Former State Senator Eugene Watts Dies at 66

Former state Senator Eugene Watts, who helped create the achievement tests for Ohio students but was also caught up in a speaking fees scandal, has died. He was 66. Watts' daughter, Julia Coleman, says her father died Tuesday evening at Ohio State University Medical Center after suffering a stroke last weekend while hunting alone in southern Ohio's Jackson County. As a legislator from suburban Columbus, Watts fought for proficiency tests in the 1980s when the skills of Ohio high school graduates were being questioned. Watts was convicted of misdemeanor charges in a 1993 scandal that followed an investigation into speaking fees paid to some state lawmakers. Those payments are now illegal.