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Pa. creates criminal offense of sexual extortion

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Remember When: We experienced the holidays in leisurely style

<p><strong>Diamonds</strong> to the volunteers who made sure many Wyoming Valley residents and families had warm, nutritious meals and fellowship on Thanksgiving that they might have missed out on otherwise. There were several organizations engaged in such compassionate efforts, but we would like to highlight two that we profiled for Friday&#8217;s paper.</p><p>The Commission on Economic Opportunity, marking the 40th anniversary of the annual effort, marshalled volunteers who gathered in the kitchen of the First Presbyterian Church on Franklin Street, Wilkes-Barre, to prepare nearly 1,000 meals for delivery to homebound residents all over Luzerne County.</p><p>At the Forty Fort United Methodist Church, meanwhile, more than 30 volunteers turned out to organize a free Thanksgiving meal &#8212; interestingly, again, a tradition going back more than 40 years.</p><p>In all, organizer Marbeth Rudolph said that 19 turkeys and 200 pounds of potatoes &#8212; along with Thanksgiving standards including stuffing, corn, vegetables and pies &#8212; made up 135 in-house meals, and 100 meals each for both take-out and delivery.</p><p>Lest we forget, other churches and St. Vincent de Paul Kitchen also served up Thanksgiving fare.</p><p>To each and all, thank you for your service to this community.</p><p><strong>Coal</strong> to a small number of badly behaved people who embarrassed themselves by starting fights in area stores as Black Friday shopping was getting underway, as well as those who took advantage of the crowds and confusion to help themselves to merchandise without paying.</p><p>Social media being what it is, some reports were blown vastly out proportion to what police actually encountered on scene. Based on a scanner call, it initially sounded as if one department store was fully erupted in fights. It turns out that was far from the case &#8212; and that also is why responsible news media outlets don&#8217;t report unsubstantiated scanner chatter for stories.</p><p>Social media users with access to police scanners have no such prohibitions, and the result is that alarming (and sometimes completely incorrect) initial reports circulate widely on Facebook, in particular, before the details are known. So we&#8217;ll also toss some coal out to the people who spread such reports.</p><p><strong>Diamonds</strong> to Greg Griffin, litter coordinator for the New Roots Recovery Center in Wilkes-Barre, and those who are organizing today to clean up a heavily littered area in Wilkes-Barre&#8217;s Rolling Mill Hill neighborhood. Among those joining in the cleanup will be the Greater Wilkes-Barre Taxpayers&#8217; Coalition, the Rolling Mill Hill Residents&#8217; Association and the Eastern Pennsylvania Coalition for Abandoned Mine Reclamation.</p><p>If you&#8217;re reading this early enough, volunteers can meet at Arch and Andover streets at 10 a.m. Gloves, trash bags and refreshments will be provided.</p><p style="text-align: right;"><em> &#8212; Times Leader</em></p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Logan Shrader, 10, of Mountain Top, left, and Gianni Piccolotti, of White Haven, carry a crate of milk as volunteers assemble Thanksgiving meals at the First Presbyterian Church in Wilkes-Barre on Thursday. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/web1_TTL112919CEOturkey_3-1.jpg</photo0><caption0>Logan Shrader, 10, of Mountain Top, left, and Gianni Piccolotti, of White Haven, carry a crate of milk as volunteers assemble Thanksgiving meals at the First Presbyterian Church in Wilkes-Barre on Thursday. </caption0><photoCredit0>Bill Tarutis | For Times Leader </photoCredit0></div></div>

Diamonds and Coal: Thanksgiving volunteers good, people fighting in stores bad