State health officials are warning local departments and others that rely on federal funding that sequestration cuts will affect public health programs. So far, the Ohio Department of Health has tallied nearly $8.5 million in cuts that affect programs including newborn screenings; Women, Infants and Children nutrition program; and illness surveillance. Yesterday, the agency shared information about eight programs with local departments, but warned that no one knows what will happen to 92 additional programs that rely on federal funding.

A Licking County woman discovered three pipe bombs this morning in an apartment behind her house.

PORTSMOUTH, Ohio — State, local and federal law enforcement agencies put a dent in the Ohio heroin trade today with the announcement of charges against 18 accused traffickers.

WASHINGTON – Two senators have signed onto a bill originally introduced by Rep. Mike Turner aimed at stopping what they call an “epidemic” of sexual assault in the Armed Forces. Sens. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., and Susan Collins, R-Maine, announced today they would introduce a version of the bill that Turner, R-Dayton, and Rep. Niki Tsongas, D-Mass., worked to include in the House version of the National Defense Authorization Act this week.

A man was killed when he fell through the roof of a former commercial building in Fairfield County, a sheriff’s dispatcher said.

A Muskingum County family was awarded nearly $4 million in a wrongful death judgment against the Ohio Department of Transportation Tuesday. Michael Reed, of New Concord, sued in February, 2010, after his wife, Traci, was killed and his son, Conner, was injured when a tree fell and struck their car on Dec. 26, 2008, as they traveled north along Rt. 83.

Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted said this morning that voter fraud does exist in Ohio but it is not an epidemic. During a press briefing, Husted outlined 135 possible voter fraud cases during the 2012 presidential election that were referred to law enforcement for more investigation. Twenty of those cases included people who apparently voted in Ohio and another state — including 8 in Florida — and have been sent on to Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine. The other 115 went to local county prosecutors — Husted said most of those cases involved someone attempting to vote twice within the state.

A former Stockport mayor likely will spend the rest of his life in prison for raping a girl under 13 following his sentencing yesterday in Morgan County Common Pleas Court.

A Fairfield County man was killed early today in a chain-reaction crash involving three semis and a pickup truck on Interstate 70 in Licking County.

CLEVELAND — The man who famously put down his Big Mac to help rescue three women held captive for a decade in an Ohio house will never have to pay for another burger in his hometown. Charles Ramsey has been promised free burgers for life at more than a dozen Cleveland-area restaurants.

More than 1 in 4 old, previously untested “rape kits” match someone in the state DNA database, Attorney General Mike DeWine said yesterday. That’s one reason DeWine said he supports Senate Bill 93, proposed legislation to eliminate a state law imposing a 20-year statute of limitations in rape and sexual-assault cases.

The Ohio Supreme Court says it won’t hear the latest appeal by a southwestern Ohio man seeking his fourth trial in the 2008 bathtub drowning of his wife.

CINCINNATI — A 17-year-old high-school student who shot himself in a classroom last month continues to make progress in recovery efforts, his family said yesterday.

The latest effort to strike down unauthorized gambling in Ohio got final legislative approval yesterday, but discussions will continue regarding fraternal and veterans organizations and other gambling issues.

A key Republican lawmaker hopes her colleagues can still reach a consensus on expanding the state’s Medicaid program to tens of thousands of uninsured Ohioans.

WASHINGTON — Air Force officials yesterday passed over Rickenbacker Air National Guard Base as the home of a new fleet of refueling aircraft, opting instead to select an Air Guard base in New Hampshire for the tankers.

The Ohio House yesterday upheld an eight-vote election win by Rep. Al Landis, R-Dover, dismissing Democratic claims that dozens of votes had erroneously been rejected.

State lawmakers are pressuring the School Employee Retirement System board to shave another $18,000 per year off of its travel budget, saying recently-passed restrictions do not go far enough. The Ohio Retirement Study Council passed a resolution today urging the SERS board to tighten its cap on out-of-state travel spending to $6,000 and three out-of-state per year for each of its nine members. In response to a public controversy earlier this year over a planned trip to Hawaii, the board had set the limit at $8,000 per member.

WASHINGTON — Two Ohio lawmakers delivered a blistering scolding to the former head of the Internal Revenue Service yesterday, accusing him of not being “square with us” about a scandal that has rocked the tax agency.

WASHINGTON — Consumer watchdog Richard Cordray might have to wait until July before facing a Senate vote on his nomination to be director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid yesterday indicated through a spokesman that he will delay a vote on Cordray’s nomination. The move comes one week after Reid, a fellow Democrat, indicated that he planned on putting Cordray’s nomination before the full Senate this week.

Faggot. Queer. Girl. That’s what Will Baublit says classmates called him every day in the fifth grade. After repeated requests to school administrators to stop the bullying, the family sued the East Knox school district in federal court.

NEWARK, Ohio — The Licking Heights school district not only denies owing money to the Licking County Educational Service Center, but has countersued for money the district said it has been overcharged for years.

Senate Democrats want to direct $508 million more to Ohio schools over the next two years by eliminating part of a GOP-proposed tax cut for upper-income Ohioans. More money for schools and local governments, plus an expansion of Medicaid to cover those earning up to 138 percent of the federal poverty level, are among the priorities for Democrats as the Senate crafts changes over the next two weeks to the two-year, $61.5 billion budget.

Though some Senate Republicans have argued that a House-passed bill designed to shut down Internet cafes in Ohio could be flawed, a divided Senate committee passed the bill yesterday without changes.

BOWLING GREEN — The State Highway Patrol says 29 people have been injured in a crash between a commercial bus and a car on Interstate 75 in northwest Ohio. The patrol says the crash on northbound Interstate 75 near Bowling Green happened at about 10:30 p.m yesterday, when the 2001 Bluebird bus ran into the back of a 1995 Toyota Camry that slowed down in traffic.