Some of Today's State News Headlines
Today is Friday January 18, 2008
Voting switch challenged in court
By M.R. KROPKO
Associated Press Writer
CLEVELAND (AP) - A federal lawsuit filed Thursday seeks to block Ohio's biggest county from switching to a paper ballot voting system for the March 4 presidential primary.
The American Civil Liberties Union's lawsuit argues that the system to be put in place in Cuyahoga County violates voters' constitutional rights because it doesn't allow them to correct ballot errors.
With more than 1 million registered voters, Cuyahoga County plans to send paper ballots filled out by voters to a central location - the Board of Election's warehouse near downtown Cleveland - to be scanned and counted.
But such an optical-scan system with centralized vote tabulation does not give voters notice of ballot errors and an opportunity to correct mistakes that could invalidate votes, the ACLU alleges. It is therefore unconstitutional and violates the Voting Rights Act, the suit says.
(Page 2 of today's Kenton Times)
Strickland wants state vets department
By STEPHEN MAJORS
Associated Press Writer
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) - Gov. Ted Strickland will move to add Ohio to a list of more than 20 other states that have cabinet-level veterans affairs agencies, after a report he commissioned supported the formation of the new department, a spokesman said Thursday.
An increasing number of states in recent years have elevated veterans issues to the highest level as the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have brought them into the spotlight.
Raising awareness on veterans issues was part of Strickland's campaign platform before taking office in 2007, and he formed the 22-member Veterans Study Council last May to study the feasibility of creating a cabinet-level agency. Backed by the report's recommendations, Strickland, a Democrat, will likely to take his plan to the Republican-controlled state Legislature, said spokesman Keith Dailey.
The Ohio House and Senate will review the recommendations. Senate President Bill Harris, an Ashland Republican, is generally supportive of creating the agency but needs to look at the report, said Maggie Ostrowski, a spokeswoman for Harris.
(Page 2 of today's Kenton Times)
Divers find pilot's body
By M.R. KROPKO
Associated Press Writer
CLEVELAND (AP) - Divers searching for a pilot whose twin-engine plane crashed into Lake Erie located the body in about 30 feet of water, authorities said Thursday night.
Thomas Fijalkovich, 68, was found in the plane's fuselage, but divers with the city fire department didn't attempt to recover the body because of strong winds that made the water choppy and unsafe to continue, said Petty Officer William Mitchell with the U.S. Coast Guard.
The Beechcraft Baron went down Wednesday night shortly after taking off from Burke Lakefront Airport near downtown.
Fijalkovich was a contract employee for Aitheras Aviation Group, an aircraft charter company based in Cleveland. He lived near Ravenna, about 25 miles southeast of Cleveland.
Aitheras has hired a private company to salvage the fuselage, Mitchell said. It wasn't immediately clear when that would begin.
The search for Fijalkovich's body covered about 26 square miles, said Petty Officer Matthew Schofield.
(Page 2 of today's Kenton Times)
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