North Harford – There will be a shadow social at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Chester Chamberlin, Jan. 24th, under the auspices of the M. E. church. Supper will be served and there will be a fish pond. No law against fishing in this pond and if you enjoy this sport, come out and see how many fish you can catch. Also see how your shadow looks. Also Bear tracks have been seen on Wolf Hill and in the swamp by different people. Men who have seen them before say that they are sure they are bear tracks. Better be careful how you wander after dark. But then, probably “Bruin” is miles away by this time.

Middletown – A number of our young people are enjoying the skating on Coleman’s flats these days. Also our Telephone Co. met at Daniel Murphy’s, Wednesday night, and elected officers.

Rush – An old-time spelling match will be held at the M. E. Church on Jan. 29th. Music by the Rush orchestra. Refreshments will be served in the basement. Admission, including refreshments, 25 cents. Grand prize, $3; second prize, $1. Also a public sale will take place on the farm of Mrs. Russell Very, at Rush Centre, on Jan. 27th. At this sale two horses, four cows, one brood sow, thirty-five hens, wagons, sleighs, harnesses, mowing machine, hay and straw, stoves and milk cans, and many other articles will be sold to the highest bidder.

Montrose – The amount of sickness in and around Montrose at this time is really appalling. The grip seems to have whole communities in its talons, the drug stores being taxed to capacity to wait upon those who need medicines for coughs and colds. There are upward of a hundred pupils absent from the High school, ill. If you wish to ward off or relieve yourself of this troublesome malady, physicians claim that drinking large quantities of moderately cold water will aid in relieving the system of its impurities. To drink a quart of water each day is not too much.

Gelatt – Mrs. Verna Daniels was well pleased and appreciated the kindness of her friends and neighbors, last Thursday, when they met, cut, hauled and presented her with a nice pile of wood. She was very thankful to all those that helped in any way.

Clifford – Severe colds are numerous and our school, which numbers about thirty-five scholars, was reduced last week to twelve and fifteen on some days. Whooping cough was feared, but failed to materialize.

Hallstead – The Hallstead tent Daughters of Veterans will observe Washington’s birthday by giving a patriotic entertainment in Clune’s Opera House on the evening of Feb. 22nd.

Choconut Valley – The funeral of Mrs. M. J. Donley, who was brought from Scranton, was held at St. Joseph, Wednesday of last week. She was formerly a resident of this place and is survived by three sons, Cyrenus and Jerome of Choconut, John of New York City and one daughter, who resides at Scranton.

Brooklyn – H. F. Williams is selling a fine quality of coal at the S. & B. station here in Brooklyn, at 30 cents per hundred, the same as is asked at Hop Bottom. Also Boyd Austin has bought his father’s livery business and is now ready to serve the public by auto, sleigh and wagon livery.

Fair Hill, Forest Lake Twp. – We are having some old-fashioned winter weather for a few days. Regular zero weather. ALSO The Ladies’ Aid was well attended. The women sewed a nice lot of rag carpet for Mrs. M. J. Green and the men cut a nice lot of wood for the church.

Kingsley – An entertainment will be given in the Universalist church, Friday evening, Jan. 28. There will be readings, vocal and instrumental solos and conclude with a farce, entitled “Mrs. Bouncer’s Boarders” by local talent. Mrs. Van de Sand will sing, Mr. Bruce Frink will give violin solos and Miss Louise Stearns will preside at the piano. Adm. 25 and 15 cents.

Alford – Next week men will commence to tear down the old wooden trestle, across the mill pond, over which the L. & M. railroad has passed since the branch was laid in 1891. Also Evangelist A. Lee Aldrich, a former Alford young man, is conducting one of the biggest revivals ever held in the west at St. Paul and Minneapolis. Hundreds of people have been turned away from the crowded tabernacle. The young evangelist preached at East Bridgewater church one Sunday not long since.

New Milford – E. N. Townsend has taken his blacksmith shop back from John Samson. Also Mr. Lewis, of Great Bend, is moving in town, having bought a blacksmith shop of A. L. Harris.

West Lenox – Several from this place attended license court at Montrose last week. Some of them were very important witnesses against both hotels at Hop Bottom. A thorough canvass of the town was made with a remonstrance against both hotels and much interest was shown.

Susquehanna – Susquehanna police want saloons made to comply with law. The following petition was presented to the Council of the Borough of Susquehanna: Whereas, Certain holders of retail liquor licenses in this borough consistently refuse to close their bars at midnight on secular days, refuse to expose the interior thereof on Sundays so that the passerby may ascertain whether the liquor laws of the State are, or are not, violated therein on Sunday, and who persist in throwing wide open the doors of their bar rooms at midnight on Sundays; and Whereas, All of these irregularities are at variance with the fair public sentiment of the community, as well as opposed to expressed will of the Court of their county, who declared as we are informed, at the last license term of court, that he would not tolerate the opening of any bar room at midnight Sunday and that all bars should be so exposed on Sundays, so as to permit the passerby to discover whether or not the law was being violated therein and that if the holders of liquor licenses wished to co-operate with the will of the Court, they would close their bars promptly at midnight on all secular days; now, therefore, In consideration of the above recited irregularities and in deference to the fair minded public sentiment of the community, we respectfully request your honorable body to take some action, with a view of calling the attention of the Court to the same and requesting the adoption of a rule or rules that will prevent a repetition of these irregularities in the future. Signed by T. J. McMahon, Chief of Police; W. H. Smethurst, Police Officer and Constables John Marshall, T. H. Moran, Frank Howard. It was moved by Council member Ryan and seconded by Main, that the petition be received and that the council direct its solicitor to take up the matter therein complained of and represent to the Court, that it is the will of the council of the Borough of Susquehanna Depot, that the irregularities complained of be remedied in so far as the same may be legally.

News Briefs: The great trouble with fellows with one idea is that they usually have the wrong idea. AlsoMarriage licenses taken: T. J. O’Donnell, Brooklyn, N. Y. and Margaret Coleman, Middletown, N. Y.; Charles C. Corwin, Hallstead and Marian T. Warner, Montrose; Harry Light, Rush and Mae H. Diehl, Altoona; James B. Guiton, Middletown and Winifred Cavanaugh, Rush; Michael J. McNerney, Forest Lake and Frances G. Lynch, Friendsville; Simon E. Marcey, Lenox and Mabel J. Ruland, Lenox.

In 2012, the Lycoming County Domestic Relations Office was looking to serve a child support hearing notice on Hyson Frederick.  While attempting to find him, it was discovered that he was living with a woman who had an outstanding warrant for delinquent child support.  A detective and a deputy sheriff went to Frederick’s residence to serve the hearing notice and to arrest his female companion for the domestic relations warrant.

When they arrived at the residence, they knocked on the front door, but there was no answer.  They then proceeded to the back door, knocked and again there was no answer.  The back door was locked, but the officers noted that it could still be pushed open.  After giving the back door a push, it swung open and the officers were able to see a television was on inside the residence indicating that someone was present.  At that point, the officers announced that they were law enforcement and they had a warrant to serve – and they entered the residence and began to search for the occupants.  During the search, Frederick’s female companion was found and the arrest warrant was served.  The officers also found a saw-offed shotgun in the Frederick’s closet.  He was arrested for possession of a prohibited weapon – and a subsequent investigation revealed that the sawed-off shotgun had been used in an armed robbery so he was arrested for that as well.

Frederick was convicted and sentenced to a total period of incarceration of 25 to 50 years in a state correctional facility.  On appeal, Frederick contended that the trial court should have suppressed the sawed-off shotgun because the law enforcement officers failed to follow the “knock and announce” rule.

Under Pennsylvania Rule of Criminal Procedure 207, a law enforcement executing a search warrant must give or make reasonable efforts to give notice of the officer’s identity, purpose authority, and purpose prior to entry into a private residence.  After “knocking and announcing,” the Rule requires the officer to wait a reasonable time for a response (unless there are exigent circumstances), and if there is no response at the expiration of that reasonable time period, then the officer may force his or her way into a residence.

What constitutes exigent circumstances that would excuse officers from complying with the “knock and announce” rule?  The courts have recognized 4 exigencies that apply to this situation: (1) the occupants remain silent after repeated knocking and announcing; (2) the police are virtually certain that the occupants of the premise already know their purpose; (3) the police have reason to believe that an announcement prior to entry would imperil their safety; or (4) the police have reason to believe that evidence might be destroyed.  None of those exigent circumstances were present in this case.

The Superior Court noted that the law enforcement officers satisfied the knock component repeatedly – they knocked and both the front and back doors.  The officers, however, only knocked – they did not announce until after they had pushed the locked back door open prior to their entry.  At that point, however, they had already opened the door without announcing their identity, authority or purpose.  The Superior Court conceded that the officers did make their announcement prior to physical entry into the residence – but the announcement came after they forced open the back door. 

The timing of the announcement made all the difference in the case.  If they had made those announcements prior to pushing the door open, the “knock and announce” rule would have been satisfied.  Because the door had been pushed open prior to proper announcement, the Superior Court concluded that a “knock and announce” violation had occurred.

The Superior Court concluded that the trial court had erred in not suppressing the sawed-off shotgun – and Frederick’s sentence was vacated.  The case was remanded for a new trial and the prosecutor will not be permitted to use the sawed-off shotgun as evidence.  The case demonstrates just how fine the line can become between permissible and impermissible conduct.

Barack Hussein Obama, 44th President of the United States presented his final State of the Union speech to the nation on Tuesday, January 12, 2016. The theme of his speech was the legacy of accomplishments during his first seven years in office. I’ll assume at least a few Gentle Readers may not have viewed the President’s speech. Not to worry, I have provided below a transcript summary of what our Dear Leader may have said had he been administered sodium pentothal before entering the well of the House.

“Senators, Representatives, Justices, distinguished guests, I address my initial remarks to you. The State of the Union is just as I have fashioned it, and I thank the vast majority of you for being the sniveling enablers that you are. Without your direct collaboration or decisive inaction I could never have aspired to double our national debt, nationalize the world’s largest carmaker, socialize the healthcare insurance market, and render irrelevant traditional concepts of citizenship and nationhood. You have empowered me to carry out my agenda of income-redistribution, economic leveling, and most importantly consolidation and centralization of power in the executive branch.

Let me be clear, there is nothing to fear . . . for those who passively accept what I have in mind for America’s future. Conformity and submission of all to a world government with total information awareness is the future. . . except, of course, for the elite planning class I elevate to draw up the rules for the rest of the country. The elite class, such as myself and Michelle, will not be subject to those rules, because we must be empowered to track down every last bitter clinger to enforce equality of outcome. No one must be allowed to have too much while anyone in the world is still in want.

Look at my great record of achievement. The week before I was first elected President in 2008, I promised to the country, ‘We are five days away from fundamentally transforming the United States of America.’ I kept my promise. When I moved into the White House, why, do you know that I discovered a bust of Winston Churchill that President Bush had placed in the Oval Office after the attacks of September 11, 2001? While the bust was a gift from the British government, and while end-of-the-century surveys of the American people cited Churchill as the Man of the Century, and while the British people regard him as the greatest Brit who ever lived, I could not tolerate the bust of an imperialist who characterized ‘Socialism [as] the doctrine of envy and the gospel of greed.’ Accordingly, I had the bust promptly returned to the British Government. It still gives me giddy delight to know that the British people recognized it as the provocative snub I intended it to be.

Likewise I pulled off a twofer when I simultaneously insulted both Canada and Israel by making Turkey my first trip aboard, to, as I termed it reach out to America’s closest ally. Canada immediately understood my disdain for its long-intimate relationship with the United States. Israel could not mistake my preference for a Muslim despot seeking to institute Sharia Law in the previously secular Turkish State, at the expense of the only freedom-loving outpost of Western Civilization in the Middle East.

I apologize that Prime Minister Netanyahu’s government is still in power in Israel, but I did do everything possible to destabilize and betray Israel during my first seven years. Nonetheless, my efforts may still bear fruit. Our former adversary, Iran, is my personal chosen favorite regional super-power for the Middle East. It is the primary foreign policy achievement of my administration that Iran is ensured the near-future capability to manufacture and deploy intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of hitting targets virtually anywhere, not only in Israel, but in the Western Hemisphere. At the same time, I have ensured that over $150 billion, frozen since 1979, is returned to the mad mullahs ruling Iran. They have promised to use much of these funds to foment terrorism in the Middle East, Europe, and the United States. Death to Israel! Death to America! You gotta love these folks.

That I was able to bring about this rapprochement with Iran through an Executive ‘deal’ is another remarkable precedent-setting achievement. I convinced the Senate to vote to surrender its power to approve treaties, so long as we all pretend ‘deals’ are not treaties; and ultimately the Senate refused to even review the deal itself. Now I have implemented the full extent of the ‘deal’ solely upon my own authority, even while the representatives of Iran have steadfastly refused to sign the ‘deal.’ Has any previous President of the United States exhibited such an aggrandizement of power? Donald Trump blusters over ‘the art of the deal,’ but truly I AM the grandmaster of deal making. Eat your heart out, Donald.

But my foreign policy achievements are by no means limited to the aforementioned. My administration’s stranglehold on the Fed’s monetary policies created the foundations for world-wide economic dislocations. You all recall the Arab Spring! I unleashed Hillary in Libya, Egypt, and Syria, and we are reaping the dividends to this day.

In the process of killing Gaddafi we destroyed his dream of implementing a monetary system which might successfully compete with our petro-dollar. Gaddafi’s plans for a pan-African gold dinar could have made fiat currency obsolete, and I couldn’t have that. Now, I know what you’re thinking, ‘We dismissed this storyline as a conspiracy theory in 2011,’ but since it’s come out in Hillary’s FOIA-requested emails during a recent Friday-night dump, I may as well brag about it now. I kept America’s phony-baloney fiat dollar afloat, so give me all the credit I deserve.

Of course, the destabilization of Libya, Iraq, and Syria have provided a never-ending stream of refugees into Western Europe. They are providing Europe with the blessings of jihadism on a daily basis. France, Germany, Belgium, Norway, Sweden, and the UK are having their outmoded and decadent Western civilization upended and replaced by the blessings of Sharia Law and 7th-century Muslim culture. I am working day and night—when not on the golf course, vacation, or playing spades with Reggie Love—to bring those same blessings of Sharia-ism to America. You may recall a lovely little city called San Bernardino. Its recent experience provides a preview of what will soon be commonplace in every county of every state.

Let me sum up my foreign policy achievements, ‘Our allies don’t trust us, and our adversaries neither fear nor respect us.’ China is building island air strips and military bases to block commerce through strategic waterways in the South China Sea. Russia is claiming exclusive rights to Arctic areas rich in natural resources, even as it expands its sphere of influence in the Middle East and Ukraine. It’s gratifying that I have made it perfectly clear, to both, exactly how far I am prepared to let their power proliferate. The measure of how safe you now feel is a precise reflection of my unparalleled diplomatic skills.

Turning to the domestic front, my legacy is one of incomparable distinction. No incumbent of this office has done anything remotely resembling my usurpation of power. I thank both political parties for conferring upon me the dictatorial powers I now wield. Fellow Democrats have made clear they will support me to the last man, and they’ve proven it by their consistent losses in every election from 2010 on.

Congressional Republicans chant their oft-repeated mantra that there will never be another government shut-down. That promise gives me all the leverage I need to steam-roll my agenda through Congress. Thank you, Mitch! Thank you, Paul! The so-called ‘loyal opposition’ is in fact the ‘controlled opposition;’ not that I am complaining, you understand. I appreciate that Republicans have to fake-out their voting base every election cycle. So we go through Kabuki Theater, but in the end those good ‘ole boy Republicans give me everything I want, every year. They voted some 50 times to repeal Obamacare, but the one time their vote could have counted every year—in Omnibus spending bills—they voted to fully fund it. Ditto: Planned Parenthood funding. Ditto: funding to pay for illegal immigration. Ditto: funding for EPA over-regulation and power plant closings. Ditto: funding of police state surveillance of civilians. Ditto: global government schemes under the guise of ‘global climate change’ scams. And I could go on and on, and on! Thank you, Republican Party; I couldn’t have carried out my collectivist agenda without your ignoble faux patriotism and insatiable lust for power and privilege.

I know what you’re thinking, Mr. & Mrs. America! You wonder why I came clean about my legacy. I’ll tell you why; you aren’t going to do a dang thing about it. No matter how upset you may be about our current State of the Union, I have full confidence in your listlessness, apathy, and ignorance. The labor participation rate is the lowest since 1977; the male participation rate the lowest since we began keeping records in 1948. Student debt is at an all-time high, and college graduates, for the most part, will find there are no good-paying full-time jobs with benefits waiting for them when they do graduate. The home ownership rate is at its lowest level in 20 years. Declines in commodity prices and stock markets around the world are precursors to the free-fall collapse that is now upon us. A full 62% of Americans have fewer than $1,000 in the bank. And if you have $1 in your pocket and are entirely debt-free, you’re better off than at least 25% of your countrymen.

What I am telling you is that you are a dependent of the United States Government. You now live, breathe, eat, drink, and excrete at my pleasure. Thank you for giving me the power of life and death over you. You know that I will use this power wisely. Sleep well, America; tomorrow I’m coming for your guns; but remember, we’ll have you register them first, and it’s for your own safety! Common-sense gun safety, dontcha know!

My job is almost done here. I have seen America’s future, and I can assure you that whatever is left of it will look very different from it’s past. All that has gone before will be disconnected from the Brave New World where I deign to allow you, and possibly your progeny, to live. I have fashioned America to my heart’s desire. I have fundamentally transformed America. FORWARD.”