Court wrangling continues over Ohio drug-price ballot issue
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Legal fireworks continue over a proposal that seeks to control the price Ohio pays for prescription drugs.
The Drug Price Relief Act aims to keep state entities from buying drugs at prices higher than the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs pays.
Opponents including the Ohio Manufacturers’ Association and the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America are challenging the effort in the Ohio Supreme Court. They argue in filings continuing Wednesday that petition circulators failed to comply with Ohio law and certain signatures should be tossed.
The issue’s backers, led by the California-based AIDS Healthcare Foundation, were cleared June 4 to take the plan to voters after state lawmakers failed to act within four months on what’s called an initiated statute.
Proponents face a July 6 signature deadline for fall 2016.
Ohio awards nearly $28M in historic-preservation tax credits
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Ohio has awarded nearly $28 million in tax credits to help rehabilitate 39 historic buildings around the state.
The Ohio Development Services Agency on Tuesday awarded $27.8 million in historic-preservation tax credits to 26 applicants. The agency says the projects are expected to leverage more than $261 million in private investments in 14 communities.
Agency Director David Goodman says restoring and preserving the buildings will help revitalize neighborhoods and downtowns. Most of the buildings currently are vacant.
Developers won’t receive the credits until their projects are completed and have met all program requirements.
The projects include a hotel constructed in 1908 in Toledo and a Cincinnati building built in 1930 that was once the Crosley Radio Corporation headquarters and home to the company’s design and manufacturing operations.
Police: Boy, 15, charged in shooting after Cavaliers parade
CLEVELAND (AP) — Police say a teenager suspected in the shooting of a 13-year-old girl following Cleveland Cavaliers’ championship parade last week has been taken into custody.
An arrest warrant had been issued Monday for the 15-year-old boy. WJW-TV reports police say he was taken into custody on Tuesday.
Cleveland.com reports Cuyahoga County prosecutors say the boy was charged with felonious assault and improper discharge of a firearm on a public roadway, among other offenses.
Officers broke up a fight between a group of teenagers last Wednesday. Shots rang out shortly afterward. The teenage girl was shot in both legs.
The suspect led police on a foot chase and told officers he fired two shots at a crowd of people after the parade.
Police are working to identify a second suspect.
Ohio prisons get $1.3M from selling about 1,400 dairy cattle
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Records show Ohio’s prisons agency made nearly $1.3 million after selling about 1,400 dairy cattle as part of a larger effort to raise money for new rehabilitation and job-training programs for inmates.
The Columbus Dispatch reports the one-time money will go to the state Department of Rehabilitation and Correction. It’s about half of the yearly cost to buy milk for the state’s 50,000 prison inmates.
Four recent dairy cattle auctions netted $1.56 million, but the agency had to pay auctioneer fees and the state Department of Administrative Services, which handled the sale.
The prisons agency decided in April to leave the farm industry.
Prisons Director Gary Mohr says preparing inmates for farm jobs is outdated and that farmlands are often used to smuggle contraband into prisons.
