Woman escapes custody

Woman escapes custody
YOUNGSTOWN -- Perstephanie Parker, 27, of Griffith Street apparently used a scalpel to cut through leather restraints in an emergency room at St. Elizabeth Health Center and escaped Wednesday night, police said.
Parker had been arrested on a theft warrant around 6:30 p.m. and was taken to the Mahoning County jail, where she complained of being dizzy and having chest pains. A nurse at the jail said Parker's vital signs were poor and refused to accept Parker until she had been checked out by the hospital.
Police took Parker to St. Elizabeth's, where a hold was placed on her. She was discovered missing at 7 p.m.
Senator joins committee
YOUNGSTOWN -- The National Labor Caucus of State Legislators elected state Sen. Robert F. Hagan of Youngstown, D-32nd, to its executive committee.
The national organization's goal is to provide state legislators, who are either union members or union friendly, a forum to share ideas and develop a common working families' state legislative agenda.
Hagan, who's in his second four-year term, was among 11 state lawmakers from several states elected to the group's executive committee.
City man is free on bond
CAMPBELL -- Lidell T. Hilson, 48, of Kendis Circle, Youngstown, is free on $150 bond pending a pretrial hearing Nov. 30 on charges of driving under suspension and driving an unsafe vehicle.
Hilson was arrested late Sunday after police spotted him driving along 13th Street in a 1983 Chevrolet Caprice with both tires missing from the passenger side of the car.
Hilson told police he was just trying to get the car home.
Charged with menacing
CAMPBELL -- Antonio Stokes, 30, of Tremble Avenue is in the Mahoning County jail on $2,500 bond pending a pretrial hearing in municipal court Dec. 3.
Stokes is charged with aggravated menacing and falsification. He is accused of providing a fictitious name and birth date to police while they were questioning him about intimidating a 13th Street woman with two pellet guns over the weekend.
Charter panel to meet
YOUNGSTOWN -- The Youngstown Charter Review Committee will meet in a special session at 5 p.m. Friday in the city council caucus room on the sixth floor of city hall.
Home safety for kids
BOARDMAN -- Demonstrations and discussions to raise awareness about how to prevent accidental home injuries to children will be from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday at Lowe's of Boardman, 1100 Doral Drive.
The event will also include hourly giveaways and two raffles of child safety packages containing $100 worth of home child safety items.
Call (330) 965-4500 for more information.
Tennis courts removed
MINERAL RIDGE -- Four tennis courts south of the student parking lot behind Mineral Ridge High School have been removed at no charge to the district by Mills Excavating of Mineral Ridge.
Schools Superintendent Michael Hanshaw explained that the courts were put in as a gift when the high school was built, but the district has never had a tennis team. The courts fell into disrepair over the years.
Hanshaw said the areas where the courts were will be filled in with dirt to even the surface.
Second dead bird in areafound with West Nile virus
NEW CASTLE, Pa. -- A second dead bird with West Nile virus has been found in Lawrence County.
The Pennsylvania Department of Health reported a dead bird found in Hickory Township had the disease.
West Nile virus is a mosquito-borne disease that can cause encephalitis, a brain inflammation. Most people who get the virus do not suffer serious illness but it can be deadly for those with weakened immune systems. Infected mosquitoes pass the virus onto birds, animals and people.
Janice Alberico, the county's West Nile virus coordinator, said they have already treated the area for mosquitoes where the dead bird was found. Alberico said this is the time of year West Nile started being detected in the county last year.
The first dead bird with West Nile was found in New Castle in late July.
In 2003, Lawrence County had three humans infected with West Nile, six dead birds and three mosquito pools.