The Lulac Edition #4,042, March 31st, 2019

WIL TOOLE AND LULAC

Saturday was our friend Wil Toole's Mass. His great friend, Father Louis Grippi gave the Homily and I was asked to do the eulogy. 

Wil was a critic and reader of LuLac as well as a friend.
Here is the text of what was said about hi life at the Mass officiated by his friend Father Louis Grippi. Following the Mass, there were full military honors. 
Good morning, thanks to all of you who came out to say a final goodbye to our friend Wil Toole. The first time I ever encountered Wil was when he threatened to sue me. I DON’T THINK THAT’S HAPPENED TO ANYBODY IN THIS CHURCH BUT ME, RIGHT?
But we got that resolved and became very close friends. The reason for that is because Wil believed in second chances. He believed in second acts. He believed that 99 percent of people could be redeemable.
Wil looked at life as a series of chances to make a mark while you were on this planet. If you take a look at Wil’s life of service, it is quite impressive.
His military service with the Coast Guard included infiltrating a Brooklyn based gang that was stealing and selling military IDs. He served as a Third Class Petty Officer earning five military medals including the Navy Expeditionary Medal for taking part in a non-declared war action while in Cuba.
His work life consisted of Consumer loans, kind of like a George Baley type of loan officer always putting those struggling first
He later became involved in Security work and went about overseeing the protection of local industries against crime, winning recognition from national entities. He was on the staff of a Congressman. The most lasting legacy though was how he formed, fought and won union protection for County employees. For those of you in local 1398 who are enjoying the benefits of collective bargaining, thank Wil Toole.
He worked in Pittston City administration with his friend the late Tom Walsh where he received worldwide recognition from the International Association of County and City Managers and was listed in a Who’s Who of city employees across the country for his work. Wil, along with many others was on the ground floor of what we now know as the Tomato Festival. But all those things are the public side most of you know.
I did not see the public side close up. I never met him until 2008 so I got a chance to see the private side. Getting to know him, one thing I noticed was that he lived by two rules. "Do to others whatever you would like them to do to you. The other was "whatsoever you do to the least of my brothers that you do unto me".
Wil used to tell me that he wished he could be a better Catholic but he thought he was doing okay in the Christian Department. I’d always tell him, better to be a Peter or Paul instead of a doubting Thomas. He exhibited more Christian behavior than some Catholics who as my Godfather used to say “Sit in the front row with the prayer books! He believed in the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. And lead his life with the Corporal works of Mercy as a daily guide. His motto, always help where you can and never hurt.
Wil always gave people in need a hand up not a hand out. There were many times he helped only to be disappointed that his efforts were squandered or advice was not taken. Wil never accepted the concept of no. he often said, never say no for the other person, let them state their own decision.
But he always tried to help again because remember he believed in second chances.
He would be the first to tell you that he wasn’t a great scholar but he knew how to do one thing many people don’t. LISTEN.
When you told your story, your wishes, your dreams, however big or small, he listened. But then after that, those wheels started to turn. I imagine right behind his forehead was this big mental rolodex flipping in his head wondering who he could get, cajole or ask to get something done. What store had this, what guy did this, what person could help him grant the request?
He cherished his friends and made sure they all kept in touch. Whether it was having lunch once a week or having “meetings”, he was the one who made sure there was always communication. He’d debate those friends. He’d ask questions and always tried to use logic not emotion in his arguments. He never called any of his verbal sparring partners stupid, though I think he longed to, but simply asked the question, and folks this is my personal favorite, “I just don’t understand how you can think that way!” Then proceed to ask some uncomfortable questions about some pretty non-Christian statements he heard.
He never wavered in his support for those regarded as lesser than in our society and like a character in a James Joyce novel Wil had a multi-faceted ability to avenge what he believed to be wrong or work with dedication to right the wrong with a task that fixed it, rather than let it become worse.
I’d like to touch on this comparison. One of the things that bonded the two of us was that we respected the role of the planner. You can TALK all you want about what you want to accomplish but if you don’t write it down and do it, it means nothing. His meticulous planning with the city transferred into his personal life too.
When he sailed on the lake, you always had no fear because every step was planned. When his illness was diagnosed, whatever regret, fear or trepidation he had was only known to him. But there was a tell, the planning took over.
He left no stone unturned in preparing for those he left behind. Wil would always tell me “I lived a good life and have no regrets but I just need to get a few more things done”. Instead of rolling up in a ball, he then set about to do them.
The great loves of his life, Ellen, Carolyn, the mother of his children, sons Brian, Patrick and Michael and grandchildren, were always top of the mind in his planned exit from this church. A church he marveled at and loved.
Wil fought his illness with typical Irish-Catholic stubbornness. To all of his family I just mentioned by name, God bless you because once he set his mind to something, there was no stopping him. He was the only person I knew that after a round of chemo or radiation, he’d be mowing his lawn or replanting his flower bed.
It’s hard to sum up such a rich and full life without thinking of those three articles of faith taught by the nuns to him so many years ago. Remember he listened and so he lived them.
Faith: He believed that his God guided him through every step of his journey. He might not have always liked the direction but God’s Wil was Wil’s will.
Hope: Whatever the obstacle, whatever the challenge, he had hope for a better day. While Scarlett O’Hara said “Tomorrow is another day,”Wil would tell you tomorrow would be the best day because he had 24 more hours to exhibit the third grace which was charity.
Charity toward family, friends and those he saw who needed it the most.
Faith, Hope and Charity whether he realized it or not, were the building blocks of Wil Toole’s existence.
Today marks the end of a remarkable life we take him to his well-deserved rest but in typical Wil Toole fashion, he wanted just a little more time.
We celebrate his life and soul today in a time honored fashion. But how do we extend this life? All of us should do him this favor. We should emulate the life he led by going that extra mile, asking that extra question, making that last effort even when we think we can’t.
He loved the sea so as we say farewell we should ponder the last verse in the Coast Guard prayer as we take him to his rest.
Let all of us keep the beacons of honor and duty burning that your servant may reach the home port with a duty well performed, in service to God and our land.

The LuLac Edition #4,041, March 28th, 2019

WIL TOOLE MASS THIS SATURDAY

The Memorial Mass for Wil Toole, long time politico in this area will be held Saturday March 30th at 10:30AM at St. John the Evangelist Church, William Street in Pittston.

RELEASE THE ENTIRE REPORT

I just love how the Trump nation of lemmings is asking for an apology, blaming the Democrats for the poor treatment of Diaper Don during this period and is shouting from the hill “no collusion” or “obstruction of justice”.
As far as I’m concerned, the Lester Holt interview with Trump was obstruction. But this guy skates away with the illusion that he did nothing wrong.
Yet when a man does nothing wrong, why not wait for the report and not demonize Mueller or Rod Rosenthal as Diaper frequently did during the two years.
When I listened (very briefly I might add) to the Trumpanzees on the radio the other day I was amused at the information they latched on to.
1. Their apparent idea that it was the Democrats who asked for this report. Wrong. Trump appointed the Special Investigator. Not a Democrat.
2. While Mueller said there was no collusion, there was no exoneration. He stated that in the report. This is not a clean bill of health except to the 37% of those who believe anything he says.
3. The fact that “our poor President was treated badly” is a laugh. He avoided testimony and like a spoiled rotten child, he assessed blame everywhere but in his campaign. Why were 37 people charged? Why did they plead guilty? This “tough guy” proved himself to be a coward when taking responsibility for anything.
4. They should be an investigation into the Democrats and the right’s favorite target Hillary Clinton. Now I know these Republican boys get blood rushing to their penises every time they mention her name BUT Secretary Clinton was investigated and brought before hearings where she creamed the GOP leadership.
The bottom line here is that people will believe what they believe. But this is not over.
The Democrats should ask the questions but never try an impeachment of the President.
He’ll do that all by himself when he is thrown out at the ballot box. . Check out the next story.

REPUBLICANS AND HEALTH CARE

It must be maddening to be a supporter of the President and an office holder at the same. Trump got good news on Sunday. Any savvy White House would milk that for two weeks.
He could have had Photo ops every day, thanking the Counsel. Maybe giving a formal talk from the Oval Office saying it’s time to move on. Meeting with religious leaders to pray for safety from the Russian threat and asking for unity.
But there was none of that! NOPE! Trump, seemingly emboldened by his good news decided to go after an issue 52% of the American people think he is screwing up: Health Care.
Trump wants to get rid of Obama care and take 20 million people off insurance. By doing that, provisions for pre existing conditions will be gone. Plus there is no sight of any plan the GOP has been promising since 2010! The big secret is: THERE IS NONE! .
The Republicans tried 70 TIMES to repeal The Affordable Care Act and had 0 plans to take its place. There is a segment of the population dumb enough to believe this is a good thing but they most likely have Social Security and have that “I got mine, now you get yours mentality” in terms of health care. The Democrats ran on Health Care in 2018 and took back the House. Trump is on record many times by saying pre existing conditions would be protected. If you are on that exchange…..how in the world can you believe him?
On the week that Trump should have been rebuilding his political strength he handed the Democratic Party a present that will keep on giving right up to Election Day 2020.

REPUBLICANS ENDING SPECIAL OLYMPICS

President Trump, his Education Secretary and his administration wants to end the Special Olympics Program. This tells you exactly who they are and what they stand for. The Secretary couldn’t even give a number on how many children would be affected.
To those parents with Special Needs Children who want them to experience in some way what other children, untouched by illness obtain, I am so sorry that this will happen.
Yep, years from now when people read the history of this time, there will be those on the very wrong side of it.
Make America Great Again Indeed. But God forbid if your child, through fate and no fault of their own, is not perfect.

THE STATE REPRESENTATIVE WHO WEAPONIZED CHRISTIANITY

Monday in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives a State Representative drew complaints that it was inappropriately divisive.
Stephie Borowicz began the day's session with a Christian invocation that thanked Jesus for the honor and President Donald Trump for standing "behind Israel unequivocally."
Okay, I’m all right with that. Have been a backer for years. She just should have left it at that and if it were me, I would have added “all peace loving nations”
But noooooooooooooooooo, she went on.
"At the name of Jesus every knee will bow and every tongue will confess, Jesus, that you are Lord," said Borowicz. Okay then, but what about the other entities that deserve praise? elected in November to represent a Clinton County district.
She brought up George Washington, Abraham Lincoln and Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf.
A little overblown I’d say. I am a long time supporter o Governor Wolf but there is no way I’d put him in a class with George and Abe.
It comes as a great coincidence that Stephie’s remarks occurred shortly before the swearing-in of Rep. Movita Johnson-Harrell, of Philadelphia, who is the first woman Muslim to serve in the House..
Democratic Leader Frank Dermody of Allegheny County called Borowicz's invocation "beneath the dignity of this House". He said during his 28 years in the House, he never saw anything like it.
"Never have we started out with a prayer that divides us, Prayer should never divide us, it should be inspirational."
Borowicz’s , husband is an associate pastor at a Christian church in Jersey Shore. If a Catholic priest did this, look out.
House Speaker Mike Turzai is currently appealing a federal judge's decision that halted his policy of nonbelievers from giving the invocations.
Turzai, who decides who will offer the invocations, read for House members the guidance that has previously been provided to religious professionals about keeping their remarks respectful of all religious beliefs and to refrain from commenting on extraneous matters.
Since the court decision last summer, Turzai said, he has opted to have the invocations made by state representatives themselves.
Really bad idea Mike. This is a person who was elected in Clinton County as a Representative of the State and not the church. Good for her. She prays.
She should shut up and do it on her own time. Here’s what she said. Plus now you know why I identify myself as a Roman Catholic and NOT a Christian. Separation of Church and State, maybe she missed Civics Class. (ABC, AP, PennLive, LuLac)

MEDIA MATTERS

WALN TV

BOLD GOLD COMMUNITY FORUM

Tune in Sunday morning at 6 on 94.3 The Talker; 6:30 on 1400-The Game, NEPA's Fox .Sports Radio and 106.7 fm; and at 7:30 on 105 The River.

ECTV LIVE

Mary Garm from the Lackawanna County Library System visits ECTV Live during the week of April 1st to unveil plans for the Library Lecture Series and update several other developments and services.

ECTV Live is seen three times daily on Comcast channel 19 (61 in some areas) and can be viewed on your personal device on the electric city television YouTube page.

BUDDY RUMCHEK

Want to hear some great parodies on the news? Tune in to WILK Radio at 6:40 and 8:40 AM on Mondays. As Ralph Cramden used to say, “It’s a laugh riot!”

BOBBY V’S DOO WOP SOCK HOP

SUNDAY NIGHTS!

1969

Our 1969 logo

The 33rd President of the United States Dwight Eisenhower dies. I was sick with an illness when he passed away. I remember vividly listening to Jim Ward on WBAX when he was “The Morning Mayor” on 1240AM in Wilkes-Barre. Most of the calls were from World War II vets who met Ike.

From the AP:

General Eisenhower Dies

Washington (AP)—Dwight D. Eisenhower, commander in World War II of the mightiest armed force ever assembled and former President of the United States, died today.
The announcement of the general’s death was made in a somber voice by Brig. Gen. Frederic Hughes, Jr., commanding general of Walter Reed Army Hospital, who said Mr. Eisenhower had “died quietly at 12:25 p.m. (9:25 a.m. Seattle time) after a long and heroic struggle,” and that he had died peacefully.
Mr. Eisenhower’s wife, Mamie, his son, John, and other members of the family were nearby when death came.
President Nixon, who arrived at the hospital after the former President had died, paid immediate tribute to the man he had served under for two terms as vice president.
The 78-year-old five-star general, known as “Ike” throughout the world, was hit by congestive heart failure March 15 and again last Monday while recuperating from an intestinal operation and pneumonia complications.
With the rugged constitution of a Kansas farm boy, he already had battled back from seven heart attacks before undergoing surgery for an intestinal obstruction February 23.
Four days after undergoing the surgery, he contracted pneumonia. Doctors successfully combated the pneumonia with antibiotics.
But throughout the February trouble, it was Mr. Eisenhower’s heart which caused doctors their prime concern.
Doctors made no mention of the congestive heart failure March 15 until after Mr. Eisenhower’s wife, Mamie, said at a party the general had endured a “particularly bad” day.
Reporters questioned the hospital and were told of the latest onset of heart trouble.
Mr. Eisenhower had been hospitalized since last April 29, when a heart attack felled him in California after a round of golf. He was transferred to Walter Reed and there suffered three more, his seventh on August 16.
Since then he had gained vigor, walked short distances, received President Nixon and former President Johnson, and grinned his famed and folksy grin from a hospital window when an Army band, observing Salute to Eisenhower Week, serenaded him on his birthday October 14.
The grin was undimmed from 1944, when it heartened Allied troops mobilized for the awesome thrust through Normandy to the heart of Nazi Germany; from 1948, when he became President of Columbia University; from 1951, when he assumed supreme command of North Atlantic Treaty Organization forces; and from 1952, when both Democrats and Republicans sought him as their nominee for President.
As a Republican, he swept into office and four years later won re-election in what was then the greatest landslide in history. That made him the only G.O.P. President of this century to win successive White House terms.
Despite this stunning political victory, Mr. Eisenhower disdained always-partisan politics and privately made no secret of a dislike for politicians.
And despite his rise to supreme allied commander in Europe during World War II, he was no fonder of what he called “this damnable thing of war.”
He left office after his second term proudest that he kept the peace, but warning against the growing influence of a “military-industrial complex.”
In 1955 the nation was plunged into apprehension when a severe heart attack hospitalized him in Denver for seven weeks.
Then Vice President Nixon, just one faltering heartbeat from the presidency, got a foretaste of the dire responsibility he would not win in his own right until 13 years later.
In the final weeks of the 1960 campaign, Mrs. Eisenhower made speeches in several big cities for Mr. Nixon. The crowds were big and enthusiastic—but often the hand-lettered signs said, “We still like Ike” instead of “We want Dick.”
The general stayed neutral in the bitter Republican battle of 1964 which resulted in the nomination of Senator Barry Goldwater, but in last year’s campaigning he came out strongly for Mr. Nixon.
Services for Mr. Eisenhower are scheduled for Monday in Washington Cathedral and burial Wednesday at the Eisenhower Library in Abilene, Kan., his boyhood home.


In Pennsylvania Governor Ray Shafer orders all flags at Half Mast in honor of the deceased former President, in Wilkes Barre and Scranton Congressman Dan Flood and Joseph McDade remember the fallen President fondly and fifty years ago the number one song in LuLac land and America was Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In (The Flesh Failures) by The 5th Dimension

The LuLac Edition #4,040, March 27th, 2019

WRITE ON WEDNESDAY 

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This week's "Write On Wednesday" takes a look at how Pennsylvanians vote. There are challenges in this state and a recent article in the Citizens' Voice outlines them.

CHANGE THE ARCHAIC STATE ELECTION LAW

More than 9,000 Pennsylvania voters in the 2018 midterm election were disenfranchised because of an archaic state law that easily can and should be changed.
The Pennsylvania Department of State, which oversees elections, has reported that county elections officials rejected 9,741 absentee ballots in November, nearly 5 percent of the 205,509 ballots submitted. The vast majority were rejected because they were delivered to local election offices after the deadline.
Part of the problem is that the U.S. Postal Service isn’t what it used to be, especially regarding local delivery. There are far fewer processing centers, so local mail often is shipped to be processed in other counties rather than close to home. The problem has become so severe that some would-be voters who ordered absentees in 2018 did not even receive them until after the deadline for their return.
But the mail isn’t the biggest problem. Under a law passed in 1937, Pennsylvania has the earliest deadline of any state for returning absentee ballots — the Friday before the election. Every other state, except Mississippi, uses Election Day as the deadline, which makes better sense.
The American Civil Liberties Union sued the state in November, providing compelling evidence that local election offices often deliver requested absentee ballots to voters too late to ensure their return on time. That, it argues, unconstitutionally disenfranchises voters.
Civil rights violations shouldn’t be necessary to bring the state Election Code into the 21st century. The Legislature should change, to Election Day, the deadline for returning absentee ballots, and require local election offices to mail them on the day that they are requested.
More than 9,000 Pennsylvania voters in the 2018 midterm election were disenfranchised because of an archaic state law that easily can and should be changed.
The Pennsylvania Department of State, which oversees elections, has reported that county elections officials rejected 9,741 absentee ballots in November, nearly 5 percent of the 205,509 ballots submitted. The vast majority were rejected because they were delivered to local election offices after the deadline.
Part of the problem is that the U.S. Postal Service isn’t what it used to be, especially regarding local delivery. There are far fewer processing centers, so local mail often is shipped to be processed in other counties rather than close to home. The problem has become so severe that some would-be voters who ordered absentees in 2018 did not even receive them until after the deadline for their return.
But the mail isn’t the biggest problem. Under a law passed in 1937, Pennsylvania has the earliest deadline of any state for returning absentee ballots — the Friday before the election. Every other state, except Mississippi, uses Election Day as the deadline, which makes better sense.
The American Civil Liberties Union sued the state in November, providing compelling evidence that local election offices often deliver requested absentee ballots to voters too late to ensure their return on time. That, it argues, unconstitutionally disenfranchises voters.
Civil rights violations shouldn’t be necessary to bring the state Election Code into the 21st century. The Legislature should change, to Election Day, the deadline for returning absentee ballots, and require local election offices to mail them on the day that they are requested.

The LuLac Edition #4,039, March 26, 2019

THREE MILE ISLAND @ 40

This week marks the 40th anniversary of Three Mile Island’s accident. For me it was frustrating from a career standpoint because I had left my broadcasting job at WVIA FM and TV the year before. The radio guy of me missed the action. As a citizen of Pennsylvania, I was concerned because I knew people who worked in construction at the PP&L plant. Personally I had just seen the movie “The China Syndrome” two days before this accident happened.
As a news junkie I followed it with interest. After the event ended, I pretty much put it on the back burner but every time I went to Harrisburg reminders of those days came alive to me.
Now this week as the 40th anniversary approaches, here is a recap of what exactly went down.
The Three Mile Island accident was the partial meltdown of reactor number 2 of Three Mile Island Nuclear Generating Station (TMI-2) in Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, near Harrisburg and subsequent radiation leak that occurred on March 28, 1979. It was the most significant accident in U.S. commercial nuclear power plant history. The incident was rated a five on the seven-point International Nuclear Event Scale: Accident with wider consequences.
The accident began with failures in the non-nuclear secondary system, followed by a stuck-open pilot-operated relief valve in the primary system, which allowed large amounts of nuclear reactor coolant to escape. The mechanical failures were compounded by the initial failure of plant operators to recognize the situation as a loss-of-coolant accident due to inadequate training and human factors, such as human-computer interaction design oversights relating to ambiguous control room indicators in the power plant's user interface. In particular, a hidden indicator light led to an operator manually overriding the automatic emergency cooling system of the reactor because the operator mistakenly believed that there was too much coolant water present in the reactor and causing the steam pressure release.
The accident crystallized anti-nuclear safety concerns among activists and the general public, and resulted in new regulations for the nuclear industry. It has been cited to have been a catalyst to the decline of a new reactor construction program, a slowdown that was already underway in the 1970s. The partial meltdown resulted in the release of radioactive gases and radioactive iodine into the environment.
Anti-nuclear movement activists expressed worries about regional health effects from the accident. However, epidemiological studies analyzing the rate of cancer in and around the area since the accident, determined there was a small statistically non-significant increase in the rate and thus no causal connection linking the accident with these cancers has been substantiated. Cleanup started in August 1979, and officially ended in December 1993, with a total cleanup cost of about $1 billion.
The Three Mile Island accident inspired Charles Perrow's Normal Accident Theory, in which an accident occurs, resulting from an unanticipated interaction of multiple failures in a complex system. TMI was an example of this type of accident because it was "unexpected, incomprehensible, uncontrollable and unavoidable."
Perrow concluded that the failure at Three Mile Island was a consequence of the system's immense complexity. Such modern high-risk systems, he realized, were prone to failures however well they were managed. It was inevitable that they would eventually suffer what he termed a 'normal accident'. Therefore, he suggested, we might do better to contemplate a radical redesign, or if that was not possible, to abandon such technology entirely.
"Normal" accidents, or system accidents, are so-called by Perrow because such accidents are inevitable in extremely complex systems. Given the characteristic of the system involved, multiple failures which interact with each other will occur, despite efforts to avoid them. Such events appear trivial to begin with before unpredictably cascading through the system creates a large event with severe consequences.
Normal Accidents contributed key concepts to a set of intellectual developments in the 1980s that revolutionized the conception of safety and risk. It made the case for examining technological failures as the product of highly interacting systems, and highlighted organizational and management factors as the main causes of failures. Technological disasters could no longer be ascribed to isolated equipment malfunction, operator error or acts of God.

In the aftermath of the accident, investigations focused on the amount of radioactivity released by the accident. In total approximately 2.5 megacuries (93 PBq) of radioactive gases, and approximately 15 curies (560 GBq) of iodine- was released into the environment. According to the American Nuclear Society, using the official radioactivity emission figures, "The average radiation dose to people living within ten miles of the plant was eight millirem (0.08 mSv), and no more than 100 millirem (1 mSv) to any single individual. Eight millirem is about equal to a chest X-ray, and 100 millirem is about a third of the average background level of radiation received by US residents in a year."
Based on these emission figures, early scientific publications, according to Mangano, on the health effects of the fallout estimated no additional cancer deaths in the 10 mi (16 km) area around TMI. Disease rates in areas further than 10 miles from the plant were never examined. Local activism in the 1980s, based on anecdotal reports of negative health effects, led to scientific studies being commissioned. A variety of epidemiology studies have concluded that the accident had no observable long term health effects.
The Radiation and Public Health Project, an organization with little credibility amongst epidemiologists,[81] cited calculations by its member Joseph Mangano – who has authored 19 medical journal articles and a book on Low Level Radiation and Immune Disease – that reported a spike in infant mortality in the downwind communities two years after the accident. Anecdotal evidence also records effects on the region's wildlife.[52] For example, according to one anti-nuclear activist, Harvey Wasserman, the fallout caused "a plague of death and disease among the area's wild animals and farm livestock", including a sharp fall in the reproductive rate of the region's horses and cows, reflected in statistics from Pennsylvania's Department of Agriculture, though the Department denies a link with TMI.
John Gofman used his own, non-peer reviewed low-level radiation health model to predict 333 excess cancer or leukemia deaths from the 1979 Three Mile Island accident. A peer-reviewed research article by Dr. Steven Wing found a significant increase in cancers from 1979–1985 among people who lived within ten miles of TMI; in 2009 Dr. Wing stated that radiation releases during the accident were probably "thousands of times greater" than the NRC's estimates. A retrospective study of Pennsylvania Cancer Registry found an increased incidence of thyroid cancer in counties south of TMI and in high-risk age groups but did not draw a causal link with these incidences and to the accident. The Talbott lab at the University of Pittsburgh reported finding only a few, small, mostly statistically non-significant, increased cancer risks within the TMI population, such as a non-significant excess leukemia among males being observed. The ongoing TMI epidemiological research has been accompanied by a discussion of problems in dose estimates due to a lack of accurate data, as well as illness classifications.
Forty years after the event, the nuclear power industry has not produced many new plants. Alternative energy sources have taken the front row. There are those who weren’t even born when TMI happened.
The takeaway I have is the leadership exhibited by Governor Dick Thornburgh and his Lt. Governor William Scranton. They were calm, measured and sorted out conflicting information to the public.
For those of us still around to remember it, it was an uncertain and concerning time.but the leadership from the top as well as good luck pulled us through.

The LuLac Edition #4,038, March 25th, 2019

MONDAY MEMES 

The LuLac Edition #4,037, March 24th, 2019

MAYBE I’M AMAZED

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MAYBE I’M AMAZED…..that Lindsay Graham, one of John McCain’s best friends has become the premier suck up to Donald Trump. Graham has been tepid in defense of his deceased friend in the Senate. He still has his hard on for Hillary Clinton by bringing her up at a rich people only rally in Florida this weekend. 

The fat cats responded to “Lock her up” like mindless trolls. It is a shame that Graham has lost any sense of balance as a leader of the Republican Party. Graham like many other Republicans will be on the wrong side of history.
MAYBE I’M AMAZED….a butterfly hums in the key of F.
MAYBE I’M AMAZED….that Mike Trout now has become the richest player in Major League Baseball. The sheer length and wealth of this contract guarantees Trout and his descendants a very comfortable life for a very long time. As one who lived through the Sandy Koufax/Don Drysdale holdout where Koufax got $100,000 and Drysdale got $95,000 these numbers are stupefying.
https://www.latimes.com/sports/dodgers/la-sp-koufax-drysdale-holdout-20160329-story.html
MAYBE I’M AMAZED….that there is more sugar in a lemon than there is in a strawberry.
MAYBE I’M AMAZED…..that people around here still do not realize the novelty of having two daily newspapers. That doesn’t even happen in larger cities. Recently the Times Leader cut some of its sport staff and that was met with high fives from the competition but sadness from others because no one wants anyone to lose a job. But the fact that there are two papers still publishing is a testament to the curiosity of people living here.
MAYBE I’M AMAZED….that a polar bear cannot be seen by an infrared camera due to the bear’s transparent fur.
MAYBE I’M AMAZED…. that our friend Kathleen Smith, one of LuLac’ Women We Love went to the all male St. Patrick’s Day dinner a few weeks ago in Wilkes Barre. Smith a well know DAR volunteers had a wonderful time and was invited but I’m wondering if it was a first and what Steve Corbett who championed women being at those dinners would think.
MAYBE I’M AMAZED….that people seem to think the Mueller report will vindicate President Trump of all wrong doing. A report like that has narrow parameters and he can have a blue print but not necessarily make an indictment of a President. Remember Kenneth Starr did not indict Bill Clinton either but that did not exonerate him from the issues presented by Congressional investigations.
MAYBE I’M AMAZED….that two Democratic candidates who were defeated in key states, Beto O’Rourke in Texas and Stacey Abrams of Georgia are being touted as possible Presidential candidates after close losses. Albeit they are young and exciting but a political loss used to be the kiss of death for a political candidate. If the Democrats think running them against Trump is a good thing, they might need to remember Trump calling his 16 GOP opponents in 2016 “losers”. One or two might have had initial losses but went on to become sitting Governors and Senators. Trump would have a field day with these two “young uns”.
MAYBE I’M AMAZED…that it has been thirty years since Minor League baseball came to LuLac land. I remember the doomsayers who said it would never fly and that it was a folly. But here we are three decades later with the game and entity stick kicking. Just a few more weeks until “Play Ball”
MAYBE I'M AMAZED……staying on a baseball theme, how about those early morning games from overseas? If you are a true baseball fan, that 5am first pitch tests your dedication. But I know a few people who got up to see just that.

The LuLac Edition #4,036, March 21st, 2019

THE CRY BABIES OF OLD FORGE WONDER WHY!!!

The other day a friend of mine who had not heard about or seen the New York Times story about Old Forge’s residents reacting to Frank Scavo’s loss in the race for State Representative was befuddled by what he heard on talk radio.
Residents from the Pizza Capital called and whined that they couldn’t understand why the Times made the community members out to be so mean and racist. “Why are they picking on us?” some said reminding me of the Coasters old Charlie Brown refrain.
Hey, your homophobic County Commissioner was saying the same thing about her poor beleaguered President!
Then the talk show host starts with his conspiracy theories saying the national media is doing its best with fake news to tamp down support for Trump in Pennsylvania for 2020. This talk show host that gave thousands of newscasts in his career now sees the freaking New York Times as a conspiracy tool? I won’t even get into what drove him out of office as a State Representative but what appalled many people was his lack of even pushing back a little with these callers. 
It was entertaining though to hear the denizens of Old Forge cry foul when some were stupid enough to display their racism not in a sign in the little town, not in a local beer hall BUT in the freaking New York Times.
Rule # 1 for Old Forge: Just because a reporter asks you a question doesn’t mean you have to answer it.
Rule #2: if you are stupid enough to play with Diaper Don and his minions in the dirt, then don’t advertise your support to the largest circulated paper in the country.
This article is FOREVER Old Forge. That reporter will come and go and so will the talk show host as well as this site. But what you stated is etched in stone.
I hope your sainted  grandchildren and their children will know just how bad you and your town came off. . History doesn’t lie.
And no one is agreeing with your assessment or shedding a tear for your itty bitty man child of a President either. 

TRUMP’S HARD ON FOR DEAD PEOPLE

Donald Trump has been bitching about a dead man for 5 days now. The fixation Trump has on John McCain is downright awful. I mean as McCain was dying the last thing he ever expected was to have old Diaper Don insult him as he lay at rest in his grave months later. Shit, even Castro said NOTHING bad about JFK when he was laid to rest. 
Once more Trump has shown who is the hero, McCain and who is the zero., Old Diaper Don himself. But McCain’s daughter Megan said it best:

THIS SONG GOES OUT TO GEORGE CONWAY

George Conway has been tweeting about how awful President Trump is while his wife continues to say old Diaper Don is the best thing since sliced bread. Is the marriage in trouble? Who knows, who cares but George Conway, this one's for you.

CARTWRIGHT TABBED AS VERY EFFECTIVE MEMBER

Congressman Matt Cartwright (Photo: LuLac archives)

Representative Matt Cartwright remains one of the most effective Democrats in the U.S. Congress, according to a new report released last week by the Center for Effective Lawmaking (CEL).
During the 115th Congress, which spanned from January 2017 through the first days of 2019, Cartwright was the fourth most effective Democrat in the House of Representatives, according to a CEL score that measures each member’s productivity.
It was the third consecutive term in which Cartwright –who currently represents Pennsylvania’s Eighth District– exceeded expectations as a lawmaker. In fact, the congressman was one of about a dozen members “who have been in the 'Exceeds Expectations' category for their entire congressional careers,” according to the CEL report, which was released on Feb. 27.
“I'm thankful for this recognition, and I'm blessed to keep working hard for the people of northeastern Pennsylvania,” said Rep. Cartwright.
The CEL score is based on 15 separate metrics, which include the bills each member has sponsored, how far those bills moved along the legislative process, and the importance of the issues they seek to tackle.
The report highlights how Democrats were effectively able to work across the aisle and advance policy in the 115th Congress, even before their party won back the House in last year’s midterm election. “Whereas most members of the minority party struggle to even receive a hearing on most of their bills within Congress, those on this list achieved successes on a broad range of substantive issues,” the report said.

MEDIA MATTERS

WALN TV

BOLD GOLD COMMUNITY FORUM

This week's guest will be Norm Gavlick, Executive Director of the Luzerne County Transportation Authority, as he hosts the LCTA's monthly Facebook forum.
Tune in Sunday morning at 6 on 94.3 The Talker; 6:30 on 1400-The Game, NEPA's Fox .Sports Radio and 106.7 fm; and at 7:30 on 105 The River.

ECTV LIVE

ECTV Live welcomes Eileen Miller to the program during the week of March 25th to discuss pending legislation here in Pennsylvania to deal with the dangerous problem of Distracted Driving. Eileen lost her son to a tractor trailer driver who took his eyes off the road and she's been fighting for a law prohibiting hand held cellphone use in cars ever since. She appears on the eve of Distracted Driving Month.

ECTV Live is seen three times daily on Comcast channel 19 (61 in some areas) and can be viewed on your personal device on the electric city television YouTube page.

BUDDY RUMCHEK

Want to hear some great parodies on the news? Tune in to WILK Radio at 6:40 and 8:40 AM on Mondays. As Ralph Cramden used to say, “It’s a laugh riot!”

BOBBY V’S DOO WOP SOCK HOP

SUNDAY NIGHTS!

1969

Our 1969 logo

UCLA wins its third consecutive NCAA basketball championship by defeating Purdue University, 92 to 72....The landmark art exhibition When Attitudes become Form, curated by Harald Szeemann, opens at the Kunsthalle Bern in Bern, Switzerland...Pope Paul VI increases the number of Roman Catholic cardinals by one-third, from 101 to 134.
The Eurovision Song Contest 1969 is held in Madrid, and results in four co-winners, with 18 votes each, from Spain, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and France……in Pennsylvania the Phillies break camp with some pretty dim hopes as the 69 season begins…in Wilkes-Barre the Unified Fund allocates monies to non profit agencies and 50 years ago this week the number one song in LuLac land and America was “Time Of the Season” by the Zombies.

The LuLac Edition #4,035, March 20th, 2019

WRITE ON WEDNESDAY

Our "Write On Wednesday" logo

This is an article that needs to be read by every thinking resident in LuLac land. If you wonder why great paying jobs never come this way, take a look at this coverage and you'll see why. It seems like we are burying ourselves in the culture of Trumpism. Trump has never done any good for anyone in his orbit and we are now highlighted as one of his little satellites surrounding his hateful and pathetic Presidency. Check it out.

HOW TRUMP’S BRAND OF GRIEVANCE POLITICS ROILED A PENNSYLVANIA CAMPAIGN

By Astead W. Herndon

March 15, 2019

OLD FORGE, Pa. — The news came at 9:41 p.m. Tuesday: Frank Scavo III had lost. Again.
Mr. Scavo, a perennial candidate running for the Pennsylvania Legislature on a platform of ending property taxes, was trounced by a Democratic newcomer, Bridget Malloy Kosierowski, the first woman to represent the Scranton-area district in decades. Initially, Mr. Scavo and about 30 supporters sounded conciliatory at their election night party, praising Ms. Kosierowski for a hard-fought campaign.
But soon, after they downed the last pitcher of light beer, the discussion took a darker turn. Many of Mr. Scavo’s supporters were upset that he had drawn significant negative attention for his series of bigoted Facebook posts over the past four years, including ones that painted Muslims as “infidels” and others that promoted conspiracy theories like “Pizzagate,” the false story that Democrats ran a child sex trafficking operation out of a Washington pizza parlor.
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“Democrats are rats!” yelled Mr. Scavo’s wife, Caren, a local hair stylist who had started crying. She and others contended that he should have doubled down rather than apologize for the posts, as he did in the closing days of the race.
“I’m furious,” said Laureen Cummings, an Old Forge resident who is also a county commissioner. “Our poor president is getting hammered and the same thing happened to Frank.”
Another man interjected: “This is our tea party!” Big applause followed.
Far from the power centers of Washington, the early 2020 primary states or the money-rich coastal cities that fund many national campaigns, a shift in the political winds is growing stronger.
The Republican Party and its candidates, particularly in state and local campaigns, are increasingly being reshaped in President Trump’s image, adopting his laundry list of political opponents and his willingness to go to great lengths to spite them.
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Here, among Republicans in the northeastern Pennsylvania region that has suffered with the decline of the coal industry and the ravages of the opioid crisis, Mr. Trump’s language is endlessly repeated. He is not ensnared in several investigations of possible wrongdoing, but the victim of a “witch hunt.” The discovery of Mr. Scavo’s anti-Muslim Facebook posts was the work of the “fake news media.” The federal bureaucracy is the scheming “deep state.”
But the most common reflection of Mr. Trump’s brand of grievance politics — and the reason Mr. Scavo’s loss was treated as an existential threat in that Old Forge banquet hall — was the pervasive belief that the country is being undermined by undeserving outsiders and the Democrats who represent them.
In conversations with Mr. Scavo and his all-white supporters, this was not a race-blind anxiety, but a conscious fear around what they see as the replacement of traditional, white American culture. The message was constantly amplified by ominous reporting and commentary from conservative, pro-Trump media outlets.
Thomas Bremer, a 67-year-old Vietnam War veteran and notary public who lives in nearby Olyphant, said America’s current course was akin to “a shaking roller coaster where no one knows what’s going to happen.”
“I’m scared for our children because of what’s coming with socialism,” Mr. Bremer said. “We’re a big country, but we’re being swallowed by people coming in.”
In recent weeks, prominent supporters of Mr. Trump, such as the Fox News personalities Jeanine Pirro and Tucker Carlson, were widely criticized for comments that questioned the patriotism of Muslims, demeaned black Americans, and warned that continued immigration could permanently disrupt America’s social order.
But to many in Lackawanna County, which has long trended Democratic but only narrowly went for Hillary Clinton in 2016, such feelings are integral to the worldview of local Republicans. In Old Forge, the region’s most conservative bastion best known for the unique rectangular pizza slices it developed to serve to nearby miners, the sentiment is widely popular.
The community’s mayor, Robert Legg, is currently embroiled in scandal after he posted on Facebook that the New York governor, Andrew M. Cuomo; the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi; and the Senate minority leader, Chuck Schumer, are treasonous and “should be shot.”
Frank Scavo Jr., the candidate’s father, said: “I’m a son of immigrants from Poland, from Wales, from Italy, from Australia, but back then, there was assimilation happening. That’s the way it’s supposed to be.”
Over a bowl of stuffed pepper soup, he cited a statistic that is notorious among the group: that nonwhite Americans were expected to outnumber whites in the coming decades. (The Census Bureau says by around 2045.) The older Mr. Scavo said America was a product of “Western civilization” and that the changes could threaten that legacy.
Bob Bolus, a 76-year-old local businessman in the trucking industry who owns semitrailers covered with pro-Trump and anti-Hillary Clinton paraphernalia, said Mr. Trump was a champion for white interests. Mr. Bolus voted for Barack Obama in 2008, but said he became enraged when Mr. Obama weighed in on issues of racial bias among law enforcement.
Mr. Obama “was prejudiced against white people,” Mr. Bolus said. “Trump has put the reins on the horse.”
Like others, he mentioned a 2009 incident in which Mr. Obama took issue with the police conduct in the arrest of the Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates, who is black. Mr. Bolus said it was a turning point in his personal politics.
The statements reflect the continuing push-and-pull among national Republicans, who have wrestled with how to deal with such overt appeals to white identity, particularly in the era of Mr. Trump.
The Republican National Committee and its affiliates have long insisted that they remain a big tent, open to people of all races and backgrounds. However, some former Republican leaders, pollsters and former candidates say Mr. Trump has brought formerly fringe sentiments of explicit nativism and racism to the fore — and the result is a party that is growing more racially monolithic in an increasingly diverse age.
During last year’s midterm elections, Republicans fielded a nearly all-white slate of candidates for governor. In the House, 90 percent of the Republican caucus is now white men, while about two-thirds of the Democratic caucus is not.
But locally, Mr. Scavo’s supporters — many of whom vocally supported Mr. Trump’s re-election — are unsure such a dichotomy is a problem. Mr. Scavo said his fatal election mistake was taking the advice of outside Republican groups and not going with his gut, which would have focused less on eliminating taxes and promoting smaller government and instead prioritized more Trumpian issues such as the wall on the southern border and MS-13 gang violence.
Across the country, other Republican state officials have gone further, including an Arizona state representative, David Stringer, who said this year that “there aren’t enough white kids to go around” in the state’s public schools.
Mr. Scavo said his fatal election mistake was taking the advice of outside Republican groups and not going with his gut.
Daniel Squadron, the former New York state senator who leads Future Now, a national organization to help elect Democrats to state legislatures, said he cautioned people against thinking the wave of overt white identity politics is simply an offshoot of Mr. Trump.
Mr. Squadron pointed out that, in the Pennsylvania race, Mr. Scavo’s controversial social media posts began before Mr. Trump’s candidacy. Other candidates in this mold, such as the Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore, won support of local Republicans even though Mr. Trump had endorsed Mr. Moore’s opponent.
“It’s not about Trump,” Mr. Squadron said. “It’s about a mind-set, a conspiracy theory, an ethnonationalism that Trump reflects.”
“We should stop thinking of these races as ‘Trump-ized’ because they’re about ‘Pizzagate’ and racial and ethnic division and fear-mongering,” he said. “That’s just how races are run on the Republican side these days.”
Mr. Scavo and his supporters largely agree. Mr. Scavo called himself “pro-wall, not pro-Trump,” and Mr. Bolus said he worried the Republican establishment fails to understand how fiercely Mr. Trump’s supporters are committed to their cultural ideals.
Lynne Kokinda, 62, who volunteered daily for Mr. Scavo until Election Day, said she felt the country is at a tipping point. Gregory Griffin, a 64-year-old retired corrections officer, blamed Mr. Obama’s presidency, along with the news media, for “stirring up racial strife.”
He took particular issue with the Black Lives Matter movement against police brutality.
“It should be ‘police shoots citizen who resisted arrest or had a gun,’ but it’s usually portrayed as ‘white police officer shoots black male’ and that’s stirring the pot,” Mr. Griffin said. “That’s causing the black people to feel like black people are getting assassinated.”
He cited two Democrats who are an increasing focus of Mr. Trump’s base — Representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and Ilhan Omar of Minnesota. Carol Huddy, 71, said that preserving “our culture” was the era’s defining issue — regardless of whether Mr. Trump is in office.
“We may be far away from the border, but they’re here and they’re coming here,” Ms. Huddy said, initially refusing to define “they.”
Ten seconds passed.
Twenty seconds passed.
And then Ms. Huddy leaned in.
“I’ll give you a hint,” she said, whispering, “They have names like Vasquez and Hernandez.”

The LuLac Edition #4,034, March 19th, 2019

BIRCH BAYH

(Photo: LuLac archives)

If you were a woman athlete, if you have young girls in your family playing sports, you can thank a guy named Birch Bayh for that. If you take the time and interest to vote when you hit 18, you can thank Birch Bayh for that.  I remember being so excited when my first vote was in 1972 just two months after I turned 18.
It was Birch Bayh a Democrat from Indiana who made his mark. Bayh’s three-term service in the United States Senate – from 1962 to 1980 – is distinguished by his expertise in Constitutional law. As Chairman of the Constitutional Sub-Committee, Senator Bayh authored two Amendments to the Constitution:
•The Twenty-fifth Amendment on Presidential and Vice Presidential succession that created an orderly transition of power in the case of death or disability of the President, and a method of selecting a Vice President when a vacancy occurs in that office. The Amendment provided for the orderly transition of power following the resignations of Vice President Spiro Agnew and President Richard Nixon. It also provided the necessary vehicle for President Ronald Reagan to temporarily pass his duties to Vice President George Bush when Reagan underwent surgery. Prior to its passage, the nation experienced several occasions when the president was unable to perform his powers and duties, with no constitutional provision for temporary transfer of these powers to the Vice President. (For example, President Eisenhower suffered three serious illnesses during his presidency, and Woodrow Wilson was critically ill for more than a year.) Bayh continues to counsel the White House on implementation of the Amendment.
•The Twenty-sixth Amendment that lowered the voting age from 21 to 18 years of age, enfranchising young men and women. (Prior to the amendment, the right to vote was denied to those old enough to serve their country in the military.)
To all my Republican friends who continue to weaponize the Constitution to defend the current office holder at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, and fancy themselves Constitutional scholars GET THIS: No lawmaker since the Founding Fathers has authored two Amendments to the Constitution.
Senator Bayh was the author and chief sponsor of two other closely-fought and nearly-passed Amendments to the Constitution:
•The Equal Rights Amendment, which passed both Houses of Congress, but failed to be ratified by three-fourths of the states.
•The Direct Popular Vote Amendment, which would have abolished the Electoral College. The measure passed the House, and Bayh enlisted sixty Senate co-sponsors before the measure failed to gain the necessary two-thirds vote of the Senate.
Bayh wrote the landmark legislation Title IX to the Higher Education Act that mandates equal opportunities for women students & faculty. Prior to Bayh’s legislation, women students were denied equal opportunities under the law in academics and sports: women students were routinely denied equal access to medical and law schools, veterinary medicine, engineering programs and the like; they received unequal scholarship assistance and were denied equal participation in sports. Similarly, female faculty members were denied equal compensation and promotion. Today’s rise of women in all academic disciplines and in school sports and the Olympics is a direct outgrowth of this landmark legislation.
Senator Bayh is the author and co-sponsor of the Bayh-Dole Act that enables universities and small businesses to gain ownership of federally-funded copyrights. It has energized the free-enterprise system and has been called by The Economist “possibly the most inspired piece of legislation to be enacted in America over the past half-century.”
Following devastating tornadoes in Indina in 1965, Bayh provided landmark relief legislation that became the foundation for the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).
Architect, the Juvenile Justice Act, which mandates the separation of juvenile offenders from adult prison populations; the legislation also established pivotal programs for the rehabilitation of juveniles.
Senator Bayh played a vital role in the drafting and passage of the landmark 1964 Civil Rights Act and the 1965 Voting Rights Act. As a ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Bayh’s dedication to protecting minority rights and the sanctity of the Supreme Court led to his singular effort in defeating the Nixon nominations of Judges Haynesworth and Carswell to the United States Supreme Court [Carswell was an avowed segregationist]. As a result, the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights bestowed their highest award on Senator Bayh in 1972 for “his unyielding dedication to human equality and civil freedom.
I came across Bayh in the summer of 1972 when I was living in Washington. He talked with me in the halls of the Capitol for a bit. He stayed in the Senate until 1980 when Indiana lost its IQ and mind and elected Dan Quayle to replace him. 
Birch Bayh passed away last week at the age of 91. 

A NOTE FROM ROGER

The other day I got this note from none other than Roger Stone who is in dire straits and begging for money. Here’s what he wrote and my response.
I am proud of the fact that President Donald Trump, who I tried to persuade to run for President in 1988, 2000, 2004, 2012, and again successfully in 2016, praised me for my "guts" recently when I said I would not under any circumstances bear false witness against him.
The President spoke of our 40 year friendship recently on CBS when he said "I've always liked him. He's a character," and said I was "doing a good job of defending myself."
Due to the fake news media attacks on me over the last two years, my family and I are on the verge of personal bankruptcy and reports online that I am wealthy are entirely false.
I have no choice but to come right out and ask you for your help.
Whatever you can send... would be a Godsend. The use of these funds is strictly limited to my legal defense. None of this money is utilized for my personal use.
Needless to say, my wife of 27 years, Nydia, remains upset about the travails I am facing and most anxious to know how we will raise the necessary money to prove my innocence and vindicate my name. I just keep telling her that with Gods help-and yours- we will not only survive... but we will be victorious.
You're my last hope.
My life and my freedom are in your hands, and I trust in patriotic Americans like you to do what is right. Won't you send an emergency contribution to my Legal Defense Fund today?

UH NO. ROT IN JAIL AND THEN AFTER  THAT, BURN IN HELL! In the meantime, listen to this.

The LuLac Edition #4,033, March 18th, 2019

MONDAY MEMES 

The LuLac Edition #4,032, March 17th, 2019

WIL TOOLE

Our good friend Wil Toole passed away Friday afternoon after a long battle with cancer. I met Wil around 2008 long after his storied career in public service ended. He was an avid reader and sometime critic of LuLac but always was a backer of everything I did personally. Whether it was a book I was promoting, a TV show I was doing, or a death in my family, he was there for me. It was kind of astounding to me given the fact that I had only known him a short time but I learned very soon that Wil valued friendship and loyalty.
Wil was the one who persuaded me to join the President John F. Kennedy Knights of Columbus Council #372 in Pittston citing the uncles of mine who joined in the 1940s. He was big on family, tradition and knowing where you came from. I joined.  

Wil understood that when he ran for Controller as an Independent, with LuLac I had to write that election story straight down the line. (In the photo at a LuLac Forum was Bob Morgan and the ultimate winner Water Griffith along with Wil) He was a fierce champion of efficient government and was one of those seniors and past union supporters who never left the fold when the big orange menace appeared on the political scene.
He and I were kindred spirits in the fact that we felt that planning was the key to a happy and successful life. His life ended on Friday but he will live on in the memories of all who knew him, and ultimately got to regard him as part of their families. He will be missed.

WILFRID E. TOOLE

Wilfrid E (Wil) Toole passed away after a strong battle with Cancer. He was 76 and one day short of his birthday. Wil was fond of saying he had a full and happy life.
Wil was a 1961 graduate of St John the Evangelist high school Pittston. He attended Luzerne County Community College, Penn State Lehman and completed a Business Administration course with LaSalle University. After high school, he volunteered for military service with the US Coast Guard. He served aboard the Coast Guard Cutter Half Moon performing patrol duty in the North Atlantic as a Boatswainmate Third Class Petty Officer. Will earned five military medals including the Navy Expeditionary Medal for taking part in a non-declared war action while in Cuba in February 1962. He finished his enlistment by serving with the Armed Forces Military Police Group stationed in Brooklyn NY and was credited by Coast Guard Intelligence with infiltrating a gang stealing and selling military ID cards.
His professional career consisted of a management position with Liberty Consumer Discount Company managing several local offices and obtaining the designation of Special Lending Officer, a position held by only 70 of the company’s 850 national managers.
In 1975 Wil was asked to take the position of General Manager of the Del-Cap Detective Agency. He managed the day to day operation of what was then the largest private detective agency in NE PA having over a hundred full time and part time security guards with two radio dispatched patrol vehicles serving the surrounding counties.
Wil left the Del-Cap to work in government. He served part time on the staff of first time Congressman Frank Harrison. He held a position in the accounting office of Luzerne County Human Resources Development Department which was the administrator of the federal CETA Program. During his employment with that agency, he was one of the founders of the current Luzerne County employee’s union AFSCME Local 1398. After a breakdown in contract negotiations, the county employees went on strike for lack of good faith bargaining and Wil was a leader of the strike action. After 30 days on strike, a contract was agreed upon and Local 1398 became a certified union with Wil being elected to serve as the first president of the now certified union local 1398 of AFSCME.
Later he accepted a position as deputy to Mayor Tom Walsh of the city of Pittston. In 1988 he became the City Clerk/Administrator and was recognized by the International Association of City/County Manager’s Association with the designation of “Professional Municipal Manager” status. At the same time, Pittston City was the only city in NE PA listed in Who’s Who of Local Governments as being professionally managed. Wil remained in that position till a health issue caused him to retire in December of 1997. After a few years, Wil applied for and received a Pennsylvania Private Detective License and eventually earned three certifications in voice stress analysis and was accepted into the International Voice Stress Analyst Association.
Wil is survived by his wife Ellen (Gregorczyk) and his former wife of many years Carolyn Weiss Toole RN, sons Brian and his wife Mary Ann, Michael RN and Patrick as well as his grandson Brian and granddaughter Anna and several nieces and nephews. Wil was preceded in death by his father Edmund, mother Anna Dillon Toole RN, a brother Edmund Jr, sister Mary Betty Allardyce, and her husband James “Bidge” Allardyce.