Traffic blitz planned

Traffic blitz planned
YOUNGSTOWN -- The Mahoning County Sheriff's Department will conduct a traffic blitz in the Uptown area of Market Street from 8 p.m. Saturday to 3 a.m. Sunday, said Maj. Michael Budd. At least 12 deputies will be in the Market Street-Southern Boulevard area targeting speeders, seat-belt violators and impaired drivers, he said.
The sheriff's department received $87,500 from the state for such enforcement to make the holiday season safer. Saturday's blitz is the first of many, he said.
Charged in shooting
YOUNGSTOWN -- Arthur Barron III spent Thanksgiving in jail, pending arraignment today in municipal court on a murder charge.
Barron, 29, of Carroll Street, was arrested Wednesday afternoon and charged with shooting death John M. Cannell, 32, of Quentin Drive, on Monday. A charge of complicity to commit murder against Brad Dunbar, 25, of North Hazelwood Avenue, was dismissed.
CCA directors board
YOUNGSTOWN -- Atty. Brad Gessner has been named chairman of the board of directors at Community Corrections Association for 2003. Gessner is an assistant Summit County prosecutor and a member of the Austintown school board.
Sister Nancy Dawson will serve as vice chairwoman. Other members of the executive committee will be L.N. Pinkard, Mill Creek Park police chief; Jack Gocala, Youngstown State University police chief; John Palermo, a former Mahoning County commissioner; and T. Gordon Welsh, a retired common pleas court administrator.
CCA was recently reaccredited for three years by the American Correctional Association. The agency received a 100 percent compliance rating on the 228 standards used in the evaluation.
Cigarette-sale citations
YOUNGSTOWN -- Clerks at Schenley Carryout at 2725 Mahoning Ave. and Sami Quick Stop at 3822 Market St. have been cited on illegal sale of cigarettes to an underage person. Members of the vice squad sent a 16-year-old into the stores Wednesday, then confiscated the cigarettes bought. Dalbirs Dhillon, 51, of Tyler Drive, Canfield, a clerk at Schenley Carryout, and Khatam A. Alhadi, 27, of First Street, Masury, were expected in municipal court today for arraignment. The vice squad has been targeting certain stores in response to numerous complaints of underage sales.
Tickets, money stolen
YOUNGSTOWN -- A ninth-grader at The Rayen School is suspected of breaking into a locked cabinet and stealing $430 and tickets for a Sadie Hawkins dance. Police were told that the 15-year-old boy has been selling the tickets at the Rockford Village housing project on the East Side. The crime was discovered Wednesday.
Angel Tree Open House
WARREN -- Trustees and staff of Northeast Ohio Adoption Services will hold their annual Angel Tree Open House from 4:30 to 7:30 p.m. Wednesday at the agency, Suite 26, 5000 E. Market St.
Honored at the event will be those volunteers who took a paper angel bearing the name and wish list of a youngster from the Angel Tree and bought and wrapped a gift to be given to the child at the event.
Elks' memorial service
SALEM -- The public is invited when Elks Lodge 305 conducts its annual memorial service for deceased members at 1:30 p.m. Sunday at the lodge, 824 E. State St. The Rev. Ross B. Jackson, associate pastor of First Presbyterian Church, will speak. Debbie Haseley will sing solos, and Nick Fithian will play taps. All relatives and friends of deceased members are invited.
Items stolen from home
SALEM -- Cash and jewelry were taken from a home in the 300 block of North Lundy Avenue, police said. A resident of the house said $1,214 and two rings were discovered missing. There was no sign that the house was broken into.
The crime was reported at 11:50 a.m. Wednesday.
Man dies after crash
GREENVILLE, Pa. -- A Hadley, Pa., man died Thanksgiving morning after a car crash at Kinsman and North Good Hope roads in West Salem Township. William H. McQuiston, 93, of Grandview Drive, was pronounced dead at Greenville Horizon Hospital. His death was ruled accidental, with the cause being a heart attack, according to the Mercer County coroner's office. Police said McQuiston pulled his vehicle into the path of a northbound pickup truck driven by Greg McLaughlin of West Salem Township about 10:36 a.m. McQuiston had been at a stop sign, and McLaughlin was passing through the intersection, police said. They don't know whether McQuiston had the heart attack before the crash.