Receipts stolen

Receipts stolen
BOARDMAN -- An employee of Fine Friends Tours, 5288 South Ave., told police the previous day's receipts, totaling more than $2,000, were stolen from the manager's office. The receipts were last seen by a receptionist at 5 p.m. Wednesday and were discovered missing at 10 a.m. Thursday, police said. The receipts included $744 in cash and about $1,200 in checks and credit card receipts, police said.
Grant for waterline
YOUNGSTOWN -- Mahoning County has received a $110,000 grant from the Ohio Small Cities Community Development Block Grant water and sanitary sewer program.
It will pay for 7,649 feet of waterline along Lake Park Boulevard, Heacock Road, Center Avenue, and Beech, Elm and Monroe streets in Smith Township. About 35 households will be helped by the project, which has a total estimated cost of $220,000.
Credit fraud suspected
BOARDMAN -- A Mineral Ridge man thinks credit accounts at several area businesses may have been opened in his name by a former co-worker, Boardman police said.
The man told police he discovered that an account at Sears department store had been opened in his name without his knowledge. He learned this when a store employee called him about $488 that had been charged to the account.
In addition, the owner of a vacant house in Poland notified the victim that several bills with his name had been delivered to the vacant property, police said. The victim told police his driver's license, which may have been used to open the account, disappeared when he was working with his former co-worker.
Route 45 meeting
CHAMPION -- Ohio Department of Transportation has canceled a public meeting for the proposed widening of state Route 45. ODOT has determined that further study is needed before new information is introduced to the public, officials say. The meeting was to be Tuesday at Kent State University Trumbull Campus.
Grand jury gets case
NILES -- The case of a Howland man accused of assaulting an autistic boy has been bound over to the Trumbull County grand jury. Judge Thomas W. Townley bound over the case against William K. Nicholson, 19, Howland-Wilson Road S.E., on Friday after a preliminary hearing. Nicholson works for Better Living Now, a company contracted by Fairhaven to transport clients. Police said someone called Fairhaven on Nov. 12 alleging he saw Nicholson punch the boy in the face in the parking lot behind a Youngstown-Warren Road store. Nicholson also is accused of tying the boy's hands and feet.
Lawmakers get raise
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) -- Pennsylvania lawmakers will have a little extra jingle in their pockets this holiday season, thanks to a 2.8 percent pay raise that took effect last week. The increase, which legislators did not have to vote upon, boosted their salaries to $63,623 per year on Dec. 1, keeping them in place as the fifth-highest paid Legislature in the nation. California legislators are the highest paid, at $99,000, followed by the District of Columbia, New York and Michigan, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. The governor, lieutenant governor, Cabinet secretaries, statewide row officers and appellate court judges will get the same level increase, beginning Jan. 1. The General Assembly has not had to vote on raising its own pay since 1995, when it passed a law triggering automatic annual income increases tied to inflation rates set by the federal government.
Shrine holds wafers
DOYLESTOWN, Pa. (AP) -- A Roman Catholic shrine in Bucks County will not mail a traditional Christmas wafer in its year-end newsletter because of concerns that they might be crushed, spill crumbs and spark anthrax fears in post offices. "We understand it might create some suspicion," said the Rev. Stephan Wozniczka of the Pauline Fathers at the National Shrine of Our Lady of Czestochowa. "We want to avoid that, especially during these troubled times." Each year, the Polish shrine mails out holiday wishes to patrons nationwide and includes a rectangular wafer the size of a small envelope. Polish tradition has it that on Christmas Eve families break the wafer that serves as a sign of peace and unity and share it in food and prayer. The shrine alerted its patrons not to expect the wafer, though people can still pick one up at the Doylestown shrine or call and discuss other ways of getting it. Amid the uncertainties created by the terrorist attacks, the letter encourages its recipients to keep their faith. "In all the fears and worries you may have, never forget the message of peace God sent to the world on that first Christmas," the letter reads. "His message is eternal. It has withstood world atrocities for over 2000 years and will withstand the current atrocity."