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Look For Our Up Coming
2006
Car Care Special Featured In Our April, 5th Issue Of The Susquehanna County Transcript

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Issue Home March 28, 2006 Site Home

COLUMNS:
100 Years Ago
Along the Way...With P. Jay

From the Desk of the D.A.
The Healthy Geezer
Email Etiquette for Sending and Receiving Email
EARTH TALK


100 Years Ago

SUSQUEHANNA: The Journal has suspended publication here and the outfit purchased by the Transcript. We understand it will be moved to Montrose, to print a Christian paper. AND: W. S. Porter, a salesman at the Susquehanna branch music store of Munn & Co., met with a peculiar experience. Mr. Porter, believing that “cleanliness is next to godliness,” was enjoying ablutions at his hotel when the bath tub collapsed, resulting in a laceration of one of his pedal extremities. The wound was dressed by Dr. D. J. Peck. Mr. Porter says that hereafter if bathing becomes necessary during his sojourn in our midst, he will utilize the Susquehanna river, jumping from the bridge, with official consent of the county commissioners.

FAIRDALE: Edgar Bolles has just received from Gettysburg a very fine pair of elk horns, through the kindness of Mr. Calvin Hamilton, superintendent of the National Cemetery. The antlers are more highly prized as they have long been on exhibition at the house of Mr. F. Z. Rosensteel on the historic spot, “Little Round Top.” They were formerly brought from Western Nebraska.

DIMOCK: A telephone meeting was held Saturday evening, March 24, 06, at the home of Fred Bunnell. After careful consideration it was decided that the Montrose Telephone & Telegraph Co. system was much preferable and the amount was soon raised to extend their lines to John Struppler’s house and work will be commenced at once. F. H. Bunnell, H. A. Stone, John Struppler, F. E. Bunnell, E. W. Sloat, Geo. E. Carey, B.B. Bunnell, G. G. Seely, J. E. Rice and other parties will have phones on this line. AND: Monday, the 19th, a blizzard struck this part of the county. The snow is piled in high drifts.

BRIDGEWATER TWP.: E. M. Foster, whose death was recorded last week, was born April 11, 1828 at Bridgewater, Pa. He died at Ord, March 3, ‘06. He was married to Emeline Follet June 3, 1851, at Montrose. He enlisted in the war of the rebellion during the latter days of that struggle. In 1882 he settled down in Pleasant Valley, but later moved to Ord, where he has lived for the past 14 years. He was the father of 6 children, 5 of whom are still living. There are also 19 grandchildren and 4 great-grandchildren. He has a surviving brother 82 years old and a sister 80 years old, in Susquehanna County. – Ord, Nebraska Quiz

MONTROSE: A delightfully novel and unique evening was enjoyed by the members of the senior class and High School teachers last Friday at the home of Prof. and Mrs. Sipple. The invitation requested each guest to impersonate a character from Mother Goose. As a result, a motley number of grotesque costumed figures had assembled. So elaborately and carefully were the costumes arranged that no one could recognize the staid and dignified senior class and teachers of the M.H.S. After a half hour of mum sociability, for the characters were masked and sought to hide their identity by not conversing, the prize was awarded to Little Jack Horner (Tom Davies). After unmasking a pretty program, painted in water colors,was given to each guest. A later and fascinating feature of the evening was telling the fortunes of each guest by Madame Wah-ta-wah.

GLENWOOD: The familiar figure of James McAloon will be seen on our streets no more. He has been on a visit to his son for the last six weeks, in Wilkes-Barre, returning home on Thursday of last week, stopping with A. W. McAloon. He was not feeling well and Dr. Decker was called, but the summons had come, the last roll call had sounded, and the poor old soldier, “Jimmie Den,” was no more. He was taken to the home of his sister, Mrs. Barklin, from which place he will be buried, Tuesday, March 27th. The old veterans will act as pall bearers and the remains of Comrade Denn will be hidden from view. So farewell old comrade, your last march is ended.

LITTLE MEADOWS: Jasper Jennings wrote the following about Little Meadows: Indian relics found in the township were flint arrow heads, stone pottery and pestles for pounding corn. Nicholas, Ben Shanks and Seth were three of the last Indians known to have inhabited this part of the country--they came from their reservation near Binghamton to hunt and fish in this vicinity. The first death in the township was that of Henia, wife of Reuben Beebe, in 1807; Joseph Beebe and Eunice Beardslee were the first married, in 1807; the first grist mill was built by Beniah Barney in 1811 the first saw mill by David Barney and Belden Read in 1816. In 1906 the population was about 210.

EAST RUSH: Our blacksmiths are not very busy these days. Anyone wanting a nice job done call on our boys. Your work done while you wait.

FRIENDSVILLE: The members of A.O.H., No. 3, celebrated St. Patrick’s day in a jovial manner, marching to St. Francis Xavier's church in a body, where services were rendered by the Rev. B. Y. Driscol, after which they repaired to their hall which was prettily decorated for the occasion with green and they and their friends partook of a bounteous dinner. The remainder of the day was spent in playing Pedro. The prizes awarded to, Misses Margaret Keenan, Mary Walsh, Messrs. P. J. Byrne and J. McCormick.

HARFORD: Miss Rogers is expected from New York City in a few days with a new line of millinery goods.

GREAT BEND: Great Bend is to have another large store. Peter Dermody, of Cochecton, N.Y., having leased the Kistler block, where he will open a general store the first of the month.

NEW MILFORD: Stewart R. Carpenter, who for some time has assisted Albert Barlow in carrying the mails between New Milford and Thompson, dropped dead at Lakeside, March 19, 1906. He had been to New Milford and was on his return trip. On his arrival at Lakeside he carried the pouch into the Postoffice. When it had been returned to him he placed it in the cutter and in attempting to get in himself fell to the ground and expired. The body was taken care of and later removed to the home of his sister, Mrs. E. A. Packer, who resides at Lakeside.

GIBSON: Miss Fuller, a returned missionary from Africa, gave an interesting talk last Sunday evening in the M.E. church. Miss Fuller is a resident of South Gibson.

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Along the Way...With P. Jay

Worthy of your attendance

In the five decades that I have been a reporter/columnist for various newspapers in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, I have covered many fatal motor vehicle accidents involving teenage drivers. From police reports on these tragedies, I was able to determine two driving factors that are killing our sons and daughters – drunk driving and failing to negotiate a curve in the road.

If you are a driver, undoubtedly you have also witnessed teen drivers negotiating curves on the wrong side of the road and observed them driving erratically when they have one too many drinks under their belts. Teenage deaths by motor vehicle have touched thousands of families across these United States and little or nothing has been done to put a stop to it. That is, not until now!

This year, for the first time ever, Town Hall Meetings will take place all over the country to raise awareness and talk about the issue of underage drinking. In Susquehanna County, for the first time ever, a Town Hall Meeting will be held on March 30 at the Blue Ridge High School. The meeting will be open to the public and is sponsored by the US Department of Health and Human Services Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services, the Interagency Coordinating Committee on the Prevention of Underage Drinking, and the Susquehanna County Drug and Alcohol Commission.

Serving on the panel for this memorable occasion will be Susquehanna County President Judge Kenneth W. Seamans; District Attorney Jason Legg; Linda LaBarbera, public defender; John Lester, chief of Juvenile Probation; Bruce Rossman, supervisor of Trehab Drug and Alcohol Treatment; Roselyn Hibbard, Trehab Prevention Supervisor, who will serve as moderator; and Robin Kaminski-Waldowski, administrator, Susquehanna County Drug and Alcohol.

The purpose of the meeting is to make the community aware of the underage drinking problem; to educate the community about the dangers of underage drinking; to address the value of parent-child communication; to encourage community involvement; and to stress the importance of prevention.

I urge all parents of teenage and pre-teenage children to attend this all-important meeting. It will be an educational experience that could keep your children alive and well through those critical teenage years.

Research shows that parents of teens generally underestimate the extent of alcohol used by youth as well as its negative consequences. And there are some parents who believe teenage drinking is inevitable. According to the 2004 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, more than 10 million underage persons ages 12 to 20 reported current alcohol use. Of these underage drinkers, 4.4 million were ages 12 to 17.

More on vehicle registration

A couple of weeks back, we mentioned the problem some Susquehanna County residents are having with vehicle registrations because they have a Carbondale (Lackawanna County) rural address where emissions testing is required. As you know, it is not required in Susquehanna County.

I contacted Rep. Ed Staback's office and was advised there is a form that residents may fill out to resolve the problem. It is known as MV 421 and can be obtained at the following computer link: http://www.dot.10.state.pa.us/pdotforms/mv_forms/mv-421.pdf .

The top ten

Ever wonder what municipalities in the county rank among the top ten in assessed valuations? So did I. Thanks to the cooperation of Ellen O’Malley, the county’s chief assessor, I can share the information with you.

At number 10, with a total assessment of $32,290,000 is Harford Township. Number 9 is Montrose Borough at $33,122,000, and not far above Montrose comes number 8, Auburn Township at $33,172,900, followed at number 7, Herrick Township, $33,438,925; number 6, Great Bend Township, $35,921,000; number 5, Lenox Township, $38,045,000; number 4, Silver Lake Township, $43,977,980; number 3, New Milford Township, $51,548,858; and number two, Clifford Township, $57,671,900.

A little drum roll please as we introduce number 1, with the highest assessed valuation of all 40 municipalities in the county – ta,ta,ta,ta – Bridgewater, Township, $63,295,400.

By the way, I am told the tax assessment is one-half of the estimated market value of all real estate in a community.

 

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From the Desk of the D.A.

Is there a double standard in sex abuse cases in terms of the different treatment received by male and female defendants? This question has erupted on the national scene as a result of the Debra LaFave case. Debra LaFave was a Florida teacher who had a sexual relationship with one of her 14-year old male students. The interesting part of this particular case is that LaFave had sexual relations in two separate jurisdictions. In Hillsborough County, she engaged in sexual intercourse with the boy in her classroom and in her home. The Hillsborough County case already resolved itself through a plea agreement in which LaFave pled guilty and received three years of house arrest followed by seven years of probation. As a result of her guilty plea in Hillsborough County, LaFave is also required to register on the state’s Megan’s law registry for sexual offenders.

With the first case resolved without any period of incarceration that left the Marion County case where LaFave was charged with having sexual intercourse with the boy in a sport utility vehicle. After consulting with the family, the prosecutor offered LaFave a similar deal as she received in the adjoining county, involving a guilty plea with an additional period of probation. At the plea hearing, the victim’s psychiatrist testified that the increased media coverage was causing the young boy to experience extreme anxiety and that the boy did not want to testify. The victim’s mother stated that although she wanted to see LaFave punished, she would not risk her son’s mental health by forcing him to testify at trial. The prosecution requested the court to respect the wishes of the victim and his family and accept the proposed deal. The court refused and stated that it “shocked the conscious of the court” to accept a plea agreement where LaFave received no jail time. With the court rejecting the plea agreement, the prosecution dismissed the entire case. In explaining his decision to dismiss the case, the lead prosecutor stated: “The court may be willing to risk the well being of the victim in order to force it to trial. I am not.”

The case raises a myriad of issues – both usual and unusual. The amount of media coverage in the LaFave case was unusual in its national scope. But media coverage often accompanies sexual abuse cases. The law generally attempts to shield the victim from such coverage by sealing the court’s file so as to avoid identification of the victim. In a case like LaFave, and in the absence of a responsible media, there would be no meaningful way to protect the victim from unwanted attention and exposure. It is not surprising that the victim did not want any further attention – imagine taking one of your most painful and traumatic experiences and being compelled to speak about it openly in a courtroom full of strangers – then magnify this exposure under a national media microscope and you might begin to understand the “extreme anxiety” that this young boy felt, the fear that prompted his mother to request a plea agreement, and the decision by the prosecutor to dismiss the case.

As I have stated in other articles, prosecutors are bound to seek justice – but who defines justice. There has been a movement in recent years to empower victims so that they are heard in relation to both plea agreements and sentencing. This is extremely important in sexual abuse cases. A prosecutor must build a trusting relationship with a victim of sexual abuse – which is difficult given that many child victims have suffered abuse as a result of the trust that they placed in some adult. But if the child does not trust the prosecutor, the child will never tell the prosecutor, let alone a jury about the abuse. What if the child and the child’s parents tell the prosecutor that they do not want a trial – and there is psychiatric evidence that a trial could be detrimental to the child’s mental health. Does the prosecutor risk the child’s mental health and violate the child’s trust by ignoring the requests and forcing the child to testify at trial?

Is there a double standard? I cannot answer that question except to say that prosecutors cannot effectively seek justice if they treat similarly situated defendants differently. There are more important questions raised by the LaFave case – and the national media seems to be missing the most important one: the national media helped fuel the anxiety of this boy to the point that he could not bear to testify. LaFave undoubtedly belongs in jail for what she did to this child – but what about the media that caused this boy additional trauma and helped LaFave to escape justice? I doubt the media will report that story – it is far easier to blame the prosecutor for not coercing an unwilling, sexually abused child to testify. The prosecutor letting LaFave off is a great story – but the complicity of the media in her escape is not. Is there a double standard there?

Please submit any questions, concerns, or comments to Susquehanna County District Attorney’s Office, P.O. Box 218, Montrose, Pennsylvania 18801.

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The Healthy Geezer

Q. I’ve noticed that I can’t drink a cup of regular coffee after mid-afternoon. It keeps me awake at night. I used to be able to drink coffee at dinnertime and it never bothered me. Is this another age thing?

Uh-huh. Sensitivity to caffeine—the pick-me-up in coffee—tends to increase as you get older. Children metabolize caffeine quicker than adults.

About 90 percent of Americans consume caffeine daily. More than half of all American adults consume more than 300 milligrams of caffeine every day, making it America's most popular drug.

Caffeine occurs naturally in many plants, including coffee beans, tea leaves and cocoa nuts. It is therefore found in a wide range of food products. Caffeine is added artificially to many others, including a variety of beverages. The most common sources of caffeine for Americans are coffee, tea, colas, chocolate and some over-the-counter medications.

Here are some useful numbers to help you determine how much caffeine you take in: a 6-ounce cup of coffee—100 mg; a 6-ounce cup of tea—70 mg; a 12-ounce can of cola—50 mg; an ounce of chocolate—6 mg; one tablet of Extra Strength Excedrin—65 mg; one tablet of Anacin—32 mg; one tablet of Maximum Strength NoDoz—200 mg.

For most people, 200 to 300 milligrams a day aren't harmful. But, if you are sensitive to caffeine or use of certain drugs, you may want to cut down or eliminate caffeine from your diet. Your caffeine consumption is worth discussing with your doctor.

Caffeine can cause restlessness, anxiety, irritability, muscle tremors, sleeplessness, headaches, nausea, diarrhea and abnormal heart rhythms.

Some medicines and supplements interact negatively with caffeine. These include some antibiotics, bronchodilators and the dietary supplement Ephedra. Talk to your doctor or pharmacist about whether caffeine might affect the medicines you take.

In the practice of medicine, caffeine is useful as a cardiac stimulant and also as a mild diuretic. Caffeine is an addictive drug. It stimulates like amphetamines, cocaine, and heroin.

If you feel you have to have caffeine every day, then you are addicted to it. Eliminating caffeine suddenly can cause withdrawal symptoms, such as headaches and fatigue. These symptoms usually pass after several days.

Here are some tips if you want to chase the caffeine monkey:

Read labels carefully for ingredients and keep track of the caffeine you consume.

Gradually reduce the amount of caffeine you take in. This will enable you to acclimate to less caffeine and reduce the effects of withdrawal.

Start drinking decaffeinated coffee, tea and soda.

Brew your tea for less time to cut down on caffeine. Or try herbal teas which are caffeine-free.

Check the caffeine content in over-the-counter medications that you take. If you can, switch to caffeine-free forms of the medications you need.

If you have a question, please write to fredcicetti@gmail.com.

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Email Etiquette for Sending and Receiving Email

With only three choices for addressing an email, i.e. the 'To', 'Cc' and 'Bcc' fields, you would think addressing is simple. Unfortunately, that's not the case. There are reasons why you might want to use each of these addressing choices. Today I’ll help you understand when to use each one. Also I’ll cover common mistakes on who and how you send your email. Is it ok to send the email to your entire address book whether it's relevant to those receiving it or not? Determine who really needs to see the email and only send it to those people. Have you ever received an email with lots of email ids at the top? If you’ve received an email that you want to send on, don’t just forward it. Clip out the relevant information and paste it into a new email. Emails that have been forwarded many times are quite annoying.

Use the ‘To’ only for email addresses of people who you are directly addressing. If you put all of the email addresses in the 'To', you’ll confuse the recipients. In cases such as this, the receivers have no clue as to who should take action. If you want additional people to know that you sent an email, but did not direct it to them, add their email address using ‘CC’ or “Carbon Copy”. This allows everyone to know who is expected to take action and who is just being kept up to date. Please don't over do it here. Copy only those who need to be copied; again not your entire address book.

The addresses in the ‘BCC’ or “Blind Carbon Copy” are like 'CC' except that the individual addresses are not placed in the mail header. Each person in the ‘BCC’ list will receive an email, as will the addresses in the ‘To’ and ‘CC’ section. And while any email recipient can see whom it was sent ‘To’, and who was “carbon copied”, no one can see who was in the ‘BCC’ list.

If you want to send an email to a long list of people, any one of them may forward your email list (albeit unintentionally) to an unscrupulous person or infected computer. Suddenly there’s even more spam! Use ‘BCC’ without the ‘To’ to send the same email to many people but without each of them seeing the large list of emails. Another forwarding issue is including the headers. No doubt you have received a funny joke or great recipe from a friend. You might want to send it on to another friend or friends. When you click on the forward button often you will see, near the top of the email, the old ‘To’ or ‘From’ information. Often there are email ids embedded in this area. This list may be quite extensive if you were only one of the many recipients your friend emailed. Delete this information out of the email. It's hard to tell where this email will end up; you don't want to hand out all those addresses to spammers?

If you want to get your email read, be sure to put something meaningful in the subject line. Many email filters will put an email with an empty subject line in the Junk box. So make sure you have something in the subject line. If you’re forwarding an email that has been forwarded before, consider rewriting the subject instead of leaving the Fwd: Fwd: Fwd…

Next time I discuss how to keep your PC from getting too heated up. Lori Martin is owner of Martin Works, Inc. (http://www.MartinWorks.com), Susquehanna, PA.

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EARTH TALK

From the Editors of E/The Environmental Magazine

Dear EarthTalk: I'm looking for projects for my son’s elementary school to do for Earth Day this year. Do you know of any that can teach children about taking care of our environment?

Meryl Greenfield, Williston Park, NY

Earth Day is April 22 this year and there’s no time like the present to start preparing activities that will teach young people about the importance of protecting the planet. The Seattle-based Earth Day Network, founded by the organizers of the first Earth Day in 1970, offers a wide range of resources to help parents and teachers plan events and direct appropriate discussions on current topics. This year, the organization is focusing efforts on raising awareness about environmental problems associated with global warming.

Parents and teachers can register with Earth Day Network and receive free materials including lesson plans, information on how to get students engaged in local environmental activities, suggestions for hands-on and outdoor activities--even an environmentally-themed “Jeopardy” game.

Some other free resources offered by Earth Day Network include: an “Ecological Footprint Quiz,” whereby kids can find out how much impact they personally have on the environment as determined by how they eat, live and travel; a series of informative fact sheets on climate change and alternative energy sources; and links on their website to other reputable information sources online. And if you’re looking for Earth Day events to attend in your area, Earth Day Network’s website allows you to simply type in your locale and get a continuously updated calendar of events local to you.

Meanwhile, Kaboose.com, an educational website for kids and families, features Earth Day pages with green-themed online games, suggestions for recycling everyday items into Earth-friendly crafts, and kid-oriented eco-discussion topics. And Education World offers lesson plans and activities covering a wide range of topics including here-and-now issues like in-school recycling and minimizing lunchroom wastes.

Another interesting way to educate kids and the public alike is the Earth Day Groceries Project: Parents or teachers borrow grocery bags from local supermarkets to be decorated with environmental messages and artwork by students. The bags are then returned to the store and used for bagging groceries on April 22.

For those looking to get real local, the Heartland All Species Project offers a free, web-based “Earth Day in Your Neighborhood” guide outlining ways kids can bring neighbors together to celebrate the Earth and commit to greener living. The concise and illustrated guide details ways to get composting, tree planting, energy efficiency and recycling projects going on a street-by-street basis.

For additional ideas, consider perusing the posts on the Earth Day/Ecology Projects Chatboard on Teachers.net. Several teachers have posted ideas for Earth Day projects and activities, from putting on a play based on Dr. Seuss' Lorax, to raising money for school by recycling inkjet cartridges.

CONTACTS: Earth Day Network, www.earthday.net; Kaboose.com, www.kidsdomain.com/holiday/earthday; Earth Day Groceries Project, www.earthdaybags.org; Heartland All Species Project, www.allspecies.org/neigh/blocka.htm; Education World, www.education-world.com/holidays/archives/earthday.shtml; Teachers.net, www.teachers.net/projects/earthday.

Dear EarthTalk: Is it true that some foods we buy contain genetically engineered ingredients known to cause health problems?

George Kaye, New York, NY

First made available in the U.S. during the mid-1990s, genetically modified (GM) foods have become staples of American agriculture, though most consumers are unaware of this. According to the non-profit Pew Initiative on Food and Biotechnology, the majority of corn, soy and cotton grown by American farmers today are from seeds genetically engineered to repel pests without the need for spraying pesticides or herbicides. GM versions of canola, squash and papaya are also coming on strong in the U.S.

As is the case with so many scientific controversies, the jury is still out regarding the potential health effects of GM food products. But while conclusive results have been hard to come by, some of the few studies conducted on animals fed diets consisting of GM foods have generated some disturbing results.

In one study, potatoes engineered to contain an insect-repelling gene to improve agricultural yield caused intestinal damage in the test subjects – some lab mice. While the mice did not die from eating the altered food, lesions that formed in their digestive tracts gave researchers pause enough to recommend more thorough testing of the “transgenic potatoes” before marketing them to humans.

In another study, mice were fed so-called “Flavr Savr” Tomatoes – tomatoes developed in the early 90s by Calgene that were “optimized for flavor retention.” Similar lesions arose in the intestines of the mice, causing reviewers from the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) to conclude that “the data fall short of ‘a demonstration of safety,’” adding, “unresolved questions still remain.” Yet later, yielding to the pressure of industry lobbyists, the FDA not only approved the Flavr Savr for mass human consumption, but also claimed that all safety issues had been satisfactorily resolved.

According to Belinda Martineau, a Calgene researcher who later published the tell-all book, First Fruit: The Creation of the Flavr Savr Tomato and the Birth of Biotech Foods, when the Flavr Savr hit store shelves consumers were not particularly impressed with its taste. Also, farmers were coping with disease problems and low yields, the very problems the technology sought to address in the first place. Eventually the Flavr Savr – or “Franken tomato,” as some cynics dubbed it – was abandoned altogether.

Its legacy lives on, however. Many environmental advocates feel that the FDA’s nod on the Flavr Savr set the bar particularly low for approval of other GM foods that may or may not cause health problems. Further, it remains to be seen what effects these hybridized species might have on the environment at large, reason enough to delay the mass release of GM foods into the market until more is known.

Meanwhile, European countries have remained steadfast against allowing GM crops to be grown on their own farms for fear of widespread environmental contamination. And whether or not to allow GM food imports into Europe is a matter of great debate right now within the European Union.

CONTACTS: Pew Initiative on Food and Biotechnology, www.pewagbiotech.org; First Fruit, www.books.mcgraw-hill.com/getbook.php?isbn=0071360565.

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.

 

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