Get ready for some snow today — two to four inches in the snow belt. Drive careful! It must finally be winter time — Mike heard Christmas music in the Wal-Mart last night.

Terrible news to the many people who have ever had the opportunity to visit the Gudgeonville Bridge in Girard.  This past weekend the bridge was burned to a crisp by an arsonist who should PRAY he never gets caught.  A witness at the scene reported a white sport utility vehicle leaving the area just before the fire was started around 1:30 a.m. Anyone with information please call the state police at Girard at (814) 774-9611 or Erie County Crimestoppers at (814) 898-4636.   WJET has sobering video here.  Rich of ErieBlogs fondly remembers conducting research on the bridge for his Erie history class at Central High School, as well as frequenting the location with friends on numerous occasions.  Photo credit: Crikit (Lori G of Erie).

Joan Chittister of the Benedictine Sisters of Erie will be featured in this week’s National Catholic Reporter which you can read here.

Two children, ages 8 and 11, were attached by an unleashed pitbull on 7th and Parade. The 8 year old boy fought the dog off, making sure he took the brunt of the attack while his sister got only minor injuries. We hope the dog’s owner will pay for not only the medical expenses but also therapy, as we bet the kids will be scarred for life. The dog will be put down.

The opening of the Glenwood YMCA expansion has been pushed back once again. This time officials say it will open in the “spring.” They are waiting for more steel.

Two local teenagers have been arrested for their role in the hold-ups of several Circle-K convenience stores. Cops had set up outside several locations waiting for the assailants — they figured with 4 robberies in 11 days, there would be more and they were right. The men, John Wells, 18, and David McLaurin, 17, are in Erie County Prison. The getaway driver, William Isaac, 18, was also arrested and is in jail.

Erica Irwin of the Times-News has an interview with new Millcreek Superintendent Michael Golde. Welcome to Erie, Mr. Golde.

After two years of making the announcement, Cathedral Prep finally held a ground breaking for its new athletic field located at the intersection of 12th and Cherry. Construction is expected to begin in the Spring.

Sports

Erie native Bob Sanders made a couple of key plays in the Colts’ 24-20 victory over the Steelers. The CBS announcers mentioned that Sanders was from Erie and many of his friends and relatives made the trip to Pittsburgh to see him play. The Steelers now are 6-3 and face San Diego next week.

We think someone at WSEE fell asleep at halftime during the game yesterday and forgot to hit a switch. The first half of the Steeler game was in beautiful high definition. When the second half started, they never switched back to the HD feed of the game, instead showing the standard definition feed on the HD digital channel. When they did try the HD feed, they showed the San Diego-Kansas City game and on one occasion, the NBC nightly news.

New England beat the Buffalo Bills. After a hot start, the Bills have cooled, and now sit at 5-4.

The Erie Otters beat the Windsor Spitfires Saturday night, with it being the Spitfires first loss in 14 games.  If you would like to congratulate the players you’ll have your chance this week.  On Tuesday, November 11 there will be a player appearance at the Chick-Fil-A on upper Peach and on Wednesday, November 12 at Wendy’s on Pittsburgh Ave.

It wasn’t meant to be for Penn State.  The Iowa Hawkeyes delivered a crushing blow to the Nittany Lions’ championship aspirations this Saturday beating Penn State 24-23.  Penn State is now ranked #8 which isn’t too bad of a drop from #3 considering it got beat by an unranked Big 10 team.  Factoid: this is PSU’s third straight loss to Iowa after coming off of a bye week (2003 & 2004).

In other college football news, Pitt had better success this weekend beating Louisville 41-7.  The Panthers are now ranked #21, up from #25.  Gannon lost to Bloomsburg 38-10 in both teams last game of the season. Allegheny upset Wittenberg 30-27 in OT. Allegheny College quarterback T.J. Salopek (North Huntingdon, Pa./Norwin) has been named the North Coast Athletic Conference Offensive Player of the Week after his performance against Wittenberg.

The Edinboro University football team saw its season come to an end on Sunday afternoon when the NCAA announced the 2008 NCAA Division II playoff field and left the Fighting Scots out. The Fighting Scots finished the year with a 9-2 record after Saturday’s 38-13 win over Millersville, tying the school record for wins in a season.

The Erie Bayhawks selected Erik Daniels in the first round of the NBA D-League draft. Daniels played college ball at Kentucky and played 21 games for the Sacramento Kings in 2004-05. He split time last year between the Italian and Spanish pro leagues. The team also selected Taj McCullough (Winthrop), Vernon Hamilton, Quinton Day (Missouri-Kansas City), Oliver Layfayette (Houston), Tejay Anderson (Youngstown State), Raheem Moss, Welsey Fluellen, Cliff Clinkscales (DePaul), and Xavier Whipple of LSU. He is no relation to Boomer Whipple, former Seawolves 3B and current Vice-President at Lundstrom Insurance Agency in Chicago.

The Mercyhurst mens basketball team played an exhibition game at NCAA Division I opponent Ohio University Sunday, keeping the game quite close through most of the second half before falling 79-52 in front of 2413 fans at the Ohio University Convocation Center.

Senior Ryan Toomey scored with just 11 seconds elapsed in overtime to give the Mercyhurst College mens hockey team a 4-3 OT victory over Atlantic Hockey foe Holy Cross Friday evening at the Hart Center. With the win, the Lakers improve to 1-6-0 on the season and 1-0 in AHA action, while Holy Cross falls to 1-4-1 overall and 1-3-1 in league play.

The Gannon mens water polo team wrapped up its 2008 season with a 9-4 victory over Washington & Jefferson Sunday afternoon in the seventh-place match at the Collegiate Water Polo Association (CWPA) Southern Division Championships. Princeton University hosted the three-day event.

Events

Catro Jazz will perform at the University of Pittsburgh at Titusville tomorrow, November 11, 2008 at 7:30 p.m. in Henne Auditorium as part of the 2008-2009 Spotlight Series. Catro Jazz is a regionally based jazz band led by key board player Mark DeWalt of Grove City. General admission is $10 and $6 for seniors. For more information call (814) 827-4503.

The Erie Art Museum’s Contemporary Music Series presents Lou & Peter Berryman in concert at the Erie Art Museum Annex on Wednesday, November 12, 2008 at 8 p.m. The performance will be held in the Erie Art Museum Annex, 423 State Street, admission is free; a $10 donation is suggested. They have appeared on A Prairie Home Companion and NPR’s Weekend edition.

View this past Sunday’s comprehensive events list to see a list of events for the week and months ahead. If you would like your event posted here, please contact us via our online form.