Some of the Cincinnati Police Department's new Tasers are on the way.

The city ordered 1,100 of the $799 weapons, the third-largest U.S. order for Taser Internationalof Scottsdale, Ariz. The company planned to ship 200 immediately, spokesman Steve Tuttlesaid Monday. The rest could take months.

The U.S. Department of Justice pitched in $740,000 to help buy the Tasers. The weapons, plus other equipment used with them, will cost more than $1 million. They're designed to immobilize a suspect by delivering an electrical shock..

The Tasers became a hot topic after the Nov. 30 death in police custody of Nathaniel Jones, 41, whose violent struggle with officers ended with his heart giving out. He had cocaine, PCP and methanol in his system.

Furnace inspected after baby found dead

WESTWOOD - The furnace in a house where a 6-month-old baby died Sunday wasn't working properly.

Cinergy spokeswoman Kathy Meinke said Mondayv that when technicians were called to the Montana Avenue house by firefighters who were trying to revive the baby, they found the furnace off.

They "red-tagged'' the furnace, meaning they found something wrong with it.

One visible problem, she said, was a rusted flue pipe.

Detectives are waiting for autopsy results, police said, but they suspect the baby might have suffocated under blankets.

Rights ordinance survives challenge

Cincinnati's expanded hate crimes ordinance will remain on the books, a Hamilton County Common Pleas Court judge ruled Monday.

Sam Malone, newly elected to Cincinnati City Council; state Rep. Thomas Brinkman, R-Cincinnati; and Mark Miller, a conservative activist, sued the city as taxpayers in April. They asked that the ordinance be overturned, saying it violated Article XII of the city's charter.

Article XII prohibits giving "any claim of minority or protected status" to gays, lesbians or bisexuals. In February, council expanded the city's hate crimes ordinance to prohibit harassment or intimidation based on sexual orientation, age, gender and disability.

The lawsuit argues that the ordinance gives homosexuals special protection.

Judge Norbert Nadel dismissed the lawsuit, saying the ordinance has yet to be used and the court does not have authority to issue an advisory opinion.

Accident victim was Indiana resident

ADDYSTON - An Aurora, Ind., man killed in a head-on crash on U.S. 50 Sunday afternoon has been identified as Leroy W. Sears, 39.

The S-10 pickup he was driving eastbound on U.S. 50 went left of center near Sekitan Avenue about 4:10 p.m. and hit a westbound vehicle head-on.

Sears was flown to University Hospital, where he died.

Timothy Griffin, 64, of North Bend, the driver of a 2003 Infiniti struck by the pickup, is in serious condition at University.