SPORTS DIGEST || Warren Sports Hall will meet Feb. 13

Warren Sports Hall will meet Feb. 13

WARREN

The Warren Sports Hall of Fame will hold its annual membership meeting on Feb. 13 at DiLucia’s Banquet Center, 2610 Elm Road N.E.

Cocktails will be at 6:30 p.m. and dinner will be served at 7 p.m.

Youngstown State University athletic director Ron Strollo will be the guest speaker.

Membership dues cost $25.

Ex-NBA player Butler, wife die in auto crash

LOS ANGELES

Former NBA forward Rasual Butler and his wife were killed in a single-vehicle rollover crash in Los Angeles.

The crash happened Wednesday around 2:30 a.m. in the Studio City area and left a swath of damage along a major thoroughfare.

Coroner’s Assistant Chief Ed Winter says the 38-year-old Butler and 31-year-old Leah LaBelle Vladowski were pronounced dead at the scene. Autopsies are pending.

Butler was drafted in 2002 by the Miami Heat and played for a total of eight NBA teams including the Los Angeles Clippers, Chicago Bulls and San Antonio Spurs.

Butler’s wife was an R&B singer signed to Epic Records. She placed 12th on the third season of “American Idol” in 2004.

Aubameyang joins Arsenal for $80 million

Arsenal paid a club-record fee of 63.75 million euros ($80 million) to sign Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang from Borussia Dortmund on Wednesday, completing the overhaul of the team’s attack that was triggered by Alexis Sanchez’s departure to Manchester United.

In the most significant move in the Premier League on the final day of the January transfer window, Aubameyang joined Arsenal as Olivier Giroud left the Emirates Stadium for Chelsea. Completing a triangle of transfers, Michy Batshuayi exited Chelsea to join Borussia Dortmund on loan for the rest of the season.

The 28-year-old Aubameyang will compete with, or maybe complement, offseason signing Alexandre Lacazette up front as Arsenal looks to make up an eight-point deficit to the Champions League qualification positions in the Premier League.

Biles waiting to hear for USOC on scandal

NEW YORK

Simone Biles met the new president of USA Gymnastics but hasn’t heard from the U.S. Olympic Committee regarding the Larry Nassar sexual abuse scandal.

The four-time gold medalist at the Rio Olympics is among those who say they were sexually abused by Nassar, a former team doctor for the governing body for American gymnastics.

USA Gymnastics president Kerry Perry spoke with Biles at her gym in suburban Houston, where she is training for the 2020 Tokyo Games.

“I have not heard from the USOC, but the new president of USA Gymnastics did fly down and introduce herself to me, but not in regards to the whole entire situation,” Biles said Wednesday in a phone interview with The Associated Press. “There’s still a lot of work that needs to be done, like independent investigations. So they can ensure this never happens in any sport again.”

Nassar has been sentenced to 60 years in prison on child pornography charges and 40 to 175 years for abusing young women and girls while working at Michigan State University. He also is facing sentencing for molesting gymnasts at an elite club in Lansing, Michigan.

USOC CEO Scott Blackmun wrote an open letter last week apologizing to the women and girls abused by Nassar. The entire USA Gymnastics board of directors resigned Friday and Blackmun called for an independent investigation into how Nassar was allowed to abuse athletes for decades.

“Any of us girls that have gone through what we’ve been through are finally happy that [Nassar] will no longer be able to hurt anybody else,” Biles said. “But I feel like there’s still a lot of work that needs to be done so we can actually feel like this has gone somewhere.”

Staff/wire report