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COLUMNS: NEW MILFORD: The Pratt Memorial Library was opened for the public Saturday evening, with dedicatory services. The opening prayer by Rev. Warnock of the M.E. church was followed by remarks by the pastors of the other churches, Col. Pratt and Mrs. Staples, a former resident of New Milford. The people should feel very grateful to Mr. Pratt for the opportunity thus afforded them for the free use of the library. The building is an ornament to the town and Mrs. Gillett, the attendant, has the interest of every member at heart. LAWSVILLE: Prof. Royal Meeker and wife, who have been spending a few weeks with friends, have gone to Princeton where Mr. Meeker will resume his duties as professor in the college there. FRANKLIN FORKS: A very quiet wedding took place at the home of Harvey Summers, Aug. 23d, when his son Archie was united in marriage to Miss Clara Greene. Rev. McInnis, of Montrose, performed the ceremony. A wedding breakfast was served on the lawn at 9 o’clock. They took the noon train at Hallstead for Niagara Falls. SPRINGVILLE: Last Saturday evening O.T. Shoemaker drove up the hill above the hotel in a cart behind an automobile. About midway of the hill the auto took a notion to run backwards and before O.T. could get out of the way the machine struck his cart and he was minus a wheel in a jiffy. BROOKLYN: The stone masons are laying the foundation for the Odd Fellows’ hall. A number of improvements will be made in the building. HOPBOTTOM: A shocking accident occurred last Friday p.m. to Hayden Hughes who went in company with one of the Chamberlain boys fishing to the Lord pond. By some means he was unfortunate enough to fall out of the boat and was drowned about 4 o’clock. His body was recovered and taken to his home here. He leaves one son, Will Hughes, of Scranton, one sister, Mrs. Sam’l Kellum, one brother Freeman Hughes to mourn his loss. Interment in Squires’ cemetery. THOMPSON: C. C. Wilmarth and wife of the Ready Pay Store are in New York purchasing goods for their fall and winter trade. HARFORD: The Republican voters of Harford township, feeling that they are entitled to political honors, not having a candidate for many years, are pleased to announce through the columns of your paper that Mr. E. E. Jones is a candidate for the next legislature, subject to the decision of the county convention. Mr. Jones is a life-long resident of the township, a son of Hon. Henry M. Jones, who so ably represented our county in the legislature of 1872-3. EAST BRIDGEWATER: Horton Reynolds is improving his mill property by remodeling the building so that the basement will accommodate the shingle machine, planer, etc. This mill has had a busy season, being operated day and night for some time in the spring. HERRICK: Jolly loads of young people attended camp meeting both Sunday and Wednesday nights. MONTROSE: Manufacturer H. W. Beach is at work on an order for 10 of his famous sawing machines to be shipped to Los Angeles, Calif. All machines for Calif., Oregon and Washington shipment are sent to New York; thence by boat to New Orleans and from there to destination by the Santa Fe route by rail. Transportation in this indirect route is much cheaper than by the trans-continental railroad lines. AND: Joseph Mawhiney, the cemetery caretaker, has been greatly inconvenienced by persons allowing their cows to enter the cemetery and browse about. Owners of cows should see that they are not allowed to roam about the streets at will, and should especially keep them from entering the grounds deemed sacred by so many. GLENWOOD: The telephone poles are standing like lone sentinels through this town and soon the “hello” will be sounded in several houses here. AUBURN: Mr. Pepper, our butter maker, has purchased the Ed. Lemon dwelling opposite the church and will take possession in the near future. Consideration about $1100. LITTLE MEADOWS: The Catholic picnic recently held here was a success in every way notwithstanding the forbidding weather. The amount realized for the society was slightly over $300 after the payment of all the expenses. MIDDLETOWN: The party at M. Golden’s was the feature of the season. JACKSON: While returning home from church last Sunday, C. T. Belcher was painfully injured by being thrown from his wagon and dragged some distance on the ground. The accident occurred at the foot of Wheaton hill near the residences of F. J. Payne and H. E. Hobbs and was caused by the breaking of a clip letting one corner of the wagon box drop down and frightening the horses. SUSQUEHANNA: “Erie Chemical No. 1” is the name of a new fire fighting organization organized Monday evening last. The new engine will, it is said, arrive in October. The officers of the company are as follows: Thos. Keffer, pres., Rob’t Terboss, vice pres.; Charlton Alpaugh, fin. Sec’y; Jas. Tinkler, rec. sec’y; Patrick Sullivan, treas.; Jack Palmer, foreman; Thos. Madigan, asst. foreman; E. J. Ryan, 1st engineer; Ned Proctor, 2nd engineer; John Whitney, 3rd engineer; A.P. Griffin, steward; Henry Perrine, Wm. Ryan, John Hogan, trustees; John McGinty, Matthew Creegan, pipemen. Members: Michael Coughlin, Jas. Hannon, John T. Buckley, Jake Teakey, Patrick Connors, Thos. Keefe, Thos. Burns. NEWS BRIEF: Despite the fun that is being made of the hoop skirt it is catching on and more than 2,000 women in Chicago are now wearing them. It is not the old style crinoline, but instead the three coil featherbone, which will keep the skirt away from the feet and will prevent it from sweeping up the sidewalks.
Along the Way...With P. Jay
One of these days, Pennsylvania is going to catch up with the rest of the nation. All right! All right! Make it one of these years. Why do I say this? Consider this. I am looking at a copy of The County Code, a Pennsylvania law originally passed in 1935 and totally revised some 20 years later. It relates to counties of the first, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth classes. Susquehanna County opted for sixth class. Its population would have allowed it to be seventh class but the county commissioners rejected that because it would have affected their salaries. Anyhow, my copy of the code is purported to include all amendments passed through Dec. 31, 2000. Section 1553, which addresses counties of the sixth class, states that the county commissioners shall be paid an annual salary of $9,450. Now we all know that our commissioners are being paid about $48,000 this year. On the surface it would appear that our commissioners are raking us over the coals and violating The County Code in the process. But this is not the case my friends, not at all. You can draw your own conclusions on whether they are worth $48,000 each, but they are not breaking the law by paying themselves that much money. The County Code might contain all of the amendments that apply to it, but the change in the salaries of the county commissioners is not in the code but can be found in Purdon’s Pennsylvania Statues (Title 16), Section 11011-10.1. It reads as follows: “From and after the effective date of this section, the county commissioners shall have the power to fix the salary of all county officers governed by the provisions of this act.” There’s some additional gobbledygook in the section but basically that first quote tells it all. As for the effective date of the section as near as I have been able to come to determine, it might have become effective in 1971. Oh, yes, one more thing! Had the commissioners decided to place the county in the seventh classification, the only change that I have been able to find would have been in the salaries of all “county officers.” For example, the commissioners would have been paid about 10 percent less than what they are getting by pushing the county’s classification from seventh to sixth. County jobs are no longer cream puffs When I first started covering Susquehanna County government 16 years ago, jobs in the courthouse were at a premium. Everybody wanted to work there. Your chance of getting a foot in the door was only enhanced if it was an elephant’s foot. Yes sir, if you were a registered Republican, opportunity could be found simply by knocking on the right door. Especially if you had a whole big bunch of kinfolks. Half of 'em registered to vote. And all of ‘em what can vote – registered Republican. But that was then and this is now and my but haven’t times changed! Today, despite the fringe benefits and the retirement plan, people aren't as interested in government work as they were during the 1980’s and 1990’s. I am not quite sure why there is this sudden reluctance to join the county work force. But I know some mighty fine prospects are saying thanks but no thanks. Heck, there’s even union protection in most of the jobs and still no takers. Two of the hardest hit places are the county jail and the 9-1-1 communications center. Getting steady help in either of these two spots is a chore. Guys and gals alike begin training for the jobs and often never stick around long enough to complete their probation period. But don’t blame Warden Bill Brennan or 9-1-1 Coordinator Art Donato. They are two of the best department heads in the county. “It takes a unique person to work here,” Mr. Donato told me. “It is nerve racking. You either get stressed out with all the calls or stressed out waiting for one. At times it’s feast or famine.” One projected reason for the reluctance to accept a county position is the health insurance. Once you get enrolled the county picks up the monthly tab for all its workers. The problem is that no benefits begin until after the completion of a probation period and that is six months. People are reluctant to give up the insurance they have at their present positions, accept a county job and then be without health insurance for six months. “And we are here 24/7,” said Mr. Donato, “so it means weekend work as well as night shifts and holidays.” What is surprising is the union doing nothing about the six-month waiting period before hospitalization insurance kicks in. Not a very good mark for such a so-called prestigious union as the Teamsters.
The constitutionality of sobriety checkpoints has been litigated both at the state and federal levels. Many citizens have an inherent distrust for checkpoints and view such activities as an unwanted invasion upon their liberties and freedoms. The inconvenience and time involved in stopping for a checkpoint, as well as the general anxiety that many people feel when dealing with the police, contribute to the negative impression held by the general public. Finally, the American psyche holds a healthy distrust for authority, and the checkpoints are viewed as an unwanted intrusion upon the general right to be left alone. Earlier this month, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court again upheld the use of checkpoints as a constitutionally permissible tool in the fight against drunk drivers. In Commonwealth v. Beaman, the defendant challenged the use of sobriety checkpoints as being unconstitutional based upon the statistics demonstrating that such sobriety checkpoints were less effective than roving patrols. In this regard, the defendant argued that the statistics demonstrated that DUI checkpoints were not effective, and, as such, could not be accepted as a permissible constitutional intrusion into our personal liberties. Obviously, there is a substantial difference between roving patrols and sobriety checkpoints. A roving patrol would be a routine patrol by a police officer where the police officer observes unsafe driving activity by a motorist and then pulls the motorist over for a traffic violation. There are statistics that suggest that more DUI arrests are made as a result of stops made during a routine roving patrol. This should be expected, however, as a police officer cannot simply randomly pull a motorist over for no violation – when a stop occurs during a roving patrol, there has already been a traffic violation, and this increases the likelihood of an intoxicated driver. In the case of a sobriety checkpoint, hundreds of motorists could be briefly stopped to simply pass through the checkpoint. Given that most motorists do no drive while intoxicated, the statistics will show that a small number of motorists passing through a sobriety checkpoint are actually arrested for DUI. In dismissing the defendant’s statistical argument, the court concluded: “There is an extreme value in checkpoints. We have found that they provide a significant deterrence effect. The simple fact that law enforcement agencies are required statewide to advertise sobriety checkpoint[s] a number of weeks in advance is designed to give the motoring public an opportunity to exercise some alternative transportation. . . . [S]ound reasoning dictates that deterrence is a function of the public perception that the DUI laws are being enforced. Checkpoints are highly visible, and thus, can reasonably be expected to alter an individual's perception of the likelihood of being apprehended if he decides to drive after having consumed alcohol.” Thus, the court, in a 4-2 decision, upheld the continued use of checkpoints. Justice Nigro, however, in his dissenting opinion, summarized his opposition to roadblocks as follows: “I believe DUI roadblocks are a waste of limited resources and promote inefficient law enforcement because police officers are forced to spend innumerable hours stopping hundreds of vehicles for a comparatively low number of DUI arrests. It defies common sense to argue that by consolidating police resources on one section of one street, the police can catch more drunk drivers. This logic somehow presumes that drunk drivers will voluntarily line up at pre-determined checkpoints. The more realistic presumption, however, is that an unknown number of drunk drivers who would have easily attracted the attention of trained law officers on routine patrol evade detection simply by using roads other than those targeted for DUI roadblocks.” Based upon my own personal observations, I tend to agree with the majority. If the public is aware that a checkpoint is being conducted, there is a deterrent effect, and people generally will conform their behavior to avoid a potential problem later in the evening at the sobriety checkpoint. This is not to say that the public generally likes or approves of the checkpoints – it only suggests that the goal of the checkpoint may be achieved. Significantly, the goal is not only to arrest intoxicated drivers – but also to provide a deterrent to avoid the need for any arrest. Please submit any questions, concerns, or comments to Susquehanna County District Attorney’s Office, P.O. Box 218, Montrose, Pennsylvania 18801.
Probably. Blood pressure tends to spike when you are excited by an emotion such as anger or fear. But high blood pressure – known as “hypertension” – is very sneaky. It’s called the “silent killer,” because it usually has no symptoms. Doctors say you have high blood pressure if you have a reading of 140/90 or higher. A blood pressure reading of 120/80 or lower is considered normal. "Prehypertension" is blood pressure between 120 and 139 for the top number, or between 80 and 89 for the bottom number. The first number represents your “systolic” pressure when the heart beats. The second number represents the “diastolic” pressure when the heart rests. If only one number is elevated, you still have high blood pressure with all of its dangers. Isolated systolic hypertension (ISH) is the most common form of high blood pressure for seniors. When you have ISH, only the top number is too high. About 2 out of 3 people over age 60 with high blood pressure have ISH. About one in three American adults has high blood pressure. In the U.S., high blood pressure occurs more often in African-Americans High blood pressure can ravage your body. It can enlarge the heart, create small bulges (aneurysms) in blood vessels, damage the blood vessels in the kidneys, harden arteries, produce bleeding in the eyes. The possible consequences are heart attack, stroke, kidney failure and blindness. Your chances of getting high blood pressure are also higher if you are overweight, don’t exercise, eat too much salt, drink too much alcohol, don’t consume enough potassium, endure stress for too long. Obviously, changing your diet, exercising and altering your lifestyle will help. When you go to your doctor to have your blood pressure taken, there are a few things you can do to get an accurate reading. First, don’t drink coffee or smoke cigarettes for a half hour before your pressure is taken. (What are you doing smoking anyway?) Wear short sleeves, so you don’t have to remove clothing. Empty your bladder, because a full tank can affect the reading. Sit quietly for five minutes before the test. If you’re like me, you have “white coat syndrome.” That means your blood pressure jumps as soon as a doctor or nurse approaches you. If your doctor knows this, he or she may recommend a home blood-pressure monitor or ambulatory monitor that is worn around the clock and takes your pressure every half hour. If you have high blood pressure and lifestyle changes don’t reduce it, there are medications to treat the problem. Often, two or more drugs work better than one. Some drugs lower blood pressure by removing extra fluid and salt from your body. Others affect blood pressure by slowing down the heartbeat, or by relaxing and widening blood vessels. If you have a question, please write to fredcicetti@gmail.com.
Michaele Goodman, Port Chester, NY Indeed, the Kyoto Protocol – an international accord signed by 141 countries agreeing to scale back carbon dioxide (CO2) and other "greenhouse" gas emissions – has gone into effect now despite non-involvement by the U.S., the world’s largest polluter. But despite lack of official participation, many carbon-saving programs are being launched around the U.S., achieving real emission reductions while saving money. The state of Wisconsin has undertaken numerous upgrades and retrofits to water heaters, air conditioning, cleaning systems and lighting in government buildings throughout the state. It retrofitted lighting in 53 million square feet of office space and realized annual savings of more than 15.6 million kilowatt hours (kWh), which translates to 33,900 tons of CO2 emissions and $7.5 million saved. The other building upgrades saved Wisconsin 108 million kWh and more than 42,000 tons of CO2 and $11 million per year. In Iowa, a program that helps schools, hospitals and local governments install energy improvements has saved more than $23 million yearly on energy bills, and avoids the emission of 796,000 tons of carbon and 360 tons of nitrogen oxides (NOx) per year. In Missouri, the Gas Recovery Project created a system enabling Pattonville High School in Maryland Heights to burn methane from a landfill to fuel its boilers. The project saves the school $40,000 per year, and each year prevents the emission of 2,000 tons of CO2. Seattle is developing a public transportation network that includes free downtown buses, a monorail, waterfront trolleys and the West Seattle Water Taxi. The monorail system, known as the Green Line, is expected to offer, by 2020, a car-free transportation choice to 20 million riders per year. And San Francisco counts many climate-friendly initiatives including light rail, ferries, buses and cable cars, widespread use of solar arrays (the city recently put 60,000 feet of solar panels on Moscone Convention Center), and agreements by 273 regional employers to reduce pollution and increase energy efficiency. Portland, Oregon began plying its CO2 reduction strategy a decade ago, and now has one of the nation’s best public transit systems. The city also requires companies that offer employee parking to also subsidize bus riders. Some other initiatives include: purchase of renewable energy for over 10 percent of municipal electricity use; the planting of 750,000 trees and shrubs to absorb CO2 from the atmosphere; and the weatherization of nearly 11,000 single- and multi-family homes. The city has also replaced all of its traditional traffic lights with energy-efficient light-emitting diodes (LEDs), at a $500,000 annual savings. New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof calls Portland a model city for climate change reduction, rebutting claims that the Kyoto accords would "wreck" the economy. "Portland, America’s environmental laboratory, has achieved stunning reductions in carbon emissions," he wrote. "It has reduced emissions below the level of 1990, the benchmark for the Kyoto accord, while booming economically." CONTACTS: Kyoto Protocol, http://unfccc.int/resource/docs/convkp/kpeng.html; Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, www.dnr.state.wi.us/org/aw/air/ED/fallwin982.htm; Portland Office of Sustainable Development, www.sustainableportland.org/. Dear EarthTalk: I’ve heard that a number of fish commonly available in seafood restaurants are now threatened with extinction. Is this true? Glenn Hammond, San Francisco, CA No doubt the age of commercial/industrial fishing, which dawned in the 1950s when large offshore trawlers and at-sea processing facilities first plied the open ocean, has taken its toll on a number of fish species. Atlantic Cod, for example, once teemed off the coast of New England and sustained millions of settlers and then immigrants. But populations have been reduced by more than 90 percent in the last half century, and diners would be hard-pressed to find any for sale at restaurants or fish markets these days. Ocean activists have been working hard to prevent another tragedy on the scale of the Atlantic Cod, though several other endangered fish species are still widely available throughout the U.S. and elsewhere. Examples include shark, red snapper, blue fin tuna, wild shrimp, wild caviar and orange roughy. Over-fishing, the illegal trade, habitat loss and pollution have put these and many other marine species at risk. On the bright side, some threatened populations are now on the rebound, thanks to efforts to reduce consumption. Chilean Sea Bass, for example, was all the rage at gourmet eateries in the 1990s. But in just two decades, the average size of individual fish caught dropped by more than 60 percent, meaning that fishermen were taking all the adults, thus decimating their reproductive capacity. By getting hundreds of restaurants to stop serving the trendy fish, a coalition called the Seafood Choices Alliance (SCA) was able to significantly reduce the strain on the species. Similar campaigns are underway now to try to bring the Atlantic swordfish, shark and blue fin tuna back from the brink. SCA also works to educate seafood wholesalers, chefs and consumers about which types of fish consumers can indulge in guilt-free. SCA lists 19 species on its SeaSense Safe List for 2005, including abalone, Dungeness crab, northern pink shrimp, oysters and sablefish. The organization also produces the "Sourcing Seafood" handbook to help seafood buyers navigate the murky waters of purchasing sustainably harvested seafood. Meanwhile, the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s website features Seafood Watch, a free series of guides to help consumers figure out which types of fish are OK to eat. And the company EcoFish sells a wide range of sustainably harvested seafood products to more than 1,000 grocery and natural food stores and to over 150 restaurants nationwide. Consumers can buy EcoFish products directly via the company’s website. But eater beware: Even if the fish on your plate is not threatened with extinction, it might contain traces of mercury, the heavy metal which is emitted from coal-burning power plants and has been found to cause a wide variety of human health problems. As a result of the threat, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), while acknowledging that fish provide one of the healthiest sources of protein in our diets, recommends that pregnant women, nursing mothers and young children limit their intake to two meals per week of seafood such as shrimp, canned light tuna, salmon, pollock and catfish. CONTACTS: Seafood Choices Alliance, www.seafoodchoices.org; Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch, www.montereybayaquarium.com/cr/seafoodwatch.asp, EcoFish, www.ecofish.com, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), www.epa.gov. GOT AN ENVIRONMENTAL QUESTION? Send it to: EarthTalk, c/o E/The Environmental Magazine, P.O. Box 5098, Westport, CT 06881; submit it at: www.emagazine.com/earthtalk/thisweek/, or e-mail: earthtalk@emagazine.com. Read past columns at: www.emagazine.com/earthtalk/archives.php.
For those of you who suffer from migraine headaches and frequently wonder what caused the last one, take a closer look at food labels. Also if you frequently experience dizziness, diarrhea, mood swings, rashes, attention disorders, gastric reflux, asthma or any other chronic problem that frequently occurs after eating, take a closer look at what is in your food. Migraine headaches can be triggered by many things: flickering lights, stress, chocolate, caffeine, night shade vegetables (which include tomatoes, potatoes, eggplant). There is another lesser known food trigger that is hidden in many of our processed foods. That substance is glutamate. Glutamate is an amino acid. It is a naturally occurring component of some proteins. In its natural form, it is relatively harmless. In altered forms or in highly concentrated forms, it affects the body differently. Glutamate excites the brain and nervous system. In excess amounts, it can damage brain and nerve cells by over-stimulating them. The first evidence of brain damage by glutamate toxicity was degeneration of the retina. Makes you wonder why macular degeneration is epidemic today. Because it is a nervous system stimulant, its presence in foods makes them more flavorful, or “more exciting.” It is a flavor enhancer. Most of us are familiar with its most common form as a flavor enhancer, MSG, or monosodium-glutamate. Frequently migraine sufferers, and people who know they are sensitive to MSG, look for it and avoid it. In the past, the symptoms of MSG sensitivity has been called “Chinese Restaurant Syndrome.” But glutamate is hidden in our foods in many other forms. Any food with hydrolyzed protein has glutamate. Actually any food that has “ -lyzed protein” has glutamate. That means hydrolyzed, autolyzed, ultra-pasteurized, texturized protein. All of the dehydrated protein fortified foods contain glutamate: bouillon cubes or powder, instant soups, ramen noodles, chicken or beef flavoring, soy sauce extract, whey protein concentrate, caseinate, gelatin, carrageenan, maltodextrin, enzyme modified proteins, and yeast extracts, to name a few. Pea protein, whey protein, corn protein, milk protein concentrates all contain glutamate. It can be found also in shampoo, soap, hair conditioner, cosmetics, flavored drinks, chewing gum, and candy. Glutamate is even included in live virus vaccinations. Research is showing that glutamate causes brain lesions in young laboratory animals resulting in hormone imbalances and obesity later in life. Research is also showing that chronic pain sufferers: headache, migraine, fibromyalgia, arthritis, etc., all have elevated levels of glutamate in the cerebral spinal fluid. Reducing these levels by eliminating glutamate in the diet can reduce or eliminate the pain experienced. Another little trick that glutamate performs is causing fluid retention. So not only is it linked to hormone imbalances and obesity, it also causes bloating and fluid weight gain. If you have been trying to diet, and are becoming frustrated, look for glutamate hidden in your foods. (It is frequently found in low-fat or no-fat dairy products.) Initially, it will take a little longer in the grocery store to read labels more carefully. As you become familiar with the foods that do and do not contain glutamate in any form, it will become easier to avoid. It will save large amounts of time spent suffering pain and discomfort. And probably save money too, as all the pain relievers will no longer be necessary. For further information, check out www.truthinlabeling.org.
For a change of scenery, Robert and Lillian Buck decided to go to Lancaster for their vacation. One of the interesting things they did was to see the current production at the “Sight and Sound” theater, and then went backstage to see how it was all put together. Returned a week ago Sunday. The square dance on the 20th of August was the best ever. The music by “Just Us” resulted in an enthusiastic crowd that kept the floor vibrating with round and square dancing. Gale Williams, Kristen Potter, Steve and Ginny Williams accompanied their mother to Syracuse last Saturday to attend the wedding of her nephew. They stayed overnight and came home Sunday. Last Saturday night, Arthur Kopp had to rush his wife back to Binghamton to the hospital. She had suffered a stroke. What a blow this is to the woman who has suffered so much. Barb and Roger Glover had quite a busy weekend. On Saturday they attended the Neild reunion held at the home of Banicky’s in Orson, Saturday night they were at the square dance and Sunday they hosted the Klym family reunion at their home. Staying overnight at the Glovers’ was Barb’s daughter, Andrea Knox and her children, Brittany, Ethan and Connor. They all came to church on Sunday along with Barb’s son, wife and boys. At the home of June Downton last Sunday, the 21st, about eighty people of the Henry family joined together in a family reunion. The Gulley family is moving to Susquehanna. My visitors last week were my grandson, Matt, his girlfriend, and two male friends of Matt. They’re all busy working. This week, Gina Upright stopped by and yesterday, Tuesday the 23rd, Rosemary Cosentino and her mother, Marie Soden, who was visiting from Tyrone, PA came and we had a good time reminiscing and playing Quiddler. Cheerio!
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The County Code needs updating
A few years ago, I was attending a Christmas party and, suddenly, everyone was talking about a sobriety checkpoint that the State Police had set up in the immediate area. I was surprised and somewhat amused by the anger and outrage expressed by some of the partygoers toward the propriety of a checkpoint. There were also a large number of conspiracy theorists opining that the State Police somehow knew that the Christmas party was occurring and, as such, had set the checkpoint up to catch those leaving the party. As far as I know, none of the partygoers were arrested that evening – because none of the drivers who left the party were intoxicated. The outcome of that evening suggests a number of things: (1) checkpoints do provide some deterrence to the general public, i.e., those at the party were aware of the checkpoint and governed themselves accordingly; and (2) checkpoints are not very popular with the general public.
Q. When someone says, “that makes my blood boil,” does that mean their blood pressure goes up, too?
Dear EarthTalk: I've heard that, despite U.S. refusal to sign the Kyoto Protocol climate agreement, a number of global warming reduction efforts are underway nonetheless. What are some of them?