Duncan, Igawa Return To Yankees Camp

México: Gobierno privilegia seguridad en presupuesto 2009

Intrusion of home is nothing less than bizarre
The crusty comedian W.C. Fields was noted for his biting sarcasm such as his famous observation that &ldquo;anyone who hates dogs and children can&rsquo;t be all bad.&rdquo;
I happened to think of that when I read the Jan. 6 account of Stanley Carter, who allegedly made himself at home in the attic of a home in Plains Township, and the lame excuse offered by Carter&rsquo;s attorney, Basil Russin. Russin said that Carter was &ldquo;peaceful up there and kept to himself.&rdquo; Gee, that was nice of him.
In a sense, Russin is saying that Carter can&rsquo;t be all bad. Never mind that he invaded the privacy of a residence, helped himself to food, clothing and various other items and left a 5-year-old child afraid to go to bed at night.
Your home is your castle and you can bet your boots that if attorney Russin had the sanctity of his home violated in a similar fashion, there would be no excusing the bizarre behavior of this bizarre intruder.
Congressmen who do their jobs merit raises
Renita Fennick&rsquo;s column (Jan. 4) took Congress to task for its members&rsquo; acceptance of a pay raise. First I&rsquo;d like to say I have the greatest respect for her column week after week, which demonstrates both common sense and brilliance.
Having said that, I&rsquo;d like to point out the real issue should be the members of Congress, such as Democrat John Murtha of Johnstown, who deserve a large pay decrease.
Ms. Fennick finds Rep. Paul Kanjorski&rsquo;s reasons for a pay increase to be &ldquo;a bit amusing.&rdquo; Well, Mr. Kanjorski&rsquo;s entire career in Congress has been &ldquo;amusing.&rdquo; Instead of being a true congressman, Kanjorski has been a self-appointed employment agency in finding high-paying federal and other jobs for relatives and friends. Just as &ldquo;amusing&rdquo; are the thousands upon thousands of people who keep voting the straight-party ticket to put him back into Congress.
Yet, when the columnist places Congressman Chris Carney in the same class with Kanjorski, she is amiss. Taxpayer watchdog groups have consistently praised Carney as one of the hardest-working members of Congress who typically is at work seven days a week, week after week, for his constituents.
Carney turned down the last pay increase, instead donating it to cancer research. Instead of praise for this, Ms. Fennick seems to use it as a backdoor way of being critical of Carney. He was one of very few congressmen who had the courage to vote against the astronomical financial industry bailout.
Every hardworking individual deserves a cost-of-living raise. How many people, hardworking or not, would turn down a pay raise?
Carney can&rsquo;t be faulted for accepting pay raise
There were many omissions in Renita Fennick&rsquo;s angry column (Jan. 4) about congressional pay raises.
She seems to think that Congressman Chris Carney approves of the raises. If that is the case, why did he donate his pay raise to charity? And why did he vote against it? He has voted many times to lower taxes and reduce the spending in Washington. 
I am sure if another vote on pay raises comes up, Carney will vote against it. 
Obama criticized for Freedom of Choice stand
I lay awake recently, thinking about whether I could put my shock into words. It started a few weeks ago when we read that the president-elect, while talking about abortion, said that he had given his daughters morals but, in the event that something happened, he would not want them to be &ldquo;punished&rdquo; with children.
We showed the report of this statement to many of our friends who concluded, like us, that it had to be a horrible misquote. But we were all fooled.
The Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA) is a potential federal law that would remove most of the restrictions on abortion including: 1) providing a right to have an abortion at any time during a pregnancy; 2) having the abortions paid for with our taxes; 3) forcing all states to allow partial-birth abortions ; 4) requiring medical people and hospitals to support abortions and 5) removing parents&rsquo; involvement in their minor children&rsquo;s decisions to abort.
The president-elect previously said that signing the bill would be the first thing he&rsquo;d do as president.
Hunter urges changes to bow hunting season
As I sat in my tree stand Dec. 1 waiting for first light and that elusive buck to appear, I pondered many things. One of those things was my ever-diminishing odds each successive year of seeing a legal buck. 
On opening day this year, I heard fewer shots off in the distance than at any time I could remember, even though doe are now included. I started to wonder why the opening was so silent.
Forty years ago when I was a Pennsylvania farm boy starting to hunt, the number of archery hunters was much smaller and the bow hunting equipment was much harder to use and therefore less accurate. As a result, the archery kill was significantly smaller. With all the advances in archery equipment and the increasing number of archers, the regulations have not been kept up to date. 
Thinking about it from a business perspective, I thought it was foolish to &ldquo;disenfranchise your largest group of customers.&rdquo; Many hunters, especially older ones, are just giving up because they say there are so few shootable bucks (particularly in farm country) with archery season taking an ever-growing toll.
It is past time to amend the bow hunting regulations and bring some fairness back to all hunters.  Some suggestions would be to allow only doe or small bucks in archery season or allow the taking of doe and bucks for only one week. Something has to be done or the number of gun hunters will simply continue to decline
Writer optimistic about area&rsquo;s new med school
As a student with dreams of becoming a doctor, I will welcome The Commonwealth Medical College (TCMC) wholeheartedly when its first class starts in the fall of 2009.
 I applaud all the officials from TCMC and the Northeastern Pennsylvania Medical Education Development Consortium for making this medical school a reality. No doubt this will have an overwhelmingly positive impact on the region. According to the medical school&rsquo;s Web site (thecommonwealthmedical.com), the opening of TCMC will add 1,000 jobs directly and indirectly to the area, pump $70 million into the local economy and contribute more than 400 physicians to the area. The Web site also states that during the next decade one-third of physicians in the area will retire, creating a need for more primary care doctors. This certainly sounds promising, though I do have some concerns. 
The medical school is looking for local applicants, but what bounds the med student to the area after he or she graduates? Will the student be guaranteed a job at an area hospital, practice or clinic after he or she completes his/her residency? Also, how will TCMC med students compete against others from throughout the country when it comes time to match a student with a residency program? (Admittedly, it will take time for TCMC to build a good reputation.)
 Finally I have concerns that the medical school will be geared greatly toward primary care. This can be an issue for the student who wishes to pursue surgery as his/her residency.
But nonetheless, I am thrilled to see a medical school in our area and perhaps, someday, I might find myself applying there.
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Intrusion of home is nothing less than bizarre The crusty comedian