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Biden fails to draw crowd in Erie

Posted July 1, 2009 11 :29 AM

Wattsburg, Pa. - Vice President Joe Biden visited a small town on the outskirts of Erie today to talk to rural folks about federal stimulus money that can be used to expand broadband access to the Internet for rural areas that typically have poor connections.

Apparently stimulus money and broadband are not all that interesting to the local folk here: Only around 100 or so people have showed up so far to hear Biden talk at noon at Seneca High School off Route 8 in Wattsburg.

The room looked so sparse that about 30 or so chairs were removed by volunteers to give the illusion of a full house.

The effect didn't exactly work.

Pittsburgh native and Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack and Congresswoman Kathy Dahlkemper are also on hand to talk about access to high speed internet as an essential tool for success in business and in school in our struggling economy.

Auto sales for June:

• Ford Motor smaller-than-expected 11%;
• Chrysler Group 42% decline;
• General Motors slipped by 33.4%
• Toyota Motor reported a 32% drop;
• Honda Motor slid almost 30%;
• Nissan reported U.S. sales fell 23%;
• Hyundai reported an 18%;
• Volkswagen sales fell 18%;
• BMW June U.S. Sales Down 20.3%
• Mercedes-Benz sales fell 22.6%

Note that June had 25 selling days, one more than a year ago.