Way to go Phil! Ensuring public dollars support American families not an addiction is the goal of legislation recently introduced by U S Rep Phil English (R-Pa). HR 3656 would require states to administer drug tests for welfare recipients if the state has substantial evidence that an individual welfare beneficiary is abusing controlled substances. “My [...]

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Erie Central Tech High School has been declared a “dropout factory” by researchers at Johns Hopkins University as less than 60 percent of their incoming freshmen make it to graduation. That’s less than 6 in 10 for those of you that are dropouts. Erie School District Superintendent James Barker had his contract extended for 5 [...]

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  Ethan Fuhrman’s Cider Mill and Bakery on East Gore Rd in Belle Valley burned down to the ground. The 111 year old company is (was?) best known for their apple cider. They also produced Concord grape juice, apple-grape, cherry flavored cider, and hot mulled-cider. Their “from scratch” bakery had soft German pretzels, cookies and [...]

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  Vote For Hal!  Zabaware’s Ultra Hal software won the “most human” computer of the year in the 17th annual Loebner Prize Competition for Artificial Intelligence (AI). The Loebner Prize is an annual competition where software programs attempt to convince human judges that they are actually people. The format of the competition is called a [...]

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A teenage coed athlete at a Catholic college has a baby in her dorm room and kills the baby soon after it’s born and places it a plastic bag. I’m not talking about the case of 18 year old Teri Rhodes, the Mercyhurst College volleyball player that suffocated her baby, Jane Doe Rhodes, back on [...]

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  The study report on the proposed community college to be called Northwest Pennsylvania Community College is dated October 1, 2007. The figures for costs seem to be based on 1977 figures. The estimated expenses for utilities, salaries and supplies aren’t even close to realistic. The one figure that seems high is the $5,700 that [...]

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  Erie has been granted a franchise in the National Premier Soccer League. The league has not yet confirmed this. I doubt there is an ownership group in place. The NPSL is a minor league that’s equivalent to the fourth level of pro soccer in the United States. Major League Soccer is the top level, [...]

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  Great news for a local company and area high tech job growth. Zabaware’s Ultra Hal software won the “most human” computer of the year in the 17th annual Loebner Prize Competition for Artificial Intelligence (AI). The contest was held in New York City hosted by philanthropist Hugh Loebner. The Loebner Prize is an annual [...]

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MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus) is a contagious infection that is resistant to many antibiotics. Pennsylvania doesn’t even require health care centers to disclose the number of patients that have MRSA. About 30 percent of Americans have staph bacteria living on them, including about 1 percent with MRSA, but they have no infection symptoms. MRSA has [...]

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  Two poor dogs abandoned in a mobile home in Wesleyville were rescued by police and officials with Because You Care. Neighbors said they left there alone for a week.The ‘person’ living there was either facing eviction or foreclosure and had moved away. Nice job by WJET-TV for shedding some light on the story and [...]

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Someone needs to fill the Sheriff Andy Taylor role if Erie County Executive Mark DiVecchio is going to play Barney Fife and shoot himself in the foot or rear every week. Take the bullets out his gun already and just let him keep one in his pocket. Just a few days ago, after a public [...]

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WJET-TV ran a story in which Sheriff Bob Merski said he was looking into the possibility of putting a temporary halt to sheriff sales in Erie County. Sheriff sales are done to recoup back unpaid property taxes. Merski is asking the County Solicitor’s Office for an opinion. You know things are slow building-wise when an [...]

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  Erie Pa based American Resort Management announced an April groundbreaking for the Volcano Island Resort in Fairmont, WV. The first phase of the resort will be an $87 million indoor/ outdoor waterpark, along with a hotel and conference center. Also in the plans are a 20 screen movie theater, a variety of retail stores, [...]

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A Jeep driven by Maurice Bort of Erie going West on I-90 drove over median and struck another Jeep head-on which was travelling East on 90. Both drivers were killed. Traffic was tied up for nearly 3 hours. Drivers from out of town that exited the thruway trying to find a way around the accident [...]

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Developer Brad Fairfield announced he received funding to begin construction of Koehler Brewery Square. Hallelujah. National City Bank has joined Sky Bank in providing the financing. Construction is expected to start by the end of November and the building for Cornerstone Healthcare Group should be move in ready by the end of 2007. Fairfield has [...]

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Brad Fairfield, developer of the Koehler Brewery Square Project, has a press conference scheduled for 10:30 am this morning. He was still looking for over $3 million in financing last I heard and if he got it you would think he’d let the world know immediately. The Seattle Post Intelligencer ran a good story that [...]

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Presque Isle Downs received a slot machine operating license from the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board. Let’s see if I can write about this without getting a phone call at work like I did at the end of September because of this post. It took me a week to get over the apprehension of starting my [...]

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Paragon Print Systems formally opened their new building at Joyce A Savocchio Business Park, the former junkyard turned into an industrial park by the Greater Erie Industrial Development Corp. The Paragon Print Systems story has been the story of Erie economic growth for the past decade and will be a story repeated many times in [...]

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The Erie County Department of Health Board of Directors – Anthony M Ruffa (877-7686) , Johnie M Atkinson, Paul F Burroughs (833-2222), Richard A Ortoski (866-8446) and William W Cobert (835-5039) – voted unanimously on a resolution to ban smoking in public places in Erie County including restaurants and bars. The resolution goes to Erie [...]

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Christian Huckaby of Cleveland, a student at Mercyhurst North East, died when the car he was riding in went off the road on Interstate 90 near I-271 in Willoughby Hills, Ohio. Marcus Hawkins of Cleveland, also a student at Mercyhurst NE, was transported to a local hospital with non life-threatening injuries. The two were on [...]

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Questions remain about the circumstance that resulted in the accidential death on Friday evening of Andrew Polakowski of Erie. Polakowski, a freshman at Ohio State, was pinned between an elevator car and the third fllor of Stradley Hall. He had just entered the elevator and when he changed his mind and tried to exit the [...]

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The Erie Redevelopment Authority received a $950,000 grant from the Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency for the Mercantile Building revitalization project. Plans call for retail space on the first floor, offices on the second and third floors and residential condos on the top 2 floors. The Erie Redevelopment Authority took over the building earlier this year [...]

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The best argument against democracy is five minutes of an average Erie City Council meeting. However, they did pretty well last night electing Joseph Schember to fill the counicl seat caused by the resignation of Dr Lonnie Gatlin. Gatlin resigned for ‘health reasons’ which was a polite way of saying the actual reason which everyone [...]

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Erie City Council yesterday held a meeting to talk about the city amusement tax. The tax raised about $36,000 for the four month period of June through September. Council had thought the tax would raise $500,000. It would have raised that amount if there were 56 months in a year. There are in fact 12 [...]

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The Eloise Woodsbey lawsuit again A and M Homes, Regal Financial and other reached court yesterday. It’s being handled in US Bankruptcy Court since it’s part of her bankruptcy filings. Judge Warren W Bentz urged both sides to reach a settlement which is what apparea will happen. Woodsbey will most likely keep her home and [...]

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Waldameer Park and Water World yesterday began installing their new ride the 140 foot tower called the X Scream. it will officially open next Spring when the park reopens for the season but Waldameer will hold a special 2 day fundraiser in November. On Nov 4 and 5, the X Scream will be open for [...]

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Pennsylvania State Police released the name of the man shot and killed on Saturday in the parking lot of Lazer Tag at Splash Lagoon. The man was indetified as Jesus Mancilla aka Edward Pina, an illegal immigrant living in Ashtabula, Ohio. The usupect in the shooting is 17 year old Donnie Swift of Highland, Michigan. [...]

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I don’t think the people of Erie realize how bad the Buffalo area got hit with snow. There are 390,000 people without power. The Erie hotels are packed with refugees from WNY and cars are streaming down I-90 for food, gas, generators and batteries. On a realated note.. There is now a severe blood shortage [...]

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The Erie Times-News repoted today that Dr Chuck Rosenthal and his brothers, Peter and James, have filed a lawsuit against former Mercyhurst College President William Garvey and Mercyhurst board of trustees chairwoman Marlene Mosco. Chuck Rosenthal was the first to publically accuse Gavey of sexually assualting him. A number of others, think the number is [...]

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Rexnord will acquire Zurn Industries, Jacuzzi’s plumbing fixtures and fittings manufacturing business in Erie, Pa, and will create a new water management business at Rexnord. Separately, RBS’s private equity owner Apollo Management has agreed to purchase whirlpool bath and spa manufacturer Jacuzzi Brands (NYSE: JJZ) in a $1.25 billion deal. Al Marini of Erie, president [...]

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