OHIO

OHIO
Pizza union turned down
SUNBURY -- Pizza delivery drivers at a restaurant here voted 9-to-3 against establishing the first pizza delivery drivers union shop in the country.
"It didn't quite go the way we had hoped it would go," said Matt Howard, 25, of Delaware, who spearheaded the effort to unionize drivers at a Pizza Hut in this city about 20 miles northeast of Columbus.
"Shocked is a good word for me right now, because a lot of people obviously didn't vote the way they told me they would," he said Tuesday.
The National Labor Relations Board supervised the vote.
The Association of Pizza Delivery Drivers, based in Hendersonville, Tenn., failed earlier this month to organize a local in Lincoln, Neb. A vote at a Domino's franchise there ended in a tie.
Howard said drivers at his store earn about $6 an hour and 75 cents per delivery. The drivers are not reimbursed for mileage and are not scheduled for pay raises.
He said he wanted the proposed union to fight for wages closer to $9 an hour, and to get a mileage reimbursement rate to replace the flat rate per delivery.
Few workers expressed support for Howard as they left the polling station inside the Sunbury Town Hall on Tuesday.
"I think it was all kind of dumb," said Michael Blake Damron, an 18-year-old college student and driver who said he voted against the union. "I think I make plenty of money here."
A message seeking comment was left early Wednesday at the offices of Kent-based Hallrich Inc., which owns the Sunbury Pizza Hut. A Hallrich executive was in Sunbury on Tuesday but declined to comment.
Developer convicted
CINCINNATI -- A developer accused of bilking the city out of $184,000 was convicted Tuesday in federal court of wire fraud and money laundering.
LaShawn Pettus-Brown, 27, formerly of Cincinnati, was convicted in U.S. District Court of three counts of wire fraud and three counts of money laundering.
A federal grand jury indicted Pettus-Brown in July on charges that he used city money on personal expenses instead of rebuilding the 90-year-old Empire Theatre.
Pettus-Brown, who played pro basketball in Japan after leaving the University of Dayton in the early 1990s, had proposed renovating the theater in the city's Over-the-Rhine neighborhood.
The jury found that Pettus-Brown submitted fraudulent claims to the city and used city money for unauthorized expenses including paying for a rap concert in Australia, travel and dinners.
Prosecutors said Pettus-Brown wired money that he told the city would be used for the theater to unauthorized accounts and committed money laundering by transferring the money among bank accounts in an attempt to conceal it.
Pettus-Brown could be sentenced to a maximum of 20 years on each of the six counts. Judge Sandra Beckwith has not set a sentencing date.
NATION
AIG settles allegations
NEW YORK -- American International Group Inc. said Wednesday it has agreed to pay $126 million to settle allegations by federal authorities that the insurance giant helped two customer companies commit accounting fraud.
Under an agreement awaiting Securities and Exchange Commission approval, AIG will pay $46 million to the watchdog agency to settle issues surrounding transactions that helped regional bank PNC Financial Services Group Inc. pump up its earnings. AIG will also submit to an independent monitor who will examine certain transactions by the company between 2000 and 2004 to determine whether any related parties violated accounting rules to achieve certain results.
Associated Press