Opening of courts

Opening of courts

YOUNGSTOWN

Judge Robert N. Rusu of Mahoning County Probate Court will be the speaker at the county bar association’s annual opening of courts ceremony at 11 a.m. Monday.

The event will take place in the domestic-relations courtroom on the fourth floor of the county courthouse, 120 Market St.

Lawyers who have joined the association this year and association members who recently passed the state bar exam will be introduced.

Atty. James Messenger will receive the association’s professionalism award at a luncheon afterward in the Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church Hall.

Single-car accident

weathersfield

A Youngstown woman was taken to St. Elizabeth Youngstown Hospital after a one-car accident about 2 p.m. Friday in the township.

Trooper Dan Morrison of the Ohio State Highway Patrol said the woman was traveling on Interstate 80 westbound near the Salt Springs Road exit when the vehicle drifted to the right striking a guardrail. The car ricocheted, striking the middle cement barrier and the guardrail again. The road was closed for an hour until the scene was cleared by Ohio Department of Transportation personnel. The driver had nonlife-threatening injuries, Morrison said.

Community breakfast

GIRARD

The community is invited to attend a breakfast at 9:30 a.m. Thursday at Girard Multi-Generational Center, 443 Trumbull Ave., with Trumbull County Commissioners Dan Polivka, Mauro Cantalamessa and Frank Fuda. The commissioners will provide updates on community projects.

As there will be a hot breakfast provided, reservations are mandatory. Participants should RSVP by Monday by calling the center at 330-545-6596.

Charged with rape

NILES

An elderly man is in the Trumbull County Jail, charged with raping a child. Larry N. Herbert, 77, of Main Street in Mineral Ridge, was arraigned on the charge Friday in Niles Municipal Court. No plea was entered, and bond was set at $250,000. Weathersfield Police Department handled the investigation. Herbert is accused of a sex offense dating back several years.

News conference set

WARREN

Officials from Warren, Howland, Warren Township, and BDM Warren Steel Holdings will have a news conference at noon Tuesday to announce a “joint economic development initiative,” according to a news release. It will be at the BDM Warren Holdings site entrance on Niles Warren River Road just south of the city.

BDM Warren Steel Holdings is the name of the company that bought the former RG Steel/Republic Steel mill in 2012 out of bankruptcy. It began demolition of the buildings at the 1,100-acre site a year or so later, and demolition is nearly complete, though BDM recently put on hold the demolition of the mill’s blast furnace.

Injunction hearing

WARREN

A hearing on an injunction request filed by a Warren John F. Kennedy High School senior has been rescheduled for Sept. 26.

Judge W. Wyatt McKay of Trumbull County Common Pleas Court earlier approved a temporary restraining order that allowed Dominic Alberini to attend the school until the matter is resolved. That order continues. Alberini, of Howland, and his parents filed legal action in August alleging the school notified them in June it was denying Alberini’s admission.

The Alberinis argued that denying admission breached a contract they had with the school that included the family’s paying a tuition deposit. Alberini was one of two JFK students sentenced to seven days of detention in Trumbull County Juvenile Justice Center in August 2015 for secretly recording a female student getting dressed in a Howland home during a pool party.

Portman’s lead grows

COLUMBUS

Republican U.S. Sen. Rob Portman continues to widen his lead against Democratic challenger Ted Strickland among voters surveyed by the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute.

In a poll released Friday, Portman was ahead of the former Ohio governor, 51 percent to 40 percent – that’s up from 49 percent to 40 percent a month ago and 47 percent to 40 percent in July. The two essentially were tied in several earlier polls, though Strickland was ahead, 48 percent to 39 percent, in Quinnipiac’s early polling of the race in April 2015.