21 WFMJ archives / August 23, 1992 | Thousands of Mahoning Valley residents jammed the northwest corner of the Southern Park Mall parking lot 31 years ago for a Democratic Party rally for presidential and vice presidential candidates Bill Clinton and Al Gore and their wives, Hillary Clinton and Tipper Gore.

August 23

1998: It has been more than a year since a massive train wreck occurred just south of downtown Salem, but the National Transportation Safety Board has no firm date for issuing its report. More than 50 cars and four locomotives on two Conrail trains derailed after a wheel bearing seized on a box car. A fire raged from 10,000 gallons of diesel fuel spilled by the locomotives.  

Twenty-five years after a permit was issued to Summit National Liquid Services to burn hazardous oils at Deerfield and almost 20 years after the dump was declared an EPA Superfund site and clean-up began, questions remain about what has been done and what might yet have to be done. 

Youngstown State University announces that while it encourages tailgating before and after Penguin football games, tailgating will not be permitted while a game is being played. 

1983: The city of Farrell begins a crackdown on delinquent water accounts by shutting off service to three residences. The city has 1,500 delinquent accounts totaling $200,000 in unpaid bills. 

Mahoning County Common Pleas Judge Charles Bannon and Sheriff James A Traficant get into an in-court shouting match over Traficant's reluctance to enforce foreclosures, but the judge eventually rules that Traficant will not have to serve a remaining 97-day sentence for contempt of court after Traficant agrees to continue signing foreclosure notices. 

The Ohio State Highway Patrol says its poll shows that 57 percent of the state's motorists favor a mandatory seatbelt law.  Ninety-six percent favor child-restraint laws, and 88 percent support mandatory helmet laws for motorcyclists. 

1973: Itching to get their hands on antiques or treasures, Youngstown area residents flock to Theron's Country Store near Columbiana. It is not unusual for 2,000 to crowd into the barn behind the store on a Sunday. 

The Schwebel Baking Co. of Youngstown is testing an electric-powered delivery van developed in cooperation with the Ohio Edison Co. 

For the first time in more than 40 years, one of the Goodyear airships will land in Youngstown. 

1948: A Girard committee joins the McKinley Memorial Hospital Group, which is launching a campaign to build a 150-bed hospital on Route 422 near McKinley Heights.

Ninety new members of the Ku Klux Klan are inducted in Rossville, Ga., in a cross-burning ceremony witnessed by 7,000 men, women and children. 

A parade of floats will greet the Freedom Train when it arrives in Youngstown on Sept. 9.