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John Glenn’s suburban Maryland house sells for $1.3 million

Sunday, October 7, 2018

John Glenn’s suburban Maryland house sells for $1.3 million

BETHESDA, Va.

The suburban Maryland home of the late John Glenn has been sold for $1.3 million.

WTOP in Washington reported Saturday the dwelling that had belonged to the former astronaut and U.S. Senator from Ohio had been on the market for five months.

The five-bedroom Cape Cod-style house in Bethesda was initially listed for $1.65 million. It sold at the end of August.

The house had been custom built for John Glenn and his wife in the 1990s. It’s said to have some of the best views in the area. It overlooks the 11th hole of a golf course.

Glenn became the first American to orbit the Earth in 1962. He served in the U.S. Senate from 1974 to 1999. He died at age 95 in 2016.

Ohio toddler, 3, dies in accidental shooting

MOUNT HEALTHY

Authorities say a 3-year-old girl has died in an accidental shooting outside of Cincinnati.

The Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office says the shooting occurred Friday at a home in Mount Healthy where the girl lived with her parents and four siblings.

The toddler hasn’t been identified. The Sheriff’s Office in a statement said the gun was legally owned by a resident of the home.

The statement didn’t say how the girl was shot.

A Sheriff’s Office spokesman on Saturday wouldn’t provide further details, citing an “ongoing investigation.”

Man found guilty of fatally shooting girl, 4

AKRON

An Ohio man has been convicted of murder and other charges in February’s fatal shooting of a 4-year-old girl sitting in a car with her three siblings and grandmother in front of his home.

The Akron Beacon Journal reports a Summit County jury deliberated around four hours Friday before finding 32-year-old Darnell Bitting, of Akron, guilty in the death of Janaya Swain.

Prosecutors said Bitting stood on his front porch and fired an AK-47 assault rifle at Janaya’s mother, who was trying to retrieve belongings and broke out windows when he wouldn’t answer the door. The shot missed and struck Janaya in the head.

Bitting testified Thursday he thought he was under attack. His attorneys argued it was a warning shot.

Bitting could face life in prison when sentenced Wednesday.

Driver charged following Parkways Authority fatal crash

CAMP CREEK, W.Va.

Law-enforcement officials have charged a man involved in an August crash that killed two West Virginia Parkways Authority employees.

West Virginia State Police Sgt. C.F. Kane tells the Bluefield Daily Telegraph that 52-year-old truck driver James Richard Crandall of Reedsville, Ohio, was charged with two counts of negligent homicide, as well as failure to maintain control, reckless driving, unsafe vehicle on highway and following too closely.

Police say Crandall was driving a semi-tractor double trailer when he hit two Parkways Authority vehicles on the side of the road and the three employees standing next to them.

The two employees killed were 32-year-old Nathan Thompson and 21-year-old Richard Lambert, both of the Kegley area. Crandall was not injured.

Trump to campaign in Ohio for midterms

LEBANON

President Donald Trump is scheduled to make another midterm campaign appearance in Ohio.

Trump’s political organization announced Friday that Trump would hold a rally Friday night at the Warren County Fairgrounds in the southwest Ohio city of Lebanon.

The organization says Trump will discuss the “booming” U.S. economy and historically low unemployment numbers. He’s also expected to stump for Ohio’s Republican House and Senate candidates as the GOP tries to maintain its majorities in Congress.

Republican U.S. Rep. Jim Renacci faces an uphill battle in his Senate race against two-term Democratic incumbent Sherrod Brown.

The campaign says it’s Trump’s 24th stop in Ohio since he announced his presidential candidacy in 2015 and the fifth in the Cincinnati area.

Ohio sheriff’s office examines 40-year-old cold-case slaying

HAMILTON

A southwest Ohio Sheriff’s Office has reopened the 40-year-old unsolved slaying of a college student whose body was found more than a month after she was seen leaving her part-time job at a Cincinnati fast-food restaurant.

The Hamilton-Middletown Journal-News reports Butler County Sheriff’s Detective Joe Ventre said additional tests are being conducted in the investigation of 18-year-old Nancy Theobold’s murder but wouldn’t provide further details.

The University of Cincinnati student’s body was found in December 1977 in Butler County’s West Chester Township with a rope around her neck and her hands bound.

A Hamilton County activist is distributing posters with photos of 24 women, including Theobold’s, whose slayings remain unsolved. Hope Dudley, whose son was killed in a drive-by shooting 11 years ago, says victims’ families want closure.

Honda demonstrates ‘smart intersection’ technology in Ohio

MARYSVILLE

Honda and a central Ohio city have teamed up to display “smart intersection” technology designed to make pedestrians and motorists safer by sending audio and visual warnings about potential danger to small screens on vehicle windshields.

The Columbus Dispatch reports Honda and the city of Marysville debuted the technology last week. Honda has a manufacturing plant and other facilities in Marysville, which is part of the 33 Smart Mobility Corridor project to test advance highway technology along U.S. Route 33.

Smart intersections will have cameras atop traffic lights to send video images to a processor that will analyze potential problems from vehicles running red lights, pedestrians crossing streets and approaching emergency vehicles.

Ohio Gov. John Kasich hailed the technology and said you can’t put a price on saving lives.

Toledo says tests show algae bloom is over

TOLEDO

Toledo officials say three-consecutive weeks of tests found no toxic microcystin in raw water drawn from the city’s Lake Erie intake crib and that this year’s algae bloom is over.

The Blade reports University of Toledo algae researcher Tom Bridgeman agrees. He says the lake’s western basin is “out of the woods” after a yet another summer of blooms. He doesn’t foresee any recurrences this year as the weather grows colder.

Bridgeman says blooms in some years have extended into October.

Toxins in Toledo’s Lake Erie-fed water system caused a crisis in 2014 that affected 500,000 area residents supplied by the city.

Toledo spent $41 million in 2016 as part of a 10-year, $500 million project to upgrade its water-treatment plant.

Officer who fatally shot Tamir Rice gets new police job

BELLAIRE

The former Cleveland police officer who fatally shot 12-year-old Tamir Rice has been hired by a police department in a small Ohio village.

The Times Leader reports Bellaire’s police chief confirmed Friday he hired Timothy Loehmann as a part-time officer.

Richard Flanagan said Loeh-mann was never charged in Tamir’s death and deserves a second chance.

Bellaire is a village of about 4,000 along the Ohio River, more than 150 miles south of Cleveland.

Tamir, who was black, was playing with a pellet gun outside a recreation center in 2014 when he was shot by Loehmann, who is white.

A grand jury declined to indict Loehmann. He was fired last year after it was discovered he was previously deemed “unfit for duty.”

Police say man critically injured Ohio deputy with car

CINCINNATI

Ohio authorities say a 34-year-old man has been arrested after they said he injured a deputy sheriff directing traffic in a construction zone and then fleeing the scene.

The Fairfield man was arrested Friday after the Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office received a tip about where the car that struck Deputy Curtis Taylor on Thursday night in Springfield Township could be found.

Taylor, a 21-year veteran, is hospitalized in critical but stable condition. The Sheriff’s Office said Taylor was tossed over the car. It initially said Taylor also was dragged.

Garden to honor slain Ohio State student

GROVE CITY

A tranquility garden is being created at a central Ohio park in memory of a slain Ohio State University student whose body was found there.

The Columbus Dispatch reports the garden at Scioto Grove Metro Park near Columbus will include a Celtic symbol for love, large swings and more than 1,000 plants to honor 21-year-old Reagan Tokes.

Assistant park manager Chris DelGrosso says the park will look like stained glass when flowers bloom next spring.

Tokes’ body was found in the park in February 2017. Brian Golsby was sentenced to multiple life sentences for her murder in March.

Tokes’ mother, Lisa McCrary-Tokes, says she wanted to “remove the darkness and ugliness” within the park.

She says she imagines people finding peace there in the future.

Associated Press