Hamilton County environmental health officials have issued a smog alert for today.

        Smog occurs when pollutants mix together in sunlight. To reduce smog, county officials recommend restricting some activities until after 6 p.m., such as mowing lawns and putting gas into motor vehicles. Carpooling and riding the bus are recommended as alternatives to driving alone.

        The smog alert is expected to continue throughout the week, with temperatures in the upper 80s and lower 90s, low winds and no precipitation. Air quality will be reevaluated this afternoon.

        This is the second smog alert of the year; the first was two weeks ago and lasted several days.

Man charged with rape of girl, 14

        SPRINGDALE — A 44-year-old Springdale man was arrested over the weekend and charged with sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl he met on a telephone chat line, police said.

        Byron L. Betts of the 1100 block of Chesterdale Drive was charged with rape and unlawful sexual contact with a minor. Police said the assault occurred Tuesday.

        Mr. Betts picked the girl up from her home, drove her to his apartment and forced her to have sexual intercourse, police said.<

UC students collect 200 books for charity

        BATAVIA — Nearly 200 children's books were collected by a group of education majors at University of Cincinnati Clermont College and given to Reading Junto Inc., a program in Clermont County and eastern Hamilton County that promotes family literacy and distributes books.

        The Clermont College student chapter of Phi Delta Kappa, an organization of educators, collected 194 books. Reading Junto distributed the books to organizations including Child Focus, Children and Parents Together and Clermont County Juvenile Detention Center.

County gets award for youth forum

        The National Association of Counties has presented an award to Hamilton County for its Community Compass Youth Forum last fall.

        About 160 high school students took part in the October forum at Paul Brown Stadium to discuss Hamilton County's future.

        Their ideas were added to other community responses and presented at a countywide town meeting in January.

        Community Compass is a Hamilton County Regional Planning Commission program.

24-year-old voted to IU board of trustees

        BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — Indiana University alumni chose a 24-year-old graduate to serve on the university's board of trustees.

        “Obviously, people felt like it was time for a little youth and a change,” Jamie B. Belanger of Kettering, Ohio, said Saturday after his 2,115-vote victory over John A. Nash was announced.

        Mr. Belanger, a fiscal analyst for the Iams Co. and a 2000 graduate of IU's Kelly School of Business, will be the first trustee to serve while living outside Indiana.

        The former president of Pi Kappa Phi fraternity said his victory “is a real testament to the fact the board needs that (age) diversity.”

        His campaign literature emphasized that almost 81 percent of IU's 435,000 alumni are younger than age 55, yet only two of the current nine trustees are that young: Patrick Shoulders, 49, an Evansville lawyer, and Sasha Wilsey, 33, a graduate student.

        Mr. Belanger received 7,111 of 28,500 votes cast. An election by alumni is conducted every year for one of the three alumni seats on the board. The governor appoints the six other trustees.

2 boys hospitalized after water ride at park

        POWELL, Ohio — Two 12-year-olds were hospitalized and 18 other people treated for respiratory problems and vomiting after going on water rides Sunday at a suburban Columbus amusement park.

        David Shaffer and Joshua Castle were in poor condition Sunday, said Cheryl Monaghan, a nursing supervisor at Children's Hospital.

        Joshua was admitted to the hospital with respiratory problems. David was admitted with nausea and had some trouble breathing, she said. Their hometowns were not immediately known.

        Eleven people were transported from the Wyandot Lake amusement park to the hospital in Columbus, park spokeswoman Janice Shepherd said. The rest went to the hospital on their own.

        Those who were treated and released also were vomiting and had trouble breathing, Ms. Monaghan said.

        Several people in the park's wave pool began coughing just before noon, Ms. Shepherd said.

        The park's water rides were evacuated, although the park remained open, she said. The rides that were shut down for inspection, including the wave pool, were to reopen today.

        The Health Department and the Emergency Management Agency tested all water rides and pools at the park three times and found nothing wrong with the water, said Lt. Mike Wells of the Liberty Township Fire Department.

Education official faces criticism

        COLUMBUS — The director of the Ohio School Facilities Commission used an administrative procedure usually reserved for minor changes to construction projects to approve adding an entire building to a project.

        Randall Fischer also has drawn criticism for approving nearly $2 billion worth of projects without a vote of the facilities commission.

        “They cut a corner for convenience. It was wrong,” said Luther L. Liggett, a lawyer with Bricker & Eckler in Columbus who represents the National Electrical Contractors Association, told the Columbus Dispatch for a story Sunday.

        Mr. Fischer declined to comment on the $1 million change order he approved for a project that included a new building in the Adena school district near Chillicothe, 40 miles south of Columbus.

        Joe Case, spokesman for Ohio Attorney General Betty Montgomery, said the office is looking into the matter and had no further comment.

Former lawmaker questions DARE

        COLUMBUS — The former state senator who wrote a 1993 law earmarking millions of dollars a year for the DARE program says he isn't sure whether the anti-drug initiative still deserves the funding.

        Barry Levey, a former Republican senator from Middletown, recalled that the Drug Abuse Resistance Education program had wide support from law-enforcement officials, educators and politicians when he added the money to a tough new drunken driving law.

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