DAYTON, Ky. —

There's a new name for a small river town in Northern Kentucky to go along with a new regional attitude about Cincinnati football.

The city of Dayton has officially changed its name Saturday for game day with the Tennessee Titans to "Who Deyton, Kentucky."

Mayor Ben Baker signed the formal proclamation, using orange ink of course. The city's website also reflects the one-day change with a logo that becomes orange instead of green.

"My mother called me about an hour, like, what did you do?" he explained as office laughter filled the space at Who Deyton City Hall. "She said that somebody from her high school called my dad and said I just saw your son. That's hilarious."

It seems like everybody wants in on orange and black these days. That's what a winning team will do for a town.

The Cincinnati Zoo altered its profile pic and the public library logo suddenly sprouted stripes.

Hometown Heroes in Who Deyton was anticipating another packed watch party for Saturday's big game.

"If I got a dollar for every time I heard who dey, then I probably wouldn't have to work," joked bartender Hilary Hensley.

Dayton, as it is usually known, has the oldest connection to the original Bengals, which was the city's first professional football team, part of the American League of pro football at the time. That was in 1937. The team held its first scrimmage game at O. W. Davis Field.

"Two-thousand people came on a freezing September night," according to City Administrator Jay Fossett.

The WPA-era stadium serves to this day as home of the Dayton High School Green Devils.

John McAfee, coach and teacher at Dayton and Ohio State alum, played halfback on the original Bengals team.

When asked if he was getting any national publicity about the city's play on its name and the historical connection, Mayor Baker exclaimed "No! Why not? You'd think Barstool Sports would be all over this."

Fossett told us if the Bengals are in the AFC Championship game next weekend, they'll change the name again. They've already got the template in place.

He even joked if the Bengals become Super Bowl champions, they might petition the citizenry for a permanent change.

Residents are all in with the midnight to midnight new identity.

As the proclamation implies, they are part of Who Deyton Nation for pre-gaming, game watching and post-game partying. Serious fun going on this weekend in little 'ol Who Deyton.

DAYTON, Ohio — The University of Dayton reported 343 students have tested positive for COVID-19 since Friday, including 111 on Monday, which brings the number of active cases to 744, the Journal-News reports.

Over the weekend, UD reported its highest single-day total of 167 cases on Saturday, and another 65 cases were reported Sunday, according to the university’s campus status webpage. The number of coronavirus cases is nearing 10 percent of the student body, based on the total undergraduate enrollment of 8,717 for 2020 reported to U.S. News & World Report for its annual college rankings.

The campus alert level remained unchanged Monday at red Status 4-Warning on its five-tired system. This means contact tracing is not able to reliably identify affected individuals. The next status would call for all students to vacate campus.

Last week, the university extended remote learning until at least Sept. 14.

It also launched an initiative to expand testing of students.

The Journal-News is a media partner of WCPO 9 News.

CINCINNATI — Greater Cincinnati’s population increased 5.6% in the last 10 years to more than 2.25 million, according to 2020 Census data released Thursday.

That’s faster growth than Akron, Cleveland and Dayton but slower than Columbus, Indianapolis and Louisville.

The 2020 Census, which represents a snapshot of the U.S. population as of April 1, 2020, takes on added importance this year.

That’s because the official count at the end of each decade is used to apportion seats in Congress, government funding and rank regional rivals. Growing cities often tout their population gains in marketing campaigns, while shrinking towns use the numbers as a call to action.

To that end, Cincinnati has some positive numbers to share. It’s the 30th largest Metropolitan Statistical Area, ranking ahead of Columbus, Cleveland, Indianapolis and Nashville, all cities against which it competes for jobs and corporate investments. Also, for the first time in 70 years, it has a growing urban core. Census data show the city of Cincinnati grew 4.2%, to 309,317, since 2010.

But Greater Cincinnati lags some of its regional peers in the number of fast-growing counties. Only Boone and Warren counties had growth rates above 10% since 2010. The Indianapolis metro has five such counties, while Columbus has three.

While the numbers are important for economic development reasons, they are a crucial ingredient for state redistricting committees, which revise legislative districts at the state and federal level every 10 years.

It will be a hotly contested process in Ohio this year because the Buckeye State will lose one Congressional seat and Republicans need only five seats nationwide to regain control of the U.S. House of Representatives.

The redistricting challenge is greater this year because the Census data is being released much later than in prior years, said Michael Finney, chief financial officer of the Voinovich School of Leadership and Public Service at Ohio University.

It has a state contract to create data maps that the Ohio Redistricting Commission uses to compare how boundary changes impact the number of voters in every legislative district. The data provides block-level head counts that include age and race information.

Finney said it will take about two weeks for Ohio University to finalize its data maps. Members of the redistricting commission will combine that data with voting records and other information to decide which boundaries the political boundaries should be.

“This year, given the fact that the release of the data is so late, it’s going to put a lot of pressure on the map makers,” Finney said, “to make their maps and meet the deadlines that are in the Ohio constitution.”

The redistricting commission faces a Sept. 1 deadline to draw new districts for Ohio politicians, while the deadline for Congressional districts is Sept. 30.

The Census Bureau has been criticized for delays and questioned about the accuracy of the 2020 Census. Last week, the bureau announced it would delay the release of its American Community Survey, which includes more information about poverty, housing and demographics, because it didn’t have big enough samples in all geographies.

But Finney said the data released Thursday has everything Ohio University needs to complete its data maps.

“I’m not concerned about the accuracy,” Finney said. “It’s the data that we use every 10 years. It is the 100% count from the Census Bureau … This is the data that the Ohio constitution requires.”

DAYTON, Ohio —

On the two-year anniversary of Dayton’s mass shooting, a vigil was held to remember the many lives lost.

Family and friends of the victims gathered in the city’s Oregon District, the very place where the violence unfolded.

There was a nine-minute moment of silence to honor the nine people who never made it home.

"It's hard standing here it really is," Mike Turner said.

Mike Turner was Logan Turner's father.

The 30-year-old Springboro man was one of the people who never made it home.

"This gets a little bit deeper and deeper, I miss my son dearly, I don't wish this upon anybody," Turner said.

There was sadness, as flowers were placed before a line of wreaths representing the victims.

There was also celebration.

Donita Cosey organized the event alongside her fiance Dion Green.

They were there when Dion's father, Derek Fudge, was gunned down.

"You don't want to be sad all the time, we can't change what took place so all we can do at this point is try to celebrate them," Cosey said.

As music and chatter filled the street, a common pain, united all who attended.

"I want us to lean on each other's shoulders and be here for support," vigil organizer Dion Green said.

The vigil was held by the Fudge Foundation, started by Green in honor of his father.

The foundation supports the families of gun violence victims following death and tragedy.

A Dayton man has been identified as the pedestrian who was struck and killed Saturday morning on Ohio 4 in Butler County, according to the Journal-News.

Tommy James Johnson, 44, died of multiple traumatic injuries and his death was ruled an accident, according to the Butler County Coroner’s Office.

On Monday, the Butler County Sheriff’s Office and coroner’s office asked for help identifying a man struck and killed Saturday morning while he was walking on Ohio 4, south of Keister Road in Madison Twp.

The man walked into the path of a northbound truck at about 2:15 a.m. Saturday, the sheriff’s office said. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

The driver of the 2019 Kenworth tanker truck was not injured, according to the sheriff’s office. No charges have been filed against the driver, an official said.