The Pennsylvania House and Senate passed a smoking ban. Philadelphia Governor Ed Rendell said he would sign it. Hotels must have 75 percent of their rooms non-smoking. Casinos such as Presque Isle Downs and Casino in Erie must have 50 percent of their facility non-smoking. Exempted are bars with less than 20 percent food sales, [...]

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Erie Indemnity Company (Erie Insurance) (Nasdaq: ERIE) announced financial results for the first quarter 2008. Net income per share-diluted decreased to $0.51 per share, compared to $0.88 per share in the comparable quarter in 2007 influenced by net realized losses on investments of $0.27 per share, after tax. Although they sold more policies and their [...]

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Jenna Walker and Maggie Kovski died tragically when they drowned in a pond. I thought it was heartless that police were investigating the babysitter. I thought they should just put the poor 19 year old babysitter on suicide watch. I was wrong. Police charged Brittany Steward with two counts each of involuntary manslaughter, endangering the [...]

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  General McLane won the Pennsylvania Class AAA basketball championship defeating Greencastle-Antrim 57-55. General McLane also won the state Class AAA football title. That’s the first time in Pennsylvania a school has won both titles in the same school year.   On Friday, forty-four people took the oath and became US citizens in a ceremony [...]

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  Lucy Ladd Stratton was a painter from New Hampshire. She spent decades in Europe but called Erie PA her adopted hometown. She and her husband had money and built a library in West Swanzey, NH. She donated some of her paintings to the library. As for her others, when she died in 1937 she [...]

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Rent-A-Center announced they are buying Rent-Way for $10.65 in cash per share of Rent-Way common stock. The transaction is valued at approximately $567 million. Bill Morgenstern founded the company in Erie in 1981 and built it into a 784 store chain in 34 states. Last year William Short was named President and CEO of the [...]

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