Local Vote Today.

The voting polls for today’s Carthage City Council and the R-9 School District will be the same as in recent elections. They will be open from 6 AM until 7 PM.

Candidates for Carthage City Council: 1st Ward - No candidate filed but two individuals have publicly declared their intent to take the open seat if elected by write-in vote. They are Milissa Daugherty and Jim Swatsenbarg. A write-in vote is valid only if the name is written in, and the bar is filled in beside the name. Extremely small numbers of votes (3) have elected write-in candidates in the past.; 2nd Ward - Wayne Walter, deceased (name will appear on the ballot); 3rd Ward - Steve Leibbrand; 4th Ward (2-year term) - Bill Welch and Dan Rife; 4th Ward (1-year term) - John Cooper and Lee Carlson; 5th Ward - Adam Givens, Ed Hardesty and Lujene Clark.

Candidates for Carthage R-9 School Board, 3 seats available: Jeff Jones - President of the Board of Education; Tony Diggs - Board of Education member; Alan Snow - Candidate for Board of Education; Elizabeth Streich - Candidate for Board of Education.

I see where some of the premium brands of ice cream are goin’ to one and three-quarter quart containers instead of the traditional half gallon "brick". Makin’ ‘em an eighth of a brick short of a load I suppose.

‘Course ya haven’t been able to buy a "pound" a coffee for some time. That industry discovered the short round a long while back. They compensated by devisin’ the large "3 pound" short load that at best is only 39 ounces rather than the 48. And, the pound a bacon is another long gone thing of the past.

Butter is still holdin’ on to the full pound, and milk and gas still come in gallons.

The soft drink industry are ‘bout the only ones that bought into the liter.

This is some fact, but mostly,

Just Jake Talkin’.

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Weekly Column

To Your Good Health

By Paul G. Donohue, M.D.

Bladder Infections Are Bane of Women

DEAR DR. DONOHUE: Please explain urinary tract infections. Why do they recur? My doctor prescribes antibiotics, but shortly after I’ve completed taking them, I have another infection. What do you suggest as treatment? A pharmacist told me that I needed one or two days in the hospital to flush out my kidneys. -- S.A.

ANSWER: Urinary tract infections fall into one of two types. Upper tract infections indicate that the kidneys are involved. These are serious and less-common infections. Lower urinary tract infections are bladder infections, and they are very common. That’s the kind of infection I believe you have.

Women are prone to develop bladder infections for a number of reasons. One, the tube (urethra) that empties their bladder is much shorter than in males, so bacteria can gain access to the bladder more easily. Secondly, the opening of the female urethra is in a place with a large population of bacteria. And thirdly, sexual relations massage bacteria into the female urethra and bladder.

A bladder infection -- cystitis -- provokes frequent trips to the bathroom, an urgent need to quickly empty the bladder or suffer an accident, and pain, usually described as burning, during urination.

Women with repeated bladder infections need to be evaluated to see if the infection is a relapse (an infection with the same bacterium) or a new infection (infection with a different bacterium). The approach to treatment hinges on that information.

If a woman has another infection with the same bacterium, the doctor can put her on the same antibiotic for a longer period of time and can continue to treat long after symptoms have gone. The continued treatment is with a reduced antibiotic dose.

Home remedies can be helpful. Drinking 8 ounces of cranberry juice daily benefits prevention of the most common cause of these infections. The kidney flush suggestion is not a good one.