Warren double homicide

Warren double homicide

WARREN — City police are looking into an apparent
double homicide at a home on Front Street sometime Monday. No other details were available late Monday.

New Castle Idol

NEW CASTLE, Pa. — New
Castle Playhouse will host the preliminary round of auditions for “New Castle Idol” at the Annex Theater at 6 p.m. Wednesday. The event is open to anyone ages 8 to 80. Participants will sing “The Star Spangled Banner” without musical accompaniment before a panel of judges.

These judges will select the top five performers to participate in the finale July 14 in downtown New Castle as part of the Fireworks Festival. The winner also will sing the national anthem Aug. 15 at a Pittsburgh Pirates Game.

For more information, contact the New Castle Playhouse at (724) 657-9369 or visit www.newcastleplayhouse.org.

Power is restored

YOUNGSTOWN — All FirstEnergy customers who lost power during Friday’s storm are no longer in the dark. The final 12 customers without power, primarily in Youngstown, had it restored at 11 p.m. Sunday, said Paul Harkey, Mahoning County area manager for Ohio Edison, a FirstEnergy subsidiary. In all, about 50,000 customers in Mahoning, Trumbull and Columbiana counties in Ohio and Mercer and Lawrence counties in Pennsylvania lost power during the storm Friday, Harkey said. Of that number, 40,000 were in Mahoning County, Harkey said. The storm’s high winds knocked down numerous trees and power lines, causing outages. About 150 crews from Cleveland, Toledo, Elyria, Springfield, Kent and Akron, as well as those from the Erie, Pa., area, were called to the Mahoning and Shenango valleys to assist with the effort to restore power, Harkey said.

MCCTC work continues

CANFIELD — Restoration work is continuing at the Mahoning County Career and Technical Center, and it should be open for fall classes, said Superintendent Roan Craig.

Fire heavily damaged the main building at the center May 4. Students are finishing the year at the Gordon D. James Career Center in Lordstown. That building, which belongs to the Lordstown school district, was no longer being used.

Craig said Belfor restoration company, out of its Akron location, has been working at the center on Palmyra Road near Canfield.

The state fire marshal’s office is continuing to investigate the cause of the fire, which started in an art room lab after a bucket of solvent burst into flames.

Man faces life in prison

YOUNGSTOWN — A 49-year-old Bryson Street man is facing a mandatory life prison sentence without parole when he is sentenced later this week for raping a 6-year-old girl.

Judge Maureen A. Sweeney of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court announced her guilty verdict against Donald R. Taylor on Monday, after a three-day nonjury trial last week. The judge also found Taylor guilty of a kidnapping charge that alleged he restrained the girl’s liberty for purposes of engaging in sexual activity with her on Feb. 18, 2005, in his apartment. The kidnapping charge carries three to 10 years in prison.

Taylor left prison in 2004 after serving 211⁄2 years for rape and gross sexual imposition for sex acts with several children in 1982.

Robbery suspect wanted

LIBERTY — Police are looking for the man who robbed a woman at knife point on Belmont Avenue. According to police, the woman stopped at a restaurant in the 3000 block of Belmont at 11:45 p.m. Saturday and was approached in the parking lot by a man riding a moped or small motorcycle. The man flashed a knife, then took the woman’s purse and wrist watch. The robber then fled south on Belmont with another man on a small motorcycle. The woman said she did not see the second man until after she had been robbed.