CINCINNATI — The U.S. Supreme Court has rejected an appeal from an Ohio prisoner who argued he is too obese to be executed. Richard Cooey is scheduled to be put to death today.

The court denied his request for a stay without comment Monday. Cooey is 5-foot-7 and weighs 267 pounds.

State officials said prison staff examined Cooey’s veins and found no problems that would interfere with the execution.

Cooey has one more appeal pending before the court. It argues Ohio’s method for lethal injections could cause an agonizing death and violates the constitutional prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment.

Cooey, 41, raped and killed two college students in 1986.

Utah: Bullies reported on Web

Hoping to combat the “snitch” label that often leads to silent suffering, six Utah schools have introduced a Web site that allows students to anonymously report bullies. SchoolTipline also has participating schools in Washington, California, Texas and Arizona.

Texas: State authorities want to send FLDS victims to counseling

Texas authorities are asking parents from a polygamous sect to send daughters ages 10 to 17 to counseling sessions designed to teach them about sexual abuse and marriage laws. The individual “therapeutic education” sessions are being offered to 63 girls who were among 439 children at the Yearning For Zion Ranch in Eldorado when it was raided in April. The ranch is home to members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

Neb.: Teen abandoned at hospital

A Michigan mother drove about 12 hours to Omaha so she could abandon her 13-year-old son at a hospital under the state’s unique safe-haven law, Nebraska officials said Monday. Nebraska’s safe-haven law is unlike similar laws in that it allows anyone, not just a parent, to drop off a child, of any age, at any state-licensed hospital without fear of prosecution for abandonment.

N.Y.: Fire play likely started blaze

A blaze that claimed the lives of a couple and their three children in a Manhattan apartment was likely caused by a child playing with a lighter or matches, authorities said Monday. Fire officials say another fatal fire on Sunday in a Brooklyn apartment was likely caused by a candle. A Guyanese immigrant and his 12-year-old nephew died. There were no working smoke detectors in either apartment, authorities said.

Mexico: U.S. consulate attacked

Additional police guarded the U.S. Consulate in Monterrey on Monday as investigators analyzed a security video in search of assailants who shot at the building and threw a grenade that failed to explode. Two men attacked the consulate in northern Mexico around midnight Saturday when it was closed, the consulate said. Nobody was hurt in the assault, which left the gate pockmarked. Six spent .45-caliber casings were found at the scene.

Somalia: Pirates may extend deadline

Somali pirates holding an arms-laden Ukrainian tanker off Somalia may extend the deadline on their threat to destroy the vessel, a spokesman said Monday. The pirates have said they will destroy the MV Faina on Monday night or early today unless a ransom is paid. They may extend the deadline following requests from the ship’s owner and other unidentified people, pirate spokesman Sugule Ali said. In Kiev, angry relatives of the ship’s crew members demanded that Ukraine’s government stop delaying and just pay a multimillion-dollar ransom to the pirates.

Israel: Coalition with Labor possible

Prime Minister-designate Tzipi Livni’s Kadima Party initialed a partial agreement Monday on bringing the Labor Party into a new governing coalition, but several issues remained to be settled before a formal pact, which could be finalized tonight, a Labor official said. Livni also will need to attract support from smaller parties to form a new government to replace the one headed by former Kadima leader Ehud Olmert, who resigned as prime minister under the cloud of a corruption investigation.

From Herald news services