December 10 

2000: United Community Financial Corp., parent company of Home Savings and Loan Co. in Youngstown, signs an agreement to acquire Industrial Bancorp in Bellvue for $91.8 million. 

The Ohio College and University Performance Report shows that students at Youngstown State University pay less to earn their degrees but take longer to do so. On average, a YSU student takes 7.3 years to earn a bachelor's degree, compared to 5.3 years for all 13 state schools. Ten percent of YSU students graduate in four years or less, compared to 11 percent across the state. 

State officials say that Ohio's client security fund, established by the state Supreme Court in 1985 to compensate clients who lost money to their attorneys, is in danger of being depleted by the number of clients of Youngstown Attorney Richard Goldberg who are filing for the maximum award of $50,000. Goldberg is serving time in a federal prison in West Virginia. 

 

1985: A 47-year-old former Pittsburgh man is arrested by New Castle police after he took control of U.S. Rep. Joseph Kolter's New Castle office, holding a visitor to the office, Joseph Frazier, hostage with a letter opener. Kolter was called from the House floor and talked to the man while police entered through a rear door and overpowered him. 

LTV Steel Tubular Products Co. is laying off 75 supervisors and white-collar workers at its Poland Avenue and Campbell mills and at its Albert Street headquarters. 

More than 800 ballots in the Boardman Township trustee race were disqualified because voters checked three candidates when only two were to be elected. 

  

1975: A homemade pipe bomb explodes in a planter in a concourse of the Eastwood Mall, sending dirt and shrapnel into the air and damaging ceiling tiles.

Directors and management of Microdot Inc., parent of Valley Mould and Iron Co., launch an all-out effort to block a takeover by General Cable Corp. Microdot stock hit $5 a share on the New York Stock Exchange. 

Figures from the Mahoning County Welfare Department show a sharp rise of more than 217 public assistance claims in November. There are 8,358 cases covering 19,106 people. 

 

1950: A gay crowd of Christmas shoppers in a buying mood throngs downtown stores, spending their money liberally on toys, clothes, and other gift items. 

Wesley Fesler, a former Youngstowner, resigned as head coach of the Ohio State University Buckeyes in an announcement made at the annual Big Ten winter meetings in Chicago. He says he was close to a nervous breakdown, and University President Dr. Howard L. Bevis accepts the resignation. 

The Vindicator names its 1950 All-City team with Don Bucci of East High at quarterback. Others on the first team: Russell Oates, Joe Nudo, Bob Commings, Phil Panno, Jack Snyder, Tom Nadrich, Frank Mechak, Don Commings, Frank Ewashko, Lingar Humphrey, and Dick Ronan.