Buckeye Beat

We start this week on the football field...FirstEnergy Stadium in Cleveland, Ohio will host some of the world's best athletes this summer.

The U.S. Women's National Soccer Team is coming to the buckeye state for a face off against Japan on June 5th in a rematch of the 2015 World Cup final. Serving as a tune-up for the summer Olympics, the contest brings the top-ranked Americans back to Cleveland after a six year hiatus.

The U.S. and Japan have met in the last three major international tournaments, the 2011 and 2015 World Cups and the 2012 summer Olympics. The Americans are gearing up for a summer trip to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and a shot at their fourth straight Olympic title.

The bobcat was one of the first species on Ohio’s first endangered species list back in 1974... But it appears that the bobcat has bounced back!

A group says new video footage of bobcats is a sign that the species is recovering in southeast Ohio and that efforts to clean up streams and property around unregulated coal mines are working. The Columbus dispatch reports that the bobcat and her three kittens were detected by an infrared motion-sensing camera attached to a tree in the Wayne National Forest. The Appalachian Ohio group rural action has placed six cameras on trees on reclaimed mine property.

State wildlife officials are also using the technology to study black bears, which remain on the state's endangered species list.

And to Athens, Ohio we go for our last story. As part of their recent tour through North America, Tibetan monks made a stop in Athens, spending four days there. The Tashi Kyil monks worked meticulously, arranging grains of brightly colored sand around a circular mandala. A mandala is a geometric design used for meditation in Buddhism.

At a closing ceremony, the mandala was sprinkled into the Hocking River, which is said to symbolize the transitory nature of life. The seven monks are touring the U.S. to educate the public about their traditions and culture.