OHIO

OHIO

Cleveland mayor considers fees for nonprofit groups

CLEVELAND — Mayor Frank Jackson is considering charging fees on nonprofit organizations to help close the city’s budget gap.

The fee would be paid by hospitals, universities, museums and other nonprofits that don’t have to pay property taxes. A report released last week said an annual fee on such organizations could raise about $5 million.

Jackson says he hasn’t yet made up his mind but will consider the fees in the coming months.

Cleveland’s finance director said the city doesn’t have the legal authority to levy property taxes but said it could possibly make an arrangement with Cuyahoga County.

A Cleveland Clinic spokeswoman said the health system already contributes to the local community by providing jobs and free medical care.

Fostoria soldier returns home for first time

FOSTORIA — Despite being left a double amputee with a traumatic brain injury, Fostoria native Shane Parsons says he still would have gone into the Army if he knew then what he knows now.

He was injured one month before he was to return home from his first tour of duty in Iraq.

Parsons was sent to Iraq in 2005. The day he was injured was his day off, but he volunteered to take a friend’s place on a mission. A roadside bomb hit him and his gunner when he was driving the lead humvee on the mission Sept. 30, 2006. He went into cardiac arrest, suffered a traumatic brain injury and lost both legs above his knees.

Parsons, 24, received a Purple Heart in December 2006 and retired from the Army two weeks ago as a sergeant. He returned home to Fostoria on Thursday.

PENNSYLVANIA

Man serving life term in student’s murder dies

PITTSBURGH — A coroner says more tests will be needed to determine what killed a man serving a life prison term in the slaying of a Pittsburgh high school student 41‚Ñ2 years ago.

Luzerne County Coroner John Corcoran says 25-year-old Howard Kelley was hospitalized after falling ill Friday at the State Correctional Institution-Dallas. Corcoran says Kelley died at 3:05 a.m. Saturday, and an autopsy did not immediately reveal the cause and manner of death. He says there were no obvious signs of foul play.

Kelley was one of three men convicted in the March 2005 slaying of 16-year-old Carrick High School sophomore Keith Watts. He was also convicted of an August 2007 assault on an inmate at Allegheny County Jail.

The prison declined to comment.

Protest over taxes draws hundreds to Harrisburg

HARRISBURG — Leaders of a protest that brought hundreds of people to Harrisburg over the weekend say they hope to send a message to state lawmakers about fiscal responsibility and taxes.

Participants in the event hosted by the Pennsylvania Tea Party Patriots marched through the city to the state Capitol steps Saturday chanting “Can you hear us now?” They carried signs protesting everything from abortion to gun control and waved U.S. flags as Twisted Sister’s “We’re Not Gonna Take It” blared from a loudspeaker.

The crowd, made up of members of several dozen regional groups from as far away as the Ohio and New Jersey borders, was estimated by Capitol police at 1,500 to 2,000 people.

Death penalty sought in fatal beating of girl

YORK — Prosecutors in central Pennsylvania will present evidence today that a man should be executed for the beating death of his ex-girlfriend’s 2-year-old daughter.

Jurors last week deliberated for less than two hours before convicting 28-year-old Harve Lamar Johnson of first-degree murder in the April 2008 death of Darisabel Baez, who prosecutors said was beaten with a video-game cord and her own hiking boot. The girl’s mother, Neida Baez, pleaded guilty last month to third-degree murder.

Prosecutors will argue that Johnson deserves execution due to the girl’s age and the extent of her injuries.

Associated Press