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COLUMNS:
100 Years Ago
From the Desk of the D.A.
The Healthy Geezer
Library Chitchat
Rock Doc Break The Glass, Douse The Flames
What’s Bugging You?
Dear Dolly
Earth Talk
Barnes-Kasson Corner


100 Years Ago

FOREST CITY: Three double dwellings, in which twenty families lived, were destroyed here Monday night. The houses were located on Lackawanna street and were owned by Frank Niebsydowski. The loss is $12,000. The fire plugs were frozen and the firemen could do nothing.

SUSQUEHANNA: Shortly after returning from St. John’s Catholic church, where she attended mass, Mrs. Robert Keenan, a highly and estimable resident, died suddenly at the home of her daughter, Mrs. Martin J. Kendrick. Mrs. Keenan was in apparently good health early Friday morning. She arose at the usual hour and at eight o’clock went to mass and received Holy Communion. She returned to her home and while eating breakfast expired. Dr. W. J. Condon was summoned and pronounced her death due to heart failure. She is survived by three sons and three daughters.

HEART LAKE: The Mountain Ice Co. finished filling their large ice house at this place, Saturday. F. I. Hillis and family have moved back to their farm, after running the boarding house during the ice job.

HARFORD: Henry Jones has gone to Massachusetts, where he will enter some college and finish the term.

MONTROSE: Jos. M. Bush, trainmaster of the Wyoming Division of the Lehigh Valley, was engaged here Friday. When a mere boy he drove the stage between Montrose and Rush, carrying the mails and passengers for about two years.

HOP BOTTOM: There will be a Washington’s Birthday hop at the Valley View House, Hop Bottom, of which H. C. Carpenter is proprietor, Feb. 22. Mahon’s orchestra, of Montrose, which gives such general satisfaction, will go down to furnish music for Mr. Carpenter. Arrangements have been made to afford the guests at this hop an excellent time as usual.

HALLSTEAD: G. M. Decker, Hallstead’s bustling laundryman, last week purchased the Susquehanna laundry and he is moving the same to Hallstead, where the various machines and implements will be incorporated as a part of the laundry here. These additions will make Mr. Decker’s laundry one of the most complete plants in Northern Pennsylvania.

ST. JOSEPH: M. J. O’Reilly is doing a hustling business as proprietor of the store here.

FOREST LAKE: John Reilly saw his shadow candlemas day. Six weeks more winter weather, John.

FAIRDALE: There is no school this week, Miss Browning, the teacher, being absent on account of drifted roads.

ARARAT: Twenty-eight below zero Monday morning at this place. How’s that for fresh air?

DUNDAFF: Mrs. Ada White, who has been house keeper at the hotel for the past month, has accepted a position at the Forest House, at Forest City. Mrs. Pengelly, of Wilkes-Barre, fills the place made vacant by her.

BROOKDALE: The old school Baptists of this vicinity, held a meeting at the home of Mrs. Laura Bailey.

BURNWOOD: George and James Wademan were courting at Montrose last week.

ALFORD: William L. Stone, flagman on the Montrose branch of the Lackawanna, met with a sad and sudden death on Monday morning. The Montrose train was being made up near the water tank on a siding alongside the main tracks, Mr. Stone, being at work between the tender and car, uncoupling the air hose. A train was going up on the track furthest from him and as he stepped back from between the cars on the rails of the adjoining eastbound track, the noise of the train going up prevented him from hearing the down coming freight. The pilot of the engine struck him on the side of the head, hurling him some feet and causing almost instant death. Conductor E. F. Wilmot telephoned his wife to impart the heart rending news, which was done as gently as the dread circumstance permitted and bravely borne by the widow. Mr. Stone was nearly 48 years of age and was a native of Franklin township. His parents were Stanley and Ruth (Darrow) Stone, both natives of Montrose. The father resides in New Milford and one sister, Mrs. N. O. Roach, at Tiffany and two sons and two daughters survive.

CRYSTAL LAKE: Robert Wood Johnson died suddenly at his home in New Brunswick, N.J., on Tuesday. He was the head of the large firm of Johnson & Johnson, makers of surgical dressings and appliances. In 1874 he organized the firm of Seabury & Johnson for the manufacture of medicated plasters and dressing, and in 1887 the present firm was organized. He was born in Carbondale and was well known in the eastern part of the county. Sylvester Johnson, of Crystal Lake, is a brother.

UNIONDALE: John Smith is moving to the Forest City poor farm, where he will work during the coming season. ALSO Rev. William Usher braved the snowstorm Sunday and walked to Pleasant Mount, where he preached in the Presbyterian church.

HERRICK CENTER: Peter Stanton died last Wednesday after a long illness of typhoid fever. The funeral was held Saturday morning at the home. The deceased is survived by a wife and fourteen children. Much sympathy is felt for the family.

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From the Desk of the D.A.
By District Attorney Jason J. Legg

Miranda warnings are a judicially-created remedy that assures that a criminal suspect understands his constitutional rights prior to questioning by a law enforcement officer. There is no specific language in the Constitution that requires Miranda warnings. Given that it is a judicially-created procedure, the remedy for failure to provide Miranda warnings is likewise a judicial one, namely, the suppression of the evidence obtained as a result of the interrogation that occurred without Miranda rights being properly administered, as well as the suppression of any evidence obtained as a direct result of the interrogation itself (the fruits of the interrogation).

This is perhaps the most interesting component of the debate surrounding reading Miranda rights to terrorists. Even assuming that terrorists are entitled to such rights, a rather large assumption, the question then becomes as a policy matter what the purpose of the interrogation serves to determine whether Miranda warnings are truly necessary. If you intend upon using the statements derived from the suspect in some subsequent civilian criminal prosecution (as opposed to a military tribunal), then the law enforcement officer should make certain that Miranda rights are provided to the suspect - or risk the loss of that evidence through suppression. If you are seeking intelligence for national security purposes and troop safety, there is no strong policy reason that supports providing Miranda warnings to a terrorist. If you get the information, you save lives. The failure to read Miranda rights has no collateral consequences as there is no criminal prosecution wherein evidence could be suppressed.

A concrete example of this might better illustrate this principle. The underwear bomber who attempted to blow up a commercial passenger aircraft on Christmas Day was apprehended by law enforcement. At the point that law enforcement took him into custody, the criminal case was solved. There were countless witnesses on the plane, there was physical evidence on his person and clothing, and there was no doubt as to what he attempted to do. It was an open and shut case. There was no need for a confession to strengthen the case.

On the other hand, there certainly was a need to determine if he was connected to any other pending threats to American citizens (or, for that matter, anyone else). Apparently, the FBI interrogated him for about 50 minutes without Miranda warnings and, based upon reports, those interrogations obtained substantial information. The FBI agents were then instructed to provide Miranda warnings and this resulted in the underwear bomber’s decision to stop talking to law enforcement.

The question is a simple one: What was the utility in that circumstance to providing Miranda warnings to this terrorist? Even assuming that the decision had been made to prosecution him in a civilian criminal court, there was overwhelming evidence to support a criminal prosecution. The government did not even have to interview him for purposes of the criminal investigation and prosecution. Thus, a decision to continue the interview without Miranda warnings would not have jeopardized any subsequent criminal prosecution. Even if there was a confession obtained without Miranda warnings, the worse case scenario would have been that a court would have suppressed that confession. If there was overwhelming evidence prior to the confession, the loss of the confession itself would not have jeopardized the prosecution.

On the other hand, the decision to provide Miranda warnings that terminated the investigation did potentially jeopardize the ability of intelligence officers to gather information necessary to protect national security interests. There were two concerns to be weighed against each other: (1) the potential that unnecessary evidence would be suppressed in a subsequent criminal prosecution as a result of the failure to provide Miranda warnings; and (2) the potential that the suspect had valuable intelligence information relating to national security interests and the ability to obtain that information might be compromised by providing Miranda warnings. In those circumstances, the decision to provide the judicially-created Miranda warnings is a curious one.

Please submit any questions, concerns, or comments to Susquehanna County District Attorney’s Office, P.O. Box 218, Montrose, Pennsylvania 18801 or at our website www.SusquehannaCounty-DA.org or discuss this and all articles at http://dadesk.blogspot.com/.

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The Healthy Geezer
By Fred Cicetti

Q. I get the winter blues every year. I was wondering how many people suffer the way I do.

The medical term for winter depression is Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD). Symptoms usually begin in late fall or early winter and go away by summer. A less common type of depression occurs in the summer. SAD has been linked to a biochemical imbalance in the brain prompted by shorter daylight hours and a lack of sunlight in winter.

About a half a million people in the USA get depressed in winter. Depressions are usually mild to moderate, but they can be severe. Most people with SAD don’t feel fully back to normal until early May.

People who work inside buildings with few windows can suffer SAD symptoms all year. Some feel mood changes during any long stretch of cloudy weather. Some evidence suggests that the farther someone lives from the equator, the more likely they are to develop SAD.

The disorder usually starts in people older than 20. The risk of SAD decreases as adults age. SAD is more common in women than in men. Winter-onset SAD is more common in northern regions that have severe winters.

Common symptoms of winter-onset SAD include: loss of interest in pleasurable activities, withdrawal from social situations, a craving for sweet or starchy foods, oversleeping, fatigue, weight gain, irritability, difficulty concentrating and anxiety.

Common symptoms of summer-onset SAD include: loss of appetite and weight,

insomnia, irritability, increased sex drive and anxiety.

Both forms of the seasonal disorder may also include some of the symptoms that are present in other forms of depression, such as guilt, hopelessness and physical pains.

SAD is treated with light therapy, medicines, diet changes and stress management techniques. Probably the best way to beat the winter blues is to leave the north - if you can - and head to a sunnier region during the dark, cold days.

When you use light for SAD therapy, you either sit in front of a special fluorescent light box or wear a lighted visor for about a half-hour every day throughout the fall and winter. Light therapy can produce relief within days. Antidepressants with light may also help. So can psychotherapy.

SAD can be battled with self-help techniques, too:

* Make your environment sunnier by opening blinds, adding skylights and trimming tree branches that block sunlight.

* Sit closer to bright windows while at home or in the office.

* Spend more time outdoors. Even on cold or cloudy days, outdoor light helps.

* Exercise. Physical exercise relieves stress and anxiety; both can increase SAD symptoms. Exercise makes you feel happier, too, because you develop a better self-image.

There are some alternative remedies that are used for SAD. Don’t use any of them without consulting a doctor. These substances may interfere with prescription medications that you take. Here are some of the remedies:

* St. John's wort. This herb has traditionally been used to treat a variety of problems, including depression.

* SAMe. This is a synthetic form of a chemical that occurs naturally in the body. SAMe hasn't been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to treat depression in the United States. However, it's used in Europe as a prescription drug to treat depression.

* Melatonin. This natural hormone helps regulate mood. A change in the season may change the level of melatonin in your body.

* Omega-3 fatty acids. Omega-3 fatty acid supplements have been shown to relieve depression symptoms in some studies.

Mind-body therapies that may help relieve depression symptoms include acupuncture, yoga, meditation, guided imagery and massage.

If you have a question, please write to fred@healthygeezer.com.

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Library Chitchat
By Flo Whittaker

I have often wondered who was in charge of making the designation of certain weeks and months, such as “No-Name Calling Week” or “National Frog Month.” While I have not been able to find the answer, I did find that in some parts of the country February is “Library Lovers’ Month.”

Here are a few suggestions of things that you can do this month to be a Library Lover.

Make regular visits to your local library. This benefits both you and the library. You benefit from the resources available on your journey of lifetime learning. The library benefits from increased traffic, which is important in obtaining vital grant money. Bring a friend along, especially someone who has not visited the library before, and show them what is available there. Talk to the friendly staff to learn if there are other tangible ways that you can assist the library.

Be a Friend of the library. We have an active Library Friends group in Montrose that meets the third Wednesday of each month at 1 p.m. The next meeting is February 17. Join us to learn more about how you can volunteer to help.

Contribute money. Remember, the 2010 Fund Drive is still underway. Perhaps you could nominate the Susquehanna County Library as your community, school or corporate organization’s project for the year. Remember that, while libraries may receive some governmental funding, they rely on support of individuals, corporations, and foundations to keep their doors open to the public. Be a Library Lover today!

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Rock Doc
By Dr. E. Kirsten Peters

 

Fighting Frozen Toes

This winter opened with bitter cold for much of the nation - including parts of the country not used to snow and ice. Here in the northern tier states we are, at least, equipped to respond to winter storms, but they always pose a challenge.

At a very human level, cold temperatures often show up first as the experience of cold hands and cold feet. Even with good socks and sturdy boots, when I’m outside there are temperatures below which I cannot keep my toes warm (this is more notable the older I get, a trend I don’t appreciate).

There are two basic ways to combat freezing toes - and both depend on the chemical miracle of how oxygen (my favorite element) interacts with so much of the world around us.

The first approach to warming up, of course, is simply to build a fire. Fire, from a chemist’s point of view, is a rapid chemical reaction of oxygen with carbon-rich materials. Where I walk my dog on cold Sunday afternoons in the winter, along the seemingly endless Snake River, fishermen pursuing salmon and steelhead use driftwood to build fires. With plenty of fuel available, the fires can be big.

If I stop and talk a bit with the fishermen, I can sidle up to the fires - and warm myself at least a small bit. But the cost of that warmth - and let me emphasize this for the urban reader - is smelling like the stench of a fishy bonfire for the rest of the day, of having clothes and a coat that smell like that fish-gut fire until they are all next fully laundered.

It’s not a small matter, at least not for us girls.

Enter the miracle of the modern toe and finger warmer based on a more controlled chemical reaction between oxygen and iron - with iron functioning like the carbon in wood-fires.

“Toe warmers” are small and thin devices that have adhesive on the back. You open the package they come in from the store, stick a pair on your socks above or below your toes, put on your boots, and soak up the blessings of a trickle of heat on your ten little piggies all day long.

How can toe warmers possibly work?

First, it’s important to note the bags they come in are fully airtight. When you take them out, they are exposed to oxygen - because the air around us is 20 percent oxygen.

So far, so good.

The active ingredient in the toe warmers is iron. It’s not a chunk of iron, obviously, but a fine powder of iron filings, spread out in the toe warmer. The finely divided iron means it’s more likely to chemically react and interact with molecules around it - not just sit there in unchanging stubbornness like some middle-aged geologists.

Iron reacts with oxygen in a similar way as carbon, going through the process of oxidation. Iron plus oxygen creates iron oxide, also known as rust, also known as the main material on the underside of my ’87 pickup. When iron and oxygen create rust, heat is released. That’s the fundamental key to the toe warmers.

There are a variety of other hand-warming devices, too, that run on different principles and can fit in your mittens. But the little pouches of iron-filings are my personal favorite because they are so thin they fit in my boots below my toes. In my (ever so slightly stinky) boots, my toe warmers are a small pad that’s about 100 degrees F or a little warmer (according to my measurements). That’s blessedly cozy for my 10 toes on a cold afternoon.

The iron-filing toe-warmers are one-use-only. That’s a shame, but that’s the way it is because there’s no chemically easy way to pull the oxygen atoms off the iron once the two have combined. So you toss out the toe-warmers when their heat dies down to nil.

But, on the bright side, you and your clothes don’t smell like a fishy fire for the rest of the day.

Dr. E. Kirsten Peters, a native of the rural Northwest, was trained as a geologist at Princeton and Harvard. Follow her on the web at rockdoc.wsu.edu and on Twitter @RockDocWSU. This column is a service of the College of Sciences at Washington State University.

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What’s Bugging You?
By Stuart W. Slocum

No What's Bugging You This Week

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Dear Dolly,

Dear Dolly,

My ex husband called our children two weeks ago with the news that he and his partner of 5 years had broken up. She has caused a lot of trouble over the years, for instance, "accidentally" texting messages alluding to the fact that she was pregnant.

Then he had visitation and they had gotten back together. Tonight, the ex girlfriend called my 13 year old daughter and told her they had broken up again.

I called my ex husband and told him to stop involving our kids in his relationships. He told me that he told her not to call the kids but she did anyway. I called the ex girlfriend and told her the same thing. She retaliated with a string of abusive text messages. What should I do? -Darcy

Dear Darcy,

It's good that you and your ex husband are trying to work together on this. A five year relationship is a lifetime to a child and they may well think of this woman as a parent. They may be upset and worried about how the breakup will effect them and need reassurance that they haven't done anything wrong.

In any case, the children should not be burdened with the ups and downs of adult relationships. The ex girlfriend may see the kids as an easy and effective way to punish your ex husband. Having you angry and upset at the same time would be a bonus for someone looking for revenge.

You need to take immediate action by blocking her electronic access to your family. Change your home phone number, have her numbers blocked on your internet connection and all cell phones. Make sure she is removed from any "call in case of emergency" lists, at the children's' school.

Any contact you have with her needs to be through a third party. Your husband needs to step up and protect the children from further involvement and you need to refrain from direct confrontation with the ex girlfriend.

All Transcript readers are welcome to submit their questions to Dear Dolly at deardolly570@yahoo.com.

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EARTH TALK
From the Editors of E/The Environmental Magazine

 

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Barnes-Kasson Corner
By Cara Sepcoskiw

No Barnes-Kasson Corner This Week

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