Login | April 21, 2014
The Daily Legal News
Local
Man who raped, strangled elderly woman loses appeal
The 9th District Court of Appeals recently affirmed the judgment of the Summit County Court of Common Pleas which found Devon Owens guilty of aggravated murder, two counts of rape and aggravated burglary.
The lower court sentenced Owens to life in prison without parole for the murder and imposed 10-year prison terms for each of ... (full story)
National
Tribe banks on syrup for sweet relief from poverty
PRENTISS TOWNSHIP, Maine (AP) — The members of the Passamaquoddy tribe have looked under their feet for a bottled water plant and have turned to the sky for a wind farm. But it's the forest that will be the first to deliver as the impoverished tribe seeks to become one of the biggest maple syrup operations in Maine.
The tr ... (full story)
Legal minds eye quality control for convictions
NEW YORK (AP) — Hospitals have staff conferences to examine why patients died. Airline pilots have a system for voluntarily submitting information on safety concerns. Yet the life-and-death world of criminal justice often operates without a similar mechanism for probing its most feared failures: wrongful convictions.
Some ... (full story)
Speed camera backers: Safety is 1st, revenue 2nd
ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — State lawmakers are taking aim at lead-footed drivers in New York City and Long Island with a proposal to authorize hundreds of speed cameras in school zones, a plan touted as a way to protect pedestrians and raise money for government coffers.
The legislation approving cameras, which has the support of ... (full story)
Vermont revising plan for Northeast Kingdom access
MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) — Vermont is revising the management and public access plans for a vast section of the Northeast Kingdom that was the focus of a protracted, bitter public debate over traditional land uses versus conservation needs after a private company put the land up for sale in the late 1990s.
But it doesn't appea ... (full story)
Visions of 1964 World's Fair didn't all come true
NEW YORK (AP) — Video phone calls? Yeah, we do that. Asking computers for information? Sure, several times a day. Colonies on the moon and jet packs as a mode of everyday transportation. OK, maybe not.
The New York World's Fair of 1964 introduced 51 million visitors to a range of technological innovations and predictions, ... (full story)
Texas candidate faces thorny death penalty choice
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — The death penalty is like gun rights in Texas politics: Candidates don't dare get in the way of either. But Republican Greg Abbott, the favorite to succeed Gov. Rick Perry, must soon make a decision as attorney general that could disrupt the nation's busiest death chamber.
It's an election-year dilemma ... (full story)
Could police have averted the Boston bombings?
BOSTON (AP) — It was a shocking slaying in a Boston suburb that sometimes goes years without one homicide, let alone three at once. The victims' throats had been sliced in a home on a tree-lined street, marijuana and cash strewn over their bodies.
The investigation languished for more than 18 months until just a few days a ... (full story)
First women move into Army platoon artillery jobs
FORT BRAGG, N.C. (AP) — Under a canopy of trees on the edge of a large field, soldiers from Bravo Battery are lying in a circle as they pore over targeting charts. Nearby, others are preparing the howitzer cannons as helicopters swoop overhead. At the edge of the circle, the platoon leader watches as the field artillerymen go ... (full story)
Trying to combat growing drug trade in oil patch
WILLISTON, N.D. (AP) — The blood-drenched man had survived a brutal attack: Beaten with brass knuckles, shocked with a stun gun, slashed with a razor blade, then dumped 40 miles away in Montana, he staggered to a farmhouse for help. His path eventually led authorities back to a quiet backyard in this oil boom town.
What th ... (full story)
New Glacier concessionaire readies for season
KALISPELL, Mont. (AP) — Gearing up for a busy summer in Glacier National Park in just a matter of a few months has been a big challenge for Marc Ducharme, but being the general manager of the Glacier Division for Xanterra Parks and Resorts also comes with promising opportunities.
"It was a great career opportunity for ... (full story)
Mechanic at Bay City shop reflects on changes
BAY CITY, Mich. (AP) — There have been a lot of changes at Bay City's Morgan's Auto Repair during the last 50 years. Auto technician Jerome "Joe" Chislea has seen them all.
The 65-year-old began working at the former full-service gasoline station near downtown Bay City when he was just 16 years old.
"I st ... (full story)
Election-year GOP split over home-state projects
ATLANTA (AP) — Republicans can't seem to reach an official party line this election year on the old Washington custom of using the federal budget to benefit the folks back home.
The disagreement is a byproduct of divisions between conservative and establishment Republicans, and is on display in three races that will help d ... (full story)
Sports
Cavs Deng wins NBA citizenship award
INDEPENDENCE, Ohio (AP) — Luol Deng has never once forgotten home.
He has spent much of his adult life trying to give back to his native South Sudan, the war-torn African nation the Cavaliers forward and his family fled when he was a young boy.
And while Deng's contributions have touched many, he knows the work will nev ... (full story)
Browns' Mack looking forward with business over
BEREA, Ohio (AP) — Dressed in a powder blue T-shirt, plaid shorts and a pair of flip-flops, Alex Mack looked ready to take a stroll on a beach somewhere in Florida. Maybe someday.
Instead, Mack walked back into work in Cleveland, still a member of the Browns.
Relieved that a whirlwind few weeks are behind him, the Pro B ... (full story)
Review: Missouri didn’t follow federal assault law
ROLLA, Mo. — An independent report released April 11 says the University of Missouri failed to follow parts of the federal law that governs sexual harassment on campus when handling the case of a former swimmer’s suicide.
The report concludes administrators on the Columbia, Mo., campus should have investigated 20-ye ... (full story)
Pro sports becoming more open to paternity leave
Tony Perez was on the road with the Cincinnati Reds in 1966 when he got the call that his first child was on the way. There was no discussion about leaving the team to attend Victor's birth, no such thing as paternity leave.
"They didn't give you any time off when I was playing," the Hall of Fame slugger said, recallin ... (full story)
State
VIEWPOINT: A gasoline leak into the basement
On Aug. 28, 2009, after a heavy rainfall, the smell of gasoline arose in the basement of the home shared by Alessandra Riscatti, Elisabetta Riscatti, and Laszlo Beres. Worse yet, later that day, flames erupted from the sewer and spread through the house.
Alessandra and Laszlo battled the fire while waiting for the Parma Fire Dep ... (full story)
Court to weigh challenge to ban on campaign lies
WASHINGTON (AP) — Negative campaigning and mudslinging may be a fact of life in American politics, but can false accusations made in the heat of an election be punished as a crime?
That debate makes its way to the Supreme Court this week as the justices consider a challenge to an Ohio law that bars false statements about p ... (full story)
Congress is giving states the transportation blues
DAYTON, Ohio (AP) — On the road in a tour bus this week, the U.S. transportation secretary is spreading some bad news: The government's Highway Trust Fund is nearly broke. If allowed to run dry, that could set back or shut down projects across the country, force widespread layoffs of construction workers and delay needed repa ... (full story)
Bill would create new ODJFS office to tackle poverty
Cynthia Dungey, director of the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services, has worked in the job and family services system for most of her career and says the need for reform has always been clear.
“I interned as a social worker and later worked for the attorney general’s office, auditor of state and finally for Me ... (full story)
Proposed legislation would create Beekeepers Association license plate
The buzz going around the Statehouse is that a pair of lawmakers from Berea and Marysville have introduced a bill that would create the Ohio State Beekeepers Association license plate.
The proposed legislation, House Bill 474, is sponsored by Republican Reps. Mike Dovilla and Dorothy Pelanda and has gained a wealth of support fr ... (full story)
Supplemental insurance for self-service storage proposed
In campaigning for the passage of a bill to regulate self-service storage facilities, Rep. Stephanie Kunze said if an individual does not have homeowner’s or renter’s insurance, there is no insurance product in Ohio they can buy to protect their belongings in storage.
“Even if a customer does carry homeowner&rs ... (full story)