RICHWOOD, Ohio — At first, John Van Gundy didn’t pay much attention to the helicopter flying above his farm this afternoon. Van Gundy said he sees helicopters all the time over this rural part of Ohio, west of Delaware near the Delaware-Union county line. “People like to watch the cows,” he said with a shrug. But then this helicopter started sputtering, and the noise made him look up.

Gov. John Kasich raised about $2.1 million from January 1 through last Saturday and has $8.5 million on hand with a little more than six months to go until Election Day. Candidates for state office must disclose their campaign finances for the past few months by 4 p.m. today, ahead of the May 6 primary. Kasich’s likely challenger, Democrat Ed FitzGerald, raised $662,182 and has $1.5 million on hand.

The final investigative report of “Coingate” contains no new information on the investment scandal that rocked Ohio nearly a decade ago.

The state today halted the sale of all 1.5 cubic foot bags of mulch produced by Ohio Mulch before April 6, after tests found the bags didn’t contain as much mulch as the packaging indicated. The order does not apply to any other bag size.

A second former member of the Heath High School basketball team pleaded guilty today to charges related to bullying of teammates last winter. Jacob Geller, 18, admitted to a delinquency count of complicity to assault, a first-degree misdemeanor, and a delinquency count of unlawful restraint, a third-degree misdemeanor, in front of Licking County Juvenile Court Judge Robert Hoover.

Sandell Asset Management Corp., which owns about 7 percent of Bob Evans Farms shares, has stepped up its campaign to force the company to make what it sees as shareholder-friendly changes, today proposing a slate of eight candidates it would like to see elected to the board of directors of the New Albany-based company.

NEWARK, Ohio — There’s no word yet on whether Newark’s security-camera klepto is from Texas, but his recent crime spree sure looks familiar to a Corpus Christi detective.

In a turn that does not bode well for Rep. Peter Beck, one of his partners in a Cincinnati investment deal gone sour pleaded guilty today to securities-related crimes and has agreed to testify against Beck.

TOLEDO, Ohio (AP) — A Toledo woman convicted of killing her 6-month-old son has been sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 15 years. Court officials say a judge today sentenced 26-year-old Amanda Bacon on charges of murder and child endangering in the death of her son, Avery.

Health officials are investigating an apparent measles outbreak in Knox County. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is working to confirm 13 suspected cases, said Pam Palm, a spokeswoman for the Knox County Health Department. Four county residents with measles symptoms recently traveled to the Philippines on a humanitarian mission. An outbreak there has killed at least 50 people and sickened more than 20,000.

CINCINNATI — A fairly rotten day on the campaign trail yesterday ended with a good sight for Democratic gubernatorial hopeful Ed FitzGerald. About 75 people who had paid money to his campaign still were waiting at Rhinegeist Brewery in Cincinnati’s Over-the-Rhine neighborhood to hear him speak, even though FitzGerald was more than an hour late to his fundraiser.

CAMBRIDGE, Ohio (AP) — A judge has found an eastern Ohio man competent to stand trial on charges alleging that he raped and killed a pizza delivery driver and dumped her body at a state park.

MANSFIELD, Ohio (AP) — Police in this northeastern Ohio city are investigating the death of a 3-month-old baby who lived in a home where they say a drug lab was operating.

NEWARK, Ohio (AP) — A Licking County woman accused of faking a cancer diagnosis for her 4-year-old son intends to change her plea to either no contest or guilty on felony charges of child endangering and theft.

The state fund for injured workers has increased to $1.2 billion the amount of savings it will provide to employers on their workers’ compensation premiums as part of the move to a new method of billing them for premiums.

WARREN, Ohio (AP) — A corrections officer taken hostage by three inmates at a northeastern Ohio county jail has been released unharmed, and the inmates have been taken to a maximum-security facility.

A former Ohio police captain released after nearly 15 years in prison for his ex-wife’s killing can remain free as the state’s highest court considers whether to take on his case, the court ruled yesterday.

Nearly two decades after welfare reform attempted to help the poor find work and self-sufficiency, Ohio GOP leaders want to give it another shot. Tucked into Gov. John Kasich’s off-year budget bill, recently approved by House Republicans, is a plan to create the Ohio Healthier Buckeye Council and local affiliates tasked with reducing reliance on tax-funded assistance programs such as Medicaid, food stamps and welfare.

State officials announced yesterday they will spend more than $100 million to rehabilitate Ohio state parks over the next two years. They also said they don’t yet know exactly where that money will go.

A far-reaching investigation into auto-parts price-fixing has hit a Honda supplier with a central Ohio plant. Showa Corp. has agreed to plead guilty and pay a $19.9 million fine. The company helped to organize a conspiracy to suppress competition and fix prices for power-steering assemblies sold to Honda, according to the complaint filed yesterday in U.S. District Court in Cincinnati.

Energy-efficiency programs that could be changed or eliminated as a result of a legislative proposal have led to consumer savings of $1 billion compared with costs of about $500 million, according to company reports and an analysis by “green” energy advocates.

ONTARIO, Ohio (AP) — Police are trying to identify a woman who took a stuffed animal from an Ohio boy’s gravesite after other toys and solar nightlights were stolen from there. On Saturday, the child’s family left a stuffed yellow duck for Easter at a cemetery in Ontario, near Mansfield. Surveillance video taken hours later shows a woman pick up the duck, look around and walk away.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled yesterday that voters in each state can decide to ban racial preferences from school admissions. In a 6-2 decision that some experts called a blow to affirmative-action programs, the court upheld a Michigan law that removed race as a consideration for admission to state universities. Seven other states have adopted laws similar to Michigan’s. But Ohio has no such law.

The parents of Sam Wiater asked for prayers yesterday as Athens police identified the body pulled from the Hocking River on Monday as their son. Wiater, 21, a 2011 graduate of Pickerington Central High School, had been missing since the night of March 13.

A missing northeastern Ohio woman was found dead in a farm field near Ashley in Delaware County late yesterday afternoon, the sheriff’s office said.