What’s the best way for the Erie Schools to overcome a 26 million dollar deficit?

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Here we come a wassailing…

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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, [...]

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Erie County Judge John Bozza granted a permanent injunction preventing the county wide smoking ban from taking effect. The judge concluded that the county ordinance violated the Pennsylvania Clean Indoor Air Act. Congrats to Eric Purchase on the win. This is exactly what the county solicitor told Erie County Council would happen. The arrogant members [...]

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  The numbers for the opening day of Presque Isle Downs and Casino were staggering. I think company officials were even a bit stunned at how well they did. Here are the unofficial, unaudited figures from the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board. The amount wagered was $8,881,234. The amount paid out as winnings was $8,068,267 for [...]

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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 [...]

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  The Erie PA casino will open today at 9 am. Presque Isle Downs and Casino will be opening, including 2,000 slot machines, following receipt of the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board’s final approval to open the facility. Situated on a 272-acre site, approximately 58.4 acres of which are dedicated to the public as open space, [...]

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  Saint Vincent’s finally released a press release, 4 days after their announced “affiliation” – Saint Vincent Health System announced plans to affiliate with Catholic Healthcare Partners (CHP), a national health system based in Cincinnati, Ohio. Saint Vincent Health System President and CEO Angela Bontempo made this historic announcement for Saint Vincent, the Erie community [...]

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  The Presque Isle Downs and Casino Roarin’ 20′s Players Club is the casino’s player club. As a member, you’ll receive special discounts and comps, special invitations to player only events, promotional mailings and the opportunity to win big prizes that are exclusive to the Roarin’ 20′s Players Club members. When I think Roaring 20′s [...]

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  Presque Isle Downs and Casino opened for the first time for the first of two days of mandatory state testing of the 2,000 slot machines. It was invitation only for people that had donated to the United Way of Erie County. A second day of testing will be held on Monday. Since Presque Isle [...]

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  A dozen people were arrested Thursday for operating a meth distribution ring primarily in the west county. They were importing the meth from Mexico. A heard a funny tongue-in-cheek rant about how the bust will preserve American manufacturing jobs in the methamphetamine industry. Here’s the press release by the Attorney General.   I was [...]

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  Saint Vincent Health Center has become an affiliate of Catholic Health Partners of Cincinnati. Affiliate in this case means taken over by. I don’t care if they say St V’s will still be run by people in Erie or that it will help them in recruiting doctors, it’s no longer a local hospital.   [...]

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There was a shooting in North East PA last evening shortly after 11 pm. A North East Police officer responding to a domestic dispute shot a man in the left side of the chest. The man is in Hamot in critical condition. Pennsylvania State Police took over the investigation because it was an officer involved [...]

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James Skindell has resigned as head of security as Presque Isle Downs. Cripe, he didn’t even make it to opening day. No reason was given and I haven’t even heard a rumor as to why he quit. Presque Isle Downs slots casino will open on February 28. Skindell retired as deputy chief of the City [...]

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  Rick Kaczenski of Erie PA will soon be named defensive line coach at the University of Iowa. Kaczenski has served as a grad assistant at Iowa the past tow years. He served as the offensive line and tight ends coach at Elon University in 2004. He held the same position at East Tennessee State [...]

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  WJET-TV reported that Millcreek School District official were told by Erie County District Attorney Bradley Foulk that former McDowell Intermediate High School principal Tom Maciulewicz will not be accepted into the Accelerated Rehabilitative Disposition (ARD) program. ARD would have meant nearly a free ride for Maciulewicz. He was making nearly $100,000 when he stole [...]

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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 [...]

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  Scott McCausland (Sk0t) reports to the Federal Correctional Institution at Morgantown today at 2 pm. Scott was sentenced to 5 months in prison, and 5 months on home confinement, followed by 2-3 years of supervised release (probation). He pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit copyright infringement and one count of criminal [...]

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  Erie County Council voted last evening to delay the smoking ban from going into effect by one month until March 15. Judge John Bozza in his written decision not to impose a temporary injunction on the county wide smoking ban, strongly suggested council delay the ban. Why? Because the taxpayers of Erie County would [...]

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Judge John Bozza denied a request for a temporary injunction for the county wide smoking ban that is scheduled to begin on Saturday February 17. However, Judge Bozza in his decision asked Erie County Council to postpone the ban until the hearing for a permanent injunction is held on Monday February 26. Council will discuss [...]

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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 [...]

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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 [...]

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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 [...]

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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 [...]

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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 [...]

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