Y-Town Tech Tour set for Dec. 26

Y-Town Tech Tour set for Dec. 26

YOUNGSTOWN

The Youngstown Business Incubator and OH WOW! The Roger & Gloria Jones Children’s Center for Science and Technology will host an inaugural Y-Town Tech Tour on Dec. 26.

Guests can tour YBI from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. and learn about the more than 400 jobs created in the computer science and information systems fields in Youngstown.

Dr. Martin Abraham, dean of Youngstown State University’s College of Science, Technology Engineering and Mathematics also will discuss research initiatives, the college’s doctorate program in materials science and engineering and the new Natural Gas and Water Resources Institute.

OH WOW! will be open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Representatives from YSU, YBI, OH WOW!, and the Youngstown Ohio Hub of Innovation and Opportunity will discuss entrepreneurial and career opportunities in STEM fields.

For reservations, contact Rose Shaffer at rshaffer@ybi.org.

Pipeline protest at Boehner’s office

WEST CHESTER

Protesters upset over U.S. House Speaker John Boehner’s support for a proposed continental pipeline demonstrated outside his office in southwest Ohio.

The Cincinnati Enquirer reports that about 40 people protested Wednesday outside the Ohio Republican’s office in West Chester Township in suburban Cincinnati.

Protesters dressed in dark or black clothing stretched out on the ground to represent an oil spill. Some carried a mock pipeline, and some had large, white, fake dollar bills with Boehner’s photograph on one side and oil derricks on the other.

No problems were reported. A message was left at Boehner’s office.

The U.S. House on Tuesday approved a bill that speeds up construction of the pipeline that would carry oil from western Canada to Texas refineries. Ten Democrats joined 224 Republicans in backing the bill.

Optimism from EU summit fades

FRANKFURT, Germany

Investors have soured on the latest attempt to resolve the European debt crisis.

Stocks tumbled around the world, the euro slid to an 11-month low and borrowing costs spiked for heavily indebted Italy. The markets’ jitters reflect rising doubts about the deal European Union leaders reached at a summit Friday in Brussels.

The agreement requires the 17 countries that use the euro and nine other EU countries to balance their budgets and gives the International Monetary Fund up to $264 billion to help countries with high debt loads.

But there’s growing disappointment that the new EU treaty doesn’t reduce existing government debt levels, doesn’t do much to promote the long-term growth that would shrink those burdens and doesn’t provide enough money to reassure financial markets that Italy and Spain won’t default on their debts.

Vindicator staff/wire reports