Conrad Balliet reads Terry Hermsen's poem, "The Yellow Spring - For the Glen and Tara."

Conrad Balliet reads David Petreman's poem, "Father David Goes to Ohio"

Conrad Balliet reads Barbara Astor's poem, "Woodlore."

The holidays are a time for celebration, family and exchanging gifts. That's how the conventional wisdom goes. But for a lot of people, it can actually be harder than most other times of year. As Emily McCord reports, one local church is offering services to acknowledge that it's not always a Merry Christmas for everyone.

The Blue Christmas worship service at Corinth Presbyterian Church in Dayton isn't that different than other holiday services. There are still hymns, a sermon, and prayers, but it isn't exactly joyous.

Conrad Balliet visits Excursions to share poetry and music with Niki Dakota.  They discuss the high quality and quantity of the poetry by writers in the Miami Valley and invite listeners to an upcoming poetry reading in Conrad's honor at Wittenberg University.  

School boards in Ohio are under a lot of economic pressure right now. They have to tighten their budgets, and on top of that, the shape of Ohio's state budget leaves questions about how much funding schools will receive in the future. In Greene County, there's a grass roots effort to save money in schools. It's got the attention of Governor Strickland.