Compiled from staff and wire reports

Man arrested in March fatal shooting

Cincinnati police on Tuesday arrested a 20-year-old Over-the-Rhine man wanted in connection with the March 8 shooting death of a Walnut Hills man.

Kendall Perkins was arrested after a brief afternoon standoff with police on Milton Street in Mount Auburn. Homicide detectives have been looking for him since May, when they signed a warrant against him in the death of Gillespie McPherson.

McPherson, 22, was shot in front of Tucker's Restaurant in Over-the-Rhine just after noon that Saturday in front of a crowd of people. He was the 14th homicide victim of the year.

Perkins also has been wanted since March on a felony warrant for trafficking in marijuana, according to court records. Cincinnati's Street Corner anti-drug unit said they found him with about 150 grams packaged for sale. He was sent to prison in 2001 for seven months on a conviction for cocaine possession.

Medicare offers pilot stop-smoking program

Ohio seniors who would like to quit smoking can get Medicare coverage to join a smoking cessation program - but they must enroll by Sept. 30.

A pilot program for senior smokers was announced this month by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, and is being promoted by the Ohio Senior Insurance Information Program, a unit of the Ohio Department of Insurance, and the Ohio Hospital Association.

Ohio, Alabama, Florida, Missouri, Oklahoma, Nebraska and Wyoming are the only states in the pilot program. Medicare, which does not cover smoking cessation, plans to use results from the program to design coverage for all Medicare enrollees.

For information, call (800) 65-BEGIN or (866) 652-3446, or visit www.ohioinsurance.gov.

Appeal requests zone change for landfill

UNION TOWNSHIP - Browning-Ferris Industries and landowner Richard M. Clarke have filed an appeal with the Ohio Supreme Court in an effort to get Union Township land rezoned for a municipal waste landfill.

The suit, part of years of legal disputes to build Bigfoot Run II, names the Warren County Commission, a county zoning inspector supervisor and Common Pleas Judge James Flannery. It was filed Friday afternoon.

Last month, county commissioners followed a court order to rezone nearly 132 acres, and classified it as solid-waste disposal transitional zoning.

The suit says, among other claims, that the new zoning category, created in June, was not in effect when the commissioners took the action.

Interim Wyoming school chief picked

WYOMING - The Wyoming Board of Education has appointed Charles Waple as interim superintendent.

Waple's appointment will be for one year while the board searches, with assistance from Effron and Associates, for a permanent superintendent. His salary is $85,000.

Waple, who began work Monday, retired as superintendent from Loveland City Schools in 1987.

Waple replaces Ted Knapke, who resigned to take a position in Shelby, N.C.

Disabilities levy on Clermont fall ballot

BATAVIA - Officials with Clermont County's Board of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities are hoping the third time will be the charm for a levy vote.

On Tuesday, county commissioners approved a request from the board to place a 0.75-mill levy on the ballot for November. Voters rejected two previous levy requests for more funding for MRDD operations.

If approved, the new levy would cost the owner of a $100,000 home $22.96annually.