Outside Erie

It’s encouraging to see Erie County Executive Mark DiVecchio exploring the idea of a four-day workweek for county employees.
I’m not completely sold on the idea yet.
But it’s a refreshing development to see an Erie elected official thinking creatively.
I’d love to hear this community’s thoughts on this approach. Have you seen this happen in […]

Picker-blogger Dale Hannah went to Erie County Executive Mark DiVecchio’s town hall meeting in North East last night and offers a report on What If?
Hannah is also looking to post some more in-depth reports on the blog in the coming days.

I was reminded of Dale Hannah’s recent post political plea bargains on What If? over the weekend when I read some of the stories about the state employees who are facing charges that they were part of a scheme to give improper bonuses to employees of the Pennsylvania Legislature.
I’ve written before about how public officials […]

The Cook Political Report is still forecasting a victory for incumbent Rep. Phil English in the race for Pennsylvania’s 3rd District seat in Congress.
But English’s lead over Democratic challenger Kathy Dahlkemper is a bit shakier than initially thought.
Cook rates the district as “Lean Republican”, meaning the race is “leaning” toward English.
It had previously rated the […]

This weekend’s thread about authorities in Erie prompted me to do some poking around to take a closer look at who is serving on the boards of directors of Erie’s various authorities. I also spent some time researching the makeup of the boards of directors of several Erie business groups, nonprofit organizations and foundations.
You can […]

We had a lot of great discussions this week, which made it difficult to pick a single top comment.
But I ended up choosing the following item from GlobalErie reader Jim, who raised some questions about plans to improve Tullio Arena. Those plans haven’t gotten much attention in this forum, but I’m hoping Jim will be […]

Hard to answer that question based on the news reports coming out of Harrisburg on the state budget discussions.
Some of this is posturing, for sure. But the state’s budget situation is certainly worth monitoring.
Also worth noting that some people in the charity world are worried that budget shortfalls in 29 states will lead to […]

Roll Call is reporting that Erie’s Tom Ridge was contacted by the Department of Justice for failing to register as a lobbyist for the government of Albania.
Ridge reportedly had agreed to a lobbying contract of roughly $500,000 nearly two years ago but never registered with the Department of Justice.
“I didn’t think it was [necessary] to […]

I learned about a great database this weekend run by the folks at the Citizens Against Government Waste that slices through the federal budget to find the source of every federal government earmark.
The database allows users to search by each member of Congress — and get an itemized list of the projects he or she […]

The Pennsylvania Senate has approved the controversial smoking ban, which will limit smoking in restaurants and other public facilities, but would allow the practice in bars and taverns that don’t rely on food for more than 20 percent of their sales.
The bill seems like a compromise that isn’t likely to appease those who oppose a […]