Drug, loud music charges

Drug, loud music charges
YOUNGSTOWN -- Joseph McClendon of Ferndale Avenue was arrested on drug charges after being stopped Tuesday on the South Side for loud music. Police said they heard loud thumping bass coming from a vehicle traveling on East Florida Avenue around 5 p.m. and pulled it over. One officer said he saw a plastic bag sticking out of McClendon's left shoe and found two rocks of suspected crack cocaine inside the bag. A cigar wrapper with suspected marijuana, called a blunt, was found on the driver's side floor board, police said. McClendon, 28, faces charges of drug abuse (crack cocaine and marijuana) and loud music from a motor vehicle.
Call for lower gas prices
YOUNGSTOWN -- U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan of Niles, D-17th, is among numerous co-sponsors of a bill calling on President Bush to lower gasoline prices. The House resolution urges the president to suspend deliveries to the Strategic Petroleum Reserve; increase funding for renewable energy; work on plans to reduce crude oil prices and reduce the nation's dependence on foreign oil; and push OPEC to increase oil production. "My constituents should not be forced to bear the burden of a shortsighted energy policy," Ryan said. Regular unleaded gas prices in the Mahoning Valley are close to $2 a gallon.
Concealed-gun charge
CAMPBELL -- Michael L. Green, also known as Gabriel Green, 23, of Front Street, Warren, was in the Mahoning County jail today, unable to post $7,500 bond. His preliminary hearing is May 21 on a concealed weapon charge. Green was arrested Friday after police said they saw Green pull a gun out of his pants and toss it behind a Jean Street apartment building.
Purse-snatching charge
BOARDMAN -- Township police have charged a Niles man with robbery in a purse-snatching May 3. Police say Samuel J. Collins, 18, of Garland Avenue, snatched the purse from the shoulder of a 33-year-old township woman as she loaded groceries into her car at Giant Eagle on Boardman-Canfield Road. Collins was arraigned Tuesday and scheduled to appear in court again June 1. He is in Mahoning County jail on an $8,000 bond.
Free on bond
CAMPBELL -- Samir S. Awadallah, 38, of Dorothy Avenue, Youngstown, is free on $8,000 bond pending a preliminary hearing and pretrial May 25 on charges of drug possession, possession of drug paraphernalia, falsification and driving without a license. Awadallah was arrested Sunday afternoon during a traffic stop. During the stop, police said, Awadallah gave officers a fictitious Social Security number. The owner of that Social Security number had suspended driving privileges, prompting officers to arrest Awadallah. While searching him, officers found Awadallah's Human Services identification card, which shows a different Social Security number, and a small plastic bag with suspected crack cocaine, the report states.
Mishandling firearm
CAMPBELL -- Judge John P. Almasy sentenced Tiburcio Cruz, 26, of Reed Avenue to 180 days in jail with credit for three days served and the balance suspended, six months' reporting probation and a $350 fine plus court costs after finding him guilty of mishandling a firearm in a motor vehicle. The charge was amended from carrying a concealed weapon. Cruz was arrested March 7 during a traffic stop after police spotted a .357-caliber revolver on the rear floor of the car he was driving.
Neighborhood cleanup
YOUNGSTOWN -- Business and property owners on Andrews Avenue will have a cleanup at 9 a.m. Saturday in the vicinity of the U.S. Route 422 overpass. Volunteers will meet at Dutch Auto Body, 504 Andrews. Volunteers are asked to bring gloves, rakes, shovels and trimmers. The Andrews Avenue Industrial Parkway property committee, part of Wick Neighbors Inc., is organizing the event. There will be beverages and pizza available at Dutch Auto after the cleanup.
Beaver Twp. paving bids
NORTH LIMA -- Beaver Township trustees will hold a special meeting at 6 p.m. Thursday at the administration office, 11999 South Ave., to award a contract for the paving and tar-and-chip programs.