Columnists

Bridgewater Twp. – In these days when practically every taxpayer is complaining that "taxes are going up," it is refreshing to find places where they are going down. The Bridgewater township school board has just reduced its annul millage for the current year by three mills. Last year the assessment was 14 mills and this year it is to be 11 mills. Three years ago the Bridgewater school district had a debt of $3,000, but this has been cancelled and the board has money in its treasury. Last year the Babcock school building was remodeled and also an additional teacher engaged, and the directors are keeping up the equipment and personnel of teachers to a high standard. There are eleven school buildings in the township.

Pleasant Valley, Auburn Twp. – Fifteen years ago, about the 20th of April or a few days later, we had a very heavy snowfall. Some of our farmers had oats up three or four inches high, which were completely covered with snow.

Lanesboro – Frank Potter and Myron Melious were engaged in Montrose Wednesday. They came by auto, via Windsor, as the dirt road between Great Bend and Susquehanna is badly rutted and muddy.

Dimock – A very serious accident occurred here last week in which Mrs. James Greenwood was severely injured while doing a washing by gasoline motor power. The supply of gasoline was running low, so she did as she had done many times before, filled the tank from a can in her hands while the engine was running. In some unknown manner, something ignited, causing the tank in her hands to explode. Mrs. Greenwood was painfully burned over the entire face, neck and one arm and must have inhaled some of the flames as her tongue was badly burned. She was the bravest kind of a woman, as despite the intense agony that she was suffering, she managed to save the home by putting out the fire, unaided, which was raging through the whole room. She fought the flames with water and wet clothes from the wash after having saved herself by wrapping the wet things around her body. Dr. Gardner treated her but she is yet in a serious condition.

East Rush – The rain of Sunday afternoon disappointed a good many of our people by keeping them away from our preaching services.

Great Bend – J.F. McCormick, of Binghamton, was in Montrose on business connected with a real estate transaction, in which he sells the Central Hotel, in Great Bend, to Jas. McHale, a former clerk at Hotel Donovan, making in exchange an apartment house in Binghamton. The Central House was conducted by Mr. McCormick for several years. We understand that Mr. McHale will take possession at once.

Montrose – Mrs. Charles R. Sayre returns from Philadelphia next week and will make preparations for opening "Rosemont Inn" for the summer season. Her daughter, Miss Peggy Sayre, will remain in Philadelphia with Mrs. S. Calvin Smith, until the close of her school.

Brookdale – There were four cases of measles at J. Johnson's, four at Alfred Williams' and four at Geo. Travis' last week.

South Ararat – Several from here attended the Grange Aid and wood-bee held at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Clayton Bowell, on Wednesday, and the ladies tied off a quilt for Mrs. Bowell. A good time was reported and a nice day for such an occasion.

Gibson – Miller Potter, for former Gibson boy, who enlisted three years ago as a United States Marine, going to Port Au Prince, Republic of Haiti, finished his term last December, and returned to the States. He came east and has been renewing acquaintances in this county, namely Leon Potter and his life long friend, Mrs. L.O. Baldwin. ALSO At South Gibson a disastrous fire occurred on the farm of Mrs. Mary Holmes, a short distance from this place, resulting in the total destruction of a large barn and adjoining buildings. F.F. Resseguie occupied the farm and sustained a heavy loss of all his farm machinery, a large quantity of hay and two cows. The fire originated where a lot of furniture was stored.

Kingsley – Orin Wagner has purchased a new Maxwell coupe and W.E. Capron, a new Maxwell touring car. ALSO Redmond McCarthy has enlarged his lunch room on the trail and is now open to accommodate summer tourists.

Hallstead – Just received, a carload of horses for sale or exchange: workers, drivers, saddlers and general-purpose horses, by J.C. Florance.

Forest City – Joseph Moroski, a candidate for first base honors on the Binghamton team of the New York and Pennsylvania baseball league, spent Sunday at his home here. He reported on the 15th but owing to bad weather, has not practiced. ALSO The Senior class of the Forest City high school will hold their annual dance in the borough hall. They have secured the Saxons, vaudeville artists, a strong combination, and those who attend may be assured of an exceptionally pleasant time.

Herrick Center – A contest is going on between two teams of pupils chosen from the High school and seventh and eighth grades, in obtaining subscriptions for the "Country Gentleman." To the boy and girl who obtain the most subscriptions, fountain pens will be given. The losing team will probably treat.

News Briefs: Mary E. LaBar, aged 99, of Stroudsburg, is the oldest woman in the state to apply for a fishing license this spring. She is said to be as active as a woman of 75 and really enjoys the sport. ALSO Susquehanna County is to have a Child Welfare Clinic. Monday, Miss Florentine Hackbusch, of Harrisburg, spent the day here and held a meeting in the Red Cross rooms, where she explained the work this clinic hopes to do. The first clinic will be held in the Red Cross rooms May 26th. ALSO A transit of Mercury across the sun's disc will take place on May 7, from 4:30 to sunset. It will be visible only with telescope or field glass, viewed through smoked glass.

Daniel Goodwyn is 35 years of age and lives in Corinth, Texas. On January 6, 2021, Godwyn was part of the demonstration on the Capitol grounds in Washington, DC. Godwyn contended that he attended the event as a citizen journalist for an organization known as StopHate.com. At 3:32pm, Goodwyn entered the Capitol building and was caught on surveillance tapes spending between 36 seconds up to a few minutes (the time frame appears to be contested) inside the Capitol building.

As a result, Goodwyn was charged with a variety of federal offenses, including obstructing an official proceeding, entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds, disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds, disorderly conduct in a Capitol building, and parading, demonstrating or picketing in a Capitol building. Goodwyn did not immediately make bail but spent 3 weeks in pretrial detention and was thereafter placed on pretrial home detention pending trial, and he then ended up spending 13 months detained in his home awaiting resolution of his case. Eventually, he entered a guilty plea to a one count of a misdemeanor offense related to entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds without lawful authority.

At the time of his sentencing, Goodwyn's counsel advocated for no further jail time given that he had been confined to his home for 13 months – and that was longer than the potential maximum sentence for the offense for which he pled guilty, which had a maximum of only one year of incarceration. The prosecution sought a sentence of 90 days because it contended that prior to entering the Capitol building, Goodwyn was using a bullhorn outside of the Capitol building to incite the crowd. The prosecution also requested a fine in the amount of $25,676, an odd number, but the prosecution discovered that people had donated that amount of money to Goodwyn to assist with his legal fees – and the prosecution wanted those donations effectively confiscated.

The sentencing judge sentenced Goodwyn to a period of incarceration of 60 days, followed by a year of supervised release, and only provided Goodwyn with credit for the three weeks spent in pretrial custody but no credit was provided for the 13 months of pretrial home detention. Despite the prosecution's confiscatory request, the sentencing judge ordered Goodwyn to only pay a fine of $2,500.  As to his supervisory conditions, however, the sentencing judge ordered Goodwyn's probation officer to periodically monitor and check Godwyn's computer to determine whether it contained "disinformation." Huh?

Goodwin filed an appeal, and the Court of Appeals reversed the "disinformation" monitoring condition in a per curiam order, which means that all three appellate judges agreed but no one judge signed the order itself. In reversing the trial judge, the Court of Appeal stated: "The district court plainly erred in imposing the computer-monitoring condition without considering whether it was reasonably related to the relevant sentencing factors and involved no greater deprivation of liberty than is reasonably necessary to achieve the purposes behind sentencing. If the district court decides on remand to impose a new computer monitoring condition, it should explain its reasoning, develop the record in support of its decision, and ensure that the condition accords with . . . constitutional protections."

Thus, the case was sent back to the sentencing judge with direction to comply with the law if the sentencing judge intended to include a "computer-monitoring" provision in Goodwyn's sentence. Remember that Goodwyn pled guilty to a trespassing offense – not an offense that had any relationship with his use of a computer or even an offense related to spreading "disinformation." When a criminal defendant is sentenced, any condition imposed as part of any supervision must be rationally related to the criminal conduct for which a defendant has been convicted. Monitoring the computer of a person who committed a trespassing offense seems a bit far afield of the underlying criminal conduct.

Even setting that aside, the next constitutional hurdle will be the First Amendment – and how does a supervising probation officer identify "disinformation" or differentiate between regular information and "disinformation." To meet constitutional muster, the sentencing court would have to provide some kind of definition to the defendant as to what constituted "disinformation" so that both the defendant and the probation officer have a clear understanding as to what the defendant could or could not have on his computer – or disseminate with his computer. Simply because Goodwyn has been convicted of a misdemeanor trespassing offense, it does not extinguish his First Amendment freedoms. If the sentencing court seeks to restrict Goodwyn's free speech rights, it will have to explain how those restrictions are related to his trespassing on the Capitol grounds and define clearly what Goodwyn can and cannot say without violating his supervision. Goodwyn will have to wait to see if the sentencing court takes another stab at limiting his ability to spread "disinformation," and, if so, another appeal will likely follow.

One of my favorite memories from Kindergarten is the day we had a teddy bear picnic! The tradition got its start with an adorable song from the turn of the century. Later it would be adapted into a children's song and recorded by many famous crooners including Rosemary Cloony, Bing Crosby, and Jerry Garcia. How's that for range!

When my delightful Kindergarten teacher introduced the teddy bear picnic, I had one problem. Out of the mountain of stuffed animals I owned at the time, I had no bears! But one day I came home from school to find a bear as big as my 5-year-old self sitting on my bed. Mom and Dad were not going to let me be the only kid in class with no teddy. We all brought our bears to school one day and had a party instead of the Three Rs. I transported my teddy in two plastic grocery bags so he wouldn't get messy on the bus. Ah memories!

With my own kids, we've had a different experience with events like this. Since we homeschool, picnics on random nice days and stuffed animals accompanying us everywhere has been the norm for us. I love when the weather finally breaks in the Spring and we head to the park or the trail. But there have also been times when we have intentionally crafted this kind of fun experience to make fun memories.

I thought it would be fun to share a step-by-step guide to hosting a Teddy Bear Picnic for your little trailblazers this Spring or Summer. My kids are getting big now, and I'd love for other families to make the same sort of sweet memories that we enjoy.

First pick a suitable location. You can choose a park or a place along a trail where there are picnic tables, an open space, or boulders to sit on. I know that near us on the D&H Rail Trail there are some lovely spots with picnic tables or benches where you can see the water. Several spots also have trash cans so you won't have to carry your trash out.

Get your hands on that pic-a-nic basket, yaa-aa-eeeh! Eh, BooBoo! Seriously, pack and actual basket. It will be fun and set the mood. You can keep it simple with fruit, cheese and crackers, PB&J sandwiches and juice pouches. Teddy Grahams are a nice touch. A tablecloth with the classic gingham pattern will complete the scene.

To extend your picnicking time, have each child bring a book about bears to read to the group. Some of our favorites include Where's My Teddy by Jez Alborough and We're Going on a Bear Hunt by Michael Rosen and Helen Oxenbury. But there are tons of options including a few specifically about teddy bear picnics.

I hope these ideas and tips help you to have a wonderful teddy bear picnic with your little ones. It could be a great way to kick off your summer break. If you hike to a spot for your picnic, remember to have a pack with all the hiking basics such as first aid, bug spray, and sunscreen.

Good day dear hearts, I love you. Last week we left off speaking of false prophets. In our world the false teacher is the one who tells us there are many ways to eternal life, that there are many ways to heaven and all that one needs to do is live a good life, whatever that means. That one has a belief in a higher power, again whatever that means.

Here we pick up in the second half of Matthew chapter 24 where Jesus gets into the meat of His Discourse. He tells the people, "like a flash of lightning you will see the Son of Man." He describes some of the events that will occur, and those events have been happening for some time now, including the abominations we witness every day that we are told are going to get worse before we see Jesus coming out of the clouds in His glory. Jesus' last words in chapter 24 are, "Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away." In other words, heaven and earth will pass away and we are told, in the book of Revelation, there will be a new city of Jerusalem coming down from heaven and God will live with us.

In the remaining part of chapter 24 and all of chapter 25 Jesus speaks to us about being watchful and ready. He tells us only the Father knows when the time of the Second Coming will arrive. Jesus explains it like the people in the days of Noah who were too busy partying and were not prepared for the flood, so will many people not be aware of the return of Jesus. He touches a little on the rapture in vs. 40-41 where he talks about two men working in a field when one will be taken the other left behind. He continues to speak of two women grinding with a hand mill; one will be taken away, the other left behind. According to the book of Revelation, the ones left behind are the non-believers. All will be given the opportunity to be saved, but many choose to go against God and pay a mighty price.

Christ's second coming will be swift and sudden. There will be no opportunity for last-minute repentance or bargaining. The choice we will have already made will be our eternal destiny. Jesus' purpose in talking about His return is not to stimulate calculations and predictions about the date, but to warn us and be prepared. Will you be ready?

In chapter 25 are all the words of Jesus. He starts off with 2 parables. The first, Jesus tells the parables of the Ten Virgins. Space doesn't allow a detailed account of things but here is the long and short of it. Take the time to read chapter 25 again. The ten virgins were waiting to join the procession and they hoped to take part in the wedding banquet. But when the groom didn't come at the expected time, five of them were out of lamp oil. By the time they had purchased extra oil, it was too late to join the feast. When Jesus returns to bring His people to heaven, we must be ready. Spiritual preparation cannot be bought or borrowed at the last minute. Our relationship with God must be on our own. The second parable, titled the Parable of the Loaned Money, teaches us that the talents spoken of here are any kind of resource God has given us. God gives us time, gifts of talent and other resources according to our ability, and He expects us to wisely use them until He returns. We are responsible to use well what God has given us. God wants us to use these gifts to glorify Him, not glorify us.

Jesus finishes His Discourse in chapter 25, using the parable of the sheep and the goats. Sheep and goats often grazed together but they are separated from the flock when it comes time to shear the sheep. God will separate His obedient followers from the pretenders and the unbeliever. The real evidence of our belief is the way we act. To treat all we encounter as if they are Jesus is no easy task. What we do for others demonstrates what we really think about Jesus' words to us, feed the hungry, look after the sick and so forth. Let's slow it down for a minute, am I saying it is works that will give us salvation? No way! What I'm saying is it is our faith in God, our desire to follow Jesus which gives us the desire, not the require to do the things of God.

The last Words of Jesus in His Discourse are, "Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life." The Second Coming will be the final and eternal state of the wicked after the resurrection and the final judgement. Conversely, for the believer this time brings joy and eternal life. The Olivet Discourse is the culmination of thousands of years of prophecies, works and miracles to give us God's truth. God Bless.

Join us Sunday, May 19th starting at 10:00am with a "Biker's" Worship service followed by a free BBQ. Lord, watch over our community. Bless our children. Heal the sick and broken-hearted. Let your Spirit hover over our community. Amen.

Contact me anytime. Pastor Vince Chiaramonte, 570-853-3988, Susquehanna Christian Community Church, 1361 Main Street, or email clearmountain2158@gmail.