P&G to give Tuskegee $2M

Procter & Gamble Co. today will announce a $2 million pledge to Tuskegee University.

The gift from the P&G Fund will contribute to the university's $60 million Legacy Campaign and is earmarked for construction of a building for the College of Business and Information Science.

P&G has had a longstanding relationship with Tuskegee, one of the nation's leading historically black universities, including a $1 million capital gift a decade ago. Cincinnati-based P&G also recruits there, and the Alabama school has gotten grants from P&G's Curriculum Development Grant Program, a P&G spokesman said.

New police rules require courtesy

Cincinnati police officers now are required to tell citizens why they're being stopped or detained - and to be courteous and professional when they do it.

Officials said most officers do this anyway. But as of Tuesday, the policies for traffic enforcement and investigative stops now include:

"Except in exigent circumstances, when a citizen is stopped or detained and then released as part of an investigation, the officer will explain to the citizen in a professional, courteous manner why he or she was stopped or detained."

CLOSE CALL: Lockland firefighters check an overturned car for leaking fluids on southbound Interstate 75 at the Lockland exit Tuesday morning. Michael McNabb, 24, of Fairfield, told police he was changing lanes when he started to fishtail, then overcorrected and hit a concrete divider. He was not injured. (Patrick Reddy photo) | ZOOM |

The revisions, in staff notes circulated Tuesday throughout the 1,030-officer department, were effective immediately.

County employee accused of tampering

A Hamilton County employee was indicted Tuesday for allegedly tampering with evidence stored in the courthouse property room.

A Hamilton County grand jury indicted Gerald Costa, who oversaw all items admitted into evidence during trials, on two counts of felony tampering with evidence and two misdemeanor counts of obstruction of justice. If convicted, he faces up to 101/2 years in prison.

The indictment accused Costa, 42, of Delhi Township, of tampering with evidence twice, once in 1992 and then again in 1993.

For sex with inmate guard faces 18 months

LEBANON - A former corrections officer faces up to 18 months in prison in an agreement that allowed her to plead to a reduced charge for having sex with an inmate at Warren Correctional Institution.

Norma Dunson , 38, of Dayton, pleaded guilty Monday to a felony charge of attempted sexual battery involving Cletus Hines, 41, who is serving a 30-year sentence for robberies in Montgomery County.

Authorities said the illegal affair began soon after Dunson began working at the prison in January 1999. .

She will be sentenced in about a month.

Officer fired for sex act in cruiser

A Cincinnati police officer accused of masturbating in his cruiser has been fired.

Lonnie Grizzel, 29, on the force just over five years, was dismissed from the department Feb. 14, according to Tuesday police documents.

The incident happened last June in a Walnut Hills parking garage, according to court documents. Grizzel pleaded no contest in October to public indecency. His 30-day jail sentence was suspended and he was put on six months' probation.

Tips leads to arrest of 2 in bank robberies

A citizen's tip to Crime Stoppers led to the arrest of two men accused in armed robberies at banks in Hamilton and Warren counties this month.

Authorities said that Michael P. Wynn, 34, of Deerfield Township, was accused of using a knife to hold up the Provident Bank on Loveland-Madeira Road in Symmes Township on Feb. 3 and the Lebanon Citizens' National Bank on U.S. 22/Ohio 3 in Salem Township on Feb. 6.

Wynn, who was arrested this week, appeared in Hamilton County Municipal Court on Tuesday on a charge of aggravated robbery. He is being held at the Hamilton County Justice Center in lieu of $50,000 bail.

Jacob P. Burnett, 28, formerly of Deerfield Township, is jailed in Santa Ana, Calif., where he awaits extradition proceedings on a charge of aggravated robbery. Burnett, accused of being the getaway driver, was arrested Monday night on a Hamilton County warrant.

Two still sought in kerosene, gas mix-up

UNION TWP. - Six of the eight people who purchased a kerosene-gasoline mixture from a Speedway gas station on Cincinnati-Batavia Pike have been located.

Fire officials and Speedway personnel put out an alert Monday because unleaded gasoline was inadvertently pumped into a kerosene underground tank and then sold by the gas station.

Eight patrons had purchased the gasoline before the mistake was discovered.

Union Township fire personnel warned that unleaded gasoline inside a kerosene appliance could damage the appliance and possibly cause a fire.

Anyone who purchased what they thought was kerosene from this Clermont County Speedway between early Sunday and early Monday is asked to return it to the gas station, along with any appliances filled with the liquid.

For more information, call: Tracy Alldaffer, Speedway safety manager, (937) 863-7141, or Kathy Boulton, Speedway customer service, (800)-643-1948, or the Speedway station, 621 Cincinnati-Batavia Pike, (513) 528-9157, or Union Township (Clermont County) Fire Department (513) 528-4446.

Man fatally shot in Avondale alley

A Madisonville man found dead Tuesday morning in Avondale was Cincinnati's 13th homicide victim of 2003.

Terrence Halsey, 43, was found shot to death in an alley near a garage off Glenridge Place. Police were called just before 7 a.m. Investigators initially thought there might be a second victim because they found a trail of blood, but they found no one else.

Also Tuesday, the man accused in the 12th killing, Ricky James Thompson, appeared in court on a murder charge.

He's accused of shooting to death Christopher Wynn, 18, in an Over-the-Rhine apartment on Pleasant Street.

Wynn was killed early Monday. Thompson was arrested Monday night in Westwood after a standoff with the SWAT team.