Breaking News

Local News

City council fails to approve Sparkle Market bailout grant

YOUNGSTOWN — A rare tie vote from city council led to the rejection of a $350,000 grant to provide assistance to the struggling Sparkle Market in Cornersburg. Council voted 3-3 Wednesday with Councilwoman Amber White, I-7th Ward, abstaining on the advice of the city law department. A tie vote means the proposal failed and if it will be considered again by council it will have to be reintroduced. Voting in favor of the grant were Jimmy Hughes, D-2nd Ward; Samantha Turner, D-3rd Ward; and Pat Kelly, D-5th Ward. Those in opposition were Julius Oliver, D-1st Ward; Mike Ray, D-4th ...

Dana music school drive debuts on high note

CANFIELD — A major fundraising campaign launched on behalf of Youngstown State University’s Dana School of Music has every intention of rising higher on the treble clef. “This means the world to me,” Joseph Carucci, Dana’s director, said. “The Dana School of Music is embedded in ...

End date sought for SOBE rate hikes

In a filing with the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio, the city of Youngstown and the Office of the Ohio Consumers’ Counsel did not object to the significant emergency rate increases for downtown steam heat customers, but want the hikes to have an expiration date. If an end date isn’t set, the two entities urged the PUCO to require SOBE Thermal Systems LLC, the troubled utility company for most of downtown, to file an application for new permanent rate increases. In its joint filing, the city and the OCC wrote: “Absent an ending date for the emergency rates or a ...

New witness may delay start of murder trial

YOUNGSTOWN — Mahoning County prosecutors succeeded in convincing Mahoning County Common Pleas Court Judge R. Scott Krichbaum this week to hold one trial for Vincent Marbley, 61, and Eddie Winphrie, 43, instead of two trials, in the Oct. 17, 2024, murder of Reynaldo Hernandez, 24, at a home on Bott Street on Youngstown’s East Side. The aggravated murder trial is set to begin Monday. But a new issue arose in the case at the same time: Prosecutors learned that a Mahoning County jail inmate contacted law enforcement Aug. 29 to say that he had information relevant to the guilt or ...

Valley gets election ready with voter registration drive

The Jewish Community Relations Council of the Youngstown Area Jewish Federation partnered with the League of Women Voters of Greater Youngstown to host a voter registration drive Tuesday at the Jewish Community Center as part of National Voter Registration Day. The four-hour event gave community members an opportunity to register to vote, verify their registration status, obtain absentee ballot request forms and locate their polling places. Founded in 2012, National Voter Registration Day was created to focus national attention on helping eligible Americans register and participate in ...

Ex-Boardman bowling coach nets prison term

YOUNGSTOWN — A former Boardman High School bowling coach was sentenced Tuesday to two to three years in prison for felonious assault and sexual battery involving a minor. Mahoning County Common Pleas Court Judge Anthony Donofrio handed down the sentence to Kevin C. Randolph, 70, of Stadium Drive in Boardman. As a Tier II sex offender, he will have to register his address every six months in the county where he lives for 25 years. Randolph was indicted Feb. 13, 2025, on felony counts of assault, sexual battery and two charges of endangering children. As part of a deal, Randolph on ...