Ohio: Ohio State University

Mandel, 31, from Lyndhurst, made his announcement via a polished six-minute video on his campaign Website, www.joshmandel.com, followed by a Statehouse press conference.

"I am answering the call from Ohioans for new energy and fresh ideas in state government," Mandel said. "They want honest, principled leaders to watch over their tax dollars."

Mandel is in his second term representing the 17th House District in the Cleveland area. He previously was a member of Lyndhurst City Council. He earned a bachelor's degree from Ohio State University and a law degree from Case Western Reserve University.

Mandel's video, titled An American Story, heavily emphasizes his Iraq experience as well as his family history of military service.

There was almost no difference in the number of people employed by bars and restaurants in communities with smoking bans vs. those that permitted smoking, researchers at Ohio State University and the University of Minnesota found in studying the effects of no-smoking policies in Minnesota.

The study was led by Elizabeth Klein, an assistant professor of health behavior and health promotion at Ohio State. The results support uniform, statewide anti-smoking policies, Klein said.

"In the end, we can say there isn't a significant economic effect by type of clean indoor air policy, which should give us more support for maintaining the most beneficial public health policies," she said.

No one has comprehensively studied the economic effects of Ohio's statewide smoking ban since authorities began enforcing it two years ago.

In a complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Columbus, Ohio Citizen Action says it is being singled out because of its liberal politics. The nonprofit group speaks out on behalf of the environment and against political corruption and collects money to promote its causes.

"They just don't like our politics," said Daniel T. Kobil, an attorney for Ohio Citizen Action. "This is license for the government to pick and choose the people they want."

Ohio Citizen Action makes the rounds about once a year in Canal Winchester, Kobil said. The City Council adopted the law a year ago, right before the group planned to canvass.

Canal Winchester Law Director Gene Hollins said he was not aware of the lawsuit, filed three weeks ago, until Tuesday.

Ohio's public colleges should use their classrooms and labs more in the evenings and summer, according to a report released this morning.

They also should expand their online classes and consider tapping into business, community and K-12 school buildings after hours to reach working students.

And the state and colleges need to come up with more ways to save money and pay for renovating and building new facilities without taking on too much debt.

"Ohio must enroll and graduate more students from college and increase workforce training, research and technology transfer to be more economically competitive," the Ohio Board of Regents wrote in their report.

The state can't do it, the report says, if its colleges don't have the money for new and improved facilities and if they do not use buildings that already exist in the best ways possible.