News

Driscoll offered no reason for his exit as Army secretary but said Wednesday was his last full day

National News September 3, 2026

WASHINGTON (AP) — Dan Driscoll said his last full day as U.S. Army secretary was Wednesday, but his social media post offered no explanation for why he is stepping down after 18 months as the service’s civilian leader. Driscoll is a friend of Vice President JD Vance and has good relationships with both Republicans and Democrats in Congress. But tensions with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth have been widely reported, and some of Driscoll’s allies in the Army were ousted this year by President Donald Trump’s Pentagon chief. Driscoll spoke with Trump on the current state of the ...

City man arrested at football game Friday

Metroparks seeks to extend water trail designation

Local News September 3, 2026

HOWLAND — The Trumbull County MetroParks board wants to extend the Mahoning River water trail designation from Packard Park to the Ohio-Pennsylvania line in Poland Township in Mahoning County. The metroparks board at a recent meeting authorized Zachary Svette, executive director, to apply to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources for the extension. Svette said in 2012, the metroparks board obtained the Mahoning Water Trail designation for the section of the river from Foster Park to Packard Park where there are boat launches. He said since then, there has been a lot of work ...

Merkel asks civil service commission to return him as Warren police chief

Local News September 3, 2026

WARREN — Former Warren Police Chief Eric Merkel hand delivered a letter Tuesday to the Warren Civil Service Commission asking that the commission restore him to his position as chief and “investigate whether city officials procured and enforced (his) resignation through threats, coercion, political considerations and disparate treatment in violation of Ohio law.” Civil Service Commission member Dan Letson, an attorney, confirmed Tuesday that Merkel did drop off the letter Tuesday at the civil service commission meeting that day. Letson also confirmed that Merkel notified the city ...

Judge orders logging project halted in Shawnee National Forest

National News September 3, 2026

A federal judge this week ordered the U.S. Forest Service to suspend a commercial logging project in southern Illinois’ Shawnee National Forest, finding the 2024 approval of the project under President Joe Biden violated the Endangered Species Act. The agency improperly approved the project in October 2024 without waiting for a final “biological opinion” from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, an East St. Louis judge ruled Monday. That opinion, which was completed six weeks after the Forest Service approved the logging project, identified the roughly 70-acre project area as home ...