We got a pretty decent snowstorm over the weekend, and a few people emailed us to say they heard and saw thunder and lightning while it was snowing.

Police have released a new image of the bank robber who moved on to Amherst and Sheffield Village, Ohio after hitting it up in PA. No arrests have yet been made. You can also follow the case at America’s Most Wanted.

Residents in Union City, Wattsburg and other rural Erie County areas are petitioning local telephone companies to deliver them broadband. According to the Erie Times, PA Act 183 requires phone companies to provide service where 50 residents or 25% of residents request service. We, of course, strongly support these communities getting broadband, since they can load this site even faster (oh yeah, gaming, YouTube, all that is better too with broadband).

Paragon Promotions is back at it again, this time selling ads in a new publication they are putting out called the “Meadville Fire Prevention Guide.” It’s confusing people because the Meadville Fire Department has put out the same publication for the last several years – and it too is ad-supported. Theirs is called the “Meadville Firefighters Fire Prevention Guide.” The problem is Paragon is going around the area asking for ads and collecting the money, none of which is going to local fire companies. Paragon was doing something similar in Sharon last year.

Michael Renzi and Maurice Page of Erie were caught poaching wildlife on November 5. The Pennsylvania Game Commission filed four charges against the men who illegally caught an impressive eight-point buck with a spread of almost 20 inches. To add insult to injury, Renzi and Page were also charged with “recreational spotlighting.”

Officials are the Erie International Airport are trying to be judicious with their use of de-icer this winter. A strike by workers at a mine in Canada has made quantities of potash, one of the elements in de-icing fluid, hard to come by. Cost for de-icer has also skyrocketed and there are fears of a shortage this winter.

Gas prices continue to drop in our area – the lowest we found this weekend as at 97 and I-90, where it was $1.79. Our Gas Price Finder gets the lowest prices several times a day.

We also received some emails and read via Twitter that WICU’s HD feed hasn’t been, well, very HD lately. For example, this week’s Saturday Night Live was in standard definition, as was Sunday night’s football game. We emailed WICU and they reported their building was recently hit by lightning (thundersnow strikes back), and that strike affected some HD switching equipment. They claimed the switching between HD and SD should be better now, but we haven’t noticed yet.

The School of Science at Penn State Erie, The Behrend College, has announced its sixth professional program affiliation agreement, a 3 + 4 optometry program with The Ohio State University College of Optometry.

Sports

The Pittsburgh Steelers improved to 10-3 by beating the Dallas Cowboys 20-13. The Steelers scored 14 points in less then 30 seconds late in the 4th quarter for a come from behind win. While the defense was strong all day, the offense never really got going.

The season can’t end fast enough for the Cleveland Browns. They dropped to 4-9 on the season, losing a 28-9 contest to Tennessee. New QB Ken Dorsey had no touchdowns and a pick.

The Buffalo Bills lost to Miami 16-3. The loss drops the Bills to 6-7 and their season is also pretty much over at this point.

Penn State now knows who they’ll play in the Rose Bowl on January 1, 2009 – the Trojans of Southern California (USC). It should be a great game with two very good teams.

Daniel Lombardi, Marcus Pepe, Mark Katic and Matt Martin scored as the Sarnia Sting topped the Erie Otters 4-1 in an Ontario Hockey League game played Saturday night in front of 3,808 at the Tullio Arena. Justin Hodgman netted the lone Otters goal as Erie dropped to 14-14-2-0.

Erik Daniels once again demonstrated why he was Erie’s first-round selection in the 2008 D-League Draft. The forward out of Kentucky posted 26 points and 12 rebounds, and the BayHawks compiled an early lead and held on in a 102-87 victory over the Wizards at the Bismarck Civic Center on Saturday. Erie improves to 3-2 in its inaugural season. The Bayhawks home opener is this Thursday.

Collegiate Academy won the Academic Sports League meet, held Saturday at Penn State Behrend. The next meet is scheduled for January 10 at Gannon.

The Mercyhurst College men’s basketball team picked up its sixth-straight victory to open the 2008-09 campaign with a 74-54 victory at Salem International Saturday. The 6-0 start is the best since the 1977-78 season when the Lakers opened with a 9-0 mark en route to a 26-3 overall record.

The Mercyhurst College men’s hockey team won its sixth-straight game with an 11-1 victory over Atlantic Hockey foe American International Saturday night in Springfield, Mass. With the win, the Lakers improve to 7-8-1 on the season and 5-2-1 in conference play.

The Edinboro women’s swimming team held the lead for practically the entire three days of the Wooster Invitational. However, the final event proved their undoing as another group of Fighting Scots, host Wooster, finished second in the 400-yard freestyle relay to edge Edinboro by a total of 1.5 points. Edinboro placed eighth in the event, with the 12-point differential between second and eighth just enough to vault Wooster past Edinboro, 1,267.5 points to 1,266. A total of 11 teams competed in the event. The Allegheny men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams combined to finish seventh.

Kristina Freeman (Yonkers, N.Y./Pelham Memorial) and Abby Bunstine (Chillicothe, Ohio/Chillicothe) combined to record 37 points, seven assists, eight rebounds, five steals, and three blocks in their first game back from injury as the Gannon women’s basketball team cruised to a 104-64 victory against Lake Erie Saturday afternoon at the Hammermill Center.

Events

Just a reminder that the Erie Bloggers will be getting together this coming Tuesday, December 9 at 7 PM at Panera’s Yorktown, 2501 W 12th St, Erie PA. In addition to socializing, there will also be a collection for the Second Harvest Food Bank of NW PA.   Erie Bloggers received a Bread Box award for last year’s collection.

Dittman posted this weekend that LaTrobe Barnitz is looking for a drummer with a jazz/blues background.for his Oil City First Night gig at the Howling Dog. $50 for the night. Contact him at lbarnitz@clarion.edu.

If you’re interested in learning more or joining the local Erie Storm Chasers group, check out their web page.

Larry Kozlowski, director of student life at Mercyhurst North East and Polish culture expert, will show you how to make one-of-a-kind Old World Christmas ornaments while exploring popular holiday customs at a workshop on Tuesday, Dec. 9, at 7:30 p.m. The workshop will be held in Miller 202 at Mercyhurst North East, 16 West Division St., North East. It is free and open to the public. Call (814) 725-6277 for more information.

The Gem City Concert Band will hold its holiday concert on December 9 at 7:30 p.m. at St. John’s Lutheran Church on Peach St. The concert is free.

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.