METRO DIGEST || Join the international March for Science

March for Science

YOUNGSTOWN

Community members will participate in the international March for Science movement with a march and rally beginning at 11 a.m. today.

The March for Science Youngstown event is to draw attention to “recent concerns by science leaders who claim scientific evidence that informs critical issues such as vaccine safety and climate change is being rejected or ignored by the current administration,” according to a news release.

The event is sponsored by Valley Voices in Action and ProgressMV. More than 400 marches around the world are slated to take place at the same time.

The march begins at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Youngstown, 1105 Elm St.

Hearing in child death

WARREN

A detective testified Friday in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court about statements Arthur Harper made to him in the hours and days after his common-law wife’s toddler suffered “severe head trauma” while in his care. The boy, Russell Cottrill, 3, later died from the injuries he suffered Nov. 29, 2015.

Harper, 45, is charged with murder, child endangering and felonious assault and could get a life prison sentence, if convicted.

Judge Peter Kontos will rule on whether the comments should be excluded from evidence after the defense and prosecution have had a chance to file briefs. Harper’s trial is set for Aug. 28.

Four to be honored

YOUNGSTOWN

The Mahoning County Democratic Party will honor four women during its Hall of Fame Dinner at 5 tonight at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Banquet Center, 343 Via Mount Carmel.

They are Sarah Brown-Clark, Youngstown Municipal Court clerk; Joyce Kale-Pesta, Mahoning County Board of Elections director and state central committeewoman; Judge Cheryl Waite of the 7th District Court of Appeals; and Bev Reyes, a longtime party leader and activist. Tickets are $50 each and available online at secure.actblue.com/contribute/page/mcdphof

Illegible note

YOUNGSTOWN

Dion Taylor, 22, of Youngstown, is in the Mahoning County jail after being charged with robbery. Police say he passed an illegible note to a South Side store clerk to rob the store.

On Wednesday, police were called to the Dollar General, 2224 Market St., where employees said a man handed a note to the clerk “with bad handwriting on it.”

The clerk gave the note back to the robber, who read it to her, then the clerk opened the cash register and gave the robber money and a pack of cigarettes.

Taylor has a hearing Monday afternoon in municipal court.

Truck-car crash

LIBERTY

The Ohio State Highway Patrol is investigating a two-vehicle crash that occurred Friday afternoon on Belmont Avenue near Giant Eagle. A pickup truck rolled onto it side after colliding with a car at about 2:15 p.m. First-responders transported three people to the hospital.

Warren hotel robbed

WARREN

Two men robbed the Best Western Hotel on Park Avenue downtown of about $200 in cash early Friday, with one of them holding a gun.

Police learned that one of the two had come into the hotel minutes before the robbery with a hood over his head and used the restroom.

When he left the hotel, he met up with another man, and they rushed inside together with the shorter one being about 5 feet 4 inches tall and skinny, and the other one being about 6 feet 3 inches tall and bulkier.

They were in their 20s to about 30, the two employees at the hotel counter said.

The taller man was wearing a gray sweatshirt, blue jeans and had short hair, a tattoo on his neck and a bruise on his face.

The smaller male spoke with, possibly, a Haitian accent. The employees were not injured.

Gates arraigned

WARREN

Jeffrey S. Gates, 55, of Porter Street Northeast, was arraigned Friday in Warren Municipal Court on a felony charge of failure to comply and is in the Trumbull County Jail in lieu of $15,000 bond.

A not-guilty plea was entered to charges accusing him of failing to stop for an officer following him with lights and siren after side-swiping another vehicle Thursday afternoon at Warren Boulevard and Youngstown Road. Police said Gates continued out of town, where Warren police left the chase up to the Ohio State Highway Patrol. He eventually was apprehended in Portage County.

Sentencing set

NEWTON FALLS

Don. S. Bryant, 53, of Newton Falls is scheduled for sentencing at 11 a.m. June 1 in a Sept. 25 crash on Holcomb Road that killed a bike rider, 19, on his way to work.

Bryant is charged with felony aggravated vehicular homicide and operating a motor vehicle impaired, but he did not enter a plea during his preliminary hearing Thursday in Newton Falls Municipal Court.

He is expected to plead guilty to unspecified charges June 1, court personnel said.

Michael S. Hunyady, was struck and killed at 7:47 a.m. while on his way to work at a grocery store.

Bryant said he couldn’t see Hunyady because of the sun, but a urine sample later showed Bryant had some marijuana metabolite in his system.

Edible Landscaping

CANFIELD

The Ohio State University’s Mahoning County Extension Office is offering a workshop on edible landscaping from 9:30 a.m. to noon Monday at the extension office, 490 S. Broad St.

The workshop will include a light breakfast, recipe samplings based on foods grown in the home landscape and recipe handouts. The cost is $15 per person. To register, call 330-533-5538. More information is available online at http://go.osu.edu/edible.

Male Wellness Walk

YOUNGSTOWN

The next planning committee meeting for the annual Youngstown-Warren African American Male Wellness Walk is at 11:30 a.m. Tuesday in the Rose Room of the Cobbin Office Tower Building, 1350 Fifth Ave. This year’s event will take place beginning at 7 a.m. Aug. 12 at the Covelli Centre, 229 E. Front St.

Fellows Gardens work

YOUNGSTOWN

Beginning Monday, Mill Creek MetroParks will conduct asphalt pavement preventive maintenance work on the parking lot at Fellows Riverside Gardens. The work is expected to last for several days. Throughout the project, the Gardens and the D.D. and Velma Davis Education & Visitor Center will remain accessible. Visitors can use certain sections of the parking lot. One of the parking lot’s two entrances will be open at a time.