METRO DIGEST || Benefit dinner at Tangier canceled

Benefit canceled

STRUTHERS

A benefit spaghetti dinner planned for Sunday at Tangier Bar and Pizza, 880 Youngstown-Poland Road, has been canceled. The dinner, which was also to include an auction and raffle, was organized to benefit the restaurant’s kitchen manager and his family, who recently faced some financial hardships.

Pancake breakfast

BOARDMAN

The Rotary Club of Boardman will have its 32nd Annual Pancake Breakfast from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. today and Sunday at the Lariccia Family Community Center in Boardman Park. This event is in conjunction with the park’s Maple Syrup Festival. The pancake breakfast also will take place at the same times next weekend. Admission is $6 for adults, and children 6 and under eat free. This is an all-you-can-eat buffet with pancakes, sausage, juice, coffee and tea.

Drug charges pending

EAST PALESTINE

Acting on a search warrant, the Columbiana County Drug Task Force, the East Palestine Police Department and the Columbiana County Sheriff’s Office discovered purported drug activity at 329 E. Martin St.

Officers conducted the search Friday, the result of a three-month investigation into suspected drug activity there. The search produced numerous items of drug paraphernalia, digital scales, oxycodone, eight cellphones and a small amount of money.

Charges are pending against multiple people, and the investigation is ongoing, according to a news release.

Papa John’s robbed

AUSTINTOWN

Papa John’s pizza lost hundreds of dollars in an overnight robbery.

Township police were called to 1502 S. Raccoon Road at 9:45 a.m. Friday after the manager found the front door unlocked and the alarm turned off. From the register and a drop box, $760.57 was taken sometime between 12:30 and 9:15 a.m. Friday.

According to a police report, the manager had fired an employee two days before for theft, and that person still had a key and an alarm passcode. The manager told police he was contacting the alarm company to see if the alarm was turned off overnight.

3 houses raided

WARREN

No one was arrested, but Warren police raided three homes on Porter Street Northeast early Friday, finding suspected crack cocaine, a firearm and cash. Charges are pending analysis of the suspected drugs, police Chief Eric Merkel said.

The homes were in the 200 and 300 blocks of Porter Street, where seven adults and several children were found. The three residences are believed to be connected in their drug sales, Merkel said. Suspected crack cocaine was found in two of the residences, some of which was packaged for sale. Officers with Warren’s Street Crimes Unit began an investigation last summer based on complaints about drug dealing, Merkel said.