Wednesday's headlines:

Former Democratic Governor Ted Strickland reportedly is set to play a key volunteer role with President Obama’s re-election campaign. The Plain Dealer reports Strickland will be named today as one of 30 unpaid campaign co-chairs nationwide. Former Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections worker Margaret Price of Warren is also on the list. Strickland and Price will advise the campaign and host events.

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Canton-based Timken will begin a $225 million plant expansion now that the union has approved a contract. Timken’s more than 2,000 workers overwhelmingly approved the five-year deal Tuesday. The union rejected a similar proposal last month. The Canton Repository reports the contract includes wage increases totaling about 11 percent, a signing bonus and increases in health care and pension benefits. The contract secures the expansion at the company’s Faircrest plant set to begin in 2014.

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An Akron public defender has been reassigned after reports she was caught partially undressed in a car with a judge. Catherine Loya will no longer defend cases in Municipal Court Judge Joy Oldfield’s courtroom. Loya was arrested on drunken driving-related charges for the February 5^th incident and has continued to defend cases in Oldfield’s courtroom and reportedly has been driven to work by the judge. The Beacon Journal reports the Akron Bar Association is looking into the police documents and an investigation could lead to discipline by the Ohio Supreme Court.

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Backers of a plan to repeal a new election law say a new poll shows Ohioans will likely do that. Bob Meadow, pollster for the company that did the survey for Fair Elections Ohio, says 54 percent of those surveyed say the new law limiting early voting should be repealed while 31 percent want to keep it in place. He says the support for repeal is widespread. Former Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner says unless her group agrees, the voter referendum cannot be removed from the ballot, even if Republican legislators revise the law.

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A group working to get a statewide issue on the November ballot for more renewable energy spending has cleared a hurdle. Attorney General Mike DeWine says the group - 'Yes for Ohio’s Energy Future' – got a minimum number of signatures to continue with  its push for the constitutional amendment. The amendment would ask Ohioans to approve issuing $1.3 billion in bonds beginning next year and running through 2023 for clean-energy initiatives. The issue next goes to the Ohio Ballot Board for review. 

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Cleveland’s downtown casino is emerging from a former department store and awaiting slot machines and game tables. Horseshoe casino developers showed off the location Tuesday and say the installation of slots will begin next week. A few hours after showing off the facility, a small fire forced workers to evacuate. A spark from a worker welding ignited pipe insulation. The fire was quickly put out and the fire department was called as a precaution.

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Pit bulls in Ohio will no longer be labeled as "vicious" dogs under a bill that's been signed into law by Gov. John Kasich. The governor on Tuesday signed the bill that changes a law defining a vicious dog, removing the reference to pit bulls and requiring evidence to prove pit bulls are actually vicious.

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Attorneys for former Cuyahoga County Commissioner Jimmy Dimora called their first witnesses Tuesday in Federal District Court in Akron. Dimora is facing more than three dozen bribery and corruption charges. His attorney Bill Whitaker filed a motion to delay the trial for two days. He said in the motion that prosecutors had finished presenting their part of the case before he had expected and his witnesses weren’t ready. One defense witness who did business with the county was excused after he repeatedly pleaded his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. Judge Sarah Lioi said Joseph Randazzo’s taking the Fifth "prohibits a fair presentation of the evidence."

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Environmental groups say they may renew a legal battle if the federal government doesn't toughenproposed regulations of ship ballast water that has brought invasive species such as zebra mussels to the Great Lakes. Groups have gone to court three times to force the U.S. EPA to crack down on ballast water disposal. In November, the EPA proposed requiring vessels to install equipment that would kill at least some organisms remaining in the tanks. But environmental groups said Tuesday the rules aren't strong enough to prevent more species invasions and they may sue again unless the EPA toughens them.

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Ohio's elections chief has sided with fellow members of the Republican party in breaking a tie vote over counting ballots in a disputed 2010 juvenile court election. Secretary of State Jon Husted yesterday agreed the Hamilton County Board of Elections in southwest Ohio should appeal a February 8th court order requiring it to count hundreds of provisional ballots. 

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An Ohio city has joined a list of several communities banning people from begging after authorities say the number of such incidents has soared. Police in Centerville have responded to 17 complaints about begging since July, compared to just four complaints in the previous 12 months. Centerville's law prohibits aggressive or misleading panhandling, but would still allow charities to solicit funds with local property owners' permission.