Audit: 11 from village in fiscal trouble owe nearly $1M

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — A state audit says the former mayor and administrator of a central Ohio village that went into fiscal emergency are among 11 people who should repay a combined total of nearly $1 million in illegal spending.

The state auditor’s office says the Mount Sterling audit released Tuesday caps an investigation that led to convictions for four people.

The office says over $870,000 of the ordered repayment is tied to a former village administrator who overpaid himself, used village funds to buy personal items and was sentenced to 10 years in prison on charges including theft in office.

A former mayor and his assistant also were convicted of theft. A fiscal officer pleaded guilty to falsification.

Auditors say seven village employees owe repayment for accepting improper leave payouts.

State high court: Trooper wrongly searched arrestee’s purse

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — The Ohio Supreme Court says a state trooper conducted an unconstitutional search when he retrieved a detained woman’s purse from a vehicle during a traffic stop, and drug evidence he found should have been excluded at trial.

Justices on Tuesday sent the Warren County case back to trial court, ordering that evidence from the purse be suppressed.

An opinion written by Justice William O’Neill says the trooper entered the vehicle without a warrant or reasonable justification, and the patrol’s policy to retrieve and inventory an arrestee’s belongings wasn’t enough to justify the 2014 search.

Two dissenting justices say the trooper legally accessed and searched the purse. A third dissenting justice argued that the court shouldn’t have heard the case because it doesn’t deal with a legal question of broad application.

Ohio ex-official Blackwell backs GOP’s Taylor for governor

CINCINNATI (AP) — Former Ohio secretary of state and pro-Donald Trump conservative Ken Blackwell is supporting Republican Lt. Gov. Mary Taylor’s bid for governor.

Blackwell calls Taylor and her running mate, Nathan Estruth, part of a “new generation of strong conservative leaders.” Estruth was a longtime executive for Cincinnati-based Procter & Gamble Co.

Blackwell is a former Cincinnati mayor who served on Trump’s presidential transition team after the 2016 election. He was the unsuccessful GOP nominee for governor in 2006.

After changes this month in the 2018 field of candidates for governor, the Taylor-Estruth ticket faces GOP Attorney General Mike DeWine and running mate Jon Husted (HYOO’-sted) on the Republican side. Five Democrats are vying for their party’s nomination for governor.

Second-term Republican Gov. John Kasich (KAY’-sik) is term-limited.

Aviation Hall of Fame enshrinement to be in DC, Denver, Ohio

DAYTON, Ohio (AP) — The National Aviation Hall of Fame enshrinement ceremony will be held in Washington, D.C., this year and Denver next year before returning to its longtime home of Dayton, Ohio, in 2020.

The annual ceremony honoring aerospace legends has been held in Dayton since 1962 with the exception of last year, when it was moved to Fort Worth, Texas.

The Dayton Daily News reports that the aviation hall announced the next few ceremony locations on Monday.

This year’s event will be at the National Building Museum in Washington. The ceremony moves to the Wings Over the Rockies Air & Space Museum in Denver next year.

A specific site for the Dayton event in 2020 wasn’t confirmed. The ceremony occurred at the nearby National Museum of the U.S. Air Force in 2016.

University to hold community forum on budget problems

FAIRBORN, Ohio (AP) — A university in southwest Ohio facing budget problems will host a community forum to discuss those budgetary issues.

Wright State University trustees recently approved nearly $31 million in budget cuts to address $120 million in overspending during the past five years. Administrators have said Wright State may be able to stay off state fiscal watch if it manages to remain on budget.

The forum will be Wednesday at the school’s Student Union. Wright State President Cheryl Schrader will lead a panel discussion featuring the school’s vice president for finance and operations, its chief business officer and its controller. Wright State’s Board of Trustees chairman, Doug Fecher, also will be part of that panel.

University officials say the public will get a chance to ask questions after the presentation.