Politics

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) - Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine says a group wanting to legalize medical  marijuana has enough petition signatures but failed to properly summarize ballot language in its initial effort toward putting the idea before voters.

The Columbus Dispatch reports DeWine last week rejected the 2012 ballot proposal by the Ohio Coalition for Medical Compassion. The constitutional amendment would require a prescription for marijuana purchases and allow those qualified to grow a limited number of plants.

Backers of what would be the farthest-reaching ban on abortion in the country were back at the Statehouse today. Ohio Public Radio’s Karen Kasler reports on the newest effort to push the so-called "Heartbeat Bill" through the Senate, almost three months after it passed the House.

SOLON, Ohio (AP) - Vice President Joe Biden plans to tout the jobs-creation plan of the Obama administration Tuesday at the plant of an Ohio stretch-wrap maker that recently landed a $1.5 million Small Business Administration loan.

Biden and Karen Mills, who heads up the SBA, plan to stop at Wrap-Tite, Inc. in Solon.

They will be seeking support for President Barack Obama's $447 billion proposal for tax cuts and new public works spending aimed at creating jobs and stimulating the economy.

Ohio's Senate Democrats have introduced an alternative congressional map to the Republican plan passed out of the state House last week.

The Democratic legislation contains a map drawn by GOP Illinois state Rep. Mike Fortner, who won a mapping contest sponsored by a coalition of voter advocacy groups.

A spokesman for the Ohio Senate Democrats says the map keeps 79 of Ohio's 88 counties in single U.S. House districts and creates 11 competitive districts out of 16, compared with two in the GOP map.