METRO DIGEST || $4,000 in brass stolen at plant

$4,000 in brass stolen at plant

GIRARD

Girard Police are investigating a theft of approximately $4,000 worth of brass plates and cylinders from Trinity Highway Products.

According to police, sometime between Wednesday afternoon and Thursday morning, someone took 500 pounds of brass items from the plant’s machine shop and tool room. Trinity, on North State Street, is a manufacturer of highway guardrails.

Scrapping for brass and other metal has become a large industry, said Girard Police Chief Jeff Palmer.

Palmer said brass thefts have become more common in recent years because precious metals have increased in value.

Break-in at closed massage spa

WARREN

A representative for Hong Kong Spa, 2019 W. Market St., reported that the former massage parlor was broken into sometime Wednesday evening and ransacked, but nothing appeared to be missing.

Officers found that the side door had been pried open, and drawers inside the business had been opened.

The parlor was one of eight raided May 30 and later ordered closed by a Trumbull County judge. The order was temporary, and the parlors will have a chance to explain why the orders should not be extended Monday at a hearing before Judge W. Wyatt McKay.

3 assaulted at Hermitage bar

hermitage, pa.

A woman was assaulted by her boyfriend at a bar, and two bar patrons were also assaulted when they tried to help her, Hermitage, Pa., police said.

Police went to the Jai Alai Lounge on Mercer Avenue for a reported disturbance at 12:11 a.m. Friday. Officers learned that the woman was assaulted numerous times at the bar, but she and her boyfriend left before police arrived.

Christopher Benson, 30, of Highland Road in Sharon, Pa., is facing charges of aggravated and simple assault and disorderly conduct, police said. A warrant was pending Friday.

Police said Benson’s girlfriend sustained a broken eye socket and other injuries from the assaults at the bar and in their car on the way home. She was treated at UPMC-Horizon in Farrell.

McDonald House gives to UW

YOUNGSTOWN

Ronald McDonald House Charities of Mahoning Valley & Western Pa. donated $16,940 to the United Way of Youngstown and the Mahoning Valley to support the agency’s Success By 6 Pre-Kindergarten Readiness program.

Success by 6’s goal is to improve health and literacy for students entering kindergarten and prepare them academically and socially for a smoother transition into kindergarten.

“We’re excited to give children a much better start and a brighter future,” said Herb Washington, McDonald’s owner/operator and RMHC board president. He said RMHC strives to support programs that make the greatest impact on the largest number of children.

Contractor sentenced to prison

Akron

Another friend of Jimmy Dimora’s is going to federal prison for providing him with free home improvements while he served as a Cuyahoga County commissioner.

U.S. District Judge Sara Lioi sentenced construction company owner Anthony Melaragno to nine months behind bars for conspiring to bribe Dimora with about $5,000 worth of concrete work at Dimora’s home in Independence.

In exchange, prosecutors said, Vandra Brothers Construction received more than $10 million in road contracts awarded by the county commissioners. Melaragno is co-owner of the business with his brothers, who named the company in honor of their hometown in Italy.

OSU increases tuition 3.5%

COLUMBUS

Ohio State University trustees voted unanimously Friday to lease the school’s parking operation to private investors for $483 million. They also increased tuition and room and board 3.5 percent per semester, effective with the fall semester.

QIC Global Infrastructure and its partner, LAZ Parking, are to manage Ohio State’s $28 million-a-year parking operation for the next 50 years. QIC is an investment-management company based in Queensland, Australia, and LAZ Parking is a parking operator based in Hartford, Conn.

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