Hallstead – The second time we have been visited by a disastrous fire on Main Street, in a little over a month, occurred on Monday evening, when Carl S. Tingley, the grocer, who has living rooms above his store, was awakened by the devouring flames. He found a brisk fire behind one of the counters near where matches were stored. Seizing a fire extinguisher he partly put out the fire, but before sufficient water could be brought, the flames were beyond control. The fire company was soon on the scene and managed to confine the flames to the building and while none of the contents of the store were saved, part of the household effects were removed, although badly damaged by fire and water. It is thought that the fire was started by rats or mice gnawing into matches. A peculiar feature of the fire was that in a former fire where H. J. Brown’s grocery store was destroyed, Mr. Tingley generously opened his store and filled Mr. Brown’s grocery orders. Now, by turn of events, H. J. Brown is kindly filling the grocery orders in return for C. S. Tingley. A restaurant building owned by Mr. Brown, adjoining Tingley’s store, was at several times in great danger from the flames and was somewhat damaged.
Clifford – Our creamery and skimming stations are now running three days of the week, except West Clifford, which will not start until about the first of April. It has been idle all winter.
Rush/Jessup – Wm. H. LaRue, of Rush, and Aria I. Oaks, of Jessup Twp., have applied for a marriage license.
Jackson – Several of the pupils of the Jackson School still remain on the sick list. Some have dropped their names from the roll on account of being so far behind the class with their work.
Brooklyn – Brooklyn, since 1910, has been enjoying the finest telephone service of any little village in the state. Both the Commonwealth and Merchants Telephone Companies have been operating exchanges and furnishing day and night service for their patrons. On March 1 the Commonwealth Company issued a circular letter to their subscribers increasing their rate of service from $12 to $15 dollars per year. On the face of the letter it looked like an increase of 25 per cent, but when it was noted that 25 cents for service on points between Clarks Summit and Towanda per month was granted and also the 5 cent toll between Brooklyn and Montrose was abolished and free service given to the County Seat, it was accepted by many of the subscribers as a concession to this town and with free service to Montrose, this town is placed in a very fortunate position as to telephone service.
Little Meadows – Michael Butler is busy sawing shingles for the neighbors. AND James Clare had the misfortune to break his automobile last week, while visiting friends in Warren, Pa. Hard luck, Jim.
Dimock – After a short delay on account of bad weather the large Winans’ stone quarry has again commenced work, where they are getting out a large amount of fine stones, which will be dressed and cut and later shipped to the Valley for walks, steps and cellar flagging. ALSO Lester Gregory is preparing to build a new dwelling house on his lot near the cemetery, recently purchased of J. F. Dolan.
South Auburn – Most of the people in this vicinity expect to have their telephones removed the first of April on account of the increased rental rates. ALSO Mr. and Mrs. G. B. Crawford were married 55 years ago, March 4th, 1860, in S. Auburn and on Saturday, March 6th, they celebrated their golden anniversary, surrounded by their children who were able to be there, also two of their grandchildren and one great-grandchild. The children present were Miss Ella Crawford at home; Leo Bolles and wife, of Beech grove; Wilson Robbins and wife, of Wyalusing; and N. G. Crawford and wife. The grandchildren were Harl Crawford and wife, of Shannon Hill; and Miss Vergie Crawford. The great-grandchild is Catherine Robbins. Two of their children, Mrs. Mary Applegate and Benjamin Crawford reside in California and one son, Geo. Crawford, at Elk Lake. They were presented with a purse of $6.
Gelatt – Thursday noon, while the men were in the house eating their dinner, Mr. Wilmot’s sawmill was discovered on fire, and it burned to the ground, consuming nearly everything in the mill. The wind saved the other buildings and lumber from burning. There was no insurance on the mill or contents.
Pleasant Valley, Auburn Twp. – Harry Reimel and wife expect to move to their farm on Craig Hill this week. Our best wishes go with them.
Bridgewater Twp. – Louis B. Hawley, who has been almost helpless for many months due to paralysis of the lower limbs, friends will be pleased to learn, is showing some improvement. Mr. Hawley is being treated by Dr. W. B. Van de Sand, the osteopath, and with the noticeable improvement in his general health there is a growing belief that he will eventually recover the use of his limbs.
Birchardville – Fred W. Dayton has purchased a milking machine. Mr. Dayton has a fine herd of Jerseys and is known the county over as an excellent butter maker. The new improvement is in keeping with his advanced ideas of dairying.
Susquehanna – A new Santa Fe type of locomotive is now being used on the Erie Railroad, having arrived at Susquehanna Monday evening from the Baldwin Locomotive Works. The engine and tender weighs 402,500 pounds and has ten driving wheels, besides two truck and two trailing wheels. The locomotive, including tender, is over 77 feet long, and it is one of the most powerful engines in the world. It is named W. C. Hayes, in honor of the superintendent of locomotive operations of the Erie.
Springville – Harry Gavitt has bought Homer Young’s barber shop, and good will, and takes possession April 1.
Forest City – William Pentecost, of Prompton, one of the pioneers of this section, whose lumber operations caused the first settlement of Forest City, then called Pentecost, died on Tuesday afternoon. During the severe December weather Mr. Pentecost slept with a foot uncovered and froze a great toe. An operation was performed but gangrene had set in and caused his death. Mr. Pentecost was born at Grampond, Cornwall, England, August 15, 1827. His mother died when he was a child. In his 22nd year he married Elizabeth Paul of his home town, coming to America on their wedding tour, landing in New York on July 4, 1849. On the morning of the following day they came by railroad to Narrowsburg, then by stage to Honesdale, stopping at the Jakeway house; next morning they journeyed to the John Blake farm now owned by Charles Smith, in Dyberry. Blake, a distant relative, hired William and after several years they moved to the north end of the borough of Prompton and soon branched out in the lumber business. The first large lumber contract he accepted was for the D & H Co, it being the tract of land where Forest City is now located. He erected the first buildings at this place. When his wife died he was left with a family of eight children and brought them up to be good and useful citizens. His second marriage was to Frances Bellamy. Funeral services will be from his late home in Prompton and burial in the Bethany cemetery.
Last week, I told you about the King’s Bench petition that the Philadelphia District Attorney filed in the Pennsylvania Supreme Court requesting the Court to use its inherent judicial power to strike down Governor Wolf’s death penalty “moratorium” an unconstitutional executive action. At that time, I was not certain whether the Supreme Court would even consider the petition as it is a rare occurrence for the Court to grant review of a King’s Bench petition. This is understandable as the Supreme Court is not a trial court and the Supreme Court does not want to be in the business of routinely granting requests for it to exercise its original jurisdiction.
In this particular case, however, the Supreme Court has agreed to potentially consider the King’s Bench petition. On March 3, 2015, the Supreme Court issued the following order: “[I]n light of the Petition for Extraordinary Relief Under King’s Bench Jurisdiction further review is GRANTED; the request for expedited review is DENIED. It is further ordered that the Governor be joined as a party before this Court. The Prothonotary is DIRECTED to establish a briefing schedule and to list the matter for oral argument in the normal course so that the parties may brief the issue of the propriety of this Court’s exercise of King’s Bench review as well as the merits of the issues raised in the petition.”
Given that the request for expedited review was denied, the execution of Terrance Williams will be delayed pursuant to the Governor’s “moratorium.” On the other hand, the Supreme Court has agreed to take a harder look at the question – as well as the question of whether the Supreme Court even has jurisdiction to address the Governor’s executive actions. For constitutional scholars and junkies, this particular case is a rare judicial showdown – and as the rhetoric in last week’s column demonstrated – it will be a heated battle with long-term constitutional implications for the scope and breadth of executive power.
While all of this has been occurring, there was another death penalty challenge that made the news – a federal case challenging Pennsylvania’s use of lethal injection as cruel and unusual punishment under the 8th Amendment. The litigants challenged Pennsylvania’s lethal injection “cocktail” as it contained compounded drugs that were not approved by the FDA. To demonstrate an Eighth Amendment violation in the context of an execution, it must be shown that the execution procedure very likely causes serious illness or needless suffering. United States District Judge Kane of the Middle District of Pennsylvania rejected the claims that Pennsylvania’s lethal injection protocol violates the Eighth Amendment. Judge Kane decided the case on a summary judgment motion, i.e., he never even had to take testimony or conduct an actual trial to determine whether there was any merits to the litigants claims.
Judge Kane opined that the legality of Pennsylvania’s lethal injection protocol had already been litigated and found to be constitutional in previous court opinions. The new argument relating to “drug compounding” was not sufficient to cause a reasonable person to conclude that the lethal injection procedure was “sure or very likely to cause serious illness or needless suffering.” In short, the mere fact that the drugs were compounded (created from raw materials) without FDA approval did not mean that the use of those drugs was cruel and unusual punishment under the Eighth Amendment. The litigants failed to demonstrate that the drug compound utilized for execution caused needless suffering to the condemned inmate.
When Governor Wolf issued his “moratorium,” the media reported that the Governor stated that capital punishment is “error prone, expensive and anything but infallible.” The Governor wants to allow for the completion of a task force report on capital punishment prior to lifting the moratorium. It is not clear whether the Governor was concerned in any way with the lethal injection protocol or the drugs used in the execution process. If it was a concern, then the timing of this recent federal decision is fortuitous and can provide a good resource on that particular issue.
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/.
Wash Hands, Kill Germs, Stay Well
Tom came into the pharmacy and asked the pharmacist which hand sanitizer was best. He had just gotten over a cold that spread through his family and he decided that he should take better precautions. The pharmacist told Tom that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says that using a sanitizer with an alcohol concentration of at least 60% is more effective at killing germs than those with a lower alcohol concentration or non-alcohol-based hand sanitizers. Non-alcohol-based hand sanitizers are not effective because they: 1) may not work equally well for all types of germs; 2) can cause germs to develop resistance to the sanitizer, 3) will only reduce the growth of germs rather than kill them, or 4) are more likely to irritate skin than alcohol-based hand sanitizers .
Alcohol-based hand sanitizers can quickly reduce the number of microbes on hands in some situations. But sanitizers do not eliminate all types of germs. Also, although alcohol-based hand sanitizers can inactivate many types of microorganisms very effectively when used correctly, people may not use enough of the sanitizer or may wipe it off before it has dried. Actually, soap and water are more effective than hand sanitizers at removing or inactivating certain kinds of germs that are more dangerous than others, such as the bacteria “C. diff” (Clostridium difficile), which lurks in hospitals and doctors’ offices. However, other germs can cause respiratory infections and/or diarrhea.
Alcohol-based hand sanitizers are OK for children and teens, especially when soap and water are not available. However, be sure to supervise young children using alcohol-based hand sanitizers. Remind your child to make sure the sanitizer completely dries before he or she touches anything. Store the container safely away after use.
The pharmacist explained to Tom that the best way to kill the germs on your hands is to use soap and either cold or warm water. Get your hands wet and then scrub them with soap for about 20 seconds, or however long it takes you to sing “Happy Birthday.” Then, rinse and dry. Washing your hands with soap and water should be done when you come in from school or shopping or any other public place, or after sneezing or blowing your nose, and any other time you touch garbage, animals, or use the rest room.
The CDC says that hand washing is like a "do-it-yourself" vaccine—it involves five simple and effective steps (think Wet, Lather, Scrub, Rinse, Dry) you can take to reduce the spread of certain illnesses so you can stay healthy. Regular hand washing, particularly before and after certain activities, is one of the best ways to remove germs, avoid getting sick, and prevent the spread of germs to others.
Tom thanked the pharmacist and not only bought the alcohol-based hand sanitizer but also purchased a couple bars of soap to keep on hand.
Ron Gasbarro, PharmD is a registered pharmacist, medical writer, and principal at Rx-Press.com. Write him at ron@rx-press.com.
