a DY exclusive

Defend Youngstown links to a story:

"Greg Smith, a freelance journalist from Cincinnati, has completed an absolutely remarkable article analyzing the current state of affairs regarding the sport of boxing, American culture, economy, generational differences as well as the die-hard city Youngstown, Ohio and Kelly Pavlik.

It is a story of how Kelly Pavlik and his city are bucking modern trends and discarding traditional labels, respectively...the significance and symbolism of his rise to stardom despite the most improbable of odds in today's post-industrial culture- one mixed with a generation who built the cities only to see them crumble attempting to coexist and understand an independent minded generation who must appreciate the past to recreate the future...and the complex, iconic Rust Belt city in the middle of it all - one that has stubbornly called its own shots and has blazed it's own trails…sometimes, tragically, to a fault."

read more here.

news: 6 Jan 2008

Opportunites Emerge at Youngstown Business Incubator
the Youngstown Vindicator

"Two new tenants already are [newly] signed. Eris Medical Technologies, a Canfield-based hospital software developer, and Visual Impact Imaging, an Akron-based landscape design software company, are scheduled to move into the incubator this spring.

The incubator also will be part of collaboration to develop the Center of Excellence in Industrial Metrology & 3D Imaging Research. Involved are Youngstown State University, M-7 Technologies, which is a Youngstown precision management company, and the Columbus-based Ohio Supercomputer Center.

The process [of selecting client companies] involves making sure the company’s concept is feasible, testing its product, then asking some of the companies in the incubator’s network to examine it and make sure there’s a market for it. If the product passes these tests, the company will be put under consideration by the incubator’s board."

College Coaching is a Youngstown Thing
the Kansas City Star

"So what does boxing’s most inspirational bout of last year have to do with Monday’s BCS National Championship Game between LSU and Ohio State?

Youngstown, Ohio.

That’s the home of Pavlik and college football coaches spread across the land.

By native-son status or a relationship with Youngstown State, coaches from this Rust Belt city halfway between Cleveland and Pittsburgh are defining college football with a blue-collar toughness, and Youngstown will stand and cheer no matter who wins in the Superdome."

Valley Needs Community College, says Report

"The results of the Northeast Ohio Universities Collaboration and Innovation Study are in, and they call for a community college in the Mahoning Valley.

The report, released Friday, came after a year of research by officials from Youngstown State University, the University of Akron, Cleveland and Kent State universities and the Northeast Ohio Universities Colleges of Medicine and Pharmacy.

The result was 18 recommendations aimed at increasing college enrollment and reducing tuition costs.

YSU already has taken the lead, without state sanction, in developing plans for a local community college, after a directive from its board of trustees to come up with a plan."

Review of the Mayor's State of the City Address
the Youngstown Vindicator

"He focused his discussion of the year to come on detailing plans for a new crime-prevention program, known as Operation Ceasefire.

The strategy calls for aggressive law enforcement and prosecution — gunshot detection systems and video surveillance and gang suppression through grass-roots community initiatives. It was shown to be effective in curtailing lawlessness in Boston.

Williams encouraged members of the community to keep their heads held high in spite of adversity."

“There is nothing wrong with Youngstown that cannot be fixed by what is right with Youngstown,” he said. “When faith is not enough, we must still believe.”