Ruben Swift, 35, pleaded no contest on charges of raping a child. He will be sentenced in January. Swift ran for mayor of the city of Erie in ‘05.
Dan Onorato (D), Allegheny County Executive, is scheduled to appear in Erie. He announced his candidacy for governor yesterday in Pittsburgh and is touring the [...]

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The Gem City Concert Band will hold their annual Spring Concert tomorrow. It should be a great performance with a wide range of musical selections to please everyone’s tastes.
The concert program is now online for your review. It looks like a great and varied program.
The performance is from 7:30 to 9:00 pm at St. John’s [...]

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Even as President-Elect Barack Obama begins to pick his cabinet and other key positions, two states remain uncalled from Tuesday’s election. At the time we write this, North Carolina and Missouri are neither red nor blue. In North Carolina, Obama leads 50% to 49%, and its flipped in Missouri.
Bit of a police blotter today.
James DiNicola, [...]

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If you would like your event considered for posting here on ErieBlogs.com, please send us your information using our online contact form. Make sure you check our daily News & Events for new event listings and events happening that day.
Events for this Week
Tour the Chautauqua-Lake Erie Wine Trail November 1-2 and 8-9. The Holiday Wine Weekend is a [...]

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Happy Canada Day to our friends across the lake. Referred to as “Canada’s birthday,” Canada Day marks when our northern neighbor became a kingdom in its own right on July 1, 1867. Also, this day in 1980 is when “O Canada” officially became the national anthem of Canada.
Yesterday, within hours after posting the [...]

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The City of Erie had a budget deficit of $1.3 million in 2006. That’s according to the draft of the audit done by the regional CPA firm of McGill, Power, Bell and Associates. One of the requirements to have Erie declared a distressed city under Act 47, the Distressed Municipalities Financial Recovery Act, is five [...]

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According to The Tax Foundation in their 2006 report on Property Taxes on Owner Occupied Housing by County, Erie County Pennsylvania has the 55th highest property taxes in the nation out of 783 counties (or parishes). That will change next year as the following four member of Erie County Council voted to raise your taxes: [...]

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The 5th floor of Erie City Hall should love hearing this one. An elected member of Erie City Council emailed me and pointed out with the low voter turnout in last Tuesday’s election, the number of signatures needed to hold a hearing to determine if Erie should be declared a distressed city under Act 47, [...]

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Someone call Meadow Brook Dairy and have justice placed on the side of milk cartons.
The preliminary hearing for Teri Rhodes was scheduled for Nov 7 in front of District Judge Joseph LeFaiver at the Erie County Courthouse. Why didn’t it take place?
Teri Rhodes gave birth on August 12. The baby only survived 10 minutes before [...]

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Today is Veteran’s Day. The fighting in World War I ended in 1918, on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month. Thank a Vet for the freedoms you enjoy.
The Pittsburgh Steelers and Cleveland Browns game today at 1 pm will not be televised locally. Unless you have the NFL Sunday Ticket, [...]

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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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Port Erie Boat Works has been sold as their web site says to “an elite group of boat builders and investors.” The company manufactures catamarans and is located at 2567 W 20th St. The company had been one of the fastest growing companies around. I hope they stay in Erie and keep adding to their [...]

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American Campus Communities Inc has been tapped to develop a two phase student housing project at Edinboro University of Pennsylvania. The 1,504 bed development will add to the on-campus housing at the Pennsylvania State System school with a total enrollment of about 7,000 students. The Edinboro University Foundation selected American Campus (NYSE: ACC) to head [...]

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The state is returning $1.5 million in tax money to Erie County. Here is the complete press release. The highlights -
GE Transportation Systems in Erie received $500,000 to implement lean manufacturing techniques at its rail plants in Erie and Grove City, Mercer County, a project that is expected to cost $12.8 million. GE has [...]

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The curfew in the City of Erie for children under 18 went into effect last night. Kids will have to be home 10 pm to 6 am Sunday through Thursday and midnight to 6 am Friday and Saturday. During school breaks kids will have to be home midnight to 6 am. Exceptions are made for [...]

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Timothy Flanagan was going to take a job as a probation officer in Erie PA when his faculty advisor, Gannon Univeristy anthropology professor Jude Kirkpatrick, told him to go to grad school. After graduating from Gannon he earned his master’s and doctoral degrees in criminal justice at the State University of New York at Albany. [...]

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On Friday I spoke with Mike Foreman of the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development Center for Local Government Services in Pittsburgh about starting a citizen based petition drive to have a public hearing to see if the City of Erie should be declared a Distressed City under Act 47. I’ll have to gather [...]

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John Deasy went to Mercyhurst College in Erie PA on a golf scholarship and graduated with a BA in History and Communications. An Irish Fine Gael politician and a member of Parliament from Waterford, Deasy could be a candidate to become leader of his party. Deasy said that party leader Enda Kenny should resign if [...]

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While Erie City Council was raising taxes including a change to the 3 percent amusement tax to cover all ballgames, concerts and other events that cost less than $5 in Erie, the Pittsburgh City Council cut it’s 5 percent amusement tax to 1.25 percent. Pittsburgh found that a high amusement tax caused concert tours and [...]

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Erie County Judge John Bozza has ruled in favor of Invest Erie Community Development Corporation against the city. The city wanted to allow a private developer take over the grocery store project at 19th and Parade Streets. It appears the incompetence by Invest Erie has been matched by city officials who wrote up the contract [...]

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Dave Eggers’s latest book “What Is the What” in Number 25 on the New York Times’ extended best seller list this week. Today it’s number 174 on Amazon.com. It’s the story of Valentino Achak Deng, a Sudanese “Lost Boy” who is attending Allegheny College. It’s not a conventional biography though, it’s a fictionalization of Deng’s [...]

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Unlike scandals at Enron and Tyco, where fraud disguised huge losses, Rent-Way’s deceptions exaggerated growth. 
There is a great, Pulitzer Prize Explanatory Reporting great, story in today’s New York Times by Charles Duhigg on the downfall of Erie based Rentway.
Renway was a growth company. When growth slowed, three company officials cooked the books so it [...]

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Dev Enterprises of Erie PA bought a plot of land in Springfield Township, near the Prime Outlets at Grove City PA, to build a hotel which includes an indoor water park. Springfield Township supervisors have approved final plans. I guess I have some digging to do to figure out who is associated with Dev [...]

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Thomas Macuilewicz, the former principal at McDowell Intermediate High School, was arraigned on charges of theft yesterday. He waived his right to a preliminary hearing and all charges were bound over for trial. Macuilewicz took nearly everything of value that wasn’t nailed down at the school – computers and musical instruments including 14 synthesizers. [...]

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He comes the snow. We’re supposed to get anywhere from 4 to 24 inches in the next two days. Text book case of Lake Effect Snow with cold air rushing over the 40 degree waters of Lake Erie and dumping the moisture on the southern shore area. See Brian’s site at WX-MAN.com for the weather [...]

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As well intentioned as the smoking ban in Erie Councty is, County Solicitor Thomas Talarico advised the Erie County Council that it was illegal. The smoking ban passed the first reading last evening by a vote of 5-2. It is up to state legislators to pass a ban. Council is taking a broke county down [...]

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Raychel Vendetti and Ray Petelin of WSEE are doing double duty hosting “IE Live!” on KHIZ-TV, a 30 minute news show. The show is being touted as being a local Victorville, CA show but Vendetti and Petelin are doing the it via satellite in Erie PA, 2360 miles away. It appears KHIZ are deceiving 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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WJET-TV reported that Nick Scott will drop two lawsuits and pay Erie`s Convention Center Authority $1 million in exchange for managing the Erie Bayfront Sheraton Hotel and gaining naming rights for the Erie Bayfront Convention Center. My advise – don’t do it. The Erie Convention Center Authority has spent close to a million dollars defending [...]

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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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The body of a man was found floating in Lake Erie on Saturday afternoon. It is apparently that of Fran Medwick of Washington Township who fell off his boat near Elk Creek and Trout Run on July 22.
Erin Palmer, a 2006 grad of Edinboro with a degree in elementary education, asked her mom, Kathy Curphy, [...]

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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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Congrats to Jenny and Mike on the birth of their son Grady Matthew. Grady was 7 pounds, 9 ounces. Both mother and son are healthy and doing great.
Me: When is the Erie Management Group going to start the move to the former Hammermill/ IP plant and have their groundbreaking?
Boss man: They have already begun to [...]

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I saw on WSEE that the Erie Times-News is laying-off 24 employees. For those of you under age 45, the Times-News publishes a newspaper, a daily publication on folded sheets that contains news and articles and advertisements. There was a mention of a press release but I haven’t seen one yet. They must have sent [...]

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City of Erie AFSCME members tabled a vote on agreeing to pay 15 percent of their health care coverage. They didn’t want to agree to it and then have the police and firefighters say no way. Mayor-elect Joe Sinnot said it is an all or nothing proposition with the three unions. If all the unions [...]

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MTR Gaming (Nasdaq: MNTG) announced that the Special Committee of the Board of Directors established to consider the previously announced management-led acquisition proposal or alternatives has retained CIBC World Markets Corp. and Lazard Freres as its financial advisors to assist the Committee in its evaluation of the proposal, alternatives, and determination of what is in [...]

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The Pennsylvania Cyber Charter School, which has an office in Erie, is a building a $23.5 million performing arts center in Midland, PA. Students who attend cyber schools take classes via computer. Midland doesn’t even have a high school of its own. This little tidbit comes from a PittsburghTribune-Review article titled State-funded cyber school draws [...]

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Old-fashioned type post card by the talented Ron Richardson. Click on the image for a full size view. His Flick.com photos can be seen here and his photography site can be found here.
The City of Erie sent out two week notices to 26 city employees. Many were politcal appointees that will be replaced when Mayor-elect [...]

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