TODAY'S VINDICATOR HEADLINES | SUNDAY

Saturday’s seventh annual African American 5K Male Wellness Walk and Run, which began and ended at the Covelli Centre, downtown, started with a morning gathering themed “Healthy men make healthy families,” to encourage people to undergo regular checkups and make practical changes in their diets and exercise regimens. The walk and run was one of a series of events that began Friday and continues today to commemorate the 400th anniversary of what many historians say was the arrival of the first Africans in 1619 in English North America. Nurses and doctors with Mercy Health partnered with students at ETI Technical College in Niles to provide free screenings for blood pressure, body-mass index, cholesterol, weight, signs of prostate cancer, body fat, blood sugar and hemoglobin A1-C, a test for diabetes that looks at one’s average blood sugar over a three-month period. Diabetes, hypertension and prostate cancer is about 10 times higher in black men than the national average.

The start of the school year will be an adjustment for many Boardman students this month as the district’s realignment plan goes into effect. The highlight of the plan released in January was the closure of Market Street Elementary at the end of the 2018-2019 school year. Superintendent Tim Saxton said the closing will save the district an estimated $500,000 annually.

Elementary-school students who attended Market Street have been reassigned to the district’s remaining three elementary schools: West Boulevard, Stadium Drive and Robinwood Lane.

Teachers and classified staff also have been reassigned. Market Street Principal Billie Jo Johnson will replace Robinwood Lane Principal Don Robinson, who retired at the end of the year.

To make room for incoming Market Street students, fourth grade at each elementary school will move to Center Intermediate School on Market Street.

Other Mahoning Valley districts have changes in place for the new school year, in personnel, administration and facilities. Read today's Vindicator or Vindy.com. for details on what's new in Youngstown, Poland, Boardman, Girard, Struthers, Niles, Warren,

Howland, Liberty, Lordstown, South Range and Hubbard.

The Brier Hill Italian Festival will open its 28th year on Youngstown's North Side at 7 p.m. Friday by honoring its founder. At the opening ceremony, the boccie courts at the corner of Calvin and Victoria streets – where the festival takes place – will be dedicated to the late Dominic “Dee Dee” Modarelli. The courts are part of the ITAM Post 12 war veterans club’s memorial to fallen soldiers from the Brier Hill neighborhood. The memorial will remain dedicated to the veterans. Modarelli, who was a bricklayer and stone mason, built the structure and put in the boccie courts in 1985 with the help of club members and men from the neighborhood. The Festival will run Thursday through next Sunday in the hillside neighborhood that was the heart of Youngstown’s Italian community for most of the 20th century. Admission is free.

And this morning, be sure to tune in to CNN's "Reliable Sources” program to hear Vindicator General Manager Mark Brown discuss the imminent closing of The Vindicator on Aug. 31 and the future of newspapers in this country. “Reliable Sources” is a weekly Sunday morning talk show that focuses on an analysis of the American news media. Brown is scheduled to appear at 11:45 a.m.

For more details on these and other news and sports, subscribe to The Vindicator by calling 330-746-6561 or visit Vindy.com