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Associated Press Monday Ohio Headlines - 3/1/2010
Latest Ohio news, sports, business and entertainment:
SNOWY FEBRUARY
February snowfall records broken around Ohio
WILMINGTON, Ohio (AP) - Meteorologists are busy adjusting their record books after the snowiest February ever seen in several Ohio cities.
The National Weather Service says Columbus got 30.1 inches of snow last month and Cincinnati received 26.1 inches, breaking the old snowfall records for February. And already, both cities have had winter seasons that are among their five snowiest ever.
The Akron-Canton area and Youngstown also shattered February snowfall records. Akron-Canton received 37.2 inches for the month, and Youngstown got 36.3 inches.
February was the second snowiest on the books for Cleveland and Toledo.
The weather service says Mansfield left its old February record of 25.8 inches in the dust. The city in north-central Ohio got nearly twice that: 49.2 inches.
OFFICER STRUCK
Vehicle on icy road sends Ohio officer flying
BROOKLYN HEIGHTS, Ohio (AP) - A suburban Cleveland police officer who stopped to help a motorist alongside an icy highway ramp was sent flying by another vehicle going out of control.
Dashboard video from Lieutenant John Lambert's cruiser shows the officer from Brooklyn Heights pushing the first motorist out of the way on Saturday and then flipping head over heels over a roadside guardrail.
Brooklyn Heights Lieutenant Joseph Zawislan (zuh-WIH'-sluhn) says 42-year-old Lambert is in good spirits but suffered a broken pelvis, fractured eye socket and cracked tailbone. He's in fair condition at MetroHealth Medical Center.
The two drivers were not hurt.
Police say the accident remains under investigation. No charges have been filed.
DUKE-OVERBILLING
Duke Energy alerts customers to overbilling glitch
MADISON, Ind. (AP) - Duke Energy says a billing glitch resulted in the company overbilling about 7 percent of its residential customers in Indiana, Kentucky and Ohio.
Company spokeswoman Angeline Protogere says it isn't clear how the error was made, but it resulted in the affected customers being overbilled when their bills were estimated.
Protogere says Duke knows exactly which customers were affected and that those customers will be receiving notices letting them know the appropriate amount they should pay this month.
Protogere says the bills that were too high were based on incorrect usage estimates.
She says the company sometimes must estimate a bill because meter-readers can't always access a meter, such as in severe weather like the Midwest's recent heavy snows.
Duke expects to get actual readings on the accounts next month, weather permitting.
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Information from: The Madison Courier, http://www.madisoncourier.com
CYANIDE DEATH
Closings due in Ohio cyanide murder trial
CLEVELAND (AP) - Both sides in the Ohio trial of a doctor charged in his wife's cyanide poisoning death are ready to make their final appeals to the jury.
The prosecution and defense are scheduled to make their closing arguments today in the Cleveland trial of Dr. Yazeed Essa (EE'-suh). Testimony ended last week without Essa taking the stand.
He has pleaded not guilty in the death of 38-year-old Rosemarie Essa. She died in 2005 after taking a cyanide-laced calcium tablet and crashing her SUV.
The prosecution has said Essa wanted to escape a loveless marriage. The defense has suggested a mistress wanted to get rid of Essa's wife and marry the doctor.
GAS PRICES-OHIO
AAA: Ohio gasoline up 6 cents this week
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) - Ohio gasoline prices are up 6 cents this week as oil prices have continued to hover above $80 a barrel.
A survey from auto club AAA, the Oil Price Information Service and Wright Express puts the statewide average for regular-grade gasoline at about $2.60 per gallon, compared to $2.54 last Monday.
The current Ohio price is more than a dime below the national average of about $2.71.
A year ago, the state's motorists were paying a much cheaper $1.86 for a gallon of regular, on average.
The cost of a barrel of crude oil has wavered between $70 and $80 all year amid uncertainty about when U.S. demand for energy will pick up.
CHILDREN-CRASHES
2 crashes kill 2 children, mother
JELLICO, Tenn. (AP) - Two children and one of their mothers have been killed in separate weekend traffic crashes in East Tennessee.
The Knoxville News Sentinel reports Tricia Reece of Bradford, Ohio, reached for a water bottle and lost control of her sport utility vehicle on icy Interstate 75 near the Kentucky border yesterday. The SUV struck an embankment, throwing out 5-year-old Kylee Reece and killing her. A trooper's report said four other children in the vehicle were injured.
An Alcoa Police report cited by The Daily Times stated a car drifted into the median of Alcoa Highway on Saturday, went airborne and crashed into a vehicle driven by 21-year-old Brittany N. Thomas of Rockford. She and her 10-month-old son were killed in the crash and the other driver was critically injured.
CENSUS-TOUGH COUNT
High-vacancy urban area a challenge
CINCINNATI (AP) - An inner-city Cincinnati neighborhood with high vacancy rates, poverty and squatters presents a tough challenge for the U.S. Census count.
The census tract that includes parts of Over-the-Rhine and the West End neighborhoods is getting special attention in the effort to determine populations and other demographic information. In 2000, only 15.7 percent of addresses that got forms filled them out.
Assistance centers are being set up and extra recruiting is under way for field workers.
Federal statistics indicate at least 40 percent of the area's houses are vacant or occupied illegally.
Census counts help determine how much federal aid a city can receive, besides congressional representation and other issues.
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Information from: The Cincinnati Enquirer, http://www.enquirer.com
ROCK ARCHIVES
Music museum expands reach with archive, library
CLEVELAND (AP) - The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleveland has fascinating relics like Michael Jackson's "Thriller" mask. Soon it'll have space to showcase its interesting but less flashy artifacts.
The museum will open its library and archives later this year in a $12 million high-tech building it shares with Cuyahoga (ky-uh-HOH'-guh) Community College's creative arts programs.
Jim Morrison's first poem will be there as well as and letters from the Grateful Dead, Whitney Houston, Patti Smith and others. There will also be old audio and video recordings, contracts, album covers, posters and scrap books.
Student and professional singer Tracy Marie hopes the museum-college collaboration will encourage young artists to aspire to have their campus studio work enshrined in the archive.
WATER TASTING
Hamilton, Ohio, is tops in W.Va. water contest
BERKELEY SPRINGS, W.Va. (AP) - Municipal water from Hamilton, Ohio, has taken the Best Tap Water prize in the 20th annual Berkeley Springs International Water Tasting in West Virginia.
Judges on Saturday awarded Hamilton the top tap-water prize for the second straight year. Coming in second and third were Beaver Falls and Greenwood, two towns in British Columbia, Canada.
The top bottled-water prize went to Ecoviva, produced in Roscommon, Mich., and packaged in a biodegradeable bottle. Runners up were Eldorado Natural Spring Water from Eldorado Springs, Colo., and Almost Heaven, a Manassas, Va., company that bottles local Berkeley Springs water.
(Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
AP-NY-03-01-10 0909EST
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