FRANKLIN, Ohio -- Police in Franklin said the investigation into a drug deal operation led to a high-speed chase through several cities.

The chase started on Interstate 75 in Franklin and went through several construction zones along the way, putting highway drivers in danger.

Police said the driver with California identification sped out of Franklin in a white car with New York license plates. According to officers, the driver went into a turnaround on the highway, met another car and then sped away.

The driver of the car fled from officers at speeds more than 100 mph. The Ohio State Highway Patrol joined in the chase and put down stop sticks as the driver entered the Dayton area.

The driver then refused to stop, police said. An officer with Franklin police bumped the white car, causing the driver to hit a wall and crash.

The driver was taken to a local hospital with minor injuries.

Lt. Gerald Massey with Franklin Police said a loaded handgun was found in the car, along with prescription pills and a large quantity of marijuana. Police said about $3,000 in cash was found.

(Article courtesy of WHIOTV.com)

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- A federal judge has ordered Ohio's top elections official to verify the identity of newly registered voters.

A U.S. District Court judge in Columbus ruled Thursday that Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner must perform verification required by the Help America Vote Act. That includes matching a new registrant's information with information in databases maintained by the Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles or the Social Security Administration.

The order was the result of a lawsuit filed by the Ohio Republican Party against Brunner, a Democrat. Republicans recently failed in a challenge to the state's one week early voting window, which ended Monday.

Brunner says there will be an appeal.

Meanwhile, election officials in Ohio and other swing states are defending their voter registration procedures in response to a New York Times story.

The newspaper's story yesterday noted that Ohio had sent several requests for voter registration verifications to the Social Security Administration.

In a letter to the state's top elections official, Social Security Commissioner Michael Astrue said his agency had received more than 740,000 verification requests from Ohio over the last year. He said the number was "greater than one would expect" and he wanted to make sure checks were being run only on new voters.

Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner has said roughly 666,000 new voters have registered in Ohio since the start of 2008.

(Article courtesy of WHIOTV.com)

MORAINE, Ohio -- The Moraine Police Department arrested eight people Friday in a drug sweep that's been several months in the making.

Two more suspects are still wanted in the bust.  Police say one of the men has contacted them and they were called by an attorney for the other man.

One of the people arrested, 24-year-old Krystal Barker of Dayton, was nine months pregnant when she sold police crack cocaine in a church parking lot, next to an elementary school.  Oddly enough, another 23-year-old Jasmine Gamble, who gave birth only a week ago, also sold undercover officers narcotics while she was pregnant.

Several of the cases involved dealing drugs in the vicinity of children.  24-year-old Marco D. Beavers is charged with a first degree felony for trafficking crack cocaine in front of a child.

All ten of the suspects involved in the sweep have already been indicted by a Montgomery County grand jury.

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- A Dayton case is going to the Ohio Supreme Court is scheduled to hear a case Tuesday, Oct. 14 to decide if a warrantless search is constitutional if a police officer sees drug activity from a neighbor's yard.

The issue at hand is from October 2004, when Dayton police set up night surveillance of a suspected drug house in the 1600 block of Westona Drive.  The surveillance was set up after two informants alerted police to drug activity, according to court documents.

During that watch, police saw a passenger get out of a van, entering and leaving the house within three minutes. 

Police used a "knock and advise," a procedure in which officers ask for a consent to search after advising a resident that suspected drug activity has been reported at the home.  Eight officers surrounded the house to watch for fleeing occupants or evidence thrown out windows or doors.

The officers knocked and Kevin Peterson answered the door. While officers were talking to Peterson, officer David heard someone running through the house. From his position in the side yard, he could see a person run down the basement steps with a glass container through a basement window.

House then ran to the front of the home and announced he was entering to prevent destruction of evidence, going in without a warrant or Peterson's consent.

Illegal drugs were found, and a warrant was issued, after which more drugs were found.

In Montgomery County court, Peterson sought to have the evidence thrown out, but was denied by Judge A.J. Wagner

Peterson got five years in prison after pleading no contest to two counts of crack cocaine possession.

He appealed the decision, and the Ohio 2nd District Court of Appeals ruled that Wagner should have suppressed the evidence.

Montgomery County prosecutors then appealed to the Ohio Supreme Court.

Prosecutors argue that because of prior complaints and suspicious activity, the officers had grounds to conduct a "knock and advise."  Under prior court decisions, police are not precluded from noticing and acting on evidence of illegal conduct in a private residence without a warrant when the evidence is in "plain sight" from where the officer has a legal right to be, prosecutors argue.

According to prosecutors, the officer had a legal right to be in the neighbor's yard because the "knock and advise" procedure was warranted.  Defense attorneys say police had no right to trespass so that the inside of the home was visible more so than it would be to a passerby.

HARRISON TOWNSHIP, Ohio -- The Ohio Department of Transportation calls it an "Intelligent Highway System."

ODOT officials are introducing it to the public in the Dayton area Friday morning.

It's a series of automated traffic information signs that are installed overhead on local freeways.

The first sign in the Dayton area, though not yet operational, has been installed. ODOT workers installed it in the southbound lanes of Interstate 75 in Harrison Township between Needmore Road and the Timber Lane Overpass.

It's one of five signs to be installed in the first phase of this project. The first phase is estimated to cost about 1.65 million dollars.

The signs display short warnings in large digital letters against a black background.

The signs warn drivers of construction zones, crashes up ahead or lane and freeway closings. They can also be used to list travel times from one spot to another. Occasionally, the signs are used to pass along law enforcement information especially in cases of an Amber Alert.

ODOT plans to use AM radio channels in conjunction with the signs to give drivers even more information about what's going on up ahead of them.

The project was not scheduled to begin this early, but planners pushed it forward to help commuters deal with the rebuilding of Interstate 75 through downtown Dayton.

The entire project has an $8 million pricetag and there's no specific target date for completion. ODOT officials said that when the project is completed, there will be signs on Interstates 75, 70 and 675 as well as on Route 35, Route 4 and Route 49. 

(Article courtesy of WHIOTV.com) 

SPRINGFIELD, Ohio -- A robber chose an unusual weapon to hold up a gas station in Springfield.

A man with a circular saw blade tucked in the front of his pants robbed the Speedway at 405 S. Burnett Rd. Wednesday night.  

The man walked up to the cashier and said "I hate to do this, but I'm robbing," according to witnesses.  The man then snatched the cash out of the clerk's hands as he took it from the register, said police.

Police are still looking for the suspect.  He is described as a man with a long goatee and shoulder-length hair, and he was wearing a grey t-shirt and blue jeans at the time of the robbery.

PIQUA, Ohio -- A 16-year-old boy flipped a pickup truck after "huffing" chemicals before getting behind the wheel.

15-year-old Connor Luft, a passenger in the vehicle, was in serious condition Friday morning.  The accident happened on Covington Ave. in Piqua Thursday night.

The driver admitted to blacking out before the crash after he huffed air duster.  Luft was effected from the pickup when it flipped multiple times.

The driver was cited for failure to control a vehicle.

NEW CARLISLE, Ohio -- Sheriff's deputies in Clark County had to use a taser on a 17-year old boy after chasing him Thursday afternoon.

The teen and another man fled when from a deputy who was investigating a report of two males wanted on other charges.

Other officers joined the chase, and the boy was tased when officers arrested him, according to reports.  The other man escaped.

The boy was wanted for failure to appear warrant out of Clark County Juvenile Court.

The teen was treated by medics at the scene and taken to the Clark County Juvenile Devention Facility.

He is being held on charges of delinquency by reason of resisting arrest and failure to comply with an officer.

DARKE COUNTY, Ohio -- A Darke County neighborhood is back to normal now as several wells went dry in "Lakeview Estates", near Greenville.

At least one new well was drilled.

Now city officials will try to determine if the new "Ethanol" plant, the dry conditons over the past month or both, are to blame.

People in "Lakeview Estates" say Greenville provided them with drinking water, even though they are not part of the city.