Museum acquires heart defibrillator

        The Taft Museum has become the first museum in Greater Cincinnati to install an automatic external defibrillator, a device that people with minimal training can use to shock a heart back into action.

        The devices, which have become cheaper and easier to use, are being used more commonly in airplanes, shopping malls and other public places.

        Taft Museum has not had a recent case where the device was needed. Instead, the museum has enjoyed a recent increase in visitors that prompted a security chief to recommend the device.
       

17-year-old drowns in hotel's pool

SANDED OVER: Cincinnati firefighters watch as an Ohio Department of Transportation truck spreads sand over diesel fuel spilled on the ramp from Fourth Street to northbound Interstate 75 Wednesday. A semi truck spilled the fuel along several downtown streets before stopping on the entrance ramp. The truck had passed over high railroad tracks, which ruptured the low-slug fuel tank on the driver's side. (Glenn Hartong photo) | ZOOM |

        SHARONVILLE — A 17-year-old Toledo boy died Wednesday after being pulled from the swimming pool at the Preston Hotel on Sharon Road.

        Robert King was pronounced dead shortly after arrival at University Hospital, a nursing supervisor said.

        Police received a call about 4:50 p.m. about a possible drowning at the hotel's indoor pool, Police Sgt. Mark Preuss said. Firefighters performed CPR on the victim before he was transported to the hospital, he said.

        No hotel official was available for comment on the incident Wednesday night.

        Wednesday's drowning was the second at the hotel pool in seven months. On Nov. 27, 5-year-old Matthew Allender of Whittier, Calif., drowned there.
       

Planning board OKs store for Home Depot

        LEBANON — Home Depot's plans to build a tan, pressed-concrete store on Ohio 48 met with the planning commission's unanimous approval Tuesday night.

        Home Depot's site plan was the first test of Lebanon's new ordinance limiting the design and materials used for new commercial and residential buildings. In deference to the ordinance, for example, the retailer will only use its trademark orange color for the awnings.
       

PAINT RELIEF: William Fender, 4, of Oxford paints with the help of his mother at Children's Hospital Medical Center Wednesday. It was part of Operation PaintFest, sponsored by Pfizer Pediatric Health and the Foundation for Hospital Art. (Glenn Hartong photo) | ZOOM |

Public invited to tour new county building

        LEBANON — Warren County officials are inviting residents and others to check out their new administration building Saturday. County offices have moved into the nearly $12 million, four-story building at 406 Justice Drive in Lebanon, near Common Pleas Court and the sheriff's department.

        Tours will be given from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday.

        For more information, call (513) 695-1250 or 925-1250.
       

Construction worker falls to his death

        A construction worker fell to his death Wednesday while working on a new apartment complex in Hyde Park.

        Cincinnati Police said the worker, whose name was being withheld until relatives could be notified, was working 40 feet up on a structure at The Drexel apartment complex under construction at 3829 Paxton Ave. when he fell at approximately 11:30 a.m.
       

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