fourth grade student from William Bruce Elementary in Eaton thinks female pilots had to prove themselves.

It was probably hard because a lot of people didn't believe in them, so it makes them doubt themselves.

A fifth grader from Kinsner Elementary in Strongsville thinks the discrimination went further than aviation.

Dear NewsDepth, a challenge that I think they went through is getting treated differently than the men just because they are women.

This fourth grader from Chagrin Falls Intermediate School in Chagrin Falls wrote that women in the Air Force also had to deal with what the whole country would think.

Most women likely suffered from criticism from citizens in the U.S., but I'm glad women kept going and made history.

A fifth grade student from Nord Middle School in Amherst thinks female pilots could have had a hard time getting hired.

Dear NewsDepth, I think early female pilots had a hard time finding jobs and proving to the men they are also good pilots.

And Mrs.

Kroeger's fourth grade class from Mason Elementary in Mason summed it all up with their answer.

Dear NewsDepth, We think that the early female pilots were discriminated against since they didn't have equal rights.

During this time, men had more rights than women, and many men thought women could not be pilots.

Thank you all for writing.

Just like the female aviation pioneers we learned about last week, women today are continuing to break barriers in careers that have traditionally been dominated by men.

At a welding school in Georgia, students like Jhikayla are proving that women can succeed in fields like welding and construction despite making up only a small percentage of the workforce.

Brian Unger visited the trade school where women are challenging ideas about who belongs in the skilled trades and what a successful career can look like.

In a welding booth, a four year degree can only get you so far.

You can either do this expertly or you can't.

And Jhikayla Mathis can.

In fact, she's at the top of her class.

A 4.0 and everything.

Which is not where this 25 year old from Columbus, Georgia, once imagined herself.

I always wanted to go follow in the medical field with my family.

Instead, inspired by her grandfather, she picked up a welding torch and will enter a job market where women are still very much the exception.

I have to work 20 times harder because you know it is a male dominated field.

Let's go.

At Tulsa Welding School's Atlanta campus, its president, Tamika Morris, is betting on women like Mathis.

A pool of talent.

the skilled trades have mostly overlooked.

If we really want to talk about closing this gap in the shortage of, you know, in the workforce in the skilled trades, we have to tap into the untapped market, which are women.

Here, women make up 16% of the student body.

But there is a much bigger gap to close.

Nationally, women make up just 4% of construction trade workers.

In metro Atlanta, where skilled trades employ more than 200,000 people, the metro Atlanta Chamber says demand for skilled workers is outpacing supply, a demand fueled by homes, roads, factories and data centers.

All of this requires people who know how to build things.

For so long, this was not an option for us, right?

Our parents didn't raise us to think about welding, Hvac, and electrical.

This is our mascot, by the way.

That's Tig.

For Morris, it's personal.

Growing up in Miami, she planned on becoming a doctor.

It's just what we were taught.

Go to school.

Graduate high school.

Leave at 18 and go away for college.

So I did that.

Earning a college degree and masters.

But medical school never happened.

Instead, she found her way into education, helping students find their own path.

If she had to do it over again?

I probably would not have gone that route.

When Mathis graduates next month, she's going back to school to become an underwater welder.

Wow.

Why?

Why do you want to do that?

No, no women in the field.

So I might as well go dominate that field too.

She says learning to weld has changed the way she sees herself and helped other women see what's possible.

They see us.

Me here doing this, and another woman in here doing this.

They've like, okay, I can do this.

In an economy hungry for people who can build, these women are proving there's more than one career path and changing ideas about who can walk it.

Thank you, Brian.

Women are making their mark in the skilled trades, including the automotive industry, where they remain a small minority.

With women making up only about 2% of auto technicians and mechanics, industry leaders say there is a growing need to recruit more women, as demand for skilled workers continues to rise.

Jaclyn Schultz has more.

He was driving on the freeway and it binded up on him, so he had it towed in here.

I just wanted to go to school for it.

It's something I'm passionate about, learning how everything works together.

Samantha Aiken is the service manager for the Midas off Tropicana.

The trained auto technician says some shops were skeptical to hire her as a woman, but she says the family that owns this Midas vouched for her.

Customer service needed a woman's touch.

I relate to the customers.

I'm honest with them.

You know, I put myself in their shoes because I was them at one point.

Sit next to them and I show them everything.

If they have questions, I bring them out here and show them the cars.

She has never been afraid to get her hands dirty, but after fixing cars with her boyfriend and going apart stores by herself, she decided to put a new career in gear.

She is in the vast minority for an industry with growing demand.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics says there's more than 900,000 people in the workforce, its auto technicians and mechanics.

2% are women.

Federal data predicts 70,000 openings in the field by 2034.

Many older workers will enter retirement shops need skilled workers to meet the need.

Checking the oil.

We are in the automotive lab, to practice what they've been learning now really actually apply it.

Students get their start training as automotive technicians, companies and shop call the staff at UEI looking for students to hire.

There's a variety of opportunities.

You can go into the service side, in to the management side.

Administrative.

You can break in to some of the fun things like we have in Las Vegas with F1.

It'll definitely change the game if more women get into this industry.

And, you know, just bridge that gap that we have right now.

Give it a shot.

Get your hands dirty.

Thank you, Jaclyn.

When you think of a licensed radio operator, you might picture an experienced adult.

But our new friend Paige, is changing that image.

The young fourth grader from Westerly Elementary School in Bay village has already earned an impressive achievement that takes dedication and a lot of hard work.

For earning her technician class amateur radio license from the Federal Communications Commission.

Paige is this week's A+ Award winner.

The Federal Communications Commission or the FCC, is the U.S.

government agency that regulates communications by radio, television, satellite, cable television and the internet across the country.

They're the agency that we got our license from that allows us to put NewsDepth on the air.

Paige told us that earning her license was a lot of work.

And she had to pass a 35 question test that covers all sorts of topics like electronics, science, FCC regulations, and radio etiquette, which basically means how to use proper manners when transmitting.

When Paige spoke to us about that test, it sure sounded like a headache, but she gave us some great advice.

She told us that we don't have to eat the entire elephant at once.

We can eat the elephant, one small bite at a time.

Meaning to be successful with a big challenge, it's helpful to break the big job into smaller, more manageable parts.

That is some great advice.

Paige told us that since she's gotten into radio communications, she's had conversations with interesting people all over the world, even as far as Wallis and Futuna, an island in the South Pacific near Fiji.

How cool is that?

She even told us that her radio skills have allowed her to help out with some really exciting events, like a triathlon in the Cleveland area, where she was able to use radio communications to help the event organizers keep track of the participants.

But she told us that her favorite part of preparing for her test was getting to spend so much time with her father.

Paige, congratulations on winning this week's A+ Award.

We'll be sure to keep an ear out for you on the radio.

October is Filipino American History Month, and I could not let this month pass without sharing a little bit of my Filipino culture.

Filipino Americans make up less than a half of a percent of Ohio's population, but still, that's more than 40,000 people.

Despite several Filipino organizations in the area, some second and third generation Filipino Americans are looking for more ways to connect to the culture and language.

I spent some time with a Northeast Ohio native who has an app for that.

Oh now we're sizzling.

It's a pretty common Filipino breakfast.

Spam, rice and eggs and it's delicious to me.

That's Luke Patterson, who knows this dish is called... Spamsilog All right.

When I do cook Filipino food at home, it's usually breakfast.

Cooking Spamsilog is just one of the things he's done to get familiar with his Filipino roots.

He's a guitarist on the side.

I've tried learning a few OPM Filipino music songs.

I haven't performed any.

More so like playing along at home.

And by trade, he's a software engineer.

I built an app called Tahanan, which means "home" in Tagalog.

Nice.

Tahanan is an app for Filipinos to learn to speak to their families.

Tagalog is the most widely spoken language in the Philippines, although the country has dozens of different languages and dialects.

The app is expanding to feature more.

So in this app, there are... There's a curriculum that goes through based on dialogs, like for example, the first unit is introductions.

So for this conversation, it wants me to find out her name, where she's from and tell her my name.

Arrange the words to form a sentence.

I love you.

That's "mahal kita."

Patterson had a job with well-known sports betting app DraftKings, but quickly realized he could build his own app.

And what started as a side project became his passion.

So I started by creating this for myself.

For a lot of Filipino families it's very embarrassing to try to speak to the families.

Make fun of your Tagalog even though you know you want to practice.

So I actually built an AI language partner that I could practice speaking with and have conversations with.

And that's originally how the app started.

You built a robot so that your mom wouldn't make fun of you.

Exactly.

No, she doesn't make fun of me.

She doesn't make fun of me.

It's primarily my, my Tita in Cleveland.

Tita means aunt.

She speaks really fast, and she's very hard to understand.

They kind of laugh a little bit or, like, snicker you know, sometimes you might mess up some words or.

Yeah, I wanted to safer space.

I wanted a judgment free zone to practice.

I learned that there's a lot of other Filipinos that wanted to learn just like me.

I had no idea that the community was so big.

So I decided that I had the perfect storm of motivation and experience to build something useful for the Filipino community.

The app features tutors based in the Philippines to provide expertise and personalized tips.

Patterson says the app has more than 1600 users, most of whom are in the United States, with several in Canada, Australia and the United Kingdom.

But user count is perhaps not the best measure of the app's success.

As I got older, I realized how much more important it was for me to try to connect with my heritage and the one way that I started to feel closer to my Filipino family and feel closer to my mom is by studying Tagalog.

Patterson has been a Northeast Ohioan his whole life growing up in Brunswick, attending high school at Cleveland's St.

Ignatius and College at John Carroll University.

Now he cooks his Spamsilog in his Bay Village home.

And though his mother is in Indiana, she's just a phone call away for cooking tips.

Hi, Ma!

I'm cooking spamsilog.

Just fry it in oil.

I am proud of you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I love you.

I love you.

Special thanks to Luke Patterson for showing us his new app and teaching us some Tagalog phrases.

A Native American language is in danger of vanishing forever.

There's only about 65 people who know how to speak Hidatsa.

But as Jody Kerzman reports, there are a handful of people in North Dakota who are working to change that.

Rollie Knight is learning to speak Hidatsa.

It's part of who I am.

It's part of who we as people are.

Everybody's got a history with their language.

And, I just feel like that connection is really important.

It is the language of his childhood and of his family.

I grew up with, some of it, yeah.

Some of it being spoke by my mother.

So she, she was, she was pretty fluent.

Rollie never learned Hidatsa... until now.

He is one of a handful of students at United Tribes Technical College, learning the Hidatsa language.

I'm happy and proud to be learning.

This is the first time it's been taught here.

Amber Gwyn is the instructor.

She admits she's learning right alongside her students.

I grew up hearing it.

Then I was told it was my first language.

But being inundated in English, it was quickly gone.

So I'm like in a similar place of like re learning it.

I'm definitely not fluent.

Her ultimate goal is to become fluent.

But she says preserving the language matters most.

And it's up to all of us to keep it alive, even if it's just one word.

That makes my heart happy.

Thank you, Jody.

For our poll this week, we want to know, would you like to learn a new language?

Jump over to our poll page to vote.

You can choose between: Yes, it would be cool to know one other language.

Or No, I wouldn't know which language to pick.

On our last episode, Jeff told us about the mystery of bats and we asked you to turn into a batkid by picking a bat superpower.

60% of you said you'd grow wings to fly everywhere.

About 17% voted for living for a long time.

14% wish they could use sonar vision.

And another 9% said you need super hearing to be a superhero.

Thank you all for voting.

Speaking of languages, I'm pretty sure NewsHound is bilingual because his mom, our producer Natalia Garcia, is actually from Mexico and Spanish is her first language.

Bilingual means someone who can speak two languages.

NewsHound estas listo?

That means: Are you ready?

Hola, NewsHound.

So you can understand English as well as Spanish?

That is pretty cool.

Can you show us what "sientate" means?

Good job.

That means sit down.

How about "ladra"?

Nice bark.

Okay.

Can you show us "que historia encontraste"?

Show us the story that you found.

Oh, you brought us a story about a zoo in Connecticut with a new furry edition.

Meet Pabu, the red panda.

Pabu is keeping his caretakers on their toes.

He's like a toddler.

He's trying out all kinds of new things you can see he is chewing on everything.

"Cute" doesn't even begin to cover it.

But behind that fuzzy face is a cub making history for Connecticut's Beardsley Zoo.

This is a huge milestone for us.

We've had panda pairings in the past, and they just haven't worked out.

So having Pabu here feels like a miracle.

We're really excited.

To see how Pabu is getting along, watch the full video on our website and YouTube channel.

Muchas gracias, NewsHound.

Well, that's a wrap for today's episode of NewsDepth, but we'll be back next week with more news and more stories.

Until then, you can always stay in touch with us because we always want to hear from you.

You can write to us.

We're at 1375 Euclid Avenue, Cleveland, Ohio.

Our zip code here is 44115.

You can email us at newsdepth@ideastream.org.

Plus, you can catch all of our special segments on YouTube.

Hit subscribe if you're old enough so you don't miss out on any of our new videos.

Thank you for joining us.

I'm Gabriel Kramer.

See you next week.

NewsDepth is made possible by a grant froNorthEast Ohio Oracle Users Group.