Compiled from staff and wire reports

Airport gets $4M grant for new runway

Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport Tuesday received a $4 million windfall.

The Federal Aviation Administration approved a grant to the airport to help purchase up to 28 parcels of land along Elijah Creek Road in Hebron needed for a new 8,000-foot north/south runway.

The airport also is extending another runway by 2,000 feet. The total project is expected to cost $237 million, plus $133 million in financing costs. The new runway is expected to open in late 2005.

Airport officials said that the new money was not budgeted, and will help defray the $6 million they had budgeted to pay for the land. Landowners are not required to sell; the money is part of a voluntary buyout program.

The money came available when other airports did not apply for the grants, which are part of the FAA's noise mitigation program. It also comes in addition to the $131 million the federal government has already committed to the project.

Cleves top cop pleads guilty to charges

Cleves Police Chief Gary Coffey turned in his badge and resigned, then pleaded guilty Tuesday in Hamilton County Common Pleas Court to criminal charges.

Prosecutors say Coffey, 39, illegally accessed the police computer system and failed to do his duty. At least once he lost a traffic ticket belonging to an out-of-town man, according to the prosecutor's office.

Coffey, who became full-time chief in January 2002, was charged last week with unauthorized use of computer and dereliction of duty.

Hamilton County Common Pleas Court Judge Melba Marsh said Coffey would have to resign as part of his plea. He told her he already had.

Cleves Mayor Linda Haas could not be reached for comment. Coffey had been suspended by the Village Council in this village 20 miles west of Cincinnati several months ago, according to Joe Whitton, who was mayor of Cleves until two months ago.

Sentencing is scheduled for July 16. If convicted, Coffey faces up to one year and 90 days in prison.

Southern Ohio College commencement today

Southern Ohio College will hold commencement exercises 7 p.m. today in the auditorium of the Tri-County Church of God in Fairfield.

More than 340 graduates from 17 programs will hear commencement speaker Chris Strobel, owner of a local production company and a faculty member at Northern Kentucky University.

Located in Woodlawn, the school was founded in Cincinnati in 1927. The college offers two-year associate degrees in computers, business, medical, legal and audio-visual fields as well as one-year diploma programs.

Deputies get top bomb detection awards

Two of the Hamilton County Sheriff's Office's K-9 Bomb Squad teams won top awards during a recent competition at the 2003 K-9 Police Olympics in Muncie, Ind.

Deputy Steve Fischesser and Aspen (a yellow Labrador), took 1st place overall for explosive detection; 2nd place in locker searches; and 3rd place in vehicle searches,

Deputy Dan Kissing and Rocco, (a Belgian Malinois), won a 3rd place in explosive detection building searches.

Forum offers prostate cancer update

Medical professionals and interested citizens can learn more about the latest treatments and research on prostate cancer at a half-day symposium Saturday at the University of Cincinnati.

The third annual Greater Cincinnati Prostate Cancer Forum will be 8 a.m.-1 p.m. at the Kingsgate Conference Center near University Hospital in Corryville.

Physicians from UC, the University of Michigan, the Seattle Prostate Cancer Institute and the Henry Ford Hospital will speak on topics ranging from brachytherapy to hormone therapy to robotic surgery.

The conference is free but attendees must register by Thursday by calling 584-9096.

Ky. diocese will pay $50,000 in abuse suit

The Diocese of Covington will pay $50,000 to settle a lawsuit filed last year by a former groundskeeper who said two priests sexually abused him in the 1970s and 1980s.

Burlington resident Mark DiMuzio, who was 44 when the suit was filed last June, said he was sexually abused by the Rev. Paul Ciangetti, who is deceased, and by Bishop J. Kendrick Williams, who resigned last year as head of the Diocese of Lexington after similar allegations were raised about his tenure as a priest in Louisville.

"Every party to the John and Mark DiMuzio suit against the Diocese of Covington is pleased to have it resolved," Bishop Roger Foys said.

Mark DiMuzio and his father, John, who was a diocese maintenance director for 42 years, said in the lawsuit they were exposed to a "sexually charged workplace" and were harassed and fired when they complained.

The claims that John DiMuzio was sexually harassed, and that the father and son were dismissed for reporting the abuse, were settled in a separate, confidential resolution, said Barb Bonar, the DiMuzios' attorney.