From Crystal Club Soda to Gertrude Hawk Chocolate

Senator Barack Obama will hold a town hall meeting in Dunmore on Tuesday.  The meeting will be held at the Dunmore Community Center, 1414 Monroe Ave. Doors will open at 1:30 p.m. Tickets are free and can be obtained at Lackawanna County’s Obama campaign headquarters, 114 Wyoming Ave., Scranton, on Sunday, from 1 to 10 p.m., and on Monday from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m.

Sen. Barack Obama’s bus tour will be stopping in Scranton on April Fools’ Day, a city official confirmed.  Tuesday’s visit will come on the fifth day of the Democratic presidential candidate’s six-day tour across the state, which the campaign has dubbed “Road to Change.” He is expected during the tour to discuss the need to create jobs, improve schools and make health care available to every American.  [Times-Tribune]

The reputed boss of a northeastern Pennsylvania crime family pleaded guilty Friday to reduced charges, a possible sign that he has agreed to testify against a businessman accused of lying to get a casino license.  William D’Elia, 62, the alleged boss of the Bufalino crime family, was charged in 2006 with laundering hundreds of thousands of dollars in drug proceeds and trying to have a co-defendant in the case killed.  D’Elia had been facing 18 counts, including solicitation of murder, but pleaded guilty to only two, witness tampering and conspiracy to launder money.  [Associated Press]

Lucy, who ran the Dinner Bell, in Dunmore would be considered by at least one customer to be the best bar tender in the world. Photo courtesy of Bob Patterson.

CNN published a story on the “Pizza Capitol of the World”, Old Forge.  [CNN]

A Scranton man who works as a security guard was arrested Thursday for having in excess of $10,000 worth of cocaine, marijuana and other drugs at his home. Police also found a cache of 13 semi-automatic rifles and handguns, several boxes of ammunition, two bullet-proof vests and gas masks at the home of Thomas J. Evanitsky at the rear of 523 Hemlock St. in Scranton. [Times-Tribune]

The following is an excerpt from an interview with Rainn Wilson and Greg Daniels of The Office from monstersandcritics.dom:

Were you able to kind of recapture the energy at all when you guys got back from the convention in Scranton?

Greg Daniels: Sure. The convention was very fun and, it was a wonderful experience to see how many thousands of fans came from all over the world and there were people from Ireland and Oregon.

People came from a really great distance. This was my first time in Scranton although we’ve done so much research on the Internet. And I was really struck by how beautiful Scranton is, which is not what we really have been portraying in here. But we saw some of the sights like Nay Aug Park and the Treehouse, which is this amazing wheelchair accessible treehouse that they’ve built over this gorge.

There’s a lot of weird kind of Scranton-specific things that we saw, that will I’m sure come into different episodes. And the entire writing staff was there and they all had different experiences at driving around and going to Scranton bars, and meeting the policewomen. Stuff like that. So I think it was very good for the creativity of everybody here.

Rainn Wilson: Really it’s a lovely town. Like there are big old buildings, 100 years old, all over the downtown - big brick buildings that have a really cool industrial look, and a lot of iron work. And stuff like that.

And there’s beautiful hills all around Scranton. It’s like down in this little valley and there’s lovely trees and hills all over the place. A very green city…Brought to you by the City of Scranton Tourist Bureau. [M&C]

Businessman Gerry Donahue told The Times-Tribune on Saturday he has purchased the Lackawanna Avenue building that has sat mostly empty since the former gas company built the $16 million structure in 2005.  The news was met with enthusiasm by Mayor Chris Doherty and Greater Scranton Chamber of Commerce President Austin Burke.  Mr. Doherty called the building the best in Northeast Pennsylvania and said the purchase was another example of businesses investing in the downtown.  [Times-Tribune]

Photo by jonathoanslingluff.

The Washington Post covers Barack’s speech at the Irish Society of Women dinner.  [Washington Post]