Man killed in shootout with police in Solon
Solon -- A man from the Toledo area was shot and killed in a shootout with police in March 17.
Authorities say 22-year-oid Kevin Bailey of Sylvania Township fled a police stop in Solon late March 17, crashed and then fired on approaching officers. The officers returned fire.
The Cuyahoga County medical examiner will do an autopsy.
State crime lab agents joined the investigation.
It wasn't clear why the man fled officers.
-- Associated Press
Two football players convicted of raping girl
Steubenville -- Two members of Steubenville's celebrated high school football team were found guilty March 17 of raping a drunken 16-year-old girl, and Ohio's attorney general warned the case isn't over, saying he is investigating whether coaches, parents and other students broke the law, too.
Trent Mays, 17, and Ma'Lik Richmond, 16, were sentenced to at least a year in juvenile prison in a case that has rocked the city of 18,000 and led to allegations of a cover-up to protect the Steubenville High team, which has won nine state championships. Mays was ordered to serve an additional year for photographing the underage girl naked.
The crime, which took place after a party last summer, shocked many because of the seeming callousness with which other students took out their cellphones to record the attack and gossiped about it online.
Immediately after the verdict, Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine said he will convene a grand jury next month to investigate whether anyone else should be charged. Noting that 16 people refused to talk, many of them underage, DeWine said possible offenses to be investigated include failure to report a crime.
-- Associated Press
About 30,000 could see state tax return delay
Cleveland -- A tax-preparation glitch could delay the returns of an estimated 30,000 Ohioans by up to six weeks.
The Plain Dealer reported the estimated number of affected Ohioans on March 14. The Internal Revenue Service said March 13 that the glitch will affect about 660,000 tax returns nationwide
The IRS said that a problem with a limited number of software company products affected some taxpayers filing a form used to claim educational credits between Feb. 14 and Feb. 22.
The agency didn't name any companies in the statement. But Kansas City-based H&R Block has been informing customers about problems.
H&R Block spokesman Gene King says the problem involves other tax preparers beyond H&R Block. He says the returns were prepared accurately, but the error occurred in e-file processing.
-- Associated Press
Streetsboro Council hopeful's candidacy challenged
A Streetsboro City Council candidate's slot on the May ballot is being challenged based on whether he filed city-required paperwork in a timely manner. The Portage County Board of Elections will hold a hearing on the challenge at 8:15 a.m. March 22.
A challenge against Matt Bross, who is running for an at-large seat on City Council, was filed by Carmen Laudato, who said Bross did not complete his elective office criminal history disclosure form in a timely manner.
Streetsboro's charter requires candidates to fill out the form within five days of filing nominating petitions with the county elections board.
Faith Lyon, elections board chief, said the city law director has been asked to attend the hearing to provide an interpretation of the charter requirements.
"It's not statutory [requirement] so it's not really in our purvue. We can't make the decision based on our interpretation," Lyon said.
The elections board will hold two other hearings on Friday over ballots cast in the November general election by Robert Teach and Thomas Regovich, voters who allegedly no longer lived in the districts where they voted.
District moves Jesus portrait at center of suit
Jackson -- The superintendent of a southern Ohio district facing a federal lawsuit over a Jesus portrait in a middle school says it's been moved to a high school at the preference of the Christian-based student club that the district views as the picture's owner.
A complaint about the portrait left Jackson City Schools in southern Ohio amid a debate over what displays of religion are constitutional.
The Hi-Y club put the portrait up in 1947. The School Board recently voted to keep the portrait up, while allowing other student groups to hang portraits related to their focuses. Officials said taking it down would censor students' private speech.
A lawsuit by the American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio and Freedom From Religion Foundation contends the portrait unconstitutionally promotes religion at school.
-- Associated Press
Portage Co.'s jobless rate rises almost
2 percent
Portage County's jobless numbers jumped to 8.1 percent in January, up from 6.2 percent in December, according to data released last week by the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services.
Ohio's statewide nonseasonal adjusted rate was 8.4 percent in January (7.0 percent adjusted), and rates increased in all 88 counties. The U.S. rates were 8.5 percent unadjusted and 7.9 percent adjusted.
Portage had the 27th lowest jobless rate in Ohio, down from 26th in December. A year previous, the county's January rate was 8.4 percent. In January, there were 7,400 Portage residents jobless out of a workforce of 90,800, according to ODJFS.
During the past recession, the jobless rate in Portage peaked at 11.5 percent in January, 2010. The lowest rate for Portage in the past six years was 4.3 percent in May 2006.
January rates for the six counties contiguous to Portage are: Cuyahoga 8.3 (6.6 in December), Geauga 7.6 (5.7), Mahoning 9.4 (7.3), Stark 8.7 (6.7), Summit 8.0 (6.2) and Trumbull 9.5 (8.0).
Comments