COLUMBUS-Oh-With gas prices soaring as a byproduct of a recession brought on by the Bush administration that has reached its peak during this last year of President Barack Obama's four-year term, the president visited the battleground state Ohio yesterday, speaking on energy and conservation to a capacity crowd at The Ohio State University in Columbus, the state's capital.

CLEVELAND,Ohio-Community activist groups  and area high school and college students will gather on Fri., March 23, at 4 pm at Tower City in downtown Cleveland to rally and then march to the Cuyahoga County Justice Center, 1200 Ontario St, to express outrage over the handling of the the shooting death of unarmed 17-year-old Black Florida teenager Trayvon Martin (pictured) by a White neighborhood watchmen in the gated community where his father lives.

LOS ANGELES, California-Whitney Houston's death in the bathtub of her hotel room at the Beverly Hilton Hotel last month was the result of an accidental drowning, the Los Angeles coroner said yesterday, with the official cause of death "drowning and the effects of atherosclerotic heart disease and cocaine use."

COLUMBUS-Ohio-State Sen. Nina Turner (D-25) and state Rep. Sandra Williams (D-11) stood with Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson (pictured) and a few of his Republican state legislative friends during a press conference yesterday at the Statehouse in Columbus on the mayor's controversial Cleveland schools education plan but would not pledge full support for it.