Woman killed, dozens displaced in fire at apartment complex

Woman killed, dozens displaced in fire at apartment complex

PARMA HEIGHTS

Authorities say a 75-year-old woman has died and more than 100 residents have been displaced in a fire at an apartment complex outside Cleveland.

Parma Heights firefighters responded to a report of a fire at the complex around 10:30 p.m. Friday and found a fourth-floor apartment in flames.

The fire appears to have started in the apartment of the woman who died. No other residents were reported to have been injured.

Officials said 70 apartments received damage from fire, smoke or water.

The Red Cross is helping displaced residents.

A cause for the fire hasn’t been determined.

Police: Teen, 14, fatally shot by another teen, 15

COLUMBUS

Columbus police say a 14-year-old boy has been killed by a 15-year-old boy and that witnesses have told officers the shooting may have been an accident.

Columbus police homicide detectives said the shooting occurred at a residence around 8 p.m. Friday.

The victim has been identified as Xavier Quinn. The 15-year-old ran away after the shooting and was arrested at a nearby home.

Cleveland settles lawsuits of killer’s surviving victims

CLEVELAND

Cleveland has agreed to pay two women who survived attacks by a convicted serial killer to settle lawsuits over what they claimed were botched investigations that allowed him to continue raping and killing women.

Cleveland.com reported a $260,000 settlement for Latundra Billups-Henderson and a $40,000 settlement for Gladys Wade-Thomas were made public last week after being finalized last month.

The women were attacked by Anthony Sowell who was convicted in 2011 of killing 11 women and currently sits on death row at a prison in Chillicothe. Sowell was convicted of attacking Billups-Henderson and Wade-Thomas as well.

Cleveland last September paid a combined $1 million to the families of six women killed by Sowell.

Traffic camera speeding citations trigger federal lawsuit

NEW RICHMOND

Motorists cited for speeding have filed a federal lawsuit against a southern Ohio village for using traffic cameras.

The lawsuit in U.S. district court in Cincinnati alleges that New Richmond officials installed two fixed cameras on U.S. 52 without receiving required permission from the state Department of Transportation.

Four motorists who received notices of $85 speeding citations are seeking punitive damages, and their attorneys are asking that the case be certified as a class action. The village’s California-based vendor also is named.

Village administrator Greg Roberts declined comment Friday on the lawsuit.

The village installed the cameras this spring, issued warnings in May and citations in June.

Bald eagle found shot in Pennsylvania near Ohio border

ALBION, Pa.

Wildlife authorities are asking the public for information about the shooting of a bald eagle found dead in northwestern Pennsylvania.

The Pennsylvania Game Commission posted a photo of the bird found Thursday night near Hope Cemetery in Elk Creek Township, Erie County near the Ohio border.

Game Warden Michael Stutts responded to the scene at the intersection of state Route 18 and Sherman Road near Cranesville and confirmed that the mature eagle had been shot.

Officials are asking anyone with information to call the game commission’s northwest region office or the Operation Game Thief hotline.

Ohio assists police pursuit of sexual assault suspects

COLUMBUS

The Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation has finished testing 14,000 rape kits from across the state and has begun helping police pursue suspects identified by that evidence.

BCI said the agency has tested and returned kits to nearly every police department in Ohio. More than 4,400 kits have been returned to Cleveland, 1,432 to Akron and 482 to Columbus.

WBNS-TV reported BCI has formed a task force to help police in Cuyahoga County, which includes Cleveland, while another will be formed in Summit County, which includes Akron, to search for assailants.

BCI Superintendent Joe Morbitzer said the Ohio Attorney General’s Office has formed a cold-case squad to helper smaller departments with resources they need to arrest and prosecute sexual-assault suspects.

Tests find no unusual radioactive material at closed school

PIKETON

State health officials and the U.S. Department of Energy say dust samples taken in late May from a southern Ohio school near a former uranium enrichment plant showed no radioactivity beyond naturally occurring levels.

Scioto Valley Local School District had closed the Zahn’s Corner Middle School in Piketon in mid-May after traces of radioactive material were discovered.

But the Department of Energy told The Columbus Dispatch there is no public health risk from radioactive material at the school.

A university scientist who found some of the earlier traces questioned the department’s testing methodology, which the DOE defends.

More tests are planned. The department and local health officials already had agreed to have independent, third-party testing at the school, which sits several miles from the former Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant.

Ohio college features pollinator habitat within solar array

GRANVILLE

An Ohio college says a 10-acre pollinator habitat it created is full of butterflies, bees and other pollinating insects after its first year.

Denison University in Granville in central Ohio positioned the habitat within the university’s solar array, which supplies the liberal arts college with about 10 percent of its energy. The array and habitat are part of the college’s 350-acre biological reserve that include trails, woods, fields, streams and ponds,

Denison says the habitat is the first in a five-state area to meet planning and assessment criteria for pollinator habitats within solar sites.

Contributors to the project include Pheasants Forever, AEP Energy, U.S. Fish and Wildlife, Third Sun Solar, Fresh Energy and the Center for Pollinators in Energy, as well as the college.

Cleveland zoo awaits bloom of smelly corpse flower

CLEVELAND

A zoo in Cleveland is awaiting the odiferous bloom of what’s known as the corpse flower for just the fourth time in the past 25 years.

WEWS-TV reported the rare titan arum flower stinks for about 24 hours when it blooms and can grow to a height of 10 feet. The plant is at the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo Rainforest.

At the other end of the state, Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden officials are anticipating the bloom of their newly acquired corpse flower named “Morticia.” They describe the odor it emits as a combination of Limburger cheese, garlic, rotting flesh and smelly feet.

Titan arum is native to the Indonesian island of Sumatra.

Associated Press