New group focuses on education, school

A new coalition of Ohio business leaders focusing on education and related policy is expressing support for school choice, saying families should decide the best school for their children and have funding for that.

The non-partisan group unveiled Monday, called Ohio Excels, includes executives from the Ohio Business Roundtable, large companies, and regional business groups from Cincinnati, Cleveland and Columbus.

They say the business community can play an important role in improving education and related policy and helping to ensure students are well-prepared for the ever-changing work landscape.

The group says it wants to ensure access to excellent learning experiences for students from preschool through high school and beyond. It says all students should have the opportunity to get skills to succeed, and education decisions should be student-focused and datadriven.

Fire officials say 13 dogs die in house fire

Fire officials say a house fire in Ohio has killed 13 dogs, including eight puppies.

Toledo fire officials say the blaze started in the home around 11:30 p.m. Monday. They say no people were in the home at the time of the fire.

Fire crews say the dogs died from smoke inhalation.

Battalion Chief Bryce Blair says the fire appeared to be accidental. He says a fire investigator was working to determine exactly what caused the blaze.

Governor issues emergency status

A state of emergency has been declared in 20 Ohio counties damaged by flooding last month.

Republican Gov. Mike DeWine declared the emergency status in the affected counties on Monday. DeWine said in a statement that many of those counties were still recovering from last year’s severe flooding. The emergency declaration is aimed at helping secure recovery assistance.

Some counties in the emergency proclamation are Adams, Athens, Brown, Gallia (GAL’-yuh), Guernsey, Hocking, Jackson, Jefferson, Lawrence and Meigs (mehgz). The proclamation also includes Monroe, Morgan, Muskingum, Noble, Perry, Pike, Ross, Scioto, Vinton, and Washington counties.

Representatives from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Ohio Emergency Management Agency are meeting with county and township officials in each of the affected counties this week to assess the extent of the damage.

16-year-old girl fatally shot, 1 injured

Police in Ohio say a shooting outside a home has killed a 16-year-old girl and injured another person.

Toledo police say they responded to a report of a person shot around 3:30 p.m. Monday in a neighborhood on the city’s east side. They say they found 16-year-old Alexia Carey shot and another person grazed by a bullet. Carey was taken to a hospital, where she died from her injuries.

Authorities say the person who was grazed by a bullet will recover.

Police say at least 10 shell casings were found in the driveway between two homes, but they did not know how many shooters may have been involved. Police didn’t comment on a motive.

The investigation was continuing.

Opioid prescribing down in Ohio

The state’s prescription reporting system shows the number of prescription opioids dispensed to Ohioans declined for the sixth consecutive year in 2018.

A recently released annual report from the State of Ohio Board of Pharmacy’s Ohio Automated Rx Reporting System shows the total number of opioids dispensed to Ohio patients decreased by 325 million doses, or 41 percent, from 2012 to 2018. Total opioid prescriptions issued to Ohioans for that same period decreased by 4.6 million.

The report also found prescribers and pharmacists used the prescription reporting system at record levels. Health care providers requested more than 142 million patient reports in 2018.

Gov. Mike DeWine said in a statement that the downward trend in opioid prescriptions demonstrates Ohio’s prescribers are making “significant progress in their efforts to prevent addiction.”

Bill would stop school takeovers

Ohio lawmakers have proposed undoing a law that shifted operational control of poor-performing school districts to staterun panels and unelected CEOs, though three districts already affected would remain under state control.

Democratic Rep. Kent Smith, of Euclid), and Republican Rep. Steve Hambley, of Brunswick, say their bill introduced Monday would prevent more socalled “state takeovers” of troubled districts through academic distress commissions.

Legislation enabling that was pushed through the Legislature in one day in 2015. The first affected district, Youngstown, is challenging it in a case before the Ohio Supreme Court . The other affected districts, Lorain and East Cleveland, urged justices to hear that case.

The state denies the district’s claim that lawmakers violated the Ohio Constitution and a procedural rule when they passed the divisive House Bill 70.