Murder, snow, basketball, table games, building collapse, donating blood, gas prices, cell phone ban, fund raising, Otter hockey…

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Mmmm…kielbasa

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Live on, Bambi…the weather’s on your side.

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Thanksgiving is only a week away!

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We’re feeling sorry for all those poor folks who live in the Pittsburgh area as the G-20 Conference opens today.  It looks and sounds like everyone in the country with something to protest or an agenda to push has descended on the City.  Several groups couldn’t wait for the official opening, and started their shenanigans [...]

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If you have a chance, please stop by the Community Blood Bank this week. Donors all week can win a box of stuff including a Country Fair Gas card, meals from Taco Bell, Ice cream from Ben & Gerry’s and a CBB sweatshirt, Polo shirt & even a coveted blood bank clock with 24 hour [...]

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Scary situation Saturday night when one of the buildings at the Granada Apartment complex off Peach St. caught fire. Luckily, everyone got out alive. If you live there, I’d be scared to hear about the flaws in the design of the fire hydrant system in that complex.
Michael Allen Wright, 31, has been arrested [...]

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In case you missed it yesterday, the Peach Street Wegmans is now selling take-out beer. The west side location should follow suit in the next few days. It’s cool because sometimes you don’t want a whole case of beer, you want a few, or maybe you want to try something new. Sure, there are a [...]

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A quick heads-up if you have not yet picked up an digital TV receiver – WSEE will turn off its analog signal tomorrow. This will only affect you if you get TV signals with an antenna, either rabbit-ears style or an external antenna. Satellite and cable customers will not see any change. Despite Congress changing [...]

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Christmas week is here and the blood bank is urging people to come donate in preparation for the holiday weekend.
The Community Blood Bank is open Wednesday, Christmas Eve, from 9 to 1pm and reopens for regulars hours (9 to 6pm) on Friday December 26th.
Donors all week can enter to win a beautiful gift basket [...]

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The Federal Reserve has formally approved PNC Bank’s plan to purchase National City Bank based out of Cleveland, Ohio. With the acquisition, PNC will be the 8th largest depository institution in the U.S. As we blogged last week, PNC is required to sell 61 National City branches, including locations in Erie, Crawford and [...]

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The “Season of Giving” continues at the Community Blood Bank. Game Crazy on East 38th has donated a Nintendo Wii Gaming System and one lucky donor this week will win it for Christmas! The Wii is still the hottest gift in town and Game Crazy gets shipments every single day and they donated one [...]

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We hit the wall last night about 6 p.m. No more turkey. No more stuffing. No more pumpkin pie. Football was watched, naps were had, families were visited, thanking was done. We think at one point were even pulled a Roberto Duran and muttered “no más.” This morning, we woke up and the first thing, [...]

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Erie County has posted the 2009 Budget Proposal for review. We’re don’t understand why this wasn’t posted weeks ago when it was announced.
MTR Gaming is moving ahead of schedule with installing Robert Griffin as the new president and chief executive of MTR, beginning November 1 instead of January 1, 2009.  MTR did not explain why [...]

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It was announced late last night that the Federal Reserve Bank of New York will loan insurance giant AIG $85 billion. We’re not sure if this is the beginning, the middle or the end of this whole credit crisis mess. At the end of trading yesterday, the Dow was up 141 to close at 11,059.02. [...]

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Thank you to everyone who donated blood during last week’s Erie Blogs Week II at the Community Blood Bank. The unit of blood you donated can used to save 3 people’s lives.Thank you also to all the local blogs who wrote about the event and helped us spread the word.
Now the fun stuff – the [...]

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Erie Blogs Week II wraps up today at the Community Blood Bank. The process only takes about 20 minutes. One person who signs up on the blogger’s list will get a brand new, shiny iPhone. We also have gift baskets for the blog that refers the most donors and another gift basket for a random [...]

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The Erie Ad Club has changed its name to the Advertising Federation of Northwest Pennsylvania. The Federation’s new logo, programming, upcoming events and membership options will be announced Wednesday, August 27 during “Brews & Dues”, a special event at The Brewerie at Union Station (123 W. 14th Street) in Erie beginning at 5:30 p.m. The [...]

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Erie Blogs Week II continues today at the Community Blood Bank. One donor who signs up via the Erie Blogs Week form will walk away with an iPhone 3G, and there are other prizes for both donors and bloggers. The Community Blood Bank is open until 7:30 p.m. tonight. Please stop by and help save [...]

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Today is the first day of Erie Blogs Week II at the Community Blood Bank. One person who signs in on the special Erie Blogs Week list will be picked to win an iPhone 3G, pretty much the best mobile device out there. The Community Blood Bank is open from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. [...]

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Teri Rhodes, 19, pled guilty to charges voluntary manslaughter yesterday. She will be sentenced in the fall and faces a maximum sentence of 10 to 20 years in prison or may be as low as two years. Ed Palattella of the Times-News wrote this, explaining the voluntary manslaughter charge:
Voluntary manslaughter is a first-degree felony that [...]

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Zachary Dunbar of Erie arrived in San Francisco and today will begin a 2 month cross county bike ride to raise money and awareness for the John Kanzius Cancer Research Foundation. You can follow him on his travels on his blog Cycling For A Cure. (It’s about 2,600 miles from San Francisco to Erie.)
The Community [...]

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A driver, traveling on Route 8 near Wattsburg, hauling 10,000 gallons of gas lost control of his truck. It rolled over and burst into flames. The smoke could be seen for miles.Holy cow was there a lot of smoke. I’d almost bet you could see it from almost anywhere in Erie County. A couple of [...]

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BetaJohn has tried and tried to get Erie Times News and GoErie to fix their problem with the employment classified links. The Help Wanted link was recently fixed to reflect their switch over to HotJobs but none of the links for the sub-categories work. Maybe one of the job listings is for help in their [...]

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The official high temperature in Erie was 92 degrees on Friday. Temps on Saturday and Sunday might be near 90. There was a great crowd along the bayfront and at Presque Isle State Park. I’m a bit jealous of how Ella, daughter of Holli and Jason, kept cool.
Get out of the heat for a few [...]

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Scores of people in the Erie area have called off work with symptoms of the flu and other illnesses. Most will head to Presque Isle State Park for ‘treatment.’ The forcast for today is sunny with a high temperature approaching the record of 95 degrees.
The Community Blood Bank is air conditioned and can take some [...]

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WICU reported that the Erie County Employee Picnic has been canceled due “to too much scrutiny.” The food was going to come from DiVecchio’s Catering, the business owned by Erie County Executive Mark DiVecchio. This is one the numerous reasons Erie County Controller Sue Weber is planning an Ethics Workshop on July 1.
The blood shortage [...]

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Erie County middle and high school students are reporting a higher incidence of alcohol use than their national peers, but much lower levels of participation in antisocial behaviors such as “being arrested” or “bringing a weapon to school,” according to the newly released 2007 Pennsylvania Youth Survey (PAYS), conducted locally by the Mercyhurst College Civic [...]

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The Erie Graffiti Task Force continues to mount a crack down on vandalism. District Magistrate Judge Tom Carney, head of the group, is jumping in front of every TV camera and telling every reporter around town about the problem. Yesterday, the case of Daniel Montano of Pittsburgh was spotlighted. Montano faces life in prison and [...]

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Narcotics agents from the Attorney General’s office charged an Erie County woman accused of diverting prescription pain medication, which was intended for the patients in her care, from the hospital where she worked. She allegedly took the drugs for her own personal use. Attorney General Tom Corbett said that Janet Palmer, 42, of Waterford, [...]

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In his first campaign visit to northwest Pennsylvania, Sen. Barack Obama will hold a Town Hall-style meeting at Penn State Erie, The Behrend College, on Friday, April 18, at 10:30 am, in the Junker Center. Doors open at 8:30 am. Young Democrats of America, a Penn State Behrend student organization, is hosting the event. Admission [...]

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The story on John Kanzius and his radio wave cancer treatment machine by Lesley Stahl on “60 Minutes” was excellent. The transcript of the story can be found at The Kanzius Machine: A Cancer Cure? I just hope enough people were moved to whip out their credit cards and contribute to the John Kanzius Cancer [...]

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US Senator Hillary Clinton spoke yesterday in Erie at Mercyhurt College. The Mercyhurst Athletic Center was packed for her one hour speech. The pro-life group People for Life picketed outside the main gates of the campus. Clinton discussed economic and health care issues.
A day earlier, Erie Roman Catholic Bishop Trautman said he was canceling his [...]

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Erie, Pennsylvania has been awarded an NBA Development League franchise, it was announced yesterday at a press conference at the Bayfront Convention Center in Erie. The team will join Reno, NV – which was awarded a D-League franchise on Feb. 29 – for their inaugural seasons in 2008-09. “When we decided to pursue the opportunity [...]

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There is an excellent must read article by Mackenzie Carpenter in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette today entitled “Erie voters fret about theirs and their children’s futures.” Maybe it’s that Pittsburgh is two hours from Erie but the story was fair and pointed out many of the positives that Erie has and not just the few negative [...]

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It’s now been 3 weeks since Lindsay Graygo was beaten and then strangled to death in her Ypsilanti Township, Michigan apartment. Word is investigators are still waiting for the DNA kit to come back. Graygo of Erie, PA graduated from McDowell in 1997, earned a BA in advertising /public relations from Penn State University Park [...]

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Over the weekend the Erie area received about 2 feet of snow. An estimated 25 percent of city side streets have yet to see a plow. City of Erie Bureau of Streets Chief Pete Petrianni has bungled the job. Petrianni has repeated over and over and over that the city has 40 plows and 350 [...]

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Erie Plastics laid off about 190 workers citing the end of a couple of big contracts. Erie Plastics makes plastic closures from coffee lids to beverage caps. The company had around 350 employees at their huge 180,000 sq ft plant in Corry, PA.
Tired of the cold, nasty weather? Want to get away? All donors [...]

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An American Black Bear has been spotted on Presque Isle State Park. This isn’t Winnie the Pooh or Yogi Bear so don’t feed it. It’s believed to be a young male weighing about 200 lbs. Adult black bears usually are between 250 and 600 lbs. There are an estimated 15,000 black bears in Pennsylvania and [...]

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Paul Mutton in an article on Netcraft reported that The Bank of Lancaster County is currently being targeted by a phishing attack that asks to call a number in Erie, PA. With phone numbers being portable, it could be someone half way around the world but Lancaster and Erie are only separated by 350 miles [...]

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Unless you have suicidal tendencies, PLEASE stay off the ice dunes at Presque Isle State Park. You could easily step through and drown in freezing cold water.
The moderate blood shortage in our area turned critical for type O suddenly with extraordinarily heavy blood use by local patients over the past few days. There has been [...]

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GECAC, the Greater Erie Community Action Committee, is closing down their Drug and Alcohol Services division resulting in the layoffs of 23 people.
In days past, GECAC was given money based on the number of people enrolled in their programs. The state, trying to hold agencies more accountable for the huge checks they receive, changed to [...]

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Why is it the temperature is in the 50’s in Erie, PA in the middle of Winter? Global warming? No. El Nino? No. Hot air from city council? No. It’s the Latimer Effect. That’s the weather phenomenon named in honor of Craig Latimer of Erie. Simply all that occurs is that Craig Latimer schedules the [...]

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Rumors are flying that employees at Ameridrives in Erie on Pittsburgh Ave will receive layoff notices next week. The number rumored by company workers is a job cut of 18. The company has made no official announcement. Even workers at the New Braunfels, TX have heard the rumor there will be layoffs in Erie and [...]

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Under Pennsylvania State Senate Bill 1051, introduced by Earll, the board of the Erie Airport Authority would be made up of 11 members – 2 appointed by the Pennsylvania governor, 7 by the Erie County executive and only 2 by the City of Erie. The bill passed the senate by a voice vote. It must [...]

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Questions are now being raised as to why Malcolm Kysor, who escaped from prison on Sunday and is still on the loose, was transferred from maximum security prisons to the State Correctional Institution at Albion, a medium security prison. Kysor was sentenced to life without parole for a 1981 murder in Erie County.
Wonder if they’re [...]

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Erie businessman Robert Dodsworth pleaded guilty to felony money laundering and conspiracy charges in a mortgage fraud scam. Sentencing is scheduled for March which could include up to a million dollars in fines and 25 years in prison. Companies that Dodsworth was associated with purchased low price homes, did minimal cosmetic repairs and fudged figures [...]

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Erie County Judge John Trucilla might soon be looking up at the bench. A criminal complaint was filed against him for an incident that took place on Halloween. It’ll be interesting to see what happens but it sure sounds like he took the law into his own hands. He was looking for a kid that [...]

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The 5th floor of Erie City Hall should love hearing this one. An elected member of Erie City Council emailed me and pointed out with the low voter turnout in last Tuesday’s election, the number of signatures needed to hold a hearing to determine if Erie should be declared a distressed city under Act 47, [...]

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Get out and vote today. Poll are open 7 am to 8 pm. Here is the Erie County 2007 Municipal Candidate List. Turnout is expected to be around 25 percent of eligible voters. Internet voting, voting by mail and changing the day of the week would dramatically increase the turnout. It also doesn’t help that [...]

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Erie Central Tech High School has been declared a “dropout factory” by researchers at Johns Hopkins University as less than 60 percent of their incoming freshmen make it to graduation. That’s less than 6 in 10 for those of you that are dropouts.
Erie School District Superintendent James Barker had his contract extended for 5 years [...]

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Erie has been granted a franchise in the National Premier Soccer League. The league has not yet confirmed this. I doubt there is an ownership group in place. The NPSL is a minor league that’s equivalent to the fourth level of pro soccer in the United States. Major League Soccer is the top level, followed [...]

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Erie County Office of Children and Youth union members will be back on the job today. They agreed to return to work for the next two weeks while contract talks continue. Not getting paid and losing health care benefits helped. The county had filed an injunction to force them back to their desks and Judge [...]

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The Erie area made International news again yesterday as the area is becoming know World-wide for breakthroughs in alternative energy research. Recently, John Kanzius found a way to extract hydrogen from salt water with the same radio wave machine he is using in research to kill cancer cells. Yesterday, NanoLogix (OTC: NNLX) , a nano-biotechnology [...]

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Today is the 6th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Never forget. Hijacked planes hit the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Another plane crashed at Shanksville, PA when passengers and crew fought back.
A Freedom Walk will be held this morning at Wesleyville Memorial Park. Registration begins at 8 pm with the walk starting at [...]

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As soon as the site was cleared at the former Koehler Brewery it looked like it would be used for a car dealership and that’s what will happen. Dave Hallman will pave it over and sell cars on the site. Not what anyone had hoped for but at least it will be back on the [...]

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The Pennsylvania Supreme Court suspended Superior Court Judge Michael Joyce of Erie, who was indicted on federal charges of defrauding two insurance companies out of $440,000. Joyce was ‘injured’ in a 2001 car accident and said he had so much pain he couldn’t hold a cup of coffee. Joyce had been seen playing golf, scuba [...]

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“Roar on the Shore” kicks off today with registration for the Bringing in the Roar bike parade at 3 pm at Presque Isle Downs and Casino, located off Interstate 90 Exit 27 in Summit Township. The cost to ride is $5. All proceeds from Roar on the Shore support the John Kanzius Cancer Research Fund. [...]

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In Erie County last year there was just under 650 foreclosures. The latest figure I heard for Erie County and Northwest PA in 2007 is over 1,400 foreclosures. Yipes. Get help before it happens. Call your lender. Refinance through another lender. Take action. Do something. The National Association of REALTORS has a brochure in pfd [...]

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The last time I wrote about Keeping Erie’s Environment Protected (KEEP). I received harassing phone calls and home and work, and a harassing email. The group is opposed to the Erie Renewable Energy proposed tire to energy plant. They held a meeting at the library which was attended by around 100 people. They would have [...]

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Today is the start of Erie Blogs Week at the Community Blood Bank. Please donate if you can. One random donor who goes to the Community Blood Bank this week and uses the Erie Blogs Week sign up sheet will be entered to win a prize basket full of awesome stuff, including wine, Campbell pottery, [...]

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William “Bill” Hirt, board chairman of the Erie Indemnity Company and retired president and chief executive officer of Erie Insurance, passed away on July 13, 2007, at the age of 82. During his tenure as CEO (1976-1990), Erie Insurance grew 15 times in assets and nine times in premiums, making it larger than 99 percent [...]

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A 1:30 pm press conference is scheduled so that U S Attorney Mary Beth Buchanan can announce indictments of Marjorie Diehl-Armstrong and Ken Barnes in the kidnapping of pizza deliveryman Brian Wells. Expect to hear something about Wells himself being involved somehow. This could be very interesting.
On August 28 2003, pizza delivery man Brian Douglas [...]

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Tammy Graves was identified as the woman who died at the John E Horan Garden Apartments. The coroner conducted an autopsy. Results will not be available for some time but it appears to be natural causes. They are still trying to figure out the timeline but it appears her 2 year old son was in [...]

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Invest Erie Development Corporation handed over a check for $119,000 to the City of Erie for the land at 19th and Parade Street. The City of Erie had given the group $450,000 in grant money so at least we got some of our taxpayer money back. They want a $1 million state grant to build [...]

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The Nina, a hand built replica of Christopher Columbus’ ship, arrived in Erie yesterday. It will be in Erie until Sunday June 10. It will be open for tours with a cost of $5 for adults, $4 for seniors and $3 for students.
 
A fight inside Peccadillos spilled out onto the streets. Police made a number [...]

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“One of the most dangerous places in the US is the space between a senator and a TV camera.”
Tom Ridge
Tom Ridge of Erie, the former governor of Pennsylvania and the nations first Secretary of Homeland Security, sure sounded like a candidate for Vice President at a speech he gave to the members of the American [...]

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There was an incident happen at Country Fair store 55 in Meadville where a man brought a little girl into the store and somehow while a female employee and a female customer were talking to the girl they found out that she had been adducted. They managed to call the police and keep [...]

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Judge William ‘Rusty’ Cunningham postponed the sentencing of Chytoria Graham until June 8. Cunningham was concerned that she didn’t understand what was happening.
The blood shortage worsened yesterday with a local patient using over 35 units of blood. As a precaution the Community Blood Bank of Northwest Pennsylvania looked to ‘borrow’ blood from other Community Blood [...]

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Chytoria Graham, who pleaded guilty to aggravated assault and endangering the welfare of a child stemming from an incident where she swung her month old baby like a baseball bat to hit her boyfriend, will be sentenced today. She will be guest of the state for a minimum of 5 years.
 
Make your mother proud by [...]

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If you plan on taking I-90 between Erie PA and Buffalo NY today, forget about it. The Seneca Nation of Indians has the thruway blocked and vehicles attempting to go through are trespassing. I-90 goes through the Cattaraugus Reservation. New York state wants to collect sales taxes on the sale of tobacco and gasoline products [...]

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Edinboro University of Pennsylvania faculty yesterday held a protest march on campus. The Association of Pennsylvania State College and University Faculties (APSCUF) union contract for the 14 state schools expires on June 30. The Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education gave the union a 3.3 percent pay raise for the last contract.
 
Presque Isle Downs and [...]

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Bill Sesler, the Erie attorney and developer, announced he has given up on taking over the Parade Street grocery store project. Can’t blame him. Invest Erie Community Development Corporation filed a law suit against the city because the city wouldn’t sell them the land. The city says Invest Erie doesn’t have the financing to get [...]

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General McLane won the Pennsylvania Class AAA basketball championship defeating Greencastle-Antrim 57-55. General McLane also won the state Class AAA football title. That’s the first time in Pennsylvania a school has won both titles in the same school year.
 
On Friday, forty-four people took the oath and became US citizens in a ceremony held at the [...]

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The deal to take over ownership and operation of the Cottbus-Drewitz Airport in Germany is dead. Erie Aviation worked for years on the plan to purchase the former air force base and have direct cargo flights between Erie International Airport and Cottbus-Drewitz. Erie Aviation ships literally tons of aircraft parts a week to Europe. This [...]

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Presque Isle Downs and Casino opened yesterday to huge crowds. They estimated that 10,000 visited on opening day. I think that number is being very conservative. I think it was closer to 15,000. It seemed that about 60 percent of the cars in the lot had Pennsylvania tags. There were a ton of people from [...]

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The Willow’s Tavern in Erie and Corner Tavern and Grille in Corry have filed a lawsuit against Erie County to halt the smoking ban that is scheduled to take effect February 17. They are also seeking an injunction as the case winds it’s way through the court system. It seems that the ban is indeed [...]

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Here’s a warning to area politicians and economic development officials so they don’t look like deer in the headlights and can’t say “We had no idea” on the news. Erie is in danger of losing the International Institute of Erie. Refugees from Bosnia to Sudan have settled in Erie and have become part of [...]

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It’s 3 degrees. The high today is expected to be 8 degrees. We’ve had about a foot of snow in the past 24 hours and the wind has been howling. A large number of churches cancelled Sunday services. Another 10-16 inches of snow is expected with wind chills reaching 20 below zero.
A powder outage in [...]

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A train derailment in Westfield NY, about 30 miles east of Erie, caused train traffic delays from Chicago to NYC. The CSX freight train had only a half dozen of the cars jump the track. There were no injuries. Traffic was diverted to the Norfolk-Southern line.
Erie is experiencing it’s coldest temperatures in nearly 4 decades. [...]

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The city is taking away a $300,000 state for the proposed grocery store at 19th and Parade Streets. The grant must be used by June. The city wants to use the money to demolish the Warren Radio building at 14th and French Streets. The Erie Redevelopment Authority wants to have townhouse built at that location.
Invest [...]

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Hall of Famer and Super Bowl XI MVP Fred Biletnikoff announced he has retired as the Oakland Raiders’ wide receivers coach after spending more than three decades as a player and coach for the franchise. Biletnikoff spent the last 18 seasons on the Raiders’ coaching staff, including 10 as receivers coach. As a rookie, he [...]

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A major accident involving about 50 vehicles shut down I-90 for over 14 hours. One person died by being crushed between two vehicles. About twenty people were taken to either Hamot Medical Center or St Vincent Health Center. Hamot even sent a team of doctors and a surgeon to the scene because there were so [...]

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It’s a pleasure to wake up to 55 degree temperatures on a December day in Erie. We might hit 60 today. Got to love the effects of El Nino. Looks like the only white we’ll see on Christmas is the mashed potatoes on our plates.
Photo by ron richardson on a beautiful card created by C-Rolla.
 
Thomas [...]

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Erie County Judge John Bozza has ruled in favor of Invest Erie Community Development Corporation against the city. The city wanted to allow a private developer take over the grocery store project at 19th and Parade Streets. It appears the incompetence by Invest Erie has been matched by city officials who wrote up the contract [...]

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Auditor General Jack Wagner released an audit of the City of Erie Aggregate Pension Fund, which found that a new retirement provision enacted by the city in 2004 resulted in the city’s receipt of $893,745 of excess state pension aid from the commonwealth. Wagner said the $893,745 of excess state aid identified in the audit [...]

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Temperatures of over 60 degrees made for better golfing than deer hunting. The bucks hunters harvested had good size racks but the numbers were low. There was one hunter death in the area. Kirk Miller had a heart attack and passed away. He was hunting in the woods near the EMSCO Group plant in Girard.
 
The [...]

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Here’s the 2006 election results for the major area races:
Ed Rendell defeated Lynn Swann for Pennsylvania Governor.
Bob Casey, Jr defeated Rick Santorum for US Senate.
Phil English defeated Steven Porter for US House of Representatives.
Patrick Harkins defeated Christine Pontoriero for State House, 1st District.
Flo Fabrizio was unopposed for State House, 2nd District.
John Hornaman defeated Matthew Good, [...]

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Levonne Rowan of Erie was arrested in Madison, Wisconsin for carrying a concealed weapon after a traffic stop on the University of Wisconsin campus. Levonne, Dywon Rowan, his brother and a running back on the Wisconsin football team, and younger brother Javon Rowan were three of five individual that were in a vehicle after police [...]

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Erie Pa based American Resort Management announced an April groundbreaking for the Volcano Island Resort in Fairmont, WV. The first phase of the resort will be an $87 million indoor/ outdoor waterpark, along with a hotel and conference center. Also in the plans are a 20 screen movie theater, a variety of retail stores, restaurants, [...]

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A Jeep driven by Maurice Bort of Erie going West on I-90 drove over median and struck another Jeep head-on which was travelling East on 90. Both drivers were killed. Traffic was tied up for nearly 3 hours. Drivers from out of town that exited the thruway trying to find a way around the accident [...]

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Developer Brad Fairfield announced he received funding to begin construction of Koehler Brewery Square. Hallelujah. National City Bank has joined Sky Bank in providing the financing. Construction is expected to start by the end of November and the building for Cornerstone Healthcare Group should be move in ready by the end of 2007. Fairfield has [...]

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Brad Fairfield, developer of the Koehler Brewery Square Project, has a press conference scheduled for 10:30 am this morning. He was still looking for over $3 million in financing last I heard and if he got it you would think he’d let the world know immediately.
The Seattle Post Intelligencer ran a good story that mentions [...]

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Presque Isle Downs received a slot machine operating license from the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board.
Let’s see if I can write about this without getting a phone call at work like I did at the end of September because of this post. It took me a week to get over the apprehension of starting my [...]

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Paragon Print Systems formally opened their new building at Joyce A Savocchio Business Park, the former junkyard turned into an industrial park by the Greater Erie Industrial Development Corp. The Paragon Print Systems story has been the story of Erie economic growth for the past decade and will be a story repeated many times in [...]

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The Erie County Department of Health Board of Directors – Anthony M Ruffa (877-7686) , Johnie M Atkinson, Paul F Burroughs (833-2222), Richard A Ortoski (866-8446) and William W Cobert (835-5039) – voted unanimously on a resolution to ban smoking in public places in Erie County including restaurants and bars. The resolution goes to [...]

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Christian Huckaby of Cleveland, a student at Mercyhurst North East, died when the car he was riding in went off the road on Interstate 90 near I-271 in Willoughby Hills, Ohio. Marcus Hawkins of Cleveland, also a student at Mercyhurst NE, was transported to a local hospital with non life-threatening injuries. The two were on [...]

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Questions remain about the circumstance that resulted in the accidential death on Friday evening of Andrew Polakowski of Erie. Polakowski, a freshman at Ohio State, was pinned between an elevator car and the third fllor of Stradley Hall. He had just entered the elevator and when he changed his mind and tried to exit the [...]

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The Eloise Woodsbey lawsuit again A and M Homes, Regal Financial and other reached court yesterday. It’s being handled in US Bankruptcy Court since it’s part of her bankruptcy filings. Judge Warren W Bentz urged both sides to reach a settlement which is what apparea will happen. Woodsbey will most likely keep her home [...]

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I don’t think the people of Erie realize how bad the Buffalo area got hit with snow. There are 390,000 people without power. The Erie hotels are packed with refugees from WNY and cars are streaming down I-90 for food, gas, generators and batteries.
On a realated note.. There is now a severe blood shortage in [...]

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Today, September 11th, 2006, an American flag should be displayed outside every home, apartment, office, and store in the United States. Every individual should make it their duty to display an American flag on this fifth anniversary of our country’s worst tragedy. We do this in honor of those who lost their lives on 9/11, [...]

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The Community Blood Bank of NW PA is open Saturday 9-12:30. Please help alleviate the current crisis of the blood supply. A New York State Police Officer that was flown to Erie for treatment after being shot in the Bucky Phillips case has used a TREMENDOUS amount of blood. The trooper needed over 40 units [...]

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Developer Brad Fairfield announced that Sky Bank will finance $3.2 million of the $6.4 million to begin construction of the Koehler Brewery Square project. So it’s still $3.2 million away but Sky is trying to line up line up other banks to help with the financing. I’m still pretty optimistic that construction will begin shortly.
Brazillian [...]

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“Money, guns and lawyers. Once you have that, you have everything. It’s all you need in life.” That’s a quote from MTR Gaming CEO Ted Arneault in today’s Cleveland Plain Dealer. The paper interviewed him about Presque Isle Downs in Erie and his other tracks and casinos. Presque Isle Downs, now under construction at a [...]

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WJET-TV reported that Nick Scott will drop two lawsuits and pay Erie`s Convention Center Authority $1 million in exchange for managing the Erie Bayfront Sheraton Hotel and gaining naming rights for the Erie Bayfront Convention Center. My advise – don’t do it. The Erie Convention Center Authority has spent close to a million dollars defending [...]

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Joshua Dibello was found dead in his car in the parking lot of Herman’s, 28th and Old French. He died from a gunshot to the head. No word on any suspects but with his brother John being a city police officer, it shouldn’t be too long.
The ONLY supplier of blood to the hospitals in Erie [...]

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A couple of kids, 13 and 14, attempted a hold up with a gun last night at the Wendy’s on Buffalo Road. State police troopers quickly caught them as their cars went faster than the kids making their getaway peddling their bicycles.
The Bayfront Center for Maritime Studies in Erie will be given a wind turbine [...]

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The blood supply dropped to the lowest levels of the year, endangering patients of all types at area hospitals. The Fourth of July holiday proved to be the worst holiday weekend in years for the blood supply with very heavy blood use at regional hospitals. Everyone is urged to take the 30 minutes out to [...]

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The local TV stations including WSEE ran this story about the large increase in visitor spending in the Erie area. The state tourism office has a study that says visitor spending went up 41 percent from 2001 to 2004 to $654 million, up $191 million from 2001. Presque Isle State Park and the bayfront are [...]

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Congrats to Jenny and Mike on the birth of their son Grady Matthew. Grady was 7 pounds, 9 ounces. Both mother and son are healthy and doing great.
Me: When is the Erie Management Group going to start the move to the former Hammermill/ IP plant and have their groundbreaking?
Boss man: They have already begun to [...]

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A man was killed after being struck by a truck on I-90 near the Route 97 interchange (Exit 27). More questions than answers on this one.
Thomas McNutt of Erie lost control of his truck Thursday morning, crashing into a concrete barrier wall on the median just west of the Lordstown, Ohio interchange. He was flown [...]

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Presque Isle State Park had approximately 100,000 visitors over the Memorial Day weekend. The beaches were filled with sun bathers while some ventured into the cool Lake Erie waters.
WJET-TV reported that Rum Runners will be moving from East Dobbins Landing to West Dobbins Landing, in place of the old Waterfront Restaurant. Tim Sedney and family [...]

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Please take a few moments today to remember our troops currenty serving and the millions that have gone before them.
Advertising Advantage of Jamestown NY announced they are expanding into Erie, Pa, with Tri-Vision billboards.
US bishops will be asked to approve a new translation of the Order of Mass when they meet in Los Angeles June [...]

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Nothing like the sun and 80 degree temperatures to bring the people out. The bayfront was busy, Waldameer Park and Water World has a great crowd, the Tom Ridge Environmental Center was bustling with people, thousands enjoyed Presque Isle State Park on the first day lifeguards were on duty on the beaches and the boaters [...]

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Three year old Abby Murray of Niagara Falls, Ontario was born without a lower right arm and hand. Abby has gone to Green Prosthetics in Erie, Pa for her prosthetic arm since she was a baby. The last time she went for a new prosthetic, she asked for a arm so she could go fishing. [...]

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Erie City Council has given Invest Erie until July 1 to get financing for the grocery store project at 19th and Parade Streets. Attorney Billl Sessler wants to take over the project from the group that hasn’t done anything in the past four years.
Erie Indemnity Company (Erie Insurance) announced results for the first quarter. Net [...]

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A bomb threat cleared out the Erie County Courthouse for 2 hours yesterday morning. A search turned up nothing.
Greater Erie Youth Symphony Orchestra Music Director Eduardo Espinel is amoung four finalists to become conductor and music director of the Amarillo TX Symphony. Espinel will conduct the Oct. 27-28 concerts. Born in Venezuela, Espinel studied trumpet [...]

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Voices for Independence filed a federal lawsuit against Penndot claiming that the curb cuts don’t meet the standards of the Americans with Disabilities Act. Voices for Independence is an advocacy and service organization of and for individuals with disabilities in wheelchairs. With the money the City of Erie spend doing curb cuts around the city, [...]

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Four Mercyhurst College freshman football players were charged with beating an Erie man outside of Peccadillo’s Bar. Facing assault charges are Theo Hall of Cincinnati, Aaron Hayes of Beachwood, Ohio, Dwayne Marshall of Trotwood, Ohio and Richard Stokes of Cincinnati. The four were suspended from the team. No word as yet if Bobby Bowden [...]

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You can’t pick your family. The Johnstown Tribune-Democrat reported this unusual story today. Chuck Cummings was murdered on Dec 23 in Portage PA. Three days later his wife and step son were charged with the murder. Merry Christmas. Daughter Shannon Sweeney took over duties as head of household for the three small kids aged 5 [...]

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The contract for steel for construction at the Erie Bayfront Convention Center came in $900,000 over budget. The amount of steel needed is 122 tons more than expected. That’s about the weight of a small planet. With the Universal Law of Gravity in effect on this planet, steel and not thin air is needed to [...]

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Anthony Mills robbed the Erie Community Credit Union at 12th and State yesterday afternoon. Police had him in custody in less than 15 minutes. He was wearing a bright yellow jacket when he robbed the place and had the jacket on his arm when police picked him up 5 blocks away.
At its regularly scheduled meeting [...]

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The Powell Avenue bridge closes today. PennDOT is replacing it. Signs has been in place for weeks announcing this fact but hundreds of people will be on Powell doing u-turns today.
IPLogic LLC of Albany has acquired TR Communications Inc of Buffalo. TR Communications has an Erie office which IPLogic is looking to expand. They design [...]

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The EAGLE (Erie Area Gang Law Enforcement) task force arrested 9 people of possession and conspiracy to distribute powder and crack cocaine. All 9 are looking at spending the rest of their lives in prison because of amount of drugs and number of charges involved. They said they had investigated one person for 10 years. [...]

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Erie Mayor Joe Sinnott and Erie City Council sat down and listened to a couple of money saving suggestions the consulting firm of Resource Development and Management. The scheduling of Erie Firefighters was one concern. Currently firefighters work one 24 hour shift and then have 3 days off. Changing that to working 24 hours and [...]

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If you ever thought about drinking and driving, tonight is not the night to start. The Pennsylvania State Police will be conducting checkpoints and roving DUI patrols. Alcohol-related crashes in Pennsylvania claimed 542 lives in 2004.
There was a story yesterday about a house being raided due to suspected pit bull fighting. I thought it was [...]

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The Erie Police raided a home on Erie’s lower Eastside and seized 4 pit bulls that were suspected to be involved in dog fighting. This story could get interesting.
The applications for the slot machine licenses had to be in the hands of the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board on Wednesday. The applications weren’t measured in pages, [...]

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Erie City Council passed it’s $54.8M 2006 budget on Wednesday. Current City Councilman and mayor-elect Joe Sinnott, Jim Thompson and Pat Cappabianca fought till the end for a higher property tax increase. What a bunch of bastards. Only a token effort was made to cut costs throughout the entire budget process. Fiduciary responsibility is a [...]

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City of Erie AFSCME members tabled a vote on agreeing to pay 15 percent of their health care coverage. They didn’t want to agree to it and then have the police and firefighters say no way. Mayor-elect Joe Sinnot said it is an all or nothing proposition with the three unions. If all the unions [...]

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Pennsylvania Act 47 is the law that allows the state to take over cities that qualify for ‘distressed city status.’ Every day that passes, this looks more likely. There are a couple of people in Harrisburg that should pack their bags and start filling out change of address forms. Yesterday, instead of working on budget [...]

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Mayor Rick Filippi will present his proposed 2006 budget to Erie City Council this morning at 9 am. Most of the budget work is the responsibility of council. The mayor proposes numbers, council decides on the budget. By state law, council must pass a balanced budget by December 31. The estimated city revenue for 2006 [...]

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Republican Dale McBrier has conceded the Erie County Executive race. He will not ask for a recount nor persue any court challenges. Pretty smart move since the writing was on the wall already. Democrat Mark DiVecchio has leading in the official count by 122 votes. McBrier had the lead at the end of election night [...]

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It’s election day. Vote.
The county announced that that the public saftey building housing the Erie County Hazardous Materials Response Team and the Erie County 911 Center will be built on property located on the former Hammermill/ IP plant property.
Steelers fans and Browns fans can go head to head this week to compete for a 4 [...]

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If you want to know what a $1.5 million home in Erie looks like, here it is. Dr and Mrs Willian Steinbrink recently sold this property on South Shore Drive. I think that John Dineen, the new CEO of GE Infrastructure-Rail, purchased the home.
Today is my favorite day of the year. I gain one hour [...]

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It only hit 72 degrees in Erie. Lake Erie at 78 degrees caused grey clouds to form with some breaks of blue sky. It looked like September and not Summer. You could almost hear Grantland Rice typing out a Notre Dame football story – “Outlined against a blue, gray October sky the Four Horsemen rode [...]

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Sonja Wolfe was murdered by her boyfriend Tracy Steele Smith. Smith reportedly confessed after his arrest. Wolfe was strangled and her body placed near the railroad tracks near Haybarger Street, a blcok from her home. I remember Sonja from when I bartended. Sweet, but troubled girl. My heart goes out to her Mother and children.
The [...]

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Mike and RichardZ invited me to join them so from today on the content you found on Erie PA and Life will now be found here. Surprise.
Former Erie City Councilman Mario Bagnoni is in failing health and has been taken off life support. Bagnoni, a retired police officer and the one time safety director at [...]

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