Associated Press Monday Headlines - 11/24/2008

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) - The Ohio Association of Realtors reports sales of new and existing homes fell 9.4 percent last month in Ohio, compared to the level seen in September. The state's average sale price dropped 7.8 percent from a year ago to just over $130,000.

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) - A state park in north-central Ohio is putting up its annual Nativity scene today, but officials say Malabar Farm park is adding a secular holiday display this year. An activist group had complained that the manger scene by itself violated church-state separation.

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) - The Ohio Supreme Court is considering requests for four more execution dates following the executions carried out last week and last month. The state has resumed capital punishment following an unofficial moratorium while the U.S. looked at the constitutionality of lethal injection.

CINCINNATI (AP) - Fire investigators in Cincinnati say one of the young victims of an overnight house fire died despite her father's attempts to get the girl to jump. Three children were killed; authorities believe their ages were 2, 5 and 9.

CINCINNATI (AP) - Fire officials in Cincinnati say they believe the three children killed in an overnight house fire were ages 2, 5, and 9. A man believed to be the children's father jumped off a second-story porch and was seriously hurt.

NEWARK, Ohio (AP) - The woman who was in many ways the mother of Ohio's Longaberger basket company has died. Bonnie Longaberger was 100 when she died yesterday at a nursing home in eastern Ohio. Her husband was a basket maker, their son founded the company and their granddaughter is the current CEO.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) - A federal appeals court in Cincinnati has ruled that three men may proceed with part of a sex abuse lawsuit against the Vatican. The court says the plaintiffs may pursue their claim that the Catholic church should have been more open about Kentucky priests abusing children.

CLEVELAND (AP) - A couple in the Cleveland area wanted to leave just $50 to an adopted son who tried to kill them in 1982, but Martin Sowell may get their full $500,000 estate. That's because his parents' wills left all they had to each other but didn't specify beneficiaries if both died.

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) - Ohio gasoline prices are down another 16 cents this week, according to the latest survey from AAA, the Oil Price Information Service and Wright Express. Regular is averaging $1.71 statewide, down from $1.87 last Monday.

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) - A University of Dayton political science professor says Governor Strickland may be misreading the electorate by not firing Job and Family Services Director Helen Jones-Kelley. She has been suspended after the state inspector general found she did improper records checks on Joe the Plumber.

CLEVELAND (AP) - Coal that reportedly sells for $220 or more per ton was just basement clutter to a Cleveland Heights man, who placed an online ad offering the fuel for free to people willing to haul it away. The e-mail responses started to pour in within 15 minutes.

NEW YORK (AP) - For the third straight year, Charmin is opening ritzy restrooms for holiday visitors to New York City's Times Square. The plush potties feature flat-screen TVs, attendants in tuxedos, and lots of Charmin toilet paper, made by Cincinnati-based Procter & Gamble.