21 WFMJ archives / October 2, 1983 | State, county, and city officials, with Youngstown Mayor George Vukovich in the center wearing a dark suit, were among the first to walk across the new Market Street Bridge after a ribbon-cutting ceremony 42 years ago. 

October 3

2000: Citing prosecutorial misconduct and ineffective defense counsel, the 11th District Court of Appeals vacated the conviction of a 34-year-old man charged in the rape of an 11-year-old girl. The court orders a new trial for the defendant, who was sentenced to life in prison.

Youngstown patrolmen are arresting students for truancy and taking them to juvenile court if they are found on the streets during school hours. 

Every Friday in October, the bell on the Columbiana County Courthouse will toll nine times, symbolizing that domestic violence occurs in the United States every nine seconds. 

  

1985: Rock Hudson, who starred in 62 films over his long career as a heartthrob, dies at his Los Angeles home at the age of 59.  Hudson, who had hidden his sexuality through most of his career, had acknowledged that he was dying of AIDS. 

By a 4-3 vote, the Youngstown City Council defeated legislation that would have made it illegal to take items from commercial or residential trash containers. Councilman Herman "Pete" Starks called the proposal "inhumane."

Fire officials say evidence of arson was found in smoky fires set in the Salem High auditorium, which caused the evacuation of 1,000 students from the school and damaged a grand piano, several seats, and materials in a prop room. 

 

1975: Wallace "Wally" Hirschfield, president of the Ohio Farm Bureau, tells about l00 members of the Mahoning County Farm Bureau that there will be major food shortages for Americans in the next few years unless the government stops meddling in the world food markets. 

A gunman disarms the Wells Fargo guard at the Westlake Terraces office of the Metropolitan Housing Authority and escapes with an undisclosed amount of money and the guard's gun. 

Ohio's new social service plan under Title XX shows the cost for the Mahoning County Welfare Department will be $4.5 million over the next nine months, double the price a year earlier. 

 

1950: Sharon Steel Corp. announces a long-range expansion of iron and steelmaking facilities at an estimated cost of $49 million over five years. 

City Council will file suit to block the Youngstown Municipal Railway Co. from increasing the cost of a weekly pass to $1.90. The city recommended a price of $1.60.

The World War II practice of paying Washington agents 5 percent of government contracts for procuring those contracts is upheld in a tax court case involving Aetna-Standard Engineering Co.  The company had claimed a business-expense deduction of $59,496 it paid to an agent.