The LuLac Edition #1808, October 23rd, 2011

L.A. Tarone and Wilkes Barre Mayor Tom Leighton.


Retired Coast Guard Lt. Bill Shaffer, current Vice President of the NE PA Coast Guard Veteran's Association, Wil Toole and Neil Morrison Coast Guard veteran and Association President.

LEIGHTON ON TARONE

Wilkes Barre Mayor Tom Leighton will be L.A. Tarone’s guest today at 1PM on WILK’s “L.A. Tarone” program. Leighton agreed to be on the Sunday Tarone show. WILK can be heard on AM frequencies 910, 980, 1300 and FM 103.1.

WB MAYOR DEBATE SET

The Times Leader is sponsoring a Mayoral Candidate Forum featuring the three candidates running for Mayor of the City of Wilkes-Barre: Tom Leighton, incumbent Democrat; Lisa Cope, Republican; Betsy Summers, Libertarian. Kevin Blaum, former state representative and current Times Leader columnist, will serve as moderator.
Audience members can submit questions to ask the candidates. I’m glad to hear that all three candidates agreed to the Debate/Forum. Mayor Leighton said he would be available when asked the question at an October 11th city event. On Corbett, GOP candidate Lisa Cope gave the impression that debating Leighton was okay but not necessarily with Libertarian Betsy Summers. Various news organizations tried to put an event together but that did not get off the launch pad. The format where audience members ask questions will cut down on the audience members trying to be the stars of the event. Moderator Kevin Blaum, I assume will have some type of control over what is being asked and I don’t have a problem with that. The guy most happy about this is Libertarian party chief Lou Jasikoff who has been pushing hard for a debate. The forum will be held Wednesday, Oct. 26th at 7 p.m. at Wilkes University, Stark Learning Center, Room 101. Parking is available at Henry Student Center on the campus.

BETTER LATE THAN…….

Military Medals Arrive 46 Years After Discharge
Forty six years after discharge from four years of active duty with the US Coast Guard, Wil Toole has finally received the medals he earned while on active duty.
The US Coast Guard office of Military Personnel, Medals and Awards has issued a corrected form DD 215 which corrects the normal discharge form DD 214 to include authorization of the following medals and ribbons. The Navy Expeditionary Medal, The Coast Guard "E" Medal, the Good Conduct Medal, The Coast Guard Sea Service Medal and the National Defense Medal. US Senator Robert Casey has written Wil and advised him that there is action pending in Congress to authorize the Cold War Victory Medal and it is expected that the authorization of that medal is not too far into the future.
Toole is a member of the NE PA Coast Guard Veteran's Association, Duryea VFW Post 1227, Pittston American Legion Post 477 and is a life member of the Coast Guard Sea Veteran's Association of America.
Shown giving Toole the long overdue medals is his actual Coast Guard Recruiter from August 1961, retired Coast Guard Lt. Bill Shaffer, current Vice President of the NE PA Coast Guard Veteran's Association and Neil Morrison Coast Guard veteran and Association president . Toole enlisted in the Coast Guard on August 2, 1961 and recently celebrated his 50 year anniversary of military service.
Any Coast Guard veteran interested in joining the Association can contact Neil Morrison at 288 6817 or Bob Youngblood at 824 4588.

BENEFIT

Joe Nardone & The All Stars and Eddie Day & The Starfires, legends of the former San Souci Ballroom and Harveys Lake Hanson’s Ballroom, will be the featured performers at a Benefit Dance Concert for Wyoming Valley Flood Victims to be held at the Genetti Ballroom in Wilkes-Barre on Friday night, November 18th, at 7:30 PM. The event is being presented by The Union Township Board of Supervisors in conjunction with The American Red Cross and The Salvation Army. Advance tickets are $20 and available at all Gallery of Sound locations. A limited number of tickets will be available at the door. All proceeds will be donated to The American Red Cross and The Salvation Army.

JONES AD UP

The Lackawanna County Commissioners race is kind of unique. The Democratic team consists of two guys John wansacz and Corey O’Brien who were firing potshots at each other in the primary. The GOP side consists of two Republicans not running as a team but separately. Patrick O’Malley’s signs in the land of the Lac just promote his candidacy. And late yesterday, Bill Jones the other GOP candidate went up on local TV with this ad. It was a singular experience. Take a look.