STABBING SUSPECT CHARGED WITH PROBATION VIOLATION:
Bond was set today for a Marietta College student accused of stabbing a man early Sunday morning, but the suspect might still have to wait a while before trying to post bail.
Thomas G. Robison II, 19, of Apple Creek, is accused of following David Scheimann home from a downtown bar early Sunday and then stabbing the man in the stomach after he refused to turn over his wallet around 2:30 a.m. Sunday in the 700 block of Greene Street.
In addition to a first-degree felony robbery charge, Robison was charged with first-degree misdemeanor probation violation. Part of his sentence for November 2008 drunk driving charges was a year's probation.
As a result, before attempting to post bond, Robison could be forced to serve the 33 days that were suspended in exchange for no new offenses.
Scheimann is listed in stable condition at Marietta Memorial Hospital with wounds to his hands and stomach.
LOCK FAILURE IN KENTUCKY SLOWS RIVER TRAFFIC:
WARSAW, Ky. (AP) - Army Corps of Engineers officials say a gate failure at the Markland Locks and Dam is slowing Ohio River traffic.
Corps spokesman Todd Hornback says a 250-ton gate segment fell into the water Sunday morning. The failure forced the shutdown of the locks that span the river between Kentucky and Indiana until a smaller auxiliary lock could be opened later that night.
Hornback says traffic was moving slowly Monday morning. He says its taking about 90 minutes, or three times as long as normal, for a standard-sized barge to pass through the auxiliary gate.
Hornback says federal funding was recently approved to replace the gates, but installation wasn't planned until 2011. He says he doesn't know if the gate failure will affect that timetable.
GAP BETWEEN RICHEST AND POOREST AMERICANS WIDENS:
WASHINGTON (AP) - The recession has hit middle-income and poor families hardest, widening the economic gap between the richest and poorest Americans as rippling job layoffs ravaged household budgets.
The wealthiest 10 percent of Americans - those making more than $138,000 each year - earned 11.4 times the roughly $12,000 made by those living near or below the poverty line in 2008, according to newly released census figures. That ratio was an increase from 11.2 in 2007 and the previous high of 11.22 in 2003.
Household income declined across all groups, but at sharper percentage levels for middle-income and poor Americans. Median income fell last year from $52,163 to $50,303, wiping out a decade's worth of gains to hit the lowest level since 1997.
Poverty jumped sharply to 13.2 percent, an 11-year high.
"No one should be surprised at the increased disparity," said Richard Freeman, an economist at Harvard University. "Unemployment hurts normal workers who do not have the golden parachutes the folks at the top have."
Analysts attributed the widening gap to the wave of layoffs in the economic downturn that have devastated household budgets. They said while the richest Americans may be seeing reductions in executive pay, those at the bottom of the income ladder are often unemployed and struggling to get by.
