08/30/10 HEADLINE NEWS
Three former employees at the state’s Worker’s Compensation Council have settled a religious discrimination lawsuit. The settlement will give the workers a total of $55,000. The pair had said the council’s director pressured them to pray at work, watch Christian videos and read her book. The director has denied the allegations.
Ohio is getting 400-million dollars in federal race to the top money, including about 30-million dollar for Cleveland and nearly 10 million for Akron. Statehouse correspondent Karen Kasler says education officials are now planning how to spend that money.
The state of Ohio is setting a record for the number of marijuana plants uncovered. Authorities have found more than 40,000 pot plants in Ohio this month - almost as many as officials uncovered in the state in all of last year. The state The Ohio expects those numbers to increase in the coming years as authorities say outdoor pot-growing operations are becoming more common outside of the West Coast. Earlier this month, state and local officials found about 22,000 marijuana plants in the southern Ohio village of Latham.
The state is getting federal grant money to better monitor and prosecute sex offenders. Attorney General Richard Cordray says more than 150-thousand dollars will be used to help local law enforcement officials track the whereabouts of sex offenders. Cordray says there's also money available to extradite up to 50 of the most serious sex offenders so they can tried in Ohio courts. The federal money for the grant is coming from programs through the U-S Department of Justice.
Federal stimulus money is funding a Cleveland-based company's $8.2 million contract to build two new research vessels for the U.S. Geological Survey's Great Lakes. The ships, set to be completed next year, are expected to help strengthen the agency's research on Lake Erie and Lake Ontario. They'll replace the two oldest research vessels in the agency's Great Lakes fleet and will be modern floating labs better suited for studying Great Lakes fisheries than the old boats.
A minerals company with deep roots in Cleveland is bragging about its community loyalty at the expense of former Cavs star LeBron James. Cliffs Natural Resources is launching a publicity campaign playing on James’s “witness” billboard that was downtown for years. The Cliff’s billboards and banners show a worker with arms outstretched, boasting the company’s 163-year presence in Cleveland.
Bob Feller, the third-oldest living Baseball Hall of Famer, was back at his usual Indians press box Sunday after being treated for leukemia. The 91-year-old former Indians pitcher says he feels good after 10 days of outpatient treatment at the Cleveland Clinic.
A year-long $5 billion youth sports industry is pushing some children too hard and pressuring families to spend big money traveling the country for games, specialized training and the pursuit of elusive college scholarships. The Columbus Dispatch reports Sunday in the first of a five-part series that non-school leagues are largely unregulated and can leave children more susceptible to injury. At a minimum, many kids are robbed of their childhood. The Dispatch says one Cleveland family spent $30,000 in six months to help their son pursue a soccer dream.
A body has been pulled from the Cuyahoga River in the Flats. Passengers aboard the goodtime cruise ship spotted the 55-year-old man's body Sunday. Homicide detectives are investigating.
The University of Akron is opening its Center for the History of Psychology museum today. The center is housed in the basement and first floor of a former warehouse on campus. The museum contains archives of the history of American psychology, which was established at the university in 1965. It also houses some of the nation’s most famous psychology artifacts.
A Columbus Dispatch analysis shows there are nearly 6-thousand deceased Ohioans still registered to vote…and more than a dozen of them voted after they died. Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner's office told the paper that they are confident that the dead didn't actually cast a ballot and that human mistakes or computer issues are to blame. The issue surfaced after the state matched records in the statewide voter-registration database against the records kept by the Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles and notified counties of any discrepancies last month.
The Ohio Department of Transportation wants more than 11 million dollars in federal funds to begin preparing for electric cars. ODOT is seeking a share of the 600 million dollars the U.S. Department of Transportation has set aside for innovative programs across the nation. If approved, Ohio will use the money to buy nearly 140 electric vehicles for universities and other public and private institutions. It will also set up nearly 900 charging stations across the state. Scott Varner, ODOT’s deputy director, says his department is the first leading a unified effort towards an electric future.
Charging stations have been proposed mostly in urban cities such as Cleveland, Columbus, and Toledo, and some smaller cities such as Oberlin. Electric vehicles were chosen over other forms of alternative fuel because they are further along in development.
An Ohio EPA task force says water quality in western Lake Erie has taken a dramatic turn for the worse this past decade after years of improvement. Phosphorus from agricultural runoff is blamed for toxic blooms of blue-green that endanger humans, fish and wildlife. This year outbreaks led to warnings being posted in East Harbor and more than a dozen inland lakes advising visitors to avoid the water. The EPA’s Linda Merchant-Masonbrink says we need to better understand how phosphorus moves from the land into the watershed, but money for testing is limited.
She’s disappointed that after years of success, meeting clean water standards is once again a challenge.
The EPA Phosphorus Task Force recommends changes to agricultural practices to reduce runoff. They say farmers need to limit the amount of phosphorus-based fertilizers used, and to adjust the time of year they’re applied.
Rising oil prices have helped to push the cost of gasoline in Ohio up a nickel since last week. The Triple-A and its partners say Ohio motorists are now paying an average $2.62 for a gallon ore regular.
A python more than 6 feet long has
given people a slithery scare at a nature park near Cleveland. Startled visitors at the Mill Stream Run Reservation in North Royalton found the large snake on a picnic table Sunday, soaking up the sun. Metropark rangers captured the reptile. It's suspected the python either escaped or was dumped in the park by its owner. Rangers say if they don't find the owner they'll hand the snake over to the Cleveland Zoo.
Sunshine today with a high reaching 92 degrees. | 
Headline News for Monday, May 23, 2011
