Movie shoot forces students to walk home

November 14, 2009 at 12:00a.m.

BELLAIRE, Ohio — Ohio parents who say their children endured long, complicated walks home are panning the disruption of school-bus service for a Hollywood movie shoot.

Scenes for a new Denzel Washington movie called “Unstoppable” are being filmed this week in Bellaire in eastern Ohio, south of Steubenville.

Parents say children were dropped off at a shopping plaza Wednesday when the filming kept a bus from completing its route.

Gregory Jeffreys says his 12-year-old daughter wasn’t sure how to walk home, and it took her an hour. He says children were in danger.

The Bellaire school system is apologizing.

Superintendent Tony Scott says the district should have notified parents about the bus diversion but “dropped the ball.”

Nonprofit group buys Langston Hughes’ home

CLEVELAND — A boyhood home of writer Langston Hughes has been purchased after foreclosure by a nonprofit group in Cleveland that aims to preserve it.

The Fairfax Renaissance Development Corp. says options include renovating it into a residence or restoring it to create a Hughes museum.

Hughes was born in Joplin, Mo., and lived in Lincoln, Ill., before moving into the Cleveland house as a teenager around 1917.

The 21‚Ñ2-story, wood-frame house was sold at a sheriff’s auction in February.

It was transferred to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, which sold it to the group for $100.

The Academy of American Poets says Hughes’ novels, plays and poems displayed insightful portrayals of black life in America. He died in 1967 in New York City.

Today’s birthdays

Writer P.J. O’Rourke is 62. Zydeco singer-accordionist Buckwheat Zydeco is 62. Guitarist James Young of Styx is 60. Singer Stephen Bishop is 58. Pianist Yanni is 55. Rapper Reverend Run of Run-DMC is 45. Actor Patrick Warburton (“The Tick,” “Seinfeld”) is 45. Singer Butch Walker (Marvelous 3) is 40. Drummer Travis Barker of Plus-44 and of Blink-182 is 34. Bassist Tobin Esperance of Papa Roach is 30.