Portage County News

The closest mayoral race in Kent nearly 50 years came down to two votes Tuesday as independent Jerry Fiala beat Councilman Rick Hawksley.

A Kent man was arraigned Thursday on a charge that he allegedly called the Portage County Courthouse in Ravenna and falsely reported that he killed a 14-year-old girl.

John Kovacich and Lynn Whittlesey were elected to Atwater Township Trustee seats on Tuesday.

Democrats Kevin Poland and Mark Fankhauser were ahead in first returns in the Portage County Muncipal Judge races with 10 percent of the vote counted.

Michael Bartlett Jr. explains injuries to his face, ear and back in front of the house where the fire occurred.

Following a month-long investigation in which undercover agents bought heroin from a Streetsboro man, the Portage County Drug Task Force arrested that man and an accomplice during an operation on the Kent State University campus.

Portage County election officials are predicting a 40 percent voter turnout on Election Day.

Robinson Memorial Hospital in Ravenna is cutting 54 full- and part-time employees as part of a staff reduction plan to eliminate 95 full-time equivalent positions.

A Mantua woman who for 10 years was the elected clerk/treasurer of the village of Mantua was indicted Tuesday by a Portage County grand jury on a total of six felonies and misdemeanors for allegedly stealing village funds while in office.

A Portage County medical worker is accused of taking nude pictures of patients. Jamie Aguirre was pulled over Sunday night on SR 43 at I-73. During the stop, officers found the 43-year-old to be in possession of a small amount of Marijuana and paraphernalia.

These are the newest Howard Hanna listings on the market. The following list will be updated as new listings come on the market in Portage County.

A technician at a Tiffin imaging center caught driving with a stash of X-rays, mammograms, videos and pictures of women and children used the images for sexual gratification, police believe.

An embattled Portage County judge was overcome with emotion Monday morning as he fought to retain his law license in a hearing before a disciplinary panel.

A traffic stop late Sunday led to the discovery of a cache of hundreds of images of alleged child pornography and multiple felony charges against the man who allegedly took them.

A Kent judge accused of making a mockery of justice will go before a disciplinary panel in Columbus today as an arm of the Ohio Supreme Court weighs multiple misconduct charges against him.

But a high-spirited Halloween prank turned out to have deadly consequences in Shalersville Township in 1918 when the merriment of the evening ended in a fatal shotgun blast and a manslaughter charge.

Call it the "invisible levy," or the "levy without a campaign." Issue 5, the Portage County Health District's 0.4-mill additional levy is headed to the Nov.

Next week is the last chance for candidates and levy backers to get their message to voters, and for voters to meet the candidates.

Campaign war chests for the two Portage County Municipal Court races on the Nov.

Preparations for H1N1 vaccination clinics are complete and medical volunteers and staff from local health departments are ready to go.