Ohio tax revenue picked up in April

Ohio tax revenue picked up in April

COLUMBUS

Ohio’s budget office says tax revenue picked up considerably in April, putting year-to-date revenue figures 3 percent above estimates.

The data reported Thursday by the Ohio Office of Budget and Management shows $1.33 billion in personal income tax collections in April, beating projections for that month by $377 million.

The positive revenue news means Senate lawmakers will have a cushion to work with as they begin debate on the two-year state budget following House passage on Thursday.

State Budget Director Kimberly Murnieks told Gongwer news service that the solid April numbers more than made up for shortfalls in December and January.

The budget office said sales taxes also came in strongly last month, with taxes on cigarettes and tobacco products the only taxes falling below estimates.

States bring price fixing suit against generic drug makers

BOSTON

Attorneys general from more than 40 states are alleging the nation’s largest generic drug manufacturers conspired to artificially inflate and manipulate prices for more than 100 different generic drugs, including treatments for diabetes, cancer, arthritis and other medical conditions.

The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Connecticut on Friday, also names 15 individual senior executives responsible for sales, marketing and pricing.

Connecticut Attorney General William Tong, a Democrat, said investigators obtained evidence implicating 20 firms.

“We have hard evidence that shows the generic drug industry perpetrated a multibillion dollar fraud on the American people,” Tong said. “We have emails, text messages, telephone records and former company insiders that we believe will prove a multi-year conspiracy to fix prices and divide market share for huge numbers of generic drugs.”

Tong said the investigation had uncovered a primary reason why the cost of health care - and specifically generic prescription drugs - has been so high in this country.

Turkish journalist hospitalized after attack at home

ANKARA, Turkey

A journalist critical of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government and its nationalist allies was hospitalized after being attacked outside his home, his newspaper said Saturday.

The Yenicag newspaper said columnist Yavuz Selim Demirag was beaten up by about five or six people with baseball bats after appearing on a TV show Friday. The assailants escaped the scene in a vehicle.

The reason for the attack was not known but it comes amid tensions over the top electoral authority’s decision to cancel the results of the March 31 mayoral race for Istanbul, which was won by the opposition. It ordered a revote June 23.

More men discuss abuse they suffered

DALLAS

When Allan Votaw stepped onto Cal Farley’s Boys Ranch in Texas in 1957, the 5-year-old hoped he and his two brothers – age 31/2 and 6 – had found a home. Instead, the now-66-year-old says, they found a “horror house” where sadistic staff members whipped children until they were bruised and bloody and children were molested by older kids.

“You lived in fear, you totally lived in fear,” said Votaw, who said he still has nightmares from his 10 years on the sprawling ranch for at-risk youths outside of Amarillo.

He railed against the ranch for years, feeling alone in his fight until reading a 2017 story in the British newspaper The Guardian that featured a handful of men – including childhood friends – describing abuse they suffered there as children.

Ranch President and CEO Dan Adams said while he believes the men, he’s focused on current residents - and the future.

Associated Press