Strickland to run again

Strickland to run again
LISBON -- U.S. Rep. Ted Strickland of Lisbon, D-6th, filed his nominating petitions Monday to seek a sixth term in the House of Representatives.
Strickland is the only candidate so far to file petitions for the two-year term.
The 12-county 6th District includes Columbiana County and a southern portion of Mahoning County.
Salem to buy 50 acres
SALEM -- City council authorized the purchase of 50 acres of private property in the northwest section of Center Township to serve as a buffer for its water supply.
The approval came in a special meeting held Monday. The price of the vacant land is unclear.
Farrell budget approved
FARRELL, Pa. -- City council approved a $2.2 million spending plan for 2004. City Manager LaVon Saternow said there was a $6,000 decrease in the budget from when it was introduced last week because of a change in the amount the city contributes to the nonuniform employee pension fund.
The budget will operate on the same 22.67-mill property tax base that funded the 2003 budget. All hourly and salaried employees are getting a $1,000 raise next year. About half of that will go toward health-care costs that employees are picking up for the first time, Saternow said.
Purses stolen from cars
HERMITAGE, Pa. -- Two purses were taken from cars at the Hermitage Town Plaza. Police said they were taken between 8 a.m. and 3:45 p.m. Monday, and each had a small amount of cash and credit cards. Police said the window of one car was smashed and they are unsure how the other car was entered.
Burglary at Relic's Cafe
NEW CASTLE, Pa. -- Police are investigating a burglary at Relic's Cafe on East Washington Street. Police said when employees arrived Monday morning they found the office ransacked and an undetermined amount of money taken from a poker machine and jukebox.
Employee sues for damage
YOUNGSTOWN -- A Liberty couple is suing the wife's employer, Best Buy, over damage the husband's car suffered when the Boardman store's parking lot flooded last summer.
Ann Grove of East Liberty Street is seeking unspecified damages in the suit, filed Monday in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court. The suit says poor engineering and maintenance caused runoff from heavy rains to pool in the store's employee parking lot, where Grove had parked the car of her husband, Jason.
It says the car was damaged to the point of being a total loss. It does not say what make, model or year the car was.
The parking lot of the store on Boardman-Poland Road was among several area parking lots and properties that were flooded during torrential rains in July and August.
Easter Seals' $25,000 aid
COLUMBUS -- Attorney General Jim Petro awarded $25,000 in funding to Easter Seals of Mahoning, Trumbull and Columbiana counties. The discretionary funding is made available through various charitable gambling settlements reached on behalf of the state.
Easter Seals was chosen to receive funding because of its continued efforts to help Ohio's adults and children with special needs.
Checks, stamp conspiracy
CLEVELAND -- A federal grand jury has indicted four Mahoning County residents on charges that they conspired to buy more than $10,000 worth of postage stamps at Mahoning Valley post offices in March and April 2002 using bad checks to resell them to local residents at less than face value.
Indicted on charges of theft of public money and conspiracy to commit theft of public money were: James K. Thomas, 37, of LeMans Drive; Elena Adams-O'Connell, 49, of Birch Street; and Leonard E. Mayo, 51, and Junell Brown, 55, both of Meridian Road. The checks were written on closed bank accounts or accounts with insufficient funds, the U.S. attorney said.
Two petitions rejected
WARREN -- The Trumbull County Board of Elections has rejected petitions to place two local options on the March ballot because they had too few valid signatures.
The board determined that the petition for an option to allow Sunday beer and wine sales at Dawlah Discount Corp., in city precinct 6E, had only 79 valid signatures, not the 80 required.
The petition for an option in McDonald Precinct B, to allow Sunday beer and wine sales at Blue Devil Sports Bar & amp; Grill on Ohio Avenue, was rejected after the board determined it contained 43 signatures, rather than the 69 required.