Homeland security

Homeland security
YOUNGSTOWN -- The Mahoning County Emergency Management Agency is set to receive $50,000 from the federal government to help pay for homeland security. The money will pay for communications, detection, decontamination, and personal protection equipment for officials who would respond to an attack involving weapons of mass destruction. The money will come from the $1.5 million the U.S. Department of Justice has allocated to Ohio for homeland security.
Campaign commercials
YOUNGSTOWN -- Even though the congressional primary is about two months away, one Democratic candidate for the 17th District seat is hitting the airwaves.
State Rep. Anthony A. Latell Jr. of Girard will air television commercials beginning today in Mahoning County on cable television stations. The 60-second commercial, called "Forgotten," has Latell sitting at a table discussing the "betrayal" by Washington, D.C., politicians of the Mahoning Valley. The commercials will run for a week.
Latell plans to spend $250,000 to $400,000 on media buys in the Youngstown and Cleveland television markets. He is the first of the seven candidates running in the May 7 Democratic primary for the 17th District seat to air television commercials.
Facing charges
AUSTINTOWN -- James L. Green, 53, of East Liverpool, is to appear in Mahoning County Court here at 4 p.m. April 1 on a felony charge of drug abuse, and misdemeanor charges of drug abuse and improper handling of a firearm in a motor vehicle. He was charged by Austintown police Thursday after a traffic stop on Mahoning Avenue. Police found a Percocet pill, suspected marijuana, and a loaded .25-caliber semiautomatic handgun in his car.
Credit account theft
AUSTINTOWN -- Police are investigating a report that someone used an invalid credit card number to buy at least $364 in pizza in recent weeks from Kirkmere Pizza on Mahoning Avenue. Kirkmere employees told police that a Visa representative said the card number may have been stolen or obtained on the Internet. Kirkmere's credit card machine has approved the card number in the past. Pizzas bought with the credit card number have been delivered to homes on North Beverly Avenue and Cherry Hill Drive.
Board interviews
COLUMBIANA -- Columbiana Board of Education will meet at 5 p.m. March 18. The board will go into executive session to interview board member candidates. Board member David Dale resigned recently because he accepted a pastoral assignment out of town.
Organ donation play
YOUNGSTOWN -- "Unfinished Business," a 45-minute play that portrays personal issues involved in the decision to become an organ donor, will be performed at 5 p.m. Monday at St. Elizabeth Health Center's Finnegan Auditorium. The play, free to the public, emphasizes the need for donors to share their decision with family members.
The play is offered by the Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine, the Bioethics Network of Ohio, and Kaiser Permanente of Ohio, in conjunction with the Northeast Ohio Renal Transplant Center at St. Elizabeth's. There will be a panel discussion afterward on the organ donation, including representatives from St. Elizabeth Health Center and LifeBanc, the nonprofit procurement organization responsible for coordinating organ and tissue donations in 20 northeast Ohio counties.
No tolerance for litter
MINERAL RIDGE -- People interested in cleaning up the area around their residences are being encouraged to do so by new township Trustee James Stoddard.
A resident who owns a township farm showed Stoddard pictures of a truckload full of trash picked up on his street, where an unauthorized dumping area was created. Tom MiIls of Four Mile Run Road had his own workers clean up trash and debris on the street, filling the truck using equipment from his farm, Stoddard said.
Police Chief Joseph Consiglio has issued a warning to residents that police are taking a zero-tolerance approach to littering, and will ticket for the first offense. The fine for littering is $100.
West Branch winners
BELOIT -- West Branch High School's Varsity Academic Challenge Team won the Mahoning County two-day tournament March 4. The team defeated Lowellville, Austintown and Jackson Milton. Team members are Jason Ramsey, Stephon Harris, Kevin Crewson and Jeff Morckel. The adviser is Mary Jo Cunningham. The next meet is at 2:30 p.m. Sunday at Mount Union Theater in Alliance. This is the annual Kiwanis Invitational Tournament. Eight schools compete for a scholarship and a traveling trophy. The final county tournament will be Monday.