Theft from arts group brings probation, fine

        HAMILTON — A Lebanon man was sentenced to probation Wednesday for stealing from a Middletown organization he formerly headed.

        Michael Coyan, former executive director of Arts in Middletown and a former Lebanon city councilman, repaid the arts organization $10,000 and will pay $10,000 more as part of a plea agreement.

        Butler County Common Pleas Judge Michael J. Sage suspended a six-month jail sentence on condition that Mr. Coyan, 46, complete three years of probation and repay the agreed amount within two years.
       

Bushman becomes park commissioner

THANKSGIVING DAY IN PRICE HILL: In what has become a West Side tradition, Price Hill's Thanksgiving Day Parade sweeps up Glenway Avenue. Mandy Papania, with the Seton-Elder High School color guard, leads a troupe. (Brandi Stafford photos)

Santa waves from an antique red Volkswagen as elves hand out candy to children along the route. This is the 11th year the parade has been celebrated. | ZOOM |

        James E. Bushman of Anderson Township was sworn in Wednesday as a Hamilton County park commissioner.

        Mr. Bushman was appointed by Probate Court Judge Wayne Wilke to fill the seat of James A.D. Geier, a 14-year board member who recently died.

        Mr. Bushman is president of Cast-Fab Technologies Inc. and chairman of Security Systems Equipment Corp. He is a certified public accountant and graduate of the University of Cincinnati College of Business Administration.

        The three-member park board governs all aspects of the park system. Board members are unpaid.
       

N. Ohio judge up for federal post

        AKRON — Ohio Sens. Mike DeWine and George Voinovich have recommended Summit County Judge John R. Adams for a federal judicial appointment.

        The recommendation goes to President Bush for formal nomination, followed by a selection process that could last more than a year.

        Judge Adams, 46, a Republican common pleas judge since 1999, was chosen from a field of 27 candidates to fill an opening in the federal courthouse in Akron.

        He learned of the decision Wednesday.

        “I'm honored and humbled by the recommendation, and I'm very appreciative of the senators' confidence,” he said.

        The U.S. District Court bench slot has been open since the 1999 retirement of George White, who served in the Northern Ohio district in Cleveland.
       

Rhodes left trust to heirs worth millions

        COLUMBUS — Born in poverty to a southeast Ohio coal mining family, former Gov. James A. Rhodes died a millionaire.

        Documents on Mr. Rhodes' estate show that five years before his death March 4, he placed nearly all his assets into a trust for his daughters or their survivors. He had made millions from investments in Wendy's fast-food restaurants and other businesses.

        Mr. Rhodes, a four-term Republican governor and Ohio's dominant political figure in the 1960s and '70s, was 91 when he died.

        Other than the trust, Mr. Rhodes had about $150,000 in assets, according to Franklin County Probate Court records.

        The records listed his survivors as daughters Suzanne R. Moore of Dublin and Sharon L. Markham of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and two grandchildren in Columbus. They are the children of his third daughter, Saundra R. Jacob, who died in 1999.

        Mr. Rhodes' wife, Helen, died in 1987.
       

Hospital has role in stent research

        Doctors at Christ Hospital have started testing another type of drug-coated stent to prevent re-clogging of coronary arteries.

        The “Achieve” stent, made by Cook Inc., is coated with paclitaxel, a chemotherapy drug used to treat breast, lung and ovarian cancer.

        The medication is one of several being studied here and nationwide for possible use in preventing scar tissue from building up after using a stent to prop open a clogged artery. Doctors also have been testing various radiation treatments in conjunction with stents.

        Christ Hospital will be among 70 centers nationwide involved in testing the Cook Inc. stent. Dr. Dean Kereiakes, medical director of the Carl and Edyth Lindner Center for Research and Education, is leading the local part of the study.
       

Mascot costume had an adventure

        COLUMBUS — Brutus the Buckeye is back.

        Only a few days before the annual Ohio State-Michigan game, the OSU mascot had gone missing. The Brutus costume, which features a large buckeye head and a scarlet and gray shirt, was in a duffel bag in a car that was stolen Tuesday night.

TO PROTECT AND SERVE (DINNER): Officer Princess Davis received permission to spend part of her shift Thursday helping with the free Thanksgiving meal at Zion Hill Missionary Baptist Church in Walnut Hills. She's a team officer with the District 1 COP program. (Michael Snyder photo) | ZOOM |

        Columbus police found the car — with Brutus safe inside — shortly before 5 a.m. Thursday behind a house in the neighborhood just east of campus. Two arrests were made, but police did not release additional details.

        The costume is valued at $1,000. Luckily for Ohio State fans, there's another Brutus outfit that would have been available for Saturday's game at Michigan.
       

Group protests UofL complaint handling

        LOUISVILLE — A group of black students, staff and faculty has filed a grievance with the University of Louisville over its handling of recent racial harassment complaints.

        The two-page complaint was presented to Harvey Johnson, UofL's affirmative action director, by Ede Warner, a professor of communications and an author of the complaint, and about 10 other people.

        “We're concerned about the way racial incidents are handled on the campus,” Warner said.

        The university's affirmative action office fields complaints relating to its anti-discrimination policies as well as state and federal civil rights laws.

        University spokeswoman Rae Goldsmith said grievance investigations in general at UofL are internal administrative procedures that are not made public.
       

Klan leader gets new trial location

        SOUTH BEND, Ind. — A judge Wednesday approved a change of venue for a Ku Klux Klan leader accused of intimidating his neighbor.

        Attorney Gaylen Allsop had sought the change due to intense publicity about Richard Loy, who is Indiana's grand dragon for the National Knights of the Ku Klux Klan.

        Mr. Loy is accused of making intimidating remarks to a resident who lives near the rural Osceola farm where the Klan holds some of its activities.

        Mr. Allsop argued that Mr. Loy could not receive a fair trail in St. Joseph County because publicity about the case and the Klan's activities since its May rally in downtown South Bend has prejudiced potential jurors.

        A judge gave the lawyers until Nov. 30 to agree on a county.
       

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