South Montrose – King E. Griswold died at his home below this place on July 20, 1915. He was 73 years of age and his long residence in this vicinity gave him a wide acquaintance. Being of a jovial and friendly nature, he made friends readily, and he had a hearty, unfeigned greeting for all. His farm was located about midway between here and Elk Lake, and during the years of early manhood and middle age he used to advantage his exceptional physical powers in tilling the soil. Until the last a sturdy physique stood him in good stead and an erect bearing and active step caused him to appear but little past three score years. He was a veteran of the Civil War, serving in Co. D, 10th N. Y. Cavalry. He was the father of thirteen children, eight of whom are now living. His wife died about five years ago. The funeral will be from the church here and interment in South Montrose cemetery.

Rush – The good old fashioned religion is good enough for me. Dimock Camp Meeting, Aug. 18 to 26. ALSO In East Rush the heavy rains of last week did considerable damage to the roads in this section. If the supervisors were more careful in opening the sluices when working the roads, it would save the town a good many dollars.

Springville – During the storm on Monday evening, which was very severe in this section, lightning struck the house of A. E. Comstock, running down the chimney and into the living room, striking Mr. Comstock and cutting a bad gash about three inches long in his arm and causing paralysis of the limb, then passing into the cellar and mixing things up generally. That it did not prove fatal is almost a miracle. Dr. Lathrop was called and there is no doubt of final recovery.

St. Joseph – Last Saturday, July 17, the Choconut Base Ball team was defeated by the St. Joseph Base Ball team by a score of 5-3 in favor of St. Joseph. The St. Joseph line-up is as follows: Captain, R. Gray, E. Kilmer, T, Kinney, H. Halison or Hallson, R. Schudderer, J. O’Malley, John Kane, W. Shudderer and G. Farrel. The famous pitcher, C. Brown, who used to play for the Athletics, pitched for Choconut both games. The second game finished up with a score of 1-1 and was too late to finish the game. St. Joseph will play any team at the present time. ALSO

T. P. O’Connell has purchased the general store of Mrs. B. C. O’Reilly, at this place, and is now conducting same. Mr. O’Connell has an extensive acquaintance and should do well at this popular old stand.

Auburn Twp. – About 4 o’clock, Monday, a very destructive storm passed over the eastern part of this township doing considerable damage to trees and buildings on the farm of C. F. Chase. It tore up 50 fruit trees besides blowing a quantity of timber down, turned over out buildings and swept the roof partly off a granary and one barn. On the farm adjoining, owned by G. A. Crisman, it took the roof off the silo, also the chimney off the house and uprooted fruit trees and nearly demolished his timber. Mrs. Donald Pierson, Miss Genevieve Pierson and Mrs. Jennie Cease, who were returning home from picking berries, were caught in the storm and were nearly drowned. Mrs. Alford Risley had four valuable dairy cows killed by lightning Tuesday. The spire of St. Bonaventure church was struck for the second time, but the damage was slight.

Watrous Corners, Bridgewater Twp. – During the heavy electrical shower Monday afternoon, Mrs. Levi Wells received an electrical shock, and was rendered unconscious for three hours. She is recovering nicely, however, friends will be pleased to know.

Montrose – It has rained every day in Montrose this week. There was a particularly hard shower Monday afternoon. You may not believe in St. Swithin’s prognostications and consider it all folderol, but you cannot help but observe that it rains every day. Let’s see, [according to tradition the weather on his feast day, July 15, will continue for 40 days] we believe we are to have 33 more days of rain. ALSO By the time of the next issue of this paper is in the hands of the subscribers the Montrose Bible Conference will be on the threshold of its eighth annual session. The grounds are now being put in order and much work is being done for the comfort of the visitors, who will be here in larger numbers than at any previous year. The Dining Hall is being enlarged to accommodate the large registration; nearly one half carload of canvas has arrived from which will be guilt the tented city. Special attention is being given to the lunch counter so that transient visitors may be cared for so far as the inner man is concerned. The auditorium will be re-carpeted with chips and the general house cleaning is going on.

Quaker Lake – P. F. O’Day, one of Quaker Lake’s genial citizens, and a violinist very popular in the western part of the county, was greeting his friends here yesterday. Mr. O’Day says the outlook seems very bright for Quaker Lake, now-a-days. Two new cottages are now being built and splendid improvements have been made, which attract a large number of Binghamton people to the lake, which is a particularly charming sheet of water. There are accommodations at the lake now for meals and lunches.

Susquehanna – All roads lead to the Susquehanna Chautauqua, August 10-16.

Oakland – Early Thursday morning the general store of Brush Brothers and Birdsall’s meat market were entered. Entrance was gained in the Brush Brothers’ store by placing planks from the river bridge railing to an open window in the rear. So quietly was the work accomplished that Stanley Brush, one of the members of the firm, who occupies the floor above the store, was not disturbed from his slumbers until after the thieves had departed and friends notified him. At the Birdsall meat market a window was broken and the night latch on the door unlocked by reaching in through the broken window. At Brush Brothers’ store, two dollars in change was taken from the cash register, while at Birdsall’s the same amount of change was taken besides a number of cans of canned goods. Local talent is suspected of the job.

New Milford – C. E. Woodward has purchased a lot at the corner of Main and Ward street, of John W. Hand, and will build a garage. Mr. Woodward has built up a large business in auto repairing. ALSO Frank Rosengrant, of Colorado, is visiting his mother, Mrs. D. W. Hager. Mr. Rosengrant has been away from here fourteen years and is east to recuperate his health.

Harford – A company of Billy Sunday Trail Hitters, from Carbondale, will conduct the evening service, Sunday, July 25, in the Congregational church. The leader of this group is M. D. Lathrope of the Presbyterian church of Carbondale, and a Director of the Montrose Bible Conference.

We have been receiving a lot of complaints regarding IRS phone calls – or perhaps more appropriately, fraudulent phone calls from people posing as IRS agents who are soliciting personal information and/or payment of alleged delinquent taxes.  As I have said repeatedly, you should never give out personal information unless and until you are entirely satisfied that the receiver of the information is legitimate.  This particular telephone scam is not limited to Susquehanna County.  In fact, the IRS website specifically issues a description and warning of the offending conduct:

“An aggressive and sophisticated phone scam targeting taxpayers, including recent immigrants, has been making the rounds throughout the country.  Callers claim to be employees of the IRS, but are not.  These con artists can sound convincing when they call.  They use fake names and bogus IRS identification badge numbers.  They may know a lot about their targets, and they usually alter the caller ID to make it look like the IRS is calling.”

“Victims are told that they owe money to the IRS and it must be paid promptly through a pre-loaded debit card or wire transfer.  If the victim refuses to cooperate, they are then threatened with arrest, deportation or suspension of a business or driver’s license.  In many cases, the caller becomes hostile and insulting.

“Or, victims may be told that they have a refund due to try to trick them into sharing private information.”

“If the phone isn’t answered, the scammers often leave an ‘urgent’ callback request.”

“Note that the IRS will never: 1) call to demand immediate payment, nor will the agency call about taxes owed without first having mailed you a bill; 2) demand that you pay taxes without giving you the opportunity to question or appeal the amount they say you owe; 3) require you to use a specific payment method for your taxes, such as a prepaid debit card; 4) ask for credit or debit card numbers over the phone; or 5) threaten to bring in local police or other law enforcement groups to have you arrested for not paying.”

The IRS website has actually compiled a “Dirty Dozen” list of the scams to watch out for involving con artists utilizing the authority – and fear – of the IRS to steal from unsuspecting victims.  The people that have reported these scams to me realized quickly that they were not dealing with the IRS – but they were concerned that other people may not be so lucky and requested that I use the column to warn people to watch out.  At our household, we simply do not answer the phone unless we recognize the number – if it is a legitimate call, they will leave a message.  If they leave a message, it gives you the time to carefully think about what they are calling about and to research whether it is legitimate.  Caution is always the best policy.

Finally, the Susquehanna County Law Enforcement Community will be conducting its annual National Night Out on Tuesday, August 4, 2015 at St. Lawrence Church in Great Bend.  This is a terrific evening for the family to meet different members of law enforcement and related agencies that provide services to the criminal justice system.  There will be activities for the kids – including a bounce house – and lots of free educational material, prizes and giveaways.  This has become a nice tradition over the past several years – and the families that attend have all agreed that it is a terrific opportunity to meet those connected to the world of law enforcement, to ask questions, and to receive educational materials.  We hope to 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.

How many medications are too many?

Lois lamented to her pharmacist that she was on too many medications. Add to that list some herbs suggested by a neighbor, the vitamins she thinks she should take because she does not always eat right, and the over-the-counter remedies she takes on a daily basis. Lois is overwhelmed by her pills.

The number of medications you take depends on your condition. Diabetes may take several medications to stabilize blood sugar. The same goes with hypertension. Lifestyle changes often go without even a thought. Why not take a pill rather than a brisk walk? Why not shovel down a few hunks of Aunt Velma’s coconut pie when you can follow it up with extra medication to set your blood glucose right? Before you know it, your toes are being amputated, your eyesight is shot and you can’t feel your legs. Or, following your stroke, a nurse’s aide is spooning you pureed cheeseburger, which is dribbling down your chin because you can’t feed yourself.

According to the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), older Americans are on more prescription drugs than ever. Since 1988, persons 65 years of age and older are on 3 times as many prescriptions now as they were 25 years ago. Similarly, people ages 45 through 64 are on twice many meds than they were in the late 1980’s. Sure, many of these drugs are keeping people alive. But when is enough enough? Think of it this way: The more medications you are on, the more money you spend, the more likely you are going to forget to take some of them, and the more likely you will have a drug-drug or a drug-food interaction. Unless your pharmacist is vigilant on these points, your doctor, who may not always be clear about drug interactions (especially if you are going to more than one doctor), you may end up on even more medications to cope with the side effects. Next stop: the emergency room.

Remember that corporations like General Motors or Apple, Big Pharma is out to make money. Now a trillion dollar business globally, the pharmaceutical industry is “altruistically” lifting the burden of you helping yourself to stay healthy and compressing it into a simple pill. Good for them; maybe bad for you.

The pharmacist told Lois that antibiotics are perhaps the biggest threat to life on earth. People ask for them and doctors prescribe them. First, what you probably have is not a bacterial infection, meaning the antibiotic will likely not work. Second, the overprescribing of antibiotics is creating strains of superbugs that are becoming immune to the available antibiotics. Think twice about asking for an antibiotic. If you have a cold, drink some herbal tea, gargle with salt water and relax with some Bewitched reruns.

Certainly, do not go off your meds without consulting your pharmacist or doctor. In fact, ask both of these professionals since they have different perspectives on medications. TV ads are all the rage right now in the pharmaceutical industry. From their perspective, most people have some sort of physical problems from discolored toenails to everyday anxiety. Yes, these can be conditions that warrant medical intervention. However, if you find your kitchen table is groaning under the weight of dozens of pill bottles, stop and think: who is really benefitting here? You or the pharmaceutical industry?

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.

There are two kinds of deception--the lies we tell ourselves, and the lies we allow others to tell us. While America slept, a few have rubbed the sleep from their eyes only to be met with the media’s matrix of mainstream misinformation. Alexander Solzhenitsyn, in describing the Soviet State wrote, “In our country the lie has become not just a moral category, but a pillar of the state.” Are these words not true of America in this age?

Immigration, more particularly illegal immigration and “sanctuary” status, have finally arisen--only because of the outrageous murder of Kate Steinle--as issues demanding soul-searching if we hope to continue as a viable nation-state. An illegal alien who had been deported from America five times stands accused of Steinle’s homicide. It is known that the accused murderer had been deported five times. His multiple deportations were occasioned because of his commission of “serious crimes.” Apparently illegal entry, as millions of other persons have discovered, is not in and of itself a “serious crime.” You see, our government has no political will to deport aliens who invade our country, whether such persons do so by walking across borders or simply by over-staying visas.

Miss Steinle’s murderer freely admitted that San Francisco was his choice of destination because of its “Sanctuary City” status. San Francisco, like hundreds of other cities across America, will not even inquire into a person’s legal status, much less turn illegal aliens over to Federal authorities for deportation. Of course the Federal government is complicit in this game too. Federal authorities have even less interest in effecting deportation of illegal aliens. Could that be evidence that a cold-blooded killer is more rational than a senseless city, a foolish state, and an uncaring, tyrannical Federal government?

Besides the tragedy of Miss Steinle’s murder itself--by an alien who never should even been in our country--horrific truths must be faced. Our nation is imploding. Is there any other logical conclusion? Our nation admittedly has no ability to control our borders. Interlopers can enter America at will. They may do us harm intentionally or merely by implication. Either way we have ceased to be a nation fully in control of its destiny.

To be sure, America was not sound asleep while control of our borders was lost. President Reagan tried a comprehensive immigration reform scheme in 1986. Part of that deal involved the President’s issuance of amnesty for some three million illegal aliens. The other side of the coin was that Congress was supposed to fund real border enforcement. It did not. Consequently, illegal immigration resumed with illegals taking the bet that sooner or later our government would issue another amnesty; and even if it did not the benefits of living here outweighed those of remaining in their home country.

California is now in the forefront of being conquered. It is a one-party state that offers the largess of taxpayers to all comers. But all other states, to one degree or another, are following behind California. Some have fallen into line willingly; others, such as Arizona, were forced into that conga line by a federal government which claims exclusive authority for immigration law enforcement. It could be said that the federal government is colossally derelict in its enforcement efforts, but that would be untrue. Border agents have gone on record to state that they, in fact, complete the final leg of importation by overseeing the transportation of illegals to NGO’s (Non-Governmental Organizations) where food, shelter, onward transportation, and welfare benefits can be arranged. (Yes, the American taxpayer pays for everything NGO’s are doing at the behest and by agreement with the Federal government.)

What is going on is that while America was sleeping the country morphed from a land of liberty into a social-welfare state. While socialistic benefits were, when created, for citizens-in-need only, the enlarged plethora of benefits has been extended to virtually all-comers, if not by formal change, then by collective complicity and corruption. Immigrants a century ago had to undergo rigorous questioning and examination before being admitted--to a land offering only opportunity--not a hand-out; illegal aliens today are tempted by generous benefit packages and a life most certainly better than what they left behind. With that kind of incentive, who can blame them for risking all to come here!

To be sure, illegal aliens are witting or unwitting pawns in a “game” being played by Democrat and Republican powerbrokers. Republicans love illegal aliens because they provide cheap labor demanded by their masters in the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. The Chamber obligingly makes huge donations to their Republican cronies. Many Republicans in the U.S. House and Senate, it would appear, have no interest whatsoever in putting the country’s interest above their self-interest. Neither issues with overwhelming support from the party’s base nor actions widely supported by the country at-large seem to move them. Keeping the illegal-alien pipeline open keeps Chamber funds flowing to the power elites in the Republican Party.

For the Democratic Party, illegal aliens are a treasure trove of new voters. The Democratic Party is increasingly a balkanized party captive to disparate special interest groups and minorities who each have their own niche of power and position. Illegal aliens provide a mechanism for growing government; new people need plenty of government programs and people to operate those programs for an ever-swelling army of dependents. The Democratic Party is truly the party of government and the growth of government (unions) is fuel for a self-perpetuating and voracious centralized government.

All of the above assumes the best-case scenario--that illegal aliens are here, as Jeb Bush said, “As an act of love.” Unfortunately, it is not just the “noble peasant” who seeks a refuge in America. There are men who mean us harm; does anyone remember 9/11? Fifteen of the 19 highjackers were in America illegally, all having overstayed their visas. Islamo-nazis have a propensity for taking advantage of our nation’s amiable naïveté and blissful ignorance on one hand, and adamant refusal to enforce immigration law and border security on the other hand.

Where does this leave law-abiding citizens? We are the pawns left holding the bag for every other actor’s bad behavior. The Republican power elite keep the Chamber’s money; the Democrat power elite grow government through their expanding dependency class; the illegals get a choice of a welfare package, low-wage jobs, or both. American citizens get to compete with illegals for jobs, with blacks economically hurt the worst as they are often displaced by illegals. Naturalized citizens get to be enraged by the realization that they were played for fools by patiently “waiting in line” and paying exorbitant fees for citizenship after jumping through interminable hoops, checks, and tests.

What we are witnessing are the last gasps of our Republic. Our leaders, so-called, have for over 30 years refused to do what is required to secure our borders, protect citizens from alien invaders, and bring local and state jurisdictions in line with Federal law. The end result of that is that lawlessness and disrespect for the law is increasing; sanctuary cities, such as San Francisco, have effectively nullified Federal law; and the State of California has essentially seceded from the United States.

In the last decades of the Roman Empire villages along the periphery, which had been under Roman rule for centuries, opened their gates and welcomed Germanic “barbarian” tribes to invade and rule them. Roman bureaucracy, regulation, cronyism, and corruption had grown to such enormous levels, the common people could bear it no longer and welcomed barbarian rule as relief from “civilized” Rome. Is this our future?

We are losing our culture, our language, and our traditions while America sleeps. Those who think these losses are good have no comprehension of the fundamental principles on which our nation was founded. We were once proud of truths that bound us together and provided boundless opportunity as the world’s economic and intellectual engine of growth.

The end of our present way of life may be far closer than we think. In his book, “The Gathering Storm,” Winston Churchill wrote, “If you will not fight for right when you can easily win without blood shed; if you will not fight when your victory is sure and not too costly; you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a precarious chance of survival. There may even be a worse case. You may have to fight when there is no hope of victory, because it is better to perish than to live as slaves.”

Let us not continue to let America sleep while Kate Steinle’s blood cries out for justice. Her life mattered; her death is America’s wake-up call. There can be no more hiding behind political correctness; Kate’s literal death is symbolic of America’s spiritual death. The deceptions we live by must be dispatched and the truth acknowledged if America’s survival is still deemed worthy.