Metro digest || Ed O’Neill to be guest

Ed O’Neill to be guest

CLEVELAND — Actor Ed O’Neill will be a guest on ex-U.S. Rep. James A. Traficant Jr.’s talk-radio show today on WTAM 1100 AM in Cleveland.

Like Traficant, O’Neill is a Youngstown native. Traficant’s show, which debuted last week, airs from 1 to 4 p.m. Saturdays.

O’Neill is best known for playing Al Bundy on “Married ... with Children,” a television show that aired on Fox from 1987 to 1997. He currently stars on the hit TV show “Modern Family” on ABC.

Traficant will conduct the interview live with O’Neill over the telephone.

Traficant’s show also can be heard online at wtam.com.

Project ChildSafe

WARREN — The Trumbull County sheriff’s office has received a new shipment of gunlocks and safety information that can be picked up for free by local residents in the lobby of the sheriff’s office, 150 High Street N.W.

The locks and information are part of Project ChildSafe, a nationwide program funded by the U.S. Department of Justice whose purpose is to promote safe firearms handling and secure storage practices among firearms owners.

The goal of the program is to prevent unauthorized people, particularly children, from finding an unsecured and possibly loaded firearm in the house.

The locks and information can be picked up from 8 a.m. to noon Monday, Wednesday and Thursday until the gunlocks are gone.

Ex-treasurer indicted

YOUNGSTOWN — The former treasurer of the Springfield Local PTO has been indicted on theft charges by a Mahoning County grand jury.

Cheryl D. Blakeman, 37, of Columbiana Road, New Springfield, is accused of taking between $5,000 and $100,000 from the PTO between January 2007 and Oct. 13, 2009, while she was the treasurer.

New Middletown police have said that Blakeman diverted money from the PTO account to her personal bank account while she was a teller at Huntington Bank. As the amount increased, Blakeman became overwhelmed and was unable to repay it.

She has been discharged from the bank for reasons unrelated to the charge, police said.

Additional charges

AUSTINTOWN — A Youngstown man who already faced several charges now can add charges of obstructing official business, possession of drug paraphernalia and unauthorized use of a motor vehicle to his list of woes.

About 7 p.m. Thursday, a township police officer saw a car, driven by Dustin Greenwalt, 23, of Lansing Avenue, fail to stop at a stop sign on Elmwood Avenue at Forest Hill Drive. When the officer tried to stop him, Greenwalt got out and fled on foot with the officer following. The officer found Greenwalt sitting in another car on South Navarre Avenue and arrested him.

There was a warrant from the Mahoning County sheriff’s office for Greenwalt, accusing him of aggravated robbery, as well as warrants from Austintown police for resisting arrest, drug possession and drug paraphernalia.

Police found a pipe with suspected marijuana residue on it inside the car Greenwalt had been driving, resulting in the latest drug-paraphernalia charge. Greenwalt’s girlfriend told police that he had taken her car without her permission, bringing the unauthorized-use charge.

Hit and run probed

WARREN — A woman who formerly lived at the Warren Family Mission on Elm Road was struck by a car on North Park Avenue on Thursday evening in an unsolved hit and run.

Irene N. Comanescu, 47, was in the intensive-care unit at Forum Health Trumbull Memorial Hospital on Friday. The hospital would not give out her condition.

Police said she was apparently walking north on North Park Avenue about 5:15 p.m. just south of Atlantic Street in the curb lane when she was struck by a vehicle, which then moved to another northbound lane and continued on.

There were no witnesses at the scene when police arrived, and police have no description of the vehicle.

A Melwood Drive motorist called 911 after seeing the woman lying in the road after the accident.

A pastor who answered the telephone at the Warren Family Mission said Comanescu was not living at the mission but had lived there in the past.