METRO DIGEST || Holiday gifts for tots, soldiers

Hugs for the Holidays drive ends Thursday

VIENNA

The Youngstown-Warren Regional Airport, along with the U.S. Marine Corps Reserves and the American Red Cross, have teamed up to collect Toys for Tots and Phone Cards for the Soldiers. The Hugs for the Holidays drive ends Thursday.

Unwrapped new toys or pre-paid phone cards that will go to the Red Cross can be dropped off from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at the Youngstown-Warren Regional Airport information counter, 1453 Youngstown-Kingsville Road NE (state Route 193), Vienna, or the American Red Cross, 661 Mahoning Ave. NW, Warren.

For every donation, the donor will be entered in a drawing for two round-trip tickets from Allegiant Air for travel from the airport.

Also, Mrs. E. Carol Claus and a Marine from YARS will be on hand to greet passengers at 4:30 p.m. Thursday.

Salvation Army plans Christmas distribution

AUSTINTOWN

The Mahoning County Salvation Army will distribute toys and clothes to some 2,200 pre-registered children and food vouchers for about 1,400 pre-registered needy families, individuals, men, women and the elderly.

The Salvation Army Christmas distribution for pre-registered children is at a warehouse at 6000 Mahoning Ave., in the Austintown Plaza, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. today; 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesday; and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Thursday.

After completion of the distribution to pre-registered children and families, the Salvation Army will provide additional assistance of toys to unregistered needy children on a first-come, first-served basis from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Friday.

Parents must bring ID, proof of residency in Mahoning County and proof of guardianship for their children.

Straight A Fund grant is approved for TCTC

COLUMBUS

The Ohio Controlling Board has approved a $297,841 Straight A Fund grant for Trumbull Career and Technical Center for a program that will focus on improving students’ overall health and wellness to raise achievement.

TCTC’s grant was among 24 grant applications involving more than 150 school districts and other partners that were recommended as part of Ohio’s new Straight A Fund to encourage innovation in classrooms.

TCTC’s project will increase the nutritious offerings available in the school lunch program, create opportunities for physical activity before, during and after school in a new Exercise Science, career-technical program classroom and raise student and staff awareness about the importance of a healthy lifestyle.

YNDC receives grant from federal program

YOUNGSTOWN

The Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corp. received a $200,000 grant from the Federal Home Loan Bank of Cincinnati’s Affordable Housing Program. YNDC’s application was ranked fourth out of 119 applications submitted for the grant.

The money will be used by the YNDC to further leverage other housing rehabilitation funding sources to complete the acquisition and rehabilitation of 10 vacant single-family homes for affordable home ownership in Youngstown.

Home Savings and Loan Co. submitted the application as it is a Federal Home Loan Bank member.

Man facing charge of domestic violence

YOUNGSTOWN

Police arrested a man on a charge of domestic violence at about 12:10 a.m. Sunday after they say he threatened someone over the television documentary about former Ohio State football player Maurice Clarett, which aired earlier in the evening.

Reports said officers were called to a home in the 1300 block of Aberdeen Avenue on the South Side, where the son of the homeowner told them his mother’s live-in boyfriend, George Estell, 51, was drunk and arguing with her family members over the documentary, and at one point, Estell told her son, “I’ll bury you,” which the son took as a threat.

Estell was arrested on a charge of domestic violence.

New Castle police probe recent shooting

NEW CASTLE, Pa. (AP)

City police continue their investigation into a shooting over the weekend that sent a Michigan man to the hospital.

Police reports say 27-year-old Matthew Dexter Wedgeworth of Lincoln Park, Mich., was shot in the back at about 9:30 p.m. Saturday on a city street.

Police Chief Bobby Salem says Wedgeworth was taken to St. Elizabeth Health Center in Youngstown, where he underwent surgery. His condition was not available.

No one has been charged.