2 open campaign HQ

2 open campaign HQ
BOARDMAN -- U.S. Rep. Ted Strickland, a Lucasville Democrat, and state Rep. John Boccieri, a New Middletown Democrat, have opened a joint campaign headquarters in the Boardman Plaza on U.S. Route 224. The office, which is about a mile outside Boccieri's state House district, is between the Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles office and the Book and Smoke Shop in the plaza. The grand opening of the office was Friday night. Boccieri said the reason he is opening the headquarters there is because many of his constituents shop in Boardman. This is Strickland's second campaign office; the other one is in Lisbon.
Sentenced for escape
YOUNGSTOWN -- Ronald L. Simpson, 20, of New Road, Youngstown, was sentenced this week to two years in prison by Judge Jack Durkin of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court.
Simpson had pleaded guilty to charges of escape, theft, failure to obey a police order and vandalism. Simpson escaped from custody after a court hearing last year in Mahoning County Court, Austintown, and stole a van. He led police on a chase, slamming into a passenger car and a police car, injuring one officer.
Lawsuit over drowning
YOUNGSTOWN -- LAM Enterprises, which owns Yellow Duck Park, is being sued by the family of a 10-year-old Youngstown boy who drowned at the park last summer.
Lynette Wesley of Hunter Avenue is seeking unspecified damages in the suit, filed Friday in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court. She is the mother of Raylin Weaver, who drowned after he slipped off an inner tube and fell into the park's swimming lake in August 2001.
Yellow Duck Park is a private water park on state Route 46, south of Canfield.
Wrongful firing alleged
YOUNGSTOWN -- James Tsangaris of Akron-Canfield Road, North Jackson, is suing Mahoning County Sheriff Randall Wellington and Major Michael Budd of the sheriff's department.
The suit, filed Friday in common pleas court, says Tsangaris was wrongly terminated from his job as a deputy sheriff. Wellington had not seen the suit and declined to comment. Tsangaris is seeking unspecified damages.
Promotion denial suit
YOUNGSTOWN -- A Wellsville woman is suing the Columbiana County Board of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities court over a promotion she says she was denied.
Nancy Groff of Given Road said in a suit filed earlier this month in federal court in Youngstown that the agency refused her request for a promotion to vehicle operator-workshop specialist.
She was refused because she had missed work on leave to care for her severely injured son, the lawsuit contends.
Groff argued that she was entitled to the time off under the federal Family and Medical Leave Act.
She is asking the court to order the agency to promote her with full back pay.
An MRDD spokesman was unavailable Friday to comment.
Man sues drug maker
LISBON -- A Salem man is suing a drug manufacturer over its production of a cholesterol-lowering drug that he says made him seriously ill.
Albert Votaw of Bentley Drive filed the suit recently in Columbiana County Common Pleas Court. The lawsuit alleges that Bayer AG of Leverkusen, Germany, knew or should have known that use of its drug Baycol creates health risks.
As a result of taking Baycol, which is no longer marketed, Votaw developed a condition that leads to breakdown of muscle tissue and other problems, the lawsuit contends.
He is seeking more than $25,000 in damages.
Mower maker is sued
YOUNGSTOWN -- An East Liverpool man who was hurt in a lawn-mowing accident two months ago is suing the mower manufacturer.
Thomas Graham of Broadview Circle says in the suit that he was mowing his yard in June when he fell off the mower. The machine tipped over and trapped Graham under the deck with the blades still spinning, causing Graham to be "cut and mauled," the suit says.
He is seeking in excess of $75,000 from Noma Outdoor Products of Knoxville, Tenn. Graham's wife, Marie, is seeking the same amount.
The couple contends the company was negligent in placing a defective product on the market. The suit was filed in U.S. District Court, Youngstown.