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COLUMNS: FOREST CITY: Little Margaret Pike, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Louis Pike, of North Main Street, was run down by a trip of mine cars, on Hudson Street, Tuesday noon, while on her way from school, and sustained terrible injuries. She will lose her left arm near the shoulder, and the accident may prove fatal. The children got to the Hudson Street crossing as a long trip of empty mine cars reached the same point. Engineer Frank Meddleton was pushing the trip and M. Dribnock was trainman. The girl was hit by the first car and before Mr. Meddleton was aware of the accident and could stop the engine, several of the cars had gone over the child, mangling her left arm and foot. She was taken to Emergency hospital in the company ambulance and the news, today, from the bedside was encouraging and prospects of her recovery are much improved. If no complications set in the arm will probably be saved. MONTROSE: The plant of the American Metal Edge Box Co., which is to be located in the building owned by the Beach Manufacturing Co., near their foundry, expects to open on May 15. It will not manufacture boxes, as has been the impression, but the product is a metal strip largely used in the making of boxes. The company will give employment to a number of local young men from 15 to 18 years of age. Samuel P. Hess, of Wilmington, Del., the superintendent of the plant, arrived Wednesday. Mr. Hess is a graduate of Lehigh University. NEW MILFORD: The many friends of Claud Hardy, son of D. N. Hardy, will be pleased to learn that he has received an appointment as professor of English in the University of Chicago. HARFORD: Mrs. Wm. Hepburn has purchased a new “Ideal” loom and is prepared to do weaving at moderate prices. WEST AUBURN: Bruce Swisher is the owner of a horse that is remarkably intelligent. One evening recently Mr. Swisher left the animal tied in front of A. F. Lacey’s store while he, with his wife and daughter, called at the central office of the West Auburn Telephone Co., where his father is employed. About 9 o’clock they heard a horse and carriage come up to the door, and after waiting a few minutes, and no one getting out of the vehicle, they went out and found their horse had broken the tie strap and got loose. But instead of taking the direct road home, it had gone in the opposite direction, crossed a bridge, turned the wagon around in front of the office, and was patiently waiting for the family to make their appearance. Could an automobile beat that? We guess not. LITTLE MEADOWS: P. L. Touhey, of Warrenham, has bought the Thomas Cunningham property here, where he will conduct a hammer factory. DIMOCK: In the town of Dimock there was a circle of five boys, each one over 80 years of age. In order that they might keep in touch with each other, and that the twilight of their lives might be all the more pleasant, they sometimes met in a circle at their several homes. The social interactions of these meetings were thoroughly enjoyed by each one. On Thursday, March 30, 1911, this pleasant little circle was broken, for death came and took one of their number away. The death of Albert Chase marked the first break in the circle. Two of the old boys were present at the funeral service, to pay the last rite to the remains of their departed friend. In his death, however, a much stronger and closer tie was broken, and that was the band of love which bound him to his family. Mr. Chase was born at Litchfield, Conn., Nov. 7, 1824, and came to this part of the country with his parents when he was six years of age. His parents settled on a farm in Bridgewater, near Montrose. In Feb. 1858, he was married to Miss Hannah M. Spencer at Brooklyn, Pa. Thus, for over 53 years Mr. and Mrs. Chase lived in loving union with each other, on a farm in Bridgewater, until they moved to their present home in Dimock, over 25 years ago. HALLSTEAD: G. M. Carpenter received a carload of automobiles last week, which he had sold through his agency to parties in that vicinity. BROOKLYN: Dr. B. F. Miller, the Brooklyn veterinarian, has lately started a hospital for the treatment of animals, and is meeting with a liberal patronage. By taking the animals to his home he is able to give them constant attention and insure more rapid recovery than if able to give them only an occasional visit. The young veterinarian is one of the hardest worked men in the country, and is giving good satisfaction. SUSQUEHANNA AND WYOMING COUNTIES: The Moses Shields stone properties (quarries), located in the two counties, were advertised to be sold at bankrupt sale in the court house, in Montrose, yesterday. They were bid in for $1,200, subject to a mortgage of $25,000. The buyers were R. L. Grambs, Fred E. Beers and Mr. Dimock, of Scranton, who were acting for creditors. CLIFFORD: A very enjoyable entertainment, which was largely attended, was given in the school building by the school children, Tuesday evening, March 28. It marked the closing of the fourth term of school taught by Miss Grace Churchill, in that place. Souvenirs were distributed among the students. Merl Colvin, Helen Kennedy and Rachel Stage received the honors for perfect attendance, and Alfred Wells and Victor Snyder for perfect spelling lessons. HERRICK CENTER: School reopened Monday after having been closed the greater part of last week on account of scarletina. HOP BOTTOM: Bully for Hop Bottom. She is to have a water company financed by some of the people of the borough and vicinity. Luther S. Ely, Milton W. Palmer, Edson M. Tiffany, Marshall McVicar and M. W. Stephens are named in the application for charter. UNIONDALE: There was a large turnout at the Grange entertainment at Herrick last Saturday evening. What makes you think so? Because the popular Uniondale band furnished the music, and the Grangers know what the people like. Say, wasn’t that pumpkin pie fine? My, I came near “bustin my buttons.” NEWS BRIEF: Mrs. Sarah Jackson, of Forty Fort, Luzerne county, has declared that she had refused all of the 150 men who had offered to marry her in response to an advertisement. Practically all of them, she declared, wanted her to maintain them and give them a home. If she marries at all now, she says, she will wed some one of Forty Fort whose habits she knows.
From the Desk of the D.A. Several months ago, I did a column commenting upon the fallacy of using the civilian criminal justice system to try captured terrorists housed at Guantanamo Bay. The column was in response to the near-acquittal of the first terror suspect tried in civilian court by the Obama Administration. Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani was tried for his involvement in two separate terrorist bombings of U.S. embassies in Africa in the 1998 that killed 224 people, including 12 Americans. The federal indictment amounted to 285 criminal counts including charges for murder and attempted murder. After a 4-week criminal trial and the jury deliberating for 5 days, Ghailani was convicted of only a single count relating to a conspiracy to destroy government property. The verdict reverberated across the Nation - and even the White House heard it. No other attempts have been made to try Gitmo detainees in criminal court. As you may recall, when President Obama took office in January 2009, one of his first orders of business was to shut down the military tribunals that were in the process of trying detainee cases at Gitmo. During the same time period, President Obama also directed that Gitmo be closed and the detainees moved to different facilities. Well, two years later, Gitmo is not only still opened, but Gitmo is back in the trial business. President Obama reversed his earlier decision to prohibit the use of military tribunals to try the terrorist detainees. In a decision whose timing is markedly close to the near-miss in the Ghailani trial, President Obama stated that he wants to “broaden our ability to bring terrorists to justice.” Of course, he neglected to mention that he was the person who actually had restricted our ability to bring terrorists to justice - before he decided to broaden it again. Still, President Obama deserves credit for recognizing the fallacy of his earlier decision and reversing it. Given that I was critical of the President’s previous policy, I want to be fair and give him credit when credit is due. If you are wondering whether this was the right decision, there is one thing that proves it. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) threw a hissy fit - well, at least, it was the legal equivalent to one. An ACLU spokesman vehemently protested the President’s decision “to revive the illegitimate Guantanamo military commissions." As you can see, the ACLU is very concerned about the civil liberties of Americans, no, wait a minute, I guess it would be the civil liberties of non-citizen enemy combatants and terrorist detainees captured across the world who have no connection with America aside from a uniform desire to destroy us. Why would the ACLU even have a pony in this race? Has the ACLU gotten bored with simply ripping memorial crosses off interstates and parks? The ACLU should stick to defending (or destroying depending upon your perspective) the civil liberties of Americans - and let others defend the civil liberties of international terrorists. It is not as if there is no one else to defend the terrorists. The government already provides these detainees with free legal counsel - and where the government does not do it, there are a lot of attorneys doing the legal work for free. Attorney General Eric Holder’s law firm volunteered to represent some of the detainees. To put it bluntly, the detained terrorists in Gitmo are getting better legal representation than most American citizens would ever receive in the event that they were charged with a crime. President Obama is right on this one - America needs to use military tribunals at Gitmo to bring these dangerous thugs to justice. American courts should not be burdened with the costs and perils associated with the terror trials. Gitmo is well equipped to handle the situation and it is the only practical solution that makes any sense. I say let the military tribunals start the hard work - and the sooner the better. I can only see one glaring problem with this new policy - it is a bit schizophrenic in its application. President Obama has determined that we need to use military tribunals at Gitmo to bring the terrorists to justice, but then also has a standing order to shut down Gitmo, which he contended was necessary to “restore the standards of due process and the core constitutional values that have made this country great even in the midst of war, even in dealing with terrorism.” Huh? If Gitmo is such a bad place, how can a detainee ever receive a fair trial there? In other words, President Obama needs to admit that the decision to close Gitmo was a bad one as well. It is hard to admit when you are wrong, but the President has taken a big step in deciding to revive the military tribunals at Gitmo. He just needs to take one more step and he will be there. Otherwise, the President cannot credibly continue to argue that the terrorist detainees will get justice at the same facility that he has condemned. It makes no sense and sends the wrong signals. 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. Are we like wine? Do we improve with age? It's clear to me that most of us improve in one area. I believe we become better people. My mother used to insist that individuals don't change. We had many arguments about this. I think our opinions are highly influenced by perception and personal experience. It's difficult to prove either side of the argument. However, there have been studies done on “emotional intelligence” that indicate we are like Cabernet, not water. Emotional intelligence is a relatively new concept. It was popularized by Daniel Goleman, a psychologist who was a science journalist for The New York Times. His 1995 book, “Emotional Intelligence,” was a bestseller. There are more than 5 million copies in print in 30 languages. The term emotional intelligence (EI or EQ) was coined by psychologists John Mayer of the University of New Hampshire and Peter Salovey of Yale. According to these psychologists, EI improves social relations. The emotionally intelligent person: perceives emotions, uses them in thought, understands their meanings, and manages them better than others can; solves emotional problems with less thought; has highly developed verbal skills; tends to be more open and agreeable than others; seeks occupations involving social interactions such as teaching and counseling; avoids self-destructive behavior such as smoking, excessive drinking, drug abuse, or violence; owns objects with sentimental value. How important is EI in living a successful life? “No one can yet say exactly how much of the variability from person to person in life's course it accounts for,” Goleman wrote in his book. “But what data exist suggest it can be as powerful, and at times more powerful, than IQ.” Mayer disagrees with Goleman on this point. “Dr. Salovey and I had published our review article, 'Emotional Intelligence' in 1990, and a demonstration of how emotional intelligence could be measured as well. In 1993 we published a further article entitled, 'The Intelligence of Emotional Intelligence.' My colleagues and I made no such claims about the power of EI in those articles - or in any of the many articles we have published since. In fact, we have tried to explain why such claims are unrealistic in a number of ways.” If you would like to learn more about EI, go to Mayer's website: http://www.unh.edu/emotional_intelligence/index.html. In our next column, we'll report on research that indicates a higher emotional intelligence in people over the age of 60. If you have a question, please write to fred@healthygeezer.com.
Library Chitchat You can pick almost any week or month and it will probably be designated for some special group or occasion. February, for instance, has been named as Library Lover’s Month, which provided me with a good excuse to serve Hershey’s chocolate kisses at the Library Friends meeting in that month. Next week, April 10-16 has been designated by the American Library Association as National Library Week. It is a week to celebrate the important contributions that libraries have made to our communities and our way of life. It was first observed in 1958 as a way to motivate people to read so that they in turn would support and use libraries. In Susquehanna County, we are fortunate to have four library locations (Montrose, Susquehanna, Hallstead/Great Bend, and Forest City) with a staff ready and willing to help you discover a new and exciting world. We offer you and your family free access to books and computers, CDs, DVDs and much more. April 12 has been designated as National Library Workers Day. I suggest you stop in at your local library on that day and say thanks to the staff. Remember it is the Susquehanna County Library’s goal to be your resource for lifetime learning. Visit often and see what’s new. The final day of this week is April 16 - the date for the Susquehanna County Library’s annual auction at the VFW in Montrose. This is the first of the Library’s annual fund raising events in 2011. Hope to see you there.
Rock Doc Let The Buyer Beware Those of us who have been around the block a few times will remember the last time gasoline hit $4 per gallon a new industry sprang up. Drivers could buy magnets to attach to fuel lines to allegedly boost a car’s gas mileage by 20 or even 30 percent. The devices didn’t work, but the brisk market for them reflected the pain we were feeling at the pump. The Rock Doc confidently predicts the current spike in gas prices will lead to yet another round of activity by the charlatans we saw last time. The only way to take a good chunk out of a household gasoline budget is the straight and narrow road of combining trips to minimize miles driven and cold starts, sharing rides, driving a vehicle with a small engine, taking public transportation and hoofing it whenever you can. It’s not easy, but as a friend of mine likes to say, it’s not a requirement that we like it. Buyers also need to beware of quite a different class of energy-savings products. They purport to save homeowners hard-earned dollars on their monthly electric bills. Recently I got a free steak dinner from two out-of-town salesmen selling the device. What the pleasant young men showed us was a box of capacitors that can be wired into your home’s electric line near the breaker box (that’s what replaced the “fuse box” for those of us who are older than dirt). The new box changes what engineers call the power factor of your home. The salesmen gave us a demonstration of how current flow in a wire dropped as the capacitors in their box were switched on. And the drop in current, they told us, meant our electric bill would fall with the device in place. At my advanced age, it’s worth being a bit skeptical about pleasant young men buying me steak dinners. So I’ve done a bit of research I want to share, in particular because it’s clear different companies across the nation are selling these devices under a couple of names. Because I know I’m over my little head when it comes to AC power, the kind of electricity that comes out of an outlet in your wall, I asked my friend Robert Olsen of Washington State University for help. Olsen is an engineering professor, and he pointed me to a posting on the government’s National Institute of Standards and Technology website summarizing a report about the kind of device I had been offered. The NIST posting explains my house isn’t just charged for current flowing into it from the grid, but actually for the product of multiplying that current by the power factor of my home. With the capacitor device in place, current should indeed drop, but the power factor rises in a manner that means the product remains the same. Bottom line, my house wouldn’t save a nickel with the device. I also investigated the capacitors-in-a-box by calling a free hotline of the Department of Energy. I immediately got to talk to a real person who took down my questions and got back to me later. He noted that power companies bill residential customers differently from how they bill commercial customers. But for your home, the basic advice is that there’s no reason to think the capacitors will help lower your bills. The salesmen I met mentioned an association between their outfit and a finance company. I think that means some good souls have gone into debt to buy the capacitors-in-a-box in an effort to save money. From my point of view, that’s a cruel fate, indeed. At least I got a free steak meal for my trouble. All I’m saying is this: be careful you don’t pay a lot for your dinner. When it comes to saving on household energy bills, there are indeed tactics that work. Check with your local public utility for ideas and advice. On the web, one site worth visiting is http://www.energysavers.gov/tips/. Seize the day and make the effort to educate yourself about energy conservation using reliable sources. The dollar you save really can be your own. 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, Human, and Natural Resources Sciences at Washington State University.
EARTH TALK Dear EarthTalk: I understand a recent government report concluded that our global food system is in deep trouble, that roughly two billion people are hungry or undernourished while another billion are over consuming to the point of obesity. What’s going on? ~Ellie The report in question, the Global Farming & Futures Report, synthesized findings collected from more than 400 scientists spanning 34 countries, and was published in January 2011 by the British government’s Department for Business Innovation & Skills. Its troubling bottom line conclusion is that the world’s existing food system is failing half of the people on the planet. Economic inequality among nations and other factors have contributed to a global food system whereby a billion people are hungry (lacking access to sufficient amounts of macronutrients, e.g. carbohydrates, fats and proteins), another billion suffer from “hidden hunger” (lacking crucial vitamins and minerals from their diet), while yet another billion are “substantially over-consuming” (spawning a new public health epidemic involving chronic conditions such as type 2 diabetes and widespread cardiovascular disease). The report, which was prepared by the research firm Foresight on behalf of the British government, also predicts that the cost of food worldwide will rise sharply in coming decades, increasing the likelihood of food-based conflicts and migration, and that people won’t be able to feed themselves without destroying the planet - unless we can transform the global food system on the scale of the industrial revolution. “The global food system is spectacularly bad at tackling hunger or at holding itself to account,” Lawrence Haddad, director of the Institute of Development Studies and an author of the report, told the UK’s Guardian. The report warns that an expanding world population that is already overexploiting its natural resources is a recipe for disaster, especially given the onset of climate change. “Farmers have to grow more food at less cost to the environment,” said Caroline Spelman of the UK’s Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA), which commissioned the report. That may sound simple, but many factors determine if production of a given food is economically viable. Fixing the global food system will be no small task. Fundamental will be the spreading of existing knowledge and technology to the developing world to boost yields. Other keys to such an endeavor include dramatically reducing food waste - Americans toss as much as 40 percent of their food - especially since food production and distribution accounts for as much as a third of global greenhouse gas emissions. Also, researchers suggest that investing in genetically modified crops and cloned livestock, despite the potential risks, may be “essential in light of the magnitude of the challenges.” What can those of us in developed nations do? Staying active and eating right is the best way to prevent obesity and ensuing health problems. And choosing locally produced food over that which is shipped in from far away will help reduce our food’s carbon footprint. Also, support the efforts of groups working to end hunger and malnutrition in poor countries. If nothing else, those who wish to help feed the hungry can set their web browsers’ home page to The Hunger Site and click on a button there once a day which triggers a donation of food from one of a number of sponsors to needy people in developing countries. Dear EarthTalk: So, what’s the story, is it good that we have fluoride in our tap water or not? I’ve heard so many conflicting opinions over the years. ~Benjamin The debate over whether we should add fluoride to public drinking water has raged since the 1940s when American cities first initiated the practice as a way to fight the scourge of tooth decay. The benefits of more research and hindsight in recent years have led many policymakers to reconsider the merits of so-called artificial fluoridation. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) reports that today over 60 percent of Americans get fluoridated drinking water from their taps whether they want it or not. Critics of the practice worry that we are exposing ourselves to much more fluoride - which can be problematic in the extreme - than is necessary to fight tooth decay. After all, some fluoride, which is a naturally occurring mineral, finds its way into food and drinking water, typically in low concentrations, without human intervention. And most of us, kids included, use fluoride toothpaste twice a day. So what’s the risk, anyway? According to the nonprofit Environmental Working Group (EWG), over-exposure to fluoride can be toxic, causing dental fluorosis (mottling and loss of tooth enamel) and skeletal fluorosis (joint pain, stiffness and bone fractures). “Some studies point to a possible link between fluoride exposure and osteosarcoma (bone cancer), neurotoxicity and disruption of thyroid function,” says EWG. Proponents of fluoridation argue that the benefits of adding it to drinking water far outweigh any potential risks. Various studies have shown that fluoridating drinking water can indeed lead to as much as a 40 percent reduction in cavities in populations of both kids and adults. But studies in other areas that do not artificially fluoridate - such as throughout most of Europe - have shown similar improvements in recent decades, perhaps thanks to increased attention to teeth by family and school health care practitioners. Regardless, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) recently announced a lowering of the maximum recommended fluoride level for municipal water from 1.2 milligrams per liter to 0.7. “We’ve had to wait too long, but the government’s announcement marks a belated recognition that many American children are at risk from excess fluoride in drinking water and other sources,” says EWG’s Jane Houlihan. “HHS has taken an important first step. Now it’s up to water utilities to respond and for the [U.S. Environmental Protection Agency] to lower its too-high legal limit on fluoride in drinking water, which is more than five times the new maximum being recommended by the [HHS].” You can check if your water is fluoridated, and if so, how much, via the CDC’s My Water’s Fluoride website. If it is, you can also invest in a filter that removes it. However, they are not cheap: Countertop water distillers go for $200 and up, and an activated alumina defluoridation filter - most come in cartridge form and can be placed in-line under counters - are costly, too, and need to be changed out frequently. FilterWater.com, among other sources, has a wide range of choices available for sale. Unfortunately, the most popular and less expensive home water filters, like those from Pur and Brita, do not remove fluoride. EarthTalk® is written and edited by Roddy Scheer and Doug Moss and is a registered trademark of E - The Environmental Magazine (www.emagazine.com). Send questions to: earthtalk@emagazine.com.
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