Today's Feature

Council Meeting Tonight.

Carthage City Council will meet this evening at 7:30 p.m. in the Council Chambers of City Hall. The agenda includes several items in their first reading.

Two items of the items were brought to Council by the Public Safety committee. Council Bill 05-93 would add a new section to the Carthage Code prohibiting the operation of pocket bikes and motorized scooters and Council Bill 05-94 would expand the classification of drug paraphernalia in the Carthage code to include a wider range of paraphernalia than is currently included. These items were discussed at the previous Public Safety committee meeting and come with the recommendation of the committee.

Council bill 05-89 if passed would allow the City to opt out of the "Sales Tax Holiday" which is held the first Friday of August and running the duration of the weekend. The Budget/Ways and Means Committee discussed this item at their previous meeting and decided that the holiday would do more harm than good to the City’s collection.

Other items on the agenda include several annexations of land previously owned by Precious Moments.

Stench Report:
Friday,
12/23/05

No Stench Reported

A lot of these seem to revolve around automobile excursions here or there. Trips over the holidays start the conversation, but they quickly move into any trip that was noteworthy. ‘Course these expand the topic to the various vehicles that were involved at the time. The year and color of the car seem to focus the image of those memories to some extent. Even to the point of whether that brand of automobile was reliable or not.

Details of little consequence except for the renewal of the family’s collective memory, a big part of the Christmas spirit.

This is some fact, but mostly,

Just Jake Talkin’.

Emphysema, Bronchitis Often Coexist

DEAR DR. DONOHUE: I have been told I have COPD, and I have also been told I have chronic bronchitis. Are they the same? Someone once said I have emphysema. Where does that fit in? — Confused

ANSWER: COPD — chronic obstructive pulmonary disease — is a term for the two main lung illnesses: emphysema and chronic bronchitis. They aren’t the same, but they are frequently found together and often result from cigarette-smoking.

Emphysema is a destruction of the millions of tiny air sacs within the lungs. Oxygen from inhaled air diffuses into the blood through those air sacs, and carbon dioxide, a waste product of body metabolism, flows into the air sacs to be exhaled.

Chronic bronchitis is an inflammation of airways — the bronchi. Irritated, inflamed airways fill with thick mucus and then narrow. The primary symptom of chronic bronchitis is a cough with the production of thick phlegm.

The distinction is important, for if a person predominately has chronic bronchitis, then treatment is directed toward cleaning out the airways and dilating them. Bronchodilators — medicines often used for asthma — are also used to dilate bronchitic airways. Sometimes, as in asthma, bronchodilators are combined with cortisone drugs, which reduce airway irritation and mucus production.

Pulmonary-rehabilitation programs are sponsored by many hospitals, and they can demonstrate the techniques used to drain airways of mucus. Ask your doctor if there are any obstructive local programs.