Forest Lake – There is to be held at Forest Lake Baptist church, April 22, at 7:30, a unique temperance meeting called a Temperance Entertainment. A full house expected; children especially will be interested.

Montrose –Dr. Jared Grover Baldwin died on April 11, at his home on East 41st St., New York City, at the age of 86. He was the second oldest practicing homeopathic physician in that city. Dr. Baldwin was born in Montrose, July 18, 1827 and was a grandson of a veteran of the Revolutionary war. He was the attending physician in the family of Jay Gould for many years and was a physician of note. He was a brother in-law of Isaac Harris, of Montrose. ALSO Last week Sheriff Reynolds sold about 400 chickens, alleged to have been stolen by Clarence Dann and Ralph Decker, formerly of Wallsville, but who negotiated for the rental of Jonathan F. Gardner’s farm in Bridgewater. The young men claimed to be married and moved some furniture to the Gardner farm, claiming they were going into the poultry business. Their wives were to come later. The State constabulary got on the trail of the two young chaps, who kept out of sight. The two young men have been raiding hen roosts around Factoryville for the past year, it is claimed. Edward Decker, a brother of Ralph, has been arrested and held under $500 bail as being implicated in the theft of the chickens.

Harford – Report says that Ray Lindsey has bought the wagon shop of Mrs. Osterhout, and will put in machinery and start up some sort of industry there.

Middletown Twp. – Mrs. T. D. Birkbeck died at her home here after a short illness of jaundice at the age of 71 years. She was a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Thomas O. Doud, who were among the early settlers of Little Meadows. ALSO Mrs. Martin Curley, Sr., died April 6, one of Middletown’s most respected Christian ladies. Her whole life had been spent in acts of charity and the welfare of the church. She had passed the 50th anniversary of her married life and was about 74. She is survived by her husband and one daughter, Mrs. Thomas Guiton. The funeral was held at St. John’s church at Flynn.

New Milford – The residence of Homer VanCott, together with its contents, was destroyed by fire yesterday afternoon. But little of the furniture was saved. There was a partial insurance. ALSO The sink hole near Summit bridge, which has been causing contractors on the Lackawanna cut-off so much trouble to fill, has at last been filled. Twenty thousand carloads, or about 40,000 cubic yards of earth and rock were dumped into this hole, which was not over 150 ft. by 50 ft. in size. Although this sink hole is filled, it is believed another has been encountered near this point which will cause trouble. When the main line of the Lackawanna was laid years ago, similar difficulties were met with near this same locality.

Brooklyn – C. N. Jewett, son of B. R. Jewett, after working six years on the farms in the vicinity of his home, now plans to rent for a year, with the privilege of buying, the Rodney J. Jewett farm in that place, which was cleared by his great-great-grandfather 100 years ago, and has since been in the family. The prospective owner starts with a good fund of farm knowledge. The hope of this country is in our young men of such type staying on the farm.

Uniondale/Forest City – Bert Corey, of Uniondale, one of the chief witnesses against

P. F. Morrison, of Forest City, charged with jury fixing, failed to appear before the court at the hearing Wednesday morning. District Attorney Ferguson stated he had received a letter from Corey telling him that he (Corey) would be killed if he testified against Morrison. Whether or not the letter was a joke, Corey took it in earnest and disappeared from Uniondale a week ago. The case was postponed and the sheriff is looking for the defaulting witness.

Nicholson – The work of erecting the big Lackawanna concrete bridge here will soon be shown in moving pictures. Photographers for motion picture houses have been photographing the various phases of the work there and along the cut-off.

Elk Lake – Floyd, the 10-year-old son of Mr. and Mrs. F. S. Cronk, went to school four years and has not been absent a day and his little brother, Fay, has attended school three years without being absent or tardy. That is pretty good for small boys who have to walk about two miles to school.

Ainey – Mrs. George Osborne underwent an operation last Thursday at her home. It was performed by Dr. Niles and Dr. Shupp, of Nicholson, and she is improving.

Lanesboro – A dispatch says that Miss Amy Burhight, aged 35, is dead and Albert Denny, aged 35, a fireman for the D. L. & W. railroad, is expected to die as a result of eating what they took to be “arbutus” while walking along the banks of the Susquehanna river in Lanesboro, last Tuesday. The couple went picking arbutus and ate some of the flowers, it is claimed. They then started to walk towards the Lanesboro station, Miss Burhight complained of being ill and was seized with convulsions, dying later.

Springville – Mr. and Mrs. J. K. Aldrich are to build them a fine new home in Springville village this summer, one which will have the modern conveniences and be an ornament to the town. They have been highly successful farmers during the more active part of their married life, but lately sold their farm for a tidy sum.

Jackson – The Jackson library has been closed for lack of patronage and the books are packed. Anyone having books belonging to the library please return them.

Hallstead – A furniture van belonging to Mike Howard, of Binghamton, came here after a load of household goods belonging to Walter Cox, who is moving to Binghamton. The driver started on his return trip but the roads between Hallstead and Riverside were in a horrible condition and several times during the afternoon the load became stranded. Finally the van went into the mud axle deep near Riverside and remained there until nearly midnight, when with the aid of four teams of horses, the load was hauled out of the mud and finally reached the good roads.

News Brief: Thousands of farmers, and others, have found dynamite quickly effective and a great money saver in tree planting, ditch digging and many other purposes. We direct attention to those interested, to an announcement of E. I. DuPont Co. Their booklet sheds much light on the use of dynamite in farming and may be had for the asking.

In response to last week’s column regarding the Second Amendment, I received the following email from a reader: “I’m a former gun owner and hunter, so I don’t consider myself anti-gun. However, I don’t understand that owning a fully automatic assault weapon with a 30-round clip would help to form a ‘well-regulated militia.” Aren’t some weapons illegal? Being a lay person and not a constitutional expert maybe I’m missing the point.” After exchanging a few emails with the reader, it was determined that some short discussion regarding the ability of the government to limit constitutional rights would be appropriate.

First, the idea that the Second Amendment’s sole purpose is for the creation and maintenance of a state militia has been rejected. In the Heller decision in 2008, the United States Supreme Court specifically found that the Second Amendment protects the fundamental right of a citizen to possess a firearm – not only for purposes of participating in a militia – but also for purposes of self-defense and personal protection. When these gun control debates come up, there is a lot of misinformation out there – and this inevitably leads to the suggestion that the Second Amendment relates only to militias – not individual rights.

In Heller, the Supreme Court specifically addressed these arguments as follows: “Undoubtedly some think that the Second Amendment is outmoded in a society where our standing army is the pride of our Nation, where well-trained police forces provide personal security, and where gun violence is a serious problem. That is perhaps debatable, but what is not debatable is that it is not the role of this Court to pronounce the Second Amendment extinct.” In other words, if you want to amend the Constitution to eliminate or restrict the scope of the Second Amendment and the individual rights that it protects, then do it the right way – not by legislative overreaching and judicial fiat.

Second, there are some guns and weapons that are illegal – and the Supreme Court recognizes that there are circumstances under which the government has the ability to restrict or regulate individual rights. There are plenty of examples of regulations that infringe on fundamental rights. For instance, the First Amendment right to free speech is not unlimited – it is unlawful for you to threaten to kill another person. Likewise, the First Amendment right to exercise your religion is not unlimited – it would be unlawful for you to make a human sacrifice as part of a “religious” ceremony. Whenever the government attempts to limit a fundamental and constitutionally protected right, the government must demonstrate a “compelling governmental interest” to justify the infringement upon personal liberties. This is a judicial balancing test of competing interests – with the protection of the fundamental right receiving a substantial advantage and the government bearing a heavy burden to justify its decision to infringe upon that particular right.

As an example, there are certain weapons that are unlawful under Pennsylvania law. We have an entire section of the Crimes Code that creates these prohibitions – and there are also entire categories of people who cannot possess firearms based upon disqualifying criteria such as having certain criminal histories or mental health commitments. These restrictions have been upheld and violators are prosecuted. Whenever a government enacts such restrictions, it bears the burden of demonstrating that a “compelling interest” exists to support the legislation – and that the legislation is “narrowly tailored” to promote that compelling interest. When you are dealing with limitations on constitutional rights, the courts require you to use a scalpel not a butcher’s cleaver.

The current gun control debate never includes this language – you rarely hear lawmakers talking about having a “compelling governmental interest” – and politicians almost never tell you that government action need to be “narrowly tailored” when it attacks a constitutionally protected right. Most politicians do not seem to care about much more than the next election – and the sound bite that might make the evening news – and we sadly know that some of our leaders do not even bother to read the laws for which they vote.

          There is nothing wrong with having this debate – but you cannot have a meaningful debate unless both sides are honest in the dialogue. Any effort to restrict the ownership of firearms involves the infringement upon a fundamental and constitutionally protect right – and the government bears a heavy burden not only to justify the infringement upon that right but also in demonstrating that its efforts are narrowly tailored so as to avoid unnecessary restrictions on personal liberty.

If you are interested in the preservation of the Second Amendment, there will be a gathering on the Green in Montrose on April 19, 2013 at 12:00 p.m. to commemorate the 238th Battle of Lexington and Concord. There are a number of speakers lined up for the celebration. It is only appropriate that the First Amendment be used to defend the Second Amendment. Hopefully, I will see you there!

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/.

“Library Chit-Chat”

By Nancy Narma

For the week of April 15th, 2013

You gotta be a man to play baseball for a living, but you gotta have a lot of little boy in you, too. ~Roy Campanella

Ahhh, Spring training begins, Diamonds are ready to go for the upcoming season, excited little leaguers oil their gloves, unearth their bats, and dream of hitting the winning home run. Our energy is re-vitalized with the first few warm days. With having longer daylight , bicycle tires are checked and pumped up, chalk and hopscotch make their annual debut, as do marbles and jump ropes and the long awaited fun begins.

If you “Geek” Baseball, you’ll be happy to learn that your local Library Branch has some wonderful books on this favorite pastime and they encompass all age groups. Waiting for your perusal on local bookshelves are the following titles:

“Play Ball” by Dave Dravecky

“The Diamond Champs” by Matt Christopher

“Baseball Just For Kids: Skills Strategies and Stories to Make You a Better Ball Player” written by Jerry Kasoff

“Arthur Makes the Team” by Marc Tolan Brown

“Great Hitters of the Major Leagues” by Frank Graham, and “Home Run!”by George Sullivan, just to name a few. There are also many volumes written by and about several recognized late and great names from this beloved sport. Among them are: “Reggie Jackson’s Autobiography”, “Winfield: A Player’s Life” by Dave Winfield, plus interesting works about Tim Wakefield, Willie Mays, Mickey Mantle, Bo Jackson, Jim Morris, Hank Aaron, Don Drysdale, Cal Ripken Jr., Nolan Ryan, Babe Ruth and numerous others. The fairer sex has not been left out of the list either as “ Women at Play: The Story of Women in Baseball” by Barbara Gregorich and “Catching the Moon: The Story of a Young Girl’s Baseball Dream” by Crystal Hubbard are also available.

A few of reminders for your calendar:

Story Hour is still going on at the Susquehanna Branch, and is taking place every Tuesday in April starting at 10:30 am. If you haven’t taken advantage of this wonderful program including stories, songs, games and crafts, please call the Susquehanna Branch at 853-4106 today.

Saturday, April 13th, Parents and children 18 months and under are invited to a special Lap-Time program to kick off National Library Week. The program entitled: "Read to Your Bunny" starts at 10:00 am in the Children's Room at the Montrose Library. Children who attend will receive a free book. Don't forget to sign your child up for the Babies-and-Books program as well.

In the Hallstead/Great Bend Branch, a Representative from State Senator Gene Yaw’s office will be at there on Wednesday, April 17th, from 10:30 a.m. until 11:30 a.m. to meet with area constituents and respond to questions about State Government.

The beloved Spring Pottery and Art Sale organized by Maryanne White and Chris Buffington is scheduled for April 20th from 10am – 5pm and Sunday, April 21st from 10am – 4pm. Admission is free! It will be held in the Hall at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, 276 Church St., Montrose. Come out and help support the Susquehanna County Historical Society & Free Library Association.

Please make sure you have April 27th, 2013 marked down on your calendar—Library Auction Night!! This will be the 15th year for this fabulous event, which will be held at the Montrose VFW on Route 706. The Doors will open at 4:00 pm with a luscious buffet dinner being offered, starting at 4:45 pm. The Auction starts at 6:00 pm. Tickets are $ 10.00 (the cost of the dinner) and will be available at the door that evening. Please plan on attending this action-packed evening that helps the Library Association in its quest to provide you with all of the services you currently enjoy. Anticipate bidding high and bidding often on a treasure-trove of beautiful items, gift certificates etc., to help bring future programs to fruition in a much larger setting.

Don’t forget to find us on “Facebook”: (Susquehanna County Library) and look us up on “Pinterest” for lots of interesting nooks and crannies to explore.

As I pour myself another cup of tea, I leave you with this thought:

“I see great things in baseball. It's our game - the American game. It will take our people out-of-doors, fill them with oxygen, give them a larger physical stoicism. Tend to relieve us from being a nervous, dyspeptic set. Repair these losses, and be a blessing to us. “~Walt Whitman

Seeds Sprouting—Lawns greening up

Sweet Birdsongs in the Morning

ENJOY!!