Compiled from staff and wire reports

HAMILTON - An unidentified man was struck by a train early Sunday morning near the rear of the Hamilton Plaza Shopping Center on Dixie Highway.

Officers responded at 5:36 a.m. and found the victim who had been struck by a southbound train, police said. The victim was taken by helicopter to University Hospital in Cincinnati.

The man's name or condition were not available Sunday night.

One teen killed, one injured in car crash

WILMINGTON - Two teenagers were injured, one critically, in a one-vehicle crash Sunday morning on new Burlington Road near US 68 in Liberty Township.

The driver, an 18-year-old Jamestown woman, was taken by helicopter to Miami Valley Hospital in Dayton, where she was listed in critical condition, the Ohio State Highway Patrol said.

An 18-year-old female passenger from Burrows, Ind., was treated Clinton Memorial Hospital and released.

The crash occurred when the driver of the westbound 1996 Chevrolet Cavalier lost control and the car slid off the right side of the road struck several trees and overturned about five miles north of Wilmington, the highway patrol said. The driver, who was not wearing seat belt, was ejected. The passenger was wearing a seat belt.

The names of the two injured victims were being withheld late Sunday until relatives could be notified.

Q&A session tonight on watershed study

SYMMES TWP. - The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is hosting a question-and-answer session tonight regarding the Polk Run Watershed study.

The meeting kicks off at 7 p.m. at the township's administration building, 9323 Union Cemetery Road.

Hamilton County and Montgomery, Deerfield, Symmes and Sycamore townships asked for the study early in 2002. They were among the communities flooded during the July 2001 storm that left three people dead - including one 16-year-old-- in the Polk Run Creek.

The July 17-18, 2001, storms also washed away several backyards and caused more than $10 million in damage across Greater Cincinnati.

Work starts today on Kings Mills Road

MASON - Work starts today along Kings Mills Road near downtown Mason.

Crews will be installing a new storm sewer to collect storm water run-off, replacing and enlarging an existing culvert and putting in new water line. Preliminary work began last week.

The road will be closed from July 7 through Aug. 22, from Main Street to Pine Hill Lakes Park. Detours will be posted.

Roadwork should finish in December, and the final asphalt to be poured in the spring.

Retirement checks sent to 100 deceased

INDIANAPOLIS - A state employee retirement fund already under fire for poor management has sent checks totaling nearly $170,000 to more than 100 dead people during the past two years.

Some of the checks were cashed, and some were directly deposited into accounts.

So far, $100,000 of the money has been recovered, and fund officials were determining whether investigators should be alerted.

Officials with the Indiana Public Employees Retirement Fund said the checks were sent because the $8.8 billion fund was poorly managed and workers often did not cross-check lists of their pensioners against Social Security records of the deceased.

The fund started doing those "death matches" again in March.

They found 129 instances where a deceased person had been paid.

Fund officials were trying to decide whether some of the money should go to survivors.

Neil Armstrong salutes Wright flight

HAMILTON - Former astronaut Neil Armstrong made a rare public appearance to pay tribute to the Wright brothers and the 100th anniversary of their first flight.

"All of us owe a debt of gratitude to Will and Orv," Armstrong said Saturday, speaking at a weekend seminar for pilots at the Butler County Regional Airport.

"They started something that all of us here cherish, sometimes above all else. They started a new world. Our world. A world of flight."

Armstrong, the first man to walk on the moon, spoke with Paul Poberezny, founder of the Experimental Aircraft Association.

Springer says his fame is asset to Democrats

DAYTON, Ohio - Jerry Springer says that his fame could help revitalize the Democratic Party if he is elected to the U.S. Senate next year.

"I could be an incredible voice in the Senate," Springer told the Ohio Young Democrats Saturday at City Hall.

"Why? Because the media will cover me every single day."

The former Cincinnati mayor, best known for his television talk show in which guests frequently throw chairs and spew obscenities, acknowledged his fame isn't always an asset.

The program's outrageous reputation would make the race very difficult to win, he said.

Springer said that his supporters are trying to help him take the focus off the "clutter" of the show and that his decision to run will be influenced by the success of those efforts.

He said the decision would be made by the end of July.