The traditional Memorial Day weekend start to summer has yet to arrive, but this year is shaping up to be an especially deadly one in state parklands. A fatal cliff fall in the Hocking Hills region today was the third this year.

About 35 residents packed West Jefferson village hall tonight to ask for the return of a Facebook page that had included police reports and open discussion.

House Republicans last month put an amendment in the budget that would require universities to charge in-state tuition rates for out-of-state students who are given college documentation so they can vote in Ohio. That amendment would have cost Ohio universities about $370 million in tuition and is now likely to be removed by the Senate.

Democratic state Rep. Connie Pillich announced today that she will run for state treasurer next year, setting up a potential military-background matchup with incumbent Josh Mandel. Pillich, 52, a three-term state representative from Montgomery in Hamilton County, served eight years on active duty with U.S. Air Force, reaching the rank of captain. Mandel, 35, a Republican, served eight years in the U.S. Marine Reserves, including two tours of duty in Iraq, reaching the rank of sergeant.

WEST JEFFERSON, Ohio — It used to be, if people wanted to know what was happening around town, they stopped in for dinner at Ann & Tony’s restaurant and just listened. Then, in March, Police Chief Terry Ward started a Facebook page.

A man who was rappelling at Hocking Hills State Forest was killed on Saturday when he fell 130 feet from a cliff.

TOLEDO — A Clark County man who reportedly hanged himself in a holding cell at a northwestern Ohio police station died Saturday at Toledo Hospital.

Business break-ins led to a police pursuit in Knox County that injured a Danville police officer when he was struck by the fleeing suspect’s vehicle yesterday morning.

Internet-related crimes cost Ohio consumers nearly $1 million less last year than in 2011, and complaints about online scams dropped 43 percent, according to a new report.

Anheuser-Busch plans to buy wholesale beer distributorship C&G Distributing of Lima, the companies announced last week.

A Columbus Democrat says it’s time for Ohio to join the 21st century and allow online voter registration. “We currently pay our bills online, manage our bank accounts online, and even file our tax returns online, yet we don’t let citizens register to vote online,” said Rep.

Plans by the Ohio Department of Transportation to find sponsorships, sell advertising and commercialize rest areas to generate cash grabbed headlines last year.

GAMBIER, Ohio (AP) — New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg told graduates at Kenyon College that success in life requires courage, curiosity and hard work.

The warm-up is almost over in Ohio’s Utica shale country. Now, it is time to see whether the flurry of activity, the billions of dollars of investment and the hyperbole about its potential will produce substantial results.

WASHINGTON — U.S. Rep. Steve Stivers is a rare bird: A colonel and a congressman. A full colonel after 28 years in the Ohio Army National Guard, the Upper Arlington Republican also graduated last year from the Army War College in Carlisle, Pa., and says the knowledge he gained during two years of study would benefit his 434 colleagues in the House and the 100 members of the Senate whose collective attention is being refocused around a volatile world.

ATLANTA — An Atlanta woman who lost both hands, her left leg and her right foot after contracting a flesh-eating disease was on her way back from Hilliard on Friday after being fitted with prosthetic hands.

WEST JEFFERSON, Ohio — The trees and shrubs that dot Teresa Horstman’s 3-acre Madison County property look fine, but only from a distance. WEST JEFFERSON, Ohio — The trees and shrubs that dot Teresa Horstman’s 3-acre Madison County property look fine, but only from a distance. A closer look reveals leaves that are curled and dying and flowers that have lost their petals or have turned black.

Another one of those uh-oh moments related to Lake Erie, its fish and its fishermen was reported in The Dispatch last week. Heavy rains this spring have washed an estimated 210 tons of phosphorous from farm fields inside the Maumee River watershed, Jeffrey Reutter, director of the Ohio Sea Grant Program, told an Ohio Senate Finance Subcommittee last week. Depending on future rainstorms, even more phosphorous could be heading toward Lake Erie.

From wild to mild, a variety of outdoor adventures beckons in southeast Ohio. If “flying” at treetop levels appeals to the senses, then adventurous folks won’t want to miss the zip-lining options in the region. Hocking Hills Canopy Tours — which was ranked as one of the top 10 zip-lining experiences in the world, according to news.discovery.com — offers a 2 1/2- to 3-hour excursion above the treetops of the Hocking Hills in Hocking County.

Five anonymous donors provided the $6.9 million used to run JobsOhio in its first year, IRS records show.

Fears of damaged crops and more car crashes continue to drive opposition to new deer-hunting regulations slated to take effect this fall.

Another possible marijuana ballot issue in Ohio has cropped up, this one permitting growing and using hemp for food, clothing and building materials.

As supporters of Medicaid expansion in Ohio grow increasingly impatient with legislative inaction, talk, both publicly and privately, is turning toward alternatives such as a 2014 ballot issue.

SANDUSKY, Ohio — Athena Castile, an 11-week-old baby, died yesterday morning after being stabbed by her second cousin, police said.

In the future, Gov. John Kasich will call family members of murder victims when he decides to spare the lives of Death Row inmates, the governor’s office said yesterday.