Paragon Promotions of Erie is suspected running a fundraising scam. Greenville-West Salem (PA) Township police are investigating the company for running a bogus fundraising campaign for the Greenville Fire Department and its union. Numerous phone calls were made to Greenville area residents asking for donations so the fire department could purchase fire safety books for [...]

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The Greater Erie Board of Realtors reported the Erie County real estate sales for October 2007. Sales were in line with the previous year. The data includes all sales in which a property transfer tax was paid including residential, investment and commercial properties as well as land. In October 2007, there were 437 sales for [...]

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Erie City Council held their biweekly meeting last evening. They might have well just stayed home because they got nothing accomplished. They are expected to make decisions. They can’t grasp the concept. Organized activity to accomplish an objective: Action. Learn it. Live it. They afraid about making decisions? Cripe, they re-elected anyway. Item 1: The [...]

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Traffic note: Peninsula Dr is now closed between 12th and 26th due to a fire at 18th and Hilborn Ave. Peninsula Dr is not expected to reopen before this afternoon. Heavy, wet snow shut down I-90, I-79, I-86 and parts of Route 20. Trees and limbs fell. Penelec crews had around 250 power outages to [...]

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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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On this date, November 5 1857, journalist Ida M Tarbell was born in Hatch Hollow, near Wattsburg, in Erie County, Pennsylvania. Tarbell graduated with honors from Titusville High School and went on to graduate from Allegheny College in Meadville with a degree in biology. She is best-known for her 1904 book, The History of the [...]

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A state grand jury is investigating former state Representative Linda Bebko-Jones and her staff for fraudulent nominating petition signatures. This is more than likely going to lead to criminal charges. Bebko-Jones quit her re-election campaign for an 8th term when she said she would not defend a petition challenge. A Pittsburgh Post-Gazette article by Dennis [...]

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Allegheny College issued a press release Thursday that will most likely insure that the college will never, ever, ever, ever, host any major political candidates. On Monday, Allegheny College President Richard Cook, Professor of Political Science Daniel Shea, and Center for Political Participation student fellows will host a news conference to announce ‘a national democracy-strengthening [...]

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Contract ratification votes were held for two unions representing Erie County workers. The AFSCME union for clerical and technical employees accepted their contract. The AFSCME union for ‘professional’ employees reject their offer and authorized a strike. Both contract offers offered 3 percent raises for the first 3 years plus a $1 and 3.2 percent raise [...]

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Unless you want to pay $25 to read “Carbon nanotube-enhanced thermal destruction of cancer cells in a noninvasive radiofrequency field” that was published online on Oct 24, wait till the December issue of Cancer in sitting on a table in a doctors waiting room. Here’s the basic info from the article. This is the first [...]

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Way to go Phil! Ensuring public dollars support American families not an addiction is the goal of legislation recently introduced by U S Rep Phil English (R-Pa). HR 3656 would require states to administer drug tests for welfare recipients if the state has substantial evidence that an individual welfare beneficiary is abusing controlled substances. “My [...]

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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 [...]

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  Ethan Fuhrman’s Cider Mill and Bakery on East Gore Rd in Belle Valley burned down to the ground. The 111 year old company is (was?) best known for their apple cider. They also produced Concord grape juice, apple-grape, cherry flavored cider, and hot mulled-cider. Their “from scratch” bakery had soft German pretzels, cookies and [...]

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A teenage coed athlete at a Catholic college has a baby in her dorm room and kills the baby soon after it’s born and places it a plastic bag. I’m not talking about the case of 18 year old Teri Rhodes, the Mercyhurst College volleyball player that suffocated her baby, Jane Doe Rhodes, back on [...]

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  The study report on the proposed community college to be called Northwest Pennsylvania Community College is dated October 1, 2007. The figures for costs seem to be based on 1977 figures. The estimated expenses for utilities, salaries and supplies aren’t even close to realistic. The one figure that seems high is the $5,700 that [...]

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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, [...]

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  Great news for a local company and area high tech job growth. Zabaware’s Ultra Hal software won the “most human” computer of the year in the 17th annual Loebner Prize Competition for Artificial Intelligence (AI). The contest was held in New York City hosted by philanthropist Hugh Loebner. The Loebner Prize is an annual [...]

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MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus) is a contagious infection that is resistant to many antibiotics. Pennsylvania doesn’t even require health care centers to disclose the number of patients that have MRSA. About 30 percent of Americans have staph bacteria living on them, including about 1 percent with MRSA, but they have no infection symptoms. MRSA has [...]

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  Two poor dogs abandoned in a mobile home in Wesleyville were rescued by police and officials with Because You Care. Neighbors said they left there alone for a week.The ‘person’ living there was either facing eviction or foreclosure and had moved away. Nice job by WJET-TV for shedding some light on the story and [...]

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