Groups threaten to sue US EPA over Lake Erie’s toxic algae
TOLEDO, Ohio (AP) — Several environmental groups are threatening to sue the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency if it doesn’t speed up efforts to clean up Lake Erie’s harmful algae.
The groups said Tuesday they want the EPA to designate the lake’s western end as an impaired watershed and pave the way for stricter pollution controls.
The potentially toxic algae in the shallowest of the Great Lakes pose a threat to drinking water and wildlife.
Earlier this year, Michigan proposed designating its sliver of Lake Erie as impaired, and Ohio proposed the same for just a few areas of the lake.
The environmental groups want the EPA to rule on the proposals soon and make the entire western end impaired.
The EPA says it’s now reviewing Michigan’s and Ohio’s proposed impaired waters lists.
Ohio House speaker delays year-end briefing due to illness
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Ohio House Speaker Cliff Rosenberger has delayed his year-end briefing because he’s ill.
His office says the media briefing is postponed until Wednesday.
It had been scheduled for Tuesday, a day after Gov. John Kasich signed 17 bills into law.
One expands Ohio’s concealed-weapons law to allow guns in places such as colleges and day cares, though such places still could choose to prohibit such weapons.
Another measure would override local ordinances that regulate pet stores and requires the state’s agriculture director to license them.
Yet another law requires motorists to allow at least 3 feet of space when passing bicyclists on the road.
Kasich previously signed a bill banning abortions after 20 weeks but vetoed another measure that would have banned abortions at the first detectable fetal heartbeat.
Latest suit against DuPont linking C8 to cancer goes to jury
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — An Ohio man who says he got testicular cancer because of a chemical used to make Teflon is the latest plaintiff to have his case against DuPont Co. considered by a jury in federal court.
The Columbus Dispatch reports jurors in Columbus are deliberating after a four-week trial in the case of a Washington County resident, Kenneth Vigneron Sr. It’s among 3,000 lawsuits against DuPont by Ohio and West Virginia residents.
At issue is a chemical known as C8 that was emitted by a plant near Parkersburg, West Virginia. Vigneron’s attorney argued DuPont knew the chemical could cause cancer.
DuPont’s lawyers say Vigneron’s attorneys haven’t proved C8 causes cancer and that the company spent significant money and time creating a system to capture and recycle C8, succeeding in 2002.
Authorities: Ohio man ran gambling house out of gas station
CINCINNATI (AP) — Authorities say a southwest Ohio man ran an illegal gambling house out of a Springfield Township gas station where investigators also found $11,000 worth of counterfeit clothing.
The Ohio Investigative Unit announced Monday that 46-year-old Indrjit Singh was charged with operating a gambling house and other offenses after investigators concluded their probe of the Seven Hills Sunoco last week.
Agents with the OIU, which is part of the Ohio State Highway Patrol, seized two gambling machines and more than $5,000 cash from Singh’s business.
Agents also uncovered approximately 400 counterfeit items including bogus apparel from The North Face, Under Armour, Major League Baseball and the National Football League.
Singh will appear next in Hamilton County Municipal Court on Jan. 5. It’s unclear if he has an attorney who could comment.
Akron man gets 29 years to life in love-triangle murder
AKRON, Ohio (AP) — An Akron man was sentenced to serve 29 years to life in prison on charges stemming from the fatal shooting of his former girlfriend’s new boyfriend last May.
Twenty-seven-year-old Christopher Hunter was sentenced Monday after a Summit County jury convicted him of murder, felonious assault and weapons offenses in the May 25 death of 24-year-old Marlon Gibson.
Jurors found Hunter not guilty of an aggravated murder charge in the love-triangle shooting.
The incident began when Hunter got into an altercation with Gibson after showing up at his ex-girlfriend’s apartment in Akron. Gibson wouldn’t let Hunter in the home.
Police say Hunter shot Gibson ten times after he stepped outside the residence to smoke a cigarette. Hunter testified that Gibson lunged at him.
Hunter plans to appeal his sentence.
Ohioan jailed in boy’s fatal beating died of drug overdose
DAYTON, Ohio (AP) — A coroner’s office says an Ohio man who pleaded guilty in the beating death of his girlfriend’s 19-month-old son died of an accidental drug overdose while in jail.
Dustin Rybak, of Dayton, was sentenced in March to 18 years in prison after pleading guilty to charges including involuntary manslaughter.
The 28-year-old Rybak was found unresponsive in a jail cell in November and died at a hospital. The Montgomery County coroner’s office said Monday that Rybak died of intoxication from the painkiller fentanyl.
Prosecutors charged Rybak in the 2013 death of Takota Hasty, who was hospitalized with bruises, abrasions and burn marks and later died from blunt force trauma to the head and neck.
Takota’s mother also pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter and received six years in prison.
