Damage was estimated at $10,000 but no one was injured in a fire in Avondale Friday evening.

        Cincinnati firefighters were called to 819 Blair Ave. at 9:10 p.m., where they found flames coming from the second floor of the single-family home.

        Mary Stone, who lived at the address, escaped without injury, the fire department reported. Investigators said a cause had not been determined as of Saturday.

        Officer injured in fall released from hospital

        A Cincinnati police officer, who was injured falling into a ravine while chasing a suspect, was released from the hospital.

        The incident started with a traffic stop in Madisonville on Thursday night. Officer Deron Hall, on the force four years, attempted to pull over a van for a traffic offense when the man inside got out, then got back in the van and drove off. The officer followed him until the van stopped on Stewart Road in Columbia Township.

        The man, Richard Landwehr, ran. Officer Hall followed. Both fell about 20 feet into a large ditch and had to be rescued by firefighters.

Judge rules NAACP broke its own rules

        CLEVELAND - A federal judge has sided with the NAACP's local branch in a feud with the national office of the civil rights organization.

        U.S. District Judge Donald Nugent ruled Friday that the national office of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People broke its own rules by ousting the Cleveland branch's president, George Forbes, and others.

        NAACP bylaws require a full hearing for each local board member before they can be removed, Judge Nugent said.

        No hearings took place last fall when the NAACP's leadership in Baltimore ousted nearly 800 officers in branches nationwide.

        Judge Nugent's ruling affects only the Cleveland branch.

Gentlemen, start your quarter collections

        INDIANAPOLIS - For all the hoopla and security, you'd think George Washington himself was going to step out of the Brinks truck and cross the finish line at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

        Washington will be there in spirit Thursday, gracing the “heads” side of Indiana's race car commemorative quarter being released to the public that day in big numbers - and a big way.

        There will be pace cars and race cars, a children's choir and a high school band, bigwigs like Gov. Frank O'Bannon and IRL president Tony George, songs and speeches, and a line that puts Indiana on the world map one day every May: “Gentlemen, start your engines.”

        There is a circle of 19 stars on the left side of the coin signifying Indiana becoming the 19th state in 1816. That date is on the coin, along with the state's motto of “Crossroads of America.”

        The number produced will depend on demand, according to a spokeswoman at the mint. So far they have ranged from a low of about 632 million for Ohio's quarter to a high of nearly 1.6 billion for Virginia's.

Miami professor's alleged killer indicted

        HAMILTON - A Butler County grand jury on Friday indicted Tonda Lynn Ansley, 36, on an aggravated murder charge in the July 27 slaying of Sherry Lee Corbett.

        The indictment has a specification that Ms. Ansley used a firearm.

        Ms. Ansley is being held in the Butler County Jail without bond. Her initial appearance in Butler County Common Pleas Court will likely be scheduled in the next few days.

        A preliminary hearing that had been set for Monday in Hamilton Municipal Court will not be held.

        Ms. Corbett was a Miami University professor and an historic preservation expert. She was shot five times in front of neighbors, including children, in the city's historic Dayton Lane district.

Butter cow almost had meltdown at state fair

        COLUMBUS, Ohio - Ohio State Fair visitors expect to deal with the heat.

        But that's something a butter cow just can't deal with for long.

        Two power outages Friday threatened the fair's great symbol. The life-sized butter sculpture, meant to last the 17 days of the fair, usually sits comfortably in a refrigerated case.

        When overtaxed old power cables resulted in two outages, temperatures inside the case hit 60 degrees for a combined two hours.

        No sweat, though. Power was restored in time. “We were about 45 minutes before dripping, I'd guess,” said Larry Taylor, who has handled the fair's butter refrigeration unit for about 30 years.

Patch ingestion lands three men in hospital

        BROOKVILLE, Ohio - Three men were hospitalized after they ate patches used to administer powerful painkillers through the skin, police said.

        The drug they ingested was fentanyl, a synthetic opiate 10 times more powerful than morphine, Police Chief Andrew Papanek said. The men, all from suburban Dayton, were admitted to the hospital Thursday and released Friday. The three men have not been charged.

        John Burke, vice president of the National Association of Drug Diversion Investigators, said he has seen a significant increase in patch abuse.

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