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Associated Press Friday Ohio Headlines - 1/22/2010
Latest Ohio news, sports, business and entertainment:
OBAMA-JOBS
Obama takes latest jobs message to hard-hit Ohio
ELYRIA, Ohio (AP) - He's been taking aim at Washington and at Wall Street. President Barack Obama has told an Ohio audience today that he'll "never stop fighting" for an economy that helps the hard-working, and not just those who are already well-off.
His appeal for Congress to pass a new job-creation bill came in a state where the jobless rate has gone up to 10.9 percent.
In Elyria, Obama called on Congress to include tax breaks for small business hiring and for people who make their homes more energy efficient.
Neither one of those Obama-backed proposals was included in a jobs bill passed by the House in December. That $174 billion stimulus package is now before the Senate, where it faces a tougher road, in part because it is financed with deficit spending.
PRIEST NUN-SLAYING
Ohio priest convicted in nun's death in court
TOLEDO, Ohio (AP) - A Roman Catholic priest convicted of killing a nun appeared by video at a court hearing in Ohio, the first time he's been seen publicly since his 2006 conviction.
The Rev. Gerald Robinson sat impassively Friday during the hearing in Toledo on whether new evidence can be introduced in his appeal.
The 71-year-old Robinson is being held in Hocking Correctional Facility in southern Ohio. He was convicted of killing of Sister Margaret Ann Pahl, whose body was found Easter weekend 1980 in a Toledo hospital where both worked.
Church historians have said it's the only documented case of a Catholic priest killing a nun.
Robinson is serving a mandatory term of 15 years to life in prison and has maintained his innocence. His new attorneys say his trial lawyers ignored evidence that could have helped his cause.
BODIES FOUND
Web site posts letters from Ohio killings suspect
CLEVELAND (AP) - A Cleveland man accused of killing 11 women and hiding their remains in and around his home is sending letters and cards to an Internet company devoted to selling memorabilia from serial killers.
Anthony Sowell had two envelopes and two letters for sale this week on Serialkillersink.net.
In one card, Sowell tells a California woman that he is available to correspond with her.
The letters are addressed to employees at the company and are priced at $200.
The Ohio attorney general's office says inmates are not allowed to make money from crimes by selling their stories to book publishers of filmmakers. Sowell has pleaded not guilty.
Eric Gein, who owns the Los Angeles-based Internet company, says inmates do not get paid for the letters. He says his biggest customers are criminology professors who use the letters and artwork to teach.
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Information from: The Plain Dealer, http://www.cleveland.com
THREE KILLED
Ohio man sentenced to death for 3 slayings
CANTON, Ohio (AP) - A judge has given the death penalty to an Ohio man convicted in the slayings of his two children and former mother-in-law.
James Mammone (mah-MOHN') III could have been sentenced to life in prison. But Stark County Common Pleas Judge John Haas on Friday followed a jury's recommendation that Mammone be executed.
Assistant Stark County Prosecutor Chryssa Hartnett called the case an example of why Ohio has the death penalty. The children's throats were slashed, and their grandmother was shot in her home.
Mammone testified at week's sentencing hearing that he was frustrated by his divorce and preferred to have the children dead than to see their parents separated. He didn't apologize for the June killings.
A psychologist testified Wednesday that Mammone has a severe personality disorder, but he does know right from wrong.
SWEPCO-AIR PERMIT
Ark. panel vote upholds permit for Turk plant
NORTH LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) - The utility building a $1.6 billion coal-fired power plant in southwest Arkansas has convinced a regulatory panel to let it keep its air permit.
The Arkansas Pollution Control and Ecology Commission voted 7-1 Friday to accept the recommendation of a hearing officer, who found that an appeal of the permit issued to Southwest Electric Power Corp. should be turned away. The Sierra Club and nearby landowners want to block the plant from opening.
The Arkansas Court of Appeals earlier threw out a separate permit issued by the Arkansas Public Service Commission, a ruling that SWEPCO is appealing to the state Supreme Court.
Columbus, Ohio-based American Electric Power, SWEPCO's parent company, is building the John W. Turk plant near Fulton in Hempstead County.
ACID SPILL-REVIEW
Company to reevaluate procedures after Ohio spill
WEST CARROLLTON, Ohio (AP) - A company has said it will re-evaluate its procedures after an acid spill from one of its tractor-trailers shut down Interstate 75 in Ohio for hours.
The Dayton Regional Hazardous Materials Response Team says the spill Wednesday occurred when a valve from one container cracked another container in the truck carrying waste acids. Investigators consider the spill an accident and don't expect to issue any fines or citations.
A Veolia ES Technical Solutions spokesman says the company will review its procedures even though the containers were loaded and packaged according to state guidelines.
A cloud from the spill involving a 300-gallon container of sulfuric acid drifted across I-75. About 50 employees of a nearby plant were evacuated as a precaution.
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Information from: Dayton Daily News, http://www.daytondailynews.com
OHIO HIGHWAY CRASH
Truck speed cited in crash with special needs bus
SPRINGFIELD, Ohio (AP) - Investigators say the driver of a tractor-trailer that hit a bus carrying residents of a special needs center in Ohio, killing four, was driving too fast during a snowstorm.
The Clark County prosecutor's office says it will determine whether charges should be filed. The crash near Springfield killed the bus driver and three passengers and injured six other passengers two weeks ago.
A report released Thursday by the Ohio Highway Patrol says truck driver Zygmunt Wieckowski was driving too fast when he lost control two weeks ago. The Chicago man's truck slid across Interstate 70 and into oncoming traffic.
Wieckowski declined to comment Friday.
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Information from: Springfield News-Sun, http://www.springfieldnewssun.com
UNEMPLOYMENT-OHIO
Ohio unemployment rises to 10.9 percent in Dec
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) - Ohio's unemployment rate has edged up to 10.9 percent for December, from 10.6 percent the month before.
The Ohio Department of Job and Family Services said Friday that the state's labor market weakened, led by losses in service-providing industries.
The figures were released on the same day that President Barack Obama is scheduled to visit Ohio to talk about rebuilding the economy.
The number of workers unemployed in Ohio last month was 641,000, up from 624,000 in November.
Officials say the number of Ohioans out of work has risen by 196,000 in the last 12 months, from 445,000 in December 2008. The state's jobless rate a year ago was 7.4 percent.
The U.S. unemployment rate for December was 10.0 percent, unchanged from November.
In July, Ohio unemployment hit 11.2 percent, the highest level in about 26 years.
UNIVERSITY-HAZING
Ohio University bans fraternity over hazing charge
ATHENS, Ohio (AP) - Ohio University has banned a fraternity for five years because of charges that pledges were forced to drink large amounts of alcohol and beaten.
The school's decision came Thursday after Delta Tau Delta entered a no contest plea in Athens County Municipal Court to a misdemeanor hazing charge and was fined $2,000. A judge also ordered the fraternity to pay restitution of up to $10,000 to two injured pledges who required hospital treatment.
George McCarthy, a lawyer who represents the fraternity, argued it wasn't clear that the injuries occurred at the Nov. 12 party because they weren't reported to the hospital until the next day.
According to police, one of the pledges said he was blindfolded, forced to chug large amounts of alcohol and repeatedly slapped around by Delta Tau Delta members.
POLICE CHIEF-THEFT
Former Ohio chief guilty of stealing firearms
OTTAWA, Ohio (AP) - A jury has convicted a former northwest Ohio police chief of stealing firearms that belonged to his department.
Prosecutors say 44-year-old Forest Gordon of Van Wert took confiscated weapons that belonged to the Ottawa Police Department, where he became chief in 2008 but was later fired after state investigators began scrutinizing his behavior.
Prosecutors also said that Gordon, who previously worked in Kalida (kuh-LY'-duh), bought and kept firearms from that department without authorization.
The indictment listed the property's value between $500 and $5,000.
Gordon was convicted Thursday in Putnam County Common Pleas Court on two counts of theft in office. He faces up to 2 1/2 years in prison when sentenced.
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Information from: The Lima News, http://www.limanews.com
LEGISLATOR-JUDGESHIP
Ohio state Rep. Yates appointed to judgeship
CINCINNATI (AP) - A Cincinnati legislator is moving to the judicial bench, setting up a potential scramble to replace him.
Gov. Ted Strickland has appointed state Rep. Tyrone K. Yates to the Hamilton County Municipal Court, filling the seat left by Judge Nadine Allen's move to Common Pleas court.
The six-year Democratic state legislator takes the judgeship Jan. 29, and would have to run in the November 2011 municipal election to keep it.
Former Cincinnati vice mayor Alicia Reece and current city councilwoman Laketa Cole are among Democrats likely to vie to replace him in the Legislature.
Yates, who's 55, is a University of Cincinnati alumnus with a law degree from the University of Toledo.
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Information from: The Cincinnati Enquirer, http://www.enquirer.com
PEOPLE-CORBIN BERNSEN
Corbin Bernsen seeks help for soap box derby
AKRON, Ohio (AP) - Actor Corbin Bernsen is hoping to help the financially struggling All-American Soap Box Derby.
Bernsen is seeking investors to make a movie about the derby, which is held every year in Akron, Ohio. He needs about $1 million to finance the project, in which some of the proceeds would go to the derby.
Bernsen was in the city Thursday talking to potential investors about his screenplay, "25 Hill." Plans call to shoot part of the movie during this summer's race, which attracts about 600 racers and their families.
The nonprofit derby has gone two years without a corporate sponsor, and an Ohio bank is suing the organization to repay a $580,000 loan.
In the past, companies such as Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. and Home Depot generally contributed about $250,000 a year plus free publicity.
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Information from: Akron Beacon Journal, http://www.ohio.com
(Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
AP-NY-01-22-10 1504EST
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