The Department of Justice is telling PNC they need to sell 61 National City bank branches as a condition of their purchase of the struggling bank. 11 branches in our area will be sold, including 6 in Erie County, 1 in Warren County and 4 in Crawford County.
6 local schools have been included in US News and World Reports listing of the top 100 high schools. The list included only public schools, and locally, Central Tech, East, Strong Vincent, General McClane, Corry and Northwestern were included. Collegiate Academy was a silver medalist last year, but this year suprisingly isn’t on the list at all. Bit of a snub as Collegiate Academy sees 98% of its students attending a 4 year college after graduation.
The U.S. House of Representatives passed the $14 billion bailout for the “Big 3″ U.S. automakers. Local house representative Phil English voted in favor of the bill. Unfortunately, or fortunately, we’re not sure, the bill died in the Senate. The White House can still offer some funds, and this morning it’s not clear what the next step will be. Expect Wall Street to be stunned today.
A day after having 9 additional charges levied against him, Dr. Paul W. Heberle has been allowed to leave Erie County Prison to go to rehab. Luckily for him, the DA and judge didn’t say “no, no, no.”
The move has begun for several local departments into the newly renovated 5th floor of the Erie County Courthouse. We hope they’ve got the water filter issue all squared away.
Tom Lavery is reporting that starting in February of 2009, WMCE will be switching to a full-time jazz station, which they’ll call Jazz FM. The website for the station is already up and running at ErieRadio.com. How did someone not grab that domian name before? Wow.
Erie Indemnity Company, the parent company of Erie Insurance has increased the dividends they are paying stockholders. If you hold a class A share, your dividend will increase from $0.44 to $0.45. If you’re fortunate to have class B shares, your dividend will rise from $66 to $67.50. It’s payable on January 20.
Congrats to the 98% of Gannon University’s Villa Maria School of Nursing students who passed their required licensing exam, the National Council Licensure Examination for Registered Nurses (NCLEX-RN), on their first attempt. Passing the exam is required of candidates for licensure as a registered nurse (RN) by all U.S. state and territorial Boards of Nursing.
Governor Rendell announced the state would invest $30 million in 50 different communities across the Pennsylvania as part of PennDOT’s Rail Freight Capital Budget/Transportation Assistance program. There also will be another $8.5 million in Rail Freight Assistance grants. Local recipients include: $660,000 to the Greater Erie Industrial Development Corporation to continue track construction on the North Yard parcel of the former International Paper site; and in Warren County, $215,000 to Elkhorn Propane, Inc. for the construction of new siding off the Allegheny & Eastern main line for transloading natural gas liquids produced by Elkhorn.
The I-86 project is continuing as planned which stretches 381 miles from Erie all the way through lower New York to Orange County, NY (50 miles north-north west of NY City). Despite the canceling of a number of road construction projects, I-86 (a/k/a route 17) is still getting priority by NY Department of Transportation but more money is sought to speed up the process. Initially projected to cost about $800 million, the price tag is now set at $1.8 billion but the estimated economic benefits for businesses along I-86 totals $3.2 billion over a 20 years. Ostensibly Erie would benefit from the completion of the project. About half of the stretch of route 17 is designated officially as I-86.
James E. Miller, CPA, DBA, assistant professor and director, Gannon University accounting program, recently took top honors at the International Business and Economics Research conference, held in Las Vegas. Miller won the Best Paper Award for a presentation he gave at the conference. Miller’s paper is titled, “The Development of the Miller Ratio (MR): a Tool to Detect for the Possibility of Earnings Management (EM).”
Sports
The Otters are away this weekend: tonight and tomorrow the Otters play the Sarnia Sting, and Sunday they play the Windsor Spitfires.
The Erie BayHawks played their first game at home tonight – taking on the Iowa Energy. A good crowd saw the Bayhawks win 103-93. The win improves the team to 4-2 on the season. The team’s at home again on Saturday when they take on Fort Wayne. Get Tickets.
The Seawolves are gearing up for tomorrow’s “Fill a Truck at the Uht” event benefiting Toys for Tots. New, unwrapped toys will be collected at the front gates of Jerry Uht Park between 10 am and 2 pm, and donors will get to enjoy free Smith’s hot dogs, Pepsi, hot chocolate, coffee and donuts. Santa and C. Wolf will also be on hand to help out.
The No. 10 Mercyhurst College wrestling team will battle rival Gannon in the War at the Shore IV on Friday, December 12 at the Erie Civic Center. The event begins at 8:15 p.m. and tickets are $10.
George Raftis recorded his third double-double of the season as the Allegheny men’s basketball team defeated Penn State New Kensington, 84-42, in non-leaguea action on Thursday night.
The No. 8 Mercyhurst College women’s hockey team will be holding its annual Skate for the Cure event on Friday, Dec. 12 when No. 4 St. Lawrence comes to town for a two-game series at the Mercyhurst Ice Center.
The Gannon men’s soccer team landed four players on the National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA)/Addias All-Atlantic Region teams released Thursday afternoon. Afrim Latifi (Erie, Pa./Cathedral Prep) was selected to the first team while Loek Masthoff (Nieuwstadt, Netherlands/Trevianum) landed on the second team. Dan Howell (Erie, Pa./Iroquois) and Piet Zweegers (Mierlo, Holland/Augustmianum) earned third-team accolades.
Events
There will be a Gingerbread House Workshop at the Watson-Curtze Mansion, December 13 and 20, from 11 a.m. – 2 p.m. Kids of all ages are invited to make their very own graham cracker gingerbread house, complete with a gumdrop chimney. Cost is $4 per gingerbread house.
Erie Philharmonic Chorus & Friends presents Come Home for the Holidays on Saturday, December 13, 2008 at 8 p.m.
‘‘Tis the Season to be Jolly.’ On December 13 , don your Gay apparel and join us in celebration of the truest meaning of Christmas – Peace on Earth – Good will toward all! An Oil City Gay/Straight Alliance social at the Latonia in Oil City Saturday, December 13th at 8pm. BYOB $5. Jill from Pittsburgh will DJ along with a live performance surprise or two. Contact: Linda Henderson or Roxanne Hitchcock. Phone: (814) 677-1260. The Latonia, 1 East 1st St, Oil City, PA.
On Saturday, December 13, “TREC The Halls” will be held from 10 am to 4 pm at the Tom Ridge Environmental Center in Erie. Breakfast with Santa will be served 10 am to 1 pm and is just $6.95 per person (Ages 2 and under are free). The holiday movie “The Muppet Christmas Carol” will be shown on the Big Green Screen at 12 pm and 3 pm. at no cost.
Hundreds of Mercyhurst College students will partake of one of the college’s most beloved traditions when they welcome more than 100 Erie area children to the annual “Christmas on Campus” celebration Saturday, Dec. 13, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the Carolyn Herrmann Student Union.
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.
