MOUNT VICTORY — The state is facing an $800 million deficit in the coming budget, two local legislators reported Friday, and since no added taxes are being considered, cuts will need to be made. School funding is the largest part of the state’s budget, noted Rep. Robert Sprague and Sen. Cliff Hite, both Republicans from Findlay, during the Legislative Breakfast …

GAHANNA – Scammers are at it again. They are hitting up AEP Ohio customers this week, demanding immediate payment. AEP Ohio, a unit of American Electric Power, says beware and be suspicious of these demands. “We’ve had numerous reports throughout our service territory,” said Katie Grayem, director of AEP Ohio Customer Experience and Communications. “We never demand immediate payment or …

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — A year after the mysterious killings of eight family members in Ohio, investigators are concerned that more reward money hasn’t been offered and fear that some victims’ involvement in drug crime may be the reason. The amount for information leading to a conviction remains at $10,000, much less than similar recent offers. In Cleveland, for instance, …

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Residents of a rural southern Ohio county are holding back information on the unsolved massacre of eight family members based on fear, authorities said Thursday as the anniversary of the crime approaches. Some are worried about retaliation by the killers. Others fear incriminating themselves over their own criminal activity — likely involving drugs — unrelated to …

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Investigators plan to take questions about the massacre of eight family members in southern Ohio as the one-year anniversary of the still-unsolved killings approaches. Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine, whose office is leading the investigation, is scheduled to hold a news conference on Thursday with Pike County Sheriff Charles Reader. On April 22, 2016, investigators found …

URBANA, Ohio (AP) — Authorities say a 14-year-old Ohio boy told a 9-1-1 dispatcher that an alternate personality was responsible for killing his father’s girlfriend. The Springfield News-Sun reports the 8th-grader told a dispatcher last week after the slaying that “another person inside of me” was responsible for stabbing and shooting 40-year-old Heidi Taylor at the home she shared with …

SANDUSKY, Ohio (AP) — Republican Gov. John Kasich urged Ohioans on Tuesday to set aside their political divisions and the “age-old fear of change” to help move the state and nation forward. In his penultimate State of the State address, the Republican governor and former presidential contender said modern Ohioans should look to the great innovators of the state’s history …

NELSONVILLE, Ohio (AP) — The second of the three inmates who escaped from a community-based corrections facility in southeast Ohio has been captured. An official at SEPTA Correctional Facility in Nelsonville says 25-year-old Justin Stanley was caught Monday in Newark. Authorities say Stanley and 30-year-old David Skeens escaped from the 112-bed prison in Nelsonville early Saturday while 29-year-old Troy Byrd …

CINCINNATI (AP) — Two men, one hospitalized in critical condition with gunshot wounds, have been arrested in connection with a nightclub gunbattle that killed one person and injured 16 others, police said on Thursday. The men face murder charges, with more charges against them expected, police Chief Eliot Isaac said. At least three guns were inside the club, and more …

TOLEDO, Ohio (AP) — A serial killer known as the “Angel of Death” after he admitted killing three dozen hospital patients in Ohio and Kentucky during the 1970s and ‘80s was beaten in his cell and is in critical condition, state authorities said Wednesday. Donald Harvey, who is serving multiple life sentences, was hospitalized, said JoEllen Smith, spokeswoman for Ohio’s …