Morning Headlines: Man Formally Charged in the Stabbing of an Akron Hospital Security Officer

• Man formally charged in the stabbing of an Akron hospital security officer 
• Mother and grandmother charged in opiate overdose of two Warren children
• Ohio Supreme Court rejects request to identify Cuyahoga County homes with elevated lead levels
• Carroll County residents experience power outage due to heavy snow
• Gov. Kasich remains busy just one day before South Carolina primary
• AP: Ohio’s key Democrats still support Hillary Clinton in presidential race
• Ohio-based marijuana legalization group puts efforts on hold due to fundraising woes
• Ohio’s Bureau of Criminal Investigation tests 10,000 rape kits since 2011
• Ohio school board member calls for independent federal audit of state Department of Education
• Cincinnati police: Man killed had pellet gun
• Alternative energy supporters’ pushback against proposed power agreements in Ohio
• Canadian government delays decision to allow nuclear waste storage near Lake Huron

Man formally charged in the stabbing of an Akron hospital security officer 
A man accused of stabbing an unarmed security guard at Akron’s St. Thomas hospital in the neck and abdomen has been charged with felonious assault. Andrew Wallace, 33, is being held on $100,000 bond. Police say Wallace stabbed a 54-year-old security guard Tuesday night while being accompanied to a psychiatric ward. The guard is expected to recover.

Mother and grandmother charged in opiate overdose of two Warren children
The mother and grandmother of two young children who were revived using the opiate antidote Naloxone have been charged with felonies in Warren. Authorities say doctors revived the 9- and 21-month-old children on Feb. 2 after their mother found them unconscious on the floor in their home and took them to a hospital. The 18-year-old mother, Carlisa Davis, was indicted Thursday in Trumbull County and the children's grandmother, 43-year-old Lisa Davis, was charged with permitting drug abuse.

Ohio Supreme Court rejects request to identify Cuyahoga County homes with elevated lead levels
The Ohio Supreme Court has rejected a law firm's request for records of residences in Cuyahoga County where children were found to have elevated levels of lead in their blood. The court says that by linking the request to specific blood-lead levels, the firm made it impossible for the County Board of Health to comply without identifying specific individuals. The court's unanimous decision sent the issue back to a judge to see if any of the board's 5,000 pages of records could be released to the firm.

Carroll County residents experience power outage due to heavy snow
A power outage continues for more than 650 customers in Carroll County and crews will resume repairs this morning. Heavy snowfall this week took down power lines in rural areas of the eastern Ohio county served by Carroll Electric Cooperative. At its peak 4,000 customers were affected.

Gov. Kasich remains busy just one day before South Carolina primary
Gov. John Kasich has a busy day planned on the eve of South Carolina’s Republican presidential primary. Kasich will hold three campaign events throughout the day today, two of which will feature Tom Moe, a Vietnam War POW and the former director of the Ohio Department of Veterans Services. Kasich is set to hold a campaign rally on the U.S.S. Yorktown, a historic aircraft carrier docked near Charleston, South Carolina.

AP: Ohio’s key Democrats still support Hillary Clinton in presidential race
Some key Ohio Democrats who were committed to Hillary Clinton in the presidential race are unshaken by Sen. Bernie Sanders' early strength against her. An earier Associated Press survey of Ohio's 16 "superdelegates" found 12 supporting Clinton and four uncommitted. A re-check after Sanders' Feb. 9 New Hampshire primary victory found none of the 12 who responded to the follow-up have changed their positions. A nationwide Associated Press survey shows Clinton has only added to her commanding early lead among “superdelegates,” who comprise some 30 percent of delegates needed to clinch the nomination.

Ohio-based marijuana legalization group puts efforts on hold due to fundraising woes
A group that had gathered signatures to put a marijuana legalization proposal before Ohio voters this year says that effort is on hold after it had trouble fundraising for the campaign. Cleveland.com reports the Legalize Ohio 2016 campaign instead plans to partner with other advocates on efforts to legalize medical marijuana and to reduce criminal penalties for having marijuana. Its political action committee, Ohioans to End Prohibition, reported having only $268 at the end of last month. The roughly 80,000 signatures it had collected don't expire and could be used to qualify for a future ballot. Meanwhile, the group plans to collect signatures for the forthcoming medical marijuana proposal from the Marijuana Policy Project. Legalize Ohio 2016 also plans to support local decriminalization efforts.

Ohio’s Bureau of Criminal Investigation tests 10,000 rape kits since 2011
The state says forensic scientists from its Bureau of Criminal Investigation have now tested 10,000 rape kits submitted by law enforcement agencies around Ohio to check for possible DNA matches. Attorney General Mike DeWine says the testing that led to that milestone helped identify hundreds of alleged attackers. He launched the initiative in 2011 to check previously untested kits for evidence. Under a law that took effect last year, such agencies have until next month to submit any remaining older kits. Newly collected rape kits must be turned over within 30 days after an agency determines a crime has been committed.

Ohio school board member calls for independent federal audit of state Department of Education
An Ohio school board member has asked federal education officials to seek an independent audit of the state Department of Education, although the state board rejected the proposal.

Attorney and retired judge A.J. Wagner told the U.S. Charter Schools Program director in an email that an outside review is the only way to accurately determine what happened in Ohio's charter oversight office last year. The office's then-director, David Hansen, acknowledged omitting failing grades from certain charter-school sponsor evaluations. The evaluations were rescinded, and Hansen resigned. No further action has been taken against him or others in the office.

Hansen's wife manages Gov. John Kasich's presidential campaign. Wagner says he's concerned an ongoing review by Auditor Dave Yost, a fellow Republican co-chairing Kasich's campaign, won't be objective. Yost disagrees.

Cincinnati police: Man killed had pellet gun
Cincinnati's police chief says officers trying to detain a man fatally shot him when he reached for a pistol that turned out to be a pellet gun. Three officers fired nine shots at 37-year-old Paul Gaston on Wednesday evening. On Thursday, police shared a witness's cellphone video in which Gaston is seen from the back on his knees with his arms behind his head as officers face him with their guns drawn. The video then shows Gaston appearing to reach for his waistband with one arm.

Alternative energy supporters’ pushback against proposed power agreements in Ohio
Two proposed power agreements in Ohio are seeing a pushback campaign organized by alternative energy supporters. The Alliance for Energy Choice says nearly 55,000 emails have been sent to the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio, Gov. John Kasich's office and state legislators over the past two weeks. The messages raise objections to separate proposals by Akron-based FirstEnergy and Columbus-based AEP that ask regulators to permit rate increases to maintain certain aging coal-fired and nuclear plants. Opponents call the proposals bailouts. The companies argue they'll support infrastructure improvements that will return value to investors and customers.

Canadian government delays decision to allow nuclear waste storage near Lake Huron
For a second time, the Canadian government is delaying a decision on whether to allow storage of waste from nuclear power plants less than a mile from Lake Huron. Canadian-based Ontario Power Generation wants to bury 7.1 million cubic feet of low- and intermediate-level nuclear waste about 2,000 feet deep. The company says the waste would be entombed in rock and wouldn't endanger the lake. A Canadian advisory panel endorsed the project last year. On Thursday, Environment and Climate Change Minister Catherine McKenna said the company needs to conduct further studies and answer more questions before she can make a ruling.