WASHINGTON -- After a White House meeting christened the "carp summit," federal and state officials yesterday announced a multipronged attack with a $78.5 million price tag to prevent Asian carp, an invasive species, from establishing populations in Lake Michigan.

Tossing more gas on the partisan fire inside the Statehouse, a member of the House minority leadership team is criticizing the House speaker for declining to recognize a National Right to Life oratory winner on the chamber floor.

Columbus has spent about $1.9 million to buy 150 homes with federal money designed to shore up city neighborhoods ravaged by foreclosures and vacant housing.

Worthington voters will decide in May whether to raise their income tax to match what Columbus workers pay.

The Pickerington school board approved a new five-year bus transportation contract with Petermann Ltd. last night, agreeing to spend $137,663 more over the period than what competitor bus company First Student Inc. sought.

The recession that blew a hole in last year's city budget has ended up saving Columbus money at the landfill.

Federal stimulus dollars are helping Ohio companies make components for wind, solar and other energy production, but some "clean energy" advocates say that more assistance is needed to continue creating green manufacturing jobs.

U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown is pushing to more than double the $2.3 billion in stimulus funding approved nationwide for the Advanced Energy Manufacturing Tax Credit program.

More than half of voters who describe themselves as independents disapprove of President Barack Obama's job performance for the first time since he took office in January 2009, according to a poll released yesterday.

WASHINGTON -- The Obama administration will begin a drive this week to expel Pepsi, French fries and Snickers bars from the nation's schools in hopes of reducing the number of children who get fat during their school years.

YOUNGSTOWN (AP) -- Democratic state Rep. Robert F. Hagan of northeastern Ohio said he was punched in the face at a Youngstown restaurant over the weekend.

Rep. John Murtha, the tall, gruff former Marine who became the de facto voice of veterans on Capitol Hill and later an outspoken and influential critic of the Iraq war, died yesterday. He was 77.