Local sports anchor Dom Tiberi told members of the Ohio Senate that he doesn’t want his 21-year-old daughter’s death to be in vain.

The lawmakers responded by unanimously passing Senate Bill 294.

The proposed legislation, inspired by the death of Maria Tiberi, would designate September as Safe Driving Awareness Month. The measure aims to increase public awareness about distracted driving.

NEW YORK (AP) — Mel Gravely says his construction company might not exist today if he didn’t have mentors to guide it.

Gravely’s company, TriVersity, joined a program called a minority business accelerator even before he bought a controlling interest in the Cincinnati-based company in 2006.

It helped the company get started and win contracts that have helped Triversity’s revenue double.

“I don’t make any move at all without getting the input of the accelerator,” Gravely says.

WASHINGTON — Negative campaigning and mudslinging may be a fact of life in American politics, but can false accusations made in the heat of an election be punished as a crime?

That debate makes its way to the Supreme Court next week as the justices consider a challenge to an Ohio law that bars false statements about political candidates during a campaign. The case has attracted national attention, with groups across the political spectrum criticizing the law as a restriction on the First Amendment right to free speech.

DAYTON — On the road in a tour bus this week, the U.S. transportation secretary is spreading some bad news: The government’s Highway Trust Fund is nearly broke. If allowed to run dry, that could set back or shut down projects across the country, force widespread layoffs of construction workers and delay needed repairs and improvements.