Police-community issues on agenda

        Citizens who want to voice concerns about police-community relations are encouraged to attend a meeting Monday in the West End.

        The Citizens Police Review Panel will meet at 6 p.m. at St. Joseph's Church, 745 Ezzard Charles Drive. The panel reviews cases of alleged police misconduct and accepts citizen complaints.

        For more information, call 352-2499.
       

Paint shop fire damages vehicles

        FOREST PARK — A fire Friday morning damaged more than a dozen cars and caused heavy smoke damage to the Maaco Auto Painting shop at 552 Northland Blvd.

        The business was closed when the fire broke out and there were no injuries. A damage estimate had not been determined.

        Firefighters were called to the shop about 7:20 a.m. and found smoke coming from the single-story building. There were no sprinkler or fire alarm systems in the building, fire officials said. The fire was discovered by the shop owner arriving for work.

        “We had a fire that had been (smoldering) for some time,” Forest Park Fire Prevention Officer Darrell Brewer said.

        The blaze has been ruled accidental, and officials think it was started by a discarded cigarette, Mr. Brewer said. Fire damage was confined to two cars and the back of a garage area. The rest of the building and 14 other cars had smoke damage.
       

Ex-city attorney's defense postponed

        LEBANON — The trial of retired Lebanon City Attorney Bill Duning was postponed Friday because of illness.

        Proceedings will resume Monday, when the defense will present its case. Mr. Duning — who is accused of felony theft in office for taking an early retirement benefit he may not have been entitled to — is among those expected to testify.

        Retired Butler County Judge George Elliott, who was ill Friday, is hearing the case in Warren County Common Pleas Court.
       

Elderly pair lose money to con men

        LOCKLAND — An elderly couple lost about $1,000 in cash and several personal documents after they let two men into their Arlington Avenue home Thursday afternoon.

        Police say the men, posing as roofers, knocked on the couple's door about 3 p.m. and were let into the house. While one of the men distracted the couple, the other was able to go through the home.

        “They were in the house about a half-hour rooting around through personal belongings,” Lockland Police Officer Patrick Sublet said. “It's theft by deception.”

        The victims, who are in their 80s, were emotionally distraught but physically uninjured, police said.

        The suspects were last seen driving a white Chevrolet S-10 pickup north on Arlington Avenue in Lockland.

        Anyone with information is asked to call Lockland police at 761-1699.
       

Nothing criminal in under-estimate

        COLUMBUS — A 3-month-old report never released publicly failed to find evidence of wrongdoing by state officials studying the financial burdens that Ohio places on its school districts.

        At issue is a study that, when finally released last May, found the state may have underestimated the cost of its school-funding plan by $500 million.

        Lawmakers on a closed-door ethics committee voted to accept the investigative report on Sept. 20, James Rogers, executive director of the Joint Legislative Ethics Committee, said Friday. The committee took no further action on the report, Mr. Rogers said.

        Mr. Rogers would not comment further. But he confirmed that, by law, if the committee finds evidence of an ethics or criminal violation, it would forward the matter to the General Assembly or a prosecutor.

        Sen. Doug White, a committee member who voted to accept the Sept. 20 report, said it simply confirmed that no wrongdoing was involved in the delay of the school-funding study.

        Democratic lawmakers in May charged that the study had been delayed for political reasons, because its findings had negative implications for a school-funding plan.
       

Medical gas tank rules tightened

        COLUMBUS — A year after an improperly hooked up oxygen system killed four nursing home residents, Gov. Bob Taft on Friday signed a law tightening the requirements for handling medical gas tanks.

        Now, tanks have to be color coded and tank handlers trained.

        Four people in a Bellbrook nursing home died in December 2000 when nitrogen was mistakenly hooked to the oxygen system.

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