A bathroom remodeling at The Depot Restaurant and Lounge, which was a former train station in Yakima, Washington, revealed a carving of famous hobo and author, A-No 1, Leon Ray Livingston of Erie PA. His hobo name and the year 1935 were etched on a marble bathroom wall divider. Owner Karl Pasten had the [...]

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  I talked to someone at Presque Isle Downs and Casino that said 8-9 out of town buses have scheduled trips to Erie but out local bus company, the EMTA (Erie Metropolitan Transit Authority) still hasn’t made a decision on providing service. Has anyone told them the place is open and employs 700 people that [...]

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  Radnor Property Group and Fourth River Development were picked as the development team for the first phase of the downtown Erie redevelopment plan. The area is between Holland and Sassafras Streets, 12th to 14th Streets. Radnor and Fourth River announced (press release) they were looking for a project to do together back in December [...]

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Greg Jacobs of Bellevue Ohio died Tuesday as a result of injuries received on a ski trip at Peek’ n Peak ski resort. He was 18. This occured at the Monroeville High School annual senior class trip. He was not wearing a helmet even though his mother had given him extra money for one. Bliley [...]

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The deal to take over ownership and operation of the Cottbus-Drewitz Airport in Germany is dead. Erie Aviation worked for years on the plan to purchase the former air force base and have direct cargo flights between Erie International Airport and Cottbus-Drewitz. Erie Aviation ships literally tons of aircraft parts a week to Europe. This [...]

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  Tara Maras and Donna Kozik worked at Erie Insurance in their communications department. Tara Maras and family decided to move to Las Vegas. Boxes Packed: 143. Donna Kozik and her family decided to move to San Diego. Boxes Packed: 111. They not only left Erie and their jobs, they made a living doing so. [...]

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  The Erie County Department of Health released their 2007 Erie County Health Assessment. in 2000-04, 41.4 percent of children born in Erie County PA were bastards, born to single mothers. In 2004, the pregnancy rate for underage teenage girls (ages 15-17) in Erie County was 18.9 percent per 1000 girls. Over 60 percent of [...]

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Erie City Council refused to re-hire fired Erie Police Detective Ed Dickens. After a 2 day hearing, council voted unanimously not to let him return to work. Dickens was convicted of harassment for a 2005 incident involving his wife, they were split up at the time, and her male friend. Tomorrow is the worst day [...]

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  Erie School District Superintendent James Barker had his contract extended for 5 years by the Erie School Board. He`ll get a 3 percent salary increase each year plus cost of living adjustments. He’ll be making about a quarter million dollars a year by the end of the contract. Barker doesn’t live in Erie so [...]

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Chytoria Graham pleaded guilty to charges that swung her month old baby like a baseball bat to hit her boyfriend. She will be sentenced on May 8. Edinboro University’s Eighth Annual Frank G Pogue Honors Scholarship Luncheon takes place today at the Courtyard by Marriott Ambassador Banquet and Conference Center. Sharon Stone, who attended Edinboro, [...]

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  Presque Isle Downs and Casino is crushing the projections of the handle they said they would do. On Saturday, the slots parlor took in $13.6 million in wagers and paid out $12.4 million. Presque Isle Downs is located at Exit 27 (Route 97) of Interstate 90. It’s open from 9 am to 4 am [...]

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According the Brookings Institution study – From ‘There’ to ‘Here’: Refugee Resettlement in Metropolitan America – an analysis of refugees as a percentage of overall immigrants, the Erie PA area ranked third in a list of Medium-sized USA metropolitan areas. From 1983-2004, 4,545 refugees made Erie their new home including 2,969 from 1990-2000. The International [...]

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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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Representative Linda Bebko-Jones (1st Legislative District Erie County) has settled with the company that owns the office building in which she caused a fire. In May of 2004, Bebko-Jones left a cigarette burning in her office at 460 East 26th Street. It fell into a trash can and caused over $175,000 in damages. TE Kalkhof [...]

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Jury selection begins today in the trial of former Erie Mayor Rick Filippi. The trial will be held in Washington County, 130 miles south of Erie. Filippi and two friends are accused of using inside info to profit on a land deal. The company the three formed, Aiko Acquisition, purchased parcels near the former IP/Hammermill [...]

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A small earthquake shook northeast Ohio on Saturday at 7:27 am. This was the fourth and largest quake to hit the area this year. The magnitude 3.1 was centered 5 miles NNW of Mentor-on-the-Lake, OH which is about 60 miles from Erie. There was no damage reported. The Northeast Ohio seismic zone has had moderately [...]

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Two students from Erie at Penn State University Park were arrested after a really dumb prank. Corey P Thompson and Michael D Strafford were both charged with possession of alcohol and Thompson was also charged with impersonating a police officer. Thompson was a part-time auxiliary officer that could ticket cars but had no other police [...]

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Cleo Hartwig of Erie Pa wasn’t a well known sculpture during her lifetime but her work is now being more widely recognized. Hartwig passed away in 1998. Olivia Smith was granted exclusive world rights to reproduce works of Hartwig, some of which can be found in museums throughout the country. Smith has some of the [...]

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