Poisoning case ends in detention for girl

        One of three girls convicted of trying to poison their teacher was ordered to serve a year in juvenile detention.

        The 12-year-old girl was sentenced by Hamilton County Juvenile Court Judge Sylvia Sieve Hendon this week.

        Earlier this month, a 13-year-old girl who pleaded guilty to one count of contaminating a substance for human consumption, was also sentenced to the Department of Youth Services for a year.

        The third girl, also 13, has appealed her conviction and will return to court in March.

        Authorities originally charged four girls in the case, in which students poured liquid drain cleaner into Oyler Elementary teacher Nancy Wyenandt's water bottle. The teacher did not drink from the bottle because it felt warm. She placed the bottle in a refrigerator and left it overnight.

        The next day, the girls retrieved the bottle, poured out the contents and threw away the bottle.

        The four were charged with contaminating a substance for human use, tampering with evidence and obstructing official business.

        Charges against one of the girls, a 14-year-old, were dismissed for lack of evidence.
       

State adopts new school standards

        COLUMBUS — The state Board of Education unanimously adopted academic standards Tuesday for English-language arts and mathematics for kindergarten through 12th grade.

        The state also is developing guidelines for social studies, science, technology, foreign languages and the arts.

        The standards outline exactly what teachers are expected to teach and what students are expected to learn.

        Among other guidelines, the new standards require that by third grade, students studying English-language arts should be able to make inferences from ideas they read in texts and compare and contrast information across subject areas. By first grade, math students should be able to sort, classify and order objects by color and shape and explain how objects were sorted.

        Although the state will not require school districts to realign their curriculums, new achievement tests will be based on the new standards.

        Ohio currently recommends that school districts follow six models in arts, English, mathematics, science, social studies and world languages.
       

Poll: Ohio voters happy with term limits

        COLUMBUS — A poll released Tuesday that found a majority of Ohio voters do not want to get rid of term limits indicates the Legislature is doing its job, Senate President Richard Finan said.

        However, Finan cautioned that voters haven't yet seen the full effects of what voters approved in 1992.

        The Ohio Poll, sponsored by the University of Cincinnati, found that 62 percent of registered voters opposed a constitutional amendment that would remove term limits, while 32 percent supported such an amendment and 6 percent didn't know.

        Fifty-nine percent opposed a constitutional amendment that would increase the number of consecutive years that lawmakers could serve from eight years to 12, while 37 percent favored it and 5 percent didn't know, the poll found.

        Those numbers are down from another Ohio Poll taken in May 1999 — before term limits took effect — that found 70 percent of voters opposed the removal of term limits. The 1999 poll also found that 65 percent of Ohio voters opposed an extension of how long lawmakers can serve.

        The Ohio Poll, conducted by the university's Institute for Policy Research, surveyed 646 randomly picked registered Ohio voters by telephone from Oct. 24 through Nov. 8. The poll's margin of sampling error was plus or minus 4 percentage points.

        Voters in 1992 overwhelmingly approved limiting state representatives to four consecutive two-year terms and state senators to two consecutive four-year terms. The term limits took effect this year when 46 freshmen were sworn into the House and seven into the Senate.

        Thus far, the Legislature has been able to pass and correct a balanced budget, the major business of the current session as it reaches its halfway point. That's thanks to strong leadership in both the House and the Senate, Mr. Finan, a Cincinnati Republican, said.

        “People haven't seen the effects of term limits yet, frankly, because we've been able to get the job done,” Mr. Finan said.

        House Speaker Larry Householder, a Glenford Republican who assumed the post when term limits knocked out fellow Republican Jo Ann Davidson in January, had done a good job of holding the freshmen together, Mr. Finan said.

        The Senate, where six of the new members are former representatives, likely won't see a difference for at least two years when many will be forced out. Mr. Finan must leave the Senate at the end of the year.

Parkway repaving to begin on Friday

        Repaving will begin Friday on Columbia Parkway (U.S. 50), narrowing traffic to one lane in stretches each way during most of the day, city officials said Tuesday.

        The work is scheduled to be done by Dec. 21, weather permitting. The project will resurface areas near the intersections with Taft and Torrence roads in both directions; approaching the intersection with Delta Avenue eastbound; eastbound on the curve between Audubon and Seneca streets; and in both directions on the curve east of Tusculum Avenue.

        All westbound lanes will be open between 7 and 9 a.m., and all eastbound lanes will be open between 4 and 6 p.m.

        The project will cost nearly $200,000, with the money coming from the city transportation department's contingency fund, officials said.
       

Evendale awards ceremony tonight

        The Evendale Business Association will host its annual Evendale Villagers Awards ceremony tonight at Evendale Recreation Center.

        The event will begin at 5:30 p.m. and includes dinner. Students at St. Rita School for the Deaf will present a Christmas program at 7 p.m., with the awards ceremony to follow.

        Tickets are available for the dinner for $8. For information, call the Evendale Recreation Department at 563-2247.
       

Lebanon gives OK to road project

        LEBANON — The reconstruction of Main Street really, truly is going to happen this time, it appears.

        After three decades of stops and starts, City Council gave its blessing to the Ohio Department of Transportation project in a 6-1 vote Tuesday night.

        ODOT is handling the project because the 2-mile stretch of Main doubles as Ohio 63 on the west side and Ohio 123 on the east side. The $12 million-plus cost will largely be picked up by the state, but the city will pay for work such as replacing failed sewer lines under Main Street.

        Council also voted 7-0 to extend restrictions on new multifamily construction for nine months. The 3-month-old policy requires developers to ask council for permission to build on a case-by-case basis.

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