Compiled from staff and wire reports

Water project topicof public meeting

EAST PRICE HILL - Residents angry about the impact of the Greater Cincinnati Water Works' project to reline pipes in East Price Hill will have an opportunity to air their opinions.

A public hearing is at 7 p.m. today at the Price Hill Community Center on Hawthorne Avenue.

Residents along Warsaw and Hawthorne avenues have complained that hoses that pump water into homes are blocking access to driveways and sidewalks.

Water coming through the hoses is unfit to drink or cook with, said Gloria Morgan, a longtime Price Hill activist. Morgan said residents were not formally notified about the project, which began around May, until two months after work had started.

For more information or to make a complaint: 471-7133.

Billboard ad draws residents' complaints

MONROE - A highway billboard advertising an adult dance bar that features a bikini-clad woman has brought protests.

A group of Monroe residents complained about the billboard for Bristol's Show Club and Revue at the Interstate 75 and Ohio 63 interchange in Warren County earlier this week to city council.

David Miller, vice president of Sharonville-based Citizens for Community Values (CCV), complained that the billboard, which was unveiled in July, is impossible for parents to shield their youngsters from viewing as they drive south along I-75.

But Bristol's spokesman Terry Wolf, whose wife owns Bristol's, countered that the new billboard is legal. Police Chief Ernest Howard said the city can't regulate content of the billboard.

Development adds 56 condos to plan

GREEN TWP. - A planned development of condominiums in Green Township near Interstate 74 is already getting larger.

Joe Allen, a representative with Nathaniel Development Co. Inc., said his company will be adding 56 units to its proposed Woodland View Condos project on Rybolt Road. That will bring the total number of condominium units in the development to 164 units.

Man jailed after accident, chase

BLUE ASH - A 38-year-old man was jailed Wednesday after he allegedly rammed a city police cruiser and led officers on a chase that spanned three counties.

Steven R. Vaughan, no address available, faces charges of felonious assault, fleeing, and eluding and obstructing official business.

He was arrested in Warren County around noon, about 11 hours after police said he crashed his car and disappeared into woods off Opportunity Place in Mason.

The chase began about 1:18 a.m. after Blue Ash Officer Rochelle Fowler stopped Vaughan at the Pfeiffer Road ramp to Interstate 71 because his car didn't have a license plate, Lt. Jim Shaffer said.

Vaughan pulled over, put his car into reverse and rammed Fowler's cruiser, he said.

Fowler was not hurt. The pursuit, which also involved officers from Montgomery, Hamilton County Sheriff's Office, West Chester, Mason and the Ohio State Highway Patrol, reached speeds of 95 mph, Shaffer said.

Trucker pleads guilty to child porn charges

LEBANON - An over-the-road truck driver accused of soliciting parents over the Internet to have sex with their children pleaded guilty to 100 child pornography charges, Prosecutor Rachel Hutzel said Wednesday.

Matthew Cooper, 30, of Elizabethtown, Ky., had been charged with 200 counts of pandering obscenity involving a minor and two charges of importuning. Half of the pandering charges involved possession of child pornography; the remainder were for allegedly taking the pictures across state lines in his laptop, Hutzel said.

Cooper also pleaded no contest to two counts of importuning sex with a minor.

Cooper was arrested at a Monroe motel in May after a woman in northern Ohio became concerned about Internet chats in which he asked to have sex with children.

No date for his sentencing has been set, but Cooper could face 18 months to eight years in prison, Hutzel said.

Woman accused of sexual assault

HAMILTON - A 19-year-old Hamilton woman is accused of sexual assault.

In a Butler County grand jury indictment made public Wednesday, Lashonna S. King is accused of gross sexual imposition, a third-degree felony. The charge stems from a July 14 attack on a 29-year-old Hamilton woman in a restroom at a Fairfield tavern, said Assistant Prosecutor Craig Hedric.

King allegedly forced the other woman into a bathroom stall at Hummer's Bar, 3220 Dixie Highway, a police report says. King then allegedly had sexual contact with the woman.

King's arraignment is set for Sept. 3. She is free on bond. If convicted as charged, she faces one to five years in prison.