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WASHINGTON D.C. (WCMH) -- The Scripps National Spelling Bee for 2026 got underway Tuesday as hundreds of kids from across the United States began their journeys. Among those competing are two central Ohioans. Athens regional Spelling Bee winner Joseph Keffer, who is a sixth grader at Chesapeake Middle School, is competing in the Spelling Bee [...]

Mitchell's Steakhouse has permanently closed its downtown Columbus location after serving customers for decades.

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) -- Family Dollar closed 28 stores in Ohio since July 2025, the second-most closures of any state. Dollar Tree previously owned Family Dollar but sold the chain to private firm 1959 Holdings on July 7, 2025, for $1 billion. Since the sale, at least 350 Family Dollar locations in the U.S. have [...]

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) -- Kaleidoscope Youth Center is preparing to leave its longtime Columbus home, marking another major change for the LGBTQ+ youth organization this year. The nonprofit announced in a social media post that May 22 marked its final day operating out of its "Brick House" location at 603 E. Town St. before relocating [...]

MOUNT GILEAD, Ohio (WCMH) — One year to the day after deputy Daniel Sherrer was murdered on Memorial Day, his killer received a life sentence in prison. A Morrow County judge ruled on a joint plea agreement in which Brian Wilson will avoid a death sentence. The judge noted that had the death penalty been applied, [...]

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) — A Columbus man who pleaded guilty to a 2023 stabbing could spend the remainder of his life in prison. Court documents said that Rieko Leohner, 42, was charged with murder and aggravated murder in the death of James Dawson Jr., 50, who was found with multiple stab wounds on April 1, 2023. [...]

A historic Ohio mansion, built in 1929 by prominent architect Benjamin Hubbell, is now gaining national attention after being featured on Zillow Gone Wild, with its 14,000-square-foot estate, stone façade, and gabled rooflines, priced at $5.95 million.

NEW STRAITSVILLE, Ohio (WCMH) – Nearly nine years ago, Amy Jo Nelson's death was ruled a homicide after her remains were found in an apartment in a small central Ohio village. Since then, the unsolved case has consumed the thoughts of Amy Nelson’s mother, Pam Nelson, and sister, Abbie Vann, “every day,” they said. Pam [...]

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) — Whether or not central Ohio gas prices rise by a dime here, or fall by a quarter there, prices at the pump remain at near record highs. According to According to GasBuddy’s survey of 500 stations in and around Columbus, Ohio, gas prices rose by 4.2 cents per gallon last week, to [...]

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) -- An Ohio bill would tax the state's wealthiest residents to provide tuition-free college. Introduced by Reps. Munira Abdullahi (D-Columbus) and Tristan Rader (D-Lakewood), House Bill 854 would levy an income tax on Ohioans who make $500,000 or more each year to fund free college education for students. The program would offer [...]

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) – On this Memorial Day, Better Call 4 is making sure Ohio veterans are prepared when it comes to scams out to target them. Criminals try to get control of veterans’ accounts, steal their identities, or even create a fake online persona to deceive veterans. Veterans are an attractive target for criminals: [...]

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) -- To commemorate Memorial Day, the National Veterans Memorial and Museum honored the lives of our nation's veterans.   The remembrance ceremony celebrates all veterans, elevates their stories, and amplifies the power of service.    Retired colonel and President of NVMM Bill Butler shared that this day is important because he can honor [...]

Authorities in the Netherlands have arrested the co-owners of two related Internet hosting companies for operating IT infrastructure used by Russia to carry out cyberattacks, influence operations and disinformation campaigns inside the European Union. The two men were the focus of a 2025 KrebsOnSecurity story about how their hosting companies had assumed control over the technical infrastructure of Stark Industries Solutions, an Internet service provider sanctioned last year by the EU as a frequent staging ground for cyber mischief from Russia’s intelligence agencies.

An investigator with the Tax Intelligence and Investigation Service (FIOD), the Dutch financial crimes agency, during the raid. Image: FIOD.

The Dutch daily news outlet de Volkskrant reports that the Dutch financial crime agency FIOD on May 18 arrested a 57-year-old from Amsterdam and a 39-year-old from The Hague, charging them with violating sanctions law by directly or indirectly making economic resources available to EU-sanctioned entities.

The Dutch investigation focuses on Stark Industries, a sprawling hosting provider that materialized just two weeks before Russia invaded Ukraine. As detailed in this May 2024 deep-dive, Stark quickly became the source of massive distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks against European targets, and emerged as a top supplier of proxy and anonymity services that showed up time and again in cyberattacks linked to Russia-backed hacking groups.

That report identified two Moldovan brothers — Ivan and Yuri Neculiti and their company PQHosting — who were providing one of Stark’s two main conduits to the larger Internet. In May 2025, the EU sanctioned PQHosting and the Neculiti brothers for aiding Russia’s hybrid warfare efforts. But as KrebsOnSecurity observed in September 2025, those sanctions failed to target Stark’s remaining connection to the Internet — an Internet service provider based in the Netherlands called MIRhosting.

MIRhosting is operated by Andrey Nesterenko, a 39-year-old Russian native who runs the business out of the Netherlands.  News that PQHosting and the Neculiti brothers were about to be sanctioned by the EU leaked in the media nearly two weeks before the sanctions were announced last year. During that time, the Stark network assets were transferred from PQHosting to a new entity called the[.]hosting, under the control of the Dutch entity WorkTitans BV.

And as our September 2025 report showed, WorkTitans was controlled by Nesterenko and a 57-year-old from Amsterdam named Youssef Zinad. On top of that, WorkTitans was getting connectivity to the larger Internet solely through MIRhosting, where Zinad had worked previously.

On May 18, Dutch financial crime investigators arrested Nesterenko and Zinad, and searched three businesses in Enschede and Almere and two data centers in Dronten and Schiphol-Rijk. A statement from the Dutch authorities said they also seized laptops, telephones and more than 800 servers.

A message to the-hosting customers immediately after 800 of its servers were seized by Dutch authorities. The message says that unfortunately data stored on the server has been lost and cannot be recovered.

De Volkskrant said it reviewed data showing WorkTitans and MIRhosting were the most-used networks in pro-Russian attacks on Danish government bodies between November 13 and 19, 2025, the week of Denmark’s municipal elections.

The publication wrote that prior to Nesterenko’s arrest, the MIRhosting founder denied that he knew his servers had been misused by pro-Russian cybercriminals. “He said he had ended all services with the Neculiti brothers when the EU sanctions came into force in May 2025,” and the he “reserved all rights to take action against ‘harmful and incorrect publications,” de Volkskrant wrote.

MIRhosting released a statement saying it has initiated an internal investigation into the alleged facts concerning the elections in Denmark, and that it has temporarily paused services to WorkTitans as a precautionary measure while the matter is being reviewed further.

“Based on our preliminary findings, there are no indications that the services over which we exercise control were actually used to influence the Danish elections,” the statement reads. “No anomalies or spikes were observed in our network traffic during the period mentioned in the publication; had large-scale DDoS attacks occurred, such activity would have been evident. Furthermore, prior to the media publication, we had not received any complaints, abuse reports, or official requests regarding suspicious activities or misuse of our network. Meanwhile, our regular operational activities continue, and our service to our other clients remains fully intact.”

Born in Nizhny Novgorod, Russia, Mr. Nesterenko grew up as a piano prodigy who performed publicly at a young age. In 2004, Nesterenko founded MIRhosting’s parent Innovation IT Solutions Corp., which has the notable distinction of being the company responsible for hosting stopgeorgia[.]ru, a hacktivist website for organizing cyberattacks against Georgia that appeared at the same time Russian forces invaded the former Soviet nation in 2008. That conflict was thought to be the first war ever fought in which a notable cyberattack and an actual military engagement happened simultaneously.

Responding to questions shared via email, Nesterenko said MIRhosting does not support cybercrime, sanctions evasion, or illegal activity, and that the allegations and arrest by Dutch authorities have been extremely harmful to him and his company.

“The transition to the.hosting was not intended to evade sanctions,” Nesterenko wrote. “The hardware and customer portfolio had already been transferred to WorkTitans before the sanctions appeared. Closing or damaging a legitimate Dutch infrastructure company will not stop cybercrime, but it will harm many people who have done nothing wrong.”

Far less is public about the 57-year-old Zinad, who reportedly has been keeping a low profile since our story last year. De Volkskrant reported that Zinad blocked access to his LinkedIn account, had gone months without responding to emails, WhatsApp messages and phone calls, and told a colleague that illness was forcing him to lead a somewhat more reclusive life.

Mr. Zinad’s now-defunct LinkedIn profile. It was full of posts for MIRhosting’s services.

Mr. Nesterenko claims Zinad was never an employee of MIRhosting.

“He helped me and MIRhosting with certain business tasks under a normal business-to-business arrangement between companies,” Nesterenko explained.

However, in previous emails to KrebsOnSecurity, Nesterenko carbon copied Mr. Zinad (who had a @mirhosting.com email), explaining that he was part of the company’s legal team. Also, the Dutch website stagemarkt[.]nl lists Youssef Zinad as an official contact for MIRhosting’s offices in Almere.

Mr. Zinad has never responded to requests for comment. Nor did de Volkskrant have any luck tracking him down. The publication said it repeatedly asked Mr. Zinad (referred to here as simply “Z”), but he reportedly avoided every form of contact.

“‘I am unavailable but will respond to your message as soon as possible,’ reads an automated reply on WhatsApp on 2 October 2025,” de Volkskrant reported. “It is the only response de Volkskrant would receive in months. He did not pick up his phone and did not call back. When an acquaintance asked him via LinkedIn to contact the reporter, he blocked access to his LinkedIn page. At an address in Almere where Z.’s personal limited company is registered, no one was present in April. The corner house’s blinds were drawn, and a pile of rubbish bags lay outside next to a container, as if someone had recently left. A neighbour said he knew the man but did not know where he was staying. Z. was later arrested at a residence in Amsterdam.”

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) — Two southwest Ohio suspects will appear in court Tuesday after they allegedly were in possession of nearly $6 million of suspected narcotics. According to federal prosecutors, investigators seized over 700 pounds of suspected cocaine -- including a recent search and seizure of 244 kilograms in the Columbus area -- from an uncle [...]

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) -- Italian Village restaurant Mezcla is reopening next month after temporarily closing earlier this year when a car crashed into the building and caused significant damage. The restaurant announced on social media last week that it will officially reopen on June 5 and begin welcoming customers back after several months of repairs [...]

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) - Two people are dead after two separate shootings were reported in Columbus on Monday morning. According to Columbus police, one person was pronounced dead at a nearby hospital after a shooting occurred near the intersection of S. 22nd St. and E. Fulton St. in the Olde Towne East neighborhood around 2:00 [...]

Memorial Day is observed on May 25, 2026, with some services unavailable, certain workers and students having the day off, and some businesses having modified hours or being closed.

Google is rewriting the rules of search, CBS News Radio just died after 99 years, and billionaires now own the newsrooms. This episode dives into what happens when technology giants tighten their grip on how we get information.

• Google's new Universal Cart wants to follow your entire shopping journey across the internet
• Hands-On With All of Google's New Upcoming Android XR Smart Glasses
• New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani is launching a Twitch show
• U.S. Invests $2 Billion and Takes Stake in Quantum Firms
• Elon Musk lost his case against Sam Altman
• GM Driver Data Privacy Lawsuit: California Fines GM $12.75 Million
• A Bipartisan Amendment Would End Police License Plate Tracking Nationwide
• 'Creepy' Listening Tool for Targeted Ads Didn't Actually Work, FTC Says

Host: Leo Laporte

Guests: Larry Magid, Marshall Kirkpatrick, and Jacob Ward

Download or subscribe to This Week in Tech at https://twit.tv/shows/this-week-in-tech

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