Salem house fire

Salem house fire

SALEM — A fire that began in a laundry room and kitchen area caused $60,000 damage, the Salem Fire Department reported.

The fire, which began at 7:24 a.m. Friday at 485 E. Sixth St., caused $30,000 damage to the house and another $30,000 to contents.

No one was hurt.

The fire department said the homeowner is Mark Slocum.

Ohio stimulus money to help pay for vaccines

COLUMBUS — Ohio is getting $7.5 million in federal stimulus money to help uninsured and low-income families pay for vaccinations.

The money is Ohio’s share of $300 million that the federal government is giving to states to increase immunizations.

Dr. Alvin Jackson, director of the Ohio Department of Health, said Friday the state will order vaccines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Vaccines will be shipped directly to local health departments, federally qualified health centers, rural health clinics and private providers.

Strickland gives more records on schools plan

COLUMBUS — Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland has given a second batch of documents about his school-funding plan to a GOP lawmaker who sued for access to them.

Strickland, a Democrat, said Friday he delivered an additional 6,171 pages via CD-ROM to state Rep. Seth Morgan on Thursday. The information consists of about 40 of what Strickland calls “core references” used to develop his plan, many of them scholarly papers or research documents.

The governor gave Morgan about 1,000 pages of material earlier this week, after Morgan filed a lawsuit against Strickland alleging that he had failed to respond to two public records requests.

Strickland says he has provided more documents than legally required and has maintained that the records request is a political stunt.

Morgan, of Huber Heights in suburban Dayton, has said the request is necessary to make sure the Legislature has the material it needs to evaluate Strickland’s school-funding plan.

Strickland made reforming Ohio’s unconstitutional school funding system a 2006 campaign promise. In January, he announced a proposal for an “evidence-based” education system that would require schools to use programs based on research findings and would set standards for students, teachers and districts. It would also shift more of the financial burden to the state and away from local property taxes.

Human remains were in coffins found near lake

LEWIS CENTER, Ohio — Authorities say they found human bone fragments inside four coffins discovered poking out of the ground near an Ohio lake.

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers spokesman Chuck Minsker said Friday that a local mortician hired by the agency determined there were human remains in four of the 10 coffins found Thursday near Alum Creek Lake north of Columbus.

The coffins were located in an area of the lake that was a cemetery until the 1970s. They likely became exposed because of shifting ground and erosion.

Minsker says authorities are trying to determine the identities of the remains. But he says that will be difficult since the coffins were likely buried before 1930, and cemetery records were destroyed by a fire in about 1945.

Justice Ginsburg laments being court’s only woman

COLUMBUS — Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg says it’s lonely being the only woman on the U.S. Supreme Court.

The 76-year-old Ginsburg told law students at Ohio State University that she misses her former colleague, Sandra Day O’Connor, who retired in 2006.

Ginsburg says she loves her male colleagues but that women bring a life experience to the court that men can’t.

Ginsburg had surgery in February for pancreatic cancer. She has said the operation successfully removed the cancer, but she didn’t address the issue Friday.

Man to stand trial in death of student

ALTOONA, Pa. — Text messages show a western Pennsylvania college student found dead in the trunk of her car might have been trying to buy marijuana from the man accused of strangling her.

That man, 19-year-old Sean Louis Allen, of Hollidaysburg, has been ordered to stand trial on a count of criminal homicide. He’s accused of killing 20-year-old Penn State-Altoona student Margo “Maggie” Davis at his home March 3.

At a preliminary hearing Thursday, state police say texts showed Davis wanted to buy drugs from Allen but that he was wary of a police set up. Davis and Allen knew each other from high school.

Davis’ body was found two days later.

Allen’s attorney says there’s no physical evidence linking Allen to the killing, but tests on items in the car could change that.

Pa. borrows money to tide over jobless fund

HARRISBURG — The Rendell administration has borrowed $310 million from the federal government to help cover the surging cost of unemployment benefits amid rising jobless claims.

Department of Labor and Industry spokesman Troy Thompson said Friday the state borrowed the money earlier this week, the third time in the last six years that Pennsylvania has had to seek such a loan.

Several injured in crash at Pittsburgh-area church

FOREST HILLS, Pa. — Authorities and witnesses say a woman lost her leg and at least five other people were injured when a priest drove into a group of people in a church parking lot.

The crash happened following an afternoon Good Friday service at St. Maurice Catholic Church in Forest Hills, just east of Pittsburgh.

Authorities and witnesses say the priest drove into a group of people on a patio where older people typically wait for rides.

Angela Thomas, a nurse and parishioner, says she saw the woman’s severed leg and gave her belt to use as a tourniquet. She also tended to a man pinned under the car.

Thomas says the priest told her the accelerator just went.

At least five people have been taken to the hospital.

Associated Press