Laceyville/Oakland – Chief Fish Warden, L. M. Shoemaker, arrested two residents of Oakland, charging them with fishing on Sunday. One was Francis Murphy, son of J. W. Murphy, the Oakland hotel keeper. Young Murphy was not really fishing, but was preparing to do so. He had his bait pail and was out catching bait. Shoemaker spied him and in a few minutes had caught him. The other fisherman arrested was Frank Reynolds. This fisherman was caught with the goods, having been very successful landing several bass.

Dimock - The 38th annual session of the Dimock Grove Camp Meeting Association opened and closes Thursday evening, Aug. 29. The meetings are in charge of Rev. H. C. McDermott, district superintendent of the Wilkes-Barre District of Wyoming Conference of the M. E. church. ALSO A. B. Tuttle and D. V. Shaw are rebuilding the school house on the East Creek, which was burned last year.

Susquehanna – Attorney John Ferguson administered justice Tuesday evening in the old-fashioned way to a foreigner who tried to press his attention upon Mr. Ferguson’s wife. Mr. Ferguson came up at the opportune moment and landed with his right on the fellow’s jaw. The blow knocked his hat off and also put speed into his feet. Mr. Ferguson has the hat as a trophy.

Uniondale – Uniondale is said to be a dry town but it seemed to be quite the opposite around the lake section Saturday. ALSO C. H. Carpenter is building a slaughter house on his farm. It will be 22 x 34 ft. when completed. Cearley has the reputation of being the neatest butcher that handles a steel in that section.

Hallstead – W. J. McLeod has a fine 200 acre farm and the products are somewhat varied—for the other day he caught a rattler measuring 3 ft, 3 in, taking it alive, and it was exhibited for several days at V. D. Hand’s store, where it attracted much attention. It was later killed by Mr. McLeod and an ounce of rattlesnake oil obtained, which is extremely valuable for rheumatism, stiffness of the joints, etc., and brings $2 per ounce.

Montrose – Happening to call at Felker’s bottling works the other day we found everything humming along merrily, “Felker’s famous soft drinks” being put up ready to be shipped to the many dealers who find them superior to other soft drinks on the market and buy them year after year. The equipment at Mr. Felker’s is thoroughly up-to-date; pure spring water is used and everything is in a neat and sanitary condition and this explains the large shipments of carbonated beverages, often seen in the freight stations, the shipping card denoting that it is a Montrose product—Felker’s. The Montrose bottling works is a local industry and deserves local support. If, when buying soft drinks one would ask for “Felker’s,” it would not only insure their getting satisfactory goods but would vastly assist in maintaining and increasing the sales.

Forest City – A house and contents, on Susquehanna street, owned by P. H. Flynn, of Herrick Center, were totally destroyed by fire at an early hour Tuesday morning. It was occupied by B. Spycholski and family who escaped with only their night clothing. The fire was caused by the explosion of a lamp. House and contents were insured. The fire companies responded to the call and by strenuous work prevented the spread of fire to nearby buildings. The explosion of a lamp in the same house, last winter, burned Mrs. Spycholski so seriously that her death resulted a few weeks later.

Lanesboro – George Lacey, a successful trapper of wild animals, tells a curious story of a pen coon that he had about 18 months ago and which he sold to Mr. Green, of Binghamton. Apparently the animal was pleased with his new surroundings, when he suddenly disappeared about two months ago. Mr. Green wrote to Mr. Lacey that his pet had escaped and the latter had almost forgotten it till he came down stairs the other morning and was greeted by his former pet.

Hop Bottom – C. H. Kellum has the finest touring car in town. Charles Jr. is already able to handle it very skillfully. One trip alone of about 600 miles was made this season without any accidents incident to automobiles.

Brooklyn – A camping party enjoyed an outing at the Pioneer Lodge, at Ely’s Lake, over Sunday.

West Jackson – The berry pickers’ social was held at E. A. Washburn’s, August 7th.

Harford – Our roads from this place to New Milford are being much improved. The State is footing the bill.

South Ararat – Mrs. Leona Barnes spent the fore part of the week dressmaking at Monroe Walker’s, on the West Side.

Lathrop Twp. – There was considerable excitement in this place last Monday over two boys that had run away from the poor farm in Montrose; the last seen of them was near the Hillsdale school house.

Great Bend – The firm of Williams & Beebe have dissolved partnership. Charles Williams has purchased Burt Beebe’s interest and will continue the business.

Clifford – Two of our most popular people were married on the 14th inst.—Miss Lena Hasbrouck, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. William Hasbrouck, of West Clifford and Prof. Glenn Bennett, son of Mr. and Mrs. Frank Bennett, of this place. Professor Bennett fills the chair of mathematics and physics at Andover, Mass.

Glenwood – The hum of the steam thresher is now being heard through the Valley. ALSO Quite a number from this place attended the Conrad reunion at the Northern Electric Park at Scranton, Saturday, the 17th.

Thompson –Ten cars of coal were derailed one-fourth mile north of Thompson, Saturday. Both tracks were blocked until early Sunday morning. The wreck was caused by a broken brake beam. ALSO Thomas Walker, who has conducted a shoe store here for the pat 27 years, has retired from business. The stock of shoes were sold to A. E. Foster, of the Corner store.

I had one of the our local police officers tell me the other day that his department has been repeatedly accused of “entrapment” in connection with some DUI and other alcohol-related arrests. Apparently, one of the local watering holes has decided to engage in a vocal campaign with its patrons about the merits of the “entrapment” defense. Based upon the word on the street, the “entrapment” defense includes any effort by a police officer to pull over any motorist leaving a bar, tavern or other establishment that serves alcoholic beverages. This “entrapment” defense goes further to suggest that a police officer should not even be allowed anywhere in the vicinity of the bar. From what I understood of the conversation, it appears that this “bar stool” legal theory was more based upon the concept of “profiling” than “entrapment, and, as Ron White once humorously quipped, we all know that profiling is wrong. Unfortunately, these folks are not joking – they are actually serious in their defense of intoxicated driving.

This concept of a “safe zone” around drinking establishments comes up every so often – bar and tavern owners accuse the police of ruining their business because the police are patrolling the community they have sworn to protect and serve. It is hard to understand how a bar business could be impacted by the mere presence of a police officer – especially where a liquor license comes with the responsibility to not serve alcohol to any visibly intoxicated person. In other words, the right to serve alcohol comes with the legal duty to refrain from serving too much alcohol to patrons. The presence of local police in the vicinity of a bar, tavern or other drinking establishment certainly serves as a deterrent to over-drinking by the patron, which assists the establishment to comply with its own requirement to avoid serving alcohol to intoxicated persons. It should be a harmonious relationship - not an acrimonious one.

The drunk driver “entrapment” defense seems to rest on the theory that the police cannot see a patron leave a drinking establishment and then pull the motorist over when he or she commits a traffic violation. There is not much to this theory except some warped concept that it is not “fair.” It is certainly not a legal theory that has any basis in the law of entrapment – which requires a law enforcement officer to engage in some conduct that would cause an otherwise innocent and reasonable person to engage in criminal activity. Entrapment requires a “but for” analysis of the situation: but for the police conduct, the defendant would not have broken the law. The “entrapment” defense is very rare – and I have only seen it used in one case over the past 13 years as a prosecutor – and the jury did not buy it.

Plainly, the “entrapment” defense has no basis in a DUI case – unless the government sent an agent into the bar to buy alcohol for a person and then encouraged him to drive home drunk. Obviously, this does not happen. The DUI offender has consumed alcohol independent of any government action and has operated a motor vehicle without government encouragement. Getting drunk and driving a car does not equate to entrapment just because a police officer on routine patrol happens to see a motorist driving erratically after leaving a drinking establishment.

In Susquehanna County, our average BAC level for DUI offenders is astoundingly high. Last year, the average BAC level was .21% – nearly three times the legal limit – and that figure is actually increased from the average over the past several years, which was around .17%. To put it mildly, you do not get an average BAC level for DUI offenders of .21% unless the motorists are extremely drunk. When you are armed with that knowledge, the suggestion that motorists are being “entrapped” by police is all the more absurd.

I was thinking about all of this when I saw the parole paperwork come through for a DUI offender who killed Megan Thomas, a 5-year old little girl, on Saint Patrick’s Day, March 17, 2006. The driver served about 6 years for killing that precious little child – and her parents, siblings and the rest of her family are serving a life sentence without Megan. I wonder when people sitting on the bar stool will stop complaining about the police and start talking about Megan, and the victims like her, and how to avoid such tragedies. The answer is glaringly simple: drink responsibly. If you do that, you don’t need to worry about the police officer. If you don’t do that, you should thank the police officer for pulling you over before you kill yourself or someone else. In a county where the average DUI offender has a .21% BAC level, we have a long, long way to go to become a more responsible community.

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/.