The Erie County Health Department announced the first swine flu fatality in Erie County. Retired 64-year-old Erie School District teacher Marcia Grode died on November 10 from swine flu complications. Reported cases of swine flu in the county, however, have diminished in the past few weeks. The worst may be yet to come, so please continue washing your hands, covering your sneezes, and staying home if you are sick.

The debate over the banning of cell phone use while driving continues as the topic is currently being considered by the Erie City Council. Fines for the offense could run up to $300, but would be classified as a “secondary” offense. This would mean that a driver couldn’t be stopped for cell phone use alone, but could be cited if using a cell phone during another traffic offense.

Two men who allegedly set their home on fire in order to collect insurance money have gotten lucky- Erie County prosecutors were forced to drop the arson and fraud charges due to the fact that Erie Insurance Co. has approved the claim. I wouldn’t advise trying this one yourself.

The episode of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition filmed in Erie this past June will air on Sunday, December 13 at 8 p.m on ABC. The team, including special guest Mary J. Blige, rebuilt a home for Clara Ward who helps disadvantaged children and suffers from a degenerative muscular disease. If not for the hometown connection, watch it just to see if you got caught in any background scenes!

Collegiate Academy unveiled their new solar panels, expected to reduce the electric bill by 1%, which seems a bit trifling to me. The project was funded by a grant from the State Department of Environmental Protection, awarded to the Erie School District for their self-initiated energy audit. The audit led to an energy savings of about 10%. Kudos to you guys for making Erie greener.

Mercyhurst students are taking part in a national contest to track down 10 red weather balloons positioned across the U.S. The challenge has been set up by the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency and is designed to test how social-networking and internet sites can be mobilized in a time-critical problem solving situation.  The first team to locate all 10 balloons wins a cash prize of $40,000. The strategy of the Mercyhurst team is to reward each confirmed report of a balloon with a $1000 prize to the reporter if the team ultimately wins the challenge.

To report a sighting:

E-mail: mciisballoons@gmail.com

Text: (440) 503-8089 or (814) 527-0654

Call: (737) 657-3265 or (814) 746-2477

Sports

The Penn State Behrend Men’s Swimming team took first place at the Fredonia State Invitational, while the Women’s team took fifth.

The Gannon women’s basketball team will play its second home game of the season tonight at 6 p.m. The team is currently ranked ninth, and won 19 consecutive regular-season games dating back to last season.

Events

The Erie School District will hold free swine flu vaccination clinics in the next few weeks:

December 8th at Wilson School

December 9th at Wayne School

December 10th at Harding School

December 14th at Wilson School

December 15th at Glenwood