Columbus News

As a young state senator 30 years ago, Paul Pfeifer helped write Ohio’s death penalty law. Today, as the senior member of the state Supreme Court, he’s trying to eliminate it.

It’s not uncommon for sitting judges to change their mind on the death penalty — U.S. Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun famously said in 1994 he would no longer “tinker with the machinery of death” — but Pfeifer may be the only one to argue so ardently against a capital punishment law he himself created, and yet continue to rule on death penalty cases.

Celebrity zookeeper Jack Hanna criticized Ohio lawmakers Thursday for not yet passing a bill to regulate exotic animals, months after authorities shot dozens of lions, tigers, bears and other wild creatures let loose by their suicidal owner.

A Republican state senator from Zanesville, the eastern Ohio city where the animals were shot, had planned to introduce a bill this week but then said it was not ready. There is no new timetable for the measure.

TSA Officials installed a body scanner at the security gate of the Columbus Airport Wednesday. Body imaging technology is slowly making its way in to airports across the country.

The millimeter wave advanced imaging technology machine installed at the Columbus Airport on Wednesday is safe for people of all ages, even pregnant women. We are told by TSA officials the machine gives off 1/10,000 of the amount of energy that is involved in a single cell phone call.

Smokers won’t be hired at new casinos in Columbus and Toledo, a ban that’s been adopted in other industries as employers try to hold down health care costs.

Job seekers who smoke, chew tobacco or even use nicotine patches won’t be considered for the 3,200 casino jobs in Toledo and Columbus when developer Penn National Gaming Inc. starts filling positions later this year, The Dayton Daily News reported (http://bit.ly/xNYotF ) Thursday.

Port Columbus International Airport saw more passengers pass through its security gates for the second year in a row in 2011, but the increase was less than 1 percent, Columbus Business First reports.

About 6.38 million passengers traveled through the airport last year, according to the Columbus Regional Airport Authority . That was about 0.2 percent more passengers than the 6.37 million the airport saw in 2010, the newspaper reports.

Fake $100 and $20 bills have been distributed recently at businesses in Columbus, and police are urging business owners to educate themselves and their employees on how to spot counterfeit money.

The fake bills are “very high quality” and have been called by one bank the most deceptive $100 bills that have come through the area, said Lt. Matt Myers of Columbus Police Department.

Some key identifying marks that usually would separate counterfeit bills from genuine currency have been mimicked perfectly, including the security strip inside the bills, Myers said.

The Columbus Crew have signed Chile midfielder Milovan Mirosevic to a multi-year contract, pending receipt of his P-1 work visa.

Mirosevic, 31, has played 25 matches for Chile, most recently appearing in a pair of 2014 FIFA World Cup qualifiers against Uruguay and Paraguay.

He joins Columbus from Chilean first division side Universidad Catolica, where he served as captain and had 46 goals in 108 games over the last three years, which was his second stint with the storied club.

The Georgia Department of Transportation wants to create a passenger rail system through the state, and Columbus’ plans to be involved are right on track. More >

A new examination of the origin of syphilis supports the theory that the sexually transmitted disease was carried to Europe aboard Christopher Columbus’ ships as they sailed home from the New World.

The disease was not spread through sexual contact at the time, but adapted to survive once it got to Europe, Emory University researchers say.