Montrose – Along with the dust of the past week come complaints of autoists shooting up Public Avenue with cut-off wide open and disturbing the peace and harmony of the neighborhood. While there is a good grade at this point, it would seem that any autoist who is proud of the hill-climbing proclivities of his machine would rather take the grade quietly. Often the man at the wheel seems to prefer opening up the cut-off, which to the pedestrian causes the most handsome machine to take on the rattletrap design of a tractor. The auto, like man, is most pleasing and impressive when going quietly. The world has no use for a blusterer. Also Rough & Ready Fire Co. has given orders for 40 new handsome suits to tailor R. B. Smith. The suits are blue, trimmed with black, and adorned with silver buttons. They will have caps to match. There is a strong movement on foot for a department parade this year, and no doubt the handsome young men of Rough & Ready will be in line for it. ALSO Samuel Hunting Sayre, grand regent of the Royal Arcanum, of Virginia, died at his home in North Hampton, Va. He was a native of Montrose. His wife was a great granddaughter of Lewis Morris, a signer of the Declaration of Independence.
Tunkhannock – At the license court at Tunkhannock this week the following hotels were refused [liquor] licenses: Three hotels at Nicholson, two at Factoryville, one each at Mill City, LaGrange, Beaumont, Forkston, Noxen, Laceyville, Skinner’s Eddy and Mehoopany, two at Lake Winola and two at Meshoppen. This completes the list except the four hotels at Tunkhannock, which will probably be refused licenses today, making Wyoming “dry” as the proverbial covered bridge. Judge Terry comes up for re-election this fall, and the “wets” will have a chance to show their strength, also the “drys.”
Dimock – The Dimock W. C. T. U. will hold a public meeting on Monday evening, April 12th, at the Baptist church. Everybody, men and women, young men and maidens who are opposed to the legalized liquor traffic, come and join the W. C. T. U. and help the forces along for National Constitutional Prohibition. We would like to take in fifty new members that evening. Ask your friends to come and join us. A good program is being prepared, with special music. There is important business to be transacted.
South Gibson – The graded school closed Thursday, April 1, with exercises at the school house. The graduates were Mildred Estabrook, Helen Gardner and Taylor Manning. Much credit is due Mr. Ransom and Miss Follett for the earnestness shown in their work. We hope for their return another year.
Springville – A large number of former patrons have signed an agreement to dispense with their telephones on the Bell system, owing to a raise in rental fees.
South Montrose – Our school has closed on account of scarlet fever. It will not reopen.
Mrs. A. H. Jones has the mumps.
West Bridgewater – Matthew McKeeby is spending a few days with his parents, teaching his father to run the auto.
Rush – Last Saturday twenty-nine young people tried the entrance examinations for the Rush High School.
Thompson – A musical wonder, a trick player on the violin by the name of Fitch, passed through town Monday night, stopping off a few hours between trains. His performance on the violin imitating birds, animals and, in fact, everything exceeded anything in that line that was ever in Thompson or for miles around. Also At a meeting of the school board it was decided to continue employing four teachers and to do four years’ school work in the high school. Prof. Roland C. Dayton of Rush, has been engaged for principal, Miss Gertrude Southworth retained for vice principal, Miss Nellie Aldrich for the primary. The intermediate has not yet been decided upon.
Susquehanna – We are to have a theatre to cost between forty and fifty thousand dollars. It will have a seating capacity of twelve hundred.
Forest City – James Miskell, who started his base ball career at Forest City, will join the Richmond, Va. team in the International league as soon as the season is finished at St. Joseph’s college, Baltimore, where he made good. Miskell has picked up in hitting and is clouting the sphere hard. It is predicted that he will soon appear as a star in the Major league. Also it is thought that the settling of St. Agnes church is now at an end, and the officials of the church have plans for its restoration and will soon start the work. It is proposed to raise the building and use the first floor for entertainments and a meeting place for the church societies. A new stone entrance will lead to the second floor, the interior of which will be refinished and new pews are to be secured. The rear part of the church has been damaged to such an extent that it will be necessary to tear down and rebuild. The repairs will be expensive and elaborate.
Clifford – James C. Wells, a life-long resident of this township, died at his home near
Elkdale on Friday morning, aged seventy-six years. He is survived by his wife and three sons, L. J., of Clifford; Fred, of Pittston; and Rupert, of Olyphant. The deceased was for many years assessor of Clifford township, holding the office at the time of his death. He was a man of exemplary habits, honest in all his dealings, a model citizen, husband and father. He was a man of ripe intelligence and good judgment and always interested in matters for the welfare of the township and his influence was always at the command of any worthy enterprise. No death in the community, for many years, has occasioned such wide spread and sincere sorrow.
News Brief: Easter day in Susquehanna county was one of unusual brightness and comparative warmth while all along the Atlantic coast a fierce snowstorm raged. Philadelphia had over a foot and a half of snow fall on Saturday and Boston and New York suffered from the blizzard. Even as near as Scranton there was a snowfall on Saturday. Montrose, that has always been credited with so much coldness—was basking in the balmy rays of the sun, although a stiff breeze blew. As far south as Asheville, N. C., that noted winter resort, there was a foot of snow on the ground. The loss of lives on the Atlantic coast was in the neighborhood of 75. Also Mr. and Mrs. Gifford Pinchot arrived at the Hague on March 29. He is acting as special agent for the State department, in Washington, in the European War Zone. He was presented to the Dutch foreign minister. They will at once proceed to North eastern France where Mr. Pinchot will act as special agent for the distribution to the indigent French people within the German lines. The Germans refused to permit Mr. Pinchot to remain in Belgium because his sister is Lady Allen Johnstone, wife of a former British minister to Denmark.
Police officers occasionally encounter very difficult situations – highly charged and volatile – where split second decisions are required that may mean the difference between life and death. Professional law enforcement officers receive training and education regarding the manner in which to respond to potentially lethal circumstances – but each situation is different and each suspect presents a new (and often unknown) risk. The United States Supreme Court is currently considering a case that highlights the dangers faced by the police – and the potential liability that may arise from those decisions.
Based on media reports, the case involves a woman named Teresa Sheehan, a mentally ill 56-year old woman suffering from schizophrenia, whose disturbing behavior in August 2008 prompted a social worker in San Francisco to call the police. Sheehan was living in a group home with other individuals with mental illness, and the social worker indicated to police that she had stopped taking her medication and that she had threatened him earlier in the day. When two female police officers entered Sheehan’s apartment, she grabbed a knife and told them to leave. The police then regrouped outside of the apartment before they went back inside to check on Sheehan. At that point, Sheehan came at one of the female police officers with a knife and the officer responded by shooting Sheehan five times to stop her.
Sheehan survived the shooting and then sued the San Francisco Police, and she included a claim under the American with Disabilities Act (ADA) contending that the police were required to provide “reasonable accommodation” for her mental illness in connection with the attempt to arrest or apprehend her. Although the district court initially dismissed the ADA claim, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals concluded that the ADA applied to the police in these circumstances and directed that the case proceed to trial. The United States Supreme Court now has to decide whether a police officer can be sued based upon the failure to provide a “reasonable accommodation” to a mentally ill suspect prior to an arrest.
Over the past 15 plus years as a prosecutor, I have seen numerous police officers injured as a result of placing mentally ill individuals into custody – often as a result of a commitment order that directed they be placed in a secured environment for their own safety. The situation described in the Sheehan case is not uncommon for caretakers of mentally ill persons – and law enforcement often is the only entity that can safely secure the individual and get them to an appropriate treatment facility. The implications from this case could be significant for law enforcement personnel.
During the oral argument, some of the justices provided some clues as to their respective positions. Justice Scalia was reported as stating: “It is never reasonable to accommodate somebody who is armed and violent, period.” On the other side of the ideological spectrum, Justice Kagan likewise seemed to support the police by suggesting that police officers deserve the “benefit of the doubt” when dealing with violent, mentally ill suspects. Justice Kennedy also expressed concern about providing “guidance” to police officers on how to handle a mentally ill violent person.
Sheehan’s attorneys are not disputing the fact that she had a knife – or even that she attempted to use the knife on a police officer. Rather, their argument centers upon the need to accommodate her disability during the course of the interaction. They argue that Sheehan was confined to her apartment, that she could not go anywhere, and that the police could have waited her out. Sheehan’s attorneys told the Supreme Court that waiting a few minutes was not sufficient – that more effort should have been made at communication prior to entering Sheehan’s apartment for the second time with the knowledge that she was armed and dangerous. It was not clear from the argument how long of a wait would constitute a “reasonable accommodation” or even what other accommodation should have been made prior to attempting to take custody of the suspect without risking the suspect causing harm to herself.
The ultimate question, however, has really nothing to do with the facts of this case – it is a far broader question: Will the ADA’s requirement of “reasonable accommodation” apply to police officers attempting to arrest an armed and potentially violent offender? If it does apply to law enforcement, the even harder question will be how will police officers be trained to “reasonably accommodate” potentially violent mentally ill suspects.
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/.
Low-Dose Versus High-Dose Aspirin For Heart Attacks
Rick, 50, came to the pharmacy counter with a large bottle of aspirin 325 mg and a box of heartburn medication he planned to buy. He said to the pharmacist, “The aspirin will keep me from getting a heart attack, right?” The pharmacist asked him if he ever had a heart attack. “No, Rick said, “But my uncle and my dad died of one in their 50s.” The pharmacist replied, “Unless you have had a heart attack and factoring in the fact you have stomach problems, this dose of aspirin is too high for you.”
The pharmacist went on the explain that both the 325 mg aspirin tablets and the 81 mg “low dose” (once called baby aspirin) can protect the heart muscle. However, an association between higher doses of aspirin and an increased risk of serious GI bleeding has been confirmed in multiple clinical studies. On the other hand, when a person lives though a heart attack – also called a myocardial infarction or MI – and is hospitalized, he or she is usually prescribed the higher dose of aspirin as a precaution. And in those cases, enteric coated tablets are best because they dissolve in the small intestine rather than in the stomach.
A heart attack happens because the arteries that supply the heart muscle with vital oxygenated blood slowly narrow from a buildup of fat, cholesterol and other sticky substances that together are called plaque. When a piece of plaque in a heart artery breaks off, a blood clot forms around the plaque. This clot can block the blood flow to the heart muscle, depriving the muscle of nourishment. When part of the heart muscle is damaged or killed from this starvation, it is called a heart attack. According to the American Heart Association, someone in the US has a heart attack every 34 seconds. Many are fatal.
Aspirin fights heart attacks in 2 ways. First, it decreases inflammation, the body’s response to an invader such as plaque. When plaque becomes inflamed, a heart attack is more likely to occur. Second, aspirin inhibits the formation of blood clots. Certain blood components cause normal blood particles to clump together and form blood clots. Thus, aspirin thins the blood to inhibit the formation those life-threatening artery cloggers.
Rick’s father and uncle succumbed from heart attacks decades ago. Since then, medical science has made great strides in developing drugs and procedures that can control heart disease. Also, many questions remain about their personal medical histories: Did they exercise, smoke or take aspirin therapy? Were they were overweight or overstressed which could have made a difference in their fate? Always consult a physician and/or pharmacist as to whether or not you need to take aspirin for heart attack prevention. Ask about which dose fits your general health. Certain medical conditions, medications and even herbs preclude the use of aspirin and should not be taken just because they do not need a prescription to purchase. Rick was grateful to the pharmacist for his helpful advice. He plans to see his doctor not only for a check-up but also to find out why he has recurrent heartburn for which he needs additional remedies.
Ron Gasbarro, PharmD is a registered pharmacist, medical writer, and principal at Rx-Press.com. Write him with any ideas or comments at ron@rx-press.com.
