MONTROSE: The Montrose House will undergo a change of proprietorship when S. B. Stark, who has conducted it for the past few years, retires, and is succeeded by Willis Bradshaw, of Nichols, N.Y. Mr. Bradshaw comes with the recommend of being an extraordinarily good hotel man and has until recently conducted a hotel at Nichols, but recently this town “went dry,” and Mr. Bradshaw then decided to close up the one hotel in that town.

HALLSTEAD: A small Hallstead boy suffered an ugly throat wound when a dog returned a bite for kindness. On Friday afternoon, while playing with a strange dog, in the yard, at the home of Mrs. Grogan, the dog turned suddenly, without any warning, and bit her little boy in the throat, making an ugly wound. The wound was cauterized and dressed by Dr. Merrell. The dog was captured and will be confined for a number of weeks in order to ascertain whether or not it has the rabies.

HARFORD: On Saturday, August 26, John Deans gave a trap shoot to his children and a few friends near Tingley Lake. About 20 participated in the shooting and various scores were made, Mr. Deans’ son, Robert, being among the best. Mr. Deans and family are held in high esteem by the people of this vicinity and their coming to Pinewood each year is looked forward to with pleasure by all.

MIDDLETOWN CENTER: Harry and Alfred Jones are putting in a new saw-mill and expect to commence sawing in a few days.

BIGSBEE POND (OR BIXBEE), BORDER OF RUSH/MIDDLETOWN TWP.: The Friendsville ball team crossed bats with the North Branch team one day last week. The score was 8-25 in favor of North Branch.

APOLACON: Willie Mears left Monday for Kansas, where he expects to join his brother and sister. ALSO, Albert Singer has purchased a new road wagon; all the girls will be smiling at him now. ALSO, Fred Crimmins, wife and three children, of Fort Worth, Texas, have been spending the last two weeks with Mrs. Crimmins.

BENNETT’S CORNERS, SPRINGVILLE TWP.: A little girl, called Alma Louise, came to the home of Mr. and Mrs. Burton Carlton recently, and will spend the rest of her life there. Accept our congratulations.

BROOKLYN: A dynamite demonstration was given on the farm of W. S. Giles, in this place, Friday afternoon, which proved interesting and instructive to the farmers in this vicinity. ALSO, work has commenced on the foundation for the new school building.

NICHOLSON: The Lackawanna Railroad Company is planning to build a concrete viaduct over the Tunkhannock creek, which it is said will eclipse the Starrucca viaduct, which has been the pride of several generations in this section. The viaduct at Nicholson will be 2,700 ft long and 235 ft. above the creek. The piers will be 240 feet from center to center. This will be the largest viaduct in the United States. It will take a large force of men between three and four years to construct it.

ALFORD: Joseph H. Page died at his late home, Oct. 20, after an illness of four weeks, aged 77 yrs. He was a well known railroad builder and contractor and had figured in many of the big railway developments. Mr. Page built a section of the Laurel line between Scranton and Rocky Glenn and also had charge of the building of some of the D.L. & W. lines. He was a man of large physique and commanding presence. Born in Massachusetts, he spent some time when young in the State of Vermont, but came to Brooklyn in 1849 and has since resided in the township. The four brothers, Frank, Joseph, Plumb, and W. R. Page, were all connected with large contracts in building the D.L.&W. railroad, and were well known by the management of that road as reliable and capable men. Joseph H., especially, was called upon by the officials to superintend many a difficult undertaking. Thirty years there lived on adjoining farms, near Alford, three men of splendid physical and mental powers, viz. Joseph Oakley, W. R. Page and J. H. Page, all engaged in contract work for the pubic, and while they worked separately, they were always classed together, as successful in whatever they undertook. All now lie in the Evergreen Cemetery, and there is no one to fill their places.

SOUTH ARARAT: Last Thursday, while Mrs. Geo. Wells was visiting Mrs. Henry Davis, some “light fingered person” entered her home and stole her son, Basil’s bank, which was said to contain about $15.00

WILLIAMS’ POND, BRIDGEWATER TWP.: Our school has begun, with Miss Jennie Houghton as teacher.

HEART LAKE: The greatest social event of the season was a private dance and euchre given by the cottagers of camp “As You Like It.” The pavilion was beautifully decorated with ferns, evergreens and sweet peas. Punch was served and a delightful time was enjoyed by all. Among the features of the evening were recitations by Mr. Lage and songs by the quartette - Messrs. Finn, Lage, Russell and Paul Sprout. Music was furnished by Mr. Joe Rosenfeld, of Montrose.

SOUTH GIBSON: The Brundage reunion, held at Frank Forsythe’s, Aug. 19, was largely attended. Relatives were present from Syracuse, Tunkhannock, Wayne county, New Milford, West Lenox, Lenoxville, South Gibson and Harford. Conspicuous among the company was Dr. A. T. Brundage, of Harford, aged over 90 years, who enjoyed the pleasures of the day as much as the rest. The tables were spread in the barn and were loaded with good things, and everybody had a good time. It will be a bright spot on memory’s page for many years to come.

FOREST CITY: Pitching for the Independents against Carbondale on the local grounds, Sunday, Joe Miskell almost gained the distinction of twirling a no-hit game. For 8 innings, the opposing batsmen were helpless. Then, in the 9th, Kilpatrick raised a short fly that fell safe. The score was 5 to 0 in favor of Forest City.

ELKDALE: School opened here on Monday with Olin Mitten, of Royal, as teacher.

When I was a young child, we had two golden retrievers, Tike (male) and Sheba (female). My mom bred the golden retrievers and we had quite a few litters of puppies. There is nothing like puppies to make a child happy except when the time comes to sell the puppies. Mom sold the puppies to a place that trained them to be service dogs for the blind. I remember looking at the big photo album with the pictures of all of the puppies graduating and becoming guide dogs. Letting go of the puppies was a tough thing, but knowing that they were helping people always filled me with a sense of pride.

I was thinking about all those little golden retrievers the other day when my victim witness coordinator gave me a news article from New York about an 11-year old golden retriever (Rosie) who was used in the courtroom to help a child testify in a rape trial. Rosie is a service dog trained to work with emotionally troubled children in a residential center. A psychiatrist counseling a sexually abused 15-year old girl decided to see if Rosie could help her out in her court proceeding. The girl and Rosie bonded immediately and helped her vocalize the sexual abuse that her father perpetrated upon her.

The prosecution filed a motion seeking permission for Rosie to accompany the girl to the witness stand, and the judge granted the motion over the defense objection. The girl then testified with Rosie at her side and when things got emotionally difficult, Rosie would lean into the girl and nuzzle her to encourage her to continue. Her psychiatrist said that when things got tough in court, she just “kept hugging Rosie.” As a result of Rosie’s efforts, the girl got through her testimony and the jury convicted her father of the rape. The father was sentenced to serve a sentence of 25 years to life in prison.

This seems like a happy ending - and most folks would be applauding Rosie’s efforts. Unfortunately, defense attorneys are not like most people and they are not happy - and they are challenging Rosie’s presence in the courtroom to assist the victim through the difficult process of testifying in front of her abuser. The defense attorneys have decided that Rosie’s presence made the trial unfair because the jurors would be unduly swayed by the cute dog in the courtroom. The defense attorneys argued that the jurors will conclude that the dog is encouraging the victim to tell the truth, not to lie, and this conclusion creates an unfair presumption of the victim’s veracity.

The defense attorney also accused the assistant district attorney of engaging in “prosecutorial misconduct” for allowing Rosie in the courtroom because Rosie’s presence “inflicted the trial with such unfairness.” As one defense attorney stated: “Every time she stroked the dog, it sent an unconscious message to the jury that she was under stress because she was telling the truth.” The defense attorney suggests that the stress could have been coming from telling lies and that Rosie was actually helping her to lie. The defense attorney complained further that there was “no way for me to cross-examine the dog.”

Brilliant stuff! This defense attorney must be a cousin to the dog whisperer to come up with these conclusions. I wonder what the defense attorney thinks the dog would say when grilled by his cross-examination. What would the defense attorney ask Rosie? Isn’t it true that you helped that little girl lie here in court? Please bark once if that is correct!

Other courts throughout the nation have been opening the door to let service dogs into the courtroom to assist witnesses and victims through traumatic testimony. There mere act of sitting in the same room with the monster that molested them is difficult for most children - and then asking them to tell a group of 12 strangers what happened to them causes incredible emotional turmoil and pain - especially when they are asked a whole bevy of often ridiculous and confusing questions by defense counsel during cross-examination that are often intended to trick and mislead the child. Defense attorneys are not concerned with the child-victim - it is not their job. Their task is to make the child into a liar and it is a whole lot easier to do when the child-victim has little or no support on the witness stand.

If a simple thing like a dog can help a child through such a difficult ordeal, then the courts should allow their use and reject these silly claims of improper influence on the jury. If there is a really a concern that jurors believe that dogs have special powers that make people tell the truth (as apparently is being suggested by the defense team), then the judge can give a cautionary instruction that dogs have no such powers and the jury is not to infer that the service dog magically makes people tell the truth. After giving that instruction, the judge should also make clear that neither he nor the District Attorney believe the jury thinks that a dog possesses such magic, but the defense attorney was worried that the jury might believe in canine supernatural powers. I suspect the defense attorneys would complain about that too! You can never make them happy.

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/.

Q. I've been on a diet high in proteins and low in carbohydrates for several weeks now and I've lost weight on it. What do you think of this type of diet?

These diets can bring a quick drop in weight because eliminating carbohydrates causes a loss of body fluids. And, high-protein diets cause substances called “ketones” to be released into the bloodstream. The ketones make dieting easier by lowering appetite.

I tried one of these diets and it worked. But I didn't feel quite right eating so many high-protein dishes while avoiding carb foods such as my favorite - bread. I noticed a diminished appetite. However, I also got constipated. I quit and went back to watching calories.

I've always been skeptical about any diet that is unbalanced. Logic tells me that I must be doing something bad to my body. I don't think it's safe to lean in one direction at the dining-room table.

“For most healthy people, a high-protein diet generally isn't harmful if followed for a short time, such as three to four months, and may help with weight loss,” according to Katherine Zeratsky, a dietitian at the Mayo Clinic. “However, the risks of using a high-protein diet - usually with carbohydrate restriction - for the long term are still being studied. Several health problems may result if a high-protein diet is followed for an extended time.”

Here are some problems:

* Some high-protein diets don't provide enough fiber. This can cause constipation and intestinal inflammation. This may also increase the risk for cancer.

* Many of these diets include a lot of red meat and fat, which can increase your risk of heart disease.

* A protein-packed diet may cause liver or kidney problems.

“If you want to follow a high-protein diet,” Zeratsky said, “do so only as a short-term weight-loss aid. Also, choose your protein wisely. Good choices include fish, skinless chicken, lean beef, pork and low-fat dairy products. Choose carbs that are high in fiber, such as whole grains and nutrient-dense vegetables and fruit. And if you have kidney disease, liver disease or diabetes, or if you're taking medication for a chronic health condition, talk to your doctor before starting a high-protein diet.”

The American Heart Association doesn't recommend high-protein diets for weight loss because “people who stay on these diets very long may not get enough vitamins and minerals and face other potential health risks.” The AHA also asserts that more research is needed on the effectiveness of these diets for long-term weight loss.

Most Americans already eat more protein than their bodies need. The AHA urges dieting adults to eat no more than 35 percent of total daily calories from fat, less than 7 percent of total daily calories from saturated fat, and less than 1 percent of total daily calories from trans fat. Trans fat raises your "bad" (LDL) cholesterol and lowers your "good" (HDL) cholesterol.

On most high-protein diets, meeting these AHA goals is impossible.

The American Heart Association urges people to use safe and proven methods for losing and maintaining weight. Dieters should pay attention to calories and enjoy healthy, nutritionally balanced meals. The AHA says a healthy diet includes a variety of foods, and is rich in fresh fruits and vegetables.

[In my next column, I'll detail the role of protein.]

If you would like to read more columns, “How To Be A Healthy Geezer” is available at www.healthygeezer.com.

The Susquehanna County Library is your source for lifetime learning. To emphasize this goal, this year the Library conducted a successful, summer reading program for adults. The participants in this program read more than 590 books in about two months.

We would like to remind you that the resources of the Library are available year round. Don’t know what you would like to read? Go to the Library’s website www.susqcolibrary.org and scroll down the left side under “Resources” for the square marked “Online Book Clubs.” Here you can sign up for up to eleven free online newsletters that review different types of books.

Now you can scroll up to the heading “Library Catalog” to see if the books you are interested in are currently in one of our four library locations. You can even reserve the book or request a book through an interlibrary loan program. If you don’t have a library card, stop in a sign up. We suggest you check out one of our fine locations in Susquehanna, Hallstead/Great Bend, Forest City or Montrose if you have not been in for awhile. Remember don’t buy when you can borrow.

The Hands on Helpers are conducting a yard sale on the front lawn of the Montrose Library on Saturday, September 17 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. The sale will feature new and used items in great shape as well as hot dogs, soda, and baked goods. Proceeds will benefit the Susquehanna Historical Society and Free Library Association.

Earth’s Fragile Surface

My friend Sharon Rogers lives in suburban Virginia. On Tuesday, August 23, she and her husband were leaving their house to go to a late lunch when she felt something like thunder sweeping over the neighborhood.

“I thought it was a military jet going over too low,” she told me on the telephone. “I said to myself ‘It’s another damn general being buried in Arlington.’”

It was no jet, but a Richter 5.9 earthquake that struck near Mineral, Virginia.

Why, you may ask, should there have been an earthquake in what is supposed to be the seismically placid East Coast?

Allow me to answer by way of an analogy.

I think of the Earth as being like a raw egg. The core is made of distinctive stuff - the yolk of the egg corresponding to the metal-rich core of the Earth. Around the core is a squishy, liquid-like material - the white of the egg or Earth’s middle layer of material that allows the tectonic plates to move.

Then there is the dicey, topmost layer, and therein lies the trouble for us. We live on that top layer of the Earth, corresponding to the brittle eggshell. The rocks right under our feet are always under stress and, like an eggshell, sometimes they break.

Americans from North Carolina to Maine were reminded what living on an eggshell can be like on Tuesday. Thousands of office workers fled buildings in Washington, D.C. - and even more distant New York - after the Virginia earthquake rattled nerves. Most of the damage appears to have been psychological, although according to The New York Times the National Cathedral lost some of its pinnacles due to the shaking.

Those of us on the Left Coast may sneer a bit about people thrown off their stride by a quake that didn’t even reach a Richter magnitude of 6, but the sober truth is that all earthquakes rattle a person’s sense of what should be assured and solid. In addition, Virginia’s quake was shallow, making it much more noticeable than earthquakes under places like western South America - where the active part of the temblors can be thirty times deeper.

It’s high time we Americans wake up to the fact that large quakes are assured to be part of our future. We geologists firmly predict major quakes not just along the West Coast, but also all across southern Alaska. And there are staggering seismic risks in the central part of the country, namely everywhere near where Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky and Tennessee come together on the map. South Carolina is another hot-spot of risk. Earthquakes have been felt in most of our 50 states, very much including quakes large enough to do real damage.

This past spring’s mega-quake and tsunami in Japan helped the man in the street understand just how powerful seismic events can be. The video images of shaking in Tokyo offices and the breathtaking video of the tsunami sweeping ashore kept us glued to screens for a couple of days straight. But while we mourned for the thousands dead in Japan, and the thousands more displaced and traumatized by the earthquake and tsunami, we didn’t seem to fully understand we, too, are at risk for seismic destruction on an almost Biblical scale. Maybe Tuesday’s event, because it affected Washington D.C., can be a wake-up call for us all via our government.

This aging Rock Doc has written in the past about how unprepared we are as a society for the next major quake. By comparison, Japan was and is well prepared - yet obviously it suffered terribly. There is much we can do to prepare for quakes from California to Alaska to Illinois, and from my native Washington State to South Carolina and, yes, Virginia.

If our governmental leaders learn from Tuesday’s quake, we could start down the road toward preparedness. Getting ready for earthquakes means everything from substantially tightening our building codes to having personal and family disaster plans in place before seismic emergencies strike.

Nope, it’s no fun getting ready for an earthquake. All the dimensions of preparedness take time, emotional energy, and plenty of money. But living through quakes surely ain’t no picnic, either.

Yet surviving quakes is surely preferable to perishing in them.

Dr. E. Kirsten Peters, a native of the rural Northwest, was trained as a geologist at Princeton and Harvard. This column is a service of the College of Agricultural, Human and Natural Resource Sciences at Washington State University. Peters can be reached at epeters@wsu.edu.

Dear EarthTalk: The U.S. House of Representatives recently voted to strip the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) of its authority over state water quality. Why did they do this, what are the ramifications and what do leading green groups have to say about it? ~Joseph

The legislation in question, the Clean Water Cooperative Federalism Act of 2011 (H.R. 2018), passed the House of Representatives this past July with strong support from Republicans and will likely be voted on by the Senate in the Fall. It aims to amend the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (also known as the Clean Water Act (CWA) in order to give authority over water quality standards back to the states.

The bill’s backers - including most House Republicans and lobbyists for the mountaintop coal mining industry and factory animal farms - claim it will bring jobs to Appalachia and other distressed regions of the country where they say economic growth has been crippled by stringent environmental regulations. The bill would prevent the EPA from overruling decisions made by state regulatory agencies.

“By second-guessing and inserting itself into the states’… standards and permitting decisions, EPA has upset the long-standing balance between federal and state partners in regulating the nation’s waters, and undermined the system of cooperative federalism established under the CWA in which the primary responsibilities for water pollution control are allocated to the states,” says GOP.gov, the website of the Republican majority in Congress. “EPA’s actions have created an atmosphere of regulatory uncertainty for the regulated community, and have had a chilling effect on the nation’s economy and job creation.”

But those opposed to the bill, including the White House and many Congressional Democrats, say that its provisions would undermine stringent federal water quality protections some four decades in the making.

“H.R. 2018 could limit efforts to safeguard communities by removing the Federal Government’s authority to take action when State water quality standards are not protective of public health,” said the White House after the bill passed in the House by a count of 239-184. Such changes, they added, could adversely impact public health and the environment through increased pollution and degradation of water bodies that provide drinking water, recreation and tourism opportunities, and habitat for fish and wildlife.

For their part, environmental groups couldn’t agree more. “Make no mistake: This bill would take the environmental cop off the beat and put at risk drinking water for millions of people, the habitat for scores of wildlife, and the jobs and economic growth that depends on a safer, cleaner environment,” said Larry Schweiger of the non-profit National Wildlife Federation, adding that, if enacted, the bill would take us “back to a time when rivers caught fire because of rampant pollution.”

Environmentalists are optimistic that backers won’t have enough Senate votes to pass the bill. Meanwhile, President Obama has pledged to veto any such legislation that does make its way across his desk. But political winds shift quickly inside the Beltway, and only time will tell if the bill will gain enough support to withstand a veto. The quality of the nation’s water supply hangs in the balance.

Dear EarthTalk: I love to cook and when I have the time I make soups, stews and pasta meals in large batches and freeze them. I use leftover plastic containers, but I know this is not good. What kinds of containers are safe for freezer food storage? ~Kathy

Reusing leftover plastic food containers to store items in the freezer may be noble environmentally, but it might not be wise from the perspective of keeping food safely frozen and tasting its best when later heated up and served. Many such containers are designed for one-time use and then recycling, so it’s not worth risking using them over and over. Likewise, wax paper, bread wrappers and cardboard cartons should not be used to store frozen foods; these types of containers don’t provide enough of a barrier to moisture and odors and also may not keep food fresh when frozen.

Luckily though, many other materials are suitable for use as freezer-safe storage containers, at least according to the National Center for Home Food Preparation. To qualify as “freezer-safe,” the Georgia-based non-profit maintains, food storage containers must resist moisture-vapor, oil, grease and water as well as brittleness and cracking at low temperatures, while being durable, leak-proof and easy-to seal. They must also protect foods from absorption of off-flavors or odors. “Good freezing materials include rigid containers made of aluminum, glass, plastic, tin or heavily waxed cardboard; bags and sheets of moisture-vapor resistant wraps; and laminated papers made specially for freezing,” reports the group.

As to the leaking of unsafe constituent chemicals (BPA, phthalates, etc.) from certain plastics into foods, freezing is generally less of a threat than heating, but it is better to avoid plastics known to be problematic anyway just to be safe. Polycarbonate plastic, marked with #7, contains BPA while polyvinyl chloride, marked with #3, contains potentially harmful phthalates. If a plastic item does not bear a recycling number on its bottom, steer clear as it may well be a mix, which classifies it as a #7 polycarbonate.

Of course, the majority of plastic containers designed for freezer use are safe and, since they can be washed and reused, are a better choice than disposable freezer bags and wraps. For those still leery of using plastic at all, glass containers designed to withstand large temperature extremes, such as Ball Freezing Jars (Mason jars) or anything made by Pyrex - regular glass containers could break when frozen or if thawed too quickly - can be a sensible alternative. Also, beware of loading up glass containers to the brim before freezing; some foods expand when frozen so leaving a little extra room between the top of the food and the bottom of the (airtight) lid is always a good idea.

However you store your frozen delicacies, keep in mind that freezing food may inactivate microbes like bacteria and mold but may not destroy them. According to dietician and author Elaine Magee on the MedicineNet website, just thawing out frozen foods doesn’t necessarily mean they are automatically safe to eat. Foods that require cooking still require cooking for health’s sake after thawing. Also, Magee recommends quickly labeling and dating any foods you are freezing to facilitate purging of potentially spoiled or tasteless food down the line.

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.