St. Vincent Hospital has settled with the federal government, agreeing to pay $1.9 million in order to settle a whistleblower lawsuit. Anthony Kite, an independent hospital consultant in New Jersey, alleged the hospital defrauded the medicare system by submitting inflated reimbursement claims over actual costs. Phil Friedman, the attorney representing Teri Rhodes, has filed a [...]

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Governor Rendell announced $5 million in grants are being awarded to help more than 320 municipalities continue and expand local recycling programs. The recycling performance grants reward communities based on the amount of recyclable materials collected. Larger collection amounts mean larger grants for the recycling programs. The City of Erie will receive $226,624 in grants [...]

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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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The Erie Otters of the Ontario Hockey League announced at a press conference that Ron Sertz has decided to step down as the club’s Director of Operations. “I’ve enjoyed 12 great years with the Otters in my position as Director of Operations,” Sertz said. “I’m very proud of the organization that we have built and [...]

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Erie County Executive Mark DiVecchio got away with it. GoErie.com reported that DiVecchio paid $285 in reimbursements for snowplowing and parking fines. DuhVecchio still doesn’t comprehend that what he did was wrong. The article by Kevin Flowers quoted him as saying “I just want this over with.” If you get caught, all you have to [...]

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Erie County Executive Mark DiVecchio still hasn’t resigned or been arrested. Improprieties about the misuse by DiVecchio of county employees, equipment and materials continue to mount. Clueless, arrogant DiVecchio still doesn’t realize what he did was wrong. DiVecchio used county employees on county time with county equipment to plow his home driveway. Other instances of [...]

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Indianapolis Colts safety Bob Sanders of Erie, PA was named the Associated Press 2007 NFL Defensive Player of the Year. Voting wasn’t even close as Sanders received 31 first place votes. Two other tied with 4 each. Sanders was a two time all-state performer for Erie Cathedral Prep and went on to star at Iowa. [...]

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  The Federal Aviation Administration today will meet with local government officials to discuss the Erie International Airport Runway Extension Project. U S Rep Phil English secured the meeting at the request of local officials. The FAA meeting will take place at 9 am in the Conference Room on the 2nd floor of the Erie [...]

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  The Best Places to Work in PA winners were announced and 3 Erie companies made the 2007 list for large size companies. Saint Vincent Health System was 5th, Stairways Behavioral Health was 16th and Hamot Medical Center was 48th. No area companies made the list in the medium size category. Registration for the 2008 [...]

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Erie County Office of Children and Youth union members will be back on the job today. They agreed to return to work for the next two weeks while contract talks continue. Not getting paid and losing health care benefits helped. The county had filed an injunction to force them back to their desks and Judge [...]

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  Erie Shipbuilding held a christening ceremony yesterday for the first ships built in Erie in 34 years. The ships are the 245 ft dump scow WITTE 4003 and the 166 ft deck barge SUE B. Jeff at Erie Shipping News was there and has an excellent post on the event.   The Erie County [...]

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  After the closing bell on Wall Street on Monday, Erie Insurance announced that the company plans to write business in Minnesota beginning in the fourth quarter of 2009. If this sounds familiar they announced this once before but then put a halt to expansion plans. Erie Insurance currently writes in Indiana, Maryland, New York, [...]

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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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  Saint Vincent Health Center has become an affiliate of Catholic Health Partners of Cincinnati. Affiliate in this case means taken over by. I don’t care if they say St V’s will still be run by people in Erie or that it will help them in recruiting doctors, it’s no longer a local hospital.   [...]

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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 Enterprises. [...]

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Mohammed Abdelhady, who owned Moe’s One Stop convenience stores in Erie, pleaded guilty to operating a check-cashing business without a license. Well, that’s what they got him on. What he was doing was running a fencing operation and laundering money for drug dealers. That’s why the guilty plea. He forfeited $252,000 and could be sentenced [...]

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Voices for Independence filed a federal lawsuit against Penndot claiming that the curb cuts don’t meet the standards of the Americans with Disabilities Act. Voices for Independence is an advocacy and service organization of and for individuals with disabilities in wheelchairs. With the money the City of Erie spend doing curb cuts around the city, [...]

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The Erie Gauge War ended on this date 152 years ago, February 1, 1854. Unlike today where all trains run on a standard width of track, different railroads and different states had separate track gauges. Being a county sandwiched between New York and Ohio, Erie County profited – at least for awhile. The first railroad [...]

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Saint Vincent Health System (St Vincent Hospital) held a formal groundbreaking at 24th and Myrtle on a $28.2 million expansion project. Landmark Healthcare Facilities LLC will finance and own the medical office building. Erie Mayor Joe Sinnott was all over the news saying how great that it was a new private development and that it [...]

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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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