Eaton earnings set a record
Cleveland-based Eaton Corp. has posted the best first-quarter earnings in its 101-year history.

The company makes products ranging hydraulic systems for jets to charging stations for electric cars, and employs some 73,000 people. 
The first quarter earnings came to 92 cents a share. Analysts had expected 90 cents.
In announcing its financials this morning, Eaton also projected higher earnings for the year.

Timken begins steel-plant expansion
Meanwhile, The Timken Co. broke ceremonial ground on a $225 million expansion of its specialty steel mill west of Canton. The company says the expansion will increase capacity by 25 percent, and the expansion is linked in part to the demand for steel by the oil and gas drilling industries.

Timken got nearly $20 million in tax breaks from the state, and a new five-year contract from the United Steelworkers in exchange for its commitment to maintain its Ohio employment at current levels, which is about 4,700 people.  

Former Cleveland House rep dies
Former Cleveland state Rep. Michael DeBose died this morning at age 58.
DeBose had been undergoing treatment for Parkinson’s syndrome. He represented the Cleveland area in Columbus for eight years, and before that, was a member of the Cleveland school board. He also was a pastor at Zion Chapel Baptist Church.

State school board sets up special meeting with mandate advocates
The state Board of Education is holding a special meeting in Columbus this Thursday to meet with former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush’s chief of staff for education, and with other advocates of Ohio’s proposed third-grade reading guarantee. The guarantee would keep children who cannot pass the third-grade reading test from moving onto the fourth grade. The board will also be talking about new state report cards for schools that would grade districts on an A-F scale, instead of measures that range from excellent to academic emergency.

Countering the senior year "wasteland"
And Ohio's school superintendent and public university chancellor are talking about  requiring high school seniors to spend time getting technical training, apprenticeships or college classes.

According to the Plain Dealer, Superintendent Stan Heffner is meeting with the Board of Regents and describing high school senior years as “in many ways a wasteland.”  Regents Chancellor Jim Petro and Heffner say they’re working with the governor’s office to come up with alternatives, including cutting off state funding for public schools at the 11^th grade, and allowing the 12^th-grade money to follow the students to pay for apprenticeships, college courses or other options.