Harding, Columbiana win video challenge

Harding, Columbiana win video challenge

YOUNGSTOWN

Warren G. Harding and Columbiana high schools won The Vindicator’s High School Music Video Challenge. Harding competed against Girard in the Spielberg division, and Columbiana competed against Chalker, Kennedy Catholic and McDonald high schools in the Sandler division.

The final scores were determined by an online vote as well as input from four judges who scored the videos on best use of campus and community, communicating the theme of the song, overall technical production quality and how well the video celebrated the school.

The Vindys, Rufus Blaq, Northern Whale, Spirit of the Bear, Spy Convention, Radio Lark, Leo D’Angelo, Jordan DePaul, East 9th and Fred Whitacre and JD Eicher offered up songs for videos.

Coroner IDs trucker

AUSTINTOWN

The Mahoning County coroner’s office has identified the truck driver run over and killed Thursday at the Pilot Travel Center along North Canfield Niles Road in the township.

Arman Meco, 29, from Michigan, was killed just before 9:30 a.m. Thursday when he walked out into the path of a moving tractor-trailer and was pulled under the truck’s wheels.

Township police and the coroner’s office continue to investigate.

Appointed to YSU board

YOUNGSTOWN

Gov. Mike DeWine appointed Allen L. Ryan Jr., director of corporate affairs for Covelli Enterprises and U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan’s brother, to the Youngstown State University Board of Trustees. The term began Friday and ends April 30, 2028.

Bill to rename highway

WARREN

State Sen. Sean J. O’Brien of Bazetta, D-32nd, has introduced a bill to rename part of state Route 7 between Routes 82 and 305 the “Patrolman James A. Fredericka Memorial Highway.”

“Patrolman Fredericka was a son of Trumbull County who made the ultimate sacrifice in the service of his fellow Ohioans,” said O’Brien. “It is fitting that we should memorialize his contributions by renaming, in his honor, the very highway that was under his watch.”

Fredericka was responding to a crash on Route 7 on April 30, 1953, when he was involved in a traffic accident and died eight days later. Fredericka was a World War II veteran and left behind his wife, two children and parents.

Man found not guilty

YOUNGSTOWN

Raymon Autry, 20, was found not guilty Friday in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court of charges stemming from a home invasion and double shooting on Elbertus Avenue.

Jurors returned their verdicts before Judge Anthony Donofrio. Testimony in the case began Tuesday.

Autry was accused of breaking into a home Dec. 3, 2016, and wounding two people. He was arrested on a traffic violation in October 2017, and a gun that police found in his car was tested and matched the weapon used in the Elbertus Avenue shooting.

Man shot in the leg

YOUNGSTOWN

A 29-year-old Youngstown man was shot in the leg on the city’s South Side.

Police said they found the man in the street on East Dewey Avenue, about 200 feet from Market Street, about 12:25 a.m. Friday with a gunshot wound to his left leg. But police said the man was shot on West Florida Avenue and made his way to East Dewey, about a mile away, likely in his vehicle.

Police said they found a spent casing and blood on the street and sidewalk in front of a house on the 40 block of West Florida Avenue.

The man told police he didn’t know what happened and refused to answer questions about the incident, according to a police report.

The man was taken to St. Elizabeth Youngstown Hospital and was listed Friday in stable condition, police said.

Shoah ceremony set

YOUNGSTOWN

The Jewish Community Relations Council of the Youngstown Area Jewish Federation will host its annual Shoah Memorial Ceremony at 4 p.m. Sunday at the Jewish Community Center. Yom Hashoah is a day set aside for remembering all victims of the Holocaust and for reminding society of what can happen to civilized people when bigotry, hatred and indifference reign.

This year’s local theme is “Do Not Stand Silent: Remembering Kristallnacht,” in commemoration of the 80th anniversary of the events. The ceremony will feature a keynote presentation by Lauren Apter Bairnsfather, director of the Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh.

In addition, the program will include a presentation by Jacob Labendz, the Youngstown State University Clayman assistant professor of Judaic and Holocaust Studies, on an upcoming Slovak Holocaust exhibition sponsored by the YSU Center for Judaic and Holocaust Studies, special musical presentations, a candle-lighting ceremony and participation by children and grandchildren of survivors. It is free and open to the public.

Seven-Seventeen awards scholarships

Warren

Seven-Seventeen Credit Union awarded $18,000 in scholarships to area students during its 61st annual meeting on Tuesday.

The scholarships — 12 $1,500 awards — were given based on grade-point average and the students’ involvement in their school and community.

In addition to the scholastic scholarships, the credit union also awarded four $1,500 scholarships to recognize students who developed good financial habits.

High carbon monoxide levels detected in home where 4 died

DELAWARE, OHIO (AP)

Extremely high levels of carbon monoxide were measured inside a home where four family members were found dead in central Ohio, safety officials said Friday.

Genoa Township police have identified the family members as 50-year-old Richard Reitter III, 49-year-old Jennifer Reitter, and their two children, 15-year-old Richard Reitter IV and 13-year-old Grace Reitter. The family’s three dogs also were found dead.

Firefighters went to the home Thursday afternoon when a relative couldn’t get a response at the residence and called 911 saying they had not been able to reach anyone for three days.

Firefighters donned protective suits to enter the home, where high levels of carbon monoxide, an odorless, colorless and tasteless gas, were detected, Assistant Fire Chief Joseph Ponzi said. Protocol requires firefighters to wear protective suits whenever carbon monoxide levels of 30 parts per million are present, Ponzi said. Levels inside the home were eventually measured in excess of 1,200 parts per million, which Ponzi said he had never seen in his 25 years as a firefighter.