DAYTON, Ohio -- While we may be skittish about the economy, drivers in the Miami Valley are keeping more money in their wallets at the gas pump.

In the Dayton area gas prices continue to drop. You can get gas for well below $2.99 a gallon. To check prices close to you click on the Dayton Gas Prices link on our Web site.

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)

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)

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.

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.

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) 

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.

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.

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.

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.

The eastbound business route in Greene County along U.S. 35 and the exit lane from eastbound 35 will be closed until 10 tomorrow morning.

Crews will be doing some overhead sign work and pavement marking.

The detour for business 35 eastbound traffic will be 35 east , to the Lower Bellbrook Avenue exit, to 35 west, then exiting onto business 35 west .

CENTERVILLE, Ohio -- Both sides of a proposed merger between two communities getting the chance to air their views publicly.

A forum to discuss a merger study between the City of Centerville and Washington Township Thursday night brought out passionate debate on both sides.

The two communities are holding a series of forums to discuss an issue on the November ballot that would allow Centerville and Washington Township to study a possible merger.

The next forum will be held on October 14 from 7:30 to 8:30 p.m. at Centerville High School Central Theater, 500 East Franklin Street in Centerville.

It happened at the Speedway on South Burnett Road.

Cops say the man told the clerk, "I'm sorry, I have to rob you."

Then, according to police, the man lifted his shirt and showed a weapon, which was a blade from a circular saw.

Lt. Noel Lopez said, "He obviously is not afraid to show the saw and tell the clerk he'd use it. He's a danger to himself and to the employees."

In the video, you can also see the man take off with a fist full of cash.

Employees chased the man, but lost him.

According to Obama, McCain's mortgage buyout plan would cost taxpayers billinions and reward irresponsible lending.

He also talked about his plan for creating jobs and blasted McCain's health plan as being too expensive.

Meanwhile Alaska Governor and GOP vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin paid a visit to Wilmington on her Road to Victory tour.

She made a grand entrance Thursday evening as her bus drove into the Roberts Centre, where Palin and three of her children unloaded and took to the stage.

At the rally Governor Palin came out swinging against Democratic candidate Senator Barack Obama and addressed the issue of potential jobs leaving Wilmington.

Listen to both speeches in full: Barack Obama & Sarah Palin

Clay, 41, will be sentenced Tuesday, Oct. 14, in Miami County Common Pleas Court, where a jury found him guilty Aug. 28.

Clay was accused of a sexual relationship with a then-15-year-old Troy Christian School student between fall 2006 and early 2007 while he was employed as a freshman boys' basketball coach and junior high boys football coach.

He faces up to five years in prison.

Defense lawyers Thomas Intili and Steven K. Dankof Sr. filed the motion Thursday, Oct. 9, asking Judge Jeffrey Welbaum to set aside the verdict and dismiss the indictment. They claim the indictment is defective because it does not include a statement regarding Clay's alleged state of mind at the time of the offense.

"This structural defect permeated the entire trial because the court did not instruct the jury that to find the defendant guilty of sexual battery it had to find beyond a reasonable doubt that he acted with the culpable mental state of 'recklessness,' " Intili and Dankof argued.

Prosecutors filed a reply later Thursday, claiming the motion is without merit.

Prosecutors argued sections of the sexual battery law do not require any determination of mental state because they were written "to protect those individuals most vulnerable in our society."

Just days after Clay pleaded not guilty to the indictment in December, his house located between Piqua and Troy was set on fire and racial slurs were painted on his vehicle. No one has been charged in the fire, which was ruled arson.

(Article courtesy of www.daytondailynews.com)