Karen Kasler is a lifelong Ohioan with a passion for broadcast reporting. She left her hometown of Lancaster for Otterbein College. As News Director at WCBE in Columbus in the 90s, she covered a variety of events, including the local impact of the Gulf War, the financial problems of the Columbus Public Schools and the trouble-ridden Ameriflora exhibition in 1992.

Karen was selected as a Fellow in the Kiplinger Master's Program for Mid-Career Journalists at The Ohio State University in 1994. After a brief stint at WBNS-TV in Columbus, she moved to Cleveland and became the afternoon drive anchor and assignment editor for WTAM-AM. Karen followed the demolition and rebuilding of Cleveland Browns Stadium, produced award-winning series on identity theft and the Y2K panic, covered the Republican National Convention in 2000 and the blackout of 2003, and reported annually from the Cleveland National Air Show each year, often going upside down in an aerobatic plane to do it. In 1999, she was a media witness to the execution of Wilford Berry, at the time the first man put to death since Ohio re-instated capital punishment. Karen frequently reported for ABC Radio News, and also co-produced an award-winning nationally-distributed documentary on the one-year anniversary of September 11, 2001, which featured her interview with Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge from the West Wing of the White House.

Since returning to Columbus, she's covered major elections and the controversies surrounding them, the "Coingate" scandal and the resignation of former Attorney General Marc Dann. She's also produced features on "green" business, STEM education, campaign ads, the elimination of the state's anti-smoking agency and a demolition derby involving farm equipment.

Each year she anchors the Bureau's live coverage of the governor's State of the State. She was a panelist for the gubernatorial and the US Senate debates in 2006 and the Attorney General's race in 2008, and has also been interviewed by NPR, by the BBC and by Brian Williams for NBC's "Nightly News".

Karen has been honored by the Association of Capitol Editors and Reporters, the Cleveland Press Club/Society of Professional Journalists, the Ohio Educational Telecommunications Commission, and holds a National Headliner Award. She's won several awards from the Ohio AP, and is a four-time winner of the AP's Best Broadcast Writing award. She was nominated for an Emmy in 2006 for hosting "The State of Ohio". She's currently the president-elect of the Ohio Associated Press Broadcasters.

Karen joined the Bureau in March 2004. She’s reported for NPR, Marketplace and the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, and is a frequent guest on ONN’s “Capitol Square” , WVIZ’s “Ideas” and WOSU-TV’s “Columbus on the Record”.

Karen is also an adjunct professor at Capital University in Columbus. Karen, her husband and their son Jack live on Columbus' northeast side.

Jo Ingles is an award-winning journalist who began her career in Louisville, Kentucky in the mid 80’s. Through the years, she’s worked in both radio and television as a reporter and production assistant. She’s assisted in the production of a presidential debate for ABC Television news, reported for a major commercial radio station in Louisville, and then came back to her native Ohio to begin working at the WOSU Stations in Columbus Ohio in 1989 to begin a long resume of work in public radio.

After working for more than a decade as a general assignment reporter at WOSU-AM, Jo was hired by the Ohio Public Radio/TV News Bureau where she’s worked for the past 11 years. She’s covered everything from tax hikes to Supreme Court proceedings to educational policies. Jo lives in southern Delaware county with her husband Roger and two children.

Bill Cohen is now in his 40th year of news reporting for Ohio's public radio and TV stations. Over the years, he's covered hundreds of different public policy issues ...from tax hikes, budget crunches, and soaring college tuition to capitol punishment, abortion, and gay marriage. Among the most high-profile developments he's covered: the 1993 Lucasville prison riot, the long-running legal battle over school funding, dozens of elections for governor and president, and the rise and fall of political legends such as Governor James Rhodes and House Speaker Vern Riffe.

When Ohio news merits national attention, you can hear Bill's radio reports on National Public Radio programs like "All Things Considered" and "Morning Edition," and on another national radio show, "Marketplace."

In addition to interviewing newsmakers on the weekly public TV show, "The State of Ohio," Bill is also an occasional guest on "Columbus on the Record" on WOSU-TV and on "Capitol Square" on the Ohio News Network. Bill's freelance reporting also appears on Stateline.org, a website that reports on state government action across the nation. Bill's reports have won numerous first place awards from the Society of Professional Journalists, the Ohio Associated Press Broadcasters and the Cleveland Press Club. In 2006, the Association of Capitol Reporters and Editors gave him all four of its first place awards for his reporting on state government. In 2004, Bill was honored with the Carl Day Outstanding Achievement Award from the Ohio Associated Press.