Lynn, Springville, Twp. – Winter is here in good shape. Get out your furs. Also there was a soldiers’ oyster dinner served at the M. E. church parlors.

Clifford – The Village Improvement Society’s supper and entertainment on Friday evening was a grand success. The entertainment, being much above the ordinary and did honor to all the participants, calling for many encores. Also another beautiful snowfall on Sunday afternoon. Will it stay with us till April?

Rhiney Creek, Liberty Twp. – The friends and neighbors of Mr. and Mrs. Chas. Butts gathered at their home Saturday and cut them some wood.

Dimock – E. O. Bailey, having sold one of his fine matched team of horses, his place is [now] filled with Professor Tiffany’s bay horse, which makes a good team leaving the dust far behind.

Thompson – Charlie Belcher, a veteran of the Civil War, who had been in poor health for a long time, passed away Sunday afternoon, Nov. 22, 1914. Funeral was held at the home of his daughter, Mrs. Frank Whitney, Wednesday morning. Burial at Jackson. Crosier & Gelatt funeral directors. The deceased is survived by his wife, two daughters, Mrs. Whitney and Lulu Belcher and two sons, Frank and George. [Charlie was a Private in Co. K, Sixth Pennsylvania Reserves.] Also no school this week after Wednesday, as the teachers go to their various homes for Thanksgiving. Also the gentlemen of the Pessimistic Club will entertain the ladies of the Optimistic Circle in the near future at Tallman-Lamont hall.

Uniondale – Our hunters have returned from Pike County with a fine deer. A game supper will be held in the near future. The writer has a cousin in New Hampshire near the White Mountains, who thinks no more of seeing deer than we do a rabbit.

Gelatt – The wedding shower on Thursday was well attended and a great surprise to Mr. and Mrs. Gilbert Harding, when the Women’s Christians Temperance Union met and took possession of their home. They soon regained their composure and a bountiful dinner was prepared. Nothing was lacking, not even the bride’s cake, which bore the inscription in raised letters, Thomas Harding, 1914. A token of friendship and love was presented to her by the president, Mrs. Addie Gelatt. Among the number from out of town were Mrs. Lewis Thomas and daughter, Elizabeth, of Maple Ridge and Mrs. Earl Evans and son, of Gibson. We wish them a long and happy wedded life.

Birchardville – George Owen’s house burned to the ground Sunday afternoon. A few pieces of furniture were saved and a few things from the cellar. Origin of the fire is uncertain, but probably started from a defective chimney. The loss is a heavy blow to Mr. Owens, who is well along in years, and his health being poor.

West Lenox - The farm house of Edwin Oakley was consumed by fire, Wednesday of last week, with all contents. The origin of the fire is unknown, the family being absent from home at the time. With timely assistants the remaining buildings were saved.

Jackson – On account of long vacation for the measles epidemic there will be school Thanksgiving day.

Hallstead – The recent cold weather has frozen the river over above the bridge. Also Angelo Scottina, a section foreman here, was badly injured by being struck by a fast freight. He was taken to the Binghamton Hospital and it is expected that he will recover from his injuries. Some months ago his wife was struck by a train at New Milford and later died from her injuries.

Fairdale – The annual meeting of the Prospect Hill Telephone Association will be held in Grange Hall, Fairdale, Tuesday, Dec. 8, commencing at 10 o’clock a.m. All stockholders and interested parties are urged to attend. Dinner will be served by the Ladies Aid Society.

Middletown Twp. – The Middletown Literary Society was organized at Mrs. H. C. Colemans, Saturday evening, Nov. 21, with a membership of 29. The following officers were elected: John Coleman, president; Marie Curley, secretary; Martin Guiton, treasurer; Margaret Coleman, critic; Mary McHale, Cecile McManus, Thomas Lee, Alfred Jones, entertainment committee. After the election a debate was held: “Resolved that the literary society will prove beneficial to the young people.” Mary McHale, the affirmative, and John Coleman, the negative. The judges decided in favor of the negative. The debate was followed by several songs, violin solos and recitations after which lunch was served. Next meeting will be held at John Murphy’s on Dec. 4.

Dundaff – The license of Ernest Gelatt, proprietor of the hotel at Dundaff, was revoked by Judge Little, to take effect Dec. 1. Witnesses swore that Gelatt sold liquor to men who were intoxicated. Attorneys F. A. Davies and H. A. Denney appeared for the prosecution and Attorneys T. A. Doherty and A. B. Smith for the defendant.

Montrose – Complaint has been made that children are using the sidewalks for coasting and making them so slippery that it endangers the life and limb of all, especially elderly people. No one but likes to see children enjoying themselves and none would take away from their pleasure, but where it becomes a menace to others the practice of using the sidewalks for coasting must be stopped. The borough council and burgess are united in enforcing the ordinance against it, and children indulging in the pastime are likely to get picked up by Chief of Police Rosenfeld. Parents are urged to assist in discouraging their children in following this sport where it is a danger to others.

Susquehanna – The Erie Hose hold their annual ball at the L. A. Hall Thanksgiving eve. Also our young people are certainly improving the beautiful snow by the way coasters fly down the hills.

Towanda – Samuel Billings, aged 99 years, believed to be the only son of the Revolution in Pennsylvania, died on Sunday at his home in Towanda. The Billings family was one of the first to settle in Wyoming Valley and was there at the time of the Wyoming Massacre. Samuel’s father was one of the defenders of the fort near Wilkes-Barre in which were gathered the women and children at the time of the massacre and which was nobly defended against the Indians and British by the old men and young boys unable to go with Washington’s army. Mr. Billings was for some years a partner in the lumber business, at West Pittston, with Cornelius Stark, father of W. H. Stark, of Bridgewater [Susq. Co.]. He was twice married, his first wife being Elizabeth Stark, of Wilkes-Barre, and his second wife, Adelia Bramhall, of Wyoming county, who died 22 years ago. Two sons and six daughters survive. Interment was made in Camptown.

The concept of government created by the Founding Fathers involved a balance of power between the sovereign states and a limited federal government. As I have written in the past, the sovereignty of the states has slowly eroded over the last two centuries while the power of the federal government has greatly expanded. To some extent, the states themselves have allowed the erosion of their powers to occur – even eagerly relinquishing their responsibilities to the federal government as a means of avoiding making hard solutions to solve their own problems. The theory of federalism – the balance between the states and the federal government – as it was intended by the Framers has likely been irretrievably shattered.

For most of us, these federalism arguments have little importance in our daily lives - there is already too much to do and worry about without adding an abstract governmental structure argument to the mix. Even when you do find the free time to sit back and relax, political philosophy rarely jumps to the top of the list of discussion items. In the grand scheme of things, the expansion of federal power and the diminution of state power is something that simply does not seem to impact our lives. Why worry about it?

After all, even with the expansion of federal power, we all know from our civic classes that the federal government is divided into three branches which carefully check and balance the exercise of federal power. Moreover, the legislative process is a difficult one – there are two legislative bodies – the House of Representatives and the Senate – purposefully designed by the Framers in a manner that assures that they represent somewhat different interests. By requiring legislation to pass through two legislative bodies, the Framers attempted to assure that the will of the people would be protected. Moreover, the Framers went further to provide for a gatekeeper – a President – who was vested with the ability to veto legislation that was imprudent or inappropriate – and that executive veto could only be overridden by a two-third vote. Finally, even where both the legislature and the executive branches failed in their duties, the third branch, the judiciary, was the last constitutional guardian to determine if federal power had been appropriately exercised. Given the constitutional cage around federal power, was there any reason to be concerned about the erosion of state sovereignty?

Whether through apathy or slow erosion, the constitutional cage has rusted – and President Obama apparently decided to break that rusty cage and run. The slow erosion of federalism has resulted in enormous federal power – and if the constitutional checks and balances fail – then the end result is tyranny. We will have come full circle from 1776 – and every carefully crafted safeguard and restraint conceived by the Framers and embedded in the Constitution will have failed.

This is not a partisan issue – Jonathan Turley, a constitutional law professor at George Washington University, self-proclaimed liberal and an initial Obama supporter, provided the following testimony to Congress in July regarding the unabated use of federal power by the executive branch: “Our system is changing in a dangerous and destabilizing way. What’s emerging is an imperial presidency . . . . The president’s pledge to effectively govern alone is alarming but what is most alarming is his ability to fulfill that pledge. When a president can govern alone, he can become a government unto himself, which is precisely the danger the Framers sought to avoid in the establishment of our tripartite system of government. . . . Obama has repeatedly violated this [separation of powers] doctrine in circumvention of Congress in areas ranging from health care to immigration law . . . . What we are witnessing today is one of the greatest challenges to our constitutional system in the history of this country. We are in the midst of a constitutional crisis with sweeping implications for our system of government. There could be no greater danger for individual liberty. I think the Framers would be horrified. . . . We are now at the constitutional tipping point for our system. . . . No one in our system can ‘go it alone’ – not Congress, not the courts and not the president.”

Turley made these comments many months prior to President Obama’s latest decision to unilaterally enter “executive orders” that contravene federal immigration law. In other words, the President has unilaterally re-written federal immigration laws – without Congress or the Courts. When Turley learned of the President’s planned executive action on immigration, he was quoted as saying that the President was “tearing at the very fabric of the Constitution.” Turley has decided to not only talk the talk, but walk the walk. He will be representing Congress in the anticipated lawsuit against President Obama seeking a judicial determination that a President cannot ignore – or unilaterally re-write – legislation.

In his defense, President Obama is not the first President to step outside of the constitutional cage – the expansion of the power of the executive branch has been occurring from many decades. Congress has allowed it to happen – and it will be up to Congress and the Judiciary to restrain the Executive Branch. The only question that remains is whether there is any means to restore that busted cage - and if there is not, then our living Constitution will have suffered a mortal wound.

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/.

How to spot a drug addict

Dr. Thomas is an emergency room physician. A patient comes in and states that he is in enormous pain and needs painkillers immediately. The doctor looked at his chart and saw that this patient has had multiple ER visits over the past few months, each time requesting pain medications. What should Dr. Thomas do? How does he know if this patient is truly in pain, or if he is a “junkie” just looking for a fix? With millions of Americans abusing prescription pain medications every year, this scenario is frighteningly widespread. No diagnostic test exists to determine if an individual is truly in pain. And each patient expresses pain differently, with some screaming in agony and others holding it in quietly. So how do physicians tell if a patient is “drug-seeking” or has a chronic pain condition?

There are certain warning signs that, though not perfect predictors, can tip prescribers to identify people who are abusing pain meds. The doctor might ask the patient to rate her pain from 1 to 10, with 10 being the worst pain they have ever felt in their life! If a patient insists her pain is a 10 but has been sitting in the waiting room for hours, she is probably untruthful. Or, the patient starts off by telling you exactly what dose of which medication he or she needs, and list a slew of painkillers that do not work for them. These are usually the over-the-counter medications such as Tylenol, Advil, and Aleve. They prefer the narcotic not only because of their addiction, but also the pills become a form of currency that they can use to trade illicit drugs or sell them outright. Or, the dose of medication they need is much higher than the dose for an average person. Also, the patient comes to you with excuses like “My meds were stolen from my car!” or “I lost the prescription!” or “The pills fell into the toilet!” Finally, the physical exam is inconsistent with pain. For example, a person in severe pain often has a fast heart rate and fast breathing, or other physical signs they are uncomfortable.

ER physicians are often put in a tough spot when confronted with this behavior. They can never be 100% sure either way, and frequently do not have all day to do a thorough assessment to tease out whether the patient is telling the truth about their pain.

So, watch for criminal activity in your neighborhood and secure your medications at home. Addicts will devote most of their time obtaining more pills. Some addicts will "doctor shop," which is going to several different doctors to get prescriptions. They will take prescriptions to different pharmacies so that they can maximize their pill supply. Other addicts may resort to criminal activity like stealing money and swiping pills from friends and relatives. But watch out. More pharmacists and physicians are communicating with each other when they suspect a person is a narcotic addict. Also, the Federal government has made it more difficult for patients to obtain narcotics from doctors. Abusers beware!

Ron Gasbarro, PharmD is a pharmacist, medical writer, and principal at Rx-Press.com. Write him at ron@rx-press.com.