I-90 bridge back on schedule
The second I-90 Inner Belt Bridge in Cleveland is once again set to be finished in about three years.

Gov. John Kasich is in the city this morning to announce a new public-private partnership that will eliminate delays of as much as a decade in the $317 million project.

The state had planned to delay the construction after it said it did not have enough money up front to bid the contract.

But the Ohio Department of Transportation now plans to ask a private designer and builder to tear down the existing bridge and build the new one, with the state then repaying the private contractor.

Two I-90 bridges now cross the Cuyahoga River Valley. One already is being replaced, and construction is expected to be done in about a year. The new time schedule for the second bridge is 2016.

Presidential poll results in Ohio
Two new independent polls released today indicate President Barack Obama remains ahead of his Republican challenger Mitt Romney here in the key swing state of Ohio. Statehouse correspondent Bill Cohen has the numbers.

COHEN on poll numbers

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Romney-Ryan together in Powell
Meanwhile, Romney and his running mate Paul Ryan will make one more stop in Ohio Saturday on their way to the Republican National Convention in Tampa.

They’re scheduled to appear at a morning outdoor rally in Powell, north of Columbus.

Romney was last in Ohio on Aug. 14, and Ryan appeared last week at Walsh University in North Canton. This is their first joint appearance in Ohio.

Report: Toledo told ODE about data scrubbing
Toledo Public Schools staff told the state at least four years ago that it was scrubbing up its test data to eliminate habitually truant students.

According to the Toledo Blade, a new report says the Ohio Department of Education never told Toledo to cut that out.

Toledo is one of as many as 100 traditional and charter public schools under investigation. The schools are accused of falsely recording that the truant students had withdrawn from the district, and then re-enrolling them. On its state report cards, Ohio does not count the test scores of students who are not enrolled in a school all year long.

The report by attorney Fritz Byers says Toledo did not violate the law or reporting guidelines when it came to how they recorded the chronic truants.

The Ohio Department of Education has held up the release of this year’s report cards  by at least 10 days as state Auditor David Yost reviews how schools handled withdrawals.