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Associated Press Tuesday Ohio Headlines - 11/3/2009
Latest Ohio news, sports, business and entertainment:
ELECTION RDP
Economy hovers over Ohio casino vote
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) - Voters in Ohio are deciding today whether to reverse their long-held opposition to expanded gambling.
The campaign season has been dominated by a proposed constitutional amendment authorizing casinos in the state's four largest cities -- Columbus, Cleveland, Cincinnati and Toledo.
Casino operators and their supporters say the casinos will create almost 40,000 full-time and temporary jobs in a state where the unemployment rate is 10 percent. Critics say those job figures are exaggerated.
As she voted in favor of casinos this morning, Tricia Schneider of Cincinnati said they're going everywhere else, and she said Ohio needs the jobs.
This is the fifth gambling issue Ohio voters have seen in 20 years. All others were roundly rejected.
WHERE'S TED?
PERSPECTIVE: Ohio gov laying low on casinos
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) - Arguments for and against casinos bombarded Ohioans over the airwaves, phone lines and through news conferences for weeks.
But the state's first citizen, and the bearer of its most powerful bully pulpit, was largely out of sight and out of earshot.
Governor Ted Strickland has made public statements saying the plan to build casinos in four Ohio cities was a bad deal for the state.
But Tom Smith of the Ohio Council of Churches says he's been very quiet other than that.
The Democratic governor has two challenges that make it difficult for him to be aggressive in his opposition. Organized labor, a major supporter of Strickland, has endorsed the casino plan. And Smith says the governor's credibility on gambling issues has taken a hit after he changed his antigambling stance to support slots at racetracks.
RAPIST'S HOME-BODIES
100 hold vigil outside home where bodies found
CLEVELAND (AP) - Relatives who now fear the worst about missing women have gathered with others for a candlelight vigil outside the house in Cleveland where the bodies of six women were found.
About 100 people stood last night in front of the home of convicted rapist Anthony Sowell. Many in the emotional crowd held photos of loved ones whose whereabouts are unknown and who could possibly be identified by the coroner.
The Cuyahoga (ky-uh-HOH'-guh) County Coroner is using dental records or DNA mouth-swab samples from relatives to identify the decomposed bodies. The process could take weeks.
Authorities say at least five of the dead women were strangled.
Fifty-year-old Sowell was arrested Saturday but has not been charged in connection with the bodies.
SCHOOL LUNCHES
Schools improve certification for school lunches
WASHINGTON (AP) - Schools are doing a better job of identifying students who are eligible for free or reduced-price school lunches, but some states are much better than others.
In a report to Congress, the Agriculture Department says that in the last school year 78 percent of schools identified eligible students by using government records of which households already receive aid like food stamps.
Direct certification helps eliminate the lengthy application process for free meals.
Ohio school lunch programs directly enrolled 67 percent of students from households that receive food stamps.
Some states directly enrolled more than 90 percent of students whose families were on food stamps, while a few others enrolled 50 percent or fewer.
OHIO FATAL FIRE
2 killed in Ohio house fire
CHILLICOTHE, Ohio (AP) - Authorities in Ohio say a 2-month-old infant and a 37-year-old man have died from a house fire.
Police in Chillicothe (chil-uh-KAH'-thee) in southern Ohio say 11 people were in the house near the city's downtown when the fire broke out last evening. Ten were able to get out, though firefighters found the body of 37-year-old James Beverly inside.
Two children were flown by helicopter to Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus. The 2-month-old, whose identity was not immediately released, died overnight. A toddler was hospitalized in critical condition.
An injured man was taken to Ohio State University Medical Center in Columbus.
The Ohio Fire Marshal's office is assisting local investigators trying to determine the cause of the fire.
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Information from: WBEX-AM, http://www.wbex.com
BABY GRACE
Prosecution winding down in Baby Grace trial
GALVESTON, Texas (AP) - The defense could soon present its case in Texas in the capital murder trial of a man accused of killing his 2-year-old stepdaughter.
The prosecution is expected to rest in Galveston today in the trial of Royce Clyde Zeigler II over the death of a girl dubbed "Baby Grace."
The identity of the child, whose remains were discovered in October 2007 in Galveston Bay, was not known until relatives in Ohio ID'd her as Riley Ann Sawyers.
Her mother, Kimberly Dawn Trenor, was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to life in prison. Prosecutors are not seeking the death penalty against Zeigler, who is accused of killing the toddler during a July 2007 disciplinary session.
Prosecutors on Monday displayed the plastic bin in which the corpse was found.
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Information from: The Galveston County Daily News, http://www.galvnews.com
CEMETERY VANDALISM-LAWSUIT
Ohio cemeteries sue young vandals' families
ST. BERNARD, Ohio (AP) - The owner of two Ohio cemeteries has filed a civil lawsuit against the families of three juveniles convicted of doing more than $300,000 in vandalism.
But officials with the Cincinnati Catholic Cemetery Society say they fear they'll recover only a small fraction of the money needed to make repairs to St. Mary and St. John cemeteries.
Some 300 monuments, gravestones and statues - some dating back to the 1850s - were damaged last year. An attorney for the cemetery society says it looked as though a tornado went through the graveyards in the Cincinnati suburb of St. Bernard.
One family is fighting the lawsuit. The insurance company for another has paid the cemeteries $30,000. The third family agreed to a $30,000 judgment but doesn't have the money to pay it.
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Information from: The Cincinnati Enquirer, http://www.enquirer.com
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