As the Ohio Department of Natural Resources investigates the third fatal fall from a cliff in the Hocking Hills region since April, a park ranger outlined planned safety improvements.

Sixteen fallen Ohio soldiers who died in battle over the last 13 months were honored in separate, consecutive, solemn ceremonies by state lawmakers and Gov. John Kasich today.

CINCINNATI -- Tea party activists waving flags and signs, singing patriotic songs and chanting anti-IRS slogans protested outside federal buildings across the country today to protest the agency's extra scrutiny of conservative groups. A crowd packed the sidewalks in front of and across the street from a Cincinnati federal building housing the Internal Revenue Service offices that handled tax-exempt status applications.

If you watch enough Hollywood movies, you know that when dinosaurs clamp onto human meals, they crush us with giant teeth and shake us back and forth, crocodile-style. Think Tyrannosaurus rex. But new research out of Ohio University suggests that style of feeding is not universal. Ohio University researchers say T. rex’s smaller cousin Allosaurus probably ate more like a bird.

New signs have started rolling off the line at the Ohio Department of Transportation as the state prepares for a speed limit increase this summer. The speed limit will increase from 65 mph to 70 mph on rural interstates July 1, but ODOT Director Jerry Wray has say over where the new limits start and end. He also has discretion to up the limit on some two-lane highways from 55 mph to 60 mph.

WASHINGTON — Former Internal Revenue Service Commissioner Douglas Shulman said he was “deeply saddened’’ that IRS officials in Cincinnati targeted conservative organizations seeking tax-exempt status but insisted he was unaware of the targeting during his tenure. Testifying before the Senate Finance Committee, Shulman, originally from the Dayton area, said he “deeply’’ regretted “what happened on my watch,’’ but declined to issue a specific apology for the intense questions IRS officials aimed at conservative organizations.

A Knox County grand jury today indicted a Mount Vernon man accused of hitting a Danville police officer during a chase early Sunday morning.

Republican state legislators are seeking to take away driver’s licenses from unauthorized immigrants who have been granted temporary amnesty by the federal government. A bill slated for committee discussion today would reverse a state Bureau of Motor Vehicles policy requiring administrators to issue temporary licenses for immigrants who fall under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals initiative.

Chris Bradley, chief meteorologist for WBNS-TV (Channel 10), said the western half of Ohio is under a slight risk of storms today from the same front that spawned the deadly tornadoes in Oklahoma.

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

There was a time when Herb Redman was able to do his own car repairs. At 74, though, his skills are stymied by the new electronic components, and a heart condition has ruled out heavy lifting. But those limitations pale compared with the financial plight of the widower and retired auto mechanic.

Decades of research into one of the most vexing worldwide problems has done remarkably little to reduce the risk of delivering premature babies. But in Ohio, there is an unprecedented effort to explain why babies come too soon and to find ways to use that information to predict and prevent prematurity.

BELLEFONTAINE, Ohio — Cathy Humphries killed a 15-year-old boy. Driving drunk, she hit Austin Houser with her pickup truck as he walked along the side of a rural road, and she left him there to die. A passer-by found his body two days later, facedown in a cold, muddy, water-filled ditch. Ellenna Houser, no matter how hard she tries, can’t get those images of her son out of her mind.

WASHINGTON — The 2014 elections are well over a year away, but a Fairfield County farmer already has declared his plans to challenge Rep. Steve Stivers. Scott Wharton, a farmer, airline pilot and Air Force veteran, announced this weekend that he plans to run for the 15th Congressional District, which encompasses all or parts of Franklin, Madison, Clinton, Fayette, Ross, Pickaway, Fairfield, Perry, Hocking, Vinton, Athens and Morgan counties.

A House-passed budget provision that would have cost Ohio universities about $370 million a year in tuition payments is likely to be removed by the Senate, but that doesn’t mean the issue of out-of-state students voting in Ohio is dead.

They might look like Star Wars Walkers, but the SkyWatch mobile towers that the Ohio Department of Public Safety is buying are for crowd surveillance, not intergalactic warfare.

MARYSVILLE, Ohio — A Union County man who admitted to exchanging nude photos with a teenage girl and later meeting her for sex has been sentenced to 18 years and 11 months in prison.

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

The “green” energy provisions of a 2008 state energy law have saved consumers $170 million, according to Ohio State University findings that run counter to the argument that the law’s requirements have contributed to an increase in bills.

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.