Well well well. What do we have here.
I lamented and you, the awesome people of Erie, came through, more then I could have imagined. Ads were sold, writers recruited and it feels awesome to have your support. If you missed a few posts over the weekend, go and check them out. Brian’s new Way [...]

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Presque Isle Downs and Casino opens their thoroughbred racetrack today. The 25 day meets starts with the $100,000 Inaugural Stakes for 3 year old fillies. Post time is 5:30 pm. Here’s the program for today. The average daily purse will be $432,400 a day. That will be the second highest in the country with only [...]

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Dennis Beard III was found not guilty of the 1998 murder of Amy Lawrence. There was a boat load of circumstantial evidence but no physical evidence and his former fiancee testified that he admitted the murder to her but it wasn’t enough to convince the jury.
 
Molly Brannigans announced they are opening a restaurant in Heritage [...]

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Port Erie Boat Works has gone out of business. Just recently their web site stated that “Port Erie Boat Works has been sold to an elite group of boat builders and investors.” Now it says they’re gone.
 
The Erie International Airport received a $5.1 million check from the FAA to acquire a few homes for the [...]

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When going to court to be sentenced for a crime you committed, don’t go drunk. Larry Peace had his sentencing postponed yesterday when he showed up drunk. Judge Rusty Cunningham held him in contempt of court and threw him in jail. Peace faces up to 10 years in prison and a up to a $10,000 [...]

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The Grande Mariner, a 183 ft cruise ship that carries 100 passengers, arrived in Erie yesterday. Instead of docking at the “Cruise Boat Terminal”, it tied up at West Dobbin’s Landing. Jeff at Erie Shipping News pointed out that it will probably be 2010 before one cruise ship actually docks at the “Cruise Boat [...]

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The Grande Mariner, a 183 ft ship that carries 100 passengers, will be arriving in Erie today at 1 pm. The ship is owned by American Canadian Caribbean Line (ACCL), a Rhode Island-based casual small ship cruise line. The cruise is the 15-night Great American Waterways cruise that travels east-to-west and vice versa between Illinois [...]

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The Erie Area Convention and Visitors Bureau and 46 other local tourism promotion agencies all across Pennsylvania are looking at a 12 percent decrease in state funding in 2008. Why? So Philadelphia and Pittsburgh can get more money. Philadelphia would get 11 percent more while Pittsburgh would get 37 percent more. To make matters worse, [...]

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Erie Blogger Scott McCausland has been ordered by the United States Government to switch to Windows from Ubuntu, a free Debian derived Linux-based operating system. Scott is on probation and the monitoring system will only run on Windows. This comes awful close to cruel and unusual punishment. His related entry. There have been a number [...]

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Philadelphia Governor Rendell joined hundreds of area officials and
residents to formally dedicate the Erie Bayfront Convention Center. “I’m pleased the commonwealth was able to help make this project a reality,” Governor Rendell. “As one of the largest development projects in Erie’s history, this complex serves as a terrific example of what can be accomplished when [...]

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The Commonwealth Court upheld a ruling that Erie County can use the hotel tax to fund the building and operations of a hotel. Eighty percent of the 5 percent hotel tax goes to the Erie County Convention Center Authority for the Erie Bayfront Convention Center and the Bayfront Sheraton Hotel as well as Jerrry [...]

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A number of people who work at the Erie County Office of Children and Youth (OCY) attended last nights Erie County Council meeting. They complained that they are short workers saying that there are 41 case workers and 16 job openings for case workers. WTF? How did it get to the point where a [...]

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Pennsylvania State Superior Court Judge Michael Joyce pleaded not guilty to mail fraud and money laundering charges. Joyce was not present for his arraignment but instead his attorney entered the plea. Maybe Joyce was busy golfing. Joyce did announce he will not seek reelection. Joyce was scheduled to be on the November ballot for a [...]

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Nick Caccavo of Erie died after the 1995 Jeep Grand Cherokee he was riding into rear ended a tractor-trailer on I-80 in Clearfield County. Caccavo was majoring in Mechanical Engineering at Penn State. He graduated from Northwestern Pennsylvania Collegiate Academy.
 
Steven Sterrett of Erie, Pa died at AtlantiCare Regional Medical Center multiple severe injuries he received [...]

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Celebrate Erie 2007 wraps up today. Zambelli Fireworks Internationale will host one of its world-famous fireworks displays over the Bayfront at Dobbins Landing at 9:45 pm, weather permitting.
 
There is a sale pending on the former GTE / Verizon building at 10th and Sassafras Streets. It will be very interesting to see who the new owner [...]

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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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Thou shall not mess with Erie Insurance. ERIE didn’t become a $3.75 billion company by paying out claims and if they think they paid out a false claim – watch out. It doesn’t matter who you are. A federal grand jury indicted Pennsylvania Superior Court Judge Michael Joyce on mail fraud and money laundering. Joyce [...]

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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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Ralph ‘Bucky’ Phillips is still on the loose. Two New York state troopers were shot and in are critical conditions at hospitals in Erie and Buffalo after someone fired on them near the home of Phillips’ girlfriend in Stockton NY. Phillips escaped from a jail in Buffalo and has shot one cop before. This piece [...]

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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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Thee are two economic development related press conferences scheduled for today. Nothing new but it’s nice to hear it officially.Brad Fairfield of Koehler Brewery Square will announce that he has received funding. Urbaniak Brothers Meat Market, Pennsylvania Wine and Spirts, and Cornerstone Healthcare Group, a long term healthcare medical care, will be moving into [...]

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Erie Seawolves starting outfielder Vincent Blue will be making a return trip to Binghamton NY after the SeaWolves season ends. He had a misdemeanor charge logged against him early Sunday morning from a complaint by a cab driver. Blue was given an appearance ticket charging him with petty larceny and released on $250 bail. Blue [...]

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The state returned $17 million in tax dollars to the Erie area on Friday with five grants through the Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program.
The Erie Bayfront Convention Center received $6.5 million for a 300 space parking ramp, Gannon University received $4 million for their Erie Technology Incubator which will allow for the renovations to the [...]

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A woman has filed a protection from abuse (PFA) order against Erie City Councilman Curtis Jones Jr. Jones, who is married, had a relationship with the woman who gave birth to this child. This affair was going on during his campaign for council. This is the person we’re trusting with our tax dollars and the [...]

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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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Open up your wallet. Erie County Council wants to spend more of your money. Erie County Public Safety Director Joseph Weindorf wants to hire 4 new employees for the new $14 million public safety building. The idea of the building was to consolidate county public safety operations. In most of the know universe, consolidate and [...]

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Alcor, the Erie Zoo polar bear, died yesterday just hours after surgery to help stablize his broken wrist. The bear spend over 2 hours in recovery and was just minutes into the trip from the University of Pennsylvania New Bolton Center near Philadelphia to the Cleveland Zoo for rehab when his heart stopped.
A 93 ton [...]

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Alcor, the 750 lbs polar bear at the Erie Zoo, will undergo surgery today at the University of Pennsylvania New Bolton Center. Doctors will attempt to place screw and a metal plate in the bears arm which was broken in two places just above its right paw. The surgical team will be lead by Dr [...]

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Goverment officials from the County announced that a grant of $46,000 for the Erie County Fair. The fair will be held August 27 through September 2 at the fairgounds in Wattsburg.
David M Gottschling of Erie, Pa has been arrested for attempted robbery and armed robbery of 2 convience stores in the Jamestown, NY area.
The Northwest [...]

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The Erie County Fair will take place this year. A deal was worked out with Northwest Savings Bank to extend the deadline for the mortgage on the property to November. The fair willl take place August 27 through September 2.
Pennsylvania has confirmed eight mumps cases so far including cases in Erie County. The national [...]

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The Erie PA area unemployment rate for July 2005 rose to 5.8 percent from the June figure of 5.4 percent. The number of people in the labor force for July stood at 145,600 which was up from the June figure of 142,500. That’s a huge jump and a good sign. The number of people employed [...]

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Buffalo air traffic controllers lost contact with a small plane shortly before 10 pm last night. The US Coast Guard searched Lake Erie near Dunkirk for signs of the aircraft. The two passengers boarded the plane in Meadville, PA.
It’s the 2 year anniversary of the Brian Wells pizza bomber death. Wells was a pizza delivery [...]

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