MONTROSE: Mahon’s cut glass factory is working over time and with an increased force in order to keep up with holiday orders. A large quantity of first quality cut glass in beautiful designs is being manufactured.

HALLSTEAD: Deemer Bros., proprietors of the cut glass factory in this place, have added 12 more frames to their plant and a number of new men were given employment. This firm has a large number of orders ahead and the employees are working nights in order to keep up with the increasing business.

AUBURN TWP.: Charles Lott, aged 94 years, and perhaps the oldest man in the county, died at his home in Auburn Tuesday morning. The funeral was held yesterday afternoon at one o’clock. He was a highly respected citizen. AND, at Auburn Four Corners W. J. McAvoy is putting a new galvanized roof on his hotel.

GREAT BEND: Sometime Friday morning, last, between 12:30 and daylight, burglars entered the store of C. S. Lines and with a horse and dray, likewise stolen from the barn of Elmer Wandall, proceeded to load up with goods from the store. When Mr. Lines went to the store in the morning he found the front door broken in and the rear door unlocked. The interior of the store was practically cleaned out. Suits, trousers, vests, overcoats, hats, neckwear, underwear and, in fact, everything the thieves could lay hands on had been removed. The burglars must have had consummate nerve, as the stolen horse and wagon was evidently backed up to the store and the good piled on. Later in the morning about half of the stolen goods were found in the haymow in Charles Norton’s barn, about one mile west of Susquehanna. Mr. Norton saw a coat dangling from the mow and making an investigation found that about 100 mens suits, overcoats and other articles had been secreted under the hay and proved to be from the Lines Store. It is believed that the robbery was committed by members of the gang camping on Canavan Island, a well known hobo resort in the river near Susquehanna.

ELK LAKE: The neighbors of Joseph Risley made him a surprise wood bee last week. Byron Tyler and Charles Lake brought down their gasoline engine, and sawed enough wood to last all winter. It was a complete surprise to Mr. Risley, and he feels that he has reason to be grateful indeed, as he is quite old and his health is not the best.

BROOKLYN: School closed two days last week so that the building might be fumigated on account of diphtheria in one family.

RUSHVILLE: Ralph Potts was in Montrose on Saturday with a ton of turkeys which he brought for D. W. Terry, who was making shipment. There were a number of successful turkey raisers at Rush and vicinity the past season. Cleon Smith was one of these, raising a flock of 80 fine turkeys. He sold over $150 worth from his flock on Saturday.

SUSQUEHANNA: F. D. Lyons, our veteran merchant, was much surprised a few days ago to secure through the mail a letter containing $8. The writer of the letter said that he was a business man and that about 20 years ago when he was a small boy, he went into Mr. Lyons’ store to make a small purchase. While being waited on he says Mrs. Lyons dropped something and waiting his chance he picked it up and found that he had secured two $2 bills. He said after he grew to manhood his conscience began to trouble him and would not give him any peace until he made restitution, and early this week he enclosed $8 in an envelope and sent it to Mr. Lyons, explaining why he sent it and signed the letter “Business Man.” [From the Binghamton Republican]

DIMOCK/N. BRIDGEWATER: J. W. Gavitt, Dimock, a veteran of the Civil War, has gone to the soldiers’ home in Tennessee for the winter. Walter Jackson, of N. Bridgewater, made a visit to his children, in Harford, before leaving for the soldiers’ home in Tennessee.

HERRICK CENTER: The people of the west side of Herrick met for a Thanksgiving dinner at the home of A. B. Tingley, while the people of the east side held a Thanksgiving supper in the basement of the school house. ALSO, preparations are under way to render a cantata entitled, “Santa has the Grippe,” at the Baptist church at Xmas time.

THOMPSON: Prof. Burleigh is modestly proud of the result of his hustling on the lecture course. The first entertainment was a success. We saw staid old people laughing as though their sides would split. ALSO, the new hot air heater was used for the first [time] in the M. E. church last Sunday. It proved successful.

UNIONDALE: John Bolter, in connection with his grocery store, is fixing up a nice place to serve lunches, oyster stews, etc. John knows just how to fix them up good. Let us know when you have your opening. Contractor Douglas & Yale are doing the carpenter work.

FOREST CITY: Borough secretary S. F. Kane expected to have a toothful young roast pig as the central dish for his Thanksgiving dinner today. He won the little porker at a raffle, Monday night. After Council meeting he negotiated with Janitor O. F. Coyle to kill and dress the little animal. Oliver dispatched little piggie on Tuesday, scalded and scrapped him and strung him up by the heels to season in the cellar of the Borough building. Wednesday morning the pig was gone. “The worst part of it is,” said Oliver in telling a newsman his troubles, “for a joke I sent word to Festy [Mr. Kane] that I had sold the pig for $2.00, but I never thought anybody w’d go and hook him.”

SPRINGVILLE: The Commissioner of Fisheries will meet all parties interested, Friday, Dec. 8, to decide whether or not Meshoppen creek is a trout stream. ALSO, will the party who took the lantern from the Clifton Drug Co. Show at the Odd Fellows Hall, at Lynn, kindly return to A. K. Loomis, who had to go home in the dark on account of the loss of the same? It is mighty handy on a dark night.

TUNKHANNOCK: A young lady clad in hunting garb, with short skirts and leggings, and equipped with gun, cartridge belt and game bag, attracted attention at the depot recently as she alighted from a train. She was in company with her father, Tom Johnson, a hotelkeeper at Wyoming, and they were destined for the game fields up Bowman’s Creek. They made the trip last year and the girl came back with more game than her father. He gives her credit for being a quicker and surer shot than himself.

Back issues of 100 Years can be found on our website, www.susqcohistsoc.org. There is an index for browsing.

Last week, I was involved in cases before a magistrate judge involving some bad checks offenses. The individual involved in the case qualified for the public defender, but he opted to exercise his constitutional right to represent himself. Apparently, he was disillusioned when the public defender suggested to him that he simply pay back the checks to get the case resolved. There is an old adage that the criminal defendant who represents himself has a fool for a client. There is nothing in the constitution that prohibits you behaving like a fool; rather, it confers that right upon you.

In any event, there were several hearings involving the different merchants to whom the different checks were written. The defendant had no defense - he admitted to writing the checks, he admitted that there was not enough money for the checks, he admitted that he had promised to make them good, and he admitted that he had not paid the checks back. So why not simply agree to pay back the merchants to get things resolved and avoid the fines and costs that are associated with bad check convictions? Common sense suggests that this is the proper course of action. A fool rarely exhibits common sense.

In his defense, the defendant contended that all of the cases had to be dismissed pursuant to the Fifth Amendment. The defendant apparently had read the Fifth Amendment and decided that he could not be charged with so many bad checks as a result of “double jeopardy.” In other words, he argued that he wrote too many checks to the point that once he was charged with one of those bad checks as a result of a single merchant’s complaint, then no further charges could follow because it would be “double jeopardy.”

The defendant also made reference to some other items in the Fifth Amendment - including “self-incrimination” and “due process” without really connecting them to any legal argument to support his contention that he could not be held criminally responsible for his behavior. He also made reference to the “conspiracy” language in the Fifth Amendment even though the word “conspiracy” does not appear in that particular Amendment. It was a confusing and convoluted argument that had no legal basis whatsoever in law, fact or reality.

The defendant argued further that he did not understand why he could not be charged for all of his bad checks in one proceeding. He did not understand why the bank would not have simply turned over his records to the police so that they would know all the bad checks he had written to each and every merchant and then follow up with a single criminal complaint. Apparently, the defendant failed to see the Fourth Amendment during his research on the Fifth Amendment. Bank records have an expectation of privacy and the Commonwealth cannot get those records in the absence of a search warrant.

In terms of the “double jeopardy” argument, that constitutional provision only prohibits you for being tried for the “same” crime twice. Each individual check is a separate criminal act such that double jeopardy has no application. Generally, the Commonwealth will make sure that every bad check to a particular merchant is included in a criminal complaint, but there is no way to really know how many bad checks are out there until the merchants complain about the checks. You take the offenses as they come into the office and file according to what you know. It is very common for a person to have a large number of bad checks out there that result in multiple filings over a number of months as a result of reports being received sporadically from different victims.

In any event, the defendant did not prevail in his legal arguments. One of the cases involved an eight dollar check that bounced. Despite being warned by the police officer prior to any criminal filing, the defendant had refused to make restitution to the merchant. As a result of his conviction, he will end up paying around $150 in fines and costs on top of the restitution to the merchant.

There are a few morals to this story. First, if you write a bad check, do not ignore it. You need to take affirmative steps to set up a payment plan with the merchant and demonstrate a good faith effort to pay it back. Second, you should never represent yourself in a legal proceeding especially where you have no legal training. Don’t be a fool.

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/.

Dear EarthTalk: Some friends of mine were talking about a book called “Plan B” that proposes a plan for rescuing the environment and ending poverty around the world. Is it a realistic plan or just some utopian pipe dream? ~Robin

What started as a book has grown into a movement known as “Plan B” which presents a roadmap for achieving worldwide goals of stabilizing both population and climate. According to Lester Brown, author of the 2003 book, Plan B (and three subsequent updates) and founder of the non-profit environmental think tank, Earth Policy Institute, the plan is based on replacing the fossil-fuel-based, automobile-centered, throwaway economy with a new economic model powered by abundant sources of renewable energy.

Brown argues for transportation systems that are diverse and aim to maximize mobility, widely employing light rail, buses and bicycles. “A Plan B economy comprehensively reuses and recycles materials,” he says. “Consumer products from cars to computers are designed to be disassembled into their component parts and completely recycled.”

Brown even proposes a budget for eradicating poverty, educating the world’s youth and delivering better health care for everyone. “It also presents ways to restore our natural world by planting trees, conserving topsoil, stabilizing water tables, and protecting biological diversity,” says Brown. “With each new wind farm, rooftop solar water heater, paper recycling facility, bicycle path, marine park, rural school, public health facility, and reforestation program, we move closer to a Plan B economy.”

Plan B is an integrated program with four interdependent goals: cutting net carbon dioxide emissions 80 percent by 2020, stabilizing population at eight billion or lower, eradicating poverty, and restoring the Earth’s natural systems. Where Plan B really hits home is in the numbers: Brown puts realistic dollar values on the various aspects of his plan, and compares these costs with current military spending. Needless to say, restoring the environment and economy looks like a bargain when viewed against what the developed nations of the world spend on being ready for battle.

The beauty of Plan B is that it is feasible with current technologies and could well be achieved by 2020 with a concerted international effort. Brown reportedly wrote the latest incarnation of Plan B as a warning call for leaders of the world to begin “mobilizing to save civilization” given that time is more than ever of the essence. Luminaries from Bill Clinton to E.O. Wilson to Ted Turner have spoken highly of Plan B, and at least one university (Cal State at Chico) has made the latest version of the book (Plan B 4.0) required reading for all incoming freshmen.

Those looking for more up-to-date information on the evolution of the Plan B model and progress toward its goals should tune into the website of the Earth Policy Institute, the think tank started by Brown in 2001 and currently used as a central node in the growing network of thousands of entities and individuals around the globe supportive of making Plan B into reality. Prior to founding Earth Policy Institute, Brown was well known in environmental and policy circles for his work with the Worldwatch Institute, a pioneering environmental think tank he launched back in 1974.

Dear EarthTalk: What is “genetic pollution” as it pertains to the bioengineering of animals, fish and plants, and what happens if they cross breed with their wild cousins? ~R. Ahearn

Genetically modified organisms are those that have been altered by scientists to include genes from other organisms (known as transgenes) that may impart specific benefits. For instance, crop seeds that have added genes which resist the effects of herbicides can allow farmers to spray their fields liberally with herbicides to kill undesired weeds without the fear of killing their marketable crop along with them.

Genetic pollution is the release into the natural environment of these altered genes, creating the risk that they might breed with wild plants or animals and spread out uncontrollably. Reports author Jeremy Rifkin in his landmark 1998 book, The Biotech Century: “Some of those releases… could wreak havoc with the planet’s biosphere, spreading destabilizing and even deadly genetic pollution across the world.”

To follow through on the previous crop seed example: If herbicide-resistant, genetically engineered crops were to breed with their wild cousins, it could lead to the creation of super-weeds undeterred by control efforts. The weeds could, in turn, edge out native species and drive them to extinction, causing an overall loss of genetic diversity. According to Greenpeace, crop genetic diversity is “essential for global food security” and a lack of it can be linked to many of the major crop epidemics in human history, including the Southern corn leaf blight in the U.S. in 1970. They quote noted botanist Jack Harlan who said that genetic diversity is all that “stands between us and catastrophic starvation on a scale we can not imagine.”

To track the growing problem of genetic pollution, Greenpeace International, along with GeneWatch UK, launched the GM Contamination Register in 2005 (the “GM” stands for Genetic Modification). This free online database details publicly documented incidents of contamination arising from the intentional or accidental release of genetically modified organisms into the environment as well as any accompanying negative agricultural side effects. Individuals, public interest groups and governments make use of the register to see where, when and how contamination has occurred. So far in 2011 alone more than a dozen cases of contamination - from Australia, Asia, Europe and the U.S. - have been reported in the register.

Gene pollution as it pertains to crops is only part of the concern. A Canadian company, AquaBounty, is seeking approval from the U.S. Food & Drug Administration to sell genetically modified Atlantic salmon in the U.S. These fish have a growth hormone gene from Chinook salmon (native to the North Pacific) and an anti-freeze protein gene from another fish, the ocean pout (native to the Northwest Atlantic). The resulting transgenic salmon produce growth hormones all year long - not just during the warmer months like other fish - and as such reach maturity faster than their non-genetically modified counterparts.

“There are concerns about the impact of GM salmon on wild salmon should it escape into rivers or the Atlantic ocean, because it could out-compete wild salmon for food, or breed with them producing offspring that may be less fit to survive,” reports GeneWatch UK. “This could have serious negative effects on declining or endangered wild salmon populations.”

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.