News

The novelist George Pelecanos has been plugging away writing crime fiction for a number of years. He sets his books in his hometown of Washington, D.C. He just started a new series that features Spero Lucas, a veteran of
the Iraq War who is now working in a somewhat shady occupation: he recovers stolen merchandise.

In "The Cut" Lucas has been hired to recover some stolen shipments of marijuana. Lucas quickly becomes entangled in a nether world of creepy criminals. Lucas just wants his cut. He'll get 40% of the value of any goods he can recover.

Polling sites in 20 counties will get permanent upgrades to assist Ohio voters with disabilities under newly released federal grant money.

Secretary of State Jon Husted said Tuesday that about $100,000 in grants will go to county boards of elections to improve access for voters with disabilities.

The funds were made available by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services through the Help America Vote Act.  Individual grant amounts range from $40 to $15,000 for improvements in 92 precincts.

Authorities have raided a doctor's two offices and home in southwest Ohio, seizing boxes of records in an investigation of possible prescription drug abuse.

The Dayton Daily News reports that 69-year-old Dr. Han M. Yang says authorities are "off-base" in their allegations. He says he has surrendered his license to practice medicine in Ohio and will give up his practice. He also says he will seek an attorney.

Poor Will’s Almanack for the Fourth Week of Early Fall.

The last week of Early Fall is the week the first slate-gray junco arrives for winter.  Goldenrod is seeding now, pods of the eastern burning bush are open, hawthorn berries redden, wild grapes are purple, and the tree line that seemed so deep in summer just days ago is suddenly poised to break into its final glory of the year.

The state says drug dealers around Ohio are developing new sources for prescription painkillers by buying them from senior citizens, sometimes as the patients leave pharmacies.

The report by the Ohio Substance Abuse Monitoring Network also blames the state's continuing rise of heroin use on addicts switching from prescription painkillers, which are more expensive and harder to obtain.

Orman Hall, director of the Ohio Department of Alcohol and Drug Addiction Services, says once people become addicted to painkillers it's almost inevitable they'll switch to heroin.