MONTROSE: Sometime Tuesday night a burglar, or burglars, attempted to enter and did enter several places in Montrose. The Montrose House suffered the heaviest loss, $10 being taken from the cash drawer in the barroom. The other places which showed evidences of the visitation, Ryan’s hardware store, Cooley & Son’s hardware store and the Exchange Hotel, were not entered, but gave evidence of an attempt being made. At the Montrose House the putty in the window had been scraped off by the marauders with the evident intention of removing the entire pane of glass. But a change in tactics resulted in the window being pried open, evidently with a “jimmy,” as it did not leave the marks of a small bar, or chisel. Footprints on the bar counter indicated the robber had clambered over and looted the register, but did not even take “one on the house.” Chief of Police Rosenfeld “shadowed” a couple of men in the vicinity of the Montrose House, but they eluded him. ALSO, following a custom established many years ago in the parish, the members of Zion African-Methodist-Episcopal church, met on Sunday night and “watched the old year out and the new year in.” Pastor Holland presided and the hour was happily spent in praying and singing.

THOMPSON: Elijah S. Millman, residing at Comfort’s Pond, was drowned Saturday morning in Churchill Lake, near his home. He had started to cross the lake on the thin ice to visit his brother-in-law, William Tobey. Men were on the lake fishing through the ice which led him to suppose the ice was of sufficient thickness to be safe. He had gone but a short distance when it gave way and he went down. He screamed for help, but it arrived too late, the men being unable to reach him in time to be of assistance. A boat was secured and his body was recovered and taken to his home, less than a mile distant. The ice where he broke through was less than an inch thick and it is stated that before Millman started across he had cautioned the fishermen to be careful. The deceased was 66 years of age and was a veteran of the Civil War. A wife, one son and three daughters survive.

BROOKLYN: There will be a dime social in the basement of the Universalist church this Friday evening, to which all are invited. Refreshments will consist of molasses candy, apples and popcorn.

SUSQUEHANNA: Dr. W. J. Condon has been appointed Erie surgeon at this place to succeed Dr. Clayton Washburn, who lately removed to Jacksonville, Fla.

SILVER LAKE: Rogers’ meat market, in Montrose, advertises today a special brand of butter, “Dairy Queen.” It is a product of Sheldoncroft farm, Silver Lake, noted for its good cows and skilled makers of butter.

SPRINGVILLE: On Saturday evening last some would-be desperado broke out some window lights and entered the hardware store of Meserole Bros. They helped themselves to some knives and mouth organs, but a little change left in the store was not taken. The whole affair showed crudeness of those who planned it. From every part of the county came reports of thieving, and to greet such marauders with a well loaded gun seems to be about the only way to put an end to their visits.

RUSHBORO: John Swackhamer and family have moved from the Will Small farm above Rush, into part of Ed. Cavanaugh’s house, and will do his farming.

NEW MILFORD: Mr. Soller, assisted by home talent, is conducting a moving picture show in the Boyle building.

BENNETT CORNERS, SPRINGVILLE TWP. (LYNN): Miss Esther Hall has sent several of her poems away for publication, and recently one of them has been set to music and will be put on the market soon. The piece is entitled, “I’ve a Wife and a Sweetheart, too.” ALSO, a black fox has his den in the rocks on the Sheldon farm in this section.

FAIR HILL, JESSUP TWP.: L. H. Griffis is painting and papering the schoolhouse here, which was lately purchased by the Ladies’ Aid Society.

FLYNN: John Conboy, Sr., of Michigan City, and his son, John, Jr., of Wanataw, Ind., are spending a few weeks with friends in this place and Thomas Guiton and P. J. Flannagan, of Oyster Bay, N. J., are spending Christmas at their home in this place. ALSO, Mrs. Vanetta Curley’s school opened on Tuesday morning, after a vacation of five weeks on account of being quarantined in for scarlet fever.

CHOCONUT VALLEY: The mumps are prevailing to quite an extent in this section. Two of the schools have been closed for a time on account of the teachers being sick with them.

AUBURN TOWNSHIP, written by Jasper T. Jennings in his Susquehanna County Text Book: “The early pioneers of Auburn, like those of many other townships, were often obliged to put up with great inconveniences. Flooring was split and hewn from straight grained logs. Roofing was often made of hemlock bark secured by poles and beech withers. A few boards, with slabs to cover the cracks, was a luxurious roof. A good sized log, hollowed out and covered with a slab, constituted his beef barrel and venison was his beef. One small half window set in the log wall lighted the cabin. Pieces of slabs sawed off and round sticks cut in the woods and shaped with an ax and inserted in auger holes for legs, made chairs for the backwoodsman and his family, which were never sneered at by themselves or company. The old pole bedstead and the primitive broom, made by tying a bunch of small hemlock branches to a stick, are still well remembered by many of the old grandfathers among us. And yet, notwithstanding all these deprivations, who shall say the people were not as happy as they are to-day. There was more equality, less class distinction, more brotherhood and sisterhood. God blessed them in nature’s solitude just as much as he does to-day, and with peace and contentment they found happiness.” Mr. Jennings also wrote about the burial places in Auburn. “A short time after the first settlers came to Auburn a grave-yard was opened on Frink’s Hill, where quite a large number of interments were made. South of this is the Bunnell Cemetery. The Protestant Church Cemetery, on Jersey Hill, is one of the largest and best kept country burial-grounds in the county. St. Bonaventure Cemetery is consecrated ground to a large number of Roman Catholics.”

I have been watching the Republican presidential primary with a certain amount of angst and trepidation. It has become something of a political blood sport - each candidate slashing and gouging the other candidates likes some crazed cage fighter seeking personal survival. In the beginning of this never ending primary season, the “debates” were fairly civilized and there was a something of a uniform conservative message. Predictably, the debates slowly evolved from a strong conservative platform into an all-out verbal death match with a gleeful media throwing barbed weapons to the gladiators in the hope that none would be left standing. At some point, I was grateful whenever my daughter wanted to watch Scooby-Doo. I gladly traded my political junkie hat for a handful of Scooby snacks.

During the course of one debate, however, I thought that Newt Gingrich made a pretty solid point about the judiciary and the apparent lack of historical knowledge that many judges exhibit. Gingrich noted that law schools teach their students to use the judiciary for purposes of advancing the goals and objectives of their clients. Actually, Gingrich could have taken it one step further - attorneys are ethically required to advocate zealously for their client’s interests, even if the attorneys personally do not agree with what the client is seeking. Law schools teach exactly what you would expect them to teach - how to advocate for a client’s interests. There is nothing surprising or even offensive about it.

Gingrich’s complaint was not aimed at the attorneys - more so at the judges for making rulings that may have been “legally” accurate but “historically” wrong. I have made a similar comment in previous columns that some judges have absolutely no training, or even interest, in history. Without knowledge of American history, it is difficult, perhaps impossible, to truly understand the constitutional framework created by the Founding Fathers. The response to this argument is simple - judges will say that the constitution is a “living” document that adapts to the times and there is no need to understand from whence it came. On a personal level, I agree with Gingrich, but then again I was a history major so I have a certain level of bias attached to this assessment.

Gingrich went further after the debates in his personal attacks on judges - suggesting that the judges should be dragged before Congress to explain their rulings - and, if they did not respond to the subpoena, then the U.S. Marshals could be sent out to take them into custody and drag them before Congress. I was stunned when I heard him making this suggestion - there was so much objectionable about it. Let us start with the basic principle of separation of powers between the three branches of government - and the independence of the judiciary to review the constitutionality of the acts of the executive and the legislature.

Where would Congress get the authority to drag judges into Congressional hearings to explain a specific ruling? Why would Congress want to do it? After all, judges issue written opinions that explain their rulings. As you know, I do not always agree with those rulings - but I have never even considered the notion of forcing a jurist to sit in front of a bunch of politicians to further pontificate on the rationale for the written decision. The judiciary has its own set of checks and balances created in the appellate system itself - so the rationale of a particular judicial decision is always subject to review through the Supreme Court. As to the Supreme Court itself, it does have the final say on the constitutionality of a particular piece of legislation - and that power has been established since Chief Justice John Marshall decided Marbury versus Madison in 1803.

If Congress disagrees with a particular judicial decision, then it can take legislative action to correct it or even seek to amend the constitution to rectify the perceived error. The suggestion that judges need to be dragged in front of Congress for a dog and pony show is repulsive to the very concept of an independent judiciary. The only purpose for such a “hearing” would be a political one - and the specter of such “hearings” would only serve as a dark threat hanging over the head of every judicial officer. These are the types of things that the Founding Fathers sought to avoid in the manner in which the federal judiciary was created - and you would think that a historian like Gingrich would understand it. But then, I suspect that it was not Gingrich the historian talking, but Gingrich the politician that wants to have a judicial inquisition - and by making those comments he demonstrated that he was no better than the political judges he criticizes.

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/.

Change is going to be the buzz word for the Susquehanna County Library system this year. We will be switching on January 23, 2012 to a new catalog and circulation system called Evergreen, which will save money and provide better services.

Evergreen will be a state-wide system. As a result, all libraries will have to share borrowing policies, which have been pre-set by the organization running the new system.

What does this changeover mean to library patrons? Videos and DVD’s will circulate for 1 week instead of 2. Fines will be 25 cents per day for all items except DVDs (which continue at $1 per day). Circulation notices for overdue items will be sent more quickly (7, 14, and 21 days after the due date). If you keep your reading history, you will need to download it from your patron record as it will not transfer to the new system.

If you currently have items that are overdue, all four library locations will be accepting nonperishable food donations instead of fines of late items returned during the first two weeks of January. These food donations will be given to our local food banks. There will be minimum of one food donation per late item returned and this program does not apply to late fines that you have previously incurred.

To learn more about this transition, you may visit the library’s website at www.susqcolibrary.org. We look forward to seeing many new patrons in 2012 and urge you to subscribe to our e-newsletter.

Rats Are Decent Little Souls

The more we learn about animals, the more complex and interesting is the behavior they exhibit. My faithful mutt-from-the-pound, a dog named Buster Brown, impresses me from time to time with complex behaviors aimed at getting what he wants out of me. Most people who live with animals can tell you a tale or two of diabolical - or thoughtful - animal behavior they’ve witnessed.

But even knowing all that, a recent study on lab rats took me by surprise. The research makes it clear that rats empathize with one another and will actively work to help one another.

Here’s the scoop that was recently published in the prestigious journal “Science.” The work was done by Peggy Mason of the University of Chicago with the help of colleagues.

Imagine two rats in a cage, rats that have lived together and thus know each other. The scientists took one rat and trapped it in a Plexiglas tube. The trapped rat didn’t like that, enough so it would make a sound to signal its distress.

The other rat, the one that wasn’t trapped, would scurry over to the plastic tube, biting it and interacting with the trapped rat through small openings in the tube.

The tube had its complexities. Part of it was a trigger that would open the door to the tube, releasing the trapped rat. At first the free rat came on that trigger only by accident, but it would learn the trick and release the trapped rat quickly after it understood the scheme. (The free rat would do all this only for a trapped friend, so to speak, not for a toy rat in the tube.)

You might think the free rat did all the work involved in freeing its companion because it wanted its playmate for selfish reasons. To test that possibility, the researchers also set up the tube so that it released the trapped rat to another cage. Even under those conditions, the free rat would still work to aid the trapped one - which seems to be pretty altruistic behavior.

Next the scientists researched just how strongly those altruistic feelings were in the free rat. They did that by putting two clear plastic traps in a cage. One held the trapped rat, the other held chocolate chips. (Yup, I guess rats like a nice chocolate high as much as we do.)

The free rat in the cage would work to open both traps. In doing so, it meant the free rat would have to share the chocolate with the formerly trapped rat.

That behavior is awfully impressive. Some humans, after all, might not release a trapped comrade until after they had consumed all of the chocolate to be had (at least if it was the super-dark, good stuff).

But the impressive behavior shown by a rat is just that - a behavior. It’s still impossible to really know what the free rat was feeling or thinking.

“I think it’s extremely unlikely that the rat has the same conscious experience (of decision making) that we do,” Mason said to National Public Radio.

But it’s also awfully clear that rats are social, empathetic, and even self-sacrificing little individuals. That’s a far cry from the image we have of rats that lies behind our calling someone we detest “a rat.”

Scientists will now repeat the same study elsewhere to see if they get the same results and start to expand on the work that’s been done. One point of research may be to test how the free rat in the scenario would respond if the trapped rat were a stranger, not a familiar cage-mate.

It wasn’t so long ago that scientists assumed only primates had complex emotions and were capable of the sorts of behaviors seen in the rat study. McGill University’s Jeffrey Mogil has done studies on mice and is impressed by the recent findings about rats. But he says we shouldn’t be surprised to find complex and empathetic behaviors in animals other than primates.

“Behaviors have to come from somewhere,” he said to National Public Radio. “And so it would be almost absurd to expect not to see some sort of simpler form of human sociabilities in other animals.”

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: There are a number of companies out there now doing “energy audits” for the home, after which they try to sell you attic insulation and other products and services. Is this just a scam or would it be wise for me to look into this? ~Bill

For the most part, companies offering energy audits are reputable and legitimate and will help you both save money and reduce your carbon footprint if you follow their advice in regard to upgrading things like insulation, windows and appliances. “A home energy assessment, also known as a home energy audit, is the first step to assess how much energy your home consumes and to evaluate what measures you can take to make your home more energy efficient,” reports the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). “An assessment will show you problems that may, when corrected, save you significant amounts of money over time.”

“During the assessment, you can pinpoint where your house is losing energy,” adds DOE. “Energy assessments also determine the efficiency of your home’s heating and cooling systems [and] may also show you ways to conserve hot water and electricity.”

You can conduct your own energy audit if you know where to look for air leaks (drafts), water waste and other key areas of a home’s inefficiencies. The DOE’s energysavers.gov website has guidelines to help homeowners conduct their own do-it-yourself home energy assessments. For instance, DOE recommends that homeowners make a list of obvious air leaks, such as through gaps along baseboards or at the edges of flooring and at wall and ceiling junctures. The potential energy savings from reducing drafts in a home can be as high as 30 percent per year, reports DOE. (The DOE website also provides information on other ways to save money and resources through less obvious things such as outdoor landscaping. It also posts guidelines for energy-efficient designing and remodeling.)

You should also check the filters on heating and cooling equipment to see if they need to be changed so as to keep your furnace and air conditioners functioning at maximum efficiency. And if these or other appliances over 15 years old consider replacing them with newer models that meet federal EnergyStar efficiency criteria. Also, swapping out older incandescent bulbs in light fixtures with higher efficiency compact fluorescent or LED bulbs will save money and energy.

A professional energy auditor with dedicated assessment tools and the knowledge of how to use them will in all likelihood carry out a more comprehensive assessment than you can do yourself. “Thorough assessments often use equipment such as blower doors, which measure the extent of leaks in the building envelope, and infrared cameras, which reveal hard-to-detect areas of air infiltration and missing insulation.”

If you are concerned about enlisting a for-profit firm that upsells its own energy efficiency upgrade services based on a “free” energy audit, check with your utility to see whether it offers unbiased, independent energy audit services (which it may do for free or for a nominal cost). The assessor from your utility may be able to recommend window and door replacement companies, heating and cooling specialists and other vendors nearby that do reputable work to make your home is not only energy efficient but warmer in the winter and cooler in the summer.

Dear EarthTalk: What’s the story with Echinacea? Many herb teas contain it, and many people swear by it as a cold remedy. But I’ve also seen headlines saying that the herb has no medicinal value whatsoever. Can you set the record straight? ~Arlene

Echinacea, also known as purple coneflower, has gained popularity in recent years as a nutritional supplement that proponents believe is helpful in staving off the common cold and shortening its duration. But given the variation between dosages and formulations - such herbs are not regulated as medical drugs by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and so makers have little incentive to standardize - it’s hard to get definitive answers as to Echinacea's effectiveness.

Historically, Native Americans relied on the root of Echinacea to numb toothache pain and treat dyspepsia as well as snake, insect and spider bites. While some modern day folks rely on Echinacea just based on this anecdotal evidence, scientific studies have verified that the herb can be effective. To wit, a 2008 University of Connecticut review of 14 different clinical trials of Echinacea use found that taking the supplement reduced the chances of getting a cold by 31 percent, and helped people get over cold and flu symptoms a day and a half earlier than those who didn’t take it.

Researchers initially thought Echinacea’s effectiveness was due to its immune-boosting traits, but they now believe instead that the herb works more as an anti-inflammatory agent. A 2009 University of British Columbia study found that typical commercially available Echinacea preparations are effective in reducing the body’s production of inflammatory proteins in human bronchial cells. In layman’s terms, this means that Echinacea can help lessen the annoying symptoms of common colds, the flu and other respiratory ailments. Furthermore, the study found that Echinacea is just as effective in reducing bronchial inflammation whether it is consumed before or after a viral infection sets in, indicating that taking moderate doses on a regular basis during cold season can help prevent some bronchial irritation if and when cold symptoms begin.

Interestingly, though, a 2010 study of 719 participants in Wisconsin focusing on illness duration and severity found that the duration of the common cold could be shortened by taking a pill of some sort, whether Echinacea or a placebo with no active ingredients. But this study merely underscored the importance of psychological factors in fighting illness and did not say that Echinacea isn’t effective.

Given the lack of FDA oversight of herbs, different formulations may contain vastly different amounts of Echinacea. A 2004 evaluation of 19 different Echinacea brands by the non-profit Consumers Union and published in Consumer Reports found that the amount of Echinacea actually present in supplements varied considerably from brand to brand - and even in some cases from bottle to bottle of the same brand. The magazine recommended a few brands as “best picks,” including Spring Valley, Origin and Sundown, all which featured high concentrations of Echinacea and reliable dosage amounts from pill to pill.

Before taking the Echinacea plunge, beware that the herb can cause allergic reactions in some people and may interact negatively with some common medications. Researchers warn that anyone with autoimmune disease or a handful of other illnesses should not take Echinacea without first consulting with their doctor.

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.