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COLUMNS: MONTROSE: Montrose is to have an opera house. The building will be erected in the spring of 1912 and will be on a par with the best of city houses, having a seating capacity of not less than 1400. It will be located in a three-story brick building to be erected on the lots owned by T. C Allen below the post office building. These lots extend the width of the block to Chestnut Street in the rear of the post office and will provide ample room for their needs. ALSO, Anthony Caruso, an Italian journalist, employed on an Italian daily newspaper in New York, and a cousin of Caruso, the famous tenor, is in this city as the guest of his cousin, Paul Caruso. The journalist has come to this country to acquire a knowledge of institutions that will be useful to him in newspaper work in Italy (Scranton Times). (Paul Caruso is a son of Frank Caruso, of Montrose.) BIRCHARDVILLE: There will be a school social next Friday, Misses Ida Ball, Chadija Dayton, Louise Cole, Pansy Babcock and others taking part. BRIDGEWATER TWP.: John G. Bell, who has conducted the poorhouse farm for a number of years, will move to the D. H. Coon farm near Brewster’s Pond next spring. Loren Harvey and family will move to the farm vacated by Mr. Ball, Mr. Harvey taking charge of the institution and managing the farm. UNIONDALE/FOREST CITY: Harry Spoor, son of Mr. and Mrs. Linwood Spoor, was fatally injured on the O. & W. yards at Forest City, Monday evening at about 10 p.m. He was struck by a passing engine, the accident being due undoubtedly to the intense darkness of the night. He was taken to the Emergency Hospital, Carbondale, where he expired at about 2 a.m. the following morning. The deceased was a bright cherry young man, and had a large circle of friends. He is survived by his parents, one brother and two sisters. Interment in Thompson. TRANSUE: A man from New York has purchased the control of Abraham White’s pond and as soon as the charter is granted the old dam will be torn out, all logs and stumps removed and the dam dredged. A new concrete dam will be put in and raised to high water mark. Cottages will be built and a summer resort established. We are glad that Auburn is coming to the front. LITTLE MEADOWS: The funeral of Simon Carroll was held from St. Thomas’ church in this village on Jan. 31. Mr. Carroll met his death by accident in Apalachin. His remains were found on the D.L. & W. tracks early Saturday morning. The condition of the remnants of flesh and clothing indicated that the body had been run over by two or more trains. Mr. Carroll was 65 years old and a member of Company F, N.Y. Regiment [Civil War]. He is survived by his wife and two sons, Frank and Charles. HALLSTEAD: Thomas Mooney has been appointed local yardmaster of the Lackawanna railroad here. ALSO, Thursday night burglars affected an entrance to Williams & Beebe’s store from the rear and blew open a safe belonging to E. J. Churchill, the coal man. The safe is said to have been unlocked and if they had tried they could have swung the door open without any trouble. The damage to the store and safe was considerable as a heavy charge of explosive had been used. Nothing was taken from the store except some underwear, cigars, soap, etc. A large safe belonging to Williams & Beebe remained untouched. Several boxes of soap had been broken open, probably in search for a good kind to use around the door of the safe. NEW MILFORD: Edward Tanner, who was so seriously hurt in a sawmill a few weeks ago, is decidedly worse, and it is feared his leg will have to be amputated. He is still in the hospital in Binghamton. EAST LYNN, SPRINGVILLE TWP.: The Cook Milk Company is filling the ice house at the Lynn milk station. The cakes of ice they are putting in at present weigh about 300 lbs. SPRINGVILLE: Yesterday morning, while a horse owned by Lionel Meserole was being driven near the Springville Creamery, the steam coming across the road near the creamery scared the horse and it ran away, with the result that its leg was broken and it had to be killed. The cutter was badly broken up. The horse was valued at $200. DIMOCK: L. F. Thornton was in Pittston, Falls and LaGrange, buying furs last week. HEART LAKE: L. E. Griffing’s new automobile has turned mulish. ALSO, The Mountain Ice Co. finished filling their large ice house at this place on Tuesday. Capacity, twenty thousand tons. THORNE HILL: With his head cleft three ways, John N. Lowry, a farmer, 70 years old, was found dying Saturday afternoon at the house of Farmer Brown of Thorne Hill, a small settlement close to the Susquehanna county line. Lowry was breathing his last just as Dr. F. A. Fiske, of Clifford, reached Brown’s house, Lowry’s head was split from base to crown. He had evidently been attacked by somebody armed with an axe for the walls were blood bespattered and blood was on every side. Brown, who is 40 years old, was arrested charged with killing Lowry. The body of Lowry was taken to a morgue in Nicholson. Clifford, Fleetville and all the country side was greatly excited yesterday over the killing. Brown lived alone in his house at Thorne Hill and was a hiring out farmer who found employment on all the farms in the neighborhood. He is unmarried. Lowry lived a quarter of a mile from Brown’s house, alone on a little farm. His wife is dead. He was regarded as an industrious old man who took care of himself and minded his own business but was regarded as being in rather poor circumstances. It is said that he and brown quarreled two months ago (Binghamton Herald). FRIENDSVILLE: “Connie” McMahon has probably seen more years of service in the stage business than any other man in Susquehanna Co. Mr. McMahon has operated the stage line between Montrose and Friendsville for the past 33 years, with the exception of one four-year term, when the line was underbid by a syndicate, and then Mr. McMahon carried the mail for said syndicate. He has also operated the stage line between Friendsville and Apalachin unintermittently for the past dozen years. Mr. McMahon drives the latter route himself, and hires a driver for the Montrose line. NEWS BRIEF: A State wide movement to further the passage of a bill restricting the use of billboards for advertising purposes and positively prohibiting the erection of billboards or other advertising signs upon public property in any boro or city in Pennsylvania is being promoted. ALSO, The Eaglesmere Railroad, the little road which runs from Sonestown to Eaglesmere, is to be sold by the Sheriff for unpaid taxes, amounting with the costs, in the neighborhood of $5,000. It is probable that the Williamsport and North Branch Railroad Co. will be the purchaser.
From the Desk of the D.A. Trials are tricky things. I don’t care how experienced a litigator you become, you will always second guess how you present evidence, the sequence of witnesses, the things you opted not to present, what you said in your opening, how you constructed your closing, which jurors you excluded, and the list goes on and on. From my perspective, every trial is a learning experience - and each trial never fails to teach me something new. You can learn what works and what does not. I always try to make it a point to discuss a trial with the jurors after the verdict to get their reactions, thoughts and questions. I have a practice of sending out written questionnaires after trials to jurors seeking any comments they can provide that may prove instructive in the next trial. I would say well over half of the jurors often respond, and I am grateful for their assistance. Jurors oftentimes see things that attorneys miss - or view the evidence differently than the attorneys do. When I was a law clerk in federal court, the judge I worked for allowed jurors to ask questions. I had never heard of such a thing. It was structured so that after the attorneys had finished their questioning, the judge would ask the jurors if they had any questions. The jurors were not allowed to blurt out the questions - there was a screening process where the attorneys and the judge reviewed the questions prior to asking a witness. Some of the questions were things that the Rules of Evidence would not allow - but were also things that jurors wanted to know. Other questions were those that the attorneys themselves never asked for good reason - no one wanted to hear the response. But this practice demonstrated a clear lesson: jurors are not always on the same track as the attorneys. At least when the jurors are actively allowed to present questions to the court during a trial, the attorneys get a glimpse into what some of the jurors are thinking, and it gives the attorneys a chance to react and revise their trial preparation to address those needs. Under Pennsylvania law, jurors are not allowed to ask questions so the litigants never have a similar opportunity in state court - so we never get the opportunity to adjust during the trial. There are countless books and courses on trial strategy and trial advocacy. In the end, however, I believe that experience is the best teacher - and each attorney has to learn his or her own style in the courtroom, not the classroom. No two attorneys will likely pursue the exact same trial strategy simply because each attorney has different styles. In the criminal justice system, trial strategy becomes a significant issue after a defendant has been convicted. Defendants have a constitutional right to an attorney - and the courts have interpreted this right to mean an “effective” attorney, which generally means competent counsel. On appeal and in post-conviction proceedings, defendants will argue that they were denied effective counsel based upon the trial attorney pursuing (or not pursuing) a particular trial strategy. It is common to see complaints from defendants indicating that witnesses were not called, evidence not presented, or even that the attorney recommended that the defendant not testify. After the loss, Monday morning quarterbacking becomes pretty darn easy - especially when you have hours and hours to spend sitting in a little cell with nothing more constructive to do. The courts have generally addressed this issue by refusing to consider “trial strategy” decisions made by counsel provided that counsel can give a reasonable explanation for pursuing that course of action. This means that defense attorneys become witnesses in subsequent proceedings where they have to defend their litigation decisions - and a new attorney is attacking the old attorney as a means to get the defendant a new trial. It makes for interesting theater because when defendant’s make allegation of ineffective assistance of counsel because the attorney-client privilege disappears and the former attorney can let it all out. As you might expect, this generally does not work out very well for the defendant. Even where the Court determines that the trial strategy was suspect, a defendant must also demonstrate that it is “likely” that a jury would have reached a different conclusion. I am not sure how anyone can ever predict what a jury is “likely” to do. And the courts are extremely hesitant to find counsel ineffective - it has to be a huge bombshell to overturn a conviction based upon defense counsel’s performance. Well, most courts feel that way - not the Ninth Circuit. The United States Supreme Court recently had to reverse two more Ninth Circuit decisions that had reversed state convictions based upon “trial strategy” decisions. For those that follow the Ninth Circuit, you know that it always knows better than everyone else - until the Supreme Court reverses it, which happens at a staggering rate. Chalk up two more reversals - both unanimous decisions where not even a single justice was willing to back up the Ninth Circuit’s reasoning - and one has to wonder when it is reasonable to conclude that the Ninth Circuit is becoming ineffective. 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/.
The Healthy Geezer Q. I'm considering buying a gun to keep in my home for protection, but I'm worried about my grandchildren who visit me. What should I do to avoid an accident that might harm one of the kids? "We must discharge the myth that owning a gun will make a person safer," says Dr. Arthur Kellermann of the American College of Emergency Physicians. "The fact is, owning a gun greatly increases your risk of becoming a victim of unintentional firearm injuries. Knowing the facts about firearms is the first step toward safety and injury prevention." It's understandable that emergency physicians would be especially worried about guns. Gunshot wounds are second only to car accidents as a cause of fatal injury in children. Almost 30 children are injured or killed daily by guns, according to researchers at the University of Michigan's C.S. Mott Children's Hospital. One-third of all families in America with children have guns. More than 40 percent of these families don't keep their guns locked up. Children younger than eight can't tell the difference between a real gun and a toy. Three-year-olds are strong enough to pull the trigger on a real gun. Young children and teens commit more than half of all unintentional shootings. Pretty scary information, isn't it? I have to admit that I've often thought about buying a gun for my home. I fired weapons while in the Army and I've done some target shooting at a professional range. I am comfortable with guns. But, in the end, I've always decided against getting my own gun. However, I won't condemn someone who buys a gun and handles it responsibly. If you decide to get a gun, there are steps you should take to protect your grandchildren and anyone else in your home. The following area dozen important recommendations from the National Rifle Association: 1. Think first. Shoot second. 2. Never use alcohol or drugs before or while shooting. 3. Always keep the gun pointed in a safe direction. This is the primary rule of gun safety. A safe direction means that the gun is pointed so that, even if it were to go off, it would not cause injury or damage. 4. Always keep your finger off the trigger until ready to shoot. When holding a gun, rest your finger on the trigger guard or along the side of the gun. 5. Always keep the gun unloaded until ready to use. 6. Whenever you pick up a gun, immediately engage the safety device and, if the gun has a magazine, remove it before opening the action and looking into the chamber(s) which should be clear of ammunition. 7. When ready to shoot, be absolutely sure you have identified your target. It is equally important to be aware of the area beyond your target. 8. Before handling a gun, learn how it operates. Know its basic parts, how to open and close the action and remove any ammunition from the gun or magazine. 9. Remember, a gun's mechanical safety device is never foolproof. Nothing can ever replace safe gun handling. 10. Be sure the gun is safe to operate. Just like other tools, guns need maintenance to remain operable. 11. Regular cleaning is important for your gun to operate safely. Your gun should be cleaned every time it is used. Before cleaning your gun, make absolutely sure that it is unloaded. The gun's action should be open during the cleaning process. 12. Store guns so they are not accessible to unauthorized persons. [In our next column, we'll give advice about guns specifically for parents and grandparents.] If you have a question, please write to fred@healthygeezer.com.
Library Chitchat Just last week, in the middle of another snow storm, a breaking news story was whether or not Punxsutawney Phil had seen his shadow. We were duly informed that Phil had not and that we would have an “early spring.” Receiving significantly less publicity was the start of the Chinese New Year on February 3. 2011 is the Year of the Rabbit. Chinese New Year falls on a different day every year, but it usually occurs between late January and mid-February. It is considered by some to be the biggest holiday in the world. It is observed in slightly different ways by most Asians in the world, starts on a new moon, and lasts for 15 days until the next full moon. China is one of the major powers of the world and has one of the oldest cultures. We all know that many of the things we purchase are made in China, but how much do you know of its people and its culture? Might I suggest that you learn more about China by visiting your nearest Susquehanna County Library in Montrose, Hallstead/Great Bend, Susquehanna, or Forest City. Books are available for both adults and children that can give insight into the various Asian cultures. You could even learn Mandarin Chinese by enrolling in the Library’s Mango Languages program. Remember it is the goal of the Susquehanna County Library to be your resource for lifetime learning. To all our Asian patrons and friends, we wish you a very Happy New Year!
Rock Doc The Downside Of Good Fortune The rates of China’s economic growth are often reported in a wide variety of sectors. But China is experiencing another bonanza, too. It doesn’t get the headlines commanded by economic figures, but it catches the attention of geologists and anyone with an interest in the history of life on Earth. What’s at issue is the absolute tsunami of fossil specimens that are dug up in China and make their way around the world. The main period for discovering important fossils in the U.S. is probably in the past. To be sure, there are dinosaur finds in Montana from time to time, and other fossils come to light on occasion around the nation. But simply because we’ve had scientific expeditions looking for fossils within our national boundaries for well over a century, the rate at which we discover significant fossils these days is rather small. In contrast to the U.S., China didn’t have people looking for fossils within its borders until quite recently. Locked in poverty and separated for a time from much of the world through the Cold War, the Chinese had other issues to deal with besides trying to unravel the ancient history of life on the planet. But all of that has changed in recent years. Both scientific and private efforts have been mounted to find fossils in certain Chinese rocks, and the efforts have been enormously successful. The flood of fossils that has emerged is flowing into Chinese museums, into museums overseas, and into the hands of private collectors. There’s a lot of money at stake these days in the world of fossils. A complete specimen of a transitional type of species of a dino-bird fetches a king’s ransom on the international market. Ditto for certain specimens of enormous swimming reptiles or pretty nearly any other species that’s large, interesting or fierce-looking. But here’s a simple fact about fossils. Usually what you find in a rock is only part of one individual’s remains. In other words, it’s not so hard to find a part of a dinosaur - I stumbled across one isolated dino bone myself when I was younger. But it’s truly rare to find all the bones and teeth of a particular individual, laid out neatly and just waiting for you. There often is real scientific value in just a part of a fossil. Incomplete specimens can mean a lot to experts. But, for obvious reasons, the price of a complete fossil is extremely high compared to the price an isolated bone or tooth will fetch. Many of the fossils being found today in China first come to the attention of farmers who simply find a rock in their field with part of a fossil in it. From the point of view of some farmers, adding to that first rock with part of another is not so difficult. Just for example, imagine you and I both become fossils in the same siltstone bed, but the fossil version of me ends up missing an arm because a predator carried it off after my death. It might occur to a farmer to “add” an arm to my fossil remains from another specimen - like you. This creates a mixed fossil, one that represents the same species, but that has two individuals in it. Even more problematic is that a farmer might not have another human bone to complete the fossil version of me. In that case, he might add whatever he has on hand that seems most suitable, something from another species of animal. This creates a chimera, an animal that never lived at all. Farmers and local fossil dealers can fetch high prices for specimens they create in such a way. And according to a recent article in the journal “Science,” it looks like the majority of fossil specimens coming out of China have been doctored. It’s all a crying shame. It would be better to have incomplete evidence of an animal than to have “specimens” that have been carved, forced together, or otherwise corrupted. I surely don’t begrudge Chinese peasants any extra income they can get. But I do regret the loss of scientifically meaningful evidence of life’s rich history on Earth. 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 Agricultural, Natural and Resources Sciences at Washington State University.
EARTH TALK Dear EarthTalk: Global population numbers continue to rise, as does the poverty, suffering and environmental degradation that goes with it. Has the U.S., under Obama, increased or at least restored its family planning aid to developing countries that was cut when the Bush Administration first took office? -T. Healy The short answer is yes. President Obama is much more interested in family planning around the world than his predecessor ever was. One of Obama’s first acts upon assuming office in 2009 was the restoration of funding for the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). George W. Bush had withheld some $244 million in aid to the UNFPA over the previous seven years. UNFPA works with developing countries around the world to “reduce poverty and to ensure that every pregnancy is wanted, every birth is safe, every young person is free of HIV/AIDS, and every girl and woman is treated with dignity and respect.” Reinstated U.S. funding will help the agency pursue its goals of universal access to reproductive health services, universal primary education and closing of the gender gap in education, reducing maternal and infant mortality, increasing life expectancy and decreasing HIV infection rates. Along with restoring UNFPA funding, Obama also overturned the so-called “Global Gag Rule” that prohibited groups funded by the U.S. Agency in International Development (USAID) from using any government or non-government funds for “providing advice, counseling or information regarding abortion, or lobbying a foreign government to legalize or make abortion available.” Foreign nonprofits were already not allowed to use U.S. funds to pay for abortions, but the Global Gag Rule - first instituted as the “Mexico City Policy” in 1984 by the Reagan White House, then overturned by Clinton and later reinstated by George W. Bush - went further by restricting the free speech rights of government grantees and stifling public debate on the contentious topic. Foreign NGOs that accept U.S. funding still cannot perform abortions, but can discuss the options openly with the families they serve. “For too long, international family planning assistance has been used as a political wedge issue, the subject of a back and forth debate that has served only to divide us,” said Barack Obama upon overturning the policy as one of his first acts in office. “It is time that we end the politicization of this issue.” Of course, advocates for increased family planning are pressuring the Obama administration to step up its efforts aboard even more. The Institute of Medicine, one of four government-affiliated nonprofit “academies” of experts, recommended last spring that the U.S. increase its spending on global health by some 50 percent over the $63 billion pledged by the Obama White House over the next six years. Groups providing family planning services domestically would also like to see the Obama administration step up funding for their programs, not only to improve the quality of life for American families but to save money and reduce abortions as well: A 2009 report by the nonprofit Guttmacher Institute concluded that publicly funded family planning services at both hospitals and non-profit clinics saves taxpayers $4 for every $1 spent by preventing nearly two million pregnancies and 810,000 abortions per year. Dear EarthTalk: I understand that the use of antibiotics in raising farm animals is threatening to make bacteria overall more resistant to antibiotics, which has serious life and death implications for people. Can you enlighten and advise what is being done about this? -Robert Most medical doctors would agree that antibiotic drugs - which stave off bacterial infections from staph to salmonella to bacterial pneumonia - are among the most important tools in modern medicine. But public health advocates, environmentalists and even many doctors worry that our society’s overuse and misuse of antibiotics is making bacteria more resistant and thus limiting the effectiveness of these lifesaving drugs. Bacterial resistance to our antibiotics simply means longer, more serious and more costly illnesses. The Alliance for the Prudent Use of Antibiotics, a nonprofit that conducts research around the world on antibiotic resistance, estimates that antibiotic resistance has been responsible for upwards of $16 billion annually in extra costs to the U.S. health care system in recent years. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) considers antibiotic resistance one of its top concerns. While misuse of antibiotics for human health problems is definitely a concern - those with a valid need for antibiotics who don’t finish off their prescriptions, for example, could effectively help bacteria develop resistance and make it stronger for when it infects its next host - a larger issue is the misuse of antibiotics to treat the common cold and flu and other viral infections which do not involve bacteria. The more antibiotics we use willy-nilly, the faster bacteria will develop resistance, rendering many of the drugs modern medicine has come to rely on obsolete. Of even greater concern is the preponderance of antibiotics used down on the farm. “Antibiotics often are used on industrial farms not only to treat sick animals but also to offset [the health effects of] crowding and poor sanitation, as well as to spur animal growth,” reports the Pew Campaign on Human Health and Industrial Farming. Indeed, researchers estimate that up to 70 percent of all antibiotics sold in the U.S. are given to healthy food animals to artificially expedite their growth and compensate for the effects of unsanitary farm conditions. “The routine use of antibiotics in food animals presents a serious and growing threat to human health because it creates new strains of dangerous antibiotic-resistant bacteria,” says Pew. So what can we do to curtail the overuse and misuse of antibiotics? For one, we should not prescribe or use antibiotics to (mis)treat viral infections. Beyond being conscientious with our own bodies, we should also urge farmers to reduce their use of these drugs. Pew and other groups are trying to muster public support for the Preservation of Antibiotics for Medical Treatment Act (PAMTA, H.R. 1549/S. 619), which if enacted would withdraw from food animal production the routine use of seven classes of antibiotics vitally important to human health unless animals are diseased or drug companies can prove that their use does not harm human health. Hundreds of groups, including the American Medical Association, American Academy of Pediatricians, Infectious Diseases Society of America and World Health Organization support the legislation. Pew is urging concerned citizens to call their Representatives and Senators and advocate for pushing the legislation into committee hearings. SEND YOUR ENVIRONMENTAL QUESTIONS TO: EarthTalk®, c/o E - The Environmental Magazine, P.O. Box 5098, Westport, CT 06881; earthtalk@emagazine.com.
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