Monday, January 17, 2000
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Anderson hospital starting $6M project
Mercy Hospital Anderson will break ground Wednesday on a $6 million renovation project to create a new diagnostic center and redesign the hospital's front entrance.
The diagnostic center will house a new MRI machine along with other equipment. The new lobby will rearrange admitting and registration services to make it easier for outpatients to use the hospital.
The project is expected to be complete by year's end.
3 agencies get $18,456 in seized drug money
Three Hamilton County agencies received a total of more than $18,000 last week from a drug forfeiture fund.
Prosecutor Mike Allen said the money was seized in recent months from drug dealers. It was divided among the agencies to help pay for programs during the next year.
The county's arson task force will get $3,456, and another $10,000 will go to the Fighting Against Crack Trafficking program.
Cincinnati's Jewish Family Service will receive $5,000 to fund a substance-abuse prevention program for the elderly.
Hospital launching teen smokers' program
Teens aren't supposed to smoke, but many do. Some of them try to quit, but many can't.
Children's Hospital Medical Center wants to help.
Beginning Jan. 26, the hospital's Teen Health Center will launch a smoking cessation program designed for young smokers, ages 12 to 21. Until now, teens who wanted to quit had to do so on their own or find an adult-focused program that would accept them, hospital officials said.
The program, created by the American Lung Association, includes 10 weekly group sessions and four monthly follow-up meetings. For information, call 636-4681, then choose option 1.
Mental health group opens training institute
Mental Health Partners, formed by the recent merger of Hamilton County's largest mental health agencies, has opened a training institute to serve area mental health and social service workers.
The training institute is the first joint program to be announced since the agencies combined in December. The first class, which focuses on dealing with managed care, begin begins April 7.
Hospital now offering kidney-stone treatment
WILMINGTON, Ohio — Area residents suffering from kidney stones can now get lithotripsy treatments at Clinton Memorial Hospital.
Rather than surgery, lithotripsy machines use shock waves to crush kidney stones into small pieces that can be passed through the urinary tract. Previously, patients who could benefit from the treatment had to be sent to other Cincinnati and Dayton hospitals.
Inmate charged in murder, abduction
PORTSMOUTH, Ohio — An inmate has been charged with aggravated murder in the death of a man who disappeared in 1988 and whose body was unearthed 10 years later.
Charles Crowder, 61, of West Portsmouth, Ohio, was indicted last week in the slaying of Danny Tray lor, 33, of Portsmouth. Mr. Crowder also was charged with kidnapping and aggravated burglary in an unrelated abduction of a Jackson County couple in 1997.
Also arrested and charged in the Jackson County case were Mr. Crowder's wife, Sharon, 58; John Wooten, 41, of West Portsmouth; and Robert W. O'Donnell, 50, of Columbus.
Sheriff Marty Donini said the four are accused of abducting James and Annette Stevens from their home, taking them to property owned by David Clausing near Portsmouth, holding them there for two days and repeatedly assaulting them.
Mr. Traylor's body also was found on the Clausing property.
Taft may seek more money for Appalachia COLUMBUS — Gov. Bob Taft is expected to ask the Legislature to more than double the amount it spends on public-works projects targeted for Appalachian counties.
In his State of the State speech Wednesday, Gov. Taft is expected to ask for $9 million for the Governor's Office of Appalachia, the Columbus Dispatch reported Sunday. The office receives $4.4 million under the current state budget.
Paper: Fugitive's diary tells of life on the lam TOLEDO — Amid the sleepless nights over concerns about regulators and incessant worries about people trying to kill him in his final days on the run in Europe, millionaire Martin Frankel's journal shows one fear dominating all others: Spending the rest of his life in prison, the Blade reported Sunday.
The newspaper obtained a copy of the journal that he had with him when he was arrested in his German hotel room in September after a four-month international manhunt.
Lewis Leader, the Blade's managing editor, would not say how the newspaper got the journal.
Mr. Frankel, 45, a Toledo native, is accused of running an enterprise that bought insurance companies in Arkansas, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma and Tennessee, and then using $200 million in cash reserves to purchase mansions, cars, diamonds and gold.
The journal starts Dec. 31, 1998, and ends seven weeks before his capture.
Investigation done in juror misconduct case INDIANAPOLIS — Prosecutors have completed their investigation into allegations of juror misconduct in the trial of Orville Lynn Majors, the former nurse convicted of murdering six hospital patients.
Prosecutor Greg Carter said the state will file a response to the misconduct charges in Clay Circuit Court on Friday.
Mr. Majors, 38, was convicted in October of murdering six patients at Vermillion County Hospital with lethal injections. The former Linton resident is serving a 360-year sentence at the Indiana State Prison in Michigan City.
Last month, Mr. Majors' lawyers appealed his convictions based on a laundry list of allegations against the 12 jurors and six alternates who heard the case in September and October.
The defense claims, among other things, that jurors were drinking and some were drunk during the trial and deliberations. The defense also alleges that the jury foreman's wife is writing a book about the case and that police improperly fraternized with jurors.
Cultivating coral
Sanitation workers recall Dr. King's help
Special events for Martin Luther King Day
Readers irked by pre-election politics as usual
'Millionaire' show in class by itself
Cop in wrong home kills dog
'Hazmat' director is a veteran
Tour at fountain heartens admirers
Bill would alter school fund
Computers enhancing class work
Insurer gives Ohioans a break
Smallmouth bass petition reels in support for state fish
Boone may gain board seat
Mentor opens school door
Police levy on Liberty Twp. ballot
Soffel leads all-star performances in 'Lohen grin'
Teamwork could build facility
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