The Cincinnati Enquirer from Cincinnati, Ohio • Page 1

WEEKENDLIFE E10 Local musicians amp up for Summer of Love Reunion Two nrvm i C1C1MTI CINCINNATI.COM FN 50 CENTS SUMMER OLYMPICS 6EUING2008 Murder charge shocks family, friends By Janice Morse jmorseenquirer. com Woman often fell asleep in bathtub, they say I 1 ifI ,) I in i pi in i "Where is this 'mystery evidence? And is it purely interpretation?" Rittgers said. Steward unsuccessfully asked a judge Thursday to lower the bond for his brother-in-law, saying, "Ryan should be treated as a hero for try ing to save my sister. He doesn't deserve this." Meanwhile, Jill Widmer (Ryan's mother) and Ruth Ann Steward (Sarah's mother) tearfully embraced outside court Bathtub drowning victim Sarah Widmer's family believes so strongly in her husband's innocence that they're putting herfuneralon hold because they want Ryan Widm-er to attend but he can't while he's in jail. Widmer, 27, is charged with murder in the drowning Monday night of his wife, Sarah Widmer, 24.

The couple, married April 19, were living in a home in Hamilton Township, a community that hasn't seen a homicide in a decade. Widmer is being held on $1 million bond. Friends and relatives say the murder charge was a huge mistake. The funeral "is pending until we can see when we can clear this up for Ryan. He's her family, he's my family.

He needs to be there," Mike Steward, 28, Sarah's brother, said. "With every ounce of my being, I believe there's no possible way he could have done this." But Warren County Prosecutor Rachel Hutzel is standing her ground. The murder charge is based on "injuries that are consistent with a violent death, not an accident," Hutzel said Thursday. Coroner Russell Upte-grove found the injuries inside Sarah Widmer's body during an autopsy, Hutzel said. She says ethical rules bar her from sharing more details right now.

Ryan Widmer's lawyer, Charlie Rittgers, is urging Hutzel to provide a coroner's preliminary report to him so he can get an independent opinion about the injuries. Provided photoFox Channel 19 Ryan Widmer appeared Thursday via video from jail at his arraignment in Warren County court. See DEATH, Page A7 LECTION20TO 'Humble' Kearneys lib asset for Obama a big TTTFTP 3 ii if Michael Phelps captured his sixth gold medal of the Games and set a world record in the 200 individual medley. He will try to tie Mark Spitz's record today. CI, 4 Cincinnati.Com Search: Olympics Blog updates, Including photos and video, from Dus-tin Dow and Jeff Swinger in Beijing.

The latest Olympic headlines and medal counts. Daily video and photo galleries. Up Front Must reads inside today's Enquirer US tells Russia step back or ruin good relationship At stake: everything from halting Iran's nuclear ambitions to reducing strategic arsenals. NATION WORLD A2 UC football coach scorns court order Quarterback Ben Mauk asks judge to let him play. SPORTS CI Chapter and verse on how to prosper Greeting-card company begun 50 years ago has changed, thrived.

BUSINESS All Also Teen in fatal crash let out of juvenile jail early. LOCAL Bl Bengals come up with a new offensive line. SPORTS CI 5.6 annual rate is biggest rise since '91 By Martin Crutsinger The Associated Press WASHINGTON Inflation is running at the fastest pace in 17 years, the job market is under further strain, and foreclosure filings are surging. A raft of gloomy economic data Thursday represented a setback for those hoping to see signs of better times ahead. The Labor Department reported that consumer prices shot up by 0.8 percent in July, double the increase that economists had expected.

The rise was only slightly lower than the 1.1 percent surge in June that had been the BllSineSS I lS 1 V5- li eM Couple working hard for former college classmate By John Johnston jjohnstonenquirer.com They're highly respected, well-connected and just happen to be good friends of the man who might be the next president of the United States. So perhaps it's fair to suggest that state Sen. Eric Kearney and his wife, Jan-Michele Lemon Kearney, have become one of the region's highest-profile power couples. "I don't think so," Eric says, at home in North Avondale. "I don't like the term," Jan-Michele adds.

This much, though, is a given: Even before they devoted themselves to helping Sen. Barack Obama capture the White House, the Kearneys' combined clout had far surpassed that of most married couples in the region. He's the businessman and lawyer whose professional accomplishments, legal skill, community service and fundraising ability led to his appointment as a state senator in 2005, followed by a 2006 election victory. She's the Harvard-educated lawyer Obama was a classmate who publishes the Cincinnati Herald and owns a track record of community service rivaling her husband's. Yet to tag them as a "power couple," Eric says, "just seems self-aggrandizing or pompous." Local prices up 4.1 percent in first six months of the year.

All National median home price: 5206,500. A15 second-highest monthly increase in 26 years. The big gains left inflation increasing by 5.6 percent in the past year, the largest 12-month jump since the period ending in January 1991. Core inflation, which excludes volatile food ha The EnquirerGary Landers The family of Ohio Sen. Eric Kearney: (from left) his mom, Rose Kearney; his wife, Jan-Michele Lemon Kearney; daughter Emmye, 11; son Asher, 4, Eric; and his mother-in-law, Elizabeth Lemon, photographed in the family's North Avondale home.

i tncrgy costs, rose 0.3 percent in July. For ihe past 12 months, Inside, online PageA4 Hillary Clinton's name will be placed in nomination. McCain says Georgia conflict serious; he wouldn't send troops. FEC says McCain didn't violate campaign-finance laws. Cincinnati.Com Stay up to date with the latest Provided photoc.

Smith headlines from the campaign and Eric and Jan-Michele Lemon Kearney, with Barack Obama sign up for the Politics Extra news-at a February 2007 fundraiser at the Westin Hotel. letter. Search: election See KEARNEYS, Page A10 WEATHER High 84 y) Low 55" l- Partly sunny COMPLETE FORECAST: B8 INDEX Clinic's move becomes issue in Chabot-Driehaus contest core inflation has rsen by 2.5 percent The biggest priu pressures came in the energy and food sectors, just as they have all year. But the price gains spread to other areas, too -clothing jumped by the largest amount in a decade, airline fares rose sharply, and hotel rooms and tobacco products also climbed. "For the average American, these inflation numbers are very bad news.

It means that their purchasing power has been cut and their wages aren't going very far," Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Economy.com, said. Indeed, the Labor Department said in a separate report that average weekly wages, after adjusting for inflation, fell by 3.1 percent in July compared to a year ago, the biggest year-over-year decline since November 1990. Also Thursday: The Labor Department reported that the number of newly-laid-off workers filing for unemployment benefits fell by 10,000 last week to 450,000. But that decline was less than expected and left the four-week moving average at the highest level in six years. Foreclosure filings jumped by 55 percent in July, according to Irvine, Realty Trac Inc.

Nationwide, more than 272,000 homes received at least one foreclosure-related notice in July, compared with about 175,000 in the same month last year. The number was up 8 percent from June, RealtyTrac Inc. said. That means one in every 464 U.S. households received a foreclosure filing last month.

The National Association of Realtors reported that median home prices fell in three-fourths of the cities it surveyed in the April-June quarter. Five sections, 168th year, No. 128 1,400 jobs It's official: GE picks West Chester GE Aviation said Thursday that it plans to transfer more than 1,000 jobs from two Springdale sites to West Chester Township. The company expects to start moving its 1,130 employees from the Springdale operations to a new West Chester campus in October 2009. The company, after combining the 1,130 with 270 workers at the current West Chester office, would become the township's second-largest employer, behind the local school district BUSINESS All Movies E36-44 Obituaries B4 Sports CI TVs E20-21 Worship BS Dl-10 C8 Advice E18 Business All-15 Comics Editorials B6 Lotteries B8 Classified first Run Classified only to draw attention to himself and his re-election efforts.

"It begs the question whether the congressman is as concerned about the 15- and 16-year-old girls at Western Hills High School as he is about his election. I think it's a question voters should be asking." The lease on Planned Parent-hood's Green Township clinic expires this year. the "moral fabric of the West Side" is at stake. Chabot's opponent, state Rep. Steve Driehaus, a moderate Democrat and abortion opponent, said he, too, is concerned about the move, but he accused the congressman of using the issue to ignite his own campaign.

"The approach he's taken is one that is political," Driehaus said. "He expects there to be no change in the outcome. This is By Sharon Coolidge scoolidgeenquirer.com U.S. Rep. Steve Chabot is entering into a neighborhood dispute about where a Planned Parenthood office will go, pushing petitions and running thousands of dollars of ads against relocating it near a high school.

That local activism comes as Chabot, a seven-term congressman, faces another tough reelection fight Nov. 4. He says Copyright, 2008, Hie Cincinnati Enquirer 4H Kutf See CLINIC, Page A10 hot smiiiiEH SMSMGS! HOME APPLIANCES HEATINGCOOLING WATER HEATERS TheComfortZone.com r7 ban eckerJ oerger Hater Easteri Not valid wllli olhar often Expires 08-3O-M..