Ohio’s three biggest metro areas added twice as many jobs in 2012 and 2013 as first thought, led by big increases in Columbus. Revised state employment data released yesterday show Cincinnati, Cleveland and Columbus added about 100,000 jobs over the past two years. Initial reports pegged that job growth at 47,900 jobs.

Drug distributor McKesson Corp. and Ohio have reached an $18.3 million settlement of a lawsuit over the price of drugs prescribed for beneficiaries of two public pension funds and the Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation.

Despite running into opposition from the League of Ohio Sportsman, which called it a “bad bill with good intentions,” a House committee today passed a bill allowing Ohio hunters to use silencers.

Ohio’s top state income-tax rate would fall to 4.88 percent by fiscal year 2017 if lawmakers approve Gov. John Kasich’s proposed tax changes delivered to the legislature today. The net for Ohioans is a $174 million tax cut over the next three years.

School districts will have to use four of their contingency days before getting an additional four calamity days that do not need to be made up under a bill approved today by a joint conference committee. The committee was formed after House and Senate Republicans were unable to come to an agreement two weeks ago on how to help schools deal with closings from the unusually snowy and cold winter. Schools get five calamity days under current law, but many districts have missed eight days or more.

State officials shut down a fracking operation in northeastern Ohio Monday after two earthquakes were felt in Mahoning County. Ohio Department of Natural Resources officials say the order was a precaution and that the temblors — felt in Poland Township and the village of Lowellville near the Pennsylvania border — were not related to area waste-injection wells, one of which was tied to earthquakes near Youngstown in 2011.

MEDINA, Ohio — An Ohio animal rights group is inviting the public to help destroy a gas chamber that was used to kill hundreds of stray cats annually before it was phased out amid public pressure.

LANCASTER, Ohio — Violet Township Trustee Terry J. Dunlap Sr. was charged today with negligent assault in connection to an accidental shooting of a student taking a concealed-carry class that he taught last year.

More than 270 citations have been issued to drivers for texting or using a cellphone behind the wheel in violation of a new Ohio law, according to data from the State Highway Patrol.

FREMONT, Ohio — An off-duty police officer celebrating his birthday and two other men were shot and killed in a northern Ohio nightclub over the weekend after an argument erupted when the shooter punched the officer’s wife, relatives said.

PARMA, Ohio — A substitute teacher and five students at a suburban Cleveland high school face charges after police say a 14-year-old developmentally disabled boy was bullied in gym class.

CLEVELAND — A judge has sentenced an Ohio man to serve eight years in prison after he was convicted of trying to kill his wife by rigging her car.

AUSTINTOWN, Ohio — The operator of a new racino in northeastern Ohio has reached an agreement with the horse-racing industry on the number of horse stalls to be built at the track, along with other terms.

TOLEDO — The Ohio State Medical Board has suspended the license of a doctor who signed off on the airman medical certificate for a pilot blamed in a fatal crash that killed six people.

YOUNGSTOWN — Most Ohioans know that Hang On Sloopy is the state’s official rock song. The Ohio State University marching band plays it at every home game. But what is the official country song? Ohio doesn’t have one.

Born with severe brain damage and quadriplegic cerebral palsy, Julia Nored can neither speak nor use her legs and arms. Now, the state of Ohio is paying $2.5 million in damages, in part to help care for the girl, now 7, born to a prisoner at the Ohio Reformatory for Women in Marysville.

The Ohio Lottery Commission will expand legal gambling in the state by placing hundreds of next-generation electronic machines in veterans posts and fraternal lodges. The expansion might not stop there.

A Marysville woman was indicted yesterday in connection with the death of a bicyclist in September.

Honda is creating a separate division for Acura sales and marketing, the latest in a series of moves that the automaker hopes will revitalize the luxury brand. Honda said yesterday that Mike Accavitti will be general manager of the division, moving from a job that covers Honda and Acura brands.

Supporters of an effort to add an “Ohio Voters Bill of Rights” to the Ohio Constitution soon could begin collecting signatures in their bid to place the measure on the statewide ballot. The office of Attorney General Mike DeWine yesterday certified language for the petitions as acceptable after rejecting previous wording on Feb. 13.

Once the ribbon was cut and Sweet Innovations officially opened at the River Valley Mall food court in Lancaster, the owners intended to do a lot more than sell cinnamon rolls and coffee. The goal was to create job opportunities and skills for those served by the Fairfield County Board of Developmental Disabilities.

A 2012 pipeline explosion in West Virginia was the result of old, corroded pipe that whose condition should have been flagged in advance by owner Columbia Pipeline Group, according to a new report from federal investigators. The Dec. 12, 2012 explosion melted part of I-77 and destroyed several houses near Sissonville, W.Va.

Ohio’s U.S. senators and other members of the state’s congressional delegation are pushing for extension of a health coverage tax credit they say is particularly important for Delphi salaried retirees.

PARMA, Ohio -- A substitute teacher and five students at a suburban Cleveland high school face charges after police say a 14-year-old developmentally disabled boy was bullied in gym class. Police say the boy was knocked down by a volleyball thrown at his head last month at Parma Senior High School. One student then allegedly kicked the victim and another dragged him around by his feet.

ST. MARYS, Ohio — Authorities are awaiting an autopsy to explain the death of a western Ohio man killed in an apparent freak accident. The Auglaize County Sheriff’s Office says the body of 36-year-old Richard Moon was found yesterday afternoon hanging upside-down from a creek bridge outside St. Marys, his leg caught in a guardrail support.