Former JobsOhio chief Mark Kvamme and his new business partner could make more than $9 million off of Ohio State University’s $50 million investment in their new venture capital firm, a liberal policy group said today.

Rep. Joyce Beatty will be among a delegation of more than 20 lawmakers who will travel to South Africa for a memorial service for former South African President Nelson Mandela, her spokesman confirmed today. Beatty, D-Jefferson Township, will be one of two Ohioans on the trip. Rep. Marcia Fudge, D-Cleveland, the head of the Congressional Black Caucus, will also be on the trip.

If the U.S. Constitution is the highest law of the land, can a state law rise above it?

As three boys trekked along the snow-covered banks of the Big Run stream yesterday, stopping now and again to poke sticks into the moving water, Rich Niccum said that’s just the type of activity he wants to see at the new Shale Hollow Preserve. The 188-acre park in Lewis Center opened yesterday with a ribbon-cutting that drew a crowd of about five dozen people despite temperatures dipping into the 20s.

There will be no Christmas for bedbugs, at least not at Heritage Hall Senior Center. Same goes for the people they plague. The hall, a place where Licking County seniors gather for euchre and line-dancing, bans folks whose homes are infested with bedbugs.

MARYSVILLE, Ohio — As the visiting foreign dignitaries made their way down Main Street, the U.S. and Japanese flags fluttered above, suspended side by side from the ladder of a firetruck. The flags were a public sign that something special was happening last week, local leaders said.

The board that oversees the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport has spent more than $102,000 on food and alcohol after each monthly meeting over the past five years, an Enquirer analysis of airport documents shows.

Ohio law requires all school buildings — from pre-schools to high schools — to submit a school-safety plan to the attorney general and update it every three years. But even that doesn’t guarantee a plan will keep students out of harm’s way. “The only thing the law says is that you have to have a school-safety plan. Nothing in the law says how good it has to be,” said Attorney General Mike DeWine.

Baartol Co., a Kenton, Ohio-based, family-owned flagpole manufacturer founded in 1931, is closing. Eder Flag Manufacturing Co. of Oak Creek, Wis., which makes flags and flagpoles, announced last week that it has acquired Baartol’s assets.

The empty row of slot machines squawking for players can’t drown out Marla Wagner as she yells at her friend to take a smoke break at the Hollywood Casino on the eve of Thanksgiving. Bars and restaurants typically fill with friends and relatives reuniting before the holiday, but here, cocktail waitresses are short on tips and blackjack dealers help rookie card players at half-filled tables.

The drug is real enough, as are the gruesome side effects that leave addicts with festering abscesses and peeling, reptilian skin. It is unquestionably a grave problem in rural Russia, where addicts call it krokodil.

U.S. employers and consumers will bear the brunt of more than $20 billion in fees to be assessed in 2014 under the Affordable Care Act. Health insurers are passing the mandatory fees on to many people, including those who buy coverage directly from insurers or who get health benefits through their jobs.

Don’t underestimate the entertainment value of watching birds that come to your backyard feeders. On winter days when the weather outside is frightful and I have time on my hands, I find that watching the birds adds interest to those dreary times.

SANDUSKY, Ohio — The mother of a slain young boy has pleaded guilty to a felony charge of permitting child abuse in the boy’s 2012 death.

The body of a Tarlton woman who had been missing since Wednesday was found yesterday in a Pickaway County pond into which her vehicle had crashed. Donna J. Vangundy, 53, died after her sport-utility vehicle ran off Tarlton Road on a curve near Huber Hitler Road and went into the pond south of Circleville, Sheriff Robert Radcliff said.

Cincinnati Mayor John Cranley says he was “bummed out, disappointed” when Willie Carden informed him yesterday that he was withdrawing from consideration to be the next city manager.

DAYTON — A southwestern Ohio county is requiring its health commissioner to be a nonsmoker who isn’t overweight.

COLUMBUS -- The Ohio Court of Claims says a man wrongfully imprisoned for 16 years should get more than $600,000 in compensation from the state for lost wages.

ASHTABULA -- A judge has set a $100,000 bond for the wife of a northeastern Ohio judge accused of trying to poison him with antifreeze. Carla Hague, 71, didn’t appear in court for the Thursday hearing. Her attorney acted on her behalf.

The Dispatch strives to be fair and accurate. The newspaper corrects any significant errors of fact brought to the attention of the editors. If you think an error has been made, call 614-461-5271.

DAYTON -- A state appeals court has ruled that charges were dismissed improperly in the case of two nurses in the malnutrition death of a Dayton teenager who had cerebral palsy and weighed only 28 pounds.

A court-appointed guardian is dropping her attempt to force an 11-year-old Amish girl with leukemia to resume chemotherapy after she and her parents fled their home to avoid treatment.

BEAVERCREEK, Ohio — A suburban Dayton school district will be able to restore some of the programs it cut after a recount showed its levy passed by a slim margin in last month’s election.

The Groveport Madison School District and a group of central Ohio school districts were among 24 schools and consortiums awarded $88.7 million yesterday in the first round of education grants from Ohio’s new Straight A Fund.

Retired Ohio State President E. Gordon Gee will be returning home in many ways to become president of West Virginia University in January until the school can find a new permanent leader.