Man gets two years for child molestation
WARREN - A Liberty man admitted responsibility and was sentenced Tuesday to two years in prison for molesting a 9-year-old girl.
Kim Hafner, 54, of Laurel Street, had been free on bond before pleading guilty earlier to two counts of gross sexual imposition in connection with the improper touching of the minor female family member in February 2010 and the summer of 2012.
Judge Andrew Logan handed down two concurrent two-year sentences, advising Hafner that although he would recognize him as a military veteran, the crimes against a ''child of tender years'' required incarceration.
Assistant county prosecutor Gabe Wildman said Hafner also was labeled a Tier II sex offender, requiring him to register his whereabouts with authorities twice a year for 25 years after he is released from prison.
Firefighting crews kept busy in Youngstown
YOUNGSTOWN - Fire crews had a busy day Monday on the South Side.
About 11:35 p.m., firefighters were called to a vacant home at 312 E. Auburndale Ave. and found a heavy fire. Efforts to use a ladder truck were hampered by trees and wires, reports state.
Damage is estimated at $8,000, a total loss. Reports state the cause is under investigation.
Earlier, a blaze on a front porch at 174 Willis Ave. about 11:05 a.m. caused $5,000 in damage. A woman was inside the home sleeping when the fire broke out, but she escaped out without any injuries, reports state.
Reports state some mulch in the front of the home may have ignited. A preliminary cause has been ruled as unintentional.
Top Pa. leader proposes gas drilling health panel
HARRISBURG, Pa. - The Republican leader of the Pennsylvania senate wants to create a panel to investigate and study possible health and safety impacts from Marcellus Shale natural gas drilling.
The (Scranton) Times-Tribune reported Tuesday that Senate President Pro Tempore Joseph Scarnati, R-Jefferson, is proposing a nine-member panel of doctors, scientists and gas industry leaders to study science, technology and public health data related to drilling.
Scarnati said in a memo that the state Secretary of Health would be a member of the panel.
Last spring, representatives from Gov. Tom Corbett's office and the state Senate cut $2 million of funding from a bill that would have created a statewide health registry to track illnesses potentially related to gas drilling.
Ohio couple says stray cat saved their lives
MOUNT GILEAD - A central Ohio couple credits a stray cat they adopted with saving their lives when carbon monoxide filled their home.
The Mansfield News Journal reports that it happened last week near Mount Gilead, north of Columbus.
Rod and Michelle Ramsey said they were just trying to sleep after turning on the furnace in their home. But the restless cat, named Tiger, wouldn't let them. Little did they know they had a gas leak.
Michelle Ramsey was describing to someone on the phone that she and her husband had headaches and felt sick. They thought they had food poisoning.
Theme park taking Son of Beast apart
MASON - The work of taking apart the Son of Beast roller coaster has begun at Kings Island, more than a decade after it opened.
Billed as the world's tallest and fastest wooden coaster and with a signature loop in 2000, the ride was idled repeatedly at the southwest Ohio theme park. It closed for nearly a year for reconstruction after a 2006 accident injured more than two dozen people. It closed again after a woman reported being hurt in 2009. Park officials considered options, then decided to give up on the ride.
Its track rose to a 218-foot peak with trains reaching speeds of 78 mph.