The LuLac Edition #5, 579, February 19th, 2026

 

PROFILES IN COURAGE?

NOT IN THE

LAC

OR THE LU

 

A troubling situation is occurring in both county governments involving a major issue that may come to their constituents. Good government sometimes means being proactive, not reactive. What is happening now is that it appears leadership in both counties are governing not by taking on the issues head on but by personal grievances.

       Silly me, I thought that’s why the Democratic party is fighting Trump and his grievance squad.

       But here’s the deal. Let’s start in The Lac. Democrat Bill Gaughan has been using his post as a commissioner to express his concerns about the state of immigration, its effect on Lackawanna County as well as the unfortunate administration of ICE in cities and towns that might come to this area. Gaughan has called for an ordinance that is wide ranging and is subject to legal interpretation. Okay, no issue with that.

       The ordinance was discussed at the work session but did not make the Wednesday Commissioners meeting.

       What did make the news was that WILK reported that Commissioners Welby and Chermak said that Gaughan’s comments  on issues other than those affecting Lackawanna County should not be used as a  platform. Gaughan who used to be Chair was aced out by an alliance between Democrat Thom Welby and Chris  Chermak. Both had no love lost for Gaughan and relegated him to the role of Minority Commissioner. Now it appears they are trying to limit his first Amendment right for freedom of speech. They have covered this by claiming that Gaughan would not be speaking for Lackawanna County Government. But talk about slicing see through thin baloney. Gaughan as a Commissioner is speaking to constituents. It’s his time and if the general public think what he is saying is untrue, dangerous or off the wall, they can throw him out in 2029.

       I can’t help but think that this is payback to Gaughan for some of his decisions. But this is huge. We are in a Constitutional crisis and the last I looked these three Commissioners took an oath to uphold the Constitution of the United States, not Archibald or Taylor.

MEANWHILE IN 

THE LU

COUNTY COUNCIL 

PUNTS ON ANTI- ICE RESOLUTION

 

Two weeks ago, Denise Williams wanted to introduce a resolution regarding the use of deadly force by ICE agents. It was prompted by two things. The first was of course the murders in Minnesota as well as concerns that Williams encountered on the campaign trail. To me, as Democrats who are making this a campaign issue statewide as well as nationally this would be a no brainer.
      Well silly me, this is the new County council majority flexing its muscles. A debate ensued with one new comer Chris Belles calling it grandstanding. This is the same guy thinks that federal funding will be taken away from the county if we here make a peep. Does he not realize there is a Republican Congressman here? Then he said he thought the resolution would use the immigrants here as props for political advantage.  For exactly whose political advantage. Ya’ll folks just got elected  and no one except Lombardo and Bryn Smith are running for something.

      Then Vice Chair Brittany Stephenson said the intentions were good but more people must participate in a conversation if the county is going to take a risk. Hey YOU ARE THE CONVERSATION. Do you want to have a general meeting where all the MAGA crazies attend? What is there to say? It’s a  resolution.

      Man if the colonists worried about “target on their back”, we’d still be subjects of England. Steve Coslett said it was out of the sandbox of county government and all people wanted were bridges and  not out area of expertise. Uh, ya gotta be an expert to voice a concern about a possible issue?  

 
      Then a county council  member Dawn Simmons said ICE was here and cited two instances where a  a married father of two and taxpaying owner of two auto repair shops in the county — was transported to a detention center by ICE last year and was “back in Mexico” within six days, she said.

    She also spoke of her brother.

    “While not born here, he is naturalized and has a green card and served in the Army for at least two decades, and ICE picked him up and put him in a detention center as a veteran,” Simmons said. “We had to fight tooth and nail to get him out and keep him here.”

    Then she stopped short and said let’s make it stronger. What is wrong with the first step? You build on it once there is a resolution.But by falling in line, you helped kill the "resolution" that other counties are mulling over. 

    But they didn’t and I have to believe that it was because of another action the council members took. A few weeks back Council voted down an Election reform measure that was supported by Action Together. The County Manager wasn’t for it, the Election Director Emily Cook (who I worked with in a previous company and have enormous respect for her judgement) thought it wasn’t a good idea and even the right-wing GOP Citizen’s Advisory board wasn’t for it. It was voted down 9 to 2.

What’s the connection? At the meeting where Williams on I bet she thought was good faith,  expected support from her fellow Dems, didn’t get. To boot, she got an accusation of “grandstanding” from Belles (who is rapidly becoming the new Brian Thornton)  and no support from her fellow candidates.

Are you kidding me? If anything, this was a good resolution recognizing the situation in the next county. Plus, a mere resolution isn’t going to affect how law enforcement does its job.

    I’d like to know what is the difference between the Democrats supporting a resolution to the Public Utility regarding high energy prices and this one?

      I can’t help but think this was the following:

a.       An incredible political blunder where this council majority wouldn’t even bring this to a vote. Dumb politics.

b.                 Petty retribution because the main players behind the election measure lost and decided to “show somebody something”.

c.      Unwittingly threatening each individual council member’s own agenda (which during the campaign I thought were all impressive) to get something done. It sends a message that at any moment, you too can be shot down.

Look elected officials in the Lu and the Lac, let Billy Gauhan sound his alarm. In the Lu, some of you council people THOUGHT you won the election because you were swell people. That might be partly true.  But you can’t escape the fact that in a Republic county, there was a segment of voters who voted Democratic because of what Trump and his unpatriotic fascists want to do to our country.

If you could pass a resolution on public utilities, you can acknowledge a warning about ICE.

      Really, the roads and bridges will be taken care of but it’s not the time to stay in your sandbox. You took a Constitutional oath. That oath doesn’t stop at the borders of Luzurne and Lackawanna counties.

      Live up to it.  (Times Leader, WILK, LuLac, Scranton Times Tribunre, WVIA FM) 

  

WHILE WE DITHER ON ICE

 SOUTH OF US......... 

RACHEL WALLACE APPLAUDS COMMISSIONER’S LETTER QUESTIONING INCOMING ICE FACILITY

 

Wallace: “This is not about Republican versus Democrat, this is about our county”

 

Rachel Wallace, candidate for U.S. Congress in Pennsylvania’s 9th Congressional District, applauded Schuylkill County Commissioner Larry Padora after he sent a letter to federal representatives questioning the incoming Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention facility in Tremont.

“This is not about Republican versus Democrat, this is about our county, and this facility should not be built here,” Wallace said. “I’m proud to stand with the Schuylkill County Commissioners in demanding that our federal representatives start doing their jobs.”

Earlier today, Larry Padora, Chairman of the Schuylkill County Board of Commissioners, published a letter he sent to Rep. Dan Meuser, Senator John Fetterman, and Senator Dave McCormick that outlined the facility’s “significant fiscal, infrastructure, public safety, and judicial impacts.”

“Schuylkill County does not take a position on federal immigration policy,” Padora wrote in his letter, which was sent February 17. “However, we have a statutory and fiduciary obligation to protect our taxpayers, emergency responders, and municipal systems from unfunded federal mandates… At full capacity, the facility functions as a municipality larger than many communities within our county without a tax base, without independent emergency services, and without judicial infrastructure."

The letter outlines concerns with the loss of $1 million in annual taxes to the county, Tremont Township, and the Pine Grove School District, which is the pride of the community. It also details concerns with local infrastructure capacity. The chairman estimates in his letter that a facility of this size could generate up to 11,700 EMS responses annually, straining the county’s volunteer-based emergency services, as well as substantial water and wastewater treatment demands.   

Padora demanded federal engagement and enforceable commitments within the next two months, threatening that, without them, the county will “be required to evaluate all available legal, regulatory, and administrative remedies necessary to protect local taxpayers, emergency services capacity, and infrastructure integrity."

“I appreciate that Larry is putting a timeframe on all of this, because we’ve seen what happens when our federal representatives sit on their hands and do nothing,” Wallace said. “We raised the alarm about this over a month ago, before the purchase was finalized, and Meuser was silent. We need leaders who will show up and put our communities over national politics.”

Despite the scale of the project and the questions it raises, Rep. Dan Meuser has told reporters he expects the fa      cility to have a “positive impact” on the community, while continuing to offer no public forum or explation to residents in the area.

Wallace held a town hall last month, bringing together over 100 residents who shared concerns, asked questions, and discussed how to stop the purchase from going through. Meuser waited until February 13, a week after ICE brought the property in Tremont and a second property in northern Berks County, before reaching out to county commissioners.

 

 

SAVE ACT GOING

NOWHERE FOR NOW….

BUT THE LIES STILL CONTINUE

 

The act, which passed with the support of all 217 House Republicans but only one Democrat, is a centerpiece of Trump’s agenda to exercise more federal oversight over elections and prevent illegal voting, which is already very rare. It’s essentially version 2.0 of the SAVE Act, which passed the House last year.

Like its predecessor, the SAVE America Act would require people who are registering to vote to provide proof of their U.S. citizenship. (Currently, new registrants only have to attest under penalty of perjury that they are citizens.) This version of the bill also adds a photo ID requirement for voters and requires states to run their voter rolls through the Department of Homeland Security’s Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements database to scan for noncitizens. All provisions of the bill would take effect immediately upon enactment.

But enactment is unlikely. The filibuster rule effectively means that legislation needs 60 votes to pass the Senate, and Republicans hold only a 53-47 majority in the upper chamber. Some Republicans are pushing to turn the filibuster from a procedural formality into a literal requirement that Democrats hold the floor and talk indefinitely in order to block the bill, which could allow the bill to pass with a simple majority if Democrats run out of steam. But that would derail the Senate for weeks, and Senate Majority Leader John Thune isn’t making encouraging noises.

If the bill does somehow become law, though, it would dramatically shake up how the 2026 elections run. Only three states currently require all newly registering voters to prove their citizenship, and 27 states don’t require photo IDs to vote, so the bill would suddenly impose new requirements on millions of Americans.

And there are serious questions about whether it’s even practically possible to implement them all in time for the midterm elections. Election officials are sounding the alarm about how the bill would force them to build out entirely new procedures without the time or money to do so.

The proof-of-citizenship requirement in particular would be a hassle for potential voters and election officials alike. According to a 2023 survey conducted by SSRS on behalf of the University of Maryland and three voting-rights groups, 9% of voting-age citizens don’t have easy access to a document that proves their citizenship, such as a passport, birth certificate, or naturalization certificate.

This is a heavy-handed attempt by the Republican party to create a problem where there isn’t one. We have clean elections yet these GOP sycophants again overextended themselves with chaos, cruelty and crazy.

They bow to the pig President as he said that no other country has mail in ballots except the United States. Oh yeah?

Europe 68% of the countries.

Asia  33%

Oceania  50%

The Republican party has always run on fear. This President has extended that to ignorance and lies. I know I’m wishing for the impossible here but I just wish he’d stop the bullshit. (AP, MS, LuLac) 

  

TRUMP PISSED.......

Nothing new here but he is livid that 125 historians said he was the worst President ever. He beats out a guy (Tyler) who joined the Confederacy after his time in office was over, a Pennsylvanian  (Buchanan) who totally mishandled the oncoming Civil War and  (Andrew Johnson) who screwed up Reconstruction. 

Wow! There's nowhere to go but............well down.  

COLBERT STICKS 

IT TO CBS  

BRESNAHAN ANNOUNCES

FUNDING FOR

WILKES-BARRE VA

MEDICAL CENTER

 

Representative Rob Bresnahan, Jr.  announced the Wilkes-Barre VA Medical Center has been selected for critical infrastructure upgrades as part of a nationwide initiative by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). These improvements will directly benefit veterans across Northeastern Pennsylvania, helping ensure the facility remains safe, reliable, and able to deliver the high-quality care our veterans have earned.

“The Wilkes-Barre VA Medical Center is a vital resource for our district, serving veterans across our community,” said Rep. Bresnahan. “These upgrades will ensure the facility can continue providing the care our veterans deserve and give each of them the support and resources they need today and in the years ahead.”

“Under President Trump, VA is putting Veterans first, and this historic investment underscores that fact,” said VA Secretary Doug Collins. “Improved facilities, equipment and infrastructure mean better care for Veterans, and these funds will enable VA to achieve that goal.”

 

ROB AND CHELSEA 

VISIT THE BAKERIES 

ON FAT TUESDAY 

 Congressman Rob Bresnehan and his wife Chelsea visited area bakeries the day before Ash Wednesday. The pair hooked up with Bonnie at The Sanitary in Nanticoke.  To me the Sanitary is the best bakery EVER, you can't beat their pizza and macaroons. I even featured the bakery in my workplace novel, "Weather Or Knot". 

 

SHAPIRO ADMINISTRATION HIGHLIGHTS FIRST LOCAL AGING AGENCIES TO DEVELOP NEW, REGIONAL TEAMS DESIGNED TO PROTECT OLDER ADULTS FROM ABUSE

 

Pennsylvania Department of Aging Secretary Jason Kavulich touts how regional teams created under the Shapiro Administration and backed by the U.S. Department of Justice will help keep older Pennsylvanians safe and protected from abuse.

These regional coalitions are called Multidisciplinary Teams (MDTs) and are designed specifically to address complex older adult protective services cases in their respective counties and regions. Secretary Kavulich today visited with leaders from the Berks, Lancaster, and Lehigh County Area Agencies on Aging (AAAs) to see how their teams are benefitting from individualized, tailored support from outside experts and the Department.

The AAAs joining the Secretary today were among the first in Pennsylvania to receive this customized support and guidance.

"We are doing groundbreaking collaborative work at the state level to ensure the protection of older adults at the community level," said Secretary Kavulich. "One of our Administration's priorities is to continuously advance and modernize our practices while supporting the AAAs, District Attorney's Offices, and our community partnersto ensure older adults are cared for and safe in their chosen community. We are deploying national level expertise and proven practical approaches to help AAAs and community partners build teams that are person-centered and abl\\\e to move quickly to get the right resources for the victim."Pennsylvania Department of Aging Secretary Jason Kavulich touts how regional teams created under the Shapiro Administration and backed by the U.S. Department of Justice will help keep older Pennsylvanians safe and protected from abuse.

These regional coalitions are called Multidisciplinary Teams (MDTs) and are designed specifically to address complex older adult protective services cases in their respective counties and regions. Secretary Kavulich today visited with leaders from the Berks, Lancaster, and Lehigh County Area Agencies on Aging (AAAs) to see how their teams are benefitting from individualized, tailored support from outside experts and the Department.

The AAAs joining the Secretary today were among the first in Pennsylvania to receive this customized support and guidance.

"We are doing groundbreaking collaborative work at the state level to ensure the protection of older adults at the community level," said Secretary Kavulich. "One of our Administration's priorities is to continuously advance and modernize our practices while supporting the AAAs, District Attorney's Offices, and our community partnersto ensure older adults are cared for and safe in their chosen community. We are deploying national level expertise and proven practical approaches to help AAAs and community partners build teams that are person-centered and able to move quickly to get the right resources for the victim."

 

MEDIA MATTERS

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THE LULAC TIME MACHINE

“JAMES HARRIOT” DIES

February 1995

This Sunday I believe is the last episode of the ongoing series “All Things Great and Small”. It is also the death anniversary of one James Alfed White who was James Harriot. He had to use a d a pseudonym because the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons' regulations prevented vets from any type of advertising. A reliable source states that he "chose the name after attending a football match in which the Scotland internationalist Jim Herriot played in goal for Birmingham City.

In 1940, Wight met 21 year old Joan Danbury, the daughter of the local borough engineer, who was working as a secretary in an office in Millgate in Thirsk. They courted for 6 months until the start of Wight's military service in the RAF (see below) and married 6 months later on 5 November 1941 at St Mary's Church, Thirsk,[8] while Wight was stationed in Scarborough. The couple were then apart until Wight's return from service (having rotated from Scarborough to other locations for training) in November 1943, with Joan plus the couple's first child James Alexander (known to his parents as "Jimmy" or "Seamus"), born February that year, residing at her parents' home in Sowerby for the duration.

After the couple returned to Thirsk, Wight "carried on TB testing [of] cows in Wensleydale and the top floor of 23 Kirkgate became Joan and Alf's first home".They also had a second child Rosemary Beatrice ("Rosie"), born 9 May 1947.

Wight took six years to complete the five-year programme at Glasgow Veterinary College. He failed several of his classes on the first try (surgery, pathology, physiology, histology, animal husbandry). His setback was partly because of a recurring gastrointestinal problem, which required operations. He graduated on 14 December 1939.

In January 1940, Wight joined a veterinary practice in Sunderland, working for J. J. McDowall. In January 1940, Wight joined a veterinary practice in Sunderland, working for J. J. McDowall. He decided that he would prefer a rural practice and accepted a position in July, based at 23 Kirkgate in Thirsk, near the Yorkshire Dales and the North York Moors. The practice owner, Donald Sinclair, had enlisted in the Royal Air Force (RAF) and was soon to leave for training; he gave Wight all the practice's income in return for Wight's looking after it during his absence.[10] (His brother, Brian Sinclair, was not yet a vet.) After Sinclair was discharged from the RAF four months later, he asked Wight to stay permanently with the practice, offering a salaried partnership, which Wight accepted.

Wight enlisted in the RAF in April 1941 (although in his books he gave the date as November 1942), undertaking preliminary training in London, Scarborough (during which time he obtained leave to marry Joan in Thirsk, some forty miles away), an unnamed location in Shropshire, then flying training at Winkfield airfield near Windsor and finally to Heaton Park near Manchester.He did well in his training and was one of the first in his flight to fly solo. However after undergoing surgery on an anal fistula in July 1943, he was deemed unfit to fly combat aircraft and was discharged as a leading aircraftman the following November, having trained in the force for 2 years and 7 months without seeing active duty. He joined his wife at her parents' house, where she had lived since he left Thirsk. They lived there until the summer of 1945, when they moved back to 23 Kirkgate after Sinclair and his wife moved to a house of their own. In 1953, the family moved to a house on Topcliffe Road, Thirsk. Wishing for more privacy as the popularity of All Creatures Great and Small increased, in 1977 Wight and his wife moved again, to the smaller village of Thirlby, about 4 miles (6.4 km) from Thirsk; Wight lived there until his death.

Wight became a full partner in the Thirsk practice in 1949 and retired from full-time practice in 1980 but continued to work part time. He fully retired in 1989 (or 1990 according to some sources); by then, he had worked in his field for roughly 50 years.

In Wight's will, his share of the practice passed to his son, Jim Wight, also a vet. Alf Wight had been diagnosed with prostate cancer in 1991 and was treated  for it. In February 1995, he died at his home in Thirlby as a result of the cancer.  His remains were cremated and scattered on Sutton Bank.His wife's health declined after his death, and she died on 14 July 1999. 

The role of Harriot is played by Nicholas Ralph. Two plaques commemorate the main characters in the program in the Harriot museum. Ralph and Samuel West as Siegfried Farnon. 

By 1995, some 50 million of the James Herriot books had been sold and this week in 1995 the number one song in LuLac land and America was “Take A Bow” by Madonna. 

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