08/26/10 HEADLINE NEWS…

State transportation officials are hoping to get federal grant money to establish a fleet of electric vehicles. The Ohio Department of Transportation has applied for funding for a dozen projects, including plans to put more than 130 electric vehicles and more than 800 charging stations in cities like Lakewood and Oberlin. Other requested projects include $55 million dollars to improve a dangerous interchange at interstates 77 and 76 in Akron and about 20-million for a passenger rail station in Columbus.

School is back in session today for the region’s largest district and its 50-thosuand students will be adjusting to many changes. The Cleveland Metropolitan School District has closed or merged more than a dozen school buildings as part of its sweeping transformation plan in light of a more than 50-million dollar budget deficit. More than 650 laid-off teachers are back in their classes after the union agreed to concessions earlier this summer.

Akron’s mayor says he doesn’t want to ask voters for an income tax to pay for safety forces, but in a way, he is.  WKSU’s Tim Rudell has more on an unusual “revenue re-direction” idea floated Tuesday.

The congressional comeback of James Traficant remains in limbo. Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner has put on hold any decision on Traficant’s place on the November ballot. Traficant is running as an independent for the 17th Congressional District. Traficant is challenging how many of his signatures have been thrown out by elections boards in Mahoning and Summit Counties. Now, Brunner is telling Summit County to clarify how many signatures he needed in the first place. And she’s telling Mahoning County to hold a hearing on signatures it has qualified. Brunner’s spokesman Patrick Gallaway says the boards will have to act quickly.

Early ballots in Ohio must be printed by September 18th.

It will likely be next week before an agreement is reached whether Cuyahoga County will be required to print bilingual ballots. The county elections board and the US justice department failed to reach a decision after hours of negotiations Wednesday, but set a meeting for next Wednesday to consider the issue. The justice department says the county must accommodate voters of Puerto Rican descent who are protected under the 1965 voting rights act.

The future electric market will determine First Energy customers’ electric bills through 20-14. On Wednesday, state regulators approved First Energy’s rate plan structure, that calls for determining rates based on a series of auctions. The Public Utilities Commission says customers should see lower monthly bills, because wholesale power prices are lower than in the past. But, the Ohio Consumer’s Council says the plan allows the utility to tack on additional charges and instead, says First Energy could lock-in one simple rate now.

The Northeast Ohio candidates for the state’s new gambling commission include a Cuyahoga County Commissioner, the county’s new Democratic Party chairman, and a half dozen lawyers and investment specialists. WKSU’s ML Schultze has more on the people who want to keep their eye on the gambling industry in Ohio.

For a complete list of candidates for the commission, log on to WKSU dot org.

Health officials are testing yet another Northeast Ohio body of water for toxic algae. The Beacon Journal reports a woman complained of a skin reaction after jet skiing in the Berlin Reservoir near Alliance. The reservoir lies between Stark, Portage and Mahoning counties. A blue-green algae outbreak has led to advisories and contact bans at more than a dozen lakes and reservoirs statewide. The Ohio Department of Health on Wednesday added Stewart Lake in Scioto County to the list.

A fatal bear attack at an exotic animal farm in Lorain County last week is prompting the U.S. Humane Society for tougher state laws. The Humane Society is calling on Governor Ted Strickland to ban exotic animals as pets. Ohio is one of 20 states have no laws prohibiting private ownership of exotic animals. Strickland and state agriculture leaders agreed last month to a plan to improve the treatment of farm animals and ban wild animals in captivity. But the rules would not apply to zoos, circuses or animal rescue operations.

A former employee of a company that manages Starbucks at Cleveland Hopkins Airport faces charges for allegedly taking personal information from job applicants to open credit card accounts. Chantay Ware used Social Security numbers to open about 65 credit cards during a two year period. The losses to the banks totaled more than $115,000.

Cleveland housing officials say it’s unlikely that the teenage home of African American poet Langston Hughes will be torn down.  The house on Cleveland’s east side -- where Hughes rented the attic in the early 1900’s -- has been marked condemned.  It comes less than a year after Less than a year ago, a community housing group saved the foreclosed home from demolition and offered to preserve it. Ron O’Leary with the city’s building and housing department says the city wants to help the Fairfax Renaissance Development Corporation keep the landmark standing.

O’Leary says it usually takes at least four months for a condemned property to be torn down. Earlier this year, the Cleveland Landmarks Commission nominated the property for historic designation.

NASA Glenn Research Center will break ground on its newest office building Friday, the first step in a 20-year master plan to revamp the entire campus. WKSU’s Kabir Bhatia has more.

A tech company that is renovating office space in Garfield Heights is getting a 50-thousand dollar state grant. OverDrive plans to create 90 new jobs and retain about 80 others with the more than 5-million dollar expansion. OverDrive was also awarded a seven-year Ohio Job Creation Tax Credit in July in support of the project.