REGION

REGION
Steel producersreport cutbacks
YOUNGSTOWN -- Ohio steel producers made and shipped less steel, employed fewer people and spent less on improvements in the first half of 2002 compared to the same period a year ago. The Ohio Steel Council's midyear report shows steelmakers produced 5.7 million tons in the period, down 24 percent from 2001.
The report, compiled by Youngstown State University's Center for Urban Studies, concluded that the 2001 closings of two major steelmakers, CSC Ltd. in Warren and LTV Steel in Cleveland. International Steel Group has bought LTV and is resuming production at some of its steel mills but is not yet reporting data to the Ohio Steel Council.
REGION
11 additional suitsfiled against Bayer
PITTSBURGH -- Eleven people in seven states have sued Bayer Corp., saying they suffered strokes caused by a drug in an Alka-Seltzer product they used. The plaintiffs say Bayer should have known that a drug in its Alka-Seltzer Plus and Alka-Seltzer Cold medicines called phenylpropanolamine, or PPA, was dangerous. Nearly 700 others have also sued the Pittsburgh-based company in federal courts across the country.
From staff and wire reports.