Fire in laundry room

Fire in laundry room
HERMITAGE, Pa. -- A smoky laundry room fire routed the Gerald Diefenderfer family from their home at 1216 E. State St. Firefighters said the blaze broke out around 2:30 p.m. Wednesday and blamed a malfunctioning gas clothes dryer as the cause. The fire was confined to the first-floor laundry room, but the entire house suffered smoke damage.
Fire department grant
JACKSON CENTER, Pa. -- The Jackson Center Volunteer Fire Department has been awarded a $56,100 federal grant to help finance operations and buy equipment. The money comes from the Emergency Preparedness and Response Directorate. U.S. Rep. Phil English of Erie, R-3rd, announced the award.
Computers stolen
NEW CASTLE, Pa. -- City police said two computers were taken from Harry W. Lockley School on East Main Street. They said the burglars broke a window sometime overnight from Tuesday to Wednesday to get into the school. The two Hewlett Packard computers have a total value of $1,400.
Ex-teachers sue for jobs
LISBON -- Three former Salem teachers are asking for their jobs back with full back pay after the board of education did not renew their contracts because of a tight budget. Teresa Dolan and Jennifer Milliken-Dees, both of Salem, and Jeffrey C. Wills of Warren filed separate lawsuits in Columbiana County Common Pleas Court this week. The suits contend that school officials did not properly follow state law to end their contracts.
Work on culvert, bridge
UNITY -- State Route 165 north of Unity will be closed for 21 days beginning Monday for replacement of a culvert, the Ohio Department of Transportation has announced. Traffic will be detoured about nine miles onto state Routes 617, 170 and 14 and back to Route 165. ODOT also announced one lane of traffic will be maintained with temporary traffic signals during a bridge deck replacement on state Route 7 just outside Rogers from Monday to Sept. 30.
Child-sex charge
LISBON -- A hearing has been set for 1 p.m. Sept. 24 before Judge C. Ashley Pike of Columbiana County Common Pleas Court for a man accused of molesting a child more than 20 years ago. David H. Simms, 52, of Wellsville, faces a charge of gross sexual imposition. He is accused of improperly touching a girl, then age 6, between April 1983 and January 1984. Investigators have not said how the case came to light. On Tuesday, 47 felony counts against Simms were reduced to a misdemeanor count of displaying materials harmful to juveniles. Simms had been accused of having pornography involving juveniles on his computer. Assistant Prosecutor Tim McNicol noted that the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that drawn or computer-generated material involving juveniles is not illegal but photos and videos are. Simms' wife, Joann, 33, still faces a felony charge of tampering with evidence stemming from the felony charges against her husband.
6 in country illegally
MERCER, Pa. -- Pennsylvania State Police said they nabbed six illegal aliens on Interstate 80, two of whom had been deported before for being in this country illegally. The six were in a vehicle stopped for a traffic violation in the eastbound lanes in Findley Township around 10 a.m. Sunday, police said. The six were identified as Donaldo Rivera, 41, Cresencio Hernandez, 25, Elio Miranda, 26, and Jose Mungia, 23, all of Honduras; Gidvani Medina, 29, of El Salvador; and Selvin Cruz, 22, of Mexico. Miranda and Medina had been deported before, and Mungia had an active warrant against him filed by federal immigration agents. Those three were detained for immigration agents, police said.
Lively to face charges
YOUNGSTOWN -- Christiaen A. Lively, 18, of Parkwood Avenue turned himself in at the Mahoning County jail around 8:30 a.m. today to be booked on three counts of vehicular manslaughter. He was accompanied by his Youngstown attorney, Jeff Kurz. Lively was expected to be arraigned today in municipal court via video. Lively is accused of failure to control his car in Mill Creek Park on March 27, causing the death of three teenage passengers.