LORAIN — Lorain’s mayor and auditor want the city to be taken off fiscal watch. In a letter sent to state Auditor Mary Taylor on Monday, Mayor Craig Foltin and Auditor Ron Mantini asked Taylor to lift the fiscal watch designation that was placed on the city in 2002. The letter states that the issues [...]

ELYRIA — If you live in Elyria and your last name begins with B, C or D, double-check your mail, because you may not have gotten your property tax bill. The same goes if you live in Vermilion, no matter what your last name is, because a glitch in the computer program that generates the [...]

SHEFFIELD TWP. — Julie St. Clair dabbed her eyes with a handful of tissues as the pastor spoke. Just a few feet away, the pearl-white casket containing the body of her 8-month-old son was open, with three pictures of Jayden Davidson hanging from the metal edge of the lid. “I am happy because Jayden is [...]

Lorain County is ground zero for international custody battle between globetrotting couple CLEVELAND — Claire Simcox fled Mexico and her husband of 14 years under cover of night 1½ years ago with four of her children in tow. Now a federal judge has ordered two of the children to be returned to Joe Simcox and [...]

Home destroyed after blaze forced firefighters out twice LORAIN — An intense fire Tuesday at a two-story home on West 22nd Street forced firefighters out of the house twice and left a single mother of five homeless. The home’s tenant, Nicole King, who wasn’t home when the fire broke out, arrived shortly thereafter and quickly [...]

OBERLIN — Jennifer Lyn Jackson, 38, is once again in the spotlight. But instead of the skimpy clothes she wore 18 years ago — when she was Playboy magazine’s Miss April 1989 — the Westlake woman donned a pair of handcuffs as she stood before a judge Tuesday in Oberlin Municipal Court. Jackson faces charges [...]

Tom Coombe The Morning Call (Allentown, Pa.)    NEW CASTLE, Pa. — Welcome to the Fireworks Capital of America. This little Pennsylvania city on the border with Ohio has called itself that since 1990, and made it official late last year, thanks to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.    At one time, there were [...]

Michael Frazier Newsday      NEW YORK — Japan’s Takeru Kobayashi, the six-time hot dog eating world champ, stood belly to belly Tuesday with the American who overtook his world record in the official contest weigh-in outside City Hall.    Kobayashi, burdened by a jaw injury and a recent tooth extraction, said he will make [...]