The LuLac Edition #5, 732 August 6th, 2026

 

LOCAL DEMS EVENTS 

The Luzerne County Democratic party had a pot luck supper at their headquarters on Sunday right across from Redeemer High. The turnout was big for a Sunday afternoon and tells you the Dems are in this election for success.

 

MEANWHILE ON WEDNESDAY

Friends and Wilkes-Barre residents came out  for a Meet and Greet with Democrat Jessica McClay.  The crowd was/is  enthusiastic in their support of McClay who is running to succeed Eddie Day Pashinski. 

It was great to see the candidate at the Meet and Greet at Senunas'.  I enjoyed my customary Diet Coke and chatted with some of the most committed Democrats ever. 

Kathleen Hannon 6th district chair, Luzerne County Council member Denise Williams and the MVP of door knocking, John Joseph Bryan were in the 

 house.

 

Here's Dr. Alan Frank with the candidate and then one with me.   

 

The good doctor is my FB wingman when the MAGA ingrates spout their lies. 

As you can see the sun is shining brightly  on tese two Dems, State committeeman Thom Shubilla and Audrey Serniak. 

 

 

 

 

 

UFC EVENT AT WHITE HOUSE DIRT

TRUMP’S WHITE HOUSE UFC SPECTACLE LOST $30 MILLION, COMPANY REVEALS

The June event, held to mark the 250th anniversary of American independence, featured a specially built 4,300-seat arena at the White House. So this genius businessman who worked “deals” throughout his business life, like going bankrupt 6 times was going to make this a success?

Trump is like a puppy. He lives in the moment. With a puppy it’s cute but with a President, it is downright dangerous.

 

 

TRUMP GUTS

HEAD START

President Donald Trump’s administration is planning a dramatic overhaul of Head Start that would gut its quality standards, upending the hallmarks of the early education program for impoverished children, two people familiar with the deliberations said.

Head Start, established in the 1960s to help fight poverty, has long been considered by experts to be a gold standard early learning program. Its regulations, which stretch more than 100 pages, outline requirements on everything from child-to-teacher ratios and child health screenings to family engagement.

Trump’s Republican administration would replace those regulations with around a dozen pages of rules, leaving most of the specifics up to state and local law, said the people familiar with the deliberations, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss information that was not yet public and because they feared reprisal.

the Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees Head Start, said to expect a rule to be published this week. The administration “remains committed to strengthening Head Start by preserving federal investment in the program while advancing reforms that expand access, increase local flexibility, reduce unnecessary administrative burden, and ensure services are delivered effectively to children and families in need,” department spokesperson Emily Hilliard said Monday in an email.

The draft rules would require more documentation from parents who are homeless or unemployed, the people familiar with the deliberations told The Associated Press. An early version of the proposal also would have barred parents who are in the United States illegally from enrolling their children, even if the children are U.S. citizens. It’s unclear whether those provisions will make the final draft.

Head Start, which operates in all 50 states, has long enjoyed robust bipartisan support. But some prominent conservatives in recent years have called for its elimination, saying the federal government should get out of the education business at every level. Deregulating the program would deliver a win for them and aligns with the Trump administration’s goals of scrapping rules it views as onerous or unnecessary.

Head Start serves more than half a million low-income babies, toddlers and preschoolers nationwide. For families that qualify, it offers free preschool and screenings to identify developmental delays. It also offers supports for families.  (AP, The Bullwark) 

 

RACHEL WALLACE CALLS ON MEUSER TO DEBATE IN PA-09 RACE

WEEKS AFTER INVITATIONS FROM TWO MEDIA OUTLETS, MEUSER STILL MUM

Rachel Wallace, candidate for U.S. Congress in Pennsylvania’s 9th District, today called for at least two debates with incumbent U.S. Representative Dan Meuser (PA-09) in the lead-up to November’s midterm elections.

Her call comes weeks after local media outlets WVIA and WGAL invited Wallace and Meuser to participate in debates.Wallace has accepted both invitations, while Meuser has yet to agree to either debate.

“More than a month ago, two media outlets asked whether I would debate Dan Meuser, and I immediately said yes,” Wallace said. “As of this week, Meuser still has not accepted either invitation, and so I’m calling on him to join for both debates. The issues facing our district are too important for voters not to hear directly from both candidates and know exactly where we stand.”

Wallace’s call for debates comes amid growing scrutiny of Meuser’s lack of presence in the district. Meuser does not live in PA-09 and is registered to vote in PA-08, the congressional district currently represented by Rob Bresnahan. Local media has also pressed Meuser recently about his lack of public appearances and unstaffed offices throughout the district.

Wallace has held two town halls since launching her campaign last year, along with open campaign events across the 12 counties that make up PA-09. Meuser, a four-term incumbent, has never held a town hall in the district.

Meuser is on the air with friendly MAGAs. Time to face the people.

 

 

POSSIBLE GREEN PARTY FOR 8^th RACE?

Nope, Deadlines passed.  

 

SABATO’S CRYSTAL BALL MOVES PA-08 TO “TOSS-UP” AS MOMENTUM CONTINUES TO GROW BEHIND PAIGE COGNETTI’S CAMPAIGN

WITH THIS SHIFT, ALL THREE RACE RATERS HAVE MOVED THE RACE IN PAIGE’S FAVOR TO “TOSS UP”

Non-partisan race rater Sabato’s Crystal Ball today shifted their rating of Pennsylvania’s 8th Congressional District to “Toss Up” as momentum continues to build behind Paige Cognetti’s campaign to clean up a broken Washington and unseat prolific stock trader and self-serving Congressman Rob Bresnahan.

With Sabato’s shift, all three race raters have now rated the race as a “Toss Up.” Sabato’s shift follows updates from race raters Cook Political Report and Inside Elections, who similarly moved the race in Paige’s favor from “Lean Republican” to “Toss-Up” over the last few months. In their update, Inside Elections cited Bresnahan’s “finances” and “health care issues,” while Cook Political Report noted Bresnahan’s “self-inflicted” wounds, including his “stock trades [that] have dogged him all cycle,” and Paige’s unique “political brand,” running for mayor as an independent in 2019 to take on the corrupt Democratic machine in Scranton.

These changes reflect a growing momentum behind Paige’s campaign, which has received the endorsement of over a dozen unions and labor groups and Governor Shapiro, who won Pennsylvania’s 8th Congressional District by more than 9 percentage points during his statewide victory in 2022. Public polling shows Paige leading Bresnahan in this toss-up race.

 

SHAPIRO ADMINISTRATION TO HIGHLIGHT ADDITIONAL $6 MILLION IN 2026-27 BUDGET TO FUND CRITICAL EQUIPMENT UPGRADES FOR PENNSYLVANIA EMS AGENCIES

Department of Health Deputy Secretary Shane Lockwood visited   Cetronia Ambulance Corps in the Lehigh Valley to highlight how an additional $6 million in funding from the Shapiro Administration will allow Emergency Medical Services (EMS) agencies to purchase state-of-the-art medical and safety equipment.

The event emphasized  Governor Josh Shapiro's continued commitment to build and equip the EMS workforce of tomorrow. In partnership with Pennsylvania's 13 regional EMS councils, this additional allocation from the EMS Operating Fund (EMSOF) builds on the Shapiro Administration's total investment of more than $79 million since 2023.

The additional funding in the recently-signed 2026-27 budget, will be used to purchase modern equipment for EMS professionals, such as video laryngoscopes, automatic external defibrillators and intravenous (IV) pumps, ensuring they have the most up-to-date tools to enhance the quality and efficiency of emergency care in Pennsylvania.

 

MEDIA MATTERS

WVIANEWS 

LOCAL NEWS

WALN

BOLD GOLD COMMUNITY FORUM

You'll hear the program Sunday at 6 on 94.3 The Talker; 6:30 on 1400 am The Mothership and 7:30 am on 105 The River.

 

THE LAURIE CADDEN SHOW

Tune in every Saturday morning at 9am for The Laurie Cadden Show on WILK FM 103.1 and AM 980 and 910. Laurie’s program has been a northeastern Pennsylvania mainstay every Saturday. Tune in to hear her insights and take on local issues as well as entertaining and informative interviews.

 

BOBBY V’S DOO WOP SUNDAY NIGHT SOCK HOP

 

BEATLE EDD’S FAB FOUR MUSIC HOUR

Tune in every week to the Home of Rock and Roll for a jam packed, unpredictable hour starting at 9am Sundays. Host Edd Raineri gives you facts and great music from the immortal Fab Four on ROCK 107.

 

THE LULAC TIME MACHINE

POPE PAUL VI DIES

August 1978

At 9:41 in the evening local time, Pope Paul VI died at his residence at Castel Gandolfo in Italy. The Pope, who had guided the Roman Catholic church for 15 years, received communion from his bed during the 6:00 Sunday mass and then suffered a massive heart attack. He remained lucid and, an hour before his death, said that he felt dizzy. Jean-Marie Villot, the Vatican Secretary of State, temporarily assumed the duties of administering the Church until a successor could be elected.

Because of his career as a diplomat, the Cardinal of Milan and as an adviser of Popes Pius XII and John the XXIII Cardinal Montini was generally seen as the most likely papal successor, owing to his closeness to both Popes 

Pius XII and John XXIII, as well as his pastoral and administrative background, his insight, and his determination.  John XXIII had previously known the Vatican as an official until his appointment to Venice as a papal diplomat, but returning to Rome at age 66, he may at times have felt uncertain in dealing with the professional Roman Curia. Montini, on the other hand, had learned its innermost workings while working in it for a generation.

Unlike the papabile cardinals Giacomo Lercaro of Bologna and Giuseppe Siri of Genoa, Montini was identified neither left nor right nor as a radical reformer. He was viewed as most likely to continue the Second Vatican Council, which had adjourned without tangible results.

In the conclave after John XXIII's death, Montini was elected pope on the sixth ballot on 21 June. When the Dean of the College of Cardinals Eugène Tisserant asked if he accepted the election, Montini said "Accepto, in nomine Domini" ("I accept, in the name of the Lord"). He took the name "Paul VI" in honor of Paul the Apostle.

At one point during the conclave on 20 June, it was said that Cardinal Gustavo Testa lost his temper and demanded that opponents of Montini halt their efforts to thwart his election. Montini, fearful of causing strife, started to rise to dissuade the cardinals from voting for him, but Cardinal Giovanni Urbani dragged him back, muttering, "Eminence, shut up!"

The white smoke first rose from the chimney of the Sistine Chapel at 11:22 am, when Protodeacon Cardinal Alfredo Ottaviani announced to the public the successful election of Montini. When the new pope appeared on the central loggia, he gave the shorter episcopal blessing as his first apostolic blessing rather than the longer, traditional Urbi et Orbi.

Pope Paul VI became the first pope to visit six continents. He was also the first pontiff to travel on an airplane, visit the Holy Land on pilgrimage, and travel outside Italy in a century. He travelled more widely than any of his predecessors, earning the nickname "the Pilgrim Pope". He visited the Holy Land in 1964 and participated in Eucharistic congresses in Bombay, India, and Bogotá, Colombia. In 1966, he was twice denied permission to visit Poland for the thousandth anniversary of the introduction of Christianity in Poland. In 1967, he visited the shrine of Our Lady of Fátima in Portugal on the fiftieth anniversary of the apparitions there. He undertook a pastoral visit to Uganda in 1969,the first by a reigning pope to Africa. Pope Paul VI became the first reigning pontiff to visit the Western hemisphere when he addressed the United Nations in New York City in October 1965.[e] As the U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War was escalating, Paul VI pleaded for peace before the U.N.:

is papacy was marked by reform, ecumenism, social justice, and liturgical renewal.

Among his accomplishments Paul VI presided over the Council’s three sessions (1962–1965), fostering dialogue among bishops and encouraging the Church to engage more openly with the modern world while preserving tradition Vatican. He emphasized communion, mutual respect, and the Church’s mission in the contemporary context.

He championed the use of the vernacular in Mass, making worship more accessible and participatory www.thecatholicvoice.com. His first encyclical, Ecclesiam Suam (1964), introduced the “dialogue of salvation” approach, encouraging mutual exchange between the Church and the world Vatican.

Paul VI promoted unity among Christian denominations and with other religions, fostering mutual respect and cooperation www.thecatholicvoice.com.

He emphasized the dignity of every person, especially the poor, and called for peace, fairness, and respect for human rights www.thecatholicvoice.com. He instituted the World Day of Peace and issued Populorum Progressio (1967), urging societies to support the dignity and rights of all people Vatican+1.

In Humanae Vitae (1968), he reaffirmed the Church’s teaching on the sanctity of life and the natural law in marriage, encouraging responsible love and family life www.thecatholicvoice.com.

He began regular papal journeys, including a historic meeting with Ecumenical Patriarch Athenagoras in the Holy Land Vatican. He also addressed global issues, such as labor rights, in public appearances.

Paul also made Mandatory retirement for the age of priests at 75. The Pope promoted 143 men to Cardinal in a 15 year reign. The successive three popes were created cardinals by him. 

His immediate successor, Albino Luciani, who took the name Pope John Paul I, was created a cardinal in the consistory of 5 March 1973. Karol Józef Wojtyła (later Pope John Paul II) was created a cardinal in the consistory of 26 June 1967. 

Joseph Ratzinger (later Pope Benedict XVI) was made a cardinal in the small four-appointment consistory of 27 June 1977 that was the Pope's last.

Pope Paul VI left the Vatican to go to the papal summer residence, the Palace of Castel Gandolfo, on 14 July 1978, On Sunday, 6 August, at the Feast of the Transfiguration, he was tired, but wanted to say the Angelus. He was neither able nor permitted to do so and instead stayed in bed, his temperature rising.  From his bed he participated in Sunday Mass at 18:00. After receiving communion, the Pope suffered a massive heart attack, after which he lived on for three more hours. On 6 August 1978 at 21:41, Paul VI died in Castel Gandolfo. Before he died, the pontiff had been lucid after the first heart attack. An hour before his death, he said he felt dizzy and asked those present to continue the prayers in his stead. Present at his bedside at the time of his death were Cardinal Jean-Marie Villot, Bishop Giuseppe Caprio, and his personal secretary Pasquale Macchi, as well as two nuns and his personal physician. By the time the Pope died, he was already confined to bed due to a flare up in his chronic joint arthritis and could not get up to personally celebrate the Mass.  Upon the initial heart attack, the Pope was immediately given oxygen; however, the Holy See indicated that his heart condition was aggravated by a pulmonary edema, or the seeping of fluid into the lungs.

Pope Benedict XVI, citing his heroic virtue, proclaimed him venerable on 20 December 2012. Pope Francis beatified Paul VI on 19 October 2014, after the recognition of a miracle attributed to his intercession. His liturgical feast was celebrated on the date of his birth, 26 September, until 2019 when it was changed to the date of his priestly ordination, 29 May.[  Pope Francis canonized him on 14 October 2018.  Plus this week in 1978 the number obe song in LuLac land and America was “Miss You” by the Rolling Stones.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The LuLac Edition #5, 732, August 5th, 2026

 

WRITE ON

WEDNESDAY

Our “Write on Wednesday” logo

I came across this story because it piqued my interest. When I was the Luzerne County Toiurism director the offices were at the Nathan Denison House  in Forty Fort. During that time we had battle reenactments as well as Christmas time candlelight tours. At that time the house was red and the Pennsylvania History and Museum commission advised us that the color was not the original one. We were informed  that it was white, the color you see here.

The House advocates didn’t have a lot of money so we applied for a grant to paint the house, add sidewalks off of Denison street and put slate walls up to add safety and protection from rain run off.

The grant of $850,000 was put to good use through the good offices of the late Charles Spitale Junior, the late Attorney Charles Bufalino and architect Carl Handman

In all of our research back in 1986-87 we were not aware of this contribution from a powerful determined woman.  Suffice to say we are glad that as Paul Harvey used to posit,  “Now you know the rest of the story”. 

 

IMMIGRANT BUSINESSWOMAN LED WAY IN HISTORIC PRESERVATION

 

In Monday’s Look Back feature, reporter Ed Lewis recounted the story of Marie Youssoupoff, and how she played a significant role in saving the historic Nathan Denison House from demolition nearly a century ago.

As Lewis reported based on archival newspaper stories, Youssoupoff, a Russian immigrant who arrived in the United States in 1919, was the oriental rug connoisseur at the Boston Store in downtown Wilkes-Barre in the 1920s, bringing quality carpets from Asia to Wyoming Valley consumers.

In January 1927, Youssoupoff purchased an old home that would become a new home for her rug business: The Denison House in Forty Fort.

Built in 1790, the house off Wyoming Avenue had been built by one of the valley’s pioneering settler families from Connecticut.

Col. Denison, who was among the first 40 settlers to plant roots here in 1769 (Forty Fort takes its name from them), was a militia commander who served at the Battle of Wyoming in 1778 and later became a county judge. The house which bears his name was built in a style common to his native Connecticut, with the rooms arranged around a large central chimney.

Denison lived there until his death in 1809 and it continued to be occupied by members of his family for over a century.

Richard Reilay, a direct descendant of Denison, lived in the home until the 1920s, and then it was vacant for about a year — but threatened with demolition for real estate development.

Friends interested in local history brought the home to Youssoupoff’s attention. She agreed it was worth saving.

Youssoupoff continued to sell oriental rugs from the Denison House and frequently took her business on the road speaking to many civic and women’s organizations across the Wyoming Valley, as Lewis reported.

She was reported to have restored the interior in “strict accord with early American standards,” he added.

The Denison House would remain under private ownership until efforts got underway in the late 1960s to preserve the historic property. In 1976 the Bureau of Historic Sites and Properties of the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission completed restoration of the house to its 1790 appearance.

It has been owned by the Luzerne County Historical Society since 2010, and has become a beloved centerpiece of local history, visited by students and the general public during events at which interpreters in period garb often demonstrate cooking and crafts of the early 19th century.

While it took the work of many hands and significant funding to make the Denison House the treasured landmark it is today, none of that would have been possible if Youssoupoff, inspired by civic-minded friends, had not stepped in nearly 100 years ago to prevent what could have been an irreversible loss to the Wyoming Valley.

Her efforts echo the contributions of immigrants to American independence in Denison’s time, including figures such as the Marquis de La Fayette, Tadeusz Kościuszko — and, lest we forget, John Wilkes and Isaac Barré.

They also echo the more recent contributions of many people and organizations in our community who have fought to save other historic structures, such as the Wilkes-Barré Preservation Society, which in recent years purchased the Zebulon Butler house in Wilkes-Barre, built by a contemporary of Denison.

Then, too, there have been adaptive reuse projects such as re-development of numerous vintage homes and commercial structures by King’s College and Wilkes University, as well as private sector developments that have found new uses for downtown Wilkes-Barre’s towering old bank buildings.

Much has been lost over the years, and we know it’s not always feasible to save everything. Last year’s demolition of the former Frank Clark Jeweler building in Wilkes-Barre was a sad example of that. But with Wilkes-Barre’s move late last year to advance a historic preservation ordinance there emerged another tool for those looking to protect the fabric of our region’s past.

May the example of Marie Youssoupoff inspire us all.

— Times Leader  Ed Lewis