How these refugees are making a home in the U.S.

And how their neighbors are helping them. No Images? Click here     We’re in Akron, Ohio! While in Akron, Angelina Chapin met Michael Owen. Like many Americans, Michael had the Las Vegas shooting on his mind. The 63-year-old said there are many responsible gun owners in Akron who hunt or shoot for fun, but that automatic weapons need to “get off the streets.” “We’ve become so used to this kind of tragedy that our first response is ‘Oh no!’” he said. “And then it just rolls into a whole history of other [shootings] that seem to be growing exponentially.” Michael said he isn’t hopeful about seeing policy change on a national level, but that he believes in the power of regionalism to shape a place’s values. "Cities taking control of themselves is what I think will lead the rejuvenation of Akron,” Michael said. “We’re a city built for about 250,000 [people] that only has about 190,000 [residents], so where do we get another 60,000? We’re never going to have the second headquarters of Google." "But what we can do is we can open our doors, and we can give houses away," he added. "We have a good housing stock that hasn’t been deteriorating and if we went to Brooklyn and said, ‘Hey, we want 30 artists and if you stay five years we’ll give you a house for free,’ I imagine we could fill a couple of spots. If I could be mayor for a day, I would think outside the box.”   How Bhutanese refugees are making their home in Ohio Akron owes its only population growth since the turn of the century to a kingdom on the other side of the Earth. As many as 5,000 Nepalis, who held onto their culture during centuries in Bhutan and decades in refugee camps in Nepal, have made their way here during the last decade. HuffPost partnered with WKSU to tell stories of the community. READ MORE    . Why an Indian immigrant is teaching refugees how to sew Manju Rastogi knew from experience that refugees might need some help as they settled into their new lives in Ohio. So she founded Developing Alternatives for Women in New Communities, or DAWN, to help Bhutanese women improve their sewing skills enough to be able to sell their own products. The group also provides community support, empowerment and a place of safety and acceptance. “By talking to them I realized that these women were in such great need for money that whatever help we could give them had to fit into a money-making project to keep them involved,” Rastogi told HuffPost. WOMEN HELPING WOMEN We’re in the land of The Black Keys and Relient K They’re just two of the rock groups on this Akron-themed Spotify playlist. JAM ALONG Michigan, we want to see you! We’ll be in Detroit and Dearborn tomorrow. Come find our bus in Campus Martius Park tomorrow afternoon, and join us at Byblos Banquet Hall in the evening for a forum called “How the Arab And Muslim Capital Is (Still) Coping After 9/11.”    . Join us virtually on the bus! Ride along with our editor-in-chief, Lydia Polgreen, as she dispatches news from the road via Facebook Messenger. Learn more about what it really means to be an American by signing up for our morning news brief.  Did a friend send you this? Subscribe here. For more politics news, check out our HuffPost Politics email. ©2017 HuffPost | 770 Broadway, New York, NY 10003 You are receiving this email because you signed up for updates from HuffPost Feedback | Privacy Policy | Unsubscribe  . - - Preferences  |  Unsubscribe