December 24

2000: A survey of childhood immunizations in the state shows that Boardman, with 84 percent of its kindergartners fully immunized, has the highest percentage among the suburbs of Ohio's eight major cities. 

The English Center, a nonprofit school in Youngstown that teaches English as a second language to recent arrivals, served 219 students in 2000. 

Michael J. LaCivita, a Youngstown retiree who writes occasional columns for The Vindicator, recalls his first Christmas away from home as a 19-year-old sailor during World War II.  His ship was docked in Mobile, Ala., and after going to midnight Mass at a cathedral, he had Christmas dinner on the ship - turkey and all the trimmings, which he had never had. 

 

1985: The Valley's weather forecast calls for 1  to 2 inches of snow on Christmas morning.

Weathersfield Township trustees uphold a recommendation by the Zoning Commission that land surrounding the recently completed interchange at I-80  and Salt Spring Road be rezoned to allow commercial development. 

Trumbull County commissioners approve a balanced 1986 budget of $14.9 million, thanks to revenues from the county's temporary sales tax. 

 

1975: The overnight parking fee in the municipal parking lot is lowered permanently from 50 cents to 25 cents by the Youngstown Board of Control. 

Edgar B. Speer, chairman of U.S. Steel Corp., appeals directly to President Ford to block an action by the U.S. Justice Department   and the federal EPA to shut down three U.S. Steel coke batteries at Gary, Ind. Hundreds of employees would be idled. 

A 1973 auto belonging to New Castle Police Lt. Anthony Verone is destroyed by a bomb while parked in front of his Madison Avenue home. 

 

1950: The largest evergreen forest in Ohio lines the shores of Meander Lake, from which Youngstown and Niles draw their water. Four million trees were planted in the 1930s to protect the lake from erosion and contamination.

The Aetna Standard Engineering Co. is embarking on a $2 million expansion of its Ellwood City, Pa., plant. The workforce of 1,000 is expected to double. 

William W. Rust, 32, shoots and kills his 25-year-old niece, Geraldine Rust, at his Volant, Pa., home and then turns the 16-gauge shotgun on himself. The deaths are ruled homicide and suicide.