The King’s Ship Ontario, aka the HMS Ontario, a British warship that sailed during the American Revolutionary War, has been found in Lake Ontario. It went down on October 31, 1780 with about 130 aboard. Included in this story in the Whig Standard by Ian Elliot is information which must be a reference to the [...]

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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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Marco Ccamaque, a jockey at Presque Isle Downs and Casino in Erie, was arrested by US Border Patrol agents for being in the country illegally. Ccamaque has been in the country for years as he was the leading rider at Beulah Park Winter/Spring 2005 and Fall/Winter 2004. He is a native of Lima, Peru.
Karla Mullenax [...]

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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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Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine will hold commencement ceremonies for its largest medical and pharmacy classes, along with the school’s second class of master’s degree candidates. Today at 2 pm at the Louis J Tullio Arena, 218 medical students, 123 pharmacy students and six Master of Science in Medical Education students will receive degrees. [...]

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Lisa Maas was murdered in her Pittsburgh apartment. Maas was a 2006 graduate of Harbor Creek High School near Erie. She was attending school at the Pennsylvania Culinary Institute. Terrence Andrews, who occupied an apartment in the same building as Maas, stabbed her with a pair of scissors. Andrews admitted to police he did it. [...]

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Looks like there won’t be any baby Bald Eagles at Presque Isle State Park. Linda posted pictures of the nest and a write-up on her blog. She said a park volunteer told her there was an attack on the nest by a rogue eagle (or another predator).
International Paper closed it’s plant in Erie on the [...]

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A traffic accident Sunday night on West Townhill Road, between Peach St and Perry Highway, claimed the life of one person when the car burst into flames. The single vehicle accident happened around midnight. The victim was burned so badly authorities couldn’t determine the gender let alone the identity of the victim.
The horrible accident on [...]

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Northwest Pennsylvania Collegiate Academy US Academic Decathlon team, the 2008 Pennsylvania state champion, took third place at the National Academic Decathlon competition at Garden Grove, California. The team competed in Division III, the small schools category. Members of the team are: Amy Babay, Stephanie Engel, and Sumner Nichols (Honors); Amal Abukar, Alexa Johnson, and Rebekah [...]

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The March for Babies takes place today in Crawford County. Grady, Evan, Jenny and Mike are the Crawford County ambassador family for March for Babies. Mike is at $1,335 with donations with a goal of $1,500. The family was featured in a story in the Meadville Tribune – March of Dimes family share their ‘happy [...]

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The Erie-Western Pennsylvania Port Authority announced that they’ve been contacted by the US Coast Guard about possibly locating a training facility in Erie. Erie is one of a number of locations considered. The facility would be a designated Center of Excellence (COE) for ship inspections. It would mean about 50 personnel stationed in Erie year [...]

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The Warren Times Observer reported that a fire in a vacuum tower occurred at the United Refining Company refinery in Warren. The crude oil unit will be down for a few days, although production at the refinery will continue, but at a reduced rate. The refinery processes a max of 70,000 barrels of oil per [...]

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Erie PA native Rear Admiral (Retired) Charles August Curtze passed away at age 96. He attended public schools in Erie then went to the Naval Academy Preparatory School. He then received an appointment to the US Naval Academy and was part of the Class of 1933. After assignments on the USS New Mexico and USS [...]

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The 2007 Erie Summer Festival of the Arts wraps up today. Perfect weather has brought out large crowds. This is a FREE event and open to the public. It’s being held at Liberty Park on the Erie Bayfront. The theme is “You Gotta Have Arts.”
 
The Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry Center for Workforce Information [...]

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Mary Beth Buchanan, US Attorney for Western Pennsylvania, said the investigation into the Brian Wells collar bomber murder was nearing an end. That was in February. She said the case was solved. After a long time with no word, Marjorie Diehl-Armstrong, the wacked out bitch in jail for killing her boyfriend, wrote a letter to [...]

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John Brigham has been named President and CEO of Erie Management Group following the resignation of Stan Shumway. No idea why Shumway left. Samuel P “Pat” Black III founded the company with Shumway when Black decided he wanted to invest his family fortune in Erie. The Black family made their money though Erie Insurance. I’d [...]

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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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Allegheny College edged Penn State in the name game. Back in September, Penn State announced they were changing the name of Penn State – McKeesport to Penn State – Allegheny. Allegheny College was none to happy and threatened legal action. Penn State gave in a little and the branch will now be renamed Penn State [...]

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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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Department of Environmental Protection Secretary Kathleen A McGinty toured the site where Lake Erie Biofuels is constructing a state-of-the-art facility that will produce 45 million gallons of biodiesel each year, and spoke with company and local officials about the economic opportunities created by the governor’s Energy Independence Strategy. Biodiesel is becoming an increasingly important piece [...]

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Presque Isle Downs got some great news yesterday when the Pennsylvania Supreme Court dismissed the lawsuit opposing licensing the facility. The decision came much sooner than expected. Now the only real hold-up is the vacancy on the PA Gaming Control Board. Gary Sojka was named to fill the seat on January 29. A required state [...]

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Pennsylvania Governor Rendell announced his proposed budget for fiscal 2007-08 which includes $1 billion in increased spending and $2 billion in borrowing which all will be paid for with a number of tax hikes. The tax and spend Democrat Rendell wants the sales tax raised from 6 percent to 7 percent, a tax increase in [...]

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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 tentative agreement has been reached between Millcreek Township School District and the teachers union, the Millcreek Education Association. Details were not announced so that the teachers could get the details first.
 
 
Bliley Technologies, an international provider of crystal-based frequency control solutions based in Erie PA, and Allan Space-Time Solutions, lead by renowned atomic clock physicist, [...]

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The Millcreek Township School District sent a letter to parents about the possible teacher strike. Unless things change and progress is made at our next negotiation session, there will be no school for students beginning Thursday, February 1. The new Pennsylvania Strike Law will have teachers back to work after 11 days, so that students [...]

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The Lake Erie snow machine is up and running. A few inches yesterday. A few more expected today. See Brian’s site for the depressing weather details.
On a related note, Erie County SKYWARN has set up a blog with Erie County, PA Snowfall Totals. This information is used by the National Weather Service (Cleveland office) to [...]

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Erie Mayor Joe Sinnott announced he is forming a committee to plan for future use of the GAF Materials roof shingle plant on the Erie Bayfront. The property sits next to the Erie Bayfront Convention Center. The Erie Port Authority or the Erie Convention Center Authority seem to be the most likely buyers. Hopefully the [...]

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The Harbor Creek School District fired David Sidelinger for refusing a photo ID badge. Sidelinger sued the district wearing saying a photo badge was against his religious beliefs. The case was pretty much over when an attorney for the district wondered why it wasn’t against his religious beliefs to have his photo plastered on a [...]

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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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I received more info on the City of Erie health care insurance. The city budgeted $16,500 per employee and councilperson for 2007.
In response to the questions you posed related to my e-mail, I have some additional information for you. First of all, the City of Erie is “self insured.” They pay the actual costs of [...]

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A reader sent me details about the GAF Materials Corporation severance package to the Erie based employees. They were offered 3 weeks severance, and if you stay until the end you receive an additional $500. If you’ve been there 20 years or more you receive 4 weeks severance. If your anniversary of working [...]

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This area seems to have more than it’s fair share of teachers fooling around with kids. Yesterday, one teacher was sentenced to jail while another was arrested. Matthew Weaver, now a former French teacher at Seneca High School, was sentenced to 3-12 months, fined $1000 and must perform 100 hours of community service for soliciting [...]

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I received the following from a reader that brings up a great point -
I’m just wondering why there has not been any ink given to the City of Erie’s 2007 Budget. Of particular interest to me was the overstating of the “estimated” health insurance costs. The budget allocates approximately $16,500 for each city employee, even [...]

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The Manufacturers’ Association of Northwest Pennsylvania announced they will file a lawsuit against the Erie County smoking ban. In a letter addressed to Erie County Executive Mark DiVecchio and Council Chairman Fiore Leone, Manufacturers’ Association President Ralph Pontillo announced the Association’s plans to seek legal action, after receiving overwhelming response to a smoking-ban poll that [...]

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The White House has nominated Lieutenant General James M Dubik of Erie PA to take charge of training Iraqi military and police forces. Dubik has been commanding general at Fort Lewis and I Corps since 2004. He graduated from Holy Rosary, Erie Cathedral Prep and in 1971 graduated from Gannon University with a bachelor’s degree [...]

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GAF Materials Corporation announced it was closing their Erie roofing shingle plant. The 120 year old plant could be closed in 90 days with the company laying-off over 150 workers. There’s plenty of blame to go around. The city raised their property taxes over 12 percent. The Erie Schoold District will probably raise their portion [...]

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The Millcreek Township School District has cancelled classes for February 1, the first day teachers could strike. Teachers could go on strike twice for a total of 20 days. It appears they are getting close to agreeing to a new contract but they aren’t quite there yet. The two sides are a couple of percent [...]

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Erie County Council voted to approve a committee that will study and make recommendations on the Erie County Sheriff’s Department powers. The committee includes Judge Ernest DiSantis, DA Brad Foulk, both who rely on council to fund their offices, and three people that work for the county that council could fire. Don’t expect the committee [...]

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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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In the late 1990’s, Norfolk Southern removed their circa 1882 line through the center of Erie known at the 19th Street tracks. The land was given to the City of Erie. It wasn’t very valuable, NS would have had to pay taxes on the property and they received a nice tax break for doing so.
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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Suburban Molding Company, a plastics plant, in Union City PA was destroyed by a fire on Saturday. Thick, black smoke poured out the building.
Edinboro native Michael Hall has been the Artistic and Managing Director of the Caldwell Theater in Boca Raton FL for the past 31 years. In May, the theater will break ground on [...]

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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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