CINCINNATI — A beloved breakfast spot is closing its original location for a renovation, while opening a third location in Hamilton County.

Sugar n Spice has been serving up wispy thin pancakes and fluffy eggs for more than 80 years. Its current Paddock Hills building on Reading Road has been around for more than 50 years and is about to expand and get a refresh - or restoration, as co-owner Adam Mayerson says.

"The building was built in the mid-1950's so, over the years, it has taken its beatings, but with love," Mayerson said. "We were wanting to make some upgrades to it eventually, but 2020 happened and that derailed a lot of our plans."

Adam Mayerson

The project, which will start in January and is expected to last until June, will nearly double the diner's capacity - from 39 seats to 69. The new addition along Reading Road will be able to house larger groups and will include ADA-compliant restrooms.

There will also be changes to the entrance, including a pick-up window for takeout orders.

Mayerson says the kitchen will be new - from top to bottom.

Adam Mayerson

"It's a true restoration as opposed to a renovation," Mayerson said. "We wanted to bring it back to its 'original life,' pick whatever decade that is; but just bring it back to life and put some love back into it like all of our loyal guests have."

While the original location is closed, a third Sugar n Spice location will open on Summit Parkway in Blue Ash next to Summit Park. Mayerson expects that diner to open in January, and says it takes its design inspiration from the original.

"We had a clean slate there," he said. "We wanted it to feel and resemble a lot of aspects and little nuances of Reading."

Mayerson's family bought the diner in 2019, after eating at the Reading Road location for four generations.

Adam Mayerson

Sugar n Spice's second location on Sycamore Street in the Pendleton neighborhood opened in 2020 and remains open.

HAMILTON — Nationwide, school districts are spending billions of dollars on technology to keep students and staff healthy and a Blue Ash company is on the forefront of the sales.

At Butler County Educational Services Center in Hamilton, the Head Start preschool classrooms all had NanoStrike units installed. So did staff areas. They've purchased 66 in all.

"We want kids at school as much as they possibly can be, so the reason we went with these is because they really help us with all the germs," said Suzanne Prescott, the early childhood programs director.

The preschool classes there got hit especially hard by RSV this winter. And that's not to mention continued COVID-19 cases, the flu, and colds.

"Kids can't learn if they're not here," she said.

The center turned to Blue Ash-based Protect|ED to bring the small, mountable air purifying units to the classes.

Indian Hill Exempted Village School District purchased enough units for all K-12 facilities in 2022, according to a district spokesperson.

"Clean air in schools is no longer a privilege, it's a requirement," said Lindsey Haglage, Protect ED's vice president of business development.

The white boxes aren't filters, though they have one to catch dust and anything that might disturb the technology inside. Instead, there are fans and coils the manufacturer says can destroy any pathogen that comes through intake.

"There's so much osmotic pressure in those coils that when pathogens come in contact with those coils, they actually burst," Haglage said.

Haglage said each NanoStrike unit costs about $2,500 but requires no ongoing expense.

It's one element in a huge amount of spending by districts nationwide using American Rescue Plan Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief funds (ARP-ESSER). A late 2022 report from the Center for Green Schools at the US Green Building Councilshowed districts expected to spend more on air filtration and HVAC than any other health segment, except staffing - an estimated $5.5 billion in ARP funding.

The small, quiet NanoStrike units appealed to Butler County Head Start's somewhat unique needs.

"Sometimes we're in a building when they're there a year or two, so we're able to take them with us," Prescott said.

Like Indian Hill, the early reaction from staff and students has been positive - and healthy.

"We have kinda noticed that when we have people sick in a room, we haven't seen it spread as much," she said.

BLUE ASH — Blue Ash officers executing a search warrant in August 2020 found a semi-automatic rifle and 1,800 rounds of ammunition in the bedroom of Robert "Bo" Weber, a man on parole for a gun-related crime.

Weber's felony conviction made it a crime for him to possess a firearm.

According to a Blue Ash police affidavit, someone admitted purchasing the gun for Weber, but the buyer wasn't charged.

A 2018 General Accounting Office report found people caught lying on federal firearms purchase forms are rarely charged, even though that's a felony.

The I-Team's review of federal cases also found that when so-called 'straw-purchasers' of firearms are charged, it's usually because the gun was used in a violent crime or was part of a larger criminal conspiracy.

Straw-purchasers are often friends or relatives of the people getting the guns, according to Bureau of Justice Statistics surveys of felons charged with gun possession.

The I-Team interviewed the person who told police she bought the rifle for Weber.

WCPO isn't identifying her because she hasn't been charged.

Blue Ash Police Department

Weber, now 28, was convicted of a felony for illegally possessing a firearm. He's serving a two-year prison sentence.

"I think you have to have public officials take this more seriously," said Dr. Daniel W. Webster, Director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Policy and Research in Baltimore. "Cracking down and sending a message on illegal straw-purchasers is really central, in my opinion, to ultimately having long-term sustainable reductions in gun violence."

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The GAO report said there were 112,000 firearms transactions denied in fiscal year 2017 because of false information on federal firearms purchase forms.

That resulted in 12,700 cases investigated by Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms agents, according to the GAO report.

The GAO report found, "U.S. Attorney's Offices had prosecuted 12 of these cases as of June 2018."

"Where we can prove the elements beyond a reasonable doubt, we're taking those cases," said Vipal Patel, Acting United States Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio since last March.

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Patel, First Assistant U.S. Attorney since April 2016, declined to comment on the Blue Ash case.

"The Blue Ash Police Department considers this a successful resolution to this case," said Blue Ash Police Chief Scott Noel in an email response to the I-Team's questions about the case against Bo Weber and the gun buyer's role in it. "To avoid jeopardizing future cases, I will not discuss specific investigative or tactical techniques used by the Blue Ash Police Department."

The I-Team emailed two requests to the office of Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters requesting comment, but his office has not provided one.

Former United States Attorney Ben Glassman reviewed the Blue Ash police records at the I-Team's request.

Michael Benedic

"The facts that you've shared with me - in my mind - warrant an investigation at the conclusion of which a charging decision should be made," said Glassman who is now a partner with the law firm Squire Patton Boggs. "The point of federal law prohibiting people from owning firearms is to make sure firearms stay out of the wrong hands."

Patel said federal prosecutors have charged individuals with lying on federal firearms forms and will continue to do so if the case warrants it.

"The principle here is to make sure the federal government's resources are expended wisely," Patel said. And "that justice is being served in an appropriate fashion."

Local gun 'straw buyer' cases

In recent years, federal prosecutors have charged several local individuals with lying on firearms purchase forms.

One of the most high-profile cases followed the 2019 mass murder in Dayton's popular Oregon District.

Connor Betts opened fire on dozens of people, killing 9 and wounded 17 before police shot and killed him.

The U.S. Attorney's Office charged Betts' friend, Ethan Kollie, with providing false information on a firearms purchase form.

Kollie bought firearms parts for the semi-automatic rifle Betts used, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.

In February 2020, a federal judge sentenced Kollie to 32 months in prison. He's scheduled to be released in June 2022.

Paola Suro

Three months after the Dayton mass murder, DEA Task Force Officer Jorge Del Rio was shot and killed during a raid at a Dayton home.

According to a DEA affidavit, Nathan Goddard told investigators he shot Del Rio because he thought the officer broke into his house to rob him.

A federal grand jury indicted Goddard for killing Del Rio and for possession and intent to distribute fentanyl, cocaine and marijuana.

Federal agents found three weapons in the home, including the one used to kill Del Rio, according to federal prosecutors.

Investigators traced the weapons back to a Trenton man, Delano Wells, who purchased the firearms for Arland Mills, also from Trenton.

Mills pleaded guilty to hiring Wells to illegally buy firearms for him.

Wells pleaded guilty to lying on the firearms purchase forms.

Last month, a federal judge sentenced Wells to time served with three years supervised release, the first six months on home detention.

The U.S. Attorney's Office also prosecuted a Columbus man for providing false information on firearms purchase forms he used to buy weapons for a gun smuggling operation.

In nearly all cases the I-Team found where federal prosecutors in Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky had charged someone with providing false information when buying a gun, there were additional serious crimes involved later by people who used the straw-purchased guns, including trafficking of guns and drugs, and murder.

However, in 2018, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Ohio charged a man with a felony for giving his father a handgun.

Rodney McMeans, Jr. pleaded guilty to transferring the firearm to his father, Rodney McMeans, who was prohibited from possessing a gun because of his violent criminal history, which included convictions for attempted aggravated murder, kidnapping and rape.

McMeans Sr. was not accused of committing more crimes with the gun his son gave him.

In July 2019, a federal judge sentenced McMeans Jr. to three years probation. His father received a sentence of 37 months in prison.

Cincinnati's crackdown on illegal guns

In Cincinnati, a Gun Crime Task Force is focusing on getting illegal guns off the streets and prosecuting the convicted felons who possessed those firearms in violation of state and federal law.

The task force includes a special unit of Cincinnati officers.

A prosecutor from both the Hamilton County Prosecuting Attorney's Office and the City of Cincinnati Law Department join federal prosecutors on the task force.

So far, the U.S. Attorney's Office has announced criminal charges against 52 individuals.

There have not been charges announced against people who provided those guns to the defendants.

Cincinnati Police Department

"We're focusing the limited resources of the federal government on the where we can have the biggest impact," Patel said.

That means "targeted enforcement," Patel said, not blanket prosecutions of everyone who lied on a federal firearm purchasing form.

"There have been actions, there will be actions" brought against straw gun purchasers, Patel said.

The Cincinnati Police Department is focusing more time, effort and resources into gun-related investigations.

CPD plans to move their Crime Gun Intelligence Center into a new building in October.

It will be the first facility of its kind in Ohio and will help investigators more effectively trace a firearm's history, according to CPD.

BLUE ASH, Ohio — Red, White and Blue Ash returned for the Fourth of July after being canceled in 2020 due to the pandemic, but there were a few changes this year.

Families and visitors gathered in Summit Park for the first fireworks show since the pandemic began, happy to be back in crowds and with friends once more.

"It feels like, you know, we need to take these opportunities more seriously and really show more appreciation for the fact we can celebrate something like independence," said Sue Chae, from Mason.

For years, Chae said she'd heard Red White and Blue Ash was a fun party, but it wasn't until this year she ventured to the event for an opportunity to see friends from Dayton whom the pandemic had kept away.

"I think we've learned a lot in the last year and a half and I think celebrating independence has taken on a new meaning," she said.

The big changes Sunday night were centered mostly on food, though the event did not have a concert this year either. Summit Park was absent any food or drink vendors for the celebration, though event organizers encouraged people to bring their own food and drinks.

When the temperatures rose on Sunday, nearby ice cream shop Nanny Belle's celebrated the return of Red White and Blue Ash customers the shop had struggled without during the pandemic.

"We were fortunate we could keep our walk-up window and keep our distance and everything, but it really hurt when we were not able to do our event," said Jill Donnellan, co-owner of Nanny Belle's.

Another change involves the fireworks show put on by Arthur Rozzi Pyrotechnics. During the show, the display included 200 drones in the sky creating pictures and displays to accompany the spectacle.

"We’re really excited to bring an amazing fireworks show back to Blue Ash,” Rachel Murray, the communications coordinator with the city of Blue Ash, said. "I think everybody’s ready to get out of the house and do something fun. And this is the perfect opportunity to have the family out, and have a great time and see a great show.”

The event and parking were free at Summit Park, and the park is open all day Sunday. The fireworks show began at 10 p.m.