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EP woman pleads not guilty in animal cruelty case

LISBON — An East Palestine woman pleaded not guilty during arraignment Monday on four counts of prohibitions concerning companion animals related to 21 animals seized from her home due to alleged unsanitary conditions. Jennifer Albert, 38, West Main Street, was ordered to have no companion animals as a condition of her recognizance bond for the misdemeanor charges. She’s scheduled to face a pretrial at 10:45 a.m. Aug. 3 on the misdemeanor charges. The original affidavit said animals were found at her address on April 3 “in conditions of extreme filth, causing suffering, lack of ...

Salem Public Library hosts amphibious friends

SALEM — Dennis Imhoff from the Beaver Creek Wildlife Center brought some native amphibious friends to the Salem Public Library Tuesday for its “Amphibians of Ohio” program. Imhoff taught attendees about the origins of amphibians, which were the first land animals to evolve. He said ...

Leetonia official responds to levy failure

LEETONIA — Village council discussed safety forces funding in the wake of voters’ denial of a proposed 0.5% income tax increase in exchange for discontinuing collection of village property tax in its May 6 meeting. “What happened [on May 5] is an enormous loss. It really is, and I’m trying to impress upon you the effect it’s going to have on this village,” Fiscal Officer Nick Mistovich said. The failure of the proposed tax, which was estimated to have netted the village an additional $400,000 annually if approved by voters, was described by Mistovich as disastrous for ...

Columbiana council gets update on building department

COLUMBIANA — The city’s decision to partner with a third-party service for its commercial and residential building department has proven beneficial over the last few years. Elevate Building Solutions Executive Director Julie Needs provided City Council with an overview of the city’s building department. She said the city issued 60 commercial permits and 165 residential permits in 2025 for a total of 225 permits issued out of the building department that year. “We like to break this down and compare year over year. We now have two full years we can compare,” she ...

Prosecutor: Candidates must take stand on death penalty

Gov. Mike DeWine recently announced he will give his position soon on the enforcement of the death penalty in Ohio, which for nearly eight years has not been enforced because of the state’s inability to obtain lethal injection drugs. “Though the governor says he cannot obtain these drugs, many other states are carrying out court-ordered executions at record levels,” Trumbull County Prosecutor Dennis Watkins. Watkins provided a look at the death penalty in Ohio and recent action in other states that “provide compelling evidence to maintain the present death penalty law in ...

Salem Academic Award Ceremony

The Salem City School District celebrated the achievements of its student scholars Wednesday at the annual Academic Award Ceremony in the high school auditorium. The seniors with the highest grade point averages were presented with golden honor chords to be worn at graduation. More photos on ...