The American Indoor Football Association has granted permission for the Pittsburgh RiverRats to transfer their franchise to Erie, Pennsylvania for the 2008 season. The announcement came at a press conference in Erie this afternoon.
The Erie RiverRats will play its home schedule at the Louis J Tullio Arena, which has a capacity of 5,586 for indoor [...]

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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 Community Foundation will be receiving nearly $7 million at the late Margaret Spaeder. I just received a quick email about the gift so I don’t have the breakdown to which organization will benefit. The Erie Community Foundation is a collection of charitable endowments operating under the administrative umbrella of a single public charity. [...]

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Location, location, location. The real estate prices in one City of Erie neighborhood have skyrocketed. Why? The homes have a view of the water – Presque Isle Bay.
In mid March I got a call from a law firm in Indiana that needed to sell a home in Erie on West Front Street. (I’m a real [...]

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On Friday, Judge John Bozza ruled that Invest Erie Community Development Corporation can buy the city owned property at 19th and Parade. A plaza anchored by a grocery store were planed for the property. After around 7 years of Invest Erie making no progress in getting anything built, the city tried to get Commonwealth Realty [...]

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Erie Golf Course is attracting a good number of golfers. The City of Erie spent about $2 million in renovations on the course. Only one slight problem. The city closed the course saying they lost too much money operating it. Golfers are playing for free.
The idea of a lodge at Erie Bluffs State Park was [...]

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A symposium on the John Kanzius cancer treatment was held yesterday at Mercyhurst College. The place was packed yet you could have heard a pin drop. People in attendance soaked in every word. Dr Steven Curley of M D Anderson Cancer Center and Kanzius spoke. Since Kanzius came up with the treatment, every bit of [...]

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Great news for Erie PA and the Erie-Western Pennsylvania Port Authority. Erie Management Group is now in the Great Lakes shipping business. EMG now is the majority shareholder of Great Lakes Feeder Lines. The mission of Great Lakes Feeder Lines is to provide a competitive, reliable and environmentally responsible alternative to the existing surface modes [...]

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GE Transportation in Erie will be the subject of a feature article by Thomas Friedman in this Sunday’s New York Times magazine. The article is called “Green is the new red white and blue.” The Discovery Channel is also running a documentary version on Saturday April 21 at 9 pm. The gist of the story [...]

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Staff Sergeant Ed Chorney of Erie PA, a 16th Airborne Command and Control Squadron flight engineer, is now engaged to his girlfriend of four years, Staff Sergeant Sarah Radel, a air traffic controller with the 506th Operations Support Squadron. The proposal was a little bit unusual to say the least. SSG Chorney was in a [...]

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The first place spot at the 2007 Buckeye Regional Robotics Competition went to an alliance team of students from Erie, Pa. Team 291 is comprised students from The Northwest Collegiate Academy, Erie Villa Maria Academy and Erie Central High School. The competition combined elements of intramural sports, technological wizardry and mechanical repair work. The competition [...]

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I talked to someone at Presque Isle Downs and Casino that said 8-9 out of town buses have scheduled trips to Erie but out local bus company, the EMTA (Erie Metropolitan Transit Authority) still hasn’t made a decision on providing service. Has anyone told them the place is open and employs 700 people that might [...]

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Radnor Property Group and Fourth River Development were picked as the development team for the first phase of the downtown Erie redevelopment plan. The area is between Holland and Sassafras Streets, 12th to 14th Streets. Radnor and Fourth River announced (press release) they were looking for a project to do together back in December after [...]

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According the Brookings Institution study – From ‘There’ to ‘Here’: Refugee Resettlement in Metropolitan America – an analysis of refugees as a percentage of overall immigrants, the Erie PA area ranked third in a list of Medium-sized USA metropolitan areas. From 1983-2004, 4,545 refugees made Erie their new home including 2,969 from 1990-2000. The International [...]

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Northwest Pennsylvania Collegiate Academy won the United States Academic Decathlon (USAD) Pennsylvania state competition and will move on to the national competition, which takes place in Hawaii this year. This year’s team comprises Amy Babay, Matt Faytak, and Samantha Ohmer (honors); Amal Abukar, Alexa Johnson, and Alicia Quick (scholastic); and Josh Ohmer, Celeste Trombetta, and [...]

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Pittsburgh has always had a residency requirement for city employees. With Erie negotiating union contracts this year, it’s something the city should consider reinstating. Make it a condition for all new hires that the individual must make their residence within the city, within 12 months or lose their job. If you don’t live in the [...]

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Presque Isle Downs slots casino will open on February 28. The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board announced Friday that it will hold a board meeting at
3 pm on Tuesday, February 27, 2007. The meeting, which is open to the public, will be held in the State Museum Auditorium located at the corner of Third and North [...]

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Erie County Judge John Bozza heard arguments Friday from attorneys representing two Erie County taverns asking for a preliminary injunction delaying the smoking ban from going into effect February 17 throughout Erie County. The main agrument is that Pennsylvania law supersedes the county ordinance. Bozza will announce his decision next week.
NanoLogix (Pinksheets: NNLX) announced the [...]

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The law allowing Internet-based competitive bidding by Pennsylvania municipalities went into effect on September 5. The law also authorized reverse auctions. In reverse auctions, vendors see a ranking of bids without knowing the actual bids and can lower their offers to win the auction. eDynaQuote is a reverse auction company based in Erie. The City [...]

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The Erie SeaWolves alumni team, the Detroit Tigers, completed a remarkable upset of the New York Yahkees with Saturday’s 8-3 win. The Yankees will be playing golf while the Tigers will face the Oakland A’s in the ALCS. Nearly half of the Tigers roster are former Erie SeaWolves players.
Gannon University honored four individuals at its [...]

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The Erie Freeze and 13 other teams are leaving the AIFL and joining the AIFA – the newly created American Indoor Football Association. This seems like just a name change for the league and the booting out of league founder Andrew Haines. According to a press release issued by the new league, AIFL teams in [...]

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Erie City Council member Lonny Gatlin resigned effective immediately. He also has has taken a leave of absence from his job as a dentist at Community Health Net:. The reason stated was a medical condition. That is an extremely polite way of putting it, at least if the word around the water coolers are true. [...]

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Erie native Eric Michael Hopper, now living in Buford GA, will make his TV debut this morning on CBS’s “The Early Show.” Hopper won “The Early Show’s Living Room Live” talent competition. He will perform “I Want to Be.” His songs recently hit the 1 millionth play on MySpace.
US Rep Phil English of Erie has [...]

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Celebrate Erie 2006 kicks off this evening with a Taste of Erie beginning at 5 pm. Bertrand’s Bistro, Colony Pub and Grille, Latino’s, Papermoon, Pufferbelly, Theodore’s Restaurant and the Walnut Creek Grill will all have meals available. They’ll be set up on the West side of Perry Square. The Taste of Erie hours are: Thursday [...]

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Erie County Councilwoman Carol Loll and Unclue John’s Campground owner John Puline are proposing building a safe harbor and marina at the mouth of the Elk Creek Access. There is no dock or marina between Erie and Conneaut, Ohio. Loll will ask the governor to return taxpayer money for the project. The state set [...]

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There aren’t a lot of employeers that would let you keep your job after you were convicted of a crime and sentenced to 30 days in jail. Being a City of Erie Police officer isn’t among them. Erie Police Detective Ed Dickens was sentenced to 30 days, followed by 90 days probation and ordered to [...]

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Jason Dudjak will be returning to family in Erie on Wednesday after a 15 month tour of duty in Iraq. The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review has a good story about him being reunited with his college class ring. He lost his clas ring from Virginia Military Institute that his father had given him. Shortly after that he [...]

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A 38 foot boat, a Donzi, slammed into 2 Jet Skis on Presque Isle Bay killing both riders. Killed were Andrew Miller and his girlfriend Amber Miller (no relation) both of Washington, PA. The boat was believed to have the right of way. I’m guessing the operator of the Sea Doo was inexperienced and veered [...]

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There was a high speed chase through the city on Wednesday involving a man who exposed himself. A shooting, yeah, chase the suspect. But for a lewd act? It was just luck that not kids riding bikes or playing in the street were seriously hurt. Here is the Erie newspaper story on the incident. And [...]

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The Erie newspaper did a story the other day on the pay phones in front of Bradley’s Shur-Fine Food Mart on West 8th Street. Nobody knows who owns them so they could tell them they are in such disrepair – broken glass, graffiti. I went past them yesterday and there are now stickers on them [...]

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Motorcycle riders don’t have to wear a helmet in Pennsylvania. Yesterdays accident involving Ben Roehthlisberger showed it might be a good idea to wear one even if you aren’t forced to.
Thanks to Lou Baxter, Brian and and the crew at WJET-TV for the story on Erie Redevopment Authority plans to improve central Erie. In [...]

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Yesterday marked the first direct flight from Erie International Airport Tom Ridge Field to Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. Delta is offering one daily flight to and from Atlanta. While this is great for the pleasure traveller, this is huge for the business community.
The Erie Art Museum announced a $9 million expansion and a renovation of [...]

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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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The Picture Project was created in order to help the residents of Gulfport and Biloxi retrieve photographs lost during Hurricane Katrina. More than 1,300 photos that have been posted online in a search for their owners. The Picture Project is a volunteer undertaking by some kind folks in Erie, Pa including Sue Weber and Connie [...]

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Erie Mayor Joe Sinnott, City Controller Casimir Kwitowski, Councilman Jim Thompson and city Economic Development Director Kim Green are on a two week trip to Germany and Poland. In Germany, they will visit the Cottbus-Drewitz Airport. and in Poland, the group meets with government and business leaders in Lublin, sister city of Erie.
Israel L Gaither [...]

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The Greater Erie Industrial Development Corporation was awarded $450,000 to restore rail service to the 120-acre industrial park that once was home to Hammermill and IP, initially servicing two businesses of the Erie Management Group, a multi-million-dollar bio-diesel manufacturing company and a paint/ solvent production facility. Groundbreaking on those two businesses will be held in [...]

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Fullington Trailways is cancelling their DuBois to Erie and return trip to Clarion effective July 1 due to low ridership. Fullington/Greyhound is based in Clearfield.
Jessica Meeker is looking for a job in Erie. She is looking to work at Hot Topic or Papa Johns. Meeker could be running either of those companies in a year [...]

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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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On Monday, the Holyoke (Massachusets) Redevelopment Committee will get an update on negotiations between the city and Mandalay Sports Entertainment of Los Angeles. The company has proposed relocating its Double-A baseball team from Erie, Pa and investing $110 million to build a 6,500-seat stadium, housing, offices and retail space. Mandalay, owner of the Erie SeaWolves, [...]

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On the date in 1998, 14 year old Andrew Wurst shot and killed science teacher John Gillette and wounded two others at the James W Parker Middle School graduation dance at Nick’s Place in Edinboro. Wurst is serving 30 to 60 years in prison.
You would think that the price of water would be pretty inexpensive [...]

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The Pennsylvania Superior Court ruled against surrogate mother Danielle Bimber and is ordering her to turn over the three children to James Flynn. This reverses the ruling by Erie County Judge Shad Connelly. The triplets were born on November of 2003 and Bimber has had them since that time. The court blamed both Bimber and [...]

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Harborcreek Township received a $500,000 federal grant for the for its $2.6 million Shades Beach Off-Shore Improvements Project. The latest grant will be used for a walkway and parking. The next step will be boat launches and breakwalls which could be in place by next Fall. Shades Beach is located at 7000 East Lake Road [...]

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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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David Hodas, one of the owners of the Erie Freeze, just announced that Jerry Crafts will no longer be the Head Football coach of the Freeze. An
official statement from the team will be sent out on Thursday April 13th.
In 2003, Crafts pleaded guilty in New York state to a Class C felony charge of attempted [...]

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Steris officials have to be kicking themselves for how they handled the closing of manufacturing in Erie. First, they gave the workers months of advance warning that they would be laid-off so they could look for other jobs or get retrained in another field. They only had to give a 90 day notice. Now the [...]

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Erie City Council and Erie Mayor Joe Sinnott announced they have reached an agreement to cut spending and reduce taxes.
Yes, you guessed it. April Fools!
Congrats go out to Erie Blogger Bobbo for breaking the story about the theft of the student newspaper, The Gannon Knight.
Last weekend Miles D Rish of North East, PA, a freshman [...]

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Former Erie Mayor Rick Filippi, his former campaign manager, Eric Purchase; and law partner, Rolf Patberg were found not guilty of all charges in their public corruption case. The case did what it intended to do. It got Filippi out of office. The charges were filed two months before the primary in which Filippi finished [...]

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No verdict has been reached in the trial of former Erie Mayor Rick Filippi and his friends and business partners Rolf Patberg and Eric Purhcase. The jury worked the case for about 7 hours on Friday. Deliberations will resume this morning.
Four punks aged 20 and 21 were arrested for firing hundreds of paint balls at [...]

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Judge Ernie DiSantis dismissed the bribery charges against former Erie Mayor Rick Filippi and his business partners Rolf Patberg and Eric Purchase. The group who still has a bundle of charges facing them including conspiracy, conflict of interest and using inside information. Filippi, Patberg and Purchase formed a partnership called Aiko Acquisitions which bought properties [...]

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I’m not sure if the taxpayers of Pennsylvania have to be blindfolded or must gouge out their eyes but were not allowed to look while the state goes into our pockets to settle a lawsuit. Yesterday, I mentioned that Representative Linda Bebko-Jones has settled with TE Kalkhof Realty on her breaking the lease for her [...]

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Representative Linda Bebko-Jones (1st Legislative District Erie County) has settled with the company that owns the office building in which she caused a fire. In May of 2004, Bebko-Jones left a cigarette burning in her office at 460 East 26th Street. It fell into a trash can and caused over $175,000 in damages. TE [...]

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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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Dr Gulam Moonda of Hermitage PA was shot and killed along the Ohio Turnpike near Cleveland last May. Damian Bradford of Erie PA is a ‘person of interest’ in the case. A search warrant recovered a number of items from his home. Bradford still hasn’t been charged in that crime but he is behind [...]

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Affinia announced the company will close its Erie and North East PA, and McHenry, Ill plants before the end of 2006. The plants produced automotive aftermarket brake parts. Affinia purchased the Erie plant at 14th and Wayhe and the North East Pa plant on Loomis Strret and the rest of the automotive aftermarket businesses from [...]

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PennDOT has named the Erie Bayfront Connector, drum roll… State Route 290. There are a couple of sign up already but you should see more as the state places signed from where I-79 ends all the way around the loop up to I-90.
If you go to Villa Maria Academy or the Villa Maria School of [...]

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Looks like we due for a last blast of Winter. Erie is expecting 3-6 inches of snow by late Monday. It any of it sticks it won’t last long. We’re due for temps in the 40’s by mid week.
Gannon University announced a new bachelor’s degree program in sport management and marketing. The program will become [...]

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Erie Mayor Joe Sinnott appointed Ron Komorek acting city finance director.
Komorek was the Erie County Finance Director for a number of years. He retired when Rick Shenker took office. Komorek started the job less than 18 hours after City Finance Director Gary Peterson announced his resignation. This might have been in the works for some [...]

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The Erie County Public Defender’s office is a mess. Now I don’t want some slick lawyer getting criminals off but I don’t want to see innocent people behind bars. Ian Murray was re-hired to be an assistant in the office he was fired from nearly 12 years ago. Now, Chief Public Defender Tony Logue was [...]

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A quote from Erie City Councilman Pat Cappabianca during last nights council meeting “We (the city) don’t have enough income to meet our expenses.”
Only pre-teens and politicans could say something like that. The pre-teen would ask for an increase in their allowance from their parents. A normal parent would say to stop spending so [...]

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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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Incumbent Republican state Representative John Evans will face a challenge in the May primary election from Erie County Council member Carol Loll for the 5th District seat. The district covers western Erie and northwestern Crawford County. Evans was one of those that voted for the legislative pay raise last July.
The new CD by Train, For [...]

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The loud flushing sound heard in Erie PA on Thursday was a campaign going down the toilet. Gubernatorial candidate Bill Scranton made a campaign stop in Erie and made national news firing his campaign manager James Seif for making racial remarks about Lynn Swann. Seif appeared late Wednesday on a television call-in show about the [...]

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The main water cooler topic yesterday in Erie was Mayor Joe Sinnott going over to the studios of radio station Rocket 101 and breaking their boards. OK, it was wooden boards and not equipment. Sinnott showed off his martial arts skills to publicize the 30th Anniversary of the King Cobra Open which will be held [...]

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Current Erie City Councilman and Mayor-elect Joe Sinnott met with union represenative asking that their members pay 10 to 15 percent of their health care costs. After the laughter died down, they agreed to ask their members to vote on the measure. There might have been a chance of the unions agreeing to it if [...]

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Erie City Council holds another budget meeting today. They have until the end of the year to approve a budget and so far they have done zero work on it. They get their faces on TV and do interviews but as for their jobs….nothing. They talk and listen to department heads. They lack leadership and [...]

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Erie City Council yesterday held a budget review session for the proposed 2006 budget They focused on the Public Works Department. Plans call for 19 workers to be layed-off with a savings of about $2.3 million. However, those 19 workers are teamsters with bumping rights so most of them will still have jobs next year. [...]

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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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GE Infrastructure Rail said yesterday that it received a contract worth more than $450 million to supply 300 locomotives to the Chinese Ministry of Railways. Most of the locomotive kits, which include engines, alternators, motors and other machinery, will be manufactured at the Erie GE plant. Last year, China awarded over $300 million in contracts [...]

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