Lynn, Springville Twp. – We are enjoying a whole week of good old fashioned spring weather. Not far away, in Ainey, the bluebirds have made their appearance and groundhogs have been seen, all sure signs that spring is here. ALSO W. E. Button, our genial blacksmith, met with quite a loss on Saturday. When he went to dinner he left his coat hanging in the shop which contained a bill book containing about $45.00 in bills; when he returned lo and behold the money had, in some mysterious manner, flown away, leaving a lean and lonely bill book empty to be hammered out of iron to refill it again. Well, we fail to see where there is any fun in that.
Uniondale – The Uniondale Symphony orchestra will give an entertainment in the Herrick high school building, Feb 25th, in the evening. ALSO The McPherson Post, G. A. R., held their monthly meeting at their Post rooms last Saturday. C. M. Buckingham, Adjutant, read an interesting account of the inside life of Robert E. Lee. Experiences were told by some of the veterans that were enjoyed by all, after which dinner was served by the Post ladies.
Kingsley – Union services were held in the Universalist Church, Sunday afternoon, in honor of the birthday of Frances Willard, the founder of the W. C. T. U. A program, consisting of singing by the school children, solos by W. W. Oakley and Mrs. Will Capron, and an address by Rev. Dowson was given.
Bridgewater Twp. – Judge Little, the first of the week, appointed Mrs. Rebecca Benedict, a local suffragist, overseer of the poor, to fill the unexpired term of the late T. W. Tinker. A petition asking for Mrs. Benedict’s appointment was presented to the court by Attorney C. L. VanScoten. The appointment is said to be worth about $100 a year. She is the first lady in the county to hold office, so far as known.
Hop Bottom – The Methodist-Episcopal Sunday school and Ladies’ Aid are to hold a two day bazaar at Masonic Hall, Friday and Saturday of this week, Feb. 25 and 26. On Friday evening the ladies will serve a chicken pie supper, after which various amusements will furnish entertainment for the evening. Sales will be continued Saturday, and at 5:30 an oyster supper will be served by the men’s class, followed by an entertainment, consisting of a miscellaneous program of vocal and instrumental music, recitations, etc.
Montrose – The average daily circulation of the Montrose library, for January, was 54 books. The largest number given out in one day was 128. The largest daily circulation, for February (to the 23rd), was 162. It is hoped that the people will take an increased interest in the work of the library, and this can be best done by reading the books. [The average daily circulation of the Montrose Library, for January 2015, was 491 books.]
Springville – Otto Drake, young son of Mr. and Mrs. L. J. Drake, recently met with a very peculiar and painful accident. He was being treated for rheumatism by application of heat supplied by burning gasoline in some sort of a machine, when the thing burst, covering the boy with the burning gas. His father and mother succeeded in putting out the flames, but not until the boy was frightfully burned about the limbs. A nurse is in attendance and the boy is doing nicely.
Thompson – Married, February 19th, at the home of the groom’s sister, Mrs. Elbert Pickering, of Jackson, Earl Jenkins and Miss Norma Craft, both of Thompson. Mr. and Mrs. Jenkins are at home to their friends, corner of Main and Water streets. Congratulations are extended.
Dimock – Columbus C. Mills, octogenarian, passed away last Monday. A delegation of Warren Lodge No. 240, F. & A. M., of Montrose, had charge of the grave. A fine floral tribute from the lodge attested to the respect in which Bro. Mills was held by his fellow members. At the time of his death Mr. Mills was the oldest member of the Warren Lodge, having joined in January 1864. Mr. Mills was 85 years old and for many years was a justice of the peace at Dimock. He also carried on a wagon-making business. He is survived by one daughter, Miss Isa Mills, who had made his declining years as comfortable as possible.
Forest City – Washington’s birthday was quietly observed here. Flags were floated in front of a few houses but no public demonstration was made. ALSO H. P. Johns has purchased from the Keystone Realty company, agents for this vicinity, a new touring Reo car. The company received a carload of these famous cars one day last week and sold them the following day.
Rush/Jessup – Wm. H. LaRue, of Rush and Aria I. Oakes, of Jessup township, were married at the M. E .parsonage, Montrose, by Rev. Carl Councilman, Wednesday, February 25th, 1915.
Brooklyn – It is three good long miles from Luther Benjamin’s house to Brooklyn village. If you doubt it, ask the four gentlemen who paced it last Friday between the hours of 12 and 1 a.m.
Clifford – The January meeting of the Clifford Women’s Christian Temperance Union was held in Finn’s Hall. The speaker, Mrs. E. E. Wells, of Lackawanna county, urged the training of young people to take up the cause and to “train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart therefrom.” In the evening the meeting opened by singing “The Fight is On,” followed by a prayer, afterwich all joined in singing “The Brewer’s Big Horses.” Mrs. Wells gave a sermon rather than a lecture, dealing with the moral side of the temperance question—an appeal to join forces against the greatest evil of this age, if not of all time. At the close Mrs. Agnes Miller sang, “Molly and the Baby” very pleasantly. This was followed by a social hour, during which light refreshments were served.
The Underground Railroad. This article came from the Scranton Times and was written by W. M. Atherton, Clark’s Summit, in 1915. “Editor Times – Allow me to add somewhat from personal knowledge and hearsay: My father was a member of the Underground Railroad. I well remember a knock frequently on the door and father calling, “who’s there?” and it was Mr. [William] Gildersleeve’s colored man, with a load of fugitive slaves. [William Gildersleeve was a well-known abolitionist from Wilkes-Barre.] My mother would get up and make supper for them and they would go on to Leonard Batchelor’s or Rodman Sisson’s and were hid through the day and the next night were driven to Montrose to Mr. Sayre’s, who married Mary Gildersleeve [daughter of William Gildersleeve]. In 1822 Rev. Gildersleeve was a slave owner in Virginia. He became disgusted and sold his property and moved to Wilkes-Barre, freed his slaves and died there. He was the one who located the route of the underground railroad from Maryland through Waverly to Canada. His son, Camp Gildersleeve, was ridden on a rail in 1839, and tarred and feathered in Wilkes-Barre by sympathizers [pro slavery]. The Rev. N. G. Park, for 50 years pastor of a Pittston church, married his daughter, Anna (Will Park’s mother) in 1850. My father found a kidnapped colored boy in a house car of the Pennsylvania Gravity railroad, taken from Hawley, brought him to our house and sent him home.”
Last year, I came across a Superior Court case involving a dispute between a prosecutor and the sitting trial judge that turned nasty. It has a pretty tortured procedural history, but to put things into a nutshell, the trial judge was directing the prosecutor to give more information to the defense attorney prior to trial. The prosecutor believed that he had provided enough information – and the prosecutor then vowed to appeal the trial judge’s evidentiary decision.
In connection with preparing for an appeal, there was a hearing during which the trial judge did not believe that the prosecutor was answering certain questions – and after a particularly unpleasant exchange between the prosecutor and the trial judge, the prosecutor attempted to invoke a privilege that he contended provided him with the ability to refuse to answer the question. The trial judge was not amused and responded as follows: “You will answer the question or bring your toothbrush because I’m going to lodge you [in jail] until you answer the question unless you get a court order of superseding authority that says you don’t have to answer the question or you bring me a case on point that tells me you don’t have to answer the question.”
Apparently, no legal authority was provided to the trial judge that would have justified the prosecutor’s refusal to answer – but the prosecutor had another card to play – he moved to have the trial judge recuse himself because the prosecutor had learned that he had dinner with the defendant’s counsel about one month prior to the hearing. The trial judge denied the motion for recusal – noting that it was a large gathering of 12 people, 6 of whom were newly elected judges and the other 6 were their spouses (or dates), and the defense attorney attended the dinner as a spouse of a newly elected judge. Given that the trial judge had no relationship with the defense attorney, the recusal request was denied.
The trial judge then reiterated that the prosecutor had to answer the question – the prosecutor provided a response that the trial judge again found unresponsive – and the trial judge found him in contempt and directed that the prosecutor be incarcerated until he decided to answer the question. The trial judge then immediately stayed the order, i.e., the prosecutor did not go to jail, as the trial judge provided the Commonwealth the opportunity to appeal that ruling before the prosecutor was incarcerated for his non-answer. The Commonwealth filed an appeal to the Superior Court – with not simply the underlying criminal case on the line, but also the freedom of the prosecutor himself.
First, the Superior Court considered the recusal question – and noted that the party seeking recusal of a trial judge must produce some “evidence establishing bias, prejudice or unfairness which raises a substantial doubt as to the jurist’s ability to preside impartially.” The Superior Court noted that the Commonwealth produced no evidence aside from a “bald allegation” regarding a social dinner event attended by a significant number of the trial judge’s colleagues. The mere fact that the defense attorney was married to another judge who happened to be at the dinner did not constitute sufficient evidence to support a request for recusal. The Superior Court agreed with the trial judge – recusal was not necessary.
Second, as to the finding of contempt and incarceration, the Superior Court noted that the contempt finding was civil in nature because the prosecutor could purge the contempt at any moment by simply complying with the trial judge’s direction to answer the question. In a civil contempt, the party may appeal the contempt – but it has to be the party himself – not a third party. In this case, the prosecutor did not individually appeal the contempt finding – the Commonwealth appealed. Given that it was a civil contempt, not a criminal contempt, the Commonwealth lacked standing to sustain the appeal – and the challenge to the contempt finding was dismissed for lack of jurisdiction.
The Superior Court opinion never decided the issue of whether the threat of incarceration was appropriate because the right party did not file the appeal, i.e., the prosecutor needed to individually seek appellate review, not the Commonwealth itself. I could not find any subsequent media reports as to how the matter resolved itself, but the case provides a very good example of the inherent power that a trial court has to order compliance with its directives. The appellate decision does not provide the whole backdrop of what was occurring in the courtroom – there are only the sanitized facts that are culled from the written record – but it provides a somber reminder to attorneys (and witnesses in general) that there can be serious consequences to defying a judge’s order.
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/.
Mrs. Brown came into the pharmacy and asked to speak with the pharmacist. She wanted to know why there was an auxiliary sticker on her pill vial that said not to take the medication with grapefruit. She did not know what to make of it. The pharmacist explained to Mrs. Brown that many food-drug interactions are being discovered, because foods have chemicals within them that can impact the way the drug works in the body. When foods interact with drugs, the absorption of the drug may be delayed, increased, or decreased. Food can affect the degree and rate at which a drug is absorbed into someone's system as well as the metabolism and excretion of certain medications. If a food prevents a drug from being metabolized, the drug will accumulate in the blood and side effects from the drug are more likely.
Grapefruit juice should not be taken with certain cardiovascular drugs used for blood pressure or cholesterol control, including certain beta-blockers, calcium channel blockers, antiarrhythmics, cholesterol-lowering drugs (statins). Anti-malarial drugs and anti-anxiety agents such as diazepam (Valium) and buspirone (BuSpar) may not work correctly if given at the same time as grapefruit juice. Drugs used for erectile dysfunction may not be able to be properly excreted from the body. While that might sound like a good thing in terms of an erection, the combination can cause a serious drop in blood pressure, leading to fainting and possible injury.
Licorice seems an innocuous treat. However, enjoying licorice along with a drug that controls your heart rhythm, such as digoxin (Lanoxin), may increase the risk for digoxin toxicity, which can cause cardiac disturbances as well as nausea, delirium, diarrhea, and eye problems. Licorice may also reduce the effects of blood pressure drugs or diuretics, including hydrochlorothiazide and spironolactone.
The pharmacist recounted the complaint of another patient who said she could not fall asleep at night despite being on a high dose of a sedative. The pharmacist quizzed her about her sleep habits – napping, condition of her mattress, ambient noise – and asked her if she drank coffee or had a snack late in the day. The patient admitted to eating chocolate bars at night. And that was the culprit. Whereas coffee contains caffeine, which is a stimulant, chocolate contains theobromine, also a stimulant. Cutting out the late night Cadbury bars did the trick and she was able to cut back on her sedative intake. Chocolate can also interact with stimulant drugs such as methylphenidate (Ritalin) increasing their effect.
Warfarin (Coumadin) blood levels are at the mercy of many foods. Warfarin is a blood thinner that helps prevent stroke-causing clots from forming. Vitamin K is used by the body to form clots and stop bleeding. Therefore, foods high in vitamin K should either be avoided or eaten sparingly. Dark fruits and vegetables (blueberries, kale, prunes, broccoli and so on), contain vitamin K and should be consumed in moderation. If your warfarin levels vary, consider which foods may be affecting your clotting time.
Mrs. Brown was glad to get this information from the pharmacist and was off to the supermarket. “I guess I will have to watch what I buy now that I am on certain medications!”
Ron Gasbarro, PharmD is a registered pharmacist, medical writer, and principal at Rx-Press.com. Write him at ron@rx-press.com.
