COUNCIL COMMITTEES TO DISCUSS COURT:
Marietta City Council's public lands, buildings and parks and finance committees will meet in a joint session today to consider the costs to renovate the former Ohio Bureau of Employment Services building into a new municipal court.
The meeting is scheduled for 5 p.m. today in Room 200 at 304 Putnam St.
Earlier this month, council members learned that the projected cost for the work was $4.1 million, about $1 million higher than city officials initially discussed. Judge Janet Dyar-Welch has said she believes the number can be reduced to closer to $3.4 million.
A report on the meeting will appear in Wednesday's edition of The Marietta Times.
INMATE WHO TRIED SUICIDE EXECUTED:
LUCASVILLE (AP) - A death row inmate who tried to kill himself last week by overdosing on pills as his legal challenges dried up was executed Tuesday for robbing and strangling his neighbor in 1994.
Lawrence Reynolds Jr., 43, was executed by lethal injection at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility nine days after prison guards found him unconscious in his cell.
Ernie Sanders, a spiritual adviser who met with Reynolds in prison, said Reynolds wanted to die alone, not in the state's death chamber.
"He just didn't want his last act of life to be what he considered to be a sideshow or a circus," Sanders said.
Reynolds became the fourth inmate to die by Ohio's new lethal injection procedure, which uses one drug instead of three. Like the others, his death came quickly.
Reynolds was convicted of killing Loretta Foster, a 67-year-old widow who baby-sat children in her neighborhood and lived three doors down from him in Cuyahoga Falls near Akron.
Prosecutors said Reynolds was an alcoholic who was out of work and needed money for booze. He forced his way into Foster's house, strangled her with rope and left with $40 in cash and a blank check from her purse.
"I came in like a lion and go out like a lamb," Reynolds said in a brief final statement while lying on the gurney.
TIGER WOODS WILL PLAY AT MASTERS:
PALM HARBOR, Fla. (AP) - Tiger Woods said Tuesday he will return to golf next month at the Masters, ending a four-month hiatus brought on by a sex scandal that shattered his image as the gold standard in sports.
"The Masters is where I won my first major and I view this tournament with great respect," Woods said in a statement. "After a long and necessary time away from the game, I feel like I'm ready to start my season at Augusta."
The Masters begins April 8.
The Associated Press first reported his plans to return at Augusta National last Thursday.
Woods has not competed since Nov. 15 when he won the Australian Masters for his 82nd victory worldwide. Twelve days later, he crashed his car into a tree outside his Florida home, setting off shocking revelations that he had been cheating on his wife.
"The major championships have always been a special focus in my career and, as a professional, I think Augusta is where I need to be, even though it's been a while since I last played," Woods said.
"I have undergone almost two months of inpatient therapy and I am continuing my treatment," he said. "Although I'm returning to competition, I still have a lot of work to do in my personal life."
There had been reports he would play the Tavistock Cup exhibition next week in Orlando, followed by the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill, where he is the defending champion and a six-time winner.
