Saturday, January 15, 2000
TRISTATE DIGEST
Defective fireplace blamed in house fire
A defective fireplace has been blamed for a one-alarm fire Fridaythat caused $30,000 worth of damage to a Pleasant Ridge house.
The fire, at 3111 Auten Ave., was reported at 5:23 a.m. The blaze started on the first floor of the two-story frame building and spread to the second floor and attic.
Firefighters remained on the scene for about two hours. Twenty-four firefighters responded. No one was injured.
Accident closes 2 lanes of northbound I-71
SYMMES TOWNSHIP — Two lanes of northbound Interstate 71 were closed for almost three hours Friday morning after a tandem tractor-trailer struck the concrete median barrier north of the Snyder Road overpass.
Steve Barnett, spokesman for the Hamilton County Sheriff's Office, said the truck first veered off the right side of the highway. Then, as the driver overcorrected, the rig crossed the three northbound lanes and struck the concrete divider. The second trailer flipped onto its side when it struck the divider, blocking the left and center lanes.
The accident occurred at 7:10 a.m. The driver, Patrick Russell, 28, of Medina, Ohio, was cited for failure to maintain reasonable control. The truck is owned by Yellow Freight Systems Inc. The trailers were loaded with paper products that were not damaged. There were no injuries.
Access to AF computer brings 4 months in prison
DAYTON, Ohio — A Chinese programmer convicted of unauthorized access to an Air Force computer was sentenced Friday to serve four months in prison.
U.S. Magistrate Michael Merz also fined Steven Liu $4,000 and imposed one year of supervised release, of which Mr. Liu is to wear an electronic monitoring device during four months of home confinement.
Mr. Liu, 27, a Chinese national who worked for a U.S. military contractor, was convicted in July on two misdemeanor counts of downloading passwords in 1996 from the $148 million computer at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.
The computer tracks the combat readiness of aircraft and weapons. The data is not classified, but Air Force officials say it could be of value to adversaries by giving them a sense of the reliability and availability of aircraft and weapons.
Mr. Liu told investigators he accidentally discovered the password file and used it to try to find his job performance evaluation.
Girl back in school after she's cleared in plot
CLEVELAND — Amanda Hatley couldn't help but notice the stares when she returned to South High School after the holiday break.
It was the first time the 15-year-old had been back in the school since October, when she was suspended for her suspected part in a plot by students to commit a Columbine-style shooting rampage.
Four students face sentencing Jan. 25 after admitting they plotted to kill their peers and teachers. The girl and eight other students have been cleared of wrongdoing.
Her attorney, Avery Friedman, filed a lawsuit against Mayor Michael R. White and school district officials, claiming they picked out Amanda and other students for suspension because of their race. South High is predominantly black, as is the mayor, and all the suspects are white.
City and school officials tied Amanda to the plot simply because she was white and sat at a lunch table with the four students who admitted the plot, Mr. Friedman said.
Islamic voucher school returns $70,000 to state
CLEVELAND — An organization that supports the voucher-schools concept has returned nearly $70,000 in tax dollars that state auditors said was paid to a Cleveland private school as tuition assis tance for no-show students.
The School Choice Committee also paid $11,723 that auditors said the now-defunct Islamic Academy School of Arts and Sciences owed for utility charges at its leased building.
“The restoration of these funds obviously does not absolve the alleged errors of the former Islamic Academy,” Committee Chairman David Zanotti wrote in a letter to Ohio Auditor Jim Petro.
But Mr. Zanotti said his committee raised the money because it wanted to prevent the academy's debt from overshadowing the “quality education” provided by other schools in the voucher program.
Summit Co. official thinks he's focus of probe
AKRON, Ohio — Summit County's top official thinks he's the “unnamed public official” mentioned in court documents as the focus of a corruption investigation by federal prosecutors.
But Summit County Executive Tim Davis, a Democrat who announced last month that he won't seek re-election this year, denied ordering that payoffs be made to his top aides.
“I am probably the unnamed public official,” Mr. Davis told The (Cleveland) Plain Dealer in a story published Friday. But, as for the allegations against him, “That's a crock,” he said.
Mr. Davis' comments identifying himself as the likely target of the investigation came as a seventh person, the county's former top attorney, was sentenced to prison in the case.
New bossto continue casino's added touches
BRIDGEPORT, Ind. — Development of additional restaurants, shops and a 500-room hotel at Caesars Riverboat Casino will continue under the leadership of a new general manager and executive vice president, Barry Morris.
Mr. Morris, 43, was appointed this week to replace Michael Walsh, who will take over as executive vice president of Caesars Atlantic City. Mr. Morris has been working in the casino industry for 23 years.
The Ohio River casino has been visited by more than 4 million customers and paid more than $29 million in state and local taxes since opening 14 months ago.
A buffet restaurant recently opened in the 170,000 square-foot pavilion. Future development will include three more restaurants, shops, the hotel, golf academy and 18-hole golf course.
New program to treat mental, drug problems
Core Behavioral Health Centers has launched a new program to treat people who have both a mental illness and a substance abuse problem.
As many as half the people with severe mental illness in Hamilton County also have drug or alcohol addiction problems, Core officials said. But for many years, such people had to seek treatment for the problems from multiple agencies, which frequently meant that one of the two problems went untreated.
The new program, called Day Plus, is designed to have a single agency coordinating care for both types of problems. For information, call 541-5908, Ext. 345.
Mother says boy, 16, not guilty of dual killings
KENTON, Ohio — The 16-year-old accused of killing his champion motorcycle-racing father and his stepmother is innocent, his mother says.
“They don't have anything on him,” Sherry Grigaliunas of Kenton told The Lima News for a story Friday. “I believe they are going on hearsay or some words and that's all I can say about it. They had to do something.”
Brandon Grigaliunas is charged with juvenile delinquency counts of aggravated murder and murder for the deaths of Scott Grigaliunas, 39, and his wife, Becky, 42. Their bodies were found in their rural northwest Ohio home Oct. 8.
King should be martyr, clergy say
Martin Luther King Day events
The forgotten children are our future, too
Law would ID criminal teachers
Dog day care fetches clients
FWW costs mount to $300.8M
UC to build better mouse
Inmates study ideas of peace, harmony
New radios putting each part of county on same network
XU moves graduation to Firstar
Butler Co. now billing inmates
Case dismissed against TV host
Complaint filed against Leis rival
Queen City's moments to shine reflected in book
Road departments replenish salt supplies
Search continues for sex-assault suspect
Taft plan seeks funding for roads in city limits
GET TO IT
Lopez-Cobos marks 500th with concert 'Lohengrin'
14-screen theater set for Wilder
2nd suit remains vs. steel company
Buttermilk Pike to be widened
Lakota evaluates its policy on gifted
Lebanon choosing treasurer
Man wanted in connection with fatal fight
N.Ky. could have urban opportunity zone
New school stays empty
Norwood has deal with ex-chief
Ohio to fight ruling letting minor-party tags on ballot
Program a hoot for all ages
Project a model for road levies
TRISTATE DIGEST
Twister damage hits $70 million in three counties
