Erpenbeck, dad plead not guilty

Bill Erpenbeck and his father, Tony, pleaded not guilty to federal witness-tampering charges Tuesday in Cincinnati. The two were indicted Feb. 18 on five obstruction-of-justice charges, each of which carries a maximum prison sentence of 30 years. Bill Erpenbeck also faces up to 30 years in jail for his bank fraud conviction stemming from the April 2002 collapse of his home-building company in Edgewood, which left banks with $33.9 million in unpaid construction loans. The men are being held without bond at the Hamilton County Justice Center. No trial date has been set.

Provident cancels annual meeting

Provident Financial Group, parent of Provident Bank, has canceled its annual meeting. The company said the planned May 20 shareholders meeting has been eliminated in light of the pending sale of Provident to National City Corp. Cleveland-based National City's offer to buy Provident in a stock swap valued around $2.1 billion is expected to be completed by July. Pending approval of the merger by regulators, Provident will have a special shareholders meeting later this year so its 17,500 investors can vote on the deal. The date of that meeting has not been determined.

Time Warner notes glitch with DVR

Some subscribers to Time Warner Cable's digital video recorder service encountered problems Tuesday when the company upgraded the DVRs' electronic programming guides for leap year's Feb. 29 date. In some cases, customers' recorders didn't accept the automatic download and appeared not to be working, a spokeswoman said. If customers encounter problems, she said, they should hold down the "select'' button on the DVR while simultaneously holding down the "power'' button until the word "boot'' appears on the device.

Customers with problems can call 469-1112.

Staff reports