Police: Boy finds gun, accidentally shoots himself in leg
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Columbus police say a 12-year-old boy accidentally shot himself in the leg while handling a gun that he found in his grandfather’s bedroom.
Police say the boy was taken to a hospital and was in stable condition after the shooting Monday evening at a home on the city’s southwest side.
There was no immediate word on any potential charges in connection with the shooting or the handgun that the boy found.
Police say the shooting remains under investigation.
New year sees gas prices lower in Ohio, up nationally
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Ohio gas prices begin the new year lower than they were a week ago, though the national average went the opposite direction.
A gallon of regular gas in Ohio averaged $2.32 in Tuesday’s survey from auto club AAA, the Oil Price Information Service and WEX Inc. That’s down 6 cents from a week ago.
Ohio’s average was a few pennies below the national average of $2.35 on Tuesday. That’s up 6 cents from a week ago.
Those prices are notably higher than at this time last year, when Ohio drivers were paying about $1.90 per gallon and the national average was $1.99.
AAA says gas prices have been rising in recent weeks largely in reaction to an OPEC agreement to cut production beginning in January.
Child playing with lighter reportedly causes Germantown fire
GERMANTOWN, Ohio (AP) — A southwest Ohio woman and her two children have been displaced after a fire severely damaged their home in Germantown.
Fire and rescue crews were dispatched to a residence on South Walnut Street after the blaze was first reported just before 3 p.m. Monday. Flames were jutting from two sides of the two-story structure when firefighters arrived to the scene.
Chief Dan Alldred says everyone inside the home was able to get out safely. No injuries were reported.
The Dayton Daily News reports that investigators believe a 4-year-old child playing with a lighter was the cause of the fire.
Alldred says the blaze originated in the home’s kitchen. The state fire marshal’s office is continuing to investigate.
Cincinnati high school coach accused of cash register thefts
CINCINNATI (AP) — An assistant high school basketball coach from Cincinnati has been removed from his position after being charged with stealing cash registers from several local businesses.
Forty-one-year-old Timothy Cottingham was arraigned Monday on four counts of robbery and drug charges for the thefts police say he committed over a three-day period beginning Dec. 30. He didn’t enter a plea.
Police say Cottingham stole cash registers from a Subway restaurant on Dec. 30, a pizzeria on Dec. 31 and a gas station convenience store on Jan. 1.
A Cincinnati Public Schools spokeswoman says Cottingham has been dismissed as assistant men’s varsity basketball coach at Withrow High School pending an investigation.
Cottingham’s lawyer argued that his client was having “some type of a mental health issue at the time of the offenses.”
Akron home sells for $1 under Ohio’s new public auction law
AKRON, Ohio (AP) — A vacant 92-year-old bungalow in Akron sold at a sheriff’s sale last month for just $1, a price made possible by a revision of state law governing public auctions last year.
The Akron Beacon Journal reports the home is the first to sell so cheaply in Summit County since the passing of House Bill 390 last summer.
Under the new law, vacant homes can now be sold for less than two-thirds of their appraised value at public auctions across Ohio. The “fast-track foreclosure bill” also decreases the time abandoned properties are wrapped up in foreclosure suits to as little as six months, before they can attract a criminal element or deteriorate further.
Records show that no one challenged Citizens Bank’s winning $1 bid.
Union HQ for Hoover Co. workers gifted to Ohio university
CANTON, Ohio (AP) — An Ohio university plans to use the longtime home of the union for Hoover Co. workers to expand its museum studies program and preserve the union’s legacy.
The union hall in Canton served as the headquarters for the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 1985 for six decades.
The owner of the vacuum maker announced in January it was closing its Jackson Township distribution center. The union later disbanded.
The Canton Repository reports the union donated the building and its artifacts to Walsh University, which has a historical center that chronicles Hoover’s history and regional impact.
Students in the university’s museum studies program can look at the union’s archives, memorabilia and photographs.
Plans call for converting part of the building into exhibition space. Archival material will be preserved.
