The LuLac Edition #507, June 27th, 2008

PHOTO INDEX: SENATOR VINCE FUMO, THE TV SET AS WE USED TO KNOW IT AND OUR 1968 LOGO.

FUMO FAINTS

State Senator Vince Fumo, under indictment and under fire had a spell in the Chambers of the Senate this week. Fumo was taken to a hospital Thursday after he became dizzy and fell down during a session in the chamber. Fellow senators rushed to the aid of the Philadelphia Democrat when he collapsed around 5 p.m. during a long closed-door budget hearing. Paramedics put Fumo on oxygen and wheeled the pale-looking senator out of the chamber in a wheelchair. "The budget's going well," he joked on his way out. Fumo resisted going to the hospital, but paramedics overruled him. Fumo, 65, had surgery for a heart attack in March. "He seemed a lot better after a few minutes," said Senate Democratic Whip Michael O'Pake, D-Berks. O'Pake said Fumo was talking to Sen. Vincent Hughes, D-Philadelphia, when he collapsed. Observers said Fumo complained of feeling lightheaded and dizzy, but did not report feeling any chest pain. Among those helping to tend to the stricken senator before ambulance crews were called was Sen. Pat Vance, R-Cumberland, a registered nurse. Fumo has been a key player in this week's round-the-clock negotiations on the state budget as well as one of the strongest backers of casino gambling and same sex marriage. Senator O'Pake told the Harrisburg Patriot that Fumo looked ashen in a meeting of the Democratic caucus shortly before the incident, and complained that he hadn't been getting any rest. Fumo is to face trial in federal court in September on a battery of corruption charges.

CHANNEL 61

This coming Tuesday, Channel 61, Scranton's public access television channel, will continue under new management. Mayor Chris Doherty said Electric City Television - ECTV -- was chosen from among three contenders to take over the station's programming. Doherty appointed a three-member panel to screen proposals: Thom Welby, advertising consultant for WNEP-TV; Mark Monahan, a former WYOU-TVcameraman; and the Rev. Reginald McClain, of Shiloh Baptist Church. The three applicants for the management contract were: Scranton Today, the current station operator; NEPA Public Access Project; and ECTV. ECTV won the day despite furious public lobbying by long time Scranton Today supporters, most notably Annette Palutis, a former volunteer for WVIA TV in its pioneering days.

1968

After the death of Senator Robert Kennedy, members of his campaign tried to form an alliance with Senator Eugene McCarthy in facing Vice President Hubert Humphrey at the Democratic convention in Chicago. The Kennedy backers finally persuadecd Senator George McGovern to pick up the RFK standard at the convention and allow his name to be placed in nomination for the Presidency.....Meantime President Johnson signed a bill that would put a 10% surcharge on income to help pay for the Vietnam War....Statewide, former Governor Arthur James, a Plymouth native recalled a bill he proposed that would ban fireworks in the state....Wilkes Barre's Model Cities Program was told they would recieve $900,000 in grant money from the feds for its first year action plan...Recent graduates of St. John the Baptist Grade School had a mock convention at the Wyoming Monument and selected Nelson Rockefeller as the GOP nominee and Edward Kennedy as the Democratic nominee. The polling was very unscientific with the winners names being picked out of a straw boater...and the number 1 song in America and LuLac land this week was "Reach Out of the Darkness" by Friend and Lover. Here's the link from YOU TUBE: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eppq4QJgS-Q&feature=related.