ohio

ohio

Group turns in signatures for slots referendum

COLUMBUS — A group striving for a 2010 referendum on a plan to put slot machines at Ohio’s racetracks has submitted 325,000 signatures to the state’s top elections official.

LetOhioVote.org submitted 325,496 signatures Sunday to Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner. If Brunner’s office finds that 241,366 of the signatures are valid, voters will have the chance to decide on the November 2010 ballot whether they want slot machines at race tracks.

Gov. Ted Strickland proposed the plan earlier this year to help balance the state budget, but the Ohio Supreme Court ruled that it is subject to a referendum.

The state couldn’t move forward as planned with slots. Strickland and lawmakers turned to a delay in the last round of planned income tax cuts to make up the difference.

Casino approval tops list of 2009 state stories

Voters’ approval of casinos in Ohio’s four largest cities tops the list of the most significant news stories in the state for 2009.

Issue 3 passed with 53 percent of the vote in the November election, despite voters saying no to gambling proposals four times over the previous 20 years.

The vote was chosen as Ohio’s top story of the year by Associated Press member newspaper editors and broadcasters. A close second was the state unemployment rate hitting 11.2 percent in July, its highest rate since 1983. Third was cuts made by struggling communities to services and staff, including police and firefighters.

Fourth was the discovery of the decomposing remains of 11 women in the home of a registered sex offender in Cleveland. Fifth was Ohio’s adoption of a new one-drug intravenous lethal injection protocol.

Ohio Wesleyan creative with course offerings

COLUMBUS — Ohio Wesleyan University has created six new courses to get students away from textbooks and out tackling some of the world’s toughest problems.

The group of courses this spring offered by the private liberal arts college in central Ohio focuses on exploring the United States’ role in the world.

Students in learning about economics will travel to Mexico and speak with leaders and stay with host families to learn about Mexican migration.

Students studying gender and women’s issues will help an Iraqi or Somali family adjust to life here.

Ohio Wesleyan is pitching in $70,000 toward the costs of the new courses. But students in the courses requiring travel will have to pay fees of up to $1,500 for airfare and other expenses.

Prosecutor reviews allegations over raises

COLUMBUS — A prosecutor is investigating claims by the secretary of a county veterans services agency that raises given to agency executives were never discussed in public.

Franklin County Prosecutor Ron O’Brien is reviewing the allegations of Catherine Radford, secretary of the Franklin County Veterans Services agency.

Radford says she never heard members of the board discuss raises given to executives in public sessions.

The agency’s board has given three executives pay hikes of 66 percent to 80 percent since 2005.

A review of tapes of board meetings by The Columbus Dispatch found no evidence of raises’ being discussed or approved in public sessions.

Cleveland school officials under investigation

CLEVELAND — The head of Cleveland city schools says the district’s former chief operating officer had three top administrators investigated in a costly probe.

Chief Executive Officer Eugene Sanders says former Chief Operating Officer Daniel Burns had a private firm conduct undercover investigations of the three at a cost of just under $100,000.

Sanders says he was unaware of the investigations and doesn’t know why Burns wanted information on the three.

A Cleveland grand jury last week indicted Burns and a Toledo-area school vendor on racketeering, evidence-tampering and other charges for allegedly pocketing $160,000 for printing equipment purchases never provided.

Burns’ attorney, John McCaffrey, told the Plain Dealer he doesn’t have details on the employee investigations and couldn’t comment.

PENNSYLVANIA

Police: Couple died in murder-suicide

ALIQUIPPA — Police say they have determined that the deaths of a man and woman occurred in a murder-suicide.

Center Township police chief Barry Kramer says police were called to a home in the Beaver County township on Thursday because a co-worker of Lucy Manning’s said she had not reported for work.

Kramer says police found her dead in the living room of a rifle shot to the head, and they found her husband, William M. Moore, dead in a bedroom, also from a rifle shot to the head.

Kramer said family members reported that the couple, in their mid-30s, had apparently been having problems. He says there was no sign of a struggle, and Manning was apparently killed first. Police also found a note from Moore apologizing for the killings.

Associated Press