Just days away from our annual Thanksgiving food extravaganza; "This Week in Tech with Jeanne Destro” is focusing on new technology America’s farmers are using to ensure we have plenty of food on the table.

From cameras, drones, and autonomous tractors, to Artificial Intelligence and solar panels; farm operations are becoming increasingly more efficient and productive.

As you’ll hear from our featured guest today, Professor Scott Shearerer, who is Chair of the Department of Food, Agricultural, and Biological Engineering at The Ohio State University; all this is happening while farmers adapt to global climate change-related challenges like drought out West, and heavier than usual rainfall here in Ohio.

Listen now.

Dr. Scott Shearer, The Ohio State University

Akron Police are looking for tips to help them find out who shot at an officer from inside a minivan in Akron's Firestone Park neighborhood late Friday night.

They say it all started at 11:17 PM, when the officer was sitting in a marked cruiser, and heard shots near the intersection of Arlington Street and E. Archwood Avenue. Then a silver Chrysler Pacifica sped past at about 80 miles an hour, and the officer began to pursue it.

However, once he got to the intersection of Reed Avenue and Clement Street, they say the minivan stopped, and somebody inside began shooting at him, before taking off again. Police say the shots continued even after the officer chased after them with lights and siren, but he lost track of them on Kelley Street near Wiley Avenue.

While neither the officer or his cruiser were struck by bullets; they did hit a parked car and at least once residence on Clement Street.

Anyone with information about the incident is asked to contact Akron Police.

All of us have dreams, but few of us know exactly what they mean.

But, if you could actually figure it out; perhaps it would lead to some kind of psychological breakthrough, or enlightenment that would have a positive impact on your life.

That's what Akron area Psychologist and Author, Dr. Toni Cooper tells us in her new, free e-book, "Understanding Your Dreams".

Jeanne Destro talked to her about it on the Ray Horner Morning Show, earlier this week.

Listen now:

Dr. Toni Cooper, Psychologist & Author

Despite the ability to connect to virtually anyone on the planet through technology today; many people will tell you they still feel lonely. So lonely, in fact, that the US Surgeon General, Vivek Murthy, is calling it an epidemic.

Just a few days ago, on November 8, Murthy spoke to students on the University of Texas campus, in Austin, telling them "More than half the people in our country are struggling with loneliness. It has real implications for our mental health and for our physical health.”

Here in Ohio, Bowling Green State University Associate Psychology Professor, Dr. Daniel Maitland, wants to do something about that, through a study aimed tracking the actual physical impact of loneliness on cardiovascular health. To further that goal; he recently received a $710 thousand dollar grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

Maitland, who says that though loneliness is a health risk for people of all ages in the US; in particular these days, it is young people, between the ages of 18 and 25, who feel the most lonely.

In addition, because there is some data to suggest that loneliness has the same effect on heart health as smoking 15 cigarettes a day; the lonely young people of today, have a very real risk of becoming the heart attack victims of tomorrow.

Find out why. Listen now.

Dr. Daniel Maitland, Bowling Green State University

This Week in Tech with Jeanne Destro is all about water this week, which is perhaps kind of fitting, but not at all intended; as it just happens to come at the same time the City of Akron just announced they're increasing water rates for city residents by at least $10.00 per month or more (depending on the amount of water used), starting in January.

But, while Akron residents fret about the effect that increased water rates might have on their budgets; there are millions of people around the world who would pay a king's ransom just to have enough clean water to drink. Some of them are even here in the US, and while they're not paying a "king's ransom"; they're definitely paying a pretty penny to buy all of their water from retailers like Walmart, because there just simply is not enough fresh water where they live.

Also this week, two new reports came out showing that 2023 is now the hottest year ever recorded in human history.

Now, while extreme heat on its own is bad for human health; rising temperatures also cause natural disasters, like more violent storms, floods, wildfires, and droughts, that can wreak havoc on the systems we need to survive, like the often quite old and fragile ones that supply our water.

In addition, there are parts of the world–even here in the US–where there just simply is not enough fresh water available from sources like groundwater, rivers, lakes, and streams, and communities have turned to large scale seawater desalination plants to meet their needs.

But what if your area actually has adequate drinking water, but it becomes contaminated by either a natural disaster, or a man-made catastrophe like the recent train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio? Is there a way to bring water desalination and purification technology to bear in those types of situations?

Well, yes, in fact, there is, according to Dr. Peter Fiske, who is the Director of the National Alliance for Water Innovation (NAWI) and Water-Energy Resilience Research Institute (WERRI) at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

Fiske, who has a connection to the Akron area through his role as a consultant to Akron-based clean water technology company, Fontus Blue, talked to us this week about their ongoing efforts to find, treat, and recover water in new and creative ways, that may have previously been written off as "undrinkable".

Find out more. Listen now.

Dr. Peter S. Fiske, Director, National Alliance For Water Innovation

It's been a very long time since there was a brand new housing development on North Hill in Akron, but that's about to change, as Habitat For Humanity is in the process of building a new, 16 home development on Dan Street.

Jeanne Destro talked to Summit County's Habitat for Humanity CEO, Rochelle Sibbio. Listen now.

Today, a special bonus edition of "This Week in Tech with Jeanne Destro" focused on two new programs in our community aimed at getting high school students excited about, and ready for careers in the tech industry.

First, we'll be talking with the founder and CEO of information security consulting company, TrustedSec, headquartered in Fairlawn, and of the managed security service provider, Binary Defense, which is headquartered in Stow.

As you'll hear from David Kennedy, he's just started a new program aimed at training students at Bedford High School, so that they can immediately start working in the cyber security field directly after graduation, without having to get a college degree.

We also talked to Michelle Moore, who is the Northeast Ohio Regional Manager of Tech Corps, a non-profit dedicated to offering  students who are traditionally underserved in the tech field, opportunities for fun and interactive experiences that can help get them fired up about technoloy. She has information about a mobile "Hackathon" coming up for Akron Public School Students at North High School, on November 11th.

Find out more. Listen now:

It's new, improved, and a whole lot more user-friendly.

That's what City of Akron officials are saying about their newly designed website, AkronOhio.gov.

Listen now, as our Morning Show Host, Ray Horner, talks about it with Akron Mayor, Dan Horrigan.

Akron Police say the suspect they believe shot and killed a 26 year old man on October 2, is now behind bars.

US Marshals arrested 18 year old Robert Greenlee on Friday at a home in the 400 block of Hardman Drive in Cuyahoga Falls.

He's charged with murder in connection with the shooting which claimed the life of Trieg Schwab, whose body was found in a home in the 11 hundred block of Chandler Avenue.