State officials shut down a fracking operation in northeastern Ohio today 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.

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.

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

The state Controlling Board today approved the Ohio Lottery Commission’s plan to spend $22.5 million on the latest gambling expansion in the state by providing next-generation electronic machines to veterans posts and fraternal lodges.

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.

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.

FREMONT, Ohio — Police in northern Ohio say they've arrested the suspect in a weekend shooting at a bar that left three men dead, including an off-duty officer. Fremont police say they took 33-year-old Igmidio Mista into custody this morning shortly after issuing an arrest warrant for him. The warrant charges him with three counts of murder.

The raid of a drug-paraphernalia wholesale warehouse in suburban Fairfield County that authorities say sold more than $2 million in illegal products began with a phone call from an upset wife.

About 77 percent of Ohioans don’t smoke. So if the income-tax cut Gov. John Kasich unveils on Tuesday is paid for in part by a significant increase in the state’s cigarette tax, as expected, roughly three-quarters of Ohioans probably would support it. But what about the 23 percent who smoke?

CANTON — A train ran into an SUV early yesterday, killing a passenger and seriously injuring the driver. Raven Nicole Caskey, 31, of Millersburg, was pronounced dead at the scene, which The Repository said was on Newkirk Road just north of Rt. 226 in Wayne County, about 40 miles west of Canton.

Mark Bentley is not a cop, but he looks a lot like one. The deputy director of the Ohio Investigative Unit, the state agency that enforces liquor and food-stamp laws, carries a handgun — and lots of other police gear.

By this time next year, high schools across the state might be pining for the simplicity of the good old Ohio Graduation Test. The one that just takes a week. The one that starts on Monday in most districts. Yes, schools have to perform some logistical gymnastics for the test as it exists now.

After 12 years of work, archaeologists from the Ohio Historical Society are still trying to put together all the pieces of an epic drama that played out in 1752 near what is now Piqua in western Ohio.

Charlie Earl was near the end of his keynote speech to about 50 people at the Libertarian Party of Ohio’s convention yesterday when he said, “I really am the equivalent of a book in Boston. “Yeah, I’ve been banned,” Earl said.

Ohio colleges are bolstering efforts to recruit students as the state braces for a sharp drop in the number of college-age students. Schools are spreading their reach into new areas while competing for fewer students in Ohio.

Ohio will begin staggering distribution of food-stamp benefits next month. The change comes at the request of grocers who say stores are swamped at the beginning of each month, creating long lines, shortages of produce and other items, and the need for additional staff.

GRANVILLE, Ohio — Eva Revesz, a visiting assistant professor at Denison University, settled in to an evening of grading papers as she had so many evenings before. The assignment was a short, getting-to-know-you, in-class paper.

We plan our careers, retirement and what happens to our worldly possessions after we die. What most Americans don’t plan for is how we die. Most of us — an estimated 70 to 80 percent — have not taken that step.

CINCINNATI (AP) — Attorney General Mike DeWine went home yesterday after spending the night in a Cincinnati hospital where he was taken because he felt ill while at a speaking engagement.

WARREN, Ohio (AP) — A northeastern Ohio school district says it won’t use a man as a substitute teacher again after he allegedly spanked two young students.

DAYTON (AP) — A southwestern Ohio university is offering intensive training for nursing in flight and disasters. Wright State University’s program is sanctioned by the Air Force surgeon general, so students from the nearby Air Force Institute of Technology have been among early participants.

Gov. John Kasich is expected to roll out his latest proposal for an income-tax cut on Tuesday, and again he is expected to face opposition over how he intends to pay for it, along with questions about whether Ohio should focus on this type of tax change.

An Ohio court has rejected the appeal of a southeastern Ohio man who was convicted of killing his daughter-in-law, who was found strangled at the bottom of a septic tank in 2011.

YOUNGSTOWN — A northeastern Ohio couple was found guilty yesterday of enslaving a mentally disabled woman for two years through intimidation, abuse and threats that they would harm her young child.