Portman addresses GOP convention
Ohio Senator Rob Portman focused his primetime GOP convention speech on China. Portman told the crowd at the Republican National Convention in Tampa that President Barack Obama hasn't done anything about China's unfair trade practices because he needs China to keep buying the bonds that finance the growing U.S. deficit.  Portman said the United States is as beholden to China for purchasing bonds as it is to the Middle East for oil. Portman says that will end if Mitt Romney is elected president. Portman was on Romney's short-list of vice presidential candidates. He served as U.S. trade representative and White House budget director in George W. Bush's administration.

Union calling for investigation into Romney campaign event
A union is asking Ohio and federal labor officials to investigate whether a company violated wage and hour laws when it shuttered its coal mine to host a campaign event for Republican Mitt Romney. Murray Energy Corp. said it closed its mine in eastern Ohio for one shift during the Aug. 14 event to ensure the site's security. Coal workers were not paid while the Beallsville mine was closed. The local Service Employees International Union on Wednesday criticized comments from the company's chief financial officer. Robert Moore told a radio station following the event that managers told employees that attendance at Romney's event was mandatory, though he said repeatedly no one was forced to go. The Secret Service says it did not request the mine's closure.

West Nile kills Ohio man
The West Nile Virus has killed an Ohioan for the first time this year as state health officials continue to see widespread infections. The Ohio Department of Health says a 76-year-old Hamilton County man died after being infected with the virus. The department says Ohio has seen 49 human cases of West Nile Virus this year. That's a dramatic increase from the two cases the state had by this time last year.

Glitch caused parole hearing notices to not be sent
The state says a computer glitch failed to deliver 66 notices earlier this year informing Ohio crime victims that parole hearings for offenders had been scheduled. The prisons system says that a series of safeguards caught the problem after it was revealed and that victims were notified in time for hearings. The system initially indicated that letters had been sent, but the Department of Rehabilitation and Correction discovered the letters were never mailed. A new policy now has a single person assigned to tracking the status of the letters.

Pension legislation drafts expected this week
The chairman of an Ohio House panel studying the state's five public retirement funds says he's expecting to have updated drafts of pension legislation by the end of this week. State Rep. Kirk Schuring says the panel is working with the funds on changes. He wants to discuss the tweaks at next week's hearings. The pending pension bills include requests by the funds to raise premiums, lower payouts and tighten eligibility requirements for affected teachers, police and other public workers in order to keep funds serving 1.7 million Ohioans solvent. Schuring said the panel could vote on the proposals on Sept. 10, with the full House also taking them up that week.

ID requirement spurs meth bust
Authorities say a requirement that people produce identification when they buy some over-the-counter cold medications helped launch a large raid of meth labs in northeastern Ohio. The Ashtabula County Sheriff's Office said 43 people were arrested Wednesday and methamphetamine manufacturing labs were found in five homes in the county. The database that tracks buyers of over-the-counter cold medications helped launched the nine-month investigation that culminated in Wednesday's raids.

Former civil rights leader sentenced in theft from meal program
The former chairman of an Atlanta-based civil rights organization has been sentenced to 18 months in prison on theft and other felony charges linked to a meal program for older, poor people in southwest Ohio. Rev. Raleigh Trammell was president of the Dayton chapter of the Atlanta-based Southern Christian Leadership Conference, which the county paid to deliver nutritious meals to low-income senior citizens. Prosecutors say that at least 7,000 of those meals were never delivered. He has been ordered to pay 38-thosuand dollars in restitution.