(Compiled from Columbus Dispatch campaign report, March 11, 2004)

Gov. Bob Taft, Ohio chairman of the Bush-Cheney re-election campaign, often introduces President Bush to Ohio audiences. But Taft was absent yesterday when Bush spoke to businesswomen in Cleveland.

Taft, who’s approval rating was just 47 percent in a February Ohio Poll conducted by the University of Cincinnati, remained in Columbus, before heading to Cincinnati to speak at a seminar.

Has the Bush campaign gotten the message some protestors were trying to convey the last time the President came to town?

Protestors say Taft a liability for Bush

One more citizen who may have felt that Ohio's affirmative defense law was inadequate as a means of legal self-defense, even though she carries large amounts of cash for her job. April 8 cannot come soon enough for Ohio's crime victims.

March 11, 2004
Dayton Daily News

DAYTON | A robber shot at an employee of Benjamin's Burger Master, 1000 N. Main St., after the employee chased him into the street Wednesday, police said.

The robber had assaulted a female employee minutes before as she got into her truck to take money to a bank. He took the money and ran behind the business onto Pioneer Street, police said.

The second employee told police he was gaining on the robber when the robber turned and fired at him. That employee returned to the restaurant, got his car and attempted to continue following the robber.

The gun was found in a trash can after a third employee spotted the robber placing it there, the report said. The robber had been in the business earlier and had followed the woman with the money to the parking lot, the report said.

March 9, 2004
Cincinnati Enquirer

MONROE - Police are asking for the public's help to find clues to the shooting death of a veteran vendor at the popular Trader's World flea market.

It's this city's police department's first homicide case in nearly three years. A police officer early Monday found William E. Doolittle, 41, of Findlay, dead in the back of his van in the parking lot of the Stony Ridge Inn, 1250 Hamilton-Lebanon Road, just off Interstate 75.

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Editors at the Cincinnati Enquirer seem to comprehend the problems facing their city. Gun control and Ohio's concealed carry ban has done nothing to deter criminals from using guns to commit crimes. We are left to wonder if the Enquirer has a plan to publish all the names of people illegally carrying concealed, since they advocated an amendment to House Bill 12 which will allow law-abiding CHL-holders' names to be published.

March 10, 2004
Cincinnati Enquirer

Gunmen shoot to kill police

A 17-year-old Cincinnati gunman has been charged with attempted murder in a South Fairmount shooting Saturday that easily could have left rookie 23-year-old police Officer Katrina Neal dead. It was the third time in a month that Cincinnati officers have had a shootout with armed suspects. At a Monday news conference, Police Chief Tom Streicher said the homeless teen shooter told police "flat-out that his intention was to kill that police officer."

No community groups marched on Cincinnati City Hall to demand an end to shooting at police. No ministers went before the cameras to express outrage at the lethal danger officers face daily from gun-toting young outlaws. This community and the courts need to come down hard on increasingly brash gunmen of any age who have grown so unrestrained they do not even flinch at trying to kill a cop.

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March 10, 2004
Dayton Daily News

Wounded man caught, arrested

SOUTH VIENNA | A Mechanicsburg man who rode away on a bicycle after being shot in the neck Tuesday with a .45-caliber revolver during a domestic argument with his wife and her brother was later arrested on violence-related charges.

Eric Champlin, 22, of 8546 Brigner Road was released from Community Hospital after being treated for the gunshot wound.

He was shot at 5485 Lundy Lane and arrested at 5295 Lundy Lane, where he had fled, deputies said.

He was charged with felonious assault, felony domestic violence and aggravated burglary. He is to be arraigned today in Municipal Court.

Sheriff's Lt. Rusty Garman said Kelly Champlin, 22, told deputies she shot her husband when he reportedly kicked open a rear door of her mother's home at 5485 Lundy Lane.

As Eric Champlin tried to enter the house, his wife's brother, Chad Day, 20, tried to stop him and a struggle ensued, Garman said. During the struggle Eric Champlin punched Day in the face and struck his wife, Garman said.

Eric Champlin continued to fight with Day and threatened to stab him with a knife even after he had been shot. Kelly Champlin, who told deputies she shot him after seeing the knife, said the gun belonged to her husband.

Deputies found a knife on Eric Champlin upon his arrest, Garman said.

Kelly Champlin and her brother were treated at a hospital and released.