5on5in5 - March 12, 2026

0:00A little Miami school board member resigns his post over alleged racist and anti-Semitic social media posts. The war in Iran sends gas prices yo-yoing up and down with more strikes from the US, Israel and Iran. March Madness, in full swing, Xavier in the Big East Tournament as UC loses in a heart breaker. 5 on 5 in 5 Thursday, March 12, 2026. Kelly Ripon and Stephen Albritton here with you on the podcast where we are going to get four seasons in four days. Which pick your favorite? I can never tell you which one I don't have to worry, yes and this probably this morning is definitely, I would say number two on your list. I feel like Monday chance of snow is number one. Yeah. You're right. Let's talk about this forecast because the good news is none of it lasts very long so we'll kind of go back and forth, back and forth, back and forth and then you know, it's March. So that's what happens.

1:00But it is cold this morning. We had a 30 degree tent swing making it's only just about freezing and it's definitely windy so just be aware. I noticed the traffic lights were swaying. Some signage was moving outside of businesses so we still see a high near 60 so that's not terrible. It'll be dry to start the weekend temperatures will then warm again on Sunday or I'm sorry Saturday to about 55 Sunday to 72. But the next system we have to watch closely will be Sunday night. We've got gusty winds, possible storms which send our temperatures back down and then we could actually see snow on Monday morning as temperatures fall off into the 30s. So yes, you will be out in shorts on Sunday and then with a winter coat on Monday morning. Only in the storm in between. The Midwest. Yeah. The thunderstorms going into flurries. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. St. Patrick's Day being so cold I'm kind of happy I'm not going to be like out and about enjoying festivities because I don't want to sit there and have my hands freezing trying to hold on to it.

2:00I don't like that. I don't like that. He was like, it feels right. I was like, why? No, the best St. Patrick's days are like 60 and Saturday. Right. I got so glad you guys. I got so glad you guys. Yeah. And we're just going to go on after it. Yeah. It's fun. Beer goggles. Those through. Let's jump into our headlines. I've on five in five and other busy news morning here in the WLWT news five newsroom. First up, we're going up to Little Miami, where a member of the board of education is stepping down over a post made on social media. It comes following a contentious few weeks for the district. Board member Dan Smith has resigned just a few months after being elected WLWT obtained his resignation letter, which gives a little insight into the situation. Smith wrote in part quote, I want to be clear that those posts do not accurately reflect my beliefs or my respect for all members of our community. I reject anti-semitism and hatred in all forms and I take responsibility for the impact my words have had and quote in their own statement. The board accepted Smith's resignation, saying the post quote, raise serious concerns and do not reflect the standards expected of those serving in public office.

3:02The school board has scheduled a special meeting for Friday. One of the items on the agenda is a timeline and a process to fill the vacancy on the board. Our next story we continue to lead the way on the war in Iran. Yes, so we are talking about things in the Middle East, Israel's military launching another wave of strikes overnight in the southern suburbs of Beirut. The Israeli defense forces say they hit ten quote terror related sites tied to Iranian proxy groups. The broader conflict in the Middle East though has now displaced more than 750,000 people overnight. And Iran launched attacks on two foreign oil tankers. We do know one person died 38 other crew members were rescued. It comes as Iran warns against travel in the straight of her moves where nearly a fifth of the world's oil passes through. Meanwhile, US Central Command released video showing American strikes on Iranian military aircraft, including two American made planes and a Russian cargo plane. Iran still operates several aging US aircraft acquired before the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

4:05The conflict also shaking global energy markets. Global prices jumped above $100 overnight. This morning though dropped back down to $92. The Department of Energy says it will release 172 million barrels from US reserves in an effort to stabilize gas prices. Now President Trump has said gas prices would drop and in a visit to Hebron, Kentucky, yesterday, our area, he claimed the US has secured a major victory in the war. Our third story and it goes right along with the gas issues we've been having. How about air travel? The spring break travel ramps up. You might be trying to look ahead to that summer vacation, book those trips, but there's growing concern that these rising oil prices may hit the cost of a flight. We've already seen the price of the pump rise more than 50 cents in the last couple weeks and travel experts say airfare is already trending up that may have you wondering, should you wait or should you just, you know, do it now. Ludlow based travel advisor Rebecca smiley, she says the time to book is now. Nerdwallet research shows flights are already about 7% higher than last year and climbing.

5:06Now, while things could settle, smiley says waiting too long could leave you competing for flights during peak travel season. The advice now, if you find a deal, lock it in, waiting could price you out of a summer getaway later. I know there are some programs where you can lock in a price, then you can pay a little extra money and if the price does drop, they might refund you a bit of that money. Just be on the lookout, but if you see a deal, probably good to stay on it. Our fourth story, let's go up to Ohio State. Yes, so we had news this morning that they have named the new president. This is days after the former leader resigned. Our NBC affiliate reports, Robbie Belum Kondo will take over for Ted Carter. Belum Kondo will be the university's 18th full-time president. He currently serves as executive vice president and provost. The board of trustees expected to formally approve the appointment today with an introductory news conference to follow. Belum Kondo joined the university just last year. Overseas 15 colleges for regional campuses, more than 8,600 faculty members and as former president Ted Carter resigned over an alleged inappropriate relationship, a study or an investigation

6:12rather into that from the university is now underway. And our final story, it's a wonderful time of the year with all the much madness your heart could desire and we're not even talking about the NCAA tournament. We're talking about the conference tournaments and so many teams are looking to punch that auto bid to the tournament. Let's start with the undefeated, the one and only undefeated Miami Red Hawks. They start the Mac tournament today. They played UMass. It's an early one 11 a.m. It looks to go unbeaten into the NCAA tournament and win that automatic bit of insane it. I feel like they need to at least get to the Mac championship game. If they were to lose that game, they probably still get an auto bid, but I just don't see a way where if they lose beforehand, they get an auto bid. Just because the Mac is top heavy between them and Akron, like even UMass today, not great. A lot of other teams, a little over 500 just to thought, yeah, just to thought, take care of business and then you don't have to worry about it. Which is interesting because come tournament time, you know, in a different conference,

7:15a non-defeated school would probably kind of mail it in, not mail it in, but you know what I mean. It wouldn't certainly be that, yes. Right. So it's an interesting position for them to be in. And Ironic, you know, some people say they shouldn't be in that position. They've done everything they could and just their argument is valid, but then you look at the metrics and they don't rank here or there for this and that. We'll see. Take care of business. We'll have to worry about any of that. Next up, Xavier, they get to move on in the Big East tournament. They beat Marquette in a tight one 89 87 in the Big East tournament. They get Yukon tonight at 7 p.m. should be a fun one, UK. They were in a battle with LSU in the SEC tournament 87 82 win for them. They'll play Missouri at 12.30 today and we got to go to the opposite end of the spectrum. You see, they were up, they were up by eight with two minutes to play and just couldn't find the bottom of the hoop, couldn't get a defensive stop had almost two dozen turnovers in the game. And I'm going to over time with UCF and then the woes continue. They end up losing this game 66 65.

8:16And now they're out of the big 12 tournament and all signs pointing them also missing out on the NCAA tournament. They needed to win a couple of games here in the big 12 tournament to really pad that resume. They've been playing good basketball the last few weeks, but last night's loss probably going to keep them out of playing in the NCAA tournament. They'll still watch the selection Sunday. Maybe they can get lucky if things fall their way, but all sides pointed their season being over unless they choose to play in a postseason tournament like the NIT. Also Indiana University, they it was in a tight one to a half time. The Northwestern just turned it on in the second half. They lose that one. They are very much right on the bubble. They'll be sweating out selection Sunday as well to see if they receive an at large bib. So much basketball. If you have a day off that you can burn between next Thursday or Friday, I'm not faulting you if you get a little sick between the next Tuesday, Wednesday and it just kind of ramps up next Thursday. That's how it goes. The sad thing is like I definitely want to day off there and it's to clean my house to watch basketball.

9:16See, but what's nice is you can do both at the same time. Yeah, that's true. That's a good point. And you don't have to be watching. Right. Yeah, this time of your eyes makes me nostalgic for high school when one of my best friends that I would run a pool for the entire school. Quite a bit of the high school I should say. I had a couple of teachers in it too, probably. Yeah, I don't know if that was. Yeah, it's okay. It's we're past the statues of limitations on high school gambling. High school gambling, including a teacher too, but yeah, and then trying to get a pass to go to that one teacher's class, you know, they also taught you something though. There was, there's a math lesson in there. Mm-hmm. We were organizing. You're not balancing equations, but you are still gambling. They came to us because it was an organized pool. Yes, sure. It was everybody knew I had my red folder, my buddy had his green folder. I love that. You knew where to get brackets. A little baby bookies. You knew where to turn them in. It was all done above board. Very impressive. Oh, thank you. I missed those days. That's okay. It's okay. We missed anything. I don't think so. Is there anything happening this weekend?

10:18Same pattern, same parade. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, we'll talk more about that. Yeah. You do as well. Because it's Thursday, even though we both think it's Friday. It does feel like. Which I don't like when it's not Friday. Oh, yeah. I'm hoping that makes tomorrow sweeter. Yeah. We'll make it work. Y'all, thanks so much for listening. Thanks so much for watching. If you turn us on at noon or next tomorrow morning, whatever. We appreciate you. We'll see you back here tomorrow.