Today is Columbus Day, which means many banks are closed and there’s no mail delivery.

We hope everyone had a nice time at the For Women Only expo held this past weekend. We drove by the bayfront and it was packed. The Eerie Horror Festival also drew good crowds this weekend, despite the fact Corey Feldman pulled out at the last moment. Corey Haim = stunned.

We took time Saturday to drive around North East and get some concord grapes. Man, are they good, and the weather was nice enough to roll down the windows and breathe in all the sweet grape-y air. If you’ve never done that, I highly recommend it.

The Sea Glass convention being held in Erie next weekend is getting some great press for us – this story in the Buffalo News via the Washington Post gives a nice preview.

Congrats, we now have a state budget. Local and state agencies should start to see some money owed to them start to come in over the next few weeks. From the state’s budget office (full here):

Governor Edward G. Rendell signed legislation today to enact a $27.799 billion state General Fund budget for 2009-10 that increases education funding while reducing overall spending. It contains no new broad-based taxes.

State-dollar spending is $1.9 billion lower than in 2008-09. When $2.6 billion in federal stimulus dollars are included, the new budget still spends $524 million less than last year.

For now, it looks like the tire-to-energy plant planned for the former Hammermill plant may be dead in the water. A deadline passed last week for the company to purchase the land earmarked for the plant, and they did not meet that deadline. Erie Renewable Energy is fighting the decision in court.

We blogged last week about prime farmland in 28 counties that will remain available for future agriculture production after the state’s Agricultural Land Preservation Board today voted to protect an additional 6,496 acres on 69 farms. Locally, The David and Elaine Klie farm, a 415-acre dairy, crop and pasture land operation will be part of the program.

Sports

NFL
Pittsburgh 28 Detroit 20
Cleveland 6 Buffalo 3

Congrats to the Browns on the first victory of their already painful season. Browns QB Derek Anderson completed 2 passes the entire game and had a second half passer rating of 0.

College
Mercyhurst 27 Gannon 17
Allegheny 38 Carnegie-Mellon 35

Michael Zador made 37 saves for the Oshawa Generals as they handed the Erie Otters their first shutout in over a year in a 3-0 Erie loss Friday night at General Motors Centre.

The last shutout against the Otters was on September 19, 2008, when the Jason Guy backstopped the London Knights to a 4-0 win. The Erie Otters power play scored three times against the Barrie Colts Saturday night but it was not enough as they succumbed to their fourth straight defeat, 7-4.

The men’s golf team at Penn State Erie, The Behrend College, captured the 2009 AMCC Championship at Tom’s Run Golf Resort in Blairsville, Pa., after winning a tiebreaker against Penn State Altoona. Both finished with team totals of 617 throughout two days of action. Penn State Behrend earned the trophy based on the tiebreaker criteria of best score by the no. 5 golfer on both days of the tournament.

Events