Mayor urges petitioning of Giant Eagle closing

Mayor urges petitioning of Giant Eagle closing

YOUNGSTOWN — A press release from the office of Mayor Jay Williams is asking those concerned about the closing of the Giant Eagle supermarket in the Cornersburg area to voice that concern.

The release says many residents have expressed a concern about the closing of the store. Those individuals are asked to call the Giant Eagle headquarters at (412) 963-6200 to leave a message for Giant Eagle officials, specifically Robert Borella. There is also an online petition at www.petitiononline.com/kidd8127/petition.html.

Air Force Band of Flight to play at Maag Theatre

BOARDMAN — The award winning U.S. Air Force Band of Flight from Wright-Patterson Air Force Base will present a free public performance at 7 p.m. Saturday at Boardman Park’s Maag Theatre.

The 45-member concert band is the largest single ensemble within the Band of Flight. The Concert Band performs a diverse repertoire that includes original band compositions and orchestral transcriptions, popular Broadway and show tunes, marches and patriotic selections.

The group supports the morale, welfare, and recreational aspects of military life; performs for military and civilian dignitaries; and appears at civic events in support of the Air Force Materiel Command’s community relations program.

The band has received the Air Force Organizational Excellence Award, as well as The Colonel George S. Howard Citation of Musical Excellence for Military Concert Bands presented by The John Philip Sousa Foundation.

Food concessions are available, and attendees should bring lawn chairs or blankets.

The U.S. Army Field Band performed at the park last week as part of Independence Day activities.

Man charged with rape

MERCER, Pa. — Pennsylvania State Police are charging a man with raping a juvenile girl.

Police say Jack Richard Pennington, 41, Orr Road, had sexual relations with a girl who was 11 or 12 at the time.

He is charged with rape, involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, statutory sexual assault, aggravated indecent assault, endangering the welfare of children, indecent assault, indecent exposure and corruption of minors.

The alleged sexual assaults occurred from June through August 2002, police said.

Pennington was arraigned Tuesday before District Judge Lorinda Hinch in Mercer, and was committed to the Mercer County Jail in lieu of $15,000 bond. His preliminary hearing is set before Hinch at 9 a.m. Friday.

Woman reports kidnap, rape on N. Side, Liberty

YOUNGSTOWN — A 19-year-old woman told police she was kidnapped while walking to a friend’s on Arlington Street on the North Side and then raped in a Liberty motel parking lot late Monday night.

The woman said the man who grabbed her at 10:30 p.m. forced her into the back seat of a black car he was driving and took her cell phone when she tried to use it.

The woman said the man returned her cell phone after sexually assaulting her behind the Belmont Avenue motel and drove off. She first spoke to Liberty police and then was interviewed by a city patrolman at St. Elizabeth Health Center, where she went for a rape examination.