OHIO

OHIO

Few with high risk for H1N1 vaccinated

CLEVELAND — Only one in five Ohioans considered at highest risk for contracting H1N1 flu got vaccines last year despite the state’s public-health campaign, a newspaper reported.

Only two in 10 pregnant women got the vaccine and just over a third of health-care workers, according to state Department of Health data obtained by The Plain Dealer through a records request.

Only one in five children age 5 to 18 with medical problems got the vaccine, and the number was even lower for children age 6 months to 5 years, the data showed.

The Health Department said vaccination rates are better than they appear because providers are behind in their reporting.

“Our plan is to continue to stress the importance of reporting the information,” said Amy Bashforth, Ohio Department of Health immunization program chief.

About 4 million doses of the vaccination were distributed in Ohio last year, and the data showed fewer than 1 million administered through Dec. 30.

PENNSYLVANIA

Allegheny County to keep its pollution program

PITTSBURGH — Allegheny County’s chief executive has accepted a task-force recommendation that the county keep its pioneering air-pollution-control program — rather than disband it due to backlogs — but that significant changes be made in the program’s operations.

Allegheny County Chief Executive Dan Onorato ordered a full-scale review in 2008 to determine whether the program should be disbanded and its duties handed over to the state. Businesses had accused the county of taking too long to issue permits and said its tougher regulations hindered efforts to attract new industry.

The 27-page task force report to be submitted to the county Board of Health on Wednesday recommends retaining the 51-year-old Air Bureau within the Health Department, but only if there are “fundamental changes” in air monitoring and enforcement, issuing permits for pollution sources and appeals.

Table-games bill gives Philly casino more time

PHILADELPHIA — Pennsylvania’s new law legalizing poker, blackjack and other table games at slots casinos has also given more time for a long-delayed casino on the Philadelphia waterfront — but questions remain about who will build and run the facility.

A provision in the bill gives Foxwoods Casino until the end of 2012 to have its 1,500-slot South Philadelphia project up and running.

The project has been stalled by political and neighborhood opposition, the tumultuous economy and financial problems for the Mashantucket Pequot tribe, which operates the giant Foxwoods casino in Connecticut.

Foxwoods lawyer Stephen Cozen says an announcement on a new investor could come by the end of the month.

Jury selection slated in murder of 2 guards

PHILADELPHIA — Jury selection begins this week in the death- penalty trial of a man accused of gunning down two armored-car security guards in October 2007.

Mustafa Ali, 38, is charged in the deaths of 54-year-old Joseph Alullo and 65-year-old William Widmaier. The two retired Philadelphia police officers were working as Loomis security guards and were shot as they were servicing an ATM outside a Wachovia bank in Northeast Philadelphia.

Joseph Walczak, the lone survivor of the armored-car team, testified at a January 2008 preliminary hearing that the gunman crept up from behind and silently executed his co-workers.

Ali, formerly Shawn Steele, was convicted of robbing five banks in Philadelphia in the early 1990s and was released in 2004.

Associated Press