TOLEDO — A northeastern Ohio man accused of driving more than 125 mph and causing a crash that killed two people on the Ohio Turnpike is now competent to stand trial, a judge has ruled.

Generations of Ohio lawyers earned the right to practice by passing the state bar examination administered for more than 55 years at Veterans Memorial.

Backers of the push to legalize marijuana in Ohio are seeking $28 million from investors to bankroll their campaign and buy property for growing facilities.

CLEVELAND (AP) — A 911 caller reporting the fatal shooting of the brother of Cleveland’s police chief said the man’s girlfriend confessed to killing him, according to a recording of the call released by the city.

TROY, Ohio (AP) — Two teenage sisters died and two other children were hospitalized after a relative found all four unresponsive yesterday from a suspected carbon monoxide leak in their western Ohio home, officials said.

Gov. John Kasich will attend Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech Tuesday before a joint session of Congress. Kasich was invited to be at the speech by House Speaker John Boehner, R-West Chester. As a former member of the House, Kasich will be permitted to watch the speech from the House floor.

Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine issued a report today recapping the results of the Moving Ohio Forward Demolition Grant Program, which ended at the end of 2014. As a result of the $75 million invested into the program in May 2012, plus another $44 million in local matching funds, more than 14,600 abandoned and dilapidated buildings were demolished across the state.

WASHINGTON – With the U.S. Supreme Court expected to schedule arguments the week of April 27, the American Civil Liberties Union today filed legal papers with the justices contending that Ohio’s ban on same-sex marriage violates the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

Leaders in the Ohio House say you can expect some kind of tax cut in the budget though it may not look like the one Gov. John Kasich proposed, Dispatch reporter Jim Siegel writes. “I think there will be a tax cut. It’s just what’s our path and what does it look like and which rabbit hole are we wanting to chase,” said House Speaker Cliff Rosenberger.

CLEVELAND -- Hundreds of people are asking Cleveland to reopen police mini-stations as leaders consider reforms for the city's police department. The Northeast Ohio Media Group reports more than 1,500 people have signed a petition demanding the mini-stations' return.

Members of Congress proposed legislation yesterday calling for additional obstacles to prevent Asian carp from reaching Lake Michigan through an Illinois waterway and a renewed push toward a permanent strategy for shielding the Great Lakes from the destructive fish.

WARRENSVILLE HEIGHTS, Ohio (AP) — A 20-year-old man from the Cleveland area has pleaded not guilty to aggravated murder charges in the shooting of three people at a barbershop.

CLEVELAND (AP) — A northeastern Ohio man has admitted to driving off after fatally striking a 5-year-old boy who was on his way to school.

State Highway Patrol troopers wrote hundreds of citations last weekend during a coordinated multistate crackdown on speeding, safety-belt violations and drunken driving on I-75.

Flu seems to have settled down in Ohio, with hospitalizations and other measures that soared this season falling closer to the norm for this time of year. At its worst, flu put 1,623 Ohioans in the hospital in a single week, according to data reported to the Ohio Department of Health.

The shooting of as many as 375 white-tailed deer a year in Cuyahoga Valley National Park probably will begin late this year.

Ohio House Speaker Cliff Rosenberger said he expects that a tax cut will be part of the two-year budget his chamber will pass in mid-April, but he gave no indication that it will look much like the tax package proposed by Gov. John Kasich.

The number of concealed-carry gun permits issued or renewed in Ohio dropped by 24 percent in 2014, the first decline in several years. The annual report released yesterday by Attorney General Mike DeWine showed 110,212 licenses to carry concealed handguns were issued or renewed last year, compared to 145,342 in 2013. The attorney general is required by state law to compile a report annually based on handgun permits issued by Ohio’s 88 county sheriffs.

About 61,000 Ohioans will lose their tax-funded health coverage at the end of this week. Ohio Medicaid Director John McCarthy said yesterday that the Medicaid recipients will be removed from the rolls on Saturday for failing to verify household income as required under federal guidelines.

Erin West, the mother of a Pataskala 7-year-old, said she is sickened by the thought of more than 300 donated door-security barricades remaining boxed up inside the five buildings of the Southwest Licking school district. Less than a month after a parents group donated the cost of the barricades to the school board, the district received word that their use violates Ohio’s Building Code, which says it must be possible to open doors from the inside “without use of a key or any special knowledge or effort.”

Construction should begin this year on the next phases of work on interchanges along the northern section of I-270 after a state council approved funds that will accelerate start dates for those projects. The Transportation Review Advisory Council approved about $2.4 billion in state funding yesterday for construction projects slated to start through 2026.

Ohio Auditor Dave Yost demanded repayment of nearly $300,000 on Thursday from Columbus-area educators who apparently pocketed the tax money meant to benefit students. Yost said the misspending was the latest problem in Ohio’s system of privately operated, publicly funded charter schools. “The system is busted, broken and doesn’t work,” Yost said. “When everyone is responsible, no one is responsible. Ohio’s chaotic supervision of charter schools is inadequate and needs reformed. ”

House Speaker John Boehner today accused Senate Democrats of “blackmail” in preventing congressional Republicans from invalidating President Barack Obama’s order last November that would allow as many as five million undocumented immigrants to avoid deportation.

Next year is shaping up to be an interesting political year for the Buckeye State, Dispatch Washington reporter Jessica Wehrman writes. “With a presidential race, a national political convention coming to Cleveland and what experts say could quickly become a top-tier Senate race, Ohio’s swing state status — and the influx of political money into the state — could reach unprecedented levels as November 2016 approaches,” Wehrman writes.

Gov. John Kasich covered a lot of ground in his State of the State address on Tuesday night near Wilmington. But here are some of the things he didn’t say.