A wind-whipped wildfire that destroyed more than three dozen cliff-top homes in North Texas was expected to burn through most of the tinder-dry trees and shrubs in its path by daybreak Thursday, helping firefighters contain the late-summer blaze during the state's severe and seemingly endless fire season.

CLEVELAND (AP) - The federal government has dedicated two new research vessels to serve as floating laboratories that research the health of the Great Lakes and its marine life.

The watercraft, named Kaho and Muskie, replace two of the U.S. Geological Survey's oldest vessels by the same names and are part of the agency's five-vessel Great Lakes fleet. They were dedicated Wednesday at the Great Lakes Shipyard in Cleveland.

HAMILTON, Ohio(AP) - Police say five people have been arrested and about $1.2 million worth of drugs seized in an investigation of an Ohio drug operation connected to a Los Angeles street gang.

Authorities said Wednesday that the men were arrested in the Cincinnatiarea on Tuesday on charges of conspiracy to trafficking in drugs.

Hamilton police Chief Neil Ferdelman says the organization used businesses and residences in Hamilton and parts of Butler and Hamilton counties as safe houses and storage areas for large quantities of drugs.

CINCINNATI (AP) - The photo director for a southwest Ohio newspaper has resigned rather than go along with planned layoffs of photography staffers.

Larry Price says he doesn't think the plan is fair to staffers or in the best interests of the Dayton Daily News and readers of the Cox Media Group newspaper. The two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer resigned Monday, three days after being told two to four people would be cut from nine staffers.

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) - A judge has denied a request from a liberal policy group to block Ohio from selling its prisons, but he has agreed to hear arguments on the constitutionality of the law that permits the sales.

ProgressOhio and several prison employees had filed suit last week to challenge Gov. John Kasich's plan to privatize five state prisons.

The Wednesday ruling in Franklin County comes a day before the state plans to announce the company or companies that have been awarded contracts to buy and operate the sites.

A business dispute that's now in court has brought to light some more details about the secret flights that took terrorism suspects and U.S. officials to CIA-operated "black sites" and prisons around the world in recent years.

As The Associated Press reports:

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) - An Ohio group is circulating petitions in an effort to add an abortion ban to the state's constitution.

Personhood Ohio wants to put the issue before voters in 2012. It would amend Ohio's constitution to define a person as any human being at any stage of development, including fertilization.

Planned Parenthood of Northeast Ohio CEO Tara Broderick calls the measure "dangerous and deceptive." She says it would ban not only abortion, but all birth control in the state.

Good morning.

The story that the news media seem to believe is this morning's important news is word that the back-and-forth over which night next week President Obama will address a joint session of Congress has ended with the White House agreeing to do it on Thursday (the 8th) instead of Wednesday, which it had requested.

What should have been a simple matter of scheduling turned into a Washington political incident Wednesday. At issue: when and where would President Obama give a policy speech about jobs.

The date and place have been set. But before it was, there was much drama in the nation's capital. All the major players said the matter had nothing to do with politics, and everything to do with logistics.

The Obama Justice Department has been taking a more aggressive approach against people who block access to abortion clinics, using a 1994 law to bring cases in greater numbers than its predecessor.