Associated Press

The Ohio State Alumni Association says fewer current and former students  purchased football tickets for the second consecutive year. 52-hundred fewer alumni and 22-hundred fewer students than last year applied to buy single-game tickets for the upcoming season as compared with this time a year ago, when purchases also declined. Spokesperson Jay Hansen says the economy is mostly to blame, and there are more total tickets available this year because the Buckeyes are playing eight home games instead of the more-typical seven. 

State Wildlife experts from Ohio and Michigan and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife service say three-day sweep of western Lake Erie turned up no trace of the Asian carp. Officials used boats to net and stun fish at 58 sampling sites in the Maumee and Sandusky bays. The sweep was triggered by tests last month that detected the DNA of two species in the bays. Authorities from federal and state governments have spent more than 100 million dollars on efforts to keep the carp out of the Great Lakes, in order to protect the multi-billion dollar fishing industry. 

Dublin-based Wendy's reports a second quarter loss of 5-point-5 million dollars, due to costs of refinancing debt. That compares with a profit of 11.3 million a year ago. The company says says sales at restaurants open at least 15 months rose 3.2 percent for the quarter.  

Franklin County Sheriff's deputies say a 15-year-old boy was killed late Wednesday and four other teens injured when their car crashed in Brown Township. Deputies identify the deceased as David Phillips III. The driver, 16-year-old Trent Burchett and three other passengers - 16-year-old Joshua Jaccaud, 14-year-old Ian Latorrie and 15-year-old Alex Stemple - are hospitalized with non-life threatening injuries. Deputies say Burchett lost control, went off of Amity Road, hit a fence and rolled over. The teens were members of the Hilliard Bradley High School marching band.

The Akron man accused of shooting his wife in her hospital bed Saturday night has been charged with aggravated murder. 66-year-old John Wise appeared in court judge today on the new charge. He's due back in court later this month. Prosecutors decided to upgrade an attempted murder charge after an autopsy showed 65-year-old Barbara Wise died late Sunday from a gunshot wound. The Summit County Coroner has ruled her death  a homicide. Police say it may have been a mercy killing. Defense attorney Paul Adamson says his client acted out of "deep love" but did not elaborate. 

The NCAA has publicly reprimanded University of Cincinnati men's basketball coach Mick Cronin for using bad language after the Bearcats' tournament loss to Ohio State. The Division I basketball committee found Cronin used "profane and abusive language" toward a game official. The organization says Cronin had earlier appealed the reprimand, but an administrative committee upheld it after reviewing records. Cronin has yet to comment. 

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney spoke at a morning rally in Des Moines, Iowa after raising nearly two-million dollars at a fundraiser last night. And Romney is attempting to appeal to young people, a block that voted solidly in favor of President Obama four years ago. Republican U.S. Senator Rob Portman of Ohio is appearing in Iowa today as a Romney campaign surrogate. Portman is among the contenders to become Romney's running mate.

The Vatican has accused American nuns of having ignored various church doctrines and pushing "certain radical feminist themes incompatible with the Catholic faith." 180 people turned out to support them at a prayer vigil Tuesday night at a Catholic church on Cleveland's west side, to mark the opening day of a four-day convention in St. Louis. The convention is being held by an organization representing more than 80 percent of the 57-thousand nuns in the United States. The vigil was one of many held throughout the country. 

A tweet by an Ohio Republican congressional candidate made parallels between President Obama, Adolf Hitler and two Communist leaders. Marisha Agana's  tweet Sunday named Obama and Hitler along with Soviet leader Josef Stalin and Communist Chinese leader Mao Zedong . It followed an earlier tweet that called on readers to "beware of people who rose meteorically from nowhere like Obama."  Campaign manager Larry Nichols says the Warren-area candidate believes any national leader who supports abortion rights is supporting genocide. Nichols says she regrets not fully explaining her meaning.

A defense attorney says a Westlake man who brought a gun, ammunition and several knives to a showing of the latest Batman movie did so for protection and out of fear following the fatal Colorado shootings last month. Matthew Bruce says 37-year-old Scott Smith had no intention of causing harm or panic. Smith is expected to be indicted on weapons charges.

The U.S Agriculture Department says nearly 15 million dollars will be available for battling the tree-killing Asian longhorned beetle in Ohio. Secretary Tom Vilsack says it will help federal and state officials increase tree inspection surveys to determine the extent of the infestation and ensure quick removal of beetle-bearing trees. The beetle was discovered in  Clermont County last year. So far, nearly 85 hundred Ohio trees have been removed. The beetles are believed to have arrived in cargo shipments from Asia. 

Delaware County Sheriff's deputies investigating the death of a pregnant woman found in her car have searched a New Albany home for a second time but won't say why. Deputies are not saying if they found anything linked to the death of 23-year-old Deanna Ballman of Pataskala. Investigators have executed search warrants twice at the home three miles from where her body was found last week. Relatives says Ballman was responding to an on-line ad seeking house-cleaning help. An autopsy found no signs of trauma.Ba 

Monday was the five year anniversary of the Crandall Canyon Mine collapse in Utah that killed six people. Ed Havas, an attorney for the familes of the victims, says his clients believe the collapse could have been avoided. The mine's owner, Cleveland-based Murray Energy, was fined half-a-million dollars for the collapse. The company says it has no plans to reopen the mine. A Bureau of Land Management official had said the company wanted to reopen the mine at a future, unspecified date. 

The feds may be gaining on GOP governors like Ohio's John Kasich who've balked at implementing a key provision of the federal health care law. Kasich and other opponents of the law say they won't set up new private health insurance exchanges. But the Associated Press reports it's looking more and more like Washington will do it for them. That means federal officials could be calling the shots on some insurance issues that states traditionally manage, from handling consumer complaints to regulating plans that will serve millions of citizens.

Bond was set today at 1-million dollars for the Akron man charged with shooting his wife in her hospital bed late Saturday night. 66-year-old John Wise appeared perplexed in court today, asking the judge whether his wife is indeed dead. 65-year-old Barbara Wise died late Sunday night, and her husband is charged with aggravated attempted murder. Akron police say it may have been a mercy killing. A hospital spokesperson says privacy laws prevent the release of details as to why Barbara Wise had been admitted to the intensive care unit a few days earlier. 

Westlake police have arrested a man who allegedly carried a gun, ammunition and several knives into a theater showing the latest Batman movie on Saturday night. The suspect's name has not been released. Police say the theater's manager and an off-duty officer working security searched the man's bag and found the items. Police note the case resembles the Aurora Colorado shootings of July 20th, in which a 24-year-old man is charged with killing 12 people and wounding 58 at a midnight showing of the movie. 

Voters in 35 Ohio Counties will cast ballots in special elections today. The Ohio Secretary of State's office says 60 issues are on ballots today, and three dozen involve school funding requests. Renewal levies typically have a better passage rate than new issues, according to Ohio School Boards association spokesperson Jeff Chambers. And Association legislative director Damon Ashbury says students in wealthier school districts tend to have an edge in the classroom. Many Ohio schools have gone to the ballot to help offset cuts in state funding and reductions in property tax revenues.

The Columbus Schools are showing a decline in state test results. The Ohio Department of Education's annual report card gives the district a grade of C, one-half point above a D grade. The Department says student test results are lower in nearly all subjects and grade levels. The Department and the District are not saying if the scores are related to the attendance-fixing scandal. Meanwhile Superintendent Gene Harris says some principals may have received financial bonuses by changing student attendance records.

The Franklin County Coroner says an autopsy performed on 22-year-old Columbus Crew midfielder Kirk Urso yesterday is inconclusive. Jan Gorniak says  indications point to "an apparent natural death" pending toxicology test results that will not be finalized for four to six weeks. Gorniak says the autopsy showed changes in Urso's heart which may not have contributed to death. Urso died Sunday hours after collapsing at a downtown Columbus bar. 

Secretary of State Jon Husted says a coalition seeking to change how Ohio draws legislative and congressional districts has collected enough valid petition signatures to qualify its proposed constitutional amendment for the November ballot. Husted says the Voters First coalition collected the more than 406-thousand valid petition signatures required to make the ballot. The proposal would take map-drawing powers away from elected officials and put them in the hands of a 12-person citizen commission. The Ohio Republican Party is fighting the measure.