An emergency official says a charter bus carrying students from a high school was rear-ended by a semi-truck on an Ohio highway, leaving three people dead and 15 others injured. Licking County Emergency Management Agency Director Sean Grady says the charter bus was transporting students from a school in eastern Ohio. There were a total of 57 people onboard. The accident occurred shortly before 9 a.m. Tuesday on Interstate 70 West in Licking County, near the Smoke Road underpass. The cause wasn't immediately known. The injured were being treated at five hospitals.

Ohio voters have approved a constitutional amendment that guarantees the right to abortion and other forms of reproductive health care. The outcome of Tuesday’s intense, off-year election was the latest blow for abortion opponents. It follows a string of defeats in statewide votes since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last year. Approval of Ohio’s Issue 1 highlighted the divide between Ohio voters and the Republicans who control every lever of statewide political power. Republicans had passed some of the nation’s toughest abortion restrictions, including a 2019 law banning the procedure once fetal cardiac activity is detected with no exceptions for rape or incest.

A constitutional amendment to protect abortion rights in Ohio will be decided in what is expected to be a preview of abortion battles across the country in 2024. Abortion rights groups hope to continue a winning streak in statewide votes on the issue since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned a constitutional right to the procedure last year. Opponents have been working to persuade Ohio voters that the amendment goes too far. It is the only abortion question on any state’s ballot this year. For both sides, Tuesday's contest is serving as a vital testing ground for campaigns in the coming year.

A top jurist and former elections chief in Ohio has sued two state officials over a recently passed law that requires certain judicial candidates to declare their party affiliation on ballots. Ohio Supreme Court Justice Jennifer Brunner filed her lawsuit Tuesday. It argues that the 2021 law is unconstitutional because it subjects candidates like her who are covered under Ohio's judicial code of conduct to different fundraising and campaigning rules than their potential nonjudicial rivals. The Democrat is asking the U.S. District Court in Youngstown to block enforcement on future ballots.

Ohio voters have approved a constitutional amendment that guarantees the right to abortion and other forms of reproductive health care. The outcome of Tuesday’s intense, off-year election was the latest blow for abortion opponents. It follows a string of defeats in statewide votes since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last year. Approval of Ohio’s Issue 1 highlighted the divide between Ohio voters and the Republicans who control every lever of statewide political power. Republicans had passed some of the nation’s toughest abortion restrictions, including a 2019 law banning the procedure once fetal cardiac activity is detected with no exceptions for rape or incest.

Stellantis plans to build a new midsize pickup truck, along with battery-run versions of six Jeep, Ram and Dodge vehicles. Ford envisions at least three new electric vehicles that will preserve jobs at several factories. General Motors plans to build at least six new electric vehicles, including a full-size SUV. Those and other plans by Detroit’s automakers have emerged in details of the tentative contract agreements that ended the six-week strikes by the United Auto Workers union. Under the new agreements, the three companies will significantly boost pay and benefits and improve job security. But the agreements also provide a blueprint for which vehicles they intend to build in the coming years and where they will do so.

Voters in Ohio will decide next week whether to legalize recreational marijuana. Both supporters and opponents say much more hangs in the balance than simply decriminalizing the drug. Issue 2 would allow adults age 21 and over to buy and possess up to 2.5 ounces of cannabis and 15 grams of extract. They could grow up to six plants per individual through a government program. Supporters of legalization say it’s about returning revenue that Ohio has lost to states where marijuana is legal, and taking power away from illegal drug markets. But opponents argue it endangers Ohioans and may lead to more work and traffic accidents.

Legal settlements could provide local and state governments $50 billion to fight the deadly U.S. opioid overdose crisis. What could that look like? One Ohio community is already doing many of the things advocates say should be considered. Hancock County funds harm reduction efforts such as a needle exchange and naloxone distribution. It also has a recovery community center, a drug court intended to get people into treatment rather than jail, housing for some people in recovery and aggressive outreach to help people with substance use disorder navigate their options for help.

Legal settlements could provide local and state governments $50 billion to fight the deadly U.S. opioid overdose crisis. What could that look like? One Ohio community is already doing many of the things advocates say should be considered. Hancock County funds harm reduction efforts such as a needle exchange and naloxone distribution. It also has a recovery community center, a drug court intended to get people into treatment rather than jail, housing for some people in recovery and aggressive outreach to help people with substance use disorder navigate their options for help.

The Indiana Supreme Court has determined the state's attorney general engaged in attorney misconduct in statements he made about a doctor who provided an abortion to a 10-year-old rape victim. The case sparked national attention in the weeks after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. In the filing, the court reprimands Attorney General Todd Rokita and fines him $250 in connection with the remarks he made about Dr. Caitlin Bernard during a Fox News show in July 2022. The opinion specifically faulted Rokita for describing Bernard on the show as an “abortion activist acting as a doctor — with a history of failing to report” instances of abuse.

Cover crops top the list of tasks U.S. farmers are told will build healthy soil, help the environment and fight climate change. Yet after years of incentives and encouragement, Midwest farmers planted cover crops on only about 7% of their land in 2021. Many worry the practice will hurt their bottom line. A study last year indicates they could be right. Researchers who used satellite data to examine over 90,000 fields in six Corn Belt states found cover crops can reduce yields of cash crops. The smaller the yield, the less money farmers make. Cover crops are plants grown on farmland that otherwise would be bare. They stabilize soil, reduce fertilizer runoff, store carbon in plant roots and potentially add nutrients to the dirt.

A constitutional amendment to protect abortion rights in Ohio will be decided in what is expected to be a preview of abortion battles across the country in 2024. Abortion rights groups hope to continue a winning streak in statewide votes on the issue since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned a constitutional right to the procedure last year. Opponents have been working to persuade Ohio voters that the amendment goes too far. It is the only abortion question on any state’s ballot this year. For both sides, Tuesday's contest is serving as a vital testing ground for campaigns in the coming year.

Federal safety investigators say the automatic braking system railroads were required to install several years ago needs improvement to prevent more derailments. The National Transportation Safety Board issued a report Wednesday urging the Federal Railroad Administration and the industry to keep developing new technology that can be used to improve Positive Train Control systems. Railroads spent 12 years and roughly $15 billion to develop and install the automatic braking systems. Congress required it in the wake of a deadly collision between a commuter and freight train in California. Safety board Chair Jennifer Homendy says the systems are clearly helping but that there is more work to be done.

Across the country, family members of children, parents and other relatives struggling with the disease of addiction are facing new financial burdens whether it’s missing work, blowing through their savings or becoming parents again in their 60s and 70s. Costs can add up to hundreds of thousands of dollars in treatment, but also other unforeseen expenses like childcare, legal fees and wrecked cars or homes. In Ohio, an epicenter of the opioid crisis, the state’s Department of Commerce is taking a one-of-its-kind approach to aiding families financially impacted by addiction by educating financial advisers about substance use, how to spot it in their clients' finances and what help is available.