Retired Erie School District Principal Greg Myers is prepared to unveil plans to develop a new charter school in Erie. The proposed school would serve students from the higher poverty neighborhoods on Erie’s east side. We are not entirely convinced that starting another charter is a better idea than working to improve the education delivered by our public school system. Taxpayers are already overloaded with taxes, and paying for another school would certainly add to that burden, since the school district is required by law to pay for the students’ tuition. The School Board heard Mr. Myers’ presentation last evening.
Erie County Council displayed a bit of fiscal responsibility at their weekly meeting Tuesday, declining to grant a greater starting salary to several of Executive Barry Grossman’s new appointments. Council decided during the budget process to set a lower starting salary.
That was a fantastic come-from-behind victory for newly elected Senator Scott Brown in Massachusetts Tuesday. The impact of his win on the health-care bill will be interesting to watch. I think the public is angered by having the bills pushed through Congress without being properly thought and agreed upon by both parties.
Residents of the Richford Arms Apartments got to spend a week in various hotels and motels after an electrical malfunction left the building at 515 State St. with no heat or electricity until Tuesday. The Richford provides housing for the disabled and the elderly. The building owners paid for the meals and housing for the residents until they were able to move back into their apartments.
Two really big lake freighters have docked in Erie for the winter lay-up and maintenance. The Presque Isle and the Edgar Speer are impressive in their size. The Presque Isle was built in Erie. Seeing the ships is something for families to enjoy together. The photo of the Presque Isle in our lead-in was taken by Jeff Thoreson, author of Erie Shipping News, www.erieshippngnews.blogspot.com. Check out Jeff’s site for great pics and commentary about the goings-on here in Presque Isle Bay.
With the urging of Mike (read yesterday’s post) I elected to install the Mozilla Firefox browser on my desktop. Initial efforts seem to indicate that it is a good choice. I also did some long needed maintenance to remove a lot of unneeded stuff that was slowing my computer down. Thanks to Mike for his advice! He really wanted me to buy a Mac, but that wasn’t to be. LOL
The outpouring of donations and volunteering for the Haitian earthquake victims has been amazing, hasn’t it? It seems like people are really touched by the news and pictures that we have witnessed from the island. Our prayers are most certainly with the victims, but also with those who are helping rescue and recovery efforts.
Sports
The Villa Girls basketball team has fallen from the ranks of the unbeaten, losing to Regina 55 to 44.
Strong Vincent pulled off a 17 point win over rival Cathedral Prep. The final score was 73-56.
The Mercyhurst Men’s basketball team outshot Edinboro 83-72, while the Hurst Women prevailed 70-65.
At Slippery Rock, Gannon swept the night, with the Men on top 81-63, and the Ladies winning 74-40
Allegheny downed Hiram 75-61 in a Men’s contest.
Events
You can hear the Erie Philharmonic work their magic Saturday Night at the Warner Theater. Winter nights are made for enjoying the lush interior of the Warner, coupled with the musical offerings from the talented orchestra. Reserve your tickets at the Civic Center box office.
The Erie Playhouse will open January 29th at 7:30 pm with the funkiest show of the season, when they present ‘The Wiz’, a modern version of ‘The Wizard of Oz’. “Ease on, ease on down the road” to reserve your seat for what promises to be a real visual and musical treat! Box office phone 454-2852 for information.
I hardly agree with this statement
“… I think the public is angered by having the bills pushed through Congress without being properly thought and agreed upon by both parties”
Over the course of the past year the democrats have repeatedly tried to engage the republicans to come to a compromise but the republicans are the party of NO. Regardless of what provisions the democrats give up on a bill it still isn’t enough to satisfy them. It’s not compromise the republicans want, they want it exactly their way and anything less isn’t good enough for them. This country was founded on the idea of democratic principals, that the will of the majority should be enacted. That means 50+1.
All the republicans have done over the last year is protest when things do go their way either by bending the truth or making up complete lies when it suits them and then taking credit when they had no part in the success of a plan. Look at the American Recovery and Reinvestment act that was passed last feb (or was it march) this provided money for programs that were endangered and gave money to municipalities that were in desperate need in order to protect jobs and promote job growth. And it’s been successful, however no republican member of the senate supported it but look where ever there are funds from this act going and it is located in an area where a republican represents they take credit for the stimulus but never state that they had actually voted against the measure.
There hasn’t been one bill in congress that was “pushed” though without debate or attempt at a compromise over the past year. I challenge you to find me just one or I call upon you to retract that sentence as a matter of journalistic integrity
John, by my placing “I think” in front of the statement, it becomes a matter of opinion, not journalistic integrity. We are allowed to have diverging opinions.
My statement was drawn from the words of many Democrats who voted for Scott Brown. Those who voted against the party are obviously very upset with the direction the party is headed.
For a state with an 89%-11% Democratic majority to elect a Republican candidate certainly would indicate to me that there is trouble in Paradise.
Thank you for your comments.
So, is this an opinion post or a news post?
The title suggests news, but it appears full of opinions…
Forefox is much better than anything going – It is much more secure as well – I think you will be happy with your choice – I have been using t since it first came out.
Inkedup, I’ve only had it since yesterday, today they notified of the latest version, 3.6, so I updated, and this version seems even faster than the 3.5. Like it very much so far.
Curious…I posted a comment last evening and it has disappeared.
In that comment, I asked a simple, pretty non-controversal question:
Is this a news post or an opinion post?
I would appreciate an answer, but at the minimum, please don’t delete this comment.
And even more curious…The comment has returned…
Thomas, I do not know how your comment appeared then disappeared, then reappeared. Had I seen it, I would have answered back immediately.
To answer your question, it is a news blog, with an occasional bit of commentary added to the mix. If my comment concerning the Brown win in Massachussets is the point in question, yup, I inserted a bit of opinion, prefaced by “I think”.
Still, it is a blog, and we are allowed to say what we think.
Really, the mainstream media often injects an angle into their coverage.
If you back up to “John”s comment and my response to him, I explained my thought process.
Also, in today’s post, Mike touched on the interest my post caused. Please read that entry also, and my comment on his post.
If you would like to further discuss the matter, please feel free to e-mail me at dale@globalerie.com
The new format Mike has set up for us lends itself to a perfect solution to this problem… The “news” portion would contain just that. If one desires to interject his/her opinions into a news story, I think it would be better for that person to write an op/ed piece that would be separate from the actual news.
But, hey, that’s just, you know, my opinion, man.