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COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) - Ohio's attorney general is backing Republican Mitt Romney's presidential bid, saying he's best suited to beat President Barack Obama in next year's election.

Mike DeWine said in a statement Tuesday that he's endorsing the former Massachusetts governor because he believes Romney will bring more jobs to the battleground state of Ohio.

The endorsement came as Romney made a campaign stop in Ohio, Tuesday.

Romney is steering clear of Ohio ballot campaigns on union bargaining and President Barack Obama's health care overhaul.

Poor Will’s Almanack for the Third Week of Middle Fall.

Wendell Berry wrote about today:

The woods is shining this morning. 
Red, gold and green, the leaves
lie on the ground or fall,
hang full of light in the air still.

In this third week of Middle Fall, the oaks and the osage, white mulberries, magnolias, ginkgoes and the late black and sugar maples move towards full color and many woodlots still shine in the morning, red, gold and green.

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) - Jack Hanna has urged a state panel to draw up strict rules for owning exotic animals in Ohio, where a man set loose more than 50 beasts last week and then killed himself.

TV personality Hanna, the former Columbus Zoo director, says he told a working committee during its closed-door meeting on Monday that Ohio must make sure that what just happened never happens again. Police killed dozens of the released animals while schools closed and motorists were warned to stay in their vehicles.

CLEVELAND (AP) - The U.S. Department of Transportation says it's ready to revive an application for a $1.5 million grant to study the leasing of the Ohio Turnpike.

The agency says it will allow use of federal money for such a study if the application gets adjusted. Washington approved an earlier grant but backed off and said the application must be tailored to the turnpike study.

The quest for the federal money has become part of a political issue over leasing the turnpike.

Colin Cotterill doesn't like to leave home. You can't blame him, Cotterill lives on the beach in a remote village in Thailand. Cotterill is best known for a mystery series which is set in the 1970's in Laos. The main character, Dr. Siri is a septuagenarian and the first and only coroner in Laos.