TODAY'S VINDICATOR HEADLINES | FRIDAY

Patrick Ungaro, the longest-serving mayor in Youngstown’s history, was remembered at his funeral Thursday as a strong leader who guided the city through one of its most challenging times. Ungaro, 78, died Saturday after a battle with cancer, and his funeral brought together many people he mentored during his 14 years as mayor. As mayor from 1984 to 1997, Ungaro helped revitalize downtown and create business parks – during a time not that far removed from the shutdown of the area’s steel mills that devastated the local economy – while taking on organized crime. “it was like having a new sheriff in town," said Edwin Romero, Ungaro’s law director from 1984 to 1994. Before Ungaro, “When people needed to make small or large decisions, they were approached” by those trying to influence them. “Pat put a stop to that. The environment changed for the better. He changed the culture of city hall.”

The Tod family left a footprint on Youngstown’s history. George Tod and his family were some of the first to settle in the city, and Tod served in several public roles. His son, David Tod, was most notably Ohio’s governor during the Civil War and helped incorporate the Brier Hill Iron and Coal Company. Members of the family previewed an exhibit opening today at the Arms Museum of items that offers a glimpse of the family’s life in the 1800s. Family portraits, china, silver and a Mahogany parlor piano owned by Gov. Tod in the 1840s as well as a saddle used by the Tods when Gov. Tod was the U.S. Ambassador to Brazil are among items in the exhibit, which opens to the public starting today. It will run through 2020.

A draft version of the Youngstown Air Reserve Station Joint Land Use Study identifies 14 areas where the station and community could benefit from better coordination of their needs and interests. Its goal is to identify ways to make the reserve station stronger and better able to be assigned missions into the future and avoid the next round of base closings. YARS is the Mahoning Valley’s third-largest employer, with nearly 1,900 people assigned there.

A New York City man is expected to plead guilty in federal court to defrauding a 69-year-old local businessman out of more than $120,000 and 55 vehicles last year. 25-year-old Haki Toplica and four other co-defendants appeared Thursday in federal court in Cleveland for a pretrial on nine charges, including wire fraud.

Three other co-defendants who allegedly schemed with Toplica or benefited from the scam – Kathryn Lissette De La Torre, Haider Islam and Robert Russo – also appeared in court Thursday are also set to change their pleas. Another, Luisa Rivera Goris, is continuing to a Sept. 16 trial date, records show. Toplica presented himself as a loan broker to the victim, who was seeking a loan to downsize his business.

Michael Hovis, former Bazetta Township police chief, is choosing his words carefully in his bid to unseat his brother, Paul Hovis, for township trustee, criticizing the present administration but not naming his brother. Michael Hovis said his six years as chief until late last year and 25 years as a Bazetta police officer have given him experience in how to walk a fine line. He contends the present board of trustees “gets nothing done.” Paul Hovis said there are no “family issues” between the two of them, and they are not terribly competitive with each other. Paul even signed Michael’s campaign petitions. “If he beats me, God bless him,” Paul said.

Reports said it took several doses of the opiate antidote naloxone early Wednesday evening to revive an independent Youngstown 3rd Ward city council candidate who was arrested on three counts of child endangering after an accident on the South Side. 34-year-old Adrian McDowell, also had a warrant for drug charges from Mahoning County Area Court, reports said. Police found a crowd surrounding McDowell as paramedics tried to revive him, and several packets of suboxone were found in his pockets. Hhe also told police he took two painkillers just before a car he was driving with three children inside collided with a parked car. In his candidate questionnaire to The Vindicator, he said public safety and preventing violent crime are his priorities in running for office.

31-year-old Tyler A. Graham of Alliance called in the bomb threat July 12 to the Mahoning County Common Pleas courthouse, sheriff’s deputies said Thursday. Graham was indicted Thursday on seven felony counts including making terroristic threats, extortion, telecommunications harassment, disrupting public services and inducing panic. He called in the threat to get out of his sentencing hearing set for that day on a separate case involving charges of felonious assault, among others, authorities said.

The grand jury also indicted the husband of a woman who died of stab wounds at Kings Motel in Coitsville in June. Francis Rydarowicz, 48, is charged with aggravated murder, murder, felonious assault and domestic violence for the June 19 stabbing death of Katherine Rydarowicz, 41. The couple were married but going through a divorce, police said.

And the father of a 6-week-old baby that died in March was indicted on a murder charge for the child’s death. Xavier Richardson, 19, is charged with the death of Xavier Richardson Jr., who died at St. Elizabeth Youngstown Hospital after Richardson took the baby there after he stopped breathing in their Wick Avenue home. At the time, hospital personnel told police the baby’s injuries were consistent with abuse.

Also indicted was 29-year-old Nicholas Yukon who faces 50 counts of pandering obscenity and two counts of tampering with evidence. The charges are a result of a July 17 search warrant served at a South Hazlewood Avenue home by the Mahoning Valley Human Trafficking Force as part of an investigation into child pornography.