(upbeat music) - Coming up next on NewsDepth, the snow just keeps piling and piling.

How do we prepare for winter?

Artists bring together birding, dance and jazz.

Dorothy Fuldheim made national history as the first female news anchor and we learned that animal waste makes great fertilizer.

NewsDepth is now.

(upbeat music) More than 90 million people across parts of 23 states were under winter storm watches last week.

Hello everyone, I'm Gabriel Kramer.

Thank you for joining us.

This storm was expected to be the most severe winter storm so far this season, with an impact zone stretching more than 1500 miles.

Some states like North Dakota and South Dakota declared a state of emergency in anticipation of the ice and low temps.

Meanwhile, in our region, temperatures reached below zero degrees Fahrenheit.

States like Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York have already accumulated more than 20 inches of snow this year, thanks to of course lake effect snow.

Taylor Epp took a trip to the town of Holland in Western New York to see how residents feel about the snowy weather.

- I wish it would stop.

- [Taylor] Constant snowfall here in the town of Holland covering driveways, street signs and keeping John Edinsky very busy.

- Plow every couple hours or so.

No big problem.

But if it sneaks up on you overnight, then you gotta get the snowblower out.

- But when he bought this house 35 years ago, he knew what he was getting into.

- I moved here 'cause it was ski country, so I got no reason to complain.

Can't live in Western New York and say, well, gee, I hope it don't snow.

- [Taylor] He says, the snow has been light, but.

- Wind was brutal.

I mean, you know, it was blowing it drifting all, even though we don't have a lot of drifts or anything like that, you just couldn't be out here.

It was just too brutal.

- But he says he can depend on his streets to be clear.

- Case in point, here they come right now and if they don't do anything, they plow enough.

That's the I think the third time I've seen them today.

I've been out here for like about two hours.

- The snow's been manageable for us.

- [Taylor] Highway Superintendent Jason Simmons has three trucks out here handling it all.

- We don't have a second shift, so my guys do it all.

So we're out at four in the morning and we usually shut down around nine o'clock, 10 o'clock at night and then get some rest and then back out again at four in the morning.

- [Taylor] He says visibility is the toughest part.

So it's been helpful that schools and businesses are closed.

- Because I'm gonna have to worry about the buses and it's a lot less traffic on the roads for us, for sure, it helps out a lot.

- [Taylor] A lot of work, but nothing there're not used to.

- I think we're pushing 20 inches, 21, 22 inches.

It's definitely been a little bit of a while, we are gonna get it for 24 hours straight for sure.

But I mean it's an old fashioned winter, no doubt about it.

- Thank you Taylor.

When it comes to cleaning up after a winter storm, there is science at play on icy streets, specifically chemistry.

Chemistry is a branch of science that studies what everything is made of and how it works.

And if you've ever spread rock salt on ice, you're witnessing chemistry in action.

Salt naturally disrupts the freezing process of water, causing it to melt at a much lower temperature and it takes a lot of salt to keep our roads safe.

An estimated 20 million tons of salt is scattered in the United States every year, but where does it all come from?

Up next, Liz Miller takes you underground and back in time to tell you the story of Ohio's salt.

- [Liz] When old man winter rears his icy head, there's one thing that keeps Ohio from becoming a virtual slip and slide, salt.

But where does it all come from?

The answer might surprise you.

- Right now we're in the whiskey island mine, 1800 feet below Lake Erie, and we're mining salt for the purposes of road de-icing.

Last year, we mined a little over three million tons in a pretty mild winter.

On a normal winter will do about four million tons a year.

- [Liz] Ohio is one of the top exporters of salt in the country and it's actually mined right under our noses in places like Cargill's Whiskey Island Salt Mine.

The 12 square mile mine lies just offshore of Downtown Cleveland.

Lake Erie is the shallowest of the Great Lakes with a depth of about 56 feet near Cleveland.

The salt mine lies about 1800 feet under the lake.

- So we use a conventional drill and blast method of mining.

Once we blast the salt out of the ground, we go ahead, scoop it up and put it on the belt lines to be sent to the mill for processing.

- [Liz] A system of conveyor belts and elevators bring the salt to the surface.

Left behind are gigantic pillars of salt.

These support the weight of thousands of feet of rock and lake above the mine.

Engineers like Bob calculate the size and number of pillars needed to keep the mine safe.

But wait, let's back up a minute.

How did all this salt get here?

Almost 2000 feet under Lake Erie?

To answer that question, we headed to Cleveland's Museum of Natural History to talk to expert Harvey Webster.

- Well, it turns out that there's lots of rock underneath Lake Erie, and if you started digging at the bottom of Lake Erie and you went through the sediments, you'd come to a variety of rocks, shales.

But as you go further and further down, you start encountering rocks like limestones.

If you get 1,700 feet below Lake Erie, you will encounter a formation of rock salt.

It's called the Salina formation.

And it's actually layers of salt and other kinds of rocks that have one thing in common.

They were produced by being in a shallow sea, an ocean 408 million years ago.

When we think about what Ohio was like back in the Silurian Period 408 million years ago, it turns out it was wet.

We were under a shallow sea and all of the rocks that underlie the city of Cleveland, no matter how deep you go, they were all deposited in water.

Now the curious thing is we always think, well, you know, Cleveland, Ohio has always been north of the equator.

It's been in a temperate location kind of forever, right?

And the answer is no.

It turns out that North America, like all the other continents, has moved across the planet.

And at the time of the Silurian, 400 million years ago, Cleveland, Ohio would've been about a thousand miles south of the equator in shallow tropical conditions.

- [Liz] So Ohio was tropical.

Oh yeah.

And covered in a shallow sea and its inhabitants are not the kind of thing you see strolling in downtown Cleveland today.

Eventually, these tropical conditions and some overgrown coral reefs caused the seato dry up, leaving the salt behind.

- And it would get saltier and saltier and saltier until finally the salt literally settles right out of that water and forms rock salt.

And this happened thousands, tens of thousands of times.

And each time it happened, it would add a new layer to the rock column.

And so if you went to the Cargill Mine, and when you look at the walls, you'll see these alternating bands.

Each one of those layers is like a chapter in the history of the world right here in Cleveland as it existed 400 million years ago.

- [Liz] The salt mine looks like another world and it really is one, it's the remains of a world that existed long before man.

But even if you never get down to the mine, you'll still see pieces of this world scattered on icy roads all winter long.

- Great deep dive.

Thank you, Liz.

From snowy roads, let's slide over to snowy rides.

Shana from Alaska is preparing to take on one of the toughest challenges in snow machine racing, the Iron Dog.

With her father at her side, Shana is achieving a family milestone.

Her two older brothers have already completed this race also with her dad.

Augusta McDonnell spoke to the daughter-father team about how their goal focuses less on winning and more on sharing a 2000 mile adventure filled with memories.

- [Augusta] With just one month until the kickoff, Shana Lapham is getting ready to take on one of the toughest challenges in snow machine racing.

- I just know it's gonna be hard and grueling and a big adventure and we're just gonna do it either way.

- [Augusta] But she'll have her dad right beside her.

He's raced his sons before, but now Shana wants her shot.

- I'm just really excited to be racing with my daughter this year and I think this will kind of complete the trifecta for me.

You know, I don't how many people could say they've raced with all three of their kids in the Iron Dog, at least at a pro level.

- [Augusta] They'll ride together over 2000 miles from Big Lake to Nome and ending in Fairbanks.

- It's kind of a unique opportunity.

You know, a lot of people go out there and they wouldn't spend the time or money unless they thought they could win the event.

And so they're racing for trophies.

I'm going out there with the idea that I'm gonna make memories and stuff that are irreplaceable and so it's pretty special.

- [Augusta] Shana says, even though she and her dad are just alike, he's always set her up for success.

- I'm excited.

I'm very much looking forward to it.

Yeah, it'll be just a great adventure and we're gonna go through a roller coaster of emotions together, I'm sure, just because of our personalities together, they're very similar.

- [Augusta] Iron Dog begins February 12th.

Augusta McDonald, Alaska's News Source.

- Best of luck on the Iron Dog race Shana.

For our poll this week we have a fun one.

What is your favorite thing to ride in the snow?

Slide over to our poll page to vote.

You can choose between a sled, a snowmobile, or an inflatable tube.

On our last episode, we learned about Adella Prentiss Hughes, the woman who started the Cleveland Orchestra, and that inspired our poll.

Last week we asked you, what's your favorite genre of music?

Check out these results.

31% of you said you listen to pop.

22% of you said you like something else.

I gotta find out what that something else is.

16% voted for jazz and 13% of you said you love country music.

Another 10% of you said you rock out to rock and roll music all the time.

6% of you said your favorite hip hop and almost 2% of you voted for classical music.

Thank you all for voting.

I would have to say my favorite genre of music is pop or hip hop, or maybe jazz.

And some of you might agree after watching this next story, Monica Bowman with the Ohio Department of Natural Resources is a lifelong birder.

She's also an artist, and now she is working on a unique art project that will bring her two passions together.

Her project, Avimancy, just got off the ground.

Bowman teamed up with Akron based jazz saxophonist Chris Coles to artistically express their shared wonderment for birds.

And today's Sketchbook, we learn how birds sounds inspired the creation of music and dance.

- Oh, white breasted net hatch.

It's very cute.

I think that being outside and listening for something is really magical.

See, he got closer.

They're very nosy.

They want to know what's going on.

Bringing, you know, this project to life hopefully will kind of cause people to say, oh, that's not just something flying or moving around.

Like they have this poetic way of singing and moving and being that's really magical.

(upbeat music) We were camping in the valley overlook in the Cuyahoga Valley National Park and we were awakened by the sound of the wood thrush.

I, being a birder knew what this sound was coming from.

They're a very beautiful ethereal sounding bird.

And Chris, not necessarily a birder yet, but a fabulous musician was inspired by the wood thrush.

So I would say that is his spark bird.

So a spark bird is a species that kind of gets you into birding, gets you excited about learning more about birds, getting out there and listening to or seeing birds in the wild.

- After hearing the wood thrush, it was just like, oh, I think I'm gonna transcribe this.

So this was like another sample.

This is from the original wood thrush recording that we made and I just put like a simple filter on it.

I think as I started like working on this and like learning like what the notes actually are and like some of the devices that the bird uses and things like that.

And then Monica took it further and was like, well, maybe we should do an actual film or try to lean towards creating a film with all types of multimedia things present, being sculpture and dance, music, spoken word, put all these things into one project.

(bright music) - That got me really excited because this year we happened to be working at NCC Akron with a mostly percussive dance artists who are both dancers and musicians, and this gave them a shared task to explore something together.

- Souls of Duende is an all female percussive dance trio.

We have a guitar player, we have a percussionist and we have a trumpet player and we have three forms of dance.

We have tap dance, we have Gotoc and we have flamenco all from different places, but sharing the same stage at the same time, having conversations.

(bright music) - Birds have been used in art for millennia and I think it's a great way to bring people together and it's a great way to bring us out into nature.

- It's just so nice to be in this short moment of collaboration with MNC.

So not only are we learning about Akron through coming here in this Choreographic Center, but we are also learning about nature and what is surrounding the Choreographic Center and what is housing the house that we're currently in.

- Special thanks to my colleague and fellow journalist Ygal Kaufman for sharing that story with us.

You know, it's not as easy as it looks to be a good journalist, even though that last story was really fun.

I know we all put a lot of work into the research, interviews, writing and editing the video, but all the reporters I've worked with have been very passionate about their work.

In today's Know Ohio, were highlighting another great Ohio journalist.

Dorothy Fuldheim made national history in 1947 when Cleveland's WEWS put her on air as the first female news anchor in the entire United States.

Starting her journalism career at 54 years old, she went on to host interviews with figures like Helen Keller, Muhammad Ali, and Franklin D. Roosevelt, while becoming one of the most respected voices in broadcast news.

Anna is going to tell us about the lasting impact Dorothy Fuldheim had on the news industry.

(upbeat music) - Breaking news.

The first female news anchor makes national history right here in Cleveland, Ohio.

Well, I guess it's not that breaking since this happened back in 1947.

Her name was Dorothy Fuldheim and she was very influential in broadcast news as she had her very own weekly show on television.

This was at a time when not a lot of women were working in the field of journalism, and she was already in her 50s when she started her broadcasting career.

Dorothy Fuldheim was born in New Jersey on June 26th, 1893.

She grew up in Wisconsin and attended Milwaukee College to be trained as a teacher.

She moved to Cleveland in the 1920s.

Shortly after marrying her first husband, Milton Fuldheim.

In Cleveland, she was a lecturer.

She would say that she could always grab an audience's attention within five minutes.

Fuldheim started her career in journalism as a radio commentator when she was 54 years old.

She had a biography series with the ABC network for two years.

In 1947, she finally made it to television.

WEWS TV sat her in front of a camera as a nightly news anchor, making her the first woman to appear on broadcast news in the entire US.

She was also a co-host for the variety show, the One O'clock Club.

Fuldheim would always hit high ratings when she had one-on-one interviews.

She interviewed Helen Keller, Adolf Hitler, Franklin D Roosevelt, and Muhammad Ali among many, many others.

By 1982, she was recognized nationally as a news anchor.

She appeared on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson and Barbara Walters of ABC News called Fuldheim, the first woman to be taken seriously doing the news.

She even got a few job offers from national networks, but she turned them all down because she was loyal to the Cleveland Station WEWS for believing in her from the beginning.

As a news analyst, Fuldheim was definitely not afraid to share her opinion.

She was the first news anchor to denounce the Kent State shootings in 1970.

She could not hold back her tears as she was delivering the news about that event.

The station received hundreds of calls and thousands of letters complaining about her stance regarding the National Guard's responsibility.

She even offered to resign that day, but the WEWS station manager, Don Paris, stood by her.

Her career as a news anchor ended when she was 91 years old and had suffered from two strokes.

Her last interview was in 1984 with then President Ronald Reagan.

She passed away in 1989 at the age of 96.

Although her name might not be very recognizable outside of the news industry, Dorothy Fulddheim made a great impact in the way the public gets the news even to today.

Signing off.

- Thank you, Anna.

That brings us to our Write To Us for the week.

What would you ask a journalist about their job?

On our next episode, we will have a new career call out segment with a journalist answering your questions about their job.

Students can use our inbox forum online or send us an email to NewsDepth@ideastream.org to send in their questions.

Last week we learned about high schools teaching financial literacy courses and we wanted to know what your thoughts are on financial literacy.

Let's see what you had to say by opening our inbox.

A fifth grader at Perkins School in Sandusky said, I think financial literacy is important because it teaches people about important things in life, like budgeting and saving, managing debt and managing your money.

It also teaches kids, even adults, how money works.

Definitely agree with you.

A fourth grader from Canal Winchester School in Canal Winchester said, I think that financial literacy is important because it empowers you to make informed decisions about budgeting, saving, investing, and allows you to achieve long-term goals like buying a home.

A sixth grader from Lakota School in Cincinnati said, I think we should learn about budgeting, saving, and understanding loans.

I have three siblings, so my mom has to know what each of us want at the store.

Like if I want mac and cheese, I have to tell her which one is the best deal.

I have to calculate which one, but that may be hard without learning about budgeting, so I would have to know how to do it, and that is why we should learn about those things.

Great point.

A second grader from Biomed Science Academy in Shalersville said, I think if some students want to learn essential money management skills like saving and stuff, they should.

They could save money and save for college and get a job.

They can save up for food.

Also, I think if students have extra money, they could donate to homeless people.

That would be a great way to save money and help others.

A fifth grader from Columbus City Schools said, I think that studying those things would be great because if you do learn these things, you can save a ton of money.

I also think it would be a great idea to learn about investment because if you use it right, you can make a lot of extra money in the future.

Very true.

Thank you all for writing.

You know what sounds nice?

A cup of coffee before I come down to NewsDepth headquarters, a local coffee shop is always a good time, but a lot of people just prefer to make it at home before they leave the house, but the teachers at Midview High School don't have to worry about that because they can order their coffee for delivery from the Harbor of Hope first thing in the morning, and the coffee will be delivered right to their classroom.

The Harbor of Hope is a group of 14 students at Midview High School located in Grafton who are learning vocational and life skills.

These students take orders from teachers, make the coffee and deliver it to the classrooms.

While doing this, they're learning important job skills that will help them in the future.

For their initiative and learning real world job skills, the Harbor of Hope students are this week's A+ Award winners.

Cheyenne, who likes to be called Chy, told us that they make all kinds of coffee drinks from caramel macchiatos to lattes to seasonal drinks like pumpkin lattes.

Their coffee business is thriving at Midview.

They even have punch cards for their loyal customers.

After 10 drinks, you get a free one.

They don't just make coffee.

Cole told us that they visit the local branch of the library to help the librarians shelve books.

Michael told us that they also help out at Albert's, a local grocery store.

They even print t-shirts.

The Bendex Foundation awarded them with a grant to purchase all the equipment to make and sell t-shirts.

So far this year, they've sold more than 500 shirts to groups like the football team, cheerleaders and the volleyball team.

We are so impressed by all the great skills you're learning.

Keep up the great work, and thank you so much for the great shirt.

This week's A+ Award winners are the students in Harbor of Hope at Midview High.

Okay, let's get the scoop on this next story.

If you've ever been to a stock show, you might wonder what happens to all that mulch in the animal pens.

One venue in Colorado has developed an interesting solution for the waste.

Ethan Carlson has the story.

- [Ethan] For the National Western Stock Show, this ain't their first rodeo, and after 120 years, it just keeps getting bigger and bigger.

- This year, we will have in excess of 15,000 animals through the doors.

- [Ethan] Senior Director of Event Operations Kevin Bode has been with the stock show for 18 years.

- The first year I kind of what I'd done to myself, but it gets into your blood.

- [Ethan] It takes a well-oiled machine to prepare the huge space here.

Each and every animal needs mulch in their pen for bedding and for them to do their business.

All that bedding becomes waste material and it's all recycled using local companies, eventually turning it into bagged compost.

- And those bags are all sold to local retailers, so it's very possible that if you're purchasing gardening materials come springtime, you might be getting some of the waste materials that were generated during stock show.

- [Ethan] A few years ago, every rancher was responsible for putting down their own bedding, and they'd often put down too much.

Now they have a new method.

- We happen to be the only venue in the country that we're aware of that actually uses this process.

- They use a special truck to put a uniform layer of bedding down for each rancher before they arrive, reducing their waste material from about 2,500 tons per year to about 1,600.

Now, the stock show ends on Sunday, and these are the stockyards.

They have so many pens and so much waste material that Kevin tells me it could take them until mid-March to clean it all up, and they also make sure our rivers stay clean by diverting storm drains into the public sewer system.

- That way, any of the waste material that happens to be getting in there, gets flushed through and actually goes through the sanitary services.

- [Ethan] Taking care of the land we live on, no ifs, ands or buts.

- I think if you look, you'll find that the ag industry is one of the best stewards when it comes to being environmentally friendly.

- Well, I guess that's all the time we have.

(Newshound barking) I'm just kidding.

Let's toss it over to NewsHound for this week's petting zoo.

(bright music) Hey, NewsHound, you look cozy.

Are you warming up from this week's winter weather?

Great idea.

What did you find?

Oh, cool.

A group of whale watchers spotted two rare sperm whales off the San Diego coast.

To learn more about this incredibly rare sighting, check out the full video on our website and YouTube channel.

Thanks as always for the story NewsHound, and that's all the time we have for today's show, but we will be back next week with more news and more stories.

Until then, you can keep the conversation going because we always love to hear from you, and there are plenty of ways for you to stay in touch with us.

You can write to us.

We're at 1375 Euclid Avenue, Cleveland, Ohio.

Our zip code here is 44115.

You can email us at NewsDepth@ideastream.org.

Plus you can catch all of our special segments on YouTube.

Hit subscribe if you're old enough so you don't miss out on any of our new videos.

Thank you for joining us.

I'm Gabriel Kramer.

See you next week.

(upbeat music) - [Announcer] NewsDepth is made possible by a grant from the Martha Holden Jennings Foundation.

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