Erie

President Donald Trump pushed into arguably the most important state on the electoral map on Tuesday, opting for a rally in Pennsylvania instead of formal debate practice two days ahead of the final presidential debate that may be his last, best chance to alter the trajectory of the 2020 campaign.

For the first time in nearly 27 years, the state Board of Education has approved a new community college in Pennsylvania.

The state board of education on Thursday voted 9-6 to approve Erie County’s community college plan.

Supporters of efforts to add a community college in Erie had hoped the state Board of Education would give them a final answer in March.

Thanks to the coronavirus, they’re still waiting.

A coke plant in northwestern Pennsylvania turned away employees who showed up for work Thursday morning, signaling the apparent shutdown of an operation that had faced mounting regulatory pressure over its environmental record.

Erie’s campaign to build a community college met disappointment last week,  after the state Board of Education voted against taking final action on Erie’s proposal.

By a vote of 8 to 6, board members delayed final action and instead approved a motion to hold an evidentiary meeting in Erie within the next six months.

“It’s a travesty, what just occurred,” said Kathy Dahlkemper, Erie County’s executive. “You know, this community has come together. We have proven all the points … to the levels we were supposed to reach in terms of the state law.”

Some of the wildflowers in the overgrown field reach Mike Campbell’s head.

He walked through them one recent day, pointing out where to watch for railroad tracks, as he got closer to Erie Coke.

It’s an industrial plant on the shore of one of the Great Lakes where workers turn coal into a key ingredient for steel manufacturing. The operation has a long history of environmental violations, and it survived a shut-down attempt by state regulators almost a decade ago.

It’s now being targeted again — in part thanks to Campbell and a group he helped start.

Three of five kids killed in a fire at a home child care center in Pennsylvania were the children of a volunteer firefighter who was responding to another call, an official said Monday.

*This story was updated at 3:14 p.m. on Aug. 12, 2019 to include more information. 

Luther Jones' two daughters and a son were trapped in a blaze in the lakeside city of Erie while he was responding to a call for what turned out to be a malfunctioning alarm, said Lawrence Park Township Volunteer Fire Chief Joe Crotty.

A $300,000 investment in 2017 in a 145-year-old Erie asset appears to be paying off.

Attendance is up markedly at Presque Isle Lighthouse, said Michael Sullivan, executive director of the lighthouse located near Beach 9.

A Pennsylvania school district has given its teachers small wooden baseball bats as a reminder to fight a school shooter with any weapon available should other options fail.

The superintendent of the Millcreek Township School District says the 16-inch bats are primarily symbolic, but the district did want to have a "consistent tool" for all teachers should they need to fight and attacker.

Pittsburgh City Council's public hearing on a controversial rental permit program was filled with opposition from area landlords.

Snow continues to fall in Erie, Pennsylvania, and surrounding areas that already have seen a record amount of snow over the past few days.

The National Weather Service office in Cleveland says at least an additional 5 to 10 inches are expected through Wednesday.

The storm brought 34 inches of snow on Christmas Day, an all-time daily snowfall record for Erie.

A western Pennsylvania school board has a new, openly transgender member.

The Erie Times-News reports Tyler Titus won one of four open seats on the Erie School Board on Tuesday.

The Victory Fund, a political action committee dedicated to electing openly LGBT people, says 33-year-old Titus is the first openly transgender person ever elected in the state of Pennsylvania.

Titus is a clinical therapist and Democrat who won a write-in Democratic nomination in May.

Authorities have released the names of two men killed during a storm that weather officials have confirmed spawned a tornado in Pennsylvania.

A successful opioid addiction program for pregnant women at UPMC Magee in Pittsburgh is expanding to UPMC Hamot in Erie.

A franchise that already controlled two Coca-Cola bottlers in Pennsylvania has snapped up 11 more in the state and West Virginia.

The Erie Times-News reports Abarta Coca-Cola Beverages, of Pittsburgh, has bought Erie's Coca-Cola Bottling Co. Abarta plans to keep all 104 workers there, which supplies Erie, Crawford, Forest, McKean, Potter and Warren counties in northwestern Pennsylvania.

GE Transportation plans to end most locomotive production at its century-old plant in northwestern Pennsylvania, eliminating about 575 jobs.

GoErie.com reports the work is being transferred by the end of 2018 to Fort Worth, Texas, where workers aren't union members.

The Lawrence Park Township plant, just outside Erie, currently employs more than 2,5f00 workers. Locomotive prototypes will still be produced there.

Richard Simpson, a GE Transportation executive, says the company has to put work at its most competitive location, which doesn't include Erie.

A woman convicted in a bizarre bank robbery plot that left a pizza delivery driver dead when a bomb strapped to his neck exploded has died in prison.

Marjorie Diehl-Armstrong died Tuesday of natural causes, the Federal Bureau of Prisons said. Her last location in the federal prison system was the Federal Medical Center-Carswell in Fort Worth, Texas, bureau spokesman Justin Long said.

Pennsylvania's most northwestern county could be hit with 14 inches of lake-effect snow by Friday.

The National Weather Service expects 10 to 14 inches of snow to fall in Erie County between 5 p.m. Wednesday and 4 p.m. Friday. The county borders Lake Erie and southwestern New York.

The lake-effect snow advisory says the storm will also carry winds of 20 to 30 mph with gusts up to 45 mph.

Allentown City Council is looking at reinstating as many as three ordinances previously repealed to avoid lawsuits facilitated by Act 192. 

Although data can be a powerful tool in the argument over policies to address gun violence, approaches to collecting and using data across local police departments are inconsistent.

A call to the Erie Police Department comes back with the number of guns taken off the streets in the last few years. The Philadelphia Police Department releases annual reports on its website that show the number of shooting victims and homicide by firearm. In Reading, they're focusing on the locations of verified shots fired in the city.

Cities have generally had to plan for growth, but many Pennsylvania cities now face shrinking populations. That doesn't mean they get to stop planning.

Erie is the 4th largest city in Pennsylvania, but it is among the last of the top 15 to catch up to the comprehensive plan bandwagon. Under the Pennsylvania Municipalities Planning Code only counties need to come up with a comprehensive plan, but city planners highly recommend them for municipalities as well.