Once again, don't foreget to visit the archives. Large updates will push back some current news you might not want to miss.

The Most Recent Archive is http://roulettenews.blogspot.com/2005_04_24_roulettenews_archive.html

Thanks!

Teachers in Port Allegany could strike, and that could leave some graduating seniors with a delayed graduation.
Port Allegany Education Association vice president Tracy Kio told reporters that a strike headquarters in Downtown Port Allegany has been rented just in case.

The teachers are working on their third year without a contract.

Students showed concern about a delayed graduation date at this weeks school board meeting.

What is causing the delays are not clear, The Roulette News Bog will look into the details and make them public as soon as possible.

The Burning Bans in Potter and McKean Counties were lifted this week thanks to county comissioners, and an inch and a half of rain across the area.

Smethport’s St. Elizabeth of Hungary Church has a new priest, and he’s married. Reverend Vincent Cieslewicz is one of only two married priests out of 200 priests in the Erie Diocese. He has been married for 31 years, and has two grown children.

“Father Vince” had the blessing of the lat Pope John Paul II, and then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who became Pope Benedict the sixteenth.

An Austin man was injured on Dutch Hill Road in Potter County yesterday.45-year-old Mark Grazier went off the roadway and struck a speed limit sign,and spun around, crossing into the other lane. Grazier was encouraged to submit to a blood test at Charles Cole. DUI charges were filed.

Well, school districts hoping for a delay on the May 30 Act 72 optiondeadline will have to make up their minds soon. State Judge James GardnerCollins denied the Pennsylvania School Boards Association request to delaythe deadline by a year.School boards have until M ay 30 to opt in to the Act 72 legislation, thatwould provide property tax relief for homeowners based on projected gamblingrevenues from slot machines.

A Kane soldier wounded in Iraq last year is going active again.22 year old Navy Petty Officer Leo Geibel leaves this week for the National Navy MedicalCenter in Bethesda, MD. Geibel was wounded by a rocket-propelled grenade onRamad in 2004.He will serve light duty at the Military hospital.

Unconfirmed reports say Game Commission officials have cited some Bradford
area residents for leek digging in the Collins Pine area recently.
Game Commission officials at the North Central office could not confirm any
specific instances, but said that leek digging is prohibited on state game
lands.
Also, any private land that is open to public hunting as a part of a co-op
access with the game commission is subject to similar enforcement.
Any fruit picking, tree cutting, leek digging, or similar behavior that
would disturb food that wildlife would eat on state game lands or co-op
lands is prohibited.

State Police in Kane have asked local police to be on the lookout for avehicle stolen from Liberty Township. The vehicle is a light blue 2002Saturn Sedan, with Pennsylvania Plates GBA 7977. The car was stolen fromalong Route 155, just south of Port Allegany.

Loan Officers at First National Bank of Port Allegany are going bald, if they can raise enough money...
First National Bank of Port Allegany is trying to raise more than $2,000 for the American Cancer Society.

IN support of a co-workers battling breast cancer, the bank is attempting to raise money for the Cancer Society. The Deadline is Friday, May 13th. If they raise enough, the loan officers will get shaved int he lobby. of the main office.

State Police in Potter County were called to a home in Shinglehouse. An 11-year-old girl ran away from home. The girl returned hom as police were interviewing the girl’s mother.

The Pennsylvania house is looking at a measure to keep convicted sex offenders at bay. The proposal involves electronic monitoring for offenders to prevent recidivism.

The move to consider the electronic monitoring is inspired by recent cases of convicted sex offenders kidnapping and killing children in Florida recently.

Yesterday’s funeral for fallen mount Jewett Volunteer Firefighter was emotional for many. Joshua Gustafson died in a garbage truck accident last week.

More than 150 Firefighters from across McKean, Elk and Warren Counties showed up to salute their fallen comrade.
A Flag was draped between two ladder trucks stretched across Main Street.

State Police were called in to investigate the death of a Roulette man yesterday. The death has been ruled a suicide. 51-year-old Walter Troy died from a self inflicted gunshot wound at around 3:30 yesterday.

Roulete Volunteer Fire Department assisted Police at the scene.

Well, this month we're doing good. The Roulette News Blog has had over 1800 visitors so far this month.

Last month we had over 22 hundred.
So far, each month has shown an increase in visitors. That means, we only have 5 days to break our record.


So, we need to ask a favor.


If each of you email one or two people who may or may not have some connection with the McKean/Potter County area a note to encourage them to check out the site, I think we can do it!

Thanks to all of you who chip in and send us stories, photos, and comments on the blog. The comments are my favorite.


We're not a newspaper. In fact, some zealous fans have recently been going onto sites like the Potter Leader Enterprise and saying great things about us, but nasty things about them in their guestbook.

Here's the deal, I know a lot of you are angry that the Leader doesn't post all their stories online for free.

and we do.

BUT we are not even in the same category, or caliber as the Leader.

They are an excellent newspaper, and in fact, one of the best in the area.
I've done a lot of work with the Leader, and I hope to do more in the future. I have nothing against them or the way they do things. I totally understand the readers frustration about the lack of web stories, but even more so, I respect the longstanding tradition of the Leader Enterprse, and contend that their paper is inexpensive, and anyone who wants to complain about paying a buck to read the newspaper is just plain out cheap.

While we are flattered that our readers see a need to promote us online, maybe a little decorum is appropriate... I would never put the Roulette News Blog in the same category as the Leader Enterprise. There are things in the newspaper you'll never see on the site, more information, and viewpoints than we can afford to handle. Nothing Else compares, and nothing can compare to a good old fashioned newspaper.

We are something different, I'm not saying better, or worse, at all. It's apples and oranges.

We are a News Blog.

It's a revolution, actually. A rebellion against the way news is and was and will be done.

But it's a peaceful rebellion.

Our thought here is to provide online news, daily (or as close to it as possible) with reader interaction, and opinion.

We appreciate our readers. It makes me jump up and down to think that over two thousand people a month see it fit to log on and check out what we're doing.

Thanks for all your support!

-Josh-

Rob and Loretta Hamilton Emailed me today, wth a video clip of the bear that visited across the way from their Maple Street home. As soon as I can figure out how to post it, I'll put the clip online for download! Stay Tuned!

Adelphia Communications stock made a huge plummet today. Stocks were trading netween 19 to 25 cents per share last week. They dropped down to 14 cetns around noon today.

The news comes along with other compny news today, that Adelphia will have to pay back a massice amount of money...

the following exerpted from CNN.com. The story was featured as the top news story at around 4:30PM

The Justice Department said on Monday Adelphia Communications Corp. agreed to pay $715 million to set up a victim compensation fund to repay investors who lost money as a result of accounting fraud schemes and looting of the company. The bankrupt cable television group said Adelphia founder John Rigas had also agreed to forfeit more than 95 percent of all Rigas family assets.
For the Full Story, click here:
http://money.cnn.com/2005/04/25/technology/adelphia_settlement.reut/index.htm?cnn=yes

It hit me like a ton of bricks this morning, when I opened up the paper and saw an obituary for a woman I loved.

Altheia Dudley passed on Saturday. I usual don't do obituaries, only because its an extremely time consuming process, and so far, there's only one of me doing this work.

But Altheia was a woman for whom to ignore her "homecoming" would be a travesty.

She was my Sunday school teacher at First Baptist Church of Roulette. I was going into fifth grade. All of us fifth grade boys were petrified. We had heard stories of the "mean old lady" that taught the class.

I'll never forget sitting in her class, afraid to move, afraid to laugh at the flannelgraph conflagration, with Mary Magdalene's head slightly dog-eared.

But it did not take more than one week for us boys to realize that she was strict, but she loved us.

I'll never forget her playing the piano, or singing with all her heart.

She made those "stuffy old hymns" come alive, because when she sang them, she meant them.


When I grew up, and went off to college, she'd slip me a 20 dollar bill when she would shake my hand (she did it more than once) and tell me that I was a good boy, and she wanted me to put it toward school.

She loved Jesus.

and she loved me.

So when I heard last year that her health was failing, and she was placed in the long term care unit, my heart broke.

Someone that beautiful should never have to suffer.

And so today, when I hear that she went "home" this weekend, it warms my heart to think of her sitting in the lap of the God that she loved, and taught me, and a hundred other fifth grade Roulette boys to love.