Former Metro manager back

A former general manager of the Metro bus system will soon reclaim the steering wheel. The Southwest Ohio Regional Transit Authority, which runs Metro, announced Wednesday that it has hired Michael Setzer as its CEO/general manager. Setzer replaces Paul Jablonski, who took another job.

Setzer, general manager of the Minneapolis/St. Paul transit system, ran Metro from 1987 to 1993 and still lives in Anderson Township. Setzer's five-year contract will cost Metro $235,000 a year - less than Jablonski's $246,000 pay-and-benefits package.

CPS starts construction today

Cincinnati Public Schools breaks ground today on its first high school being built under the $1 billion 10-year construction project. Woodward Career Technical High School, a $38 million, 261,870-square-foot school, tentatively is scheduled to be completed by May 2006.

The groundbreaking, open to the public, is from 10-11 a.m. at 7001 Reading Road in Bond Hill. The new Woodward Career Technical High School will be constructed on a 33-acre site and is projected to serve 1,200 students.

Zuern execution set for June 8

The Ohio Supreme Court Wednesday set a June 8 execution date for William Zuern, who was convicted in the 1984 killing of a Hamilton County jailer.

It appears Zuern has exhausted his appeals in the case, clearing the way for the state's highest court to set the date, officials said. Zuern, 45, who remains on death row at the Mansfield Correctional Institution, stabbed 26-year-old Phillip Pence through the heart with a sharpened bucket handle at the now-closed Camp Washington jail.