Sheila Howard

Instead of stepping into the pulpit, some local pastors are stepping behind the counter to dish up sweet treats for a cause. Rita’s Italian Ice & Frozen Custard on Holland-Sylvania Road turned its counter into an impromptu pulpit Sunday night at the kickoff of Celebrity Scoop Night: Pastors Edition, a five-week Sunday series where clergy members trade sermons for scoops.

While battling cancer herself, Linda Erbland sat in support groups listening to women with triple-negative breast cancer describe treatments that had stopped working. Hearing them desperately plead for help and treatment recommendations, she recalled not being able to shake a nagging question: What hope is left when science runs out of possibilities?

Every person in Toledo has “one small thing” they can do today to protect children from a brain‑damaging toxin. That was the call to action from Paul Allwood, chief of the Lead Poisoning Prevention and Surveillance Branch at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.