Breaking News

New closures announced for I-80/76 rehab project

The Ohio Department of Transportation announced new road closures for the Interstate 76/80 pavement rehabilitation project in Austintown and Jackson townships. The ramp from Interstate 80 west to state Route 11 south is closed through Monday. The detour is I-80 west to state Route 46 to I-80 east to Route 11 south. I-80 west between Salt Springs Road and state Route 46 is reduced to one lane through early August. And starting Monday, the ramp from I-80 west to Route 46 will be closed through Friday. The detour will I-80 west to I-76 west to Bailey Road to I-76 east to I-80 east to ...

City man gets 15-year prison sentence on cocaine charge

YOUNGSTOWN — A 42-year-old city man was sentenced to prison recently for intending to distribute nearly 4 1/2 pounds of cocaine that was mailed to Ohio from Puerto Rico. Jean C. Martinez was sentenced to 188 months (15.6 years) in prison by U.S. District Judge Bridget Meehan Brennan in Cleveland federal court after Martinez pleaded guilty in April to attempted possession with intent to distribute cocaine. Martinez also was ordered to serve six years of supervised release after imprisonment. According to court documents, on Jan. 23, 2025, postal inspectors seized a parcel that ...

New Mahoning County elections home base eyed

YOUNGSTOWN — After saying for more than three months that the former Bottom Dollar grocery store was the top choice for its new home, Mahoning County Board of Elections officials no longer see it that way and are considering another building. Board Chairman David Betras said Friday: “The ...

New trial ruling provides clues on content of sealed motion

YOUNGSTOWN — Although the defense in the Keontae Thomas rape and kidnapping case was allowed to file a motion for new trial under seal just prior to Thomas’ sentencing recently, Mahoning County Common Pleas Judge Maureen Sweeney’s judgment entry denying the motion provides some clues as ...

‘Skynet Day’

To be fair, James Cameron did warn us. Long before OpenAI broke out of its test corral and hacked into Hugging Face, before the internet and Sam Altman were even born, Cameron wrote a screenplay about an autonomous artificial intelligence system that triggers a nuclear apocalypse. That ...