Anne's Arts & Activities Blog

A mysterious disease wiping out thousands of bats in the Northeast has Pennsylvania naturalists worried. The dead bats are found with a white fungus around their noses, and the ailment is being called white-nose syndrome. Federal officials say it killed 8,000 to 11,000 bats in New York State last year. So researchers are closely monitoring one of Pennsylvania's largest bat caves in upper Bucks County. So far, no white nose has been seen, but researchers say Pennsylvania is not in the clear because the disease spread from four caves in New York to caves all across the Northeast, and no one knows where it will go next.

If any of you heard Dirk Van's daily feature on the 6 o'clock news, or if you hear it on First Light Monday morning, he's not talking about a fork in the road at our Rock City . The Rock City he's talking about is near the Catskills. So, you can stop looking for the fork while you're driving from Bradford to Olean.

Channel 4 in Buffalo ran some nice stories about Kevin Everett. In case you missed them, here they are: Kevin Everett's Amazing Story of Hope In Bradford, you can find Everett's book at Tina's Hallmark.

U.S. Senators Bob Casey and Arlen Specter today introduced a resolution to honor the lifetime achievements of the late Myron Cope. “The loss of Myron Cope leaves a hole in the hearts of every Pittsburgher and football fan,” said Senator Casey. “He dedicated his life to the city of Pittsburgh. His signature broadcasting style, his devotion to the Pittsburgh Steelers and his service to the community will be missed. Myron Cope truly had a heart of black and gold.” “Myron’s signature voice, distinctive vocabulary, and enthusiasm for the Steelers have left an indelible mark on Pittsburgh and the entire sports community,” Senator Specter said. “His beloved persona will be greatly missed.” The resolution introduced today stated that Cope was a legendary Pittsburgher and voice of the Pittsburgh Steelers for an unprecedented 35 seasons from 1970-2005. He was the first pro football broadcaster to be elected to the National Radio Hall of Fame. During his time with the Pittsburgh Steelers...

A Somerset father accused of repeatedly abusing and tormenting his 2-year-old son is headed to court on 34 charges. At least a dozen witnesses waited for 50 minutes before 27-year-old Jason Flick waived his preliminary hearing Thursday before District Judge Arthur Cook in Somerset. Somerset Borough Police have charged Flick with 13 counts of felony child endangerment, a felony aggravated assault charge and 10 misdemeanor charges. The counts stem from a slew of disturbing allegations, which include wrapping a snake around the boy’s neck, pouring hot sauce down his throat, writing obscene words and images on him, hitting him on the back of the head with a toy gun and leaving him alone or confined to his room for hours on end. He also is accused of filling the boy’s sippy cup with beer.

A convenience-store chain is taking heat from critics who say its new billboard campaign promoting a fried chicken sandwich contains foul language. Sheetz unveiled the "Crispy Frickin' Chicken" billboards at the beginning of February. A company spokeswoman says they didn't mean to offend anyone. They've taken down one of the billboards, and will take down the rest when the campaign ends next Wednesday. You can read the complete story HERE . You can also go to the Sheetz Web site to see the "offensive" ad.

02/26/08 - Contest to Create 'Bradford City Flag' The Police Department thinks Bradford should have a City Flag, and that a contest should be held to pick the design. During Tuesday's Bradford City Council meeting, Mayor Tom Riel read a letter from Police Chief Mike Close that offered the suggestion for the contest. All of the details haven't been worked out yet, but the design would be chosen by May 1 and Bottorf Embroidery wouldl create the flag, which would be unveiled during the Memorial Day Parade. City Council would have final approval of the design. 02/26/08 - Bradford City Council Meets Bradford resident Steve Stidd questioned Bradford City Council about using C-D-B-G money for a new splash park at Callahan Park while the pool at Burns Memorial Park on North Kendall Avenue hasn't been in use for 3 years. Mayor Tom Riel and Parks Diretor Chip Comilla explained that many more people use Callahan, which is one reason the money is being spent there. Riel, Comill...

During Tuesday's Bradford City Council meeting, a Jackson Avenue resident suggested painting lines on the street because it's difficult to navigate, especially at night. He also mentioned that traffic has increased since School Street went back to being a "two-way" street. Many of our listeners and Web site visitors are concerned about the line-painting situation on Jackson Avenue. One of them sent us this message: "After thinking a while about this line-painting situation, I have finally come up with a suggestion. Since Jackson Avenue is a narrow street and painting lines is out of the question, why not make Jackson a one-way street like State Street? Have it run going toward Interstate Parkway. I think that most of the traffic that is on Jackson travels in that direction anyway. What do you think?" Please leave your comments here, and we'll pass them along in a future news story on the air and on the web. You can also send us an instant message by goi...

It is cool when the best meteorologist in the Niagara Frontier and Twin Tiers calls to ask what the weather's like in Bradford. Ya know, just to get a real person's perspective instead of looking at a computer. Yep, pretty darn cool.

Just in case you didn't stay up for the (yawn) Oscars Sunday night, this was on WKBW-TV, Channel 7 in Buffalo. Channel 7's Oscar Snafu The station did offer an apology on its web site.

A tribute to children's public television pioneer Mister Rogers will include an effort to get people everywhere to wear his trademark garb — a sweater — on what would have been Rogers 80th birthday. The March 20th "Sweater Day" observance is one of several events Family Communications Inc. of Pittsburgh is promoting to honor Fred Rogers. Rogers created the company to produce his show and other family friendly educational fare. Rogers died of cancer five years ago Wednesday.

02/25/08 - 'Beyond' Winners Receive Prizes Last week, we told you about Pitt-Bradford's celebration of its successful "Beyond" marketing campaign. Shown here, Pat Frantz Cercone, director of communications and marketing at the University of Pittsburgh at Bradford, presents senior Chris Falls with a Nintendo Wii for winning the first Go Beyond Commercial Contest sponsored by Cercone’s department. Second-place winner was Nathan Norris, a sophomore engineering major from New Millport, whose video showed recreation opportunities on campus and beyond. Norris won a media beanbag chair. The third-place winner was Nicholas Olumese, a sophomore pre-physical therapy major from Fort Washington, Md., whose commercial of a handspringing student earned him a prize of a Flip Video. To see the top three winners, go HERE . To view all 11 of the entries, go to Pitt-Bradford’s YouTube channel . ( Photo Courtesy of Pitt-Bradford ) 02/25/08 - Man in Hospital After Clinton/Obama Spat M...

Monday's photo from the Pittsburgh Pirates shows Japan's Masumi Kuwata and Korea's Byung-Hyun Kim taking the field together.

I was looking at some of the searches that got people to this blog, and one of them was "allegany bradford." I'm assuming they meant Allegheny Bradford. Be that as it may, one of the other results on Yahoo will take you HERE . Devereux Hall was my "home" for 3-and-a-half years. Three-and-a-half wild, wacky, wonderful years, I might add. And if you want more Olean/Allegany memories, visit this page .

Scott, Frank and Jeff judging the Byllye's Idol karoke contest Friday night.

02/22/08 - Chris Hansen to Speak at UPB Graduation Emmy Award-winning investigative journalist Chris Hansen, best known for his work on NBC’s “To Catch a Predator,” will speak to the graduating class of 2008 at the University of Pittsburgh at Bradford. Hansen will deliver the keynote address during commencement exercises at 2 p.m. on Sunday, April 27, in the Pitt-Bradford Sport and Fitness Center arena. In 2004, Hansen began his breakthrough investigative reporting on online sexual predators and has exposed more than 250 men who target teenagers over the Internet. He has received two Emmy Awards for his 2004 report on child sex trafficking in Cambodia. His spot news coverage of major events has included the Columbine (Colo.) school shooting in 1999, TWA Flight 800 disaster off the coast of New York in 1996 and the Oklahoma City federal building bombing in the spring of 1995. Hansen and his wife, Mary Joan, live in Connecticut with their two sons. 02/22/08 - KASD Denies Charter Schoo...