Statewide News

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) - Nine condemned Ohio inmates are once again asking a federal judge to find the state's rules for carrying out executions unconstitutional.

Attorneys for the death row prisoners say the Department of Rehabilitation and Correction continues to use an arbitrary process with under-trained executioners and potentially cruel and unusual injection methods.

The prisoners argued in a 102-page court filing Wednesday that the process still gives the state too much discretion to abandon its rules at the last-minute during an execution.

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) - Forty-one undocumented immigrants with criminal backgrounds were arrested in Ohio as part of a nation-wide enforcement effort.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has arrested 2,901 such illegal immigrants with criminal records throughout the nation in a seven-day enforcement operation.

The immigration enforcement agency reports that of the total arrested, 42 were gang members and 151 were convicted sex offenders. The agency says the effort is the largest of its kind.

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) - The Ohio Senate has approved a bill that contains new requirements before a minor can be allowed to have an abortion without her parents agreeing to it.

Under the bill, a judge considering whether to let a girl bypass the state's parental consent requirement would have to ask if she understands the physical and emotional impacts of having an abortion. The judge also must ask the girl if she was coached on how to answer such questions.

The Senate passed the measure Tuesday on a 23-8 vote.

A bill has been introduced in the Ohio legislature that would expand the civil rights act to include sexual orientation. This legislation has been introduced before but this time around, the legislature is controlled by some of the most conservative Republicans the state has seen in a long time. Ohio Public Radio’s Jo Ingles reports.