Shale-well production still setting records

Shale-well production still setting records

COLUMBUS

The state Department of Natural Resources says the amounts of oil and natural gas being produced by Ohio shale wells continue to set records.

New statistics released by the department show nearly 6 million barrels of oil and 245 billion cubic feet of natural gas produced during the third quarter of the year.

The department says Ohio’s horizontal shale wells have produced more oil and gas in the first nine months of this year than all of Ohio’s wells produced in 2014.

The state says oil-drilling production increased 111 percent and gas-drilling production by 126 percent in the first three quarters of this year compared with the first three quarters of 2014.

The report listed 1,087 wells producing oil and gas.

Cops: Drivers using heroin endanger others

HAMILTON

Police in a southwest Ohio community hit hard by deadly heroin say they are seeing cases of users endangering others by shooting up while driving.

Hamilton Police Department Sgt. Ed Buns said police have been encountering traffic accidents that are heroin-related.

Buns says police responded to a recent accident in which a driver was passed out while the car was in gear and was doing circles in the road. He had a needle in his arm when officers arrived.

Police say people shooting up while driving has added to the danger of heroin as the community battles a deadly epidemic.

Fewer prosecutors seek death penalty in Ohio

CLEVELAND

Fewer murder prosecutions are seeking the death penalty across Ohio, with prosecutors instead pushing for life sentences without parole.

The number of capital-murder indictments filed across the state since 2010 has dropped by 77 percent. Nineteen have been brought this year. The state has 141 inmates on death row.

The newspaper reported Sunday that examination of prison records and public documents found that the number of murder convicts sentenced to life without parole has increased by 92 percent since 2010.

The Washington-based Death Penalty Information Center says the national trend is also for fewer death penalty prosecutions.

Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Timothy McGinty says the death penalty can be a strong deterrent to crime, but has been undermined by the lengthy appeals .

Woman killed in crash

CINCINNATI

Authorities in southwest Ohio say a 21-year-old female passenger has been killed in an early morning accident on Interstate 275.

The Hamilton County sheriff’s office says Destinie Stevens of Cincinnati was pronounced dead at the scene in Whitewater Township west of Cincinnati. Authorities say she was in a 2007 Mazda 3 being driven by 25-year-old Ryan Kennedy of Cincinnati. They say Kennedy lost control of his vehicle and hit a bridge parapet twice, disabling his car in a northbound lane.

Investigators say Kennedy’s car was hit from behind by a Freightliner box truck about 3:05 a.m.

Second body found in Columbus park

COLUMBUs

Police in central Ohio say a second body has been discovered in a park where a missing teen’s remains were recovered earlier.

Columbus police say they have little information to release other than that the second body found Saturday was near that of the 17-year-old youth’s body found Dec. 3. They say they weren’t able to determine immediately a gender, age or race of the second body.

Police identified the first body as that of Wilson Omar Villeda. He had been reported missing, after being last seen near his home Nov. 14. Homicide detectives are investigating after his partially buried body was found in a wooded area of Innis Park.

Associated Press