The so-called McGill Four NDPers elected in Quebec may well turn out to be fine politicians.

While an Ottawa doctor’s career hangs in the balance, he maintains his love for country music star Shania Twain.

Outside a pink home in a cookie-cutter subdivision next to York University, a landlord calling himself Mike carefully examines the driver’s license of a man looking to rent a room for the night.

How to become a jockey: first drop out of school, then drop 20 pounds, then ride as many horses as you possibly can.

With the threat of an election out of the air, Parliament will be less partisan and more focused on policy, observers say.

How Michael Ignatieff’s arrogance, failure to adequately prepare for the party leaders’ TV debates and failure to stay on message led to his downfall.

Canada's prison service is under fire after an elite group of guards in full riot gear went rogue for 10 days and held inmates at gunpoint, a new report reveals.

After days of confusing reports by U.S. officials, some clarity is finally emerging surrounding the death of Osama bin Laden.

Officials at a Japanese power company were finalizing a decision Saturday following a government request that it suspend all three reactors at a coastal nuclear plant while steps are taken to prev...

The trial of Pakistani-Canadian Tahawwur Hussain Rana, an accused in the Mumbai terror attack case, is scheduled to begin on May 16 at the Federal Court in Chicago.The trial will be held be...

A Western intelligence official said no concrete threat has emerged so far that authorities considered credible.

External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna on Friday disfavoured the idea of not engaging Pakistan in talks because of Osama bin Laden’s whereabouts at the time he was killed by U.S. force...

Opposing the bail plea, the CBI pleaded in court for sending Kanimozhi and Sharad Kumar to judicial custody

Air India operations were yet to be normalised today after the pilots called off their 10-day strike, as the airline had stopped taking any bookings for over a week.

Shobhit Modi, an alumnus of DPS R K Puram, was stabbed at least four times on his chest, abdomen and shoulders by unknown assailants.

The CBI prosecutor on Saturday said the DMK MP was the "active brain" associated with co-accused A Raja in the 2G spectrum allotment issue.

Severiano Ballesteros, who underwent surgery for a brain tumour three years ago, died early this morning at his home in...

FORT CAMPBELL, Ky. — President Obama on Friday privately thanked the U.S. Special Forces who killed Osama bin Laden. “Job well done,” he said of their daring raid.In a series of closed-door meetings, Mr. Obama and Vice President Joe Biden met with some of the Special Operations forces who went on the raid in Pakistan and with members of the assault force who supported the mission.The President later addressed more than 2,000 soldiers in a hangar at Fort Campbell. “I came here for a simple reason: to say thank you on behalf of all America. This has been a historic week in the life of our nation,” he said. “Thanks to the incredible skill and courage of countless individuals, intelligence, military, over many years, the terrorist leader who struck our nation on 9/11 will never threaten America again.” The President said he had visited New York the day before to pay homage to the victims of bin Laden’s 2001 terrorist attacks and to the firefighters and police who responded to the catastrophe.“I promised that our nation will never forget those we lost that dark September day,” he said.“And today, here at Fort Campbell, I had the privilege of meeting the extraordinary Special Ops folks who honored that promise,” he said. “It was a chance for me to say, ‘On behalf of all Americans and people around the world, job well done. Job well done.’”During the meeting with the SEAL team, Mr. Obama awarded it and other units involved in the operation a Presidential Unit Citation, the White House said. The President also received a PowerPoint presentation on the raid, with maps, photos, and a scale model of the compound, from members of the assault force. Even the trained dog used in the raid attended.Speaking later to the troops of the 101st Airborne Division, he drew another connection, between the soldiers there and the commandos he called “America’s quiet professionals.”“Like all of us, they could have chosen a life of ease,” the President said. “But like you, they volunteered.”Describing the SEAL commandos as “battle hardened” and tirelessly trained, Mr. Obama said: “When I gave the order, they were ready. And in recent days, the world has learned just how ready they were.”While the SEAL team is not based at Fort Campbell, it is home of the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, known as the Night Stalkers. The unit, which pilots aircraft for Special Operations troops, flew the helicopters that carried the commandos to bin Laden’s compound.Mr. Obama linked the killing of bin Laden to the broader war, saying it showed the progress the United States had made in disrupting and dismantling al-Qaeda. The soldiers of the 101st Airborne, he said, were pushing back insurgents and allowing Afghans to reclaim their towns. “The bottom line is this,” he said in a statement that drew the loudest cheers of the day, “our strategy is working, and there is no greater evidence of that than justice finally being delivered to Osama bin Laden.” Among the soldiers, there was satisfaction at the killing of bin Laden. Several said they were relieved, though most said they did not believe it would bring the Afghan war to an end any sooner.“It helps to know that we finally got him,” said Sgt. Marion Githens, who coordinated Army helicopters at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan before returning to the United States two days ago. But she said she was still ambivalent about the war. “Some days, you feel like it’s not going anywhere,” she said. “Other days, you think, OK, maybe we really can help these people.”Soldiers expressed gratitude Mr. Obama had come. “It’s tough coming home,” said Capt. Jimos Reese, a company commander. “It does mean a lot that the President cares about you.”The Pentagon recommended Mr. Obama come to Fort Campbell, a senior official said, because the 101st Airborne had taken significant casualties, having served in a Taliban stronghold south and west of Kandahar that is some of the most lethal terrain in Afghanistan.Mr. Obama acknowledged that, noting 125 soldiers from the base had died in Afghanistan. Some soldiers in the 101st Airborne, he said, had been deployed to Afghanistan three or four times.Among those who greeted the President at Fort Campbell was Vice Adm. William McRaven, a former commando in the SEALs who oversaw the raid as the commander of the Joint Special Operations Command. After Mr. Obama’s arrival, the President’s motorcade left immediately for low buildings on the far side of the airfield, where the meeting with the SEAL team and other units lasted more than an hour.The meetings were kept private to protect the identities of those involved and to shield them from becoming targets of terrorist reprisals. In his speech to the troops, Mr. Obama said the American military had “broken the Taliban’s momentum” to promote terrorism in Afghanistan.“We are ultimately going to defeat al-Qaeda,” the President said to loud cheers. But he said he didn’t want to fool anyone. “This continues to be a tough fight.”Soldiers were careful not to celebrate bin Laden’s death, voicing instead a sense of professional pride for the work of the commandos.“We’re not done,” said Major Luis Ortiz.

WASHINGTON — U.S. companies are on a hiring spree.Businesses delivered a jolt of strength to the economy by creating 268,000 jobs in April, the biggest monthly total in more than five years. The gains were solid across an array of industries, including construction.It was the third month in a row of at least 200,000 new jobs. The private sector has added jobs for 14 consecutive months. Even a slight rise in the jobless rate to 9 percent appears to be a quirk.The job growth was better than economists expected and perhaps the strongest sign yet that what they call a “virtuous cycle” has taken hold: When people spend more, corporate earnings rise, leading to more hiring and then more spending.“This was really a good report because ultimately it is all about jobs,” said Joel Naroff, president of Naroff Economic Advisors. “More and more, it is looking as if the recovery is on track despite the headwinds it is facing.”Those include higher prices for crude oil and gas. But energy prices fell earlier this week, apparently reflecting lower consumption in the United States and a stronger dollar. Analysts predict the price of gasoline may have peaked for the summer at about $4 a gallon.The rise in the unemployment rate, to 9 percent in April from 8.8 percent in March, was the first increase since November. But it appeared to be because of a temporary disparity in two surveys the government uses to track jobs.Wall Street was pleased by Friday’s report from the Labor Department. The Dow Jones industrials rose more than 150 points shortly after the opening bell and closed up 55 points, or 0.4 percent.Economists say companies are paying for new hires by spending some of the almost $2 trillion in cash that businesses stockpiled after the recession ended in June, 2009. Analysts have said the use of corporate cash reserves is the most effective way to strengthen the job market.“What we’re seeing is a sustained pickup in hiring and it suggests that businesses have gained enough confidence to look past short-term fluctuations in demand,” said Aaron Smith, a senior economist at Moody’s Analytics in West Chester, Pa.Once again, governments at the federal, state, and local levels all cut jobs — 24,000 in April. Counting those cuts, the economy as a whole added 244,000 jobs last month. The private-sector job gains were the most since February, 2006. President Obama said they were a sign that “we are regaining our footing.”“We’ve made this progress at a time when our economy’s been facing some serious headwinds,” he told workers at a transmission plant in Indiana. He cited high gas prices and the earthquake in Japan.“There will undoubtedly be some more challenges ahead, but the fact is that we are still making progress,” he said. “And that proves how resilient the American economy is, and how resilient the American worker is, and that we can take a hit and we can keep on going forward.”Even with last month’s burst of hiring, 13.7 million people remained unemployed in April. That’s double the number when the recession began in December, 2007.Some analysts expressed caution about the latest news.“There are yellow warning flags that are popping up,” said Joshua Shapiro, chief U.S. economist for MFR Inc. “It remains to be seen whether this nascent recovery we are seeing is going to peter out or not.”“Millions of people are unemployed and many have left the labor market and given up,” he said. “Against that we are maybe creating 244,000 jobs. That is all well and good, but it just shows you how much further we have to go to make a dent into what has happened in the labor market.”

PREP SOFTBALLSouthview 100 000 0 - 1 4 0Anthony Wayne 000 000 0 - 0 9 1WP-O’Reilly. LP-Kurfis. Knepper (S) 2-3.Perrysburg 201 000 5 - 8 11 0Maumee 000 000 0 - 0 2 4WP- Rich; LP Fowls; WIlson (P) 3-4, RBI.Evergreen 120 200 3 - 8 11 3Patrick Henry 330 120 x - 9 14 5WP-Meyer. LP-Pierce. Moll (P) 2-4, 3B, 2 RBI.Gibsonburg 100 000 0 - 1 4 1Eastwood 100 103 x - 5 9 2WP-Foster. LP-Henline. Foster (E), 1-1, HR, 3 RBI.Elmwood 075 14 - 17 15 0Otsego 000 00 -- 0 5 3WP-Lee. LP-Thomas. Beckford (E), 3-3, 2 RBI.Liberty Center 000 00 - 0 2 1Patrick Henry 502 3x - 10 11 0WP- Meyer; LP- Sturgill. Koppenhofer (PH) 2-2, 3b, RBI.Springfield 340 130 0 - 11 13 2Rossford 000 020 0 - 2 6 2WP- Buck; LP- Longeway; Cordrey (S) 3-5, 2b. 2 RBI.Delta 130 000 0 - 4 5 1Archbold 800 001 x - 9 7 1WP- S. Wyse; LP- Shindorf; C. Wyse (A) 3-4, 2b, 2 RBI.Genoa 000 73 - 10 10 1St. Ursula 000 00 - ?0 ?0 4WP-Hoyles (no-hitter). LP-Tylicki. Harmeyer (G) 2-3, 2B, RBI.Whitmer 000 1 0 - 1 5 5Evergreen 160 (11)x - 18 13 1WP- Pierce; LP- Deer;. K. Ducat (E), 3-4, 2 GS HR, 9 RBI.Woodmore 003 000 000 - 3 5 0Lake 000 110 101 - 4 11 0WP-Densic. LP-Phillips. Schnell (L) 3-4, 2 RBI (GW RBI)Notre Dame 163 00 - 10 6 0Woodward 000 00 - 0 0 1WP-Wilkins (no-hitter). LP-Hester. Brickman (ND) 2-3, 3B, 2 RBI.Bowsher 100 00 - 1 5 2Clay 442 1x - 11 8 1WP-Gallaher. LP-Aiken. Laberdee (C), 2-2, 2B, 3 RBI, 2 runs.Marion Harding 200 000 - 2 8 0Napoleon 035 103 - 12 15 0WP- Meyer; LP- Backenssto; Pilkington (N) 3-3, 3b, 3 RBI. Northview 000 000 2 - 2 6 3Bowling Green 003 006 x - 9 13 2WP- Ackenberger; LP- Benton. Ruehl (BG) 3-4, RBI,PREP BASEBALLSt. Francis 110 040 0 - 6 9 1Central 000 100 0 - 1 1 1WP- Zmuda; LP- McNair; A. Joyce (SF) 2-4, HR.Delta 220 001 5 - 10 13 0Ottawa Hills 101 100 1 - 4 8 3WP-Abbott. LP-Jarecki. Abbott (D) 4-4, 4 2B. Southview 000 00 - 0 1 7Anthony Wayne 062 8x - 16 9 10WP- Allen; LP- Fisher. Lindke (AW) 1-2, 2 RBINorthview 210 300 0 - 6 8 0Bowling Green 500 203 x - 10 11 2WP- Ireland; LP- Reynolds. Lane (BG) 2-3, 2b.Maumee 001 200 2 — 5 7 2Perrysburg 212 601 x — 12 10 1WP-Schmenk. LP-Laranga, Kruzel (P) 3-3, 2 HR, 3 RBI.Montpelier 201 010 0 - 4 6 2Swanton 023 011 x - 7 7 2WP: Robinson; LP: Walsh; Michalkiewicz (S) 2-3.Springfield 0(16)32 2x - 23 19 0Rossford 300 50 - 8 5 4WP-Brodbeck. LP-Recknagel. Sobczak (S), 4-5, 2B, 4 RBI.Delta 100 000 0 - 1 5 1Archbold 001 003 x - 4 10 0WP- Miller; LP- Beverly; Bentrager (A) 3-4, RBI.Whitmer 320 000 0 - 5 8 0Start 000 010 0 - 1 4 2WP-Ricica. LP-Sponsellor. Durham (W) 3-4.Liberty Center 100 100 0 - 2 5 6Bryan 432 000 x - 9 12 2WP- Blaylock; LP- Snow. Bacon (B) 3-4, R, 3 RBI

MADRID — Spanish golfer Seve Ballesteros has died after a deterioration in his condition, having undergone treatment for a brain tumour in 2008, the Spanish television channel TVE said on Saturday.Ballesteros, 54, a five-times major winner, had been recuperating at his home in northern Spain after a series of operations on the tumour and a course of chemotherapy.

The Blade seeks gardeners for Weed It & Reap who are as varied as what they grow and who dig in gardens large, small, or with unusual content. In a sentence, tell us what’s unique about you or your garden. Contact Tahree Lane at tlane@theblade.com or 419-724-6075. Name: Don Stierman, associate professor of geophysics/seismologist at the University of Toledo, living in Old Orchard. Garden specs: 80 square yards (20-by-4 yards), plus flowers here and there, and two wine-grape vines (DeChaunac, a red). I’m also part of the community garden at UT, across from the law school, where my theme is perennial herbs: mint, horseradish, chives, lovage, thyme, and oregano.When did you start gardening?  Born into it. Grandpa was a truck farmer, became known as Dubuque, Iowa’s ‘apple man’ about 1970.  We lived on the 20 acres next door.  I weeded, hoed, and helped harvest in our home gardens and in Grandpa’s commercial operation (a couple of pick-up loads a week at peak production). I learned to be ambidextrous when picking berries, apples, beans, and tomatoes. Mom canned tomatoes, applesauce, pickles, and froze corn, peas, beans, berries, and cherries. I have seven brothers and sisters, and we seldom purchased vegetables from the A&P.  Any one of us can spot the best tomato or biggest apple in the pile at a glance. Two of my brothers  managed the produce sections of supermarkets, two are avid gardeners, and one sells at a farmers’ market. We continue learning from one another.  What do you grow? Tomatoes. I’ve found the varieties I like: Better Boys, Sweet Baby Girls, Park’s Whopper, and about July 1, I plant a Brandywine because they keep well into the fall. You store them by putting the green ones in a cool, dark place in the basement until they ripen. I had a homegrown tomato at Christmas. Five varieties of peppers (Tiburon, a hot poblano-style for chile rellenos; jalapenos; Hungarian wax pepper for pickling; the big Karma bell pepper for all-around use, and a sweet banana that is prolific and early. Every year I plant a different variety of pickling cucumber to make kosher dills, dill (of course), green beans, several varieties (“chef’s blend”) of leaf lettuce,  cabbage, kohlrabi, zucchini, herbs, blackberries, black raspberries, rhubarb, ornamentals, and flowers. By now, spinach, green onions, and endive have germinated outdoors. I started leaf lettuce, cabbage, and broccoli from seed in early March using a heating pad and a fluorescent desk lamp, and will transplant them outdoors as soon as it’s dry enough.  Pepper and tomato plants are growing in the sun room; will transplant those mid-May when the danger of frost has past.Favorite plant: If I could plant only one thing, it would be tomatoes. Give us a gardening tip: Frequent shallow cultivation. I get down on my knees and use the three-pronged hand cultivator to keep the surface loose and kill weeds, trying to get around the whole garden at least once a week. Hours spent gardening: Thirty hours a week in May (weeding, mostly, and transplanting), eight hours a week in July. In August, the blackberries come in, and grapes are at the end of August. Annual expense: $40 for seeds (mail order), $15 fertilizers (I use one tablespoon of bone meal in the bottom of each transplant hole, and off-the-shelf liquid fertilizer), $10 for pest and fungus control, $60 for flats of flowers (from a local greenhouse), $20 in 2010 for Fall Red everbearing raspberry plants, and $20 this year for two Pixwell gooseberry plants from which I’ll make pies.  Each year brings some sort of long-term investment ($20 – $60) in fencing, grub virus, posts, cages, or tools. Challenges: Now that temporary fences (24-inch-tall woven ‘chicken’ wire) keep rabbits from seedling lettuce and cabbages; Japanese beetles are my major pest but they attack mostly roses.  In 2009 a groundhog destroyed cucumbers, beans, and zucchini. After eight weeks of escalating warfare, I got him and he remains in the hole he dug under the blackberry patch. I’m still seen from time to time chasing rabbits. Also, getting autumn vegetables to germinate in the hot summer sun is difficult and not always successful.  I’m proud of my wine (about 12 to 20 bottles a year), thornless blackberries (they love being the ‘rain garden’, a natural low spot where runoff drains), producing enough tomatoes and peppers for our children (four) and grandchildren (nine), growing dahlias and gladiolas that multiply so vigorously I pass overflow bulbs and roots to relatives. Usually my dill pickles bring high praise. I use my grandmother’s recipe and take a couple of jars to my 89-year-old mother in Dubuque. Canning season runs from July 20 to early September.  I make pies from rhubarb and blackberries and taught my oldest granddaughter how to make pies; our family traditions endure. People passing in cars have stopped to photograph my dahlias. Our daughter in Los Angeles is successfully growing tomatoes in patio pots and our oldest son moved his family into a house with a garden, a feature he prefers over a pool.  What I’ve learned gardening: Gardening is a religious experience for me, a practice of the virtues of hope and faith, and there is so much to be thankful for.  Seminarians should be required to tend a few vines and make wine as part of their education.  “Fruit of the vine and work of human hands” takes on real meaning when it is your hands doing the work. The parable about Jesus being the vine, consistently there year after year, and people being the branches producing the fruit is probably best understood when you have to prune your own vines.

INDIANAPOLIS — A group of students from Bowling Green State University will take to the asphalt on Saturday at the iconic home of automotive racing to pit their all-electric go-kart against those from 29 other colleges and universities around the world. The eight BGSU students have spent months designing and building their lithium-ion, battery-powered No. 9 racer for a 100-lap race around a special 1,200-foot road course track at 2:30 p.m. Saturday on the grounds of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.The Collegiate evGrandPrix open-wheeled kart race is sponsored by Allison Transmission Inc., and is designed to advance electric powertrain development and increase enthusiasm among young engineers and motor sport enthusiasts.The privately funded BG kart, which reaches speeds of 45 mph or more, is being driven by sophomore Kenneth Heschel, a Port Clinton native and 14-year Kart racing veteran.The champion of the overall evGrandPrix competition is the team that best blends kart design and community outreach with race placement and optimal efficiency during 100 laps of racing.“We’re competitive. From what we’re showing, we’re in the upper third [of competing teams]. It’s not just about speed, though. We have to be able to finish the race,” said Anthony Palumbo, adviser to the BGSU Motorsports club and a BGSU professor emeritus who is accompanying the team.In addition to their electric vehicle, the team has been working with students at Penta Career Center on a second kart that students there hope to enter in follow-up races in September, said Mike Hall, an automotive technologies instructor at Penta.This is not the first time BGSU has been involved in electric-powered motor sports.The school fielded an electrified open-wheeled racer called the “Electric Falcon” between 1994 and 2003, racing other collegiate teams from across the country in an effort to develop some of the drivetrain technology now appearing on consumer electric vehicles.

John Bravata, a real estate investor accused in 2009 of operating a Ponzi scheme, has been arrested on federal wire fraud charges and is being held in New York, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.The founder and chairman of BBC Equities LLC and Bravata Financial Group LLC is accused of knowingly defrauding investors from 2006 to 2009, according to a criminal complaint filed with the U.S. District Court in Detroit. The companies had two offices in Perrysburg, though the complaint shows that the firms operated in Southfield, Mich.Mr. Bravata was arrested Thursday at JFK International Airport in New York, where he had just returned from a trip to Italy. He remained in custody in New York and is awaiting U.S. marshals to transport him to Detroit, a spokesman for the attorney’s office in Detroit said.The complaint said Mr. Bravata’s companies collected more than $50 million from investors but invested only $20.7 million in real estate. A “significant portion” of the remainder allegedly went toward Mr. Bravata’s personal expenses, including construction of an 18,000-square-foot home.Federal investigators also say Mr. Bravata misled investors about the security of their proceeds and the companies’ profitability. If convicted, Mr. Bravata faces up to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.It was not immediately known on Friday whether Mr. Bravata has legal representation.The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filed a civil suit in 2009 against Mr. Bravata and his business partner, Richard Trabulsy, as well as BBC Equities and Bravata Financial.The suit, which also named Mr. Bravata’s wife and son, alleged a wide-ranging securities fraud in which the two men used the assets from at least 440 investors to live lavish lifestyles. The suit also alleged the men and their companies used investors’ funds to make quarterly payments to earlier investors who had been promised annual returns of as much as 12 percent.That case is still being considered in U.S. District Court. A judge granted a preliminary injunction in January and froze Mr. Bravata’s assets.Neither Mr. Trabulsy nor Mr. Bravata’s family members are named in Mr. Bravata’s criminal complaint. Contact Sheena Harrison at: sharrison@theblade.com or 419-724-6103.

WAUSEON — Officials with Wauseon Exempted Village Schools investigated third-party tips more than two weeks ago that one of their bus drivers was drinking on the job, but said they found nothing to indicate he was drunk on his route or posed any risk to the children he took to and from school.But last week, after running his morning route, Chad Bachman stepped off bus No. 18 and failed a portable breath-alcohol test administered by a Wauseon police officer who was waiting for him at the district’s bus lot. Mr. Bachman — whose alcohol level was three times the legal limit for driving — resigned on the spot.District officials said they acted appropriately in their follow-up. The Wauseon prosecutor has declined to file charges against Mr. Bachman citing insufficient evidence, and some parents are wondering why they weren’t told the details of his resignation.Tips that Mr. Bachman might have been under the influence of alcohol while at work recently came to both an officer with the Wauseon Police Department and the school’s transportation director. Wauseon Police Chief Keith Torbet on Friday called it a “rumor-mill tip.”“We didn’t have any verified proof, didn’t have any verified dates or times; we didn’t have anyone who saw him drinking on the bus or drinking before he got on the bus or anything like that,” Chief Torbet said.It isn’t uncommon for police to receive vague information like that, the chief said, and no official complaint was filed. Still, officers made several attempts to check in on the 42-year-old Mr. Bachman, but missed him in passing, Chief Torbet said. Finally, on April 29, Wauseon Officer Brian Courtney watched Mr. Bachman pull his bus onto the lot, fill up the fuel tank, park the bus, and step down from the door, according to police reports.The report filed that day said Officer Courtney asked Mr. Bachman if he could get back on the bus so the two could speak privately. He then told Mr. Bachman of the allegations and asked if he would submit to a voluntary, portable alcohol-breath test. Mr. Bachman agreed and registered a blood-alcohol content of .223 percent — almost three times the legal driving limit of .08 percent.Wauseon Superintendent Marc Robinson said Mr. Bachman had transported students that morning, but he did not know how many or their grade levels. Students in kindergarten through 12th grade are bused together, he said.After the alcohol test, Officer Courtney summoned district Transportation Director Pam Waugh, who told him she too had been informed that Mr. Bachman possibly had been intoxicated while driving the bus, the report states. Mr. Bachman tendered a resignation letter hand-written in blue ink on a piece of notebook paper. School officials said they had it within minutes.“We made him very aware that the best option was for him to resign,” Mr. Robinson said.Monday, the school sent what Mr. Robinson said was a “fairly vanilla letter” to parents whose children rode Mr. Bachman’s bus, telling them the regular driver had resigned and a substitute would be taking over for the next four weeks of the school year. The letter did not include the circumstances surrounding that resignation.But Metia Nelson, who was waiting to pick up her daughter at the Wauseon school complex Friday, said that’s the information all district parents should have.“I think every parent should be notified regardless,” Ms. Nelson said. “It’s their child and someone’s driving them around. We’re putting our loved ones in their hands pretty much. That shouldn’t be taken lightly, I don’t think. It’s scary. Wow.”Ms. Nelson said she drives her daughter to and from school so her daughter doesn’t have to cross several busy roads on her walk home.Looming behind the issue were two levies the Wauseon school district were asking voters to approve on election night Tuesday — one was a renewal and one was an emergency levy that will generate more than $840,000 over the next eight years. Voters passed both issues.Mr. Robinson said the election had no bearing on how the incident was handled or announced.“Absolutely not,” he said. “We reacted within minutes when we became aware of this situation. I know that an investigation like this takes some time on law enforcement’s end, but from our perspective ... you’re not going to do anything to jeopardize the safety of kids. The minute we became aware there was clearly an issue, it was resolved in less than five minutes.”As far as the district could determine in April, the earlier rumblings were unfounded.Ms. Waugh sat down with Mr. Bachman April 21, at which time he assured her he did not have a problem. The district then kept a close watch on Mr. Bachman mornings and afternoons for the next few days. Mr. Robinson said they saw nothing out of the ordinary.Mr. Bachman’s personnel file showed no previous disciplinary actions or complaints since he was hired Nov. 11, 2004. His driving record at the time of his hire was clean, and Chief Torbet said he could find no other traffic or criminal charges. Mr. Robinson said Mr. Bachman had passed several state-mandated drug and alcohol screenings. The Blade was not able to review those, as the district said they fall under a medical-records exception.A woman who answered the phone at the number in Mr. Bachman’s personnel file said no one named Chad lives at that address. Wauseon Mayor Jerry Dehnbostel could not be reached for comment.According to the Wauseon Police report, Mr. Bachman told the officer he had been drinking Jack Daniel’s and Coke, but not had a drink since 9 the night before. Though that’s not a defense, Chief Torbet said it’s possible for someone to register a high blood-alcohol content even several hours after heavy drinking.In spite of the test results, Mr. Bachman was not arrested at the scene, and upon the recommendation of Wauseon Prosecutor Eric K. Nagel, no charges will be filed.In a letter to Chief Torbet dated May 4, Mr. Nagel wrote he did not believe there was sufficient evidence to secure a conviction. The chief issue was a lack of probable cause for the test, Mr. Nagel said.Chief Torbet said officers did not receive any specific tips that day, nor did they observe Mr. Bachman driving on the street.“I can’t just pull you out of your car and say blow into this, unless we’re doing a random DUI checkpoint, and we jump through all those hoops to set that up,” Chief Torbet said. He added Mr. Bachman was under no legal obligation to take the test and did so voluntarily.Credible tips can give officers probable cause to make a traffic stop — such as when a motorist calls the state’s 1-800-GRAB DUI hot line to report erratic driving. “It’s not like we had a tip that today ‘this gentleman’s doing this.’ If that would have been the case we would have handled it right away, but we didn’t have it,” Chief Torbet said.Mr. Nagel also wrote that Ohio courts disagree how portable breath tests can be used and he had some doubts about whether it would be admissible in court.Both Wauseon’s police chief and the school superintendent said they believe they’re being beaten up verbally and blamed for an episode that was handled correctly.

Two interest-free loans totaling $66,885 that the Toledo Area Regional Transit Authority provided in 2007 and 2008 to the campaign committee for a transit levy are illegal and must be paid back, according to a finding by Ohio Auditor Dave Yost.The “finding for recovery” accompanying the auditor’s review of TARTA audit reports for 2008 and 2009 declares that the loans represent an impermissible “use of public funds to support or oppose the passage of a levy or bond issue.” The finding directs Citizens for TARTA to repay the money, and if the campaign committee fails to do so, holds TARTA General Manager James Gee financially responsible.The report noted that, as of the close of TARTA’s 2009 books, none of the money had been repaid to the transit authority.“It’s gratifying that Auditor Yost has validated my complaint,” said Waterville Mayor Derek Merrin, who in January protested to the Lucas County Board of Elections, Mr. Yost, and several other officials about the loans. Mr. Merrin said he discovered the loans by reviewing Citizens for TARTA campaign-finance reports.Mr. Gee, who is the transit authority general manager and the campaign committee treasurer, said the ruling mystified him, since the transit authority in 2008 had obtained an opinion from the Ohio secretary of state’s office indicating such loans were proper, and the loans were also shown repeatedly on campaign-finance reports and other documents without controversy.“We’re just really surprised by this,” Mr. Gee said. “This was disclosed on reports, and through previous audits with previous auditors. We’ve always made full disclosure on everything.”An e-mail that the transit manager cited to support the loans’ legality, however, reveals that the secretary of state’s office may have mistaken the transit authority for a private corporation instead of a public agency.TARTA received the opinion indirectly, through a request to the Lucas County Board of Elections. In the July 9, 2008, e-mail, elections board representative Olga Vallejo advised Mr. Gee that the secretary of state’s office had cited Section 3599.03 of the Ohio Revised Code, which governs political use of corporate funds.“Basically, they informed me that since the Ballot Issue PAC was supported by the Corporation such as TARTA, there is nothing in the code that says the Committee could NOT take a loan from TARTA,” Ms. Vallejo wrote. “This part of the code considers the loan from TARTA to the Citizens for TARTA PAC a contribution until the loan is paid back to TARTA.”TARTA, however, is not a private corporation, but rather a public jurisdiction, which collects a significant portion of its income from its two levies on real property in its service area.Mr. Gee said his office did not question whether the secretary of state’s advice, as relayed by the elections board, was valid for an agency like his.“I don’t know why the secretary of state’s office gave the opinion they gave, but we relied on it,” he said.Mr. Gee then repeated that the loans had been shown in TARTA’s annual financial statements, reviewed by the agency’s hired auditors, for several years without any exception being taken.But he said he did not know if the state auditor’s office, in reviewing the hired auditor’s work, had seen the detailed accounting that showed the loans. A summary report Mr. Yost issued along with his findings made no specific mention of the loans; Mr. Gee said they would be covered in the summary under “accounts receivable.”“In my mind, they are one and the same,” Mr. Gee said. “The contract auditor shared the information about the loans to the [state auditor’s] Toledo regional office in 2008 as a part of the 2007 audit.”Carrie Bartunek, a spokesman for Mr. Yost, said Friday the state auditor was conducting “further research” about the matter and was unavailable to comment.Ms. Bartunek said, however, that the issue was not one of the loans having gone unpaid, but that they were ever granted.“It’s just not supposed to happen at all,” she said.Mr. Yost’s finding was announced Thursday.The matter now goes to the Lucas County Prosecutor’s Office, which has 120 days to decide whether it will take action against Citizens for TARTA.While confirming that no payments against the 2007 and 2008 loans had been made by the end of 2009, Mr. Gee said Citizens for TARTA had in January begun making payments of $250 per month. He declined to link those payments’ start to Mr. Merrin’s complaint, since “I don’t know when that was written.”At that rate, the campaign committee would need more than 22 years to pay off the debt.“It has started modestly, but that could change,” Mr. Gee said. “Our intent is to repay quicker than that. The committee needs to fund-raise and develop a repayment plan that meets the auditor’s needs here. … There’s always been the intent to repay. That’s why we’ve shown it as a loan.”Mayor Merrin questioned the loans’ sincerity, and said that regardless, the money needs to be paid back promptly. Repayment could start with more than $21,000 that Citizens for TARTA had in its bank account the last time it filed a campaign finance report, he said.“The TARTA trustees need to do a thorough investigation of Mr. Gee,” Mr. Merrin said, questioning the propriety of having the general manager also be the campaign committee treasurer. “I really, truly believe they [Citizens for TARTA] had no intention of paying it back.”Mr. Gee said the campaign committee had held onto its bank account as capital for organizing fund-raising events.“We didn’t want to drain the account, and have nothing left to continue fund-raising to pay off the rest of the loan,” he said.James Bohn, president of the TARTA trustees, said he believes the transit authority “would have to get its money right away” in response to Mr. Yost’s finding, but he also considered Mr. Gee to have acted in good faith and does not consider him to have been “in the wrong for disciplinary purposes.”“My understanding is that it was all approved by the secretary of state three years ago,” Mr. Bohn said. “I knew the loan was out there. … I’m going to make sure it gets paid back.”Contact David Patch at: dpatch@theblade.com or 419-724-6094.

Rachel Krause, aka the building doctor, asked Richard Martinez and Judy Cattran what projects they had in mind for their historic 1865 home.“Do you want a list? There’s about a hundred things,” Mr. Martinez said, looking up at the stately brick house on North Superior Street.“Priority?” Ms. Krause asked hopefully.The technical preservation services coordinator for the Ohio Historic Preservation Office had just 50 minutes to look over the 4,800-square-foot home inside and out, basement and attic included.Her mission: To identify problems in structures built before 1955 and advise owners on issues such as crumbling plaster, deteriorating masonry, and window problems.She and colleague Mark Epstein, who heads the Ohio Historic Preservation Office’s resource protection and review department, fanned out to a variety of residential and commercial properties within a five-mile radius of Toledo’s center Friday, providing the free building consultations. In addition to private homes in the Vistula Historic District and the Old West End, their stops included the shuttered Ohio Theatre on Lagrange Street and the Casey-Pomeroy House Bed & Breakfast on North Huron Street.Ms. Krause said moisture tends to be the worst enemy of old buildings though she also frequently sees structural issues that result from poorly thought-out repairs or changes to the structure. Both were true at the Martinez-Cattran house.During a walk around the yard, Ms. Krause pointed to several issues that were contributing to moisture problems — clogged gutters along the roof line, ivy and other vines growing up on the brick, peeling paint on the front porch.In the brick-floored basement, the floor was damp around a drain with an unknown destination. A small dehumidifier hummed nearby.“You might want to find out where that drain’s going,” Ms. Krause suggested, adding that additional dehumidifiers might help too. “You might be doing one thing for one room and causing a problem for another room.”Mr. Martinez pointed out a support beam and floor jacks they installed in the basement to reinforce a sagging first floor caused, he said, when previous owners removed a back staircase that led from the kitchen area to the maid’s quarters upstairs and relocated the basement stairs. With parlors and bedrooms dramatically appointed with antiques — not to mention eight fireplaces — Mr. Martinez and Ms. Cattran said their real priority is to redo their kitchen and butler’s pantry-turned-laundry room, which they’ve been living with since they bought the house in 1988.Ms. Cattran said she favored removing a wall and opening up the kitchen, while Mr. Martinez wants to rebuild the back staircase along that very wall to re-create as closely as possible the house’s original design.Ms. Krause listened patiently, though it was clear their differences of opinion were not a matter for the building doctor. The Building Doctor Clinic, which included a free seminar on renovation projects Thursday evening, was sponsored by the United North Community Development Corp., the Toledo chapter of the American Institute of Architects, the Toledo-Lucas County Planning Commission, the Toledo Historic District Commission, and the Ohio Historic Preservation Office of the Ohio Historical Society.Contact Jennifer Feehan at: jfeehan@theblade.com or 419-724-6129.

Thumbs up to the driver of the party bus for some students who attended the Buchanan High prom Saturday. The bus driver called police when he suspected that students were under the influence of alcohol after one of the students became ill on the bus. The bus had stopped at the In-'N-Out Burger restaurant at Clovis and Herndon avenues after the prom. Clovis police said 38 students told them they had at least a sip of an alcoholic drink on their charter bus Saturday night. Clovis Unified School District officials suspended some of the students on Tuesday. That driver did the right thing. Hopefully his actions will lead some of those students to think again before drinking illegally. Read comments

One of the most insidious impacts of the 9/11 attacks has been a new acceptance for torture among some Americans. In the past, torture wasn't just illegal, it was considered to be an ineffective way to gather information, and profoundly immoral. Read comments

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