Weekend in review: Best stories, multimedia

12/8/2008

Scientists may not have figured out how to clone humans just yet, but it looks like they ve got Santa Claus down cold. How else could you explain the sight here in October: More than 70 jolly men with white beards and jiggling bellies sitting around singing Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. As if anyone needed more help identifying them, one wore candy-cane striped socks and another had a T-shirt that read Naughty or nice inspector.

With teammate Kyle Cannon still hospitalized with a serious neck injury, the Clay High School hockey team took to the ice for the first time last night since the 14-year-old was hurt Sunday in a varsity tournament in Kettering, Ohio. Kyle, who was airlifted yesterday to St. Vincent Mercy Medical Center from Miami Valley Hospital in Dayton, has regained some sensation in his arms and abdomen.

A local bar owner yesterday filed a lawsuit in Ottawa County Common Pleas Court against the village of Genoa, its mayor, Mark Williams, and its new police chief, Randy Hill, among others, claiming his business is being harassed, causing him to lose money. Eric Hise, owner of the Bharmacy, 621 Main St., claims in his complaint that Mayor Williams has specifically instructed police to harass him and his business by visiting his bar and parking their squad cars in front of his business for long periods of time to intimidate his customers.

The effort to force Carty Finkbeiner out of office before the end of his term began with a meeting at the Toledo Club about two months ago. Jim Moody, a real estate investor and Republican who yesterday said he plans to run for mayor in 2009, said he attended the meeting with about 70 others after getting an invitation from a friend in the real estate business. Mr. Moody and others found out when they arrived that the goal of the group was to launch a recall petition against the mayor.

Medical Mutual of Ohio Chief Executive Officer Kent W. Clapp - a Montpelier, Ohio, native and a former executive with Blue Cross of Northwest Ohio - was killed Wednesday in the crash of a small airplane in Puerto Rico, according to the company. Mr. Clapp, who also was chairman and president of Medical Mutual, was 62. Also killed in the crash was his fiancee, Tracy Turner, and the pilot of the plane they chartered. The twin-engine Rockwell International 690B plane crashed in dense fog into a mountain in the El Yunque rain forest about 13 miles east of San Juan.

From the deep dark recesses of a long forgotten second floor loft, across the street from Toledo's red-light district, laughter mingled with the sounds of a slightly out of tune piano. The music drifting across the wet snowflakes fused together to obscure the shadows that played obliquely on the gritty windows. As he covered his beat, Policeman Louie Haas' footsteps had long since disappeared, swept away by the snowstorm that was raging through Toledo's downtown. The windows of Pearl Barber's gambling room were barely visible as he sought shelter across the street in the doorway of Melcher's liquor store.

A Perrysburg family of nine is without a habitable home as a result of a fire in a rear bedroom Friday night, Perrysburg Fire Chief Jeff Klein said. The fire, at 403 West Third St., the home of the Casey Steinline family, was discovered at about 9:40 p.m. by a family member who was returning from a walk and roused everyone from the house, Chief Klein said. The blaze was confined to a rear bedroom, and no cause has been determined, the chief said. He estimated the damage at $50,000.

Wintery weather whipped into northwest Ohio and southeast Michigan yesterday, causing some slippery roadways for motorists, including many who were out and about holiday shopping or in search of the perfect Christmas tree. Throughout the day, skiffs of snow made streets slick, and dozens of motorists skidded off roadways and landed in ditches, down embankments, or against guardrails.