The New York Times giveth:

“Here in Ohio, in an arc stretching south from Youngstown past Canton and into the rural parts of the state where much of the natural gas is being drawn from shale deep underground, entire sectors like manufacturing, hotels, real estate and even law are being reshaped. A series of recent economic indicators, including factory hiring, shows momentum building nationally in the manufacturing sector.”

The Washington Post taketh away:

“The Times is correct that fracking has boosted economies in Ohio and other oil-and-gas-rich states and helped drive increased industrial production in America … Youngstown was already losing jobs during the last decade, even before the recession hit. To get back to its 2000 peak, you’d need to create another 30,000 jobs –  triple what’s come along since the recession ended. That would be a calculus-changer, no question about it.”

You had us at “concomitant rise of both the Sunbelt and the Rust Belt.” A new journal of the Midwest from the University of Nebraska:

“It aims to explore the significance of midwestern identity, geography, society, culture, and politics. What states belong within the Midwest? Is the Midwest inherently rural? With the concomitant rise of both the Sunbelt and the Rust Belt, does the Midwest have a particular economic identity? Beyond diction, pastoralism, and self-deprecation, what traditions define the Midwest? We urge scholars and nonscholars alike to probe these and other questions in thoughtful submissions to the Middle West Review.”

The Cleveland Fed’s new Chief is more extroverted than past leaders; she will speak in Pittsburgh and Cleveland this fall, via WSJ:

“Ms. Mester’s approach to speaking also signals a new era has arrived at the Cleveland Fed, where leaders have traditionally kept a low-profile. Ms. Mester’s predecessor Sandra Pianalto was a relatively infrequently speaker, who almost never spoke to reporters after speeches, unlike most other regional Fed bank presidents.  Before that, Jerry Jordan, who led the bank from 1992 to 2003, almost never spoke in public.”

Where do people move to when they leave your city? The Washington Post reports on an online tool that maps just that.