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COLUMNS: JACKSON: The annual reunion of the Pease family will be held in Jackson at the home of George Pease, June 24. Carriages will be in waiting at New Milford for friends coming on the train. All friends and relatives are cordially invited to be present. At noon there will be a basket lunch. Blanche Hoppe, Sec’y. FOREST CITY: On Memorial Day, the Sacred Heart church was dedicated. AND: A hearing was held before Judge Little in regard to securing a permanent injunction restraining the town officials from making alterations in the borough building to the extent of perhaps $1000. Some of the borough fathers favor the change so that the postoffice may be located in the building, as it is a more central point. Others consider that the taxpayers’ money should not be thus expended. A decision has not yet been made. HALLSTEAD: James T. DuBois is having a book published, of which he is the author, entitled, “Fun and Pathos of One Life.” It is particularly a boy’s book, but anyone can read it with interest, but those of his own county will naturally be among the more interested. MONTROSE: Erastus H. Rogers was 88 years of age on Tuesday, June 2. Mr. Rogers was one of the “forty-niners” who went to California when the gold fever was taking away thousands from the east. He is active and in good health and in conversation with good friends takes pleasure in recalling the days when the west was new. AND: One of the delightful features of the work of the new library is the Children’s Story Hour, in which the children are told by various of our good raconteurs, some of our best literature, thus educating them in that line. Several have been held, and on Friday, May 29, a Patriotic Hour, appropriate to the season, pleased and instructed our juveniles. The small auditorium of the library was decorated with the red, white and blue in flowers and bunting. The boys and girls themselves sang “My Country ‘tis of Thee,” and two selections with Miss Searle. They also sang the “Star Spangled Banner,” with Katherine Riley, who sang for them patriotic songs of other nations. Miss Riley read to them the Flag Raising from Rebecca, that unique and stirring tale of patriotism. NEW MILFORD: W. E. Hoolihan was in Montrose on business Tuesday. Mr. Hoolihan is a representative for the radio or wireless telephone company, and has the agency for the sale of stock in Lackawanna, Luzerne and Susquehanna counties. The wireless telephone will before long replace to a large extent the wireless telegraph, being easier to operate and less expensive. At present it is being little used outside of army and navy circles, but will eventually be in general use. LYNN, Springville Twp.: The ever-glorious 4th of July will be celebrated at this place. On that eventful day there will be sports and games of all kinds at Athletic park, such as sack and wheelbarrow races, baseball, side shows, etc., which will be managed by Prof. Rose, who will exhibit KiKi, the dog-faced boy, who was captured in the wilds of Kentucky. Raymond Greenwood will place on exhibition his trained dog Tom, who will do some surprising stunts under direction of his trainer. SOUTH GIBSON: During a heavy thunder shower Sunday afternoon, lightning struck a tree on Clark Tripp’s place, killing his horse, which was under the tree. LAUREL LAKE: Dogs got after Michael Murphy’s sheep one morning recently. Three sheep were killed and twelve more badly bitten and torn. Mrs. Margaret Donovan also had three sheep killed by dogs last week. DIMOCK: Elias Titman drove to Auburn last week looking for fat cattle to drive to Scranton. CLIFFORD/LENOXVILLE: C. G. Stephens, merchant of Lenoxville, passed through town last Friday with his automobile, on his return from Scranton. He left Lenoxville in his auto, Friday morning, ran 25 miles to Scranton, sold 40 dozen crates of eggs, and returned same day in time to attend the grand hop at the Royal House, at Royal, held that night. Clarence is a hustler. LITTLE MEADOWS: Ray D. Gibson, of Little Meadows, and Cora Short, of Nixon, N.Y., applied for a marriage license. FRIENDSVILLE: The members of Friendsville Athletic Club will hold a dance in the Hall at Friendsville, Friday, June 12. A good supper will be served. Music by Muldoon’s Orchestra. Two ball games will be played--Middletown Center vs. Quaker Lake at 1:00 and Friendsville vs. the winners at 3:30. MESHOPPEN: One of our R. F. D. Carriers was in Montrose last night, making the trip on motor-cycle in a little over an hour. He was demonstrating the machine for a general agent, in the evening. Coming down Church street at a perilous speed, and on reaching the juncture at Pubic Avenue, seemed bewildered as to whether he would go up or down, and crashed into the curbing around the drinking fountain, both rider and machine vaulting high in the air and completely passing over the embankment. The rider was not seriously injured, but awfully shook up, but the expensive new machine was wrecked. HARFORD: A number of the ladies made up a fishing party. A very enjoyable time was reported but not many fish. FLYNN: It would be well for some young men to have a date made before driving too far to be disappointed. CHOCONUT : The farmers around Vestal Center and Choconut have been annoyed some for the past few days on account of there not being any feed at the mill, at the Center. NEWS BRIEFS: The Lackawanna is contemplating using soft coal instead of hard in its locomotives on all trains, as it is cheaper. Then Phoebe Snow, can no longer go, in spotless white, upon the Road of Anthracite. AND: Approaching a sad looking young man at a wedding, the “best man” asked: “Have you kissed the bride?” And the sad young man replied: “Not lately.”
From the Desk of the D.A. One of the goals of the criminal justice system is rehabilitation of the offender. This can occur through a variety of means including mental health counseling, drug and alcohol counseling, anger management counseling, educational services, vocational training, boot camp programs, and other innovative programs. If an offender is placed on probation (or upon being released on parole after being incarcerated), the court has certain conditions of the probation or parole that the offender must comply with in order to avoid being re-incarcerated. The offender actually signs an acknowledgement that he understands his supervision conditions and will abide by them. There are many standard conditions of supervision – the bulk of which every hard working citizen complies with every day without a second thought. For example, an offender cannot violate any criminal laws or use any illegal controlled substances while under supervision. The offender cannot change his or her residence without notifying (and obtaining approval) from his parole officer. The offender cannot engage in any violent or dangerous conduct that puts himself or anyone else at risk. The offender may be required to attend and successfully complete a counseling program. Finally, the offender must obtain and maintain employment. The standard condition regarding employment is frequently violated by offenders. A large percentage of these violations can be attributable to simple laziness. A smaller percentage relates to the inability of persons with criminal convictions to obtain employment. After all, if you are an employer, you will likely hire a person with no criminal record over a person with a criminal record. The stigma that attaches to a convicted person is part of the collateral punishment that lasts a lifetime. The City of Philadelphia is trying to change the trend of turning down ex-convicts for employment. Michael Nutter, the newly elected Democrat Mayor, has announced a new tax incentive program aimed at encouraging employers to hire persons with prior criminal records. If an employer hires an ex-convict and provides tuition support or vocation training, the employer can qualify for a $10,000 a year municipal tax credit. The City of Philadelphia intends to lead by example – the city has set aside 500 existing job vacancies to be filled with former prisoners. Can you imagine applying for a job, having all the right credentials, having no criminal history, and being told that a person with a felony conviction was hired over you so that the company could take advantage of a municipal tax credit? By creating this economic incentive, the City of Philadelphia is creating, to some degree, a preferential hiring practice that favors ex-convicts. There is a strong argument that this program will actually hurt law-abiding citizens seeking their own employment, as they cannot offer the potential employer any tax advantages for hiring them. On the other hand, there is a persuasive policy argument for creating programs to encourage the rehabilitation of an offender through employment opportunities that assist the offender in becoming a productive member of society. As they say, idle hands are the devil’s workshop. If we can get an offender working, there is less of a chance that he or she will re-offend. There is no doubt that a criminal history makes it difficult to obtain employment. This is a reality that every person understands before they commit a criminal offense. Every action has consequences – and a criminal record will simply make your life more difficult – and substantially dims the prospect of good employment. Even with programs similar to those in Philadelphia, many employers will still likely shy away from persons with criminal histories regardless of any tax advantages. In the end, the success or failure of an offender depends less upon what we do, and more upon the desire of the offender to change regardless of how hard the road may be. Please submit any questions, concerns, or comments to Susquehanna County District Attorney’s Office, P.O. Box 218, Montrose, Pennsylvania 18801 or at www.SusquehannaCounty-DA.org.
The Healthy Geezer
This is the second of two columns on stem cells. In your body, you have specialized cells that make up your brain, blood, bones and other anatomical parts. Stem cells are not specialized; they are master cells. Stem cells divide to form new stem cells or specialized cells. There are two basic forms of stem cells – embryonic and adult. Embryonic stem cells come from embryos that are a few days old. These cells can divide into more stem cells, or any type of body cell. Embryonic stem cells have the greatest capacity to regenerate or repair diseased tissue in people. Adult stem cells are found in adult tissues, children, placentas and umbilical cords. The primary roles of adult stem cells are to maintain and repair tissue. Stem cells can be used to create “lines,” which are cell cultures that can be grown indefinitely in the laboratory and then frozen for storage. The development of stem cell lines that can produce many tissues of the human body has the potential to revolutionize the practice of medicine. Stem cells offer the possibility of a renewable source of replacement cells and tissues to treat many medical problems including Parkinson and Alzheimer's diseases, spinal cord injury, stroke, burns, heart disease, diabetes and arthritis. Parkinson disease (PD) may be the first disease amenable to treatment with stem cells. In the early 1960s, scientists determined that the loss of brain cells was causing PD. The cells that were depleted produced dopamine, a chemical that helps control muscle activity. Today, PD is treated with drugs and surgery. PD is a complex disorder of the central nervous system. It is the second most common neurodegenerative disease in the United States, after Alzheimer's. The defining symptoms of PD include tremor, slowness of movement, rigidity, and impaired balance and coordination. Scientists have been able to do experiments with human embryonic stem cells only since 1998, when a group led by Dr. James Thomson at the University of Wisconsin developed a technique to isolate and grow the cells. Embryonic stem cell treatment is just beginning to be tested in people. Clinical trials using stem cells to treat neurological diseases have begun recruiting participants. Adult stem cells are the only type of stem cell commonly used to treat human diseases now. Doctors have been transferring blood-producing stem cells in bone-marrow transplants for more than four decades. These cells are used to treat leukemia, lymphoma and several inherited blood disorders. The use of adult stem cells is limited for a variety of reasons. First, researchers have yet to find adult stem cells that could lead to all types of cells. Second, adult stem cells are often in small supplies. Third, there is evidence that they may not have the same capacity to multiply as embryonic stem cells do. And, last, adult stem cells may contain abnormalities. If you have a question, please write to fred@healthygeezer.com.
Straight From Starrucca No Straight From Starrucca This Week
No Veterans' Corner This Week
What’s Bugging You? No what's Buggins You This Week
Food For Thought No Food For Thought This Week EARTH TALK From the Editors of E/The Environmental Magazine Dear EarthTalk: What initiatives are taking place on college campuses to reduce the footprints of these large users of energy and other resources? Shawna Smith, Hamilton, NY Microcosms of the world at large, college campuses are great test beds for environmental change, and many students are working hard to get their administrations to take positive action. The initiatives that are emerging are models for the larger society, and the students pushing for them will be taking these lessons with them, too, as they enter the work force after graduation. Foremost on the minds of green-leaning students today is global warming, and many are joining hands to persuade their schools to update policies and streamline operations so that their campuses can become part of the solution. Largely a result of student efforts, for example, nearly 500 U.S. colleges and universities have signed the American College and University Presidents (ACUP) Climate Commitment. This agreement requires schools to put together a comprehensive plan to go “carbon neutral” within two years of signing. (Carbon neutral means contributing no net greenhouse gases to the atmosphere, either by not generating them in the first place, or by offsetting them somehow, such as through tree-planting or by buying “offsets” from companies that fund alternative energy projects.) ACUP also commits schools to implementing two or more tangible (and easily implemented) policies right away, such as improving waste minimization and recycling programs, reducing energy usage, providing or encouraging public transportation to and from campus (and switching campus buses over to bio-diesel fuel), constructing bicycle lanes, and implementing green building guidelines for any new construction. Signatory schools also pledge that they will integrate sustainability into their curricula, making it part of the educational experience. One place where students are forcing green changes on campus is the dining hall. According to the Sustainable Endowments Institute’s 2007 report card, which looks at environmental initiatives at the 200 colleges and universities with the largest endowment assets in the U.S. and Canada, 70 percent of such schools now “devote at least a portion of food budgets to buying from local farms and/or producers,” while 29 percent earned an “A” in the “food and recycling” category. Yale University even has organic gardens that are student-run and that supply an on-campus farmer’s market for use by campus food services, the local community and students alike. Another area where college campuses are leading the way is in water conservation. Colleges consume huge quantities of water in dormitories, cafeterias, at athletic facilities and in maintaining their rolling, green grounds. According to Niles Barnes of the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE), most of the 3,800 institutions of higher education in the U.S. have engaged in some sort of water-saving program. Low-water-volume toilets and urinals, as well as low-flow showerheads and faucets, are “pretty much standard practice across U.S. colleges today,” says Barnes. CONTACTS: ACUP, www.presidentsclimatecommitment.org; Sustainable Endowments Institute, www.endowmentinstitute.org; AASHE, www.aashe.org. Dear EarthTalk: What is the status of wetlands in North America? Years ago I remember that wetlands loss, due to development and sprawl, was accelerating fast, but I haven’t heard much on the topic of late. John Mossbarger, La Jolla, CA Wetlands serve as primary habitat for thousands of wildlife species – from ducks to beavers to insects – and form an important ecosystem link between land and water. They also play a key role in maintaining water quality, as they filter out agricultural nutrients and absorb sediments so that municipal water supplies don’t have to. On and near shorelines, wetlands provide a natural buffer against storm surges and rising floodwaters, helping to disperse and absorb excess water before it can damage life and property. The eradication of wetlands in the so-called New World began when white settlers, intent on taming the land, started developing homesteads and town sites throughout what was to become the United States and Canada. Researchers estimate that at the time of European settlement in the early 1600s, the land that was to become the lower 48 U.S. states had 221 million acres of wetlands. By the mid-1980s, following another great period of loss after World War II when army engineers drained huge swaths of formerly impenetrable marshes and swamps, the continental U.S. had only 103 million wetland acres remaining. Across the U.S. and Canada, the vast majority of wetlands – about 85 percent – have been destroyed in the name of agricultural expansion. Other major factors include road building, residential development, and the building of large facilities like shopping malls, factories, airports and, ironically, reservoirs. But growing awareness about the importance of wetlands has led to new regulations aimed at protecting those that remain. A variety of state and federal programs, such as the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Wetland Reserve Program (whereby landowners voluntarily protect, restore and enhance wetlands on their own private property), have been effective in stemming the tide of wetlands loss. During the 1990s the rate of wetlands loss in the U.S. declined by some 80 percent over previous decades. But the nation is still losing upwards of 50,000 wetland acres per year, according to the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. The issue is of even greater concern in Canada, which harbors a quarter of the world’s remaining wetlands in its northern boreal forests. According to Natural Resources Canada, fully 14 percent of Canada’s total land mass is in the form of wetlands. Researchers believe that about 50 million acres of wetlands have been lost in Canada since European settlement. Underscoring the correlation between urbanization and wetlands loss, less than .2 percent of Canada’s wetlands lie within 25 miles of major urban centers today. On the global level, 158 governments are signatories to the 1971 Ramsar Convention on Wetlands, an international treaty that provides a framework for international cooperation in the conservation and wise use of wetlands. Some 1,743 wetland sites – totaling almost 400 million acres – have been protected as “Wetlands of International Importance” under the terms of the treaty. Although the Ramsar treaty can do little to stop illegal or legal draining of wetlands, its very existence highlights how seriously the majority of the world’s countries take protecting land formerly thought of as God-forsaken and useless. CONTACTS: Wetlands Reserve Program, www.nrcs.usda.gov/Programs/WRP/; Natural Resources Canada, www.nrcan-rncan.gc.ca; Ramsar Convention on Wetlands, www.ramsar.org. 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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