Erie Times-News

Combine determination and artistic talent, and you get Advika Anand. The fifth-grader-to-be at Grandview Elementary School has recently discovered her talent for painting. "I like to look at things like Google and YouTube for inspiration," said Anand, 10, who also develops her own ideas into art, like a painting she recently completed of the northern lights, which are colors created when electrically charged particles from the sun enter the earth's atmosphere and can be seen above the magnetic poles of the Northern and Southern hemispheres.

Raimond Hansbrew sees the scar along his hairline every time he looks in a mirror. It’s a painful reminder of an encounter he had with Erie police in May 2018. It’s a reminder of the legal battle still ahead, too.

Next up in the PIAA team championship series is Cathedral Prep swimming and diving. The 2018-19 Ramblers were the last of four District 10 Class 2A teams that won state titles in boys aquatics over an eight-year span.

Erie County Councilman Brian Shank plans to reschedule a We Support the Blue police rally in support of law enforcement, possibly in late July. Shank announced on Thursday he would postpone the pro-police rally he had organized and scheduled for Saturday at noon at Perry Square in downtown Erie.

Gannon cross country standout Joseph Westrick was named the Pete Nevins Scholar-Athlete of the Year male award-winner by the PSAC. The honor is selected through a vote by the conference’s sports information directors. Westrick is the second Golden Knight to receive the award. The previous winner was men’s basketball player Kyle Goldcamp in 2008-09.

The legal fight between Eriez Manufacturing’s owner and its former CEO has expanded into federal court. In a lawsuit filed earlier this month in U.S. District Court in Erie, the company sued the former CEO, Timothy Shuttleworth, who sued the company in May over claims that he was forced out over his response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

After 17 years serving more than 50 area Presbyterian congregations, the Rev. David Oyler is retiring at the end of June. Oyler, 66, has been a minister for 41 years and general presbyter for the Erie-based Presbytery of Lake Erie since 2003. In a position similar to bishop in some churches, he has shepherded the local Presbyterian organization that currently includes 58 congregations with about 6,500 total members.

Smoke and water damage from a 2015 blaze weren’t enough to keep the former Blue Canoe brewpub in Titusville down for good. But a three-month shutdown this spring — followed by the prospect of an uncertain future — has left the business dark, a victim of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Is there really a castle in the middle of Fairview Township? Well sort of. In October 2013, we met clever owners Christopher and Christine Cedzo who built a stone home that stands at the curve of Naeff and Uhlman roads.

My husband and I are among the many househunters who decided to find a new home in advance of COVID-19, but the actual move won’t take place until July. Planning how to decorate quite honestly has kept me sane during these past homebound months. How many were there? I think I lost count.

Tents, patios and fields will be more important than ever to anyone in the cocktail business. The region’s breweries, wineries and distilleries are adapting to COVID-19 rules and hoping for some latitude, but in the meantime, they’re finding a way to make it all work.

"Man, when you lose your laugh, you lose your footing," said Jack Nicholson, emulating a depressed patient in the movie "One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest." It’s likely that one in five of you reading this article can relate, as serious depression affects 20% of adults each year in the U.S., according to the National Institute of Mental Health. Common symptoms include persistent feelings of sadness and hopelessness, slowed thinking and concentrating, and lack of interest or pleasure in normal activities. Depression can be triggered by stress, grief, lack of sunlight – and absolutely nothing obvious.

Booklovers from all over Erie County have looked forward to visits from the Bookmobile for more than 50 years. There have been a few vehicles that carried the Bookmobile name but the most recent version, known affectionately as Bertha by library staff, has been off the road since late 2019. The Erie Regional Library Foundation is in the midst of a campaign to raise funds and public support for a new Bookmobile.

The SOBs are still out driving on local roadways from Peek’n Peak Resort near Findley Lake, New York, to Presque Isle State Park in Millcreek Township. We are not referring to inconsiderate drivers who cause traffic problems but to the Scions of Britain, a car club based in Waterford, in which members tool about in their English vehicles. Since last being profiled in Lake Erie Lifestyle five years ago, the Scions now boasts more than 200 members – about 70 more than it had in 2015 – and it now has it own website and Facebook page.

Yes, it’s that season when everything is fresh and in stock at the farm stands. Especially the berries. It’s hard to appreciate them all before they’re gone and it’s easy to forget about little tiny, hard-to-find currants. But we really should all make the effort.

Solo living for two April weeks in a camper parked in the driveway of his daughter’s suburban Denver, Colorado, home wasn’t on Michael “Sully” Sullivan’s bucket list.

Green thumbs run in my family. I can still picture my Grandpa Ed Mertl, dressed like James Dean in a white undershirt and jeans, plucking single weeds from his immaculate lawn and fawning over his rose and vegetable gardens. His daughter, my mom Marilyn Hartnett, was a saver, squirreling away beautiful double begonia tubers in the garage and heirloom tomato seeds in an old pill jar.

When the COVID-19 crisis forced schools to close in March, it immediately brought to light the disparity among school districts and access to technology, online learning tools and broadband internet service.

The Showboat Hotel, which bills itself as the largest hotel on the Atlantic City boardwalk, plans to break ground in September for a $100 million water park to be located next door.