21 WFMJ archives  / March  12, 1985 | A group of Realtors and their families from the Mahoning Valley unfurled a banner in front of the General Motors Technical Center in Warren, Mich., 40 years ago after delivering 200,000 cards and letters from Valley residents expressing support for the construction of a Saturn car plant in the Valley. 

March 12


2000: The future of a proposed Warner Bros. theme park in New Castle depends on efforts to win a $10 million state grant from the same bill working its way through Harrisburg that will finance a new stadium in Pittsburgh.

A Vindicator/WFMJ pre-election poll asked area residents if they favor continuing the development of the Youngstown-Warren Regional Airport. Fifty-two percent of Mahoning County Republicans and 71 percent of Trumbull County Democrats support the airport. 

Jim Tillman, manager of Beaver Creek State Park near East Liverpool, wants to establish a nature center there to highlight its rich natural diversity. 


1985: U.S. District Judge Thomas D. Lambros orders all parties in the nine-year-old case of alleged discrimination against minorities in Youngstown Police Department promotions to appear in his court and explain why the case is dragging on. 

Fire damaged the Hickory VFW Public Golf Course clubhouse on E. State Street in Hickory. 

Leslie Gent, a second grader at Lynn-Kirk Elementary in Austintown, and Drew Riter, a senior at Liberty High,  were supposed to appear on ABC's "Good Morning America" as part of the coverage of 200,000 "Saturn" cards and letters being delivered to General Motors in Detroit, but the segment was bumped by coverage of the death of Konstantin Chernenko, general secretary of the Soviet Communist Party.


1975: Youngstown and Liberty police raid a home on Sampson Drive, netting what one detective described as an extremely large amount of narcotics. 

General Motors announces that it is recalling 1,400 laid-off employees from the Vega-Astre assembly line in Lordstown and 500 from the Fisher Body fabricating plant. 

Central Tower, one of Youngstown's more prominent landmarks, is being sold and will be closed for an extended period for renovation and cleaning.


1950: A gift of $10,500 from the Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. launches the 1950 Red Cross fund drive with a goal of $132,000.

Vindicator political editor Clingan Jackson writes that Gov. Frank Lausche will win the Democratic gubernatorial primary easily, but how he fares in November may depend on how well he battles Northeast Ohio racketeers. 

Betty Savage, a sophomore, and Jimmy Lowery, a senior, are voted "most popular" at Youngstown College at the fourth annual Popularity Dance hosted by the Phi Gamma fraternity.