Another plea in Cuyahoga corruption case
A former top aide to Cuyahoga County Auditor Frank Russo has pleaded guilty to five corruption charges.

Samir Mohammad changed his plea this morning on charges he bribed former Commissioner Jimmy Dimora and Russo, who himself has pleaded guilty to dozens of corruption charges and is supposed to be sent to prison for more than two decades.

Mohammad faces as much as 6 ½ years in prison, and is to be sentenced Jan. 4. 

Glenn vs. Voinovich in presidential ads 
A new television ad exclusive to Ohio features former astronaut and Ohio Sen. John Glenn backing President Barack Obama. The ad is titled "Character," and Glenn praises President Obama for the auto rescue and for taking on “big corporations and foreign powers when they’ve threatened our jobs, our freedom, our way of life.”

Glenn’s successor in the Senate, George Voinovich, has taped a radio ad backing Mitt Romney.

More Ryan/Obama visits to Ohio
Meanwhile Republican vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan and First Lady Michelle Obama are reaching out to Ohio voters in campaign appearances today.

Ryan has been in Ohio six of the last eight days, and is holding a rally at an airport rally in Cincinnati this afternoon.  And the first lady is giving speeches in Newark and then at Cuyahoga Community College. Her husband returns to Ohio Wednesday, the day after the second presidential debate, with a rally at Ohio University. And former President Bill Clinton and music star Bruce Springsteen will campaign Thursday for Obama in Parma.

Polls show President Obama with a slight lead, but that has diminished since the first debate.

Brown vs. Mandel debate airs at 12:30 and 8 p.m. today
The two candidates in the most expensive Senate race in Ohio history – and one of the most expensive in the country -- are meeting at 12:30 today for the first of three debates. Republican Josh Mandel is challenging Democrat Sherrod Brown, and Republican-leaning groups have spent more than $20 million to try to unseat Brown.

The 35-year-old Mandel has had a meteoric rise in politics. He was elected to Lyndhurst City Council in 2005, the Statehouse in 2006 and state treasurer in 2010. He’s attacked Brown as a career politician. Brown has attacked him as a man more interested in running for office than in running the offices he’s elected to.

WKSU is streaming the debate on wksu.org airing it on our HD4 channel at 12:30, and again on our regular air beginning at 8 tonight.

Three-year bachelor-degree plans submitted
Plans submitted this week to the Ohio Board of Regents make it easier to earn a bachelor’s degree in three years. But according to the Plain Dealer, they depend on students taking college classes while they’re in high school and during summer breaks. Students also would have to pick and stick with a major, and not take nonrequired courses.

A new state law requires Ohio's public universities to submit their plans for today for three-year pathways for 10 percent of their degree programs.