LOCAL

LOCAL

Antiques appraiser to be available Friday in Howland

HOWLAND — Marcel Ulrich of Auctions by Ulrich will be at Shepherd of the Valley-Howland, 4100 North River Road N.E., to appraise antiques and other items from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Friday.

Coins and firearms will not be apprasied.

This event is free and open to the public. No appointment needed. For more information, call (330) 856-9232 and push 0.

Parade, car show planned

NORTH JACKSON — There will be two holiday-related events at Antonine Sisters Adult Day Care, 2675 N. Lipkey Road.

At 11 a.m. Friday, there will be a Memorial Day parade with a Marine Corps honor guard and the North Jackson police and fire departments. A picnic for clients will follow.

Mahoning Valley Old Car Club Inc. will have a car show at 11 a.m. July 1 to celebrate the Fourth of July. Clients will have a picnic.

ohio

New license-plate design scrapped over cost

COLUMBUS — Ohio officials have scrapped a plan to issue standard license plates with a new design in an effort to help drivers save money.

Spokesman Tom Hunter of the Ohio Department of Public Safety says officials decided it was inappropriate to require drivers to pay $2.50 for the new plates during a recession.

The so-called “Beautiful Ohio” plates depict rolling hills, a barn and a windmill with a city skyline in the background.

Hunter says more than 1 million of the plates have been made, and they’ll eventually be sold as a more expensive specialty plate.

One resident has already committed to the new design. Ohio first lady Frances Strickland helped design the plates and says she plans to get one when they’re released.

Fellow mayors support Akron’s leader facing recall

AKRON — Fifteen mayors from Northeast Ohio are urging voters to fight an effort for a recall vote on another mayor in their county.

Critics of Akron Mayor Don Plusquellic have collected petitions to force a recall election.

Fifteen mayors in surrounding Summit County have signed a letter asking residents to support an emergency review of the city charter that allows for such recall elections. The letter was published in the Akron Beacon Journal.

The mayors say an expensive recall vote is not the best way to settle policy disputes.

The group behind the recall effort says Plusquellic has misdirected the city and run up its debt.

The Democrat has been mayor for 23 years and has said he will fight the recall effort.

Boehner: Pelosi needs to come clean on accusations

WASHINGTON — The top House Republican says Speaker Nancy Pelosi should provide evidence the CIA misled her about harsh interrogation techniques or apologize for her accusation.

Republican leader John Boehner of Ohio says he wants Pelosi to come clean on last week’s accusations.

Pelosi says she was not told that waterboarding had been used and said an aide informed her of its use after other lawmakers had been briefed by the CIA in 2003.

Pelosi says the CIA misled her and that she had no idea techniques such as waterboarding were being used.

Republicans say Pelosi is being dishonest. The head of the CIA has defended his agency.

Boehner spoke on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

Land bank sifts through property rehab ideas

CLEVELAND — Officials overseeing a new land bank program in Ohio’s largest county say they’ve been overwhelmed with proposals about how to transform thousands of foreclosed and abandoned properties.

The program in Cuyahoga County allows the government to become the owner of those properties, fix them up and then return them to private ownership.

Treasurer Jim Rokakis says his office has been “bombarded” with ideas. Among the suggestions are an urban winery, gardens full of healthful food, landscaped parks and a corridor for development.

The land bank’s board of directors will meet for the first time this week.

Rokakis says he expects it will control 1,000 properties by the end of the year, mostly in Cleveland.

pennsylvania

Part of suit over patient’s death is dismissed

PITTSBURGH — A judge has dismissed portions of a lawsuit filed over the death of a dementia patient who wandered onto the roof of a Pittsburgh hospital in subfreezing temperatures last winter.

Relatives have accused UPMC Montefiore of negligence and trying to cover up the Dec. 3 death of 89-year-old Rose Lee Diggs.

Allegheny County Common Pleas Court Judge R. Stanton Wettick on Friday threw out references to a state Department of Health investigation into the death and allegations that the hospital’s disaster plan was outdated. But the judge declined the hospital’s request to dismiss the suit entirely.

Prosecutors earlier this month declined to file charges in the death, which was ruled an accident and attributed to hypothermia.

Man, 73, ordered to trial on homicide charge

SOMERSET — A 73-year-old western Pennsylvania man has been ordered to stand trial on a charge of criminal homicide in the shooting death of the 73-year-old woman he had married just a few weeks earlier.

Authorities say relatives found the body of Ruth Anne Henderson-McTonic on the back porch of her residence April 3. William McTonic, of Jerome, was arrested that afternoon in nearby Somerset.

A daughter of the victim says the two married March 14 and almost immediately began having problems, and her mother said she was seeking a divorce.

Defense attorney Joseph Policicchio during Friday’s hearing challenged testimony by a witness who said the defendant told her about the murder several hours before the body was discovered.

Former Lt. Gov. Kline honored at funeral service

PALMYRA — Family, friends and colleagues have paid their final respects to former Lt. Gov. Ernest P. Kline in central Pennsylvania.

Mourners filled the Church of the Holy Sprit sanctuary in Palmyra, Lebanon County, for a funeral service Saturday morning. Kline, who died Wednesday, served eight years as lieutenant governor from 1971-79 under Gov. Milton Shapp.

The Rev. James F. Podlesny remembered Kline as a devoted servant to God as well as voters.

Teen sentenced to prison in double-fatal crash

WEST CHESTER — A Philadelphia-area teenager has been sentenced to 111‚Ñ2 to 23 months in prison in the crash that killed two of his best friends.

Nineteen-year-old Kevin Demichiel pleaded guilty to vehicular homicide, involuntary manslaughter, DUI and other offenses. He was charged in the Oct. 18 crash in Chester County that killed Stephen Bare and Troy Thompson. All three lived in the town of Lincoln University.

Prosecutors said they sought a sentence below the range called for in guidelines at the request of the families of the victims.

Staff and wire reports