Dayton Daily News

Officials say a U.S. Air Force reserve wing that flies troops around the globe will start shutting down on Fridays when civilian furloughs begin at Ohio's largest military base.

That's the word at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, where around 13,000 civilian employees will be subject to furloughs because of defense budget cuts.

The Dayton Daily News reports that the Air Force Reserve 445th Airlift Wing relies on hundreds of civilian air reserve technicians, who serve double duty as reserve military personnel, to keep nine C-17 Globemaster III cargo jets flying.

An Ohio fire captain is recovering at a hospital after he was hit and thrown 20 to 30 feet by a vehicle that lost control on a slick roadway.

Dayton fire Capt. Barry Cron's condition was unavailable, but the fire department said his injuries are believed to be non-life-threatening.

The Dayton Daily News reports that Cron was speaking to a victim of a crash who was in a vehicle on U.S. 35 early Tuesday. That vehicle was then struck by another, and it pushed the first vehicle into Cron.

The Department of Defense says a southwest Ohio soldier has died in Afghanistan supporting Operation Enduring Freedom. 

The department says 37-year-old Chief Warrant Officer James E. Groves III of Kettering died Saturday in Kandahar, Afghanistan. The incident is under investigation.

Groves was assigned to the 3rd Squadron, 17th Cavalry Regiment, 3rd Combat Aviation Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division at Hunter Army Airfield, Ga. 

A general says automatic defense budget cuts will slow research and technology development and cancel some special night and weekend events at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force in Ohio.

Gen. Janet Wolfenbarger leads the Air Force Materiel Command from Wright-Patterson Air Force Base near Dayton. She tells the Dayton Daily News the cuts likely will delay aircraft replacement and modernization, halt most flight testing and create a backlog in maintenance operations.

Fewer Ohioans are going into business for themselves these days, with the number of self-employed in the state at its lowest level since 2001.

The Dayton Daily News reports that Ohio's level of self-employment is one of the lowest in the nation.

The newspaper says it's declined partly because traditional self-employment industries such as construction and real estate were devastated by the recession and have been slow to come back.

Also, some economists say the state's economy and job growth is concentrated in fields that are not ideal for self-employment.