Choconut – Susquehanna county, which has been free from infantile paralysis cases throughout the epidemic, cannot now boast of freedom from the dread disease. Two little victims, residing in two different families, have succumbed as victims to the malady. The first child to be taken with the disease was Catherine Donnelly, the 8 year old daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Jerome Donnelly, who reside near Stanley Pond. On Oct. 23, William Lynch, the 4 year old son of Mr. and Mrs. William Lynch, was found to be suffering from the disease and died in the evening. Both of the sad fatalities, within a few days, have caused a deep gloom in the community.
Forest Lake – T. Booth & Son are making cider at 1 ½ cents per gallon for the trade.
Montrose – Saturday, Oct. 28, the M. H. S. foot ball team is to meet their ancient enemy, Tunkhannock High School, on our home grounds. “Tunk” suffered defeat twice last year at our hands—and are coming up Saturday resolved to do or die. Come and see a good game and help our team. ALSO Chicken thieves are beginning their operations here this fall. During the early hours of Monday morning two of them succeeded in taking two chickens from Joseph Mawhiney’s flock, in his coop, located near the cemetery. Mrs. Charles Wood, who lives next door, was awakened by a lively commotion, made by her fine flock of ducks and hurriedly gave the alarm to her son, Paul Wood, that there was something wrong with the chickens and ducks. Paul did not wait to don special clothing for the occasion, and arming himself with what is necessary to greet burglars, and with a bulldog and Scotch terrier, the trio started in pursuit after the night prowlers. Paul, who is a barber, is just as handy with a shot gun as with a razor, and had he got a good chance somebody would have been properly peppered, to such an extent that all further raids on chicken coops would have had to be cancelled for the rest of the season. The thieves, upon hearing the barking dogs, were not slow in making their escape. The dogs in that neighborhood now sleep with one eye open and there is an extra supply of ammunition on cemetery hill awaiting a further visit from the marauders.
Bradford County – A geologist for one of the big oil companies spent considerable time this summer exploring Bradford county for oil and gas signs, and in consequence of his observations the oil company will sink at least two test wells in the central part of the county if land can be leased reasonably. The geologists are not optimistic concerning the outlook for oil but are sure that gas in paying quantities is to be found if proper tests are made.
Forest City – Yesterday afternoon Joseph Muchitz, son of Martin Muchitz, had three fingers badly mangled by the accidental discharge of a gun while hunting. He was with Anthony Gantor, in Robert Tinker’s woods, about 3 miles from town, when the accident happened. With handkerchiefs, Mr. Gantor bandaged his hand and with a lace from his legging, made a tourniquet, checking the flow of blood. The young man then walked to town. Joseph was taken to Thompson’s Hospital, in Scranton.
Susquehanna – Susquehanna has organized a glee club with 10 members. Perhaps a joint meet of Susquehanna’s organization and the Montrose Symphony Chorus can be arranged.
New Milford – The Baptists of this place have purchased the C. M. Shelp property, adjoining the church, for a parsonage. Rev. E. B. Hughes, of Montrose, the new pastor, took possession yesterday.
Great Bend – At about 1:15 o’clock Sunday afternoon, a Ford runabout on its way from Binghamton to Scranton, driven by Harry Humphrey and Thomas O’Hara, crashed through the guard rail of the bridge crossing of Erie railroad to the ground below, a distance of 20 feet. The car turned turtle in mid air. Mr. O’Hara was quite seriously injured and Mr. Humphrey slightly so. Both are now in the City Hospital in Binghamton. High speed, accompanied with a blowout while entering bridge, is stated as the cause of the accident. ALSO Six cows wandered from a pasture lot on the Cobb farm one morning last week and strayed on the Erie tracks at Newman’s crossing. A west bound train ran through the herd, throwing them from the tracks. One of the animals, owned by J. O. Vroman, was so badly injured that it had to be killed. Another, belonging to J. F. Carl, was badly injured, but will recover.
Middletown Twp. – Middletown, for its population, supplies more school teachers than any other township in the county. It is told us that 14 schoolm’ams hail from that district. Good school teachers are hard to find, and Middletown is to be congratulated for giving some of its best and most conscientious young women to the great work.
Lynn, Springville Twp. – Some miscreant of parts unknown traded buggys with W. B .Fish about two weeks ago, on late Saturday night or early Sunday morning, without Mr. Fish’s consent or knowledge, leaving an inferior one with a broken tire in its place. All traces of the same remain a mystery up to this date.
Hallstead – Floyd Merrell has received an appointment to the United States Naval Academy, at Annapolis. He expects to go for a term of eight years. ALSO Trains on the Lackawanna between this place and New Milford, have been running on the old tracks. The bank along the cut at Summersville slid down until it was necessary to take out two or three cuts with the steam shovel and the change in running trains was made while this was done.
Dimock – In an opinion handed down by Judge Denney, the school directors of Dimock are upheld in closing No. 7 school and accepting a gift of $10,000 from F. R. Cope and Percy Ballantine for a central high school.
Franklin Forks – About 80 attended the golden wedding of Mr. and Mrs. Geo. Stockholm, Saturday. A fine time was enjoyed by all.
Marriage Licenses granted: Daniel King, Thompson, and Katherine Gilleran, Starrucca; William A. Jeffers and Candace H. Gorman, Lenox; Ray C. Tingley, Harford, and Edith C. Corse, Jackson; Otto Halford and Blanche Westgate, of Crystal Lake; George P. Yard, Newark, N. J. and Bernice M. Powers, Hopbottom; John H. Gerlach, Jackson, Mich. and Edith A. Bryant, Susquehanna.
200 Years Ago, from the Centinel, Montrose, Pa, October 29, 1816.
*RAPID GROWTH. In the year 1812 the town of Montrose contained but two families. It now (1816) contains a Court house, Prison, Printing Office, Leather factory, two Shoe factorys, Hat factory, Cabinet factory, Chair factory, Druggist’s shop, three Physicians, seven Carpenters, three public Inns, five Stores, Twenty-eight dwelling houses, several more now building, and one hundred and eighty-six Inhabitants. AN INHABITANT.
*NEW STORE, AND NEW GOODS. The subscribers have commenced business at their New Store on the Public Avenue, a few rods from the Courthouse in the village of Montrose. They have just received from New York and are now selling a general and well chosen assortment of DRY GOODS, GROCERIES, CROCKERY, GLASS & HARD-WARE, IRON AND STEEL, very cheap for cash, good credit and Country Produce. Please call and see for yourselves. They will be thankful for all favors they may receive. SAYRE & MULFORD. Montrose, Oct. 29, 1816.
The Wiretap Act generally prohibits the surreptitious recording of any oral communications between two parties. The Wiretap Act requires that both parties consent to the recording of any private conversations where there would be an expectation of privacy in the communications. There are a several statutory exceptions that permit the recording of oral communications without the explicit consent of all parties. On such exception involves telephone calls to and from correctional facilities or jails with inmates.
In Commonwealth v. Fant, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court recently consider a suppression challenge to the recording of telephone-like communications that occur in the actual visiting area of the prison. In that case, visitors to the prison would be able to talk through a telephone receiver to the inmate who would be sitting on the other side of a transparent barrier. You have probably seen these kind of visiting room set ups on movies or television shows. While some inmates are able to earn “contact” visits where they can see family and friends in person, other inmates are more restricted to having a visit that has no physical contact, but communication is permitted through the telephone-like service. While telephone receivers are utilized, the devices are not hooked to any public telephone system.
In Fant, the inmate and several visitors were communicating through such prison’s communication system using telephone receivers – and their communications were recorded through the prison’s inmate visitation service. During the course of these conversations, the parties discussed a stabbing incident for which the inmate was facing criminal charges. When the inmate learned that the Commonwealth planned on using his recorded conversations with his visitors at trial, the inmate moved to suppress the evidence contending that the recordings violated the Wiretap Act. The inmate argued that the visitor telephone system was not a telephone system as contemplated by the Wiretap Act.
The Wiretap Act permits the recording of telephone calls to and from an inmate in a jail, prison or correctional facility. The Commonwealth argued that the prison’s internal telephone system was akin to a public telephone system – and that the Wiretap Exception applied. The inmate argued that the common understanding of a telephone would be where a person dials a number and calls another person – not where both people are facing each other, pick up a receiver and can hear each other talking on the other end without every dialing any kind phone number.
The trial judge suppressed the evidence and concluded that the prison-run visitor telephone system did not constitute a “telephone call” as contemplated in the Wiretap Act. On appeal, the Pennsylvania Superior Court reversed the trial court and concluded that the prison-run communication system was a private telephone service such that it visitor communications were telephone calls to and from an inmate at a correctional facility. In other words, the Superior Court determined that it was an inmate telephone call, albeit it was through a prison run telephone as opposed to a public telephone company. On further appeal, however, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court reversed the Superior Court and reinstated the trial court’s decision that the evidence should be suppressed.
The Supreme Court determined that the communications in question where not “telephone calls” as understood by the Wiretap Act. Because the handsets used for these communications could not make or receive outside calls to other telephone numbers, the Supreme Court determined that such inmate communications could not be considered “telephone calls” to and from an inmate in a correctional facility. As such, the Supreme Court determined that the recording of these inmate and visitor conversations was a violation of the Wiretap Act and had to be suppressed.
Of course, the Wiretap Act only prohibits non-consensual recordings. It is very common for people in many settings to be notified that their calls will be recorded or monitored and the continued participation in the recorded telephone conversation is seen as implicit consent. If the visitor and the inmate are notified that communications are being recorded, then the Wiretap Act is likely not violated – but it is also unlikely that you are going to get anything of evidentiary value from such conversations.
Cool it with the codeine this winter
Mrs. Court walked into the pharmacy with her 3 year old in tow. “Billy has a cough, so the doctor gave me a prescription for him,” she said as she handed the pharmacist the piece of paper. “Is that what Billy got last year?” she asked. The pharmacist checked Billy’s profile as the boy continued to hack. “No, the medicine he had last year had codeine in it. This new one does not have codeine.” “But his cough is really bad,” said Billy’s mom.
The pharmacist explained to Mrs. Court that even though codeine has been used as both a cough suppressant and an analgesic for many decades, recent information shows that it can cause death in a small but significant pediatric population. In fact, according to a 2016 clinical report from the American Academy of Pediatrics, published just in time for the cough and cold season, healthcare providers and parents should stop giving codeine to children. Why the sudden urgency?
Research has revealed that codeine, by itself, is not an active drug and has no ability to stop coughing or pain. Rather, it is changed (metabolized) in the liver to form morphine, a potent opioid. Morphine overdoses cause severe respiratory depression, typically leading to death. So why doesn’t everyone who takes codeine have life-threatening breathing problems? As mentioned, codeine is metabolized into morphine by the liver which then enters the bloodstream. But not all people metabolize codeine at the same rate. Some children are called “ultra-rapid metabolizers” – or URMs – because they transform codeine into morphine at an abnormally high rate, which sends the blood concentration of morphine skyrocketing into toxic levels. Thus, even though the child is getting the proper dose of codeine according to his age and weight, the URMs are essentially getting an overdose of codeine/morphine.
The number of people who are URMs of codeine varies by ethnic group. For example, the percentage of Caucasians and African Americans for whom codeine is dangerous ranges from about 4 to 7 per 100 people. Among Asians and Northern Europeans, approximately 1 or 2 out of 100 are URMs. However, African Ethiopians have the highest rate of dangerous metabolism: 29 out of every 100 people.
Parents and caregivers who observe unusual sleepiness, confusion, or difficult or noisy breathing in their child should stop giving their child codeine and seek medical attention immediately as these are signs of overdose. If a prescriber writes your child a prescription for codeine, make sure the child is getting the lowest effective dose for the shortest period of time and it should be used on an as-needed basis (i.e., not scheduled around the clock). If the dose is, for example, “1 to 1-1/2 teaspoonfuls,” use a calibrated dropper and not a kitchen teaspoon as a dropper is more accurate than a teaspoon. Ask your pharmacist about obtaining a calibrated dropper.
Although there may be more deaths that are unaccounted for, thus far, 3 codeine-related deaths have been documented. Based on the possibility of a larger number of codeine-related deaths in children, groups such as the World Health Organization, the US Food and Drug Administration, and the European Medicines Agency, have released stern warnings regarding the occurrence of codeine’s adverse effects in children. These and other groups have or are considering formally banning the use of codeine for children as either an analgesic or a remedy for cough. Mrs. Court, not wanting to take a chance on placing Billy in danger, had the non-codeine prescription filled.
Ron Gasbarro, PharmD is a registered pharmacist, medical writer, and principal at Rx-Press.com. Visit him at www.rx-press.com.
