St. Xavier High School is setting aside its Bomber pride this week to help rival Elder raise money for the family of an Elder student shot to death Sunday. The boys Catholic high school in Finneytown is donating part of its weekly mission collection to the family of Maurice Kennedy, an Elder senior. The mission's focus is helping global Third World needs, but the Rev. Walter Deye told the St. X student body Wednesday that the local suffering by the Kennedy and Elder families warranted an exception. Also, St. X students sold $1 ribbons - in the Elder color, purple - to be worn to the freshman, junior varsity and varsity football games. The two schools play each other this week in The Pit.

Marriage issue OK'd for ballot

COLUMBUS - Ohio Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell Wednesday told petitioners for a state issue defining marriage that they have enough signatures to put it on the Nov. 2 ballot. Blackwell told backers of the "Marriage Protection Amendment" that he has certified 342,212 valid signatures.

Poll: Voinovich has easy lead

Sen. George Voinovich of Ohio leads challenger Eric Fingerhut by 30 percentage points, according to an Ohio Poll released Wednesday. The poll found that Voinovich, the former Republican governor who is seeking a second term in the Senate, is favored by 64 percent of likely voters. Fingerhut, a Democratic state senator from Cleveland, is preferred by 34 percent of likely voters. Two percent are undecided. The poll was conducted Sept. 12-18 by the University of Cincinnati's Institute for Policy Research. A random sample of 456 people who said they were likely to vote was interviewed by telephone. In 95 of 100 cases, the statewide estimates will be accurate to plus or minus 4.6 percentage points.