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West Virginia Republican Gov. Jim Justice says he has fired Secretary of Education and the Arts Gayle Manchin ahead of his decision on approved legislation to reorganize the agency. Justice announced the move in a news release Monday. Manchin is a former state school board president and is the wife of Democratic U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin.

Attorney General Mike DeWine targeted five pharmaceutical companies in a sweeping lawsuit filed today, alleging misrepresentation and misinformation on their part in the growing American opiate addiction crisis. The companies are Janssen Pharmaceutical, Allergan, Purdue Pharma, Endo and Cephalon. "They are the most prominent," DeWine said of the defendants. "They constitute a majority of the drugs." He insisted that the companies played an active role in flooding the market with prescription painkillers, which led explicitly to addiction for untold numbers of Ohioans. A woman who lost her daughter to opiate addiction appeared with DeWine today, explaining to reporters how powerless...

INDEPENDENCE, Ohio - Complete County Corruption Investigation Four FBI agents have entered the house of County Commissioner Jimmy Dimora Wednesday morning and took him away in handcuffs. NewsChannel5 saw the agents enter his Independence home and drive him away in handcuffs. The agents arrived in two vehicles and knocked on the door for a few minutes before someone eventually answered. The agents then entered the home, and left with Dimora in handcuffs. FBI spokesman Scott Wilson confirmed that they are making arrests this morning, but did not confirm if Dimora was arrested. Dimora is considered to be the top target...

CLEVELAND - UPDATE: All RTA trains are running again after a train fire injured about 15 people and shut down trains between the Triskett Station and East 55th Street. Passengers on the red line could still expect delays lasting until later Friday afternoon. The incident occurred Friday on a Regional Transit Authority train car. A spokeswoman for RTA said there were about 75 people on the train when the fire broke out just after noon at West 65th Street and Lorain Avenue. Those injured were transported to local hospitals with minor injuries, she said. RTA does not know how the...

CLEVELAND -- He founded the Islamic Center of Cleveland. Now, he, his family and his staff face charges for money laundering and other crimes. Ahbrar Haque is the man in the center of the investigation. Now, a grand jury has widened the scope of the charges against he and his associates. In February 2005, Federal agents raided the accounting offices of Haque, the Islamic Center's founder. In April, he, his wife and two associates were charged in Federal Court for money laundering. Now, 10 months later, 11 more of his associates have been charged. Last February, federal agents removed box...

The Summit County Board of Elections is expected to act today on what appear to be fraudulent voter registration cards sent to the board from the Cleveland AFL-CIO. John Schmidt, deputy director of the board of elections, said the board is expected to refer the matter to the sheriff or prosecutor's office for further investigation. Schmidt said several dozen cards were mailed to the board in an envelope that contained a return street address but no name. Aside from the lack of identification of the sender, he said board workers had questions about the cards for other reasons. They were...

CLEVELAND — Democrats will try to partly close the big fund-raising gap in Ohio between John Kerry and President Bush. The plan is to raise $1 million at a single event with Kerry on April 27 in Cleveland. It will be Kerry’s first Ohio fund-raiser and one of only two planned by Democrats in the state before their nominating convention in July. Bush already has a funding network of Ohio business leaders who have raised more than $5.7 million for the president’s re-election bid, based on finance reports through February. During the same period, Kerry’s campaign has coaxed just a...

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) - Eight inmates who contributed to an award-winning book agreed to pay the state a portion of their royalties to help cover their incarceration costs, Connecticut's attorney general said Monday. The women had participated in a writing course taught by best-selling author Wally Lamb at York Correctional Institution. Their work appears in the 2003 book "Couldn't Keep It to Myself: Testimonies From Our Imprisoned Sisters." The book drew criticism from some victims' rights advocates, who said the women should not be allowed to gain fame or money through their writings. State officials went to court last year...

I thought some of you might enjoy photos from today's rally in Cleveland. Numerous motorcycle groups met in downtown Cleveland, including members of Rolling Thunder. Motorcycles lined Public Square, sometimes parked three deep. Members of the VFW gather for a photo opportunity. Fellow Freepers from left to right: LasVegas Dave and his wife, Ann Marie, conspiratoristo and GOP_Lady. An Air Force and Army veterans who rode the rapid line with me from the west side. A Marine Corp family with a picture of their loved one. The caption reads: Sgt. Clements – USMC serving w/ IMHG in Fallujah, Iraq. The...

MADELINE NELSON of Steubenville, Ohio, has been in the third grade since last fall but has met her teacher only a few times. She has plenty of schoolwork to do, including book reports and her favorite, art projects. She gets her assignments online through the Ohio Virtual Academy, which she attends along with her sister Therese, 7, and brother Gabriel, 5, from the dining room table at home. If Madeline, 9, were a traditional home-schooled student, her mother, Gretchen, would be instructing her (her father, Mark, works full time outside the home). But even though Mrs. Nelson believes home schooling...

WASHINGTON — Sen. George Voinovich supported an alternative to a tax cut bill, providing just enough votes for passage. The bill which temporarily eliminates taxes on stock dividends and provides $20 billion to financially troubled states passed 51-50 late Thursday night. Vice President Dick Cheney cast the tie-breaking ballot. Voinovich, a Republican from Cleveland, has wavered in his support for President Bush’s tax cut package, citing concerns for the budget deficit. He said he would not back any proposal that exceeded $350 billion, about half of the administration’s original request, unless it included spending cuts. The version he supports includes...

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W A S H I N G T O N, May 8—Devices that could be used by terrorists to derail trains are being stolen from rail facilities around the country, the FBI warned today. Nine derailers, which are normally used to get jumped trains back on track, have been stolen recently, sources said, citing the FBI's weekly intelligence bulletin. The theft of these items is strange since they are of little use outside of the rail industry, according to the bulletin. Railroads have been targeted in the past by terrorists, the bulletin said. It specifically mentioned the Oct. 1995 derailment...

Cincinnati's police union doesn't just dislike a racial profiling lawsuit settlement that calls for making numerous reforms in the department. The Fraternal Order of Police also opposes an agreement with the U.S. Justice Department that calls for more than 90 changes in local police practices, including how force is used. Local union leaders said they are in contact with the FOP's national office about lobbying President Bush's administration in getting the Justice Department to back off from some of the requirements. If Bush doesn't agree, it could jeopardize his chances at again receiving the national FOP's endorsement in his 2004...

Your choiceFor better or worse, where a kid goes to high school is no longer automatic. The annual ritual of perusing brochures, comparing school programs and listening to sales pitches isn't just for high school seniors any more. As they prepare to advance to a higher level in their educations, eighth-graders in Cincinnati also are having to weigh their options as part of a new era that has brought major changes to traditional neighborhood high schools in the city. Under the Cincinnati Public School district's "Schools of Choice" program, eighth-graders must select a high school, not simply wait to be...

I need some advice on how to deal with my local school district. For about 4 years they have attempted to pass a bond issue for an enormous construction plan. It was rejected three times. This past fall, they posted signs and placed ads in the paper for a “renewal levy”, telling voters it would not raise their taxes but simply renew the funding voters had already approved years ago. On the ballot it was labeled as an “emergency levy.” It passed. And, surprise, surprise, it raised everyone’s taxes. Although parents and residents repeatedly asked them to re-opening a school...

COLUMBUS - The state's largest teachers union went to the Ohio Supreme Court late Monday in an attempt to block Gov. Bob Taft's $90.3 million reduction in aid to public schools. The Ohio Education Association is arguing that Taft's executive order March 5 to cut school aid to balance the state budget interferes with the legislature's effort to fund schools and further violates Ohio Supreme Court decisions that school funding already is inadequate. A week before Taft signed the executive order, the legislature approved a budget corrections bill that said funding to schools could not be reduced. Taft not only...

We can disarm and contain Saddam Hussein. There are a number of effective alternatives to war. Supporting the current UN disarmament mission in Iraq is critical. The U.S. initiative to win UN support for tougher weapons inspections is succeeding, and has created an ongoing monitoring system that increases the transparency of Iraq’s weapons complex. The presence of UN weapons inspectors serves as a deterrent to Iraq’s development or use of weapons of mass destruction. If Iraq does not volunteer all the documentation required by the UN, coercive pressure can be maintained through non-military means. We can improve the current containment...

Channel 5, here in the heart of Kuchinich country, is conducting an online poll. Do you think the United States should go to war with Iraq? It's dead even at the moment. Thanks! http://www.newsnet5.com/

COLUMBUS, Ohio, Dec. 11 — The state school board unanimously approved on Tuesday standards that more strongly advocate the teaching of evolution while letting students fully criticize the legitimacy of the theory. The standards do not require the teaching or testing of the alternate "intelligent design" theory, which says a higher intelligence guides the universe. The vote was 18 to 0, with 1 absence. The board has worked since January on the guidelines, which teachers will be encouraged, but not required, to follow. They will be the basis of new tests that students have to pass to graduate. Evolution will...