Wednesday, July 1, 1998
Cincinnati and Hamilton County will continue consulting a Pittsburgh firm to help them plan the city's riverfront.
Cincinnati City Council voted last week to extend for six months the contract it shares with Hamilton County for services from Urban Design Associates.
Councilman Todd Portune was the only council member to vote against the measure. He argues UDA should pick a site for the Reds ballpark before continuing any other work for the city and county. Community Development Committee Chairwoman Bobbie Sterne led the charge to keep the consultant. She argued the city already has committed the money for UDA's services, which she said are needed daily as the city works to overhaul Fort Washington Way.
Kent State to close off site of 1970 killing
KENT, Ohio -- Kent State University agreed Tuesday to make a memorial of four parking spaces where four students were killed 28 years ago while protesting the Vietnam War.
Markers will be placed in the parking spaces, which will be sealed off, university spokesman Ron Kirksey said. The parking lot, containing about 60 spaces, will remain open.
In May, a group of students asked the university to close the parking lot and brought letters to university President Carol Cartwright from each of the slain protesters' families asking that part, or all, of the lot be closed off.
In the past, the families were split on whether to leave the site of the shootings as it was on May 4, 1970, or create a memorial there. Mr. Kirksey said said some of the families have changed their minds and now want the memorial. Some did not realize the parking spaces were still being used.
Mother refused retrial in killing of newborn
MEDINA, Ohio -- A former high school cheerleader convicted of killing her baby cannot have a new trial because her attorneys did not prove that prosecutors withheld evidence, a judge said Tuesday.
Visiting Judge Joseph Cirigliano said there were no grounds for him to grant a new trial for Audrey Iacona. She was sentenced to eight years in prison after being convicted Feb. 13 of involuntary manslaughter, child endangering and gross abuse of a corpse.
Prosecutors said Ms. Iacona hid her pregnancy, delivered in secret in the basement of her home in May 1997 and then stuck the baby boy in trash bags, where he suffocated. They said she didn't want her life disrupted by a baby.
Her lawyers asked for a new trial because they said prosecutors didn't show them a medical report that showed the 3.8-pound premature baby was infected with Group A Streptococcus, a potentially deadly bacteria.
Prosecutors said that they faxed and hand delivered the report to Ms. Iacona's attorney in Medina, Richard J. Marco, and that it was contained in a coroner's file seen by two of the defense's medical experts.
Prosecutor OKs plea for Toledo's mayor
TOLEDO, Ohio -- A special prosecutor Tuesday cleared the way for the mayor to settle an ethics case by pleading guilty to failing to disclose a $10,000 payment from a developer in 1994.
The charge, a misdemeanor, is punishable by up to 30 days in jail and a $250 fine, prosecutor Kevin Baxter said. A hearing will be held today before Lucas County Common Pleas Judge Ronald Bowman. Mr. Baxter, the Erie County prosecutor, was called in to review Mayor Carty Finkbeiner's plea agreement with the Ohio Ethics Commission. The mayor agreed last month to plead guilty to knowingly failing to file a financial disclosure statement. The commission agreed to drop two other misdemeanor charges and to state that Mr. Finkbeiner did not intend to deceive the commission or the public.
Dyslexia screenings for children free
The Literacy Network of Greater Cincinnati will conduct free screenings for dyslexia from July 20 to July 31.
The screenings are for children who have reading problems and will be entering grades 2-4 in the fall. After-school classes for those students who qualify will begin in September.
For more information, call the Literacy Network of Greater Cincinnati at 621-7323.
