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Luzerne County Council set to vote on settlement in connection with inmate’s death

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3 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed in Luzerne County

Taking a ride every evening has proved to be very therapeutic for me.
				Driving around, listening to the radio and checking out different areas has been enlightening and revealing for me.
				Fir instance, I know that former Chicago Bulls center Bill Wennington lives at Harveys Lake. I know which house is his. But as many times as I have driven around the lake, I have yet to catch a glimpse of the 7-foot Wennington.
				I have also relived memories of Hanson&rsquo;s Amusement Park and dance hall and of Sandy Beach and those glory days of the &lsquo;60s and early &rsquo;70s.
				I have driven though my old Plymouth neighborhood many times, always stopping to look around and remember the fun we had back then, the neighbors, the food, the feeling of safe and the joy of sitting on the front porch.
				I have been to North Lake, Sylvan Lake, Lake Silkworth and Shickshinny Lake. I have driven through the streets of several towns and I have always enjoyed the memories that rush to my brain when I realize where I was when something unforgettable happened.
				So the other night I watched the new movie &ldquo;Mob Town.&rdquo; It&rsquo;s about that famous meeting in the fall of 1957 when between 60 and 100 top organized crime figures traveled to Apalachin, New York, to hold a summit meeting at the home of Joseph Barbera.
				Barbera, the movie tells us, was the crime boss of the Northeast &mdash; including Binghamton, Scranton, Pittston and more. His under-boss, again the movie says, was Russell Bufalino of Kingston, who was a central figure in the recent mega-movie The Irishman.
				So as I watched the movie Mob Town, I thought about taking a ride there. It&rsquo;s about an hour and a half from my home, up I-81 to Binghamton and then west to Apalachin.
				So on Sunday, I took the ride. I wanted to experience the ride all those bosses took back in 1957.
				In the fall of 1957, Barbara, known as &ldquo;The Barber,&rdquo; was given an order host the organized-crime kingpins at his home.
				The movie shows how Barbera struggles to buy enough food for the summit &mdash; swordfish, steaks, ice. He was determined to prove he was a worthy host.
				And the movie tells us about Sgt. Edgar Croswell of the New York State Police. Croswell knew something was happening, and he kept on sniffing around until he was proven correct.
				While the arrests of all those organized crime guys were mostly overturned, Croswell&rsquo;s work caught the eye of Washington, D.C. &mdash; President Dwight D. Eisenhower called Croswell to commend him and a few years later, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover led the effort to create the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) that passed in 1970.
				This was historic. And it happened as a result of the diligent police work of Sgt. Croswell in Apalachin, N.Y.
				So I took my ride up there, hoping to find Barbera&rsquo;s former home and also to find where Croswell lived.
				I also stopped in Kirkwood, N.Y., just across the Pa./N.Y. border, to visit the former Marty&rsquo;s Bar where college kids went to drink legally when the age in New York was 18 and Pa. was 21.
				Memories are always good &mdash; sometimes new ones can be fun to make.

Coping with Corona: Where is Apalachin, NY?