MAY

MAY
1. Martin L. Koliser Jr., accused of killing Youngstown Patrolman Michael Hartzell, could be back in Youngstown by early next week to face charges. He was arrested in Pinellas County, Fla. about 10:10 p.m. Wednesday.
3. Some 2,000 law enforcement and other safety workers from Ohio and western Pennsylvania and other states attend the funeral of Hartzell at St. Christine Church.
5. The Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse on Commerce Street in downtown Youngstown is dedicated in honor of retired senior Judge Nathaniel R. Jones of the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, who is a Youngstown native.
* Patricia Vivo, 72, of Boardman, a member of the Mahoning County Board of Education and an accomplished nationally known public speaker, dies at the residence of her daughter in Columbus.
6. Girard Police Chief Anthony Ross, 78, is charged with assault and intimidation after a local businessman says the chief ran into him twice with his car.
* Youngstown Councilman James E. Fortune Sr. unseats Council President John R. Swierz by 16 votes. Hubbard Mayor George Praznik is unseated by Arthur U. McGee, who faces no opposition in November. Girard Mayor James J. Melfi defeats three other candidates to retain his mayoral seat and faces no opposition in November. Trumbull County Commissioner Michael J. O'Brien wins the Democratic nomination for mayor of Warren and faces opposition in November.
* A Mahoning County grand jury indicts Martin L. Koliser Jr., 30, on charges of aggravated murder with three death-penalty specifications in Hartzell's death, the attempted murder of Donell J. Rowe, felonious assault, escape and illegal possession of a weapon.
9. Norman E. Wallace, 30, a Youngstown native and 1996 YSU graduate, who was working toward his MBA at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, is killed when a gunman opens fire at Case's business school.
13. WCI Steel announces a restructuring plan aimed at reversing the company's continuing financial losses and preserving the jobs of its 1,800 employees. The company wants the union to revise its current contract to cut labor costs.
15. YSD Industries in Austintown begins recalling some of the 70 workers it laid off over the past few months.
* Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell visits Mercer and New Castle and discusses his proposal to increase funding for education and economic development by legalizing slot machines at race tracks.
16. Four men -- Forrest A. Rupp Jr., 23, of Boardman; and Jonathan A. Kuzan, 23, and Frank A. Howley Jr. and Lamar Butler, both 22, all of Youngstown -- are secretly indicted and arrested on charges of obstructing justice in the case of Martin L. Koliser Jr.
18. The new $1.35 million Liberty Branch of the Warren-Trumbull County Public Library at 415 Church Hill-Hubbard Road is dedicated at an open house.
* U.S. Marshals and DEA agents arrest Robert T. Bucci, who lived for 4 1/2 years as a fugitive in Cuba, at the airport in Panama City, Panama, where he had gone on a business trip. He fled the country in December 1998, rather than face charges of conspiracy to defraud the IRS, filing false tax returns and tax evasion. His brother, Anthony, was a key prosecution witness in the racketeering trial of U.S. Rep. James A. Traficant Jr. The Bucci brothers were Girard paving contractors.
20. Youngstown City Schools receive a $2 million grant to create smaller learning communities within the high schools. The money comes mostly from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Ohio Department of Education and the KnowledgeWorks Foundation of Cincinnati.
21. Canfield City Council approves the city's purchase at auction of 288 acres of farmland at U.S. Route 62 and Leffingwell Road in Canfield Township for $2.4 million as an opportunity to provide a future financial cushion for the city.
22. Koliser arrives at the Lorain Correctional Institution in Grafton after being extradited from Clearwater, Fla., where he was arrested on the evening of April 30.
28. Because of an $850,000 agreement to house federal prisoners in the Mahoning County Jail, all of the 54 deputy sheriffs laid off in March are to be recalled by June 1.
* Forbes magazine rates the Mahoning Valley the second-worst metropolitan area in the nation to do business or build a career. The area ranked 149th out of the top 150 metropolitan areas. Only Flint, Mich., ranked lower.
* Donna Roberts, 57, is placed under suicide watch in Trumbull County Jail after a jury convicts her of complicity to the aggravated murder of her ex-husband, Robert Fingerhut, in their Howland home on Dec. 11, 2001. Her lover, Nathaniel Jackson, 29, was convicted earlier of the aggravated murder of Fingerhut and sentenced to death.
* Ohio Edison is bringing 50 full-time jobs to its West Market Street, Warren, facility, after a $150,000 renovation of the building, Mayor Hank Angelo announces.
29. Creekside Beverage, 1401 Boardman-Canfield Road, becomes the first and only state liquor store in Boardman.
* Judge R. Scott Krichbaum is assigned to be the judge for the trial of Martin L. Koliser Jr., who is accused of killing Hartzell and wounding Rowe.
30. About 10 people are taken to area hospitals after a walkway collapses at Sharon Speedway in Hartford as fans hurried to their cars after racing was canceled because of heavy rain. None of the injuries was reported to be serious.
* Warren school officials learn that the Ohio School Facilities Commission will pay for 81 percent of a program to replace nearly all of the district's buildings with new schools, and the remaining 19 percent will have to come from local sources, most likely a bond issue.
* Hospice of the Valley announces plans to build a $6 million inpatient facility on Sharrott Road in Woodworth.
* Citing unfavorable market conditions, Cogentrix Energy Inc., of Charlotte, N.C., scraps its plans to build a $600 million power plant in Center Township, Columbiana County.