Mid-day, the snow machine kicked up and Erie and Crawford Counties got dumped on. I-79 southbound was closed for a few hours yesterday after a truck jack-knifed. At one point last night, we were getting an inch and hour. We’re guessing that we’re going to break the all-time record this year.
Teri Rhodes has formally appealed [...]

Read the full post

Erie County has posted the 2009 Budget Proposal for review. We’re don’t understand why this wasn’t posted weeks ago when it was announced.
MTR Gaming is moving ahead of schedule with installing Robert Griffin as the new president and chief executive of MTR, beginning November 1 instead of January 1, 2009.  MTR did not explain why [...]

Read the full post

If you didn’t register to vote by 8 p.m. yesterday, you’ll have to wait four years to vote for president again.
Tom Ridge and Lynn Swann will hold a rally Wednesday in Perry Square in support of the McCain-Palin ticket. In Pennsylvania, here are the polling numbers: Quinnipiac poll has Obama up in PA by [...]

Read the full post

Union workers at Erie Plastics have approved concessions by a count of 131 for and 34 against. These concessions will include a $2/hour pay cut, loss of 4 of their 12 vacation days and an increase in insurance premiums. This will allow the plant’s new owners to continue to operate the plant and keep the [...]

Read the full post

Oops. Yesterday our content management system experienced a huge failure. We have traced the problem to our hosting provider and are working to remedy the problem. It appears that everything is back to normal but we will still be working with our host to make sure the problem is completely solved. Thanks for [...]

Read the full post

Railpower Technologies announced that it will build an assembly plant in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Quebec, creating some 125 new jobs, mainly in manufacturing and development. I thought Erie had a good shot at landing the plant. The company is headquartered in Quebec while their US operations are located in Erie. Railpower produces rail yard switching locomotives and [...]

Read the full post

In a WSEE TV interview with John Kanzius of Erie (not yet posted on their site), Kanzius said that researchers led by Dr Steven Curley at the University of Texas M D Anderson Cancer Center have found a protein enzyme that will carry metallic nanoparticles exclusively to cancer cells. WSEE will run more of the [...]

Read the full post

Candidate for Congress Kathy Dahlkemper was to speak today at Gannon University. The engagement was canceled. An official with the school said that they didn’t want an individual candidate to speak as it might appear that they were supporting one candidate over another. Sounded reasonable. You still have to wonder if it had anything to [...]

Read the full post

James H Mullen Jr has been named the 21st president of Allegheny College. He will take office Aug 1, 2008. Mullen was elected unanimously by the Allegheny Board of Trustees on the unanimous recommendation of the Presidential Search Committee, which conducted a national search for a successor to Richard J Cook, who is retiring after [...]

Read the full post

 
Toni and Guy HairDressing Academy had a bomb threat yesterday which shut down the school and a good chunk of downtown Erie. Of course police didn’t find anything. Triangle Tech had bomb threats on Nov 20 and again on Nov 21.
 
Advance America, the cash advance company, is closing all their Pennsylvania locations. In September, they [...]

Read the full post

Chytoria Graham was sentenced by Judge Rusty Cunningham to 5-10 years in prison for swinging her 4 week old baby like a baseball bat at her boyfriend, the father of 2 of her 5 children. The baby suffered a fractured skull and other injuries in the Oct 8 incident after Graham came home from a [...]

Read the full post

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 [...]

Read the full post

The 298th Trensportation Company from Franklin PA, which had about 160 soldiers in Forward Operating Base Q-West Iraq (Quyarrah AB) aka ‘Key West’, will be arriving home this weekend. Welcome home.
Richard Valentine allegedly killed his wife Anna, threw a blanket over her, changed his clothes, left a note for his landlord not to enter the [...]

Read the full post

The family of Greg Jacobs is claiming that his organs were harvested before he died. Jacobs had a snowboarding accident at Peek ‘N Peak on March 13 and had severe head trauma. It sounds like a clerical error, but the time of death was written down nearly a half hour after his organs were removed. [...]

Read the full post

No wonder Brian Wells was named an unindicted co-conspirator in the bank robbery that led to his death. Court documents unsealed on Wednesday said that Wells had his neck measured for the collar bomb placed around his neck. Excellent job by reporters at the ETN including Ed Palattella that must had had to dig through [...]

Read the full post

 
TSI Terminal Systems and Railpower Technologies Corp (TSX: P) announced that they have completed the preliminary testing of Railpower’s first ECO Crane hybrid power plant recently installed on one of TSI’s 60-ton rubber tyred gantry cranes (RTGs). This installation is the first of three units slated for TSI. The diesel/ battery hybrid power plant has [...]

Read the full post

If the opportunity for a number of good paying jobs falls out of the sky, do any Erie area economic development officials hear it?
In May 2007, Railpower Technologies announced that it was exploring the possibility of operating its own manufacturing facility. During the second quarter of 2007, an offer was made to purchase an existing [...]

Read the full post

Herman Bowman is sitting in jail and it might be his new home for awhile. Bowman worked at the Erie Wastewater Treatment Facility. He didn’t like the way his boss for treating him and met with someone in the human resources department. Bowman said that if his boss didn’t get off his case he would [...]

Read the full post

 
Waldameer Amusement Park and Water World held the official ground breaking for the Ravine Flyer II. The Ravine Flyer II will be a wooden roller coaster. The coaster will traverse Peninsula Drive (State Route 832) and have great views of Lake Erie. It is expected to open in 2008.
 
 
Erie Bank held the official ground breaking [...]

Read the full post

 
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 state [...]

Read the full post

A reader sent me details about the GAF Materials Corporation severance package to the Erie based employees. They were offered 3 weeks severance, and if you stay until the end you receive an additional $500. If you’ve been there 20 years or more you receive 4 weeks severance. If your anniversary of working [...]

Read the full post

Erie County Executive Mark DiVecchio, showing a bit of common sense for once, vetoed a proposed ordinance to take away the arrest powers of the Erie County Sheriff’s Office. The deputies are not a police force but should be able to arrest criminals, otherwise they are just mall security.
 
 
Railpower Technologies (TSX: P) announced that it [...]

Read the full post

General McLane beat Pottsville 28-23 to win the Pennsylvania Class AAA football championship. Tough as nails Drew Astorino had 172 yards rushing including a long touchdown run after he twisted his ankle. Astorino has given a verbal commitment to Kent State but a couple of people have said Duke has offered him a 4 year, [...]

Read the full post

The official site for Celebrate Erie 2006 is www.CelebrateErie2006.com. Jon Whaley, the top assistant to Mayor Joe Sinnott, asked for links to point to that URL. The site is owned by the City of Erie. The web design firm that owns CelebrateErie.com has recently updated that site to include info on this years event, but [...]

Read the full post

Joshua Dibello was found dead in his car in the parking lot of Herman’s, 28th and Old French. He died from a gunshot to the head. No word on any suspects but with his brother John being a city police officer, it shouldn’t be too long.
The ONLY supplier of blood to the hospitals in Erie [...]

Read the full post

The blood supply dropped to the lowest levels of the year, endangering patients of all types at area hospitals. The Fourth of July holiday proved to be the worst holiday weekend in years for the blood supply with very heavy blood use at regional hospitals. Everyone is urged to take the 30 minutes out to [...]

Read the full post

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 [...]

Read the full post

Anthony Mills robbed the Erie Community Credit Union at 12th and State yesterday afternoon. Police had him in custody in less than 15 minutes. He was wearing a bright yellow jacket when he robbed the place and had the jacket on his arm when police picked him up 5 blocks away.
At its regularly scheduled meeting [...]

Read the full post

Erie County Executive candidate Dale McBrier held a press conference at the site of the future Presque Isle Downs saying that MTR Gaming shouldn’t be getting a taxpayer subsidy. Former used car salesman and point man for MTR, Greg Rubino, showed up and said the opening of the race track and slot’s casino could be [...]

Read the full post

Herbert Fiss of IFP North America (Innovative Fruit Processing) held a press conference in Erie yesterday to unveil the company logo. Groundbreaking for the $65-80 million plant on East 12th Street could be held in January. Now the company needs to sign contracts with outlets (grocery stores, drug stores, etc) to get the loans to [...]

Read the full post