HAMILTON -- Citizens are invited to meet four city employees who are vying for the position of city manager.
A question-and-answer session is set for 7 p.m. Monday at the Harry T. Wilks Conference Center on the campus of Miami University-Hamilton. Citizens will not be permitted to ask questions during the forum, but about eight panelists representing a cross section of the community are being selected to question the city manager hopefuls, Mayor Tom Nye said.
The four prospective city managers, one of whom will be selected to replace Manager Hal Shepherd when he retires in April, are:
- Utilities Director Richard Fleming.
- Public Works Director Mike Samoviski.
- Planning Director Jim Boerke.
- Assistant City Manager Steve Sorrell.
Following the public session, each candidate is scheduled to participate in a private interview with city council Nov. 18; selection of the new city manager is expected to be announced soon afterward.
Woman questioned in spouse's fatal shooting
VEVAY, Ind. -- A local woman has been taken into custody for questioning after her husband was shot Monday in Vevay and died Tuesday at the University of Louisville Hospital.
Indiana State Police at Versailles said Gerald Konkle, 50, of Vevay, was shot once in the head with a handgun at 5:41 p.m. Monday at a home on Ind. 56 in Vevay.
Vevay and Switzerland County police went to the scene after police received a phone call about the shooting.
Mr. Konkle's wife, Mildred Konkle, 57, was taken into custody. The investigation is continuing.
Man pleads guilty in girlfriend's death
A Westwood man pleaded guilty Tuesday to firing the shot that killed his girlfriend during an argument in July.
Michael Bennett, 30, entered the plea to voluntary manslaughter after prosecutors agreed to drop a charge of murder. He will face up to 13 years in prison when he returns for sentencing Nov. 30 before Judge Thomas Nurre of Hamilton County Common Pleas Court.
Prosecutors said Mr. Bennett called 911 on July 3 to report that his girlfriend, Kimberly Lintz, had been shot in the head. He told the operator that she had shot herself and that he was trying to perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation.
Prosecutors said police became suspicious when they found no traces of gunpowder residue on Ms. Lintz's hands. They also said the coroner found evidence that Ms. Lintz had been choked before she was shot.
Prosecutors said Mr. Bennett told police at least seven different stories about the shooting. In one, they said, Mr. Bennett told them his girlfriend became despondent and shot herself after a cat ate her french fries.
Area colleges' grad programs explained
Tristate residents interested in attending graduate school can learn about area programs at the annual Graduate Programs Fair on Saturday at Xavier University.
The free fair will be 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. in Xavier's O'Connor Sports Center.
More than 300 master's, doctoral and professional degree programs offered by 11 Greater Cincinnati colleges will be represented. Information also will be available about graduate admissions tests, including the GRE, the GMAT and the Miller Analogies.
Parking is free in the O'Connor lot on Victory Parkway north of Dana Avenue.
The sponsor is the Greater Cincinnati Consortium of Colleges and Universities.
Call 572-6364 to register. Call 861-6400, Ext. 1149, for details.
Capital punishment debate at conference
More than 300 human-rights activists are expected to visit Cincinnati this weekend for the 1998 Amnesty International Midwest Regional Conference at the University of Cincinnati College of Law.
Hamilton County Prosecutor Heather Russell and Columbus lawyer Adele Shank will debate capital punishment at 8 p.m. Friday.
Unity Dow, a Botswana woman who successfully challenged a sex-discrimination statute, will participate in a panel discussion at 9 a.m. Saturday. She was recently appointed as the first woman on the High Court of Botswana.
Gay MacDougall, executive director of the International Human Rights Law Group and a lawyer who fought apartheid in South Africa, will talk at 11 a.m. Sunday.
The conference is open to the public. Workshops and lectures will be in Room 118 of the law school. Registration is $30, or $15 for students, senior citizens and low-income residents.
Sessions will run from 6:30 p.m. Friday to noon Sunday. Call 734-6043 or 751-1859 for details.
3,500 people turn out for breast cancer walk
The second Making Strides Against Breast Cancer walk held Sunday in downtown Cincinnati got better weather than last year -- and a better turnout.
The event drew 3,500 walkers, who raised at least $250,000. That's up from about 2,000 walkers and about $150,000 last year, when it rained the entire time, said Pat Koepnick, spokeswoman for the Hamilton County chapter of the American Cancer Society. Proceeds will be divided among several cancer society chapters in Southwest Ohio and Northern Kentucky.
School discipline investigated for bias
AKRON, Ohio -- The U.S. Department of Education has begun a review of school discipline in Akron to make sure blacks are not victims of bias, the 32,000-student district said Tuesday.
There were 20,000 suspensions during the 1997-98 school year involving 7,900 youngsters, 63 percent of them black.
Karen Ingraham, a spokeswoman for the district, said any student can appeal a suspension, which is based on a violation of a behavior code manual that is provided to each school family.
"I believe the procedures are fair," she said.
The government began investigating after finding that a large number of black students were disciplined, education department spokesman Rodger Murphey said.
The decision to investigate came a month after Robert Deitchman, a community activist, filed a complaint alleging discrimination based on suspension rates.
At each of Akron's eight high schools -- where most suspensions were handed out -- the percentage of blacks suspended was higher than the black enrollment percentage.
If the education department finds that schools have discriminated, the agency will develop a plan to correct the problem.
