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Diamonds to the annual dinner dance for seniors held in Mohegan Pennsylvania’s Keystone Ballroom Thursday, as well as to the people who made it happen and especially to all the young-at-heart folks who revelled in the camaraderie, cuisine and cut-the-rug footwork. The Area Agency on Aging of Luzerne-Wyoming Counties set up a great opportunity for everyone in attendance to snap some memorable pictures on the red carpet under the balloon arch at the entrance, at special spaces in two corners offering props and an instant-print photo mechanism, at the dinner tables and on the dance floor. Smiles abounded and everyone the Times Leader talked to praised the good times. The Luongo Brothers performed a mix of slow and fast pieces suitable for waltzes, rumbas, line-dancing and more. “We love to dance,” Sandra Rowland said, offering a sentiment made obvious in the smiles they shared throughout a waltz. This was one of those uplifting displays of what makes life worth living — at any age.
Coal to the violent mess that unfolded in Wilkes-Barre Tuesday evening. Police accused a Nanticoke man of stabbing another man in a scene involving juveniles and a grandmother. The alleged stabber claims he had been attacked by others carrying bats. Court records say several juvenile females went to a residence to confront another juvenile female and it all drew in a grandmother, escalating into a physical confrontation involving more adults. One person was stabbed in the back with a set of brass knuckles equipped with a knife. Police chased and caught the stabber, and also found two bloody bats. It all sounds like needless violence in a situation that could have been avoided with some common sense and cooler heads.
Diamonds to Luzerne County Court officials for unsealing search warrants related to the homicide investigation of Nicole Cuevas, done after the Times Leader sought them under the state Right To Know law. Sadly, the unsealed documents revealed more depressing details of the grim case of events in what some have dubbed a “house of horrors” on Carlisle Street in Wilkes-Barre, including the suggestion that an 8-year-old child may have witnessed the murder of Cuevas in the building. Everything about this case is grim and disturbing, and we understand why much of the details were initially sealed. But the information should be public at some point, and the decision to release multiple search warrants demonstrates a good-faith effort to abide by the spirit of the open records law.
Coal to the Coaldale juvenile charged as an adult following an incident in Freeland last week. Police say he struck a juvenile female with a metal bat, was notified of his impending arrest, then tried to flea from Freeland police. All of this started with two women in a public park apparently planning a physical altercation. Accounts vary a bit among witnesses, but it all sounds like youngsters trying not only to be adults, but to be stupid adults. And we already have enough of them.
Diamonds to King’s College for landing a $1.45 million grant from the National Science Foundation to address the serious teacher shortage plaguing our K-12 schools. Many factors over the last two decades have helped create the shortage, but we need solutions more urgently than we need to assign blame, and the broad effort this money will help fund seems like a solid approach to fixing the issue.