Electrical outage affects 2,000 residents

Electrical outageaffects 2,000 residents
NEW CASTLE, Pa. -- About 2,000 Lawrence County residents were without electricity this morning. A Penn Power spokesman said a high-voltage line went down about 8:30 a.m. He said workers were trying to isolate the problem. At least some customers had their power restored after about 20 minutes.
Youngstown manshot in the foot
FARRELL, Pa. -- Police said a Youngstown man was shot in the foot as he walked near the intersection of Wallis Avenue and Highland Street. Marcus V. Kennon, 27, of East Florida Street, Youngstown, told police he was walking along the street around 4:30 p.m. Sunday when a black car drove by. Kennon said he heard a noise from the car and he felt pain in his right foot. Police said he was shot. He was treated at UPMC Horizon.
Guilty of raping child
WARREN -- A 21-year-old Sharon, Pa., man has pleaded guilty to a rape charge. William Gammon entered the plea Monday in the courtroom of Judge Peter Kontos. Judge Kontos sentenced Gammon to four years in prison. Atty. Sarah Kovoor, an assistant Trumbull County prosecutor, said Gammon had sexual contact with a 3-year-old girl last year in the girl's Hubbard home.
Suit deadline extended
FRANKLIN, Pa. (AP) -- The American Civil Liberties Union has extended its deadline before deciding if it will sue rural Venango County for what it calls an understaffed public defender's office.
Officials in Venango County have made improvements in how jail prisoners are treated and have agreed to look into the defender's office workload, said Vic Walczak, the executive director of the ACLU's Pittsburgh office.
Walczak said he has extended the deadline for the county to make improvements from Aug. 1 to Sept. 30.
The ACLU has called the Venango public defender's office one of the worst it has seen, saying many poor defendants waited up to 10 days to get a lawyer.
Venango County Solicitor George Thompson said the system meets legal requirements.
2 early fires
YOUNGSTOWN -- Firefighters responded to two fires early today. A vacant house fire at 1:09 a.m. destroyed the 2 1/2 -story wooden structure at 432 Wiseman St. on the South Side, said Battalion Chief James Flynn. He said the house, valued at $5,000, was a total loss and arson is the suspected cause. At 3:22 a.m., a fire started in the living room of a Victory Annex apartment on the East Side. Flynn estimated the damage at $10,000 and said the cause is under investigation. No one was home at the time of the fire.
Power outage
BOARDMAN -- About 150 people were without power for several hours this morning in the U.S. Route 224-Tippecanoe Road area. Work crews from Ohio Edison were working to determine the cause as of 8 a.m. Company officials expected to have the power restored by 10 a.m.
Niles boy honored
NILES -- A city boy is one of 10 youths from across the country being honored for volunteering in their communities.
Billy Martin Jr., 10, is being rewarded by Kohl's Department Stores as a national winner in its Kohl's Kids Who Care scholarship program for starting Bite the Bullet.
Bite the Bullet raises money to buy bulletproof vests for police dogs. He started the campaign just more than a year ago after learning about a police dog in Ashtabula County that was shot and killed in the line of duty. His goal is to outfit all the dogs in Ohio with the vests, which cost about $500 each.
The winners, selected from more than 4,300 youthful volunteers nominated at local Kohl's stores, will each receive $5,000 scholarships for post-secondary education.
The Kohl's Kids Who Care scholarship program, launched earlier this year, identifies and recognizes the efforts of kids who contribute in special ways to their local communities. National winners were selected from a pool of 640 store-level winners in two age categories, 6-11 and 12-17.