Cancer information center opens today

        MIDDLETOWN — Beginning today, Middletown Regional Hospital and the American Cancer Society will open a community cancer resource center where patients and families can learn more about cancer and where to get help.

        The resource center will be open at the hospital on the second and fourth Mondays of each month, from 5 to 8 p.m.

Mychael Jefferson, 7, of Covington leaps off a swing in Goebel Park in Covington. Today will also offer good weather for swinging if it doesn't rain, with a projected high of 82. (Michael E. Keating photo) | ZOOM |

        The American Cancer Society maintains about 40 similar resource centers in Ohio.
       

Faulty light blamed for Monroe house fire

        MONROE — Fire caused about $30,000 damage to a house at 6605 Hamilton-Middletown Road early Sunday morning, Monroe Fire Department Capt. John Centers said.

        Firefighters were called at 4:12 a.m. The residents — two adults and two children — were awakened by the smell of smoke and got out of the home safely before firefighters arrived. Their names were not available.

        The fire began when an overhead light in the bathroom shorted, igniting insulation and the attic space, Capt. Centers said. The fire was extinguished in about 40 minutes.

        One firefighter was treated at the scene for a facial cut.

Children's Hospital plans research center

        Children's Hospital Medical Center has received a five-year, $2.8 million federal grant to open a rheumatic disease research center to study juvenile arthritis and related diseases.

        The grant from the National Institutes of Health creates one of only two “core centers” for rheumatic disease studies nationwide. The other is at the University of Pittsburgh.

        Children's Hospital plans to create a tissue sample repository, fund MRI scans to monitor disease, identify cells involved in rheumatic disease and pay for computer analysis of biological data.
       

UC ranks high for medical training

        Medical education through the University of Cincinnati earned several high marks in a comparison of graduate school programs published by U.S. News and World Report.

        Pediatric training ranked sixth in the nation; research training was ranked 48th; primary care training ranked 50th; and UC's College of Nursing was listed 52nd.

Randall Marksberry (right) portrays Jesus restoring the sight of a blind man (Al Schmidt), in the St. John Passion Players' performance Palm Sunday at St. Augustine church in Covington. (Michael E. Keating photo) | ZOOM |

        The magazine ranked 125 medical schools and more than 175 nursing schools nationwide.
       

Reconstruction of City Centre starts

        MIDDLETOWN — The first stages of redevelopment of the City Centre Mall begin this week, but retail and government shops will remain open during the 18-month revamping process.

        Todd Malpass, project manager on the $13 million redevelopment of the 25-year-old downtown mall, said the initial phase of the project will be the erection of interior walls along parts of the mall's concourse.

        Eventually the roof will be removed and the concourse converted into retail shopping streets.

        All mall stores will remain open during the redevelopment, scheduled to be completed by October 2002, Mr. Malpass said.
       

Xavier forum tackles labor relations issues

        A discussion of labor relations will take place at 7:30 tonight at Xavier University's Williams College of Business on Ledgewood Avenue.

        Michael Marmo, a Xavier professor of economics and a labor dispute mediator, will lead the discussion.

        Participants include the Cincinnati Interfaith Committee on Worker Justice. Topics include legal and practical considerations in union-organizing campaigns.

        The school's food service contractor, Sodexho Marriott Services, is the focus of an organizing effort by Hotel Employees Restaurant Employees Local 12. It has about 100 workers at XU.

        Student activists say company actions are inconsistent with Catholic social teachings about the positive role of unions.

        Sodexho Marriott says it prefers nonunion workers but denies any impropriety toward Local 12.
               

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