Dayton Daily News du lieu suivant : Dayton, Ohio • 13

LOCAL 4' 8, i- INSIDE Butler Twp. woman searching for her Angel Lady DALE HUFFMAN, PAGE B2 Dayton Daily News Saturday, September 18, 2004 DaytonDailyNews.comlocal mmmm li in (pf Rowdiness, yep that's baseball Campaign still has time to gather signatures Any benefit, right or condition that flows from a relationship that approximates marriage could not be recognized by the courts, Melamed warned. For example, pregnancy could be considered a condition flowing from marriage so unmarried pregnant women may be legally denied pregnancy leave, he said. Among Ohio likely voters, 56 percent say they would vote for an Ohio constitutional amendment defining marriage as only between one man and one woman. ruled that it is unconstitutional to ban same-sex marriages.

Activists opposed to gay marriage fear that judges in their states could follow suit or that their states could be forced to recognize gay marriages performed in other states. Meanwhile, Ohioans Protecting the Constitution, the group opposing the amendment, is warning voters that the proposal goes beyond banning same-sex marriage and would affect unmarried heterosexual couples too, said Alan Melamed, campaign manager. BYLauraA.Bischoff lbisckqffDaytonDailpNews.com COLUMBUS A campaign to change the state constitution to forbid gay marriage fell short of the required petition signatures, but organizers have until Sept. 27 to submit 42,321 more valid signatures, Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell said Friday.

Phil Burress, chairman of the THE CHOICE IS YOURS Taftnotbi player in Ohio visits by Bush I I 1 'I), GOP insiders note governor's tax hikes, low approval rating By Laura Bischoff LBIsaiOFFDaptonDailpNews.com COLUMBUS Ohio Gov. Bob Taft seems to be keeping a relatively low profile when it comes to President Bush's campaign appearances in Ohio, but it may be by design, according to political scientists. Bush has been to Ohio 12 times since January, hitting 23 stops. Taft skipped nine of those stops, or 39 percent. When he is there, he rarely plays a highly visible role.

He has Ohio Campaign to Protect Marriage, said his group has collected another 144,000 signatures since turning in the first batch of 391,794 in early August. All told, 322,899 signatures from Ohio registered voters are required, The campaign wants to put a constitutional amendment before Ohio voters Nov. 2. The amendment would ban gay marriages and bar state and local governments TradjnflJByite. i 2 i iY area gun dealers said.

But so far, there hasn't been a great demand. Prices for imported semiautomatic Uzis and other banned military-looking guns and large magazines skyrocketed after the 1994 ban, said John Hanner, owner of Arms Depot on Watervliet Avenue. Guns and magazines manufactured before the ban were grandfathered-in and could still be sold, he said. Large 20- and 30-round magazines that sold for $25 zoomed to $125, and guns selling for $499 went to $1,100, because of "supply and demand, he said. mount GrefitKli tanadar or fUsh i 1 i from recognizing civil unions or other quasi-marriage arrangements, Voters in other states face similar ballot initiatives.

Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Utah, Arkansas and Louisiana voters will decide similar state constitutional amendments this fall. Missouri voters overwhelmingly approved a gay-marriage ban Aug. 3 and five other states have changed their constitutions. The initiatives come after the Massachusetts supreme court JIM WITMERDAYTON DAILY NEWS As soon as foreign manufacturers start producing and exporting the banned guns again, prices should start to drop, he said. There's been no rush to buy since Monday "because most of the firearms that were banned were in existence and continued to be produced in modified form," he said.

"The ban had more to do with cosmetics than anything else," said Dave Goodman, of Mount Washington, manager of Bill Goodman's Gun and Knife Show, Please see GUN on B4 Iffl Pa1 mm. KNIGHT RiCDER-TRIBUHE I Babies safe sleeping practices reiterated Leigh Allan COMMENTARY With aU the jokes about how Ohio is a cultural backwater, it sure is good to see that in at least one area of mass behavior we've been way ahead of the curve. Not to mention the screwball. I know this because of what happened this week in California, the alleged leader in all pop culture, and what I saw more than 40 years ago in Cleveland, then the butt of every joke told about a city. The California event came Monday night, when fans of the Oakland A's got under the skin of the Texas Rangers' bullpen, setting off a melee that climaxed in pitcher Frank Francisco throwing a chair into the stands and breaking a woman's nose.

The event completely dominated sports-talk radio this week, with virtually unanimous agreement Francisco should have at least the book, if not a sofa, thrown at him, but that fan behavior has been getting completely out of control in recent years. Recent years? Hah! Ohio had fans out of control before the rest of the country even thought of it. I present for consideration a day in the early 1960s when I was sitting in Cleveland Stadium, in an area behind the visitors' dugout, as the Indians took on the rival Detroit Tigers. Some guy down close to the dugout was getting louder and louder as the game and his beers wore on, and really got into it when the Tigers brought in then-young lefty Hank Aguirre, known for his screwball and ability with a quip. Aguirre got shelled, didn't get a single Indian out.

Hank got yanked; and as he came back to the dugout, the obnoxious fan kept up a stream of invective we couldn't make out but could tell was not a show of commiseration. Aguirre suddenly bolted for the rail and leaped into the stands, teammates racing after him. The jerk in the stands stood up to take Aguirre on, at which point the friend with me shouted, 'Holy Cowl It's Brace's dad!" Sure enough, the wide body and big mouth belonged to the father of the boy who sat next to me in homeroom in mild-mannered little Chagrin Falls. That incident ended OK. Security separated the two before anything but words flew, and Aguirre went on to a long, if not illustrious, career, after which he founded a company that grew to more than 1,000 employees, and became one of Detroit's most eminent citizens, known for humanitarian causes.

What happened to Brace's dad, I don't know. The Ohio fan style may then have moved westward. I was in Comiskey Park on a hot Sunday in the 1970s, in the upper deck, a couple of sections from the press box, when a bunch of big, beer-loaded rowdies got into it. As we looked over at the mayhem, who should emerge from the side door of the press box but Bill Veeck, one-time owner of the Indians and then owner of the White Sox. Veeck was 60-ish, nearsighted, sickly and one-legged from a WW II injury, but he dove in to try to break up the brawl.

A few seconds later, Veeck was literally flying one way, his glasses another. Cops mobbed the mob and hauled a bunch off, and the old man, bruised but unbowed, brushed himself off and went back to his box. After the game, he told reporters it was such a beautiful day for baseball, he couldn't let a bunch of young punks ruin it But young and old punks are still doing exactly that. Contact Leigh Allan at tallanf Dayt onDailyNews.com or 225-7317. introduced the president once, said Bush-Cheney campaign spokesman Kevin Madden.

The problem is Taft isn't that popular with the public. The Ohio Poll conducted Jan. 30 to Feb. 10 found Taft's approval rating at 47 percent. Pollster Eric Rademach-er attributes Taft's low rating to Ohio's struggling economy and the 20 percent increase in the Ohio sales tax.

"If his approval rating were really high, I would bet that they'd have him speak. They really don't want to, sort of, dance him in front of even supportive Republican crowds," said University of Dayton political scientist Nancy Martorano. i Taft's press secretary, Orest Holubec, said that the governor's Please see TAFT on B4 WIIEUE TO GET BROCHURE Goto DaytonDailyNews.com health for links to download the "Safe Sleep for Your Baby" brochure. Brochures also are available at Children's Medical Center, 641-3700; the Combined Health District of Montgomery County, 225-4403; Miami Valley Hospital, 208-2229; or Montgomery County Children Services, 224-5437. chures will be distributed by hospitals, doctors, schools, churches, day-care centers and most government agencies.

The brochure addresses the increasingly popular practice of overnight sharing of a bed by Please see KIDS on B4 COMING SUNDAY XFcst 2004 Find out which headbangers will rock the fairgrounds IN ENTERTAINMENT In the Dayton Daily News and on DaytonDailyNews.com fot PROMOTER DAVE GOODMAN holds a Ruger M77 deer rifle and an ArmaLite assault-style rifle (same caliber) with a 30-round clip. Both shoot the same firepower, but are different cosmetically, and the one on the right has been banned for 10 years. Dealers: Gun ban was 'cosmetics' Brochure advocates firm mattress and empty crib By Kevin Lamb klambDaytonDailpNews.com DAYTON Twelve infants a year have died since 2001 from sleep-related causes that were preventable, a Montgomery County consortium of children's advocates said Friday in publishing a brochure on babies' safe sleeping practices. "Putting your baby in a safe, empty crib with a firm mattress really encompasses a lot of the things we say," said health commissioner William H. Bines of Montgomery County's Combined Health District.

The tips in the brief brochure apply to babies up to 1 year old, who aren't able to recognize or react to circumstances that can suffocate them while sleeping. Bro- They say expiration has not affected sales one way or another By Katherine Ullmer kullmerDaytonDailpNews.com DAYTON The expiration Monday of the 1994 federal law banning assault weapons should mean lower prices for imported guns and large gun magazines holding more than 10 rounds, IVhst is en Since 1 994, U.S. federal lew has banned 1 9 specific models of semiautomatic rifles, pistols and shotguns and copies of tfiem. Law tans rifles msre than one cf thc-ss features: BIUEFLY Greene County new property owners need valuation XENIA Greene County property owners who had new construction have until Friday to complete an informal hearing with the county auditor regarding the valuation. Taxes cannot be provided until after the November election and the department of taxation certifies the rates in mid-December.

Then, property owners must request a formal hearing. For information or to request a hearing, call 562-5065. Dayton Daily News Foldlni of 7 "r- pistol 9 r'p are Urge tnajsims tor thd lOrouftds, Soor.i. U5. Detail of Aottot ToSacco.

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