Sobriety checkpoint

Sobriety checkpoint

YOUNGSTOWN — Members of the Mahoning County Operating a Vehicle Impaired Task Force will conduct a sobriety checkpoint between 11 tonight and 3 a.m. Sunday somewhere in the county.

The task force will enforce a zero-tolerance policy for those operating a motor vehicle while impaired.

Deadly choking game is topic of parent meeting

BOARDMAN — The choking game is the focus in the second of a three-part parenting series designed to inform parents of the latest trends influencing children.

The free session, from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. April 21, will be at Boardman Glenwood Middle School, Glenwood Avenue.

The speaker will address the consequences of the game being played by children at parties, sleepovers and in their own rooms.

The game involves intentional deprivation of oxygen to achieve a brief high. Deaths of those playing the game have been reported.

The program is open to the public but is for adults only.

Fluorescent program

YOUNGSTOWN — Don Newsome, an internationally recognized expert on fluorescent minerals, will speak Thursday to students and the public at Youngstown State University. His program is free.

He will make presentations at 2:30 p.m. for students and 7:30 p.m. for the general public in Room 2000 of Moser Hall.

The Clarence R. Smith Mineral Museum will be open for tours before and after the public lecture.

Newsome is President of UV SYSTEMS Inc. and founder of the internationally recognized Fluorescent Mineral Society. He has more than 43 years of experience collecting, displaying and exhibiting fluorescent minerals and is an expert on the Sterling Hill, N.J., deposits. His personal collection includes more than 2,000 fluorescent mineral specimens.

Rapist gets 5 years

LISBON — Judge David Tobin of Columbiana County Common Pleas Court sentenced a man Friday to five years in prison on charges of rape and gross sexual imposition for having sex with a young girl.

John Cope, 38, of Salem, indicted on the charges in 2008, pleaded guilty earlier this year. The judge gave him five years on each charge, to run concurrently. He could have received 15 years in prison.

The acts occurred from 2000 to 2006. The victim is now 15. She was 6 when the crimes first started.

Cope had tried to plead innocent by reason of insanity, but Judge Tobin found he was competent to stand trial.

Gunfire at apartment

WARREN — Police were called to an apartment in the Hampshire Apartments on Fifth Street Southwest about 10 a.m. Friday for shots fired into an apartment with a 2-year-old boy inside.

Several shots had been fired into an apartment at 1247 Fifth Street S.W., which contained a 19-year-old man, 20-year-old woman and the boy. The shots hit a door and window to the apartment.

No one was injured.

Trumbull road closings

WARREN — The Trumbull County engineer’s office is announcing the closing of two roads so that replacement projects can be completed.

The first one is Brunstetter Road in Lordstown between Austintown-Warren Road and Highland Avenue. It will be closed Thursday and Friday for a culvert replacement. The recommended detour route includes use of Austintown-Warren Road, Carson Salt Springs Road and Highland Avenue.

The second is West Park Avenue in Weathersfield Township between Parkway Drive and McRoberts Road. It will be closed April 20 through Jan. 20, 2010, for a bridge replacement. The recommended detour includes use of Austintown-Warren Road, Carson Salt Springs Road and Salt Springs Youngstown Road.