TOLEDO

Snow plow driver stops wrong-way driver

Police near Toledo are crediting a quick-thinking snow plow driver for stopping a wrong-way driver on a freeway.

Police say the plow driver was on U.S. 23 near the Ohio-Michigan state line when he saw a car going the wrong way in the southbound lanes.

The Ohio Department of Transportation driver then pulled into the road and forced the driver to turn around early last Saturday.

Sylvania police said he then followed the wrong way driver and took the keys from his car at a stop light.

Snow plow driver George Seambos tells WTOL-TV in Toledo that he was just doing his job and keeping the roads safe.

The wrong-way driver has been charged with operating a vehicle under the influence.

CLEVELAND

Probe expanding into chase that left 2 dead

The investigation is expanding into a lengthy police chase that involved 63 patrol cars and ended when Cleveland police fired more than 100 shots, killing two unarmed people last November, the city’s mayor said Tuesday.

The state’s Bureau of Criminal Investigation is doing its own review and wants to re-interview officers before the city can speak with them, Mayor Frank Jackson said.

Officials in Cleveland also said that investigators have found that more patrol cars were involved in the chase on Nov. 29 than initially thought and they now want to interview about 115 officers and dispatchers.

Jackson said officials first thought the administrative review would be completed by the end of this month but the widening scope means investigators need more time.

Timothy Russell, 43, and Malissa Williams, 30, were killed after 13 Cleveland police officers fired 137 shots at their car following a high-speed chase that began after an officer thought he heard a gunshot from a car speeding by police headquarters in downtown Cleveland.

The chase involving police, sheriff’s deputies and state troopers went through residential neighborhoods and onto a freeway before ending with the car blocked in at the rear of a school in neighboring East Cleveland.

NEWARK

Crash with ambulance kills driver

Authorities in central Ohio say a collision with an ambulance killed a 93-year-old car driver and sent four more adults to hospitals.

Police in Newark tell The Advocate newspaper the car was pulling out of a gas station when it collided with the ambulance. The driver died at the scene.

Assistant Fire Chief Patrick Connor says the private ambulance was transporting a patient at the time but wasn’t using its sirens or lights.

Connor says a female emergency medical technician riding in the back of the ambulance was flown to a Columbus hospital. He says the ambulance driver, patient and another passenger were taken to a different hospital with injuries that didn’t appear to be life-threatening.

Police were seeking security video footage to further review what happened.

CLEVELAND

US judge tosses discrimination suit against Kaplan

A federal judge in Ohio has tossed out a lawsuit accusing Kaplan Higher Education Corp. of discriminating against black job applicants.

The federal district court judge in Cleveland ruled in favor of Kaplan on Monday.

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission filed the lawsuit near the end of 2010. The suit accused the for-profit education company of discriminating by screening and rejecting some job seekers based on their credit history.

Kaplan maintained that it has a diverse workforce and does not discriminate.

It says it did background checks on all potential employees and reviewed credit histories of applicants whose duties would include financial matters. Kaplan says that’s a standard practice used by many companies.

ZANESVILLE

Pair convicted in boys’ deaths get new trials

An appeals court in eastern Ohio has overturned the convictions of a woman and her husband in the drowning of her 3-year-old son and disappearance of his 2-year-old brother during a camping trip.

The court ordered that Kasey and Richard Klein Jr. of Zanesville be tried again. They had been sentenced to 12 years in prison for involuntary manslaughter last year.

The appeals court determined the lower court wrongly tried the pair together. Richard Klein’s attorney says that hindered his ability to get a fair trial.

Authorities say the toddlers wandered away from the family campsite near the Muskingum River at Ellis Dam in 2011. The 3-year-old’s body was found in the water. His half brother wasn’t found.

Messages left Tuesday for prosecutors and Kasey Klein’s attorney were not immediately returned.