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State Briefing

$350M to research opioids

WASHINGTON — U.S. health officials are giving $350 million to researchers in four states hit hardest by the deadly opioid epidemic. The study announced Thursday aims to cut overdose deaths by 40% over three years in local communities grappling with misuse of the addictive drugs. Researchers will study evidence-based techniques for fighting addiction and overdose, such as medication-based treatments like methadone and criminal justice reforms. The grants from the National Institutes of Health will go the University of Kentucky, Boston Medical Center, New York City’s Columbia University and Ohio State University.

Three at Cuyahoga jail indicted

CLEVELAND — An associate warden and two corrections officers at a troubled county jail in Cleveland have been indicted less than two weeks after five other guards were charged with various offenses. Cuyahoga County associate warden Eric Ivey is charged with tampering with evidence for ordering a guard to turn off his body camera during an August 2018 emergency where an inmate died. He’s also charged with lying to investigators about what happened that day. Yost says one guard is charged with felonious assault for repeatedly striking a prisoner in the head in February 2018 and causing injuries requiring surgery. The other is accused of stopping a nurse from caring for the prisoner.

Settlement offers ‘unreasonable’

COLUMBUS — Lawyers representing patients who died after an intensive care doctor allegedly ordered them excessive doses of painkillers are calling settlement offers by an Ohio hospital system unreasonable. The Columbus-area Mount Carmel Health System fired William Husel (HYOO’-suhl) in December. It found he ordered potentially fatal doses for 29 patients over several years. Columbus law firm Leeseberg & Valentine, which represents several of the patients’ families, said Thursday it’s proceeding with lawsuits against the system despite being willing to settle early on. The firm called offers by the hospital system’s insurance carriers “unreasonable, offensive, and disrespectful” of the impact of the deaths.

Wayward raccoon closes school

CINCINNATI — Wildlife experts are hunting for a wayward raccoon that broke into a Cincinnati elementary school and caused classes to be moved and then canceled. A school district spokeswoman said late Thursday morning that the large raccoon remained on the loose inside South Avondale Elementary. Spokeswoman Lauren Worley says students and staff were moved to another school for classes Wednesday and were given Thursday off while the school is cleaned. The cancellation of classes is considered a “calamity day” by the district while not boding well for the raccoon. Worley says it will be euthanized once it is caught to prevent it from returning.

Dad settles with rafting center

COLUMBUS — The father of an Ohio woman who died after being exposed to a rare brain-eating amoeba at a North Carolina whitewater rafting center has settled a wrongful-death complaint. Afederal lawsuit in Lauren Seitz’s death was settled Tuesday in Charlotte, N.C. The 18-year-old Seitz, of Westerville, died 11 days after being thrown overboard and going underwater at the U.S. National Whitewater Center during a 2016 church trip. The lawsuit was originally filed in Columbus and was subsequently transferred to U.S. District Court in Charlotte. The center denied responsibility for Seitz’s death but then closed the rafting feature for cleaning after a federal epidemiologist concluded its filtration and disinfection systems were inadequate.

Twitter posts degraded girls

PERRYSBURG — A teen who created a Twitter account that degraded and ranked girls at his high school here has been charged with telecommunications harassment. School officials say the student could face discipline, including a suspension or expulsion. Police in the city 10 miles southwest of Toledo say more than 100 students reported the Twitter account to teachers and administrators. The posts have been removed. The district’s superintendent said last week that the Twitter account went beyond rating others. He says it involved targeted harassment and intimidation. School leaders called the comments disgusting and reprehensible.

More charges for ‘missing child’

CINCINNATI — A federal grand jury indictment that was filed Thursday accuses an Ohio man who claimed to be a missing child from Illinois of lying to federal agents and of identity theft. Brian Michael Rini, 23, of Medina, now faces two counts of lying to federal agents and one count of aggravated identity theft. U.S. Attorney Benjamin Glassman’s office in Cincinnati said making false statements carries a possible sentence of eight years in prison with conviction, while the identify theft count would bring a mandatory two years if he is convicted. He had been arrested earlier on a single false statement count after DNA testing proved he wasn’t Timmothy Pitzen, who disappeared in 2011 at age 6.

Naked tot, passed out adults

PANAMA CITY, Fla.– Employees of a Florida IHOP were headed to work early Friday when they found a naked toddler wandering the restaurant’s parking lot. They then found the toddler’s mom and the mom’s fiance passed out in a nearby van. Employees were unable to wake 24-year-old Jordyn Freeman and 27-year-old Randy McMillin, both of whom were under the influence of drugs. Police say two 9-month-old children were also found in the van, along with drugs and drug paraphernalia. They say one of the twins was covered in blankets and pillows. Police say the soiled children were given clean clothes and diapers and placed with the state Department of Children and Families. The Ohio couple was arrested on charges including methamphetamine possession.

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