MASON, Ohio (AP) – Call it the five-star hotel of the day-care industry.

The Creme de la Creme day-care center scheduled to open in April near this southwest Ohio city will feature a computer lab, library, dance studio and mock TV studio.

The price tag of sending a child to the $6 million, 21,000-square-foot center: As much as $1,600 a month. That’s at least double the price of other day-care centers in Warren County, depending on the child’s age and the amount of time spent at the center.

“We really believe the early stages of child life are the most important for brain development, and we think a lot of parents are seeing that it is worth it to send them to Creme,” said Pete Lungo, chief operating officer of the Denver-based company.

The chain chose to build its first day-care center in Ohio near Mason because of the demographics, he said.

Census figures show that the median family income in Mason is $76,000 compared with $53,000 in Hamilton County and $58,000 in Butler County.

The center, designed to look like a Victorian village, can serve up to 300 children, from newborns to 5-year-olds.

Used golf ball seller gets shaft

DAVISBURG, Mich. (AP) – An 85-year-old man who relied on the honor system to resell stray golf balls is rethinking his retailing.

Franklin Quinlan, whose home borders Springfield Oaks Golf Course, has collected the balls that land in his front yard for the past five years. Like gardeners who sell produce from roadside stands, he puts the good ones in a carton, sets out a coffee can for payments and offers three balls for $1.

But Quinlan, who checks his mini-business only a few times a day, recently discovered about 150 balls were missing and the can was empty.

The former Ferndale firefighter said he plans to beef up security.

“Every penny counts. I’m from the Depression era, when a dollar was a dollar,” Quinlan told The Oakland Press for a Saturday story. “I’ve got to think of a better idea, like having an alarm system on the can. I’ll have a siren go off. That would surprise them.”

Chief justice links couple to school

HUNTINGTON, W.Va. (AP) – It was more than just school pride that prompted Marshall University graduates JoAnn Elmer and Bill Adkins to get married on the Huntington campus.

Elmer, who on Saturday became JoAnn Adkins, is the fifth-great-granddaugher of John Marshall, the first chief justice of the United States and the man for whom the school is named.

“Being a descendant of John Marshall was always kind of a big deal to my family, I guess,” she told The Herald-Dispatch of Huntington. “My grandmother really drilled it into our heads when we were kids about what it meant and why it was important.”

She said her husband shares her love for the school that bears her ancestor’s name.

“We met because we both went to Marshall,” she said. “We would have never met had we not both gone to Marshall. It was one of those things where if a wedding is supposed to be a party, then there is no place better for our party than this place.”

Elmer, of St. Albans, graduated from Marshall in 2002 with a degree in print journalism. Adkins, a native of Sias, graduated in 1997 with a degree in biological sciences, and in 2000 with a master’s in forensic science.

Birth of Cruise baby honored

LAKE ELSINORE, Calif. (AP) – It was a “silent inning” to honor a “silent birth” as the Lake Elsinore Storm saluted Tom Cruise.

When the minor-league baseball team played the High Desert Mavericks on Friday night, no music was played and no batters were announced for one inning to mark the Church of Scientology-dictated “silent birth” of Suri, Cruise’s baby girl with Katie Holmes.

“It was originally going to be a “Top Gun’ … anniversary promotion and it just sort of evolved from there,” said Jeff Joseph, a spokesman for the Single-A California League team. Cruise’s character was named Maverick in the 1986 film.

Instead of the more traditional bobblehead, the team handed out a “bobble-couch” depicting Cruise’s couch-jumping incident on “Oprah.” A retrospective of Cruise’s career and a couch-jumping contest were also included in the night’s events.

A call to Cruise’s publicist was not immediately returned.

It’s not the first time the Storm has hosted an unusual theme night.

“One year we had Dr. Seuss night,” Joseph said. “All the players wore red- and white-striped socks to dress up like “The Cat in the Hat.”‘