Ohio prison officials want state lawmakers to tweak the law enabling judges to approve early release of severely incapacitated inmates, including two who are brain-dead and on life support. The state is paying $1 million a year for medical care for these inmates, many of whom don’t even know they are in prison, said Stuart Hudson, chief of medical services for the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction.

The U.S. Supreme Court has scheduled an unusual 150-minute argument April 28 on whether Ohio and three other states violated the Constitution when they banned same-sex marriages. The court’s decision, which is expected toward the end of June, could finally end a controversy that has divided the nation for much of the past two decades. In 2013, the justices by a 5-4 vote struck down as unconstitutional a 1996 federal law that defined marriage as between a man and a woman.

House Speaker John Boehner today joined seven House Republicans and three Democrats to press President Barack Obama to provide Ukraine’s pro-Western government with advanced weapons to combat Russian-backed rebels in eastern Ukraine.

A high-profile killer will receive $7,500 in damages after a dog for which he was caring as part of a state prison adopt-a-dog program bit off part of his nose. The settlement between Vincent Doan and the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation Correction was approved yesterday in the Ohio Court of Claims.

The tests used to measure whether Ohio students are meeting Common Core standards are going under the microscope of a special advisory committee and could be dumped. State Sen. Peggy Lehner said anything is possible regarding the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers tests.

Liberals and conservatives don’t agree on much but there is this: They don’t like Gov. John Kasich’s tax reform plan that cuts income taxes and raises severance, tobacco and sales taxes for a total of a $500 million tax cut. During committee testimony yesterday, the proposals “took body blows yesterday from the left and right of the economic philosophical spectrum,” Dispatch reporter Jim Siegel writes.

A bill that would expand availability of a drug that successfully stops heroin and opioid overdoses in progress passed the Ohio House unanimously yesterday. Naloxone was administered 74,000 times in Ohio between 2003 and 2012, state statistics show.

CINCINNATI -- A new Cincinnati law meant to hold pet owners accountable for dog bites allows for fines of up to $15,000. The Cincinnati Enquirer reports the law adopted yesterday stops short of criminalizing dog bites. Councilman Kevin Flynn says the target is bad owners, not specific dogs or breeds.

CLEVELAND -- The head of the Republican National Committee says its first primary debate for the next presidential election will be in Cleveland. The RNC previously announced plans to have nine primary debates, starting in Ohio in August. Chairman Reince Priebus confirmed the location in an interview with Cleveland television station WKYC yesterday.

CANTON — A woman with concealed knives and martial-arts throwing stars was arrested outside a Canton hospital, and a man who works there had a protection order against her, police said.

PUT-IN-BAY — The police chief in the Lake Erie island resort town of Put-in-Bay is on paid administrative leave after being charged with four misdemeanor counts, including dereliction of duty and falsification.

TROY — Funeral services are planned next week for three teenage girls who suffered carbon-monoxide poisoning because of a blocked chimney flue in a western Ohio home.

AKRON — A former school-board president in northeastern Ohio has pleaded guilty to having child pornography and obstructing official business. Officials say 53-year-old Steven Bittel’s computer IP address was involved in a peer-to-peer file-sharing network involving child pornography.

CINCINNATI (AP) — A 16-year-old boy accused of trying to steal sneakers from a Montgomery County mall shopper who then fatally shot another teen will face adult criminal charges.

TOLEDO (AP) — Officials in Toledo have chosen replacements to fill two city council openings left by the death of the mayor.

YELLOW SPRINGS, Ohio — A small liberal-arts college that temporarily closed seven years ago is making sustainability and energy efficiency part of its revival strategy with an estimated $81 million in campus improvements.

Gov. John Kasich’s tax package took body blows yesterday from the left and right of the economic philosophical spectrum. The conservative Tax Foundation, based in Washington, D.C., sharply criticized parts of the governor’s tax package, particularly the elimination of the state income tax for most small businesses and sole proprietors and the increase in the commercial-activity tax. Meanwhile, the liberal group One Ohio Now said the income-tax cuts are a poor strategy for economic growth, pointing to the state’s job-growth performance since tax cuts started in 2005.

JEFFERSON, Ohio — A husband and wife accused of making three of their adopted children virtual prisoners inside their northeastern Ohio home pleaded not guilty yesterday in a case that began after prosecutors say two girls crashed the family van while trying to make their escape.

Cabela’s will open its third Ohio store in Centerville in a little more than a year.

The $56 million project to extend Sawmill Parkway into the city of Delaware is now in Delaware County’s hands.

State Auditor Dave Yost described for state legislators a “broken system of governance” overseeing a charter-school system in Ohio that has faced increasing criticism both in the state and nationally. Yost, a Republican, testified on Wednesday in an Education Committee hearing on House Republicans’ House Bill 2, proposing charter-school oversight reforms. He praised school choice as valuable for some students, but he said several recommendations would improve accountability and transparency, while better ensuring that charters are getting only the tax dollars they are entitled to.

Sens. Sherrod Brown and Rob Portman along with Rep. Joyce Beatty will attend this weekend’s 50th anniversary events commemorating the historic civil rights march in Alabama which helped lead the way to passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act. Brown, D-Ohio, will make his fourth trip to Selma, Ala., where on March 7, 1965, Alabama state troopers savagely beat civil rights marchers, including John Lewis, now a Democratic congressman from Georgia.

DE GRAFF, Ohio -- Officials say a 13-year-old Ohio boy was suspended for bringing moonshine to school, and a science teacher who knew he was making the illegal alcohol was reprimanded for not reporting that the boy brought it to class.

After Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech before a joint session of Congress yesterday, Gov. John Kasich reminded reporters, “I don’t need to bolster any foreign policy credentials. I’ve been working in foreign policy for many, many years. I served on the Armed Services Committee, which is one of the critical committees in terms of U.S. foreign policy and how we prepare ourselves. I don’t need to bolster anything.”

WASHINGTON — Ohio Gov. John Kasich spent 18 years in the U.S. House of Representatives, but when he finally returned to the House floor yesterday, it was his future, not his past, that sparked questions. Kasich, who is perpetually on lists of potential 2016 Republican presidential contenders, has said consistently that he has not decided whether to run. But his appearance on the House floor during Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech to Congress nonetheless prompted questions about whether Kasich was trying to emphasize his foreign-policy credentials.