Wednesday, March 31, 1999

TRISTATE DIGEST

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Butler man arrested after drug delivery

        LIBERTY TOWNSHIP — Butler County Sheriff's drug investigators intercepted a 10-pound package of marijuana Tuesday and arrested the intended recipient.

        Michael Cahill, 49, was arrested at his residence in the 5900 block of Kyles Station Road.

        Police say they watched while a delivery man obtained Mr. Cahill's signature for the drug package coming from California.

        Mr. Cahill tried to flee in a vehicle, police say, but he was caught after a short chase. Police found the 10-pound package along with an additional 4¹/₂ pounds of marijuana.

        The seized drugs have a street value of more than $25,000, the sheriff's office said.

        Charges against Mr. Cahill are pending, the sheriff's office said.

Hazardous waste near school being removed
        MARION — Contractors will work through the week to remove about two dozen barrels of waste from Army Reserve property next to the River Valley middle and high schools.

        The barrels, which contain mostly old paint solids, are being removed because lead and chromium levels in the paint are high, said Jeff Steers of the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency.

        Students are on spring break. One site where barrels were found is about 400 feet from the fence that surrounds the River Valley campus east of Marion; another is about a half-mile away.

Report: Cleveland firm hid dangers of metal
        TOLEDO — The country's largest supplier of beryllium — a metal used in missiles, bombs and jet fighters — repeatedly misled workers, federal regulators and the public about the dangers of the potentially toxic material, The Blade reported Tuesday.

        Brush Wellman Inc. knew for decades that its workers were being exposed to unsafe levels of beryllium, but the Cleveland-based company withheld evidence showing workers could get sick from beryllium dust even when government safety limits were met, the newspaper reported.

        “This is shocking to me that they had this information,” said Dr. Peter Infante, director of standards review at the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

        Since the 1940s, hundreds of workers at weapons plants have been exposed to the metal dust and have contracted beryllium disease. The illness, which attacks the lungs, is sometimes fatal.

        Government officials for years knew about the dangers, but allowed weapons plant employees to be exposed to deadly levels of the metal dust, the newspaper reported. What the government didn't know, according to the newspaper, was that the company was told by a Japanese company that its workers had developed beryllium disease with exposures under the safety limit.

Toledo officer kills suspect in car theft
        TOLEDO — For the second time in a little over a month, a city police officer has shot and killed a suspected car thief.

        Officers said the man was holding a screwdriver wrapped in a shirt and that it looked like a gun. Three officers fired 15 shots and killed Manuel Otero, 26, after he got out of the car and approached police, pointing the screwdriver, said Chief Mike Navarre.

        According to police, the officers began chasing the stolen car near downtown and through neighborhoods until Mr. Otero jumped out of the car.

        The officers told him to drop what they thought was a gun, but he moved toward them and the officers began firing, Chief Navarre said.

S.C. museum receives clothes of Bernardin's
        COLUMBIA, S.C. — The South Carolina State Museum has been given some of the religious clothing worn by the late Cardinal Joseph Bernardin, a South Carolina native who became archbishop of Cincinnati and Chicago.

        The donation by his sister and other family members will be used in an exhibit planned in 2001 titled “Dressed for the Occasion: Making a Statement with Clothes.”

        “Our family is most appreciative that the museum has honored our brother and our friend,” said his sister, Elaine Addison, on Tuesday. “It is fitting that this clothing that he wore as archbishop of Chicago should become part of the heritage of South Carolina, his native state.”

       

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