Susquehanna – An alleged German spy was arrested Tuesday morning by Sergeant Carlson, of the State Constabulary.  He was given a hearing before U. S commissioner W. A. Skinner, who deemed the evidence against him sufficient to hold him for a court martial by the military authorities, considering it a case for the military, rather than the civil authorities.  The prisoner was well-dressed and intelligent, and for several days had been in Susquehanna securing orders from physicians for tabloid medicines.  His actions attracted the attention of the State Constabulary, who watched him.  An examination of his personal effects revealed 16 notebooks, written in various languages and dialects, and several loose leaf maps.  In his defense he said it was a diversion with him to study the different languages and sciences, and alleged that he could speak twelve different tongues and read a number of others.  He was extremely loud in his loyalty to the “old flag,” and claimed to be of pure American birth and origin.  He has been held for a hearing before the U. S. attorney, pending further investigation.  Meanwhile, in Montrose, another “German spy,” who left a Maxwell runabout at Burch & Baxter’s garage, about a month ago, stating he would later return for it. The firm has written to Wisconsin authorities asking about its ownership.  The car bears a Wisconsin license, granted for a 3 year period.  The driver, who spoke with a German accent and aroused the suspicion of the garage men, has never appeared to claim the machine.

Hop Bottom – Mrs. Rozetta Carpenter celebrated her 89th birthday on Sunday.  A daughter, Mrs. Morris, of Niagara Falls, and a son, W. E. Carpenter, of New Milford, joined the relatives in a dinner in her honor on that day. ALSO The men are organizing a company for military drill, known as the Home Defense Guards.

Bennett’s Corners, Auburn Twp. – Barney Reilly is home from Wilkes-Barre on a sick leave, and surprised his family by bringing a Victrola and a fine lot of up-to-date records. ALSO Our schools will soon close and then the children will help in the gardens and go fishing.  You ought to hear the calculations they are making now.

Little Meadows Boro. – The following stores are to be found in the borough: J. J. Bergen, General Merchandise; J. E. Hickey, General Merchandise; Geo. P. McCrossin, Cigars; and F. Palmer & Son, Feed.

Forest City/Uniondale – Rev. Jacob Gassman, of the congregation of B’nai, Scranton, and Herman Mintz, a meat dealer of Scranton, jumped from a Ford truck as a train bore down upon them last Tuesday evening of last week, on the Stillwater crossing of the Erie railroad between Uniondale and Forest City.  The Ford was smashed to fragments and scattered along the track for several hundred feet.  Mintz and the rabbi were returning from Uniondale where Mintz had gone to slaughter calves to take home.  The powerful headlight of the engine was seen and Mintz had nothing to do but to jump.  He and the rabbi cleared the track just as the crash came.  They were picked up by the train crew and brought to Forest City. From here they were proceeded by street car.

Montrose – Evangelist John Davis, of Binghamton, has traded his residence for S. G. Fancher’s home on Church Street and will soon remove here, where he will make his permanent home.  Mr. Fancher will move to Binghamton and will have personal charge of a large garage with automobile sales, repair and other departments.  A large building is now being erected for this purpose.  Mr. Davis comes to Montrose believing his health will be improved here.

Rush – W. T. Deuel has gone to Kansas where he will reside with his sons, Charles in Concordia and R. C. in Fowler.  Mr. Deuel has four sons in the west and they have all been very successful. R. C. had a wheat crop of 5000 bushels in 1916 and 7000 the year previous.  Mr. Deuel says he cleared $1000 a year on his farm in Rush during the Civil War period. He is now 87 years of age.

Dimock – Mrs. Alma Wanick, who is getting along in years, seems to be a busy woman, weaving carpets, rugs and cloth. Her loom can be heard daily, working from early morning till late at night.

Great Bend –Mrs. Grace Tallon, who has been employed in the office of the Great Bend Plaindealer for the past two years, has resigned and on the first of May will take charge of the Bell Telephone exchange in Hallstead.

Thompson – Bruce Brown, a well-known young farmer and mail carrier, was seriously injured recently while operating a stationary gasoline engine at the barn.  His coat was caught in a rapidly revolving belt and he was violently thrown to the floor, sustaining a fractured leg at the knee joint and many severe bruises.  Fortunately his clothing gave way and he was thus saved from what might have been a terrible death.

Fair Hill, Forest Lake Township – Wm. Valentine is so he can sit up a short time.  The friends and neighbors turned out and cut some wood for him last Wednesday and he extends them his sincere thanks. Frank McKeeby is helping to get his oats sowed.

Deaths of Two Civil War Veterans – Calvin Lincoln, a veteran of the Civil War [Corp. Co, H, 143rd Regiment, PA Volunteers] and a well-known resident of Forest Lake, died at the home of his son, Alva Lincoln, in Pritchard, NY.  The body arrived in Montrose on Tuesday and was taken to Forest Lake for the funeral and interment. M. B. Washburn, aged 81 years, died at the home of his daughter, in Elmira, NY, on April 18, 1917.  Mr. Washburn was a former prominent citizen of Lakeview, Jackson township, where he conducted extensive milling operations for some years. He was a veteran of the Civil War [Pvt. Co. F, Battery M, Second Heavy Artillery, 1862-1865.]  Besides his daughter, one son survives, John Washburn, of Susquehanna. The funeral was held in Elmira on Saturday.

News Brief: A call to the owners of Ford cars has been extended in New York state to mobilize for the defense of the country.  It is said that there are 100,000 Fords owned within a radius of 15 miles of the city hall, New York city, while in the state there are 150,000 more.  It is estimated that in the state there are sufficient cars to transport an army of 1,000,000 men, if all could be mobilized.  In the nation there are 1,750,000 cars, which would be capable of transporting 7,000,000 troops.  The plan of the club is to organize several thousand cars in New York city into the Ford Automobile Machine Gun Corps, making a “flying” machine gun organization which will be ready at any and all times to proceed full speed anywhere directed.

200 Years Ago Today, from the Centinel, Montrose, Pa., April 26, 1817.

*A CALL IN EARNEST!  The subscriber is about to close business in the Tavern keeping line, therefore ALL persons indebted to him must settle by the 15th of next month if they wish to save cost. Daniel Curtis, Montrose, April 25, 1817.

*Be Cautious! All persons are hereby cautioned against letting their cattle, sheep or swine run at large this season, if they are in the least given to eat their neighbor’s crops; as I shall lacerate the owners of all creatures, with a rod thoroughly pickled in the LAW, that trespass on the enclosure of D. Scott, Esq., near this place. RUFUS BOWMAN, Montrose, April 25, 1817.

*Duel! – Two men lately fought a duel with rifles, in the interior of the state of New York, at the distance of 75 paces.  At the first fire one of them fell; but he is likely to recover from the effect of the shot, thro’ the assistance of a skillful Tailor—the wound being only through his pantaloons.  The deserving tailor has done, what we had almost despaired of seeing effected; he has mended the HABIT of a Duelist!

A Pennsylvania Uniform Transfer to Minors Act (PUTMA) account is designed to be an easy and inexpensive tool to give property to a minor.  While the monies in the account belong to the child, there is an adult custodian names to the account.  The custodian acts as fiduciary and may only use the money for the benefit of the child.  A PUTMA account custodian may not use the funds for personal benefit.

A recent Superior Court case provides a good example of the limitations on the use of PUTMA account funds.  In that case, Father and Mother created two PUTMA accounts for their two daughters with $125,000 being deposited into each account.  Mother was named as the custodian of each PUTMA account.  Thereafter, the Father and Mother separated. Mother went to the bank and withdrew the funds from the two PUTMA accounts, totaling $252,688.90, and placed the funds into a bank account in her name.  Mother then used the children’s PUTMA monies to purchase a new residence for her and the children.

In August 2013, three years after Mother had purchased the new residence, the children sued Mother for misappropriating for her own personal use their $252,688.90 from their PUTMA accounts.  Mother had just sold the residence for $507,000 – and the trial court ruled in favor of the children and ordered that Mother turn over the entirety of the $507,000 in sale proceeds to her children.  The trial court refused to order Mother to pay her children’s attorney fees.  Both Mother and the children filed an appeal.

Mother argued that the children suffered no damages – the PUTMA monies were secured by the residence itself.  Mother had no objection to returning the principal amount to the children ($252,000) plus some reasonable rate of return, but contended that awarding them all of the sale proceeds was unreasonable.  Mother also pointed to evidence that she had also invested her own monies into the residence to improve it – and thereby increase its market value as demonstrated by the sales price.  Moreover, Mother argued that she did not violate her fiduciary duties because the home had been purchased to benefit the children and provide them a better living environment.

The Superior Court rejected Mother’s arguments, noting that she placed the new residence in her name – not in her children’s name with her as the custodian of the PUTMA asset.  The Superior Court also found that the children had been injured by Mother’s conduct because they were attending college and had been unable to access their PUTMA funds because Mother had them tied up in the residence.  The children also lost the use of their monies for an extended period of time while the litigation over the monies slowly progressed.  Thus, the Superior Court concluded that Mother had violated her fiduciary duty.

As to the amount of damages, the Superior Court rejected Mother’s claim that she had used her own personal funds as well to improve the residence.  The Superior Court noted that it was Mother’s responsibility to keep the PUTMA monies separate from her own monies.  The record also failed to demonstrate what monies Mother used to improve the residence and how those commingled funds had enhanced the value of the residence.  As such, the Superior Court determined that the trial court had properly awarded the children the sale proceeds of $507,000 as damages for Mother’s breach of her fiduciary duties.

As to the children’s appeal that Mother should have paid their attorney fees, the Superior Court again agreed with the trial court and refused to award attorney fees.  The Superior Court determined that Mother’s conduct was not sufficiently “egregious” to support an award of attorney fees.  Moreover, the Superior Court noted that the award of $507,000 constituted an amount twice the amount of the PUTMA monies utilized by Mother three years earlier – and that this award of damage provided the children with a substantial return from the investment of their PUTMA monies.  The damages award was more than sufficient to compensate the children for Mother’s breach without the need to require her to pay the children’s attorney fees.

Can you pray the gray away?

Linda, 25, came into the pharmacy very upset. She bent down her head to show the pharmacist some her hair. “Look! Gray hair! None of my friends have gotten gray hair! Our next door neighbor is 60 and he does not have gray hair. I am going prematurely gray like my mom!” she lamented. The pigment in hair, as well as in the skin, is called melanin. As we age, less melanin is produced in the hair follicles, which translates into less color and more unpigmented hair. Eventually, there is no color left and we experience a whole head of gray, white, or silver hair. The original color never returns.  

One’s genetic makeup controls this lack of melanin and when it starts to disappear. That means, as in Linda’s case, members of a family can pass prematurely graying hair down through the generations. A Caucasian is considered to be prematurely gray if his or her hair starts to lose color by age 20; gray before 30 is early for African-Americans and Asians. And even though gray hair is considered a badge of honor in many cultures, a prematurely graying mane is an important cause of low self-esteem, often eroding the person’s acceptance of age. That’s why God (and Lady Clairol) invented hair dye.

Can graying hair tell you about your health?  Research presented at the recent EuroPrevent 2017 event links premature gray hair to a heightened risk of heart disease in men. This is not to say that every man who has gray hair is at risk of a heart attack. Yet it seems as though the graying of hair and atherosclerosis have similar mechanisms like oxidative stress, senescence of functional cells, DNA repair, hormonal changes and inflammation. Additional research is necessary to determine the cutaneous signs of risk – such as changes in hair and skin – that could help medical professionals take preventative action early in the cardiovascular disease process.

One study has shown that prematurely graying hair has been linked to hearing loss. Fifty patients with prematurely graying hair (20 women and 30 men), aged under 40 years, who had an onset of hair graying in their 20s were recruited into this study. The results revealed that they experienced hearing loss at higher frequencies, such as those produced by doorbells and telephones. Such people may find that they cannot hear a waitress in a noisy restaurant or someone speaking to them at a large party.

But generally, gray hair is a symbol of maturity which (should be) coupled with wisdom and strength. Watch out, however, because gray is becoming the new black. More young mothers, professionals, and even runway models are opting to "go gray," says Diana Jewell, author of Going Gray, Looking Great.

"The myth that gray hair makes you old is just that – a myth. If you were young, vibrant, active, healthy pre-gray, you're still going to be that way. It's all in the attitude you bring to it," Jewell says. "If you think of it as merely another color choice, you won't be afraid of gray." Linda felt somewhat better about her graying hair. She says she will dye it but will watch out for the other physical problems that may go along with prematurely graying hair.

Ron Gasbarro, PharmD, is a registered pharmacist, medical writer, and principal at Rx-Press.com. Read more at www.rx-press.com

Are you a "complacent?" A recent behavioral study indicates nearly four out of five people (78.5%) are. So how were the non-complacents classified in this study? "Always-takers" was their term for 19.5% of study participants; and just 2% fell into the category of "never-takers."

At this point the reader has to be wondering just what I'm talking about. I'll get there in a moment, but let me set the table first. On Tuesday, April 4th 2017, I had the opportunity to meet with Senator Lisa Baker's (20th Senatorial District) Caseworker, Tom Yoniski, field representative for the western portion of the District. For a full hour Mr. Yoniski and I discussed the problems associated with smart meters, as well as what I saw as the Pennsylvania PUC's usurpation of authority from the General Assembly.

I provided Mr. Yoniski with a large binder of documentation on the health risks and dangers associated with non-thermal non-ionizing radiation, RF, ELF, Micro-Wave, and electromagnetic fields (EMF) in general. I noted the thousands of studies which are publicly available, as well as the strongly suggested epidemiological link between EMF and the diseases of civilization, including cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and suicide.

Aside from the PUC's authority usurpation and the health risks of smart meters, I explained the certainty of privacy invasion for the purpose of data monetization and behavior modification (control). Those last points are where this story picks up. Mr. Yoniski and I had a great give-and-take in our intellectual sparring. He listened to me very politely at all times. Mr. Yoniski asked me why everything should be upended to accommodate me and the minority who were likewise concerned about the privacy, safety, and health concerns of smart meters.

I replied to him that I wasn't asking anyone else to give up their smart meter-if they wanted one, and had had the opportunity to make an informed choice; all that I wanted was for each rate-payer to have the opportunity to say "NO," and not to be penalized by a coercive technocracy that has infinitely less interest in my well-being than do I.

As I drove home from the meeting I looked at the meters attached to every residence. So far as I could see from street level everyone else had permitted a smart meter to be retrofitted to their home. I wondered why there had not been at least a sprinkling of others who thought as I did, and had acted vigorously to head off Penelec and Penelec's contractor, Wellington.

TECHNOCRACY HISTORY

I began my research online, and it was there that I found my answer. The Department of Energy (DOE) has been studying us; you and I, my friend, are all part of one giant science experiment. The technocratic movement began as early in 1932. Its goal has always been to consign our Constitution to obsolescence and install scientism as the governing principle worldwide. The G. W. Bush Administration gave technocracy a big boost with Public Law 109-58 of August 8, 2005, specifically Section 1252, Smart Metering.

From that federal law sprang an (illegal and unconstitutional) mandate dictating to the sovereign states that they were REQUIRED to devise plans for energy conservation and efficiencies, and OFFER (not mandate) smart meters to electric customers. Pennsylvania's General Assembly responded by passing Act 129 of October 15, 2008, which mandated, in part, that electric customers be OFFERED smart meters, and customers who wanted them must pay for them, thus creating an opt-in smart meter law [Section 2807 (f)7(2)(1)] with no opt-out language necessary.

The PA PUC has since admitted in legal proceedings that it mandated all ratepayers of the seven largest Electric Distribution Companies (EDC) ACCEPT smart meters. It has since been admitted (claimed) by PA Public Utility Commission Office of Communications' Dave Hixson, "... the Commission believes that it was the intent of the General Assembly to require all covered electric companies to deploy smart meters system-wide. Thus, the Commission continues to ensure that electric utilities implement the universal installation of smart meter technology in a manner that meets the intent of the General Assembly."

PA Public Utility Commission Office of Communications' Dave Hixson's claim of attributing intent of the General Assembly, even in contradiction to the plain meaning of the words in Act 129 and the bill's legislative history, puts it in opposition to well established precedent under both federal and state law that administrative agencies are creatures of statute and may not establish regulations outside the boundaries established by the legislature.

On October 27, 2009, the Obama administration unveiled its Smart Grid plan by awarding billions of dollars to 100 Smart Grid projects. In subsequent years billions more taxpayer dollars were sent to the states to "bribe" (my word, not theirs) them into implementing coercive policies for deployment of Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI). A multiplicity of reasons underlies the subsidization of the Smart Grid. The public is regularly told how good this-or anything 'smart'-is for them. Strangely-or perhaps not-they are told neither about the nefarious motives of the favored elites who are profiting handsomely, nor about the adverse health risks to which they are being subjected unwittingly.

BEHAVIORAL STUDIES

For the governing elite, installation of smart meters and AMI-paid for by all ratepayers, incidentally-has to be rushed before public opposition can reach critical mass. To that end, the Smart Grid Investment Grant Program (SGIG) and the DOE partnered with at least 10 utilities to conduct consumer behavior studies (CBS). The stated purpose of these studies was to estimate customer acceptance, retention, and response more precisely.

The studies done by these 10 utilities were essentially conducted to test one or more of these variations of pricing made possible by smart meter deployment: time-of-use (TOU), critical peak pricing (CPP), critical peak rebates (CPR), and variable peak pricing (VPP). Mechanical (analog) meters simply measure the amount of electricity used, and a rate-payer responds by paying the price per kilowatt hour.

Smart meters and AMI, on the other hand, bequeath utilities with an array of pricing schemes. That is the best outcome in the eyes of the utilities and state Public Utility Commissions, often under regulatory capture. Pricing schemes confer profitability by way of consumer data monetization sold to third parties, as well as monetization of alternative energy credits (AEC, i.e., carbon credits). Which pricing scheme is most profitable, and how it is to be imposed, is a matter for determination through consumer behavior studies.

My comments from this point are extrapolated from one particular study-by SMUD (Sacramento Municipal Utility District). SMUD's particular study related to a survey of time-of-use (TOU) pricing for electricity. That study is the one I referenced at the beginning of this article. I'm not really going to plow into the TOU, except to relate it to acceptance of smart meters. I posit rate-payers' responses to TOU pricing surveys is largely analogous to smart meter acceptance, except in Pennsylvania "Never-takers" are probably even smaller than 2% because residents are fed the narrative one CANNOT refuse to have a smart meter, nor have utility customers been given factual informed consent information regarding the adverse health effects of non-thermal radiation waves coming off AMI smart meters and the two-way ZigBee radios in them. Those sinusoidal waves travel over electrical wires in house walls and radiate out.

Here are three categories of electric customers-think in terms of Smart Meter acceptance:

- Never-takers: the set of customers who would not opt in to have a smart meter, and would actively opt out when a smart meter is the utility's default offer;

- Always-takers: the set of customers who would actively opt in for a smart meter; and would not actively opt out when the smart meter is the utility's default offer;

- Complacents: the set of customers who would not actively opt in to have a smart meter, but would not actively opt out when a smart meter is offered as the default offer.

What can be inferred is there is only a small (approximately 2%) population who are strongly opposed to smart meters, and who cannot be co-opted into voluntarily accepting them no matter what incentive the utility offers. Numerous studies confirm more and more individuals globally are becoming EMF sensitive, i.e., electromagnetic hypersensitivity (EHS) medically known as idiopathic electromagnetic intolerance (IEI). These people suffer sever adverse health symptoms from AMI smart meters. Their health needs must be addressed properly by utilities and public utility commissions. It can likewise be inferred that there is a substantial group-still a minority-who will seek to maximize advantage, whether financial or ideological, and actively "get with the program."

Where SMUD's behavioral study really gets interesting is the close look it takes at Complacents, the people who make up nearly 80% of the population. Because Complacents make up such a large segment of the population, utilities recognize participation in any program, be it smart meter deployment or TOU pricing, Complacents are largely unlikely to resist the flow. Why they rarely resist principally include these reasons:

(1) Complacents may have decided early in this process it wasn't worth the mental energy and time to carefully analyze all the material sent by the utility. In the limited time Complacents look at whatever the issue, they realize they are basically indifferent. They lack sufficient motivation to opt out, even if they may not have understood many of the details.

(2) A second subset of Complacents may have perused information sufficiently to know they don't like the program, but it wasn't worth the time and effort to opt out.

(3) A third subset of Complacents may not be engaged enough to read and understand what is going on. In effect they don't have an awareness of what's going on.

IMPACTS

Understanding the Complacents makes it comprehensible why society ends up where it does on a broad range of issues. The Always-takers demonstrably DO save significantly on their electric bills when TOU pricing is put into place, and customers conform their electric-usage behavior to the utility's wishes. Unfortunately, the Complacents make out significantly less well under TOU pricing. Some Complacents will save money because they ultimately do align some of their electric usage to the utility's diktats. But for a significant subset of Complacents-many elderly or lower income-their obliviousness, unwillingness or inability to change habits works against them. Remember, TOU pricing can only happen under a regime of smart meters; analog (mechanical) meters simply provide bulk measurement of electric usage on a monthly basis. TOU ultimately may be more of a headache than Complacents bargained for due to rules which need to be followed, e.g., probably doing laundry or running the dishwasher at 2 a.m. to get the better pricing 'deal'.

Readers looking for more information on the DOE's utility studies should go online to www.smartgrid.gov, and the subject area of Recovery Act Smart Grid Programs. The SMUD utility study is referenced as follows, "Cappers, P., Time-of-Use as a Default Rate for Residential Customers: Issues and Insights. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, LBNL-1005704.

To Mr. Yoniski's question about why the General Assembly should take another look at smart meters and the smart grid, I would suggest there are some very good reasons. Not only do smart meters do harm to Never-takers who absolutely do not want them, but smart meters will hurt a very significant segment of Complacents who lack motivation, capacity, or flexibility to cope with the TOU pricing structures certain to descend some day.

Wake up Pennsylvania. Legislative complacency is rampant; your complacency could severely impact you or those you love. Some form of TOU will be imposed if only because smart meters make such a pricing structure possible. Smart meters are "mandated" only insofar as the general public's opposition has been neutralized and discounted. When everyone is silenced, only tyranny will reign.