Compiled from staff and wire reports

Judge Cartolano put on suspension

Retired Hamilton County Common Pleas Court Judge Fred Cartolano won't sit as a visiting judge again until January.

Ohio Supreme Court Justice Thomas Moyer made the decision after Cartolano acted "inappropriately" at a continuing education seminar in October, said Chris Davey, an Ohio Supreme Court spokesman.

Moyer declined to say exactly what Cartolano did.

Cartolano could not be reached for comment, but Davey said he has expressed "contrition" and promised the behavior will not happen again.

Freedom Center adds pledge of $50,000

DOWNTOWN - Sigma Pi Phi, the nation's oldest African-American fraternity, is expected to donate $50,000 to the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center today.

The contribution from the fraternity, also known as the "Boule," brings the total raised for the Freedom Center to more than $97 million of its $110 million goal. The gift will go toward the museum's $1 million challenge campaign, which ends this weekend.

The Freedom Center is set to open on the banks of the Ohio River next summer.

Murder of deputy brings death sentence

LAWRENCEBURG, Ind. - A judge on Friday sentenced a man to death for killing Morgan County sheriff's Deputy Dan Starnes during a shootout.

Dearborn Circuit Court Judge James Humphrey followed the jury's recommendation and sentenced Tommy Ray Pruitt to be executed for the death of Starnes, whom Pruitt shot in June 2001 during a gun battle along a rural road southwest of Indianapolis. Pruitt was a robbery suspect at the time.

Defense attorney William VanDerPol maintained that Pruitt, 41, of Martinsville, has an IQ of about 60 and is mentally retarded, which would make him ineligible for the death penalty under Indiana law and a U.S. Supreme Court ruling.

West Nile suspected in Indiana fatality

INDIANAPOLIS - The death of a Jennings County resident is believed to be the fourth one caused this year in Indiana by the West Nile virus, the state Health Department said Friday.

No other information about the death in the county about 50 miles south of Indianapolis was released. The previous deaths linked to the virus were in Allen, Henry and Lake counties.

Three new probably human cases of the virus are also being investigated in Adams, Delaware, and Kosciusko counties, bringing to 41 the total number of probable cases of the disease in the state.

Last year, the state reported 293 human cases and 11 deaths.

Anesthetic may have killed zoo's white tiger

COLUMBUS - Officials at the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium speculated that an anesthetic complication caused the death of a white Bengal tiger during what was described as a routine examination and dental work.

The 18-year-old tiger, named Taj, died on Thursday, according to Patty Peters, associate zoo director of marketing.

She said a post-mortem exam will be done but results are not expected for several weeks.

Taj was born at the Columbus zoo on April 15, 1985, and spent her entire life there.

Plane replica mimics Wright Brothers flight

KILL DEVIL HILLS, N.C. - After four years of painstaking effort to replicate Orville and Wilbur Wright's first airplane, Ken Hyde's replica passed the test.

His version of the 1903 Wright Flyer lifted from the ground Thursday during its first flight test. The wooden aircraft, its wings wrapped in muslin, flew almost as far as the original did a century earlier.

Hyde and his team watched their plane rise on its own power and travel nearly 100 feet before landing safely in soft sand.

"It did pretty much what we expected," said Hyde, the antique plane expert selected to deliver an airworthy replica for the 100th anniversary of the first flight here next month. "Its performance matched Orville's notes and Wilbur's notes. We couldn't ask for anything more than that."

In their effort to pay full tribute to the Wrights and their achievement, they refused to alter their flyer to make it more predictable.