A Lower Makefield man who claimed he was Jesus after one of his three arrests last month is headed to trial but not before receiving mental health treatment.

In a brief court appearance Wednesday, Andrew Buzzo, 41, who police say is a disabled veteran, agreed to waive his preliminary hearing in two of the three cases against him.

In return, the Bucks County District Attorneys Office agreed to request that Buzzo be released on his own recognizance so he can enter inpatient treatment. As part of the agreement, Buzzo also will surrender all firearms he possesses.

Buzzo was incarcerated in Bucks County prison in the three cases; two on bail of 10 percent of $25,000 and one on 10 percent of $50,000. He is facing charges of fleeing and eluding an officer, possession of marijuana, reckless endangerment, theft, receiving stolen property, DUI and institutional vandalism

Lower Makefield police say Buzzo was seen driving his car in a figure-eight pattern July 8 on the lawn of Lutheran Church of the Resurrection on Makefield Road, then getting out of his car and kicking down a wooden cross on the property.

When police stopped Buzzo on Afton Avenue, he claimed he drove on the lawn because it was his property, as he is Jesus and all belongs to him, and drove in the figure-eight pattern because in the Bible the number means a new beginning, a resurrection, a probable cause affidavit shows.

He kicked down the cross because he didnt want to be reminded of the extreme torture he endured when he was crucified, police said.

During that arrest, police said Buzzos eyes were bloodshot and glassy, and they found a pipe similar to ones used to smoke marijuana on him. Buzzo admitted to smoking marijuana earlier in the day, but said he was fine to drive, police said.

Police again encountered Buzzo on July 25 when he allegedly led them on a high-speed chase along Route 1 into Bensalem. Police allege that Buzzo had flashing blue and red lights activated in his silver BMW X5. Buzzo allegedly refused to pull over, was passing vehicles in the oncoming traffic lanes and, at one point, was driving northbound in the southbound lanes of Route 1 before making a U-turn and continuing south on the highway, according to a probable cause affidavit.

He was stopped on Route 1 near the Neshaminy exit, where he had to be removed from the car, police said, adding that marijuana and drug paraphernalia were found in the cars center console.

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Lower Makefield man arrested 3 times in July headed to trial

Reallocation of funds may lead to more wildfires

Airline gives 7-year-old girl to wrong person; dad is frantic, worried for her safety

Girl's cat runs into Fort Pierce neighbor's house, where she is raped after trying to retrieve it, police say

Law enforcement presence to increase in Josephine County

Lawmakers pass firearm safety, ammunition bills

Woman set reservation fire to give friends work

West Coast Flavors: French Toast from Sweet Tea Express

Agency to release extra water for Klamath salmon

Many without residency proof could lose Obamacare

Oregon gunman planned to kill 'bunch' of people

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Girl's cat runs into Fort Pierce neighbor's house, where she is raped after trying to retrieve it, police say

Dear Editor, I usually write political letters, but the current Child in Chief isnt worth bothering about lately so on to another topic affecting our fair Ciry of Great Bend. Several years ago I managed townhomes in Lees Summit, Missouri and one summer we had a bit of a plague that affected our Pin Oak trees. Some three hundred of them to be exact. Lawn and Garden Specialists all gave us different reasons for varied treatments and most included the addition of iron products to the soil. None of these acutally worked. Our trees were being eaten alive by insects, the spring green leaves were riddled with brown spots and falling off in mid summer. Spring Green is the key here. After hearing everyones suggestions and trying the best to no avail, I called a State Forester who arrived a day or two later to assess the situation. He said that I needed to get treatment started immediately. Wating for him to give me some long and tedious prognosis and treatment scheme, I was surprised when the solution was so very simple. No doubt you have noticed many trees in Great Bend this summer and last that are only spring green -- you know, that chartreuse green of early budded leaves... and NOT the dark green of summer that we should be seeing in August. You will also notice upon closer examination that some leaves are also spotted and dying. This is a condition called Chlorosis. It is a soil condition and it WILL kill the trees.... especially the hardwoods. Through years of leaching the soils in our yards with rain water and sprinkler water whether from wells or from City supply, the soils tend to turn alkaline. Hardwoods like slightly acidic soils and after many years of extracting iron from the soils, the contrast in pH of the soils prohibits the trees use of the natural or added iron....Lawn and Garden stores locally tell me that Great Bend residents are buying iron supplements by the truck load. This will not hurt, but until you sweeten the soil, this iron will not be metabolized by the trees. The foresters told me to buy SULPHUR. It comes in a yellow powder form in twenty five pound bags at the Farmers Coop Garden Store and Im sure a few other places as well. The Sulphur will sweeten or acidize the soil and the tree will then be able to metabolize the available iron. Our sandy clay and mixed clay loams while not as iron laden as some other soils still have more iron than the trees need for decades but the imbalance in the pH is the culprit preventing the use of the iron. For best and quickest results use a deep root waterer and simply put the powdered sulphur in the container and connect to the garden hose...many times around the drip line of the tree. OR the easiest, simply scatter a few pounds per tree (two or three)on the ground under the tree, out to the drip line and water it in well! Treat NOW, again in a few weeks and I also repeated just before snowfall. The next spring our trees were glorious and by July were dark summer green and healthy. You will also notice that some trees are affected on one side, or just a few limbs. The roots that are servicing the affected limbs are in leached alkaline soil and the rest are in relatively acidic soil. Treat the WHOLE area around the tree. The sulphur will not harm your grass... water it in well however or simply let your sprinkler do the work. Treat your trees to save them. William Schneider Great Bend

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Treat trees now

Highland Park has ordered a temporary ban on outdoor water use after discovering "clogged strainers" at the water treatment plant, according to a Highland Park news release.

Deerfield and Bannockburn, which receive water from Highland Park's water treatment plant, issued their own respective bans on outdoor water use.

The ban is effective immediately, lasts until further notice and prohibits all outdoor water use, including lawn sprinkling, the release said. There are no restrictions on indoor water use.

Earlier Monday morning, plant workers reported problems with clogged strainers, through which water passes from Lake Michigan, the release said. As a result, the plant's ability to deliver water has been limited.

Once the strainers are unclogged, the ban will be lifted. In the meanwhile, Highland Park will receive "emergency water" from Lake Forest and Northbrook through its "mutual aid connections."

For more information, call the public works department at (847) 432-0807.

gtrotter@tribune.com|Twitter: @NorthShoreTrib

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Ban on outdoor water use for Highland Park, Deerfield, Bannockburn

A new mother in Oregon says she wants to breast-feed her baby even though she regularly smokes marijuana, but experts say they would be concerned about the risks of the drug to the baby's brain.

The mother, Crystal Cain, said she is a medical-marijuana user who smoked the drug during her pregnancy to reduce anxiety and nausea, according to the Portland TV station KATU. Her baby was born 8 weeks premature, and Cain planned on breast-feeding the child because of the known benefits of breast-feeding.

But doctors at the hospital did not allow Cain to breast-feed until she signed a waiver acknowledging the potential risks of using marijuana while breast-feeding, KATU said.

"There's not enough information [on the risks] because nobody tests it," Cain was quoted as saying. [Trippy Tales: The History of 8 Hallucinogens]

t's true that few studies have looked at the risks of smoking marijuana while breast-feeding, and many of the studies that have examined this question were conducted several decades ago. However, several organizations, including the American Academy of Pediatrics, discourage the use of marijuana by breast-feeding mothers, in part because of concern that the drug may affect the baby's brain development.

What is clear is that the drug can get into breast milk, and into the baby's body.

The active ingredient in marijuana, THC, is fat soluble and can be stored in the fat tissue for quite a while. "Any drug that is fat soluble gets into fat (tissue), and breast milk has lots of fat because that's what's good for the baby," said Dr. David Mendez, a neonatologist at Miami Children's Hospital, who had not treated Cain or her baby. The more marijuana that a woman smokes, the greater the amount of THC in her breast milk, Mendez said.

Babies who have been breast-fed by a woman who smokes marijuana can have a positive urine test for marijuana for up to three weeks, said Martha Lasley, a lactation consultant from Winnie Palmer Hospital for Women & Babies in Orlando. However, the amount of THC that's transferred to the baby through breast-feeding is not enough to produce a high, Lasley said.

There is also some concern that smoking marijuana can lower women's levels of prolactin, the hormone needed for breast-milk production, Lasley said.

A 1990 study found that a baby's exposure to THC in the first month of life was linked with reduced movement and coordination skills at age 1. Doctors have also observed lethargy, less frequent feeding and shorter feeding times in babies exposed to THC, according to a 2005 review in the journal Canadian Family Physician.

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Smoking Pot and Breast-Feeding: What Are the Risks?

Published: Sunday, 8/17/2014 - Updated: 27 seconds ago

BY TOM HENRY BLADE STAFF WRITER

Toledo faces a quandary in the aftermath of its historic water crisis: Does it focus on reducing the threat of toxic microcystis algae, which temporarily made the tap water for 500,000 Metro Toledo residents unsafe to drink?

Or, does it turn up the heat on state and federal lawmakers whom city leaders accuse of taking too much of a business-as-usual approach and delaying overdue improvements to water-treatment plants in Toledo and across the country?

Toledo officials are wrestling with those decisions now, knowing that whatever they decide will likely cost one of Americas most cash-strapped cities one ranked by the U.S. Census Bureau just a few years ago as the nations eighth most impoverished millions of dollars it doesnt have.

Theyre inextricably linked issues, Ohio Environmental Protection Agency Director Craig Butler told The Blade following a news conference at a Perrysburg Township farm on Thursday. They go part-in-parcel, hand in hand.

RELATED: Chemical increased in water after testing came close to dangerous level

RELATED: Read previous stories on the water crisis in Toledo

COMMENTARY:What we need to save Lake Erie is action right now

Throughout the drinking water crisis the first weekend of August, Toledo Mayor D. Michael Collins sounded more like an environmentalist than the mayor of a Rust Belt city trying to attract industry.

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Leaders see big water battles

White River Junction Considering the cost of water, fertilizer and his own labor, it would probably be cheaper to buy vegetables than grow them himself, but to Nalin Patel, the garden on the grounds of the Pine Crest Motel is a worthwhile investment.

Thats our hobby, said Patel, who with his family owns the 20-unit business on Route 5.

As vegetarians, Patel and his wife, Raksha, share food duties. Nalin, 76, takes care of the gardens, which include grapes, apples, and an array of vegetables, among them varieties of hot peppers, beans, cucumber and eggplant commonly grown in the Patels native India. Two bathtubs alongside the single-story motel overflow with cilantro, dill, garlic and chives . Raksha, 72, uses the produce to make meals and various chutneys.

The vegetables are very good, she said, grinning. Hes a very good farmer.

In addition to providing the couple with fresh food and a healthy pastime, the garden is a source of gifts for people who are important to them. Raksha recently put up several jars of pickled green grapes to bring to Maine, where the couple gathered with her family for Raksha Bandhan, a Hindu festival that celebrates the bond between a brother and sister. They donate produce to a local food shelf and are generous with their neighbors and motel guests, some of whom stay for extended periods of time. Its their garden, too, Nalin said.

Ray Charpiot, a Pine Crest resident for more than three years, said its not unusual to find a bag of fresh fruit on his doorstep. They are old-school, good neighbor-type people, he said.

Charpiot, 73, retired a few years ago after working for local auto parts stores. He has faced a series of health problems and last year had open heart surgery. The Patels visited him in the hospital before and after the operation, said Charpiot, who has no relatives locally. Their relationship is more like family than landlord and tenant.

Charpiot manages the motel when the Patels are away on short trips and during their annual months-long visit to India, when they stay on their 32-acre farm, which produces sugarcane, rice, mango and banana.

The motel tenants generally know each other and get along, Charpiot said. Most of the people who live here are pretty good.

Preparing dinner, Raksha makes extra to share with Randy Osmer, who enjoys her spicy cooking. The generosity is catching Osmer recently made beef stew to share with his fellow motel guests. A White River Junction native, he likes the motels vibe. Its peaceful out here, not dealing with the rat race in town, said Osmer, who works reconditioning cars and helps maintain the motel property.

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So Much More Than a Garden

by Aderogba OBISESAN, Joel Olatunde AGOI

LAGOS, August 15, 2014 (AFP) - Kate, Bright and Happiness sat on the lawn of a Lagos brothel, sipping lager and chatting with men in groups of two or four. Business had been good, they said, until Ebola arrived.

"I have been in this business for two years but business has never been this slow," said Kate.

"I used to have an average of seven customers per day but I can hardly see four now since this Ebola disease came to town," the 25-year-old told AFP.

"Many of our customers are afraid to come to us for fear of contracting the disease. This Ebola wahala (problem) is really bad business. The government should do something about it."

With Ebola spread through the bodily fluids of an infected person, including sweat, the sex workers say they've been particularly badly hit by public fears.

"This disease is bad-o!" said 23-year-old Bright. "It is worse than HIV/AIDS. You can prevent HIV by using condoms but you can't do the same with Ebola.

"If care is not taken we will soon be driven out of business because nobody wants to die."

Bushmeat hit

Sex workers aren't the only ones in the informal economy -- in which an estimated three-quarters of Nigerians work -- who are feeling the effects of Ebola. Three people have died of the disease in Lagos, and more are expected.

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Lagos Ebola fears hit sex workers, informal traders

MINNEAPOLIS (MCT) -- Kristy Allen and Mark O'Rourke are bee ambassadors with deceptively similar messages. Allen, founder of a small business called the Beez Kneez, pedals through the Twin Cities selling honey from a bike trailer and handing out lawn signs that read, "Healthy bees, healthy lives." O'Rourke, a seed-treatment specialist for Bayer Crop Science, travels the country with sleek interactive displays to promote the company's insecticides and its views on honeybee health.

Allen wears a helmet with bobbing antennae. O'Rourke sports a bee-yellow shirt with the Bayer logo.

But behind their cheery outfits, they are polar opposites in an intensifying national conflict over what's killing the hardworking insect that has become a linchpin of the American food system.

In a struggle that echoes the scientific discord over climate change, both are striving to win public support in a fight over the pervasive use of pesticides and the alarming decline of bees. Whoever sways the public could influence the fate of the honeybee long before scientists or regulators render a verdict. "Perception becomes reality," said David Fischer, director of pollinator safety for Bayer AG, a leading manufacturer of the insecticides under debate. "We are a science-focused company. But that's not going to convince beekeepers and the public."

There is remarkably little dispute about the underlying problem: Honeybees are dying. Beekeepers across the United States are losing a fourth to a third of their hives each winter, a decline that has exposed them as a fragile link in the nation's food supply chain.

U.S. agriculture depends on bees to pollinate $15 billion worth of crops annually -- a third of the food we eat. Every year, commercial beekeepers traverse the country with millions of hives, moving them like migrant laborers through blooming fields of almonds, apples, melons and other crops. Even as the number of U.S. hives has dwindled to 2.5 million, the number of crops depending on them has quadrupled.

The adversaries even agree on some of the causes: A flowerless rural landscape dominated by monoculture cash crops, and the spread of invasive parasites and diseases.

But a decade after honeybees began their precipitous decline, they are still in trouble, and the conflict over the role of insecticides is reaching a crescendo. Bayer sponsors an annual "Bee Care Tour" of universities and community events, while its lobbyists work Washington. Kids in bee costumes protest at Home Depot stores, and gardeners have become their advocates at garden stores and nurseries where they wield considerable power on behalf of the bee.

The White House is paying attention. Last month, President Barack Obama ordered his Cabinet to come up with a strategy for protecting bees, including a mandate to "assess the effect of pesticides."

"There needs to be that public pressure," said Jennifer Sass of the Natural Resources Defense Council. "The public can change it -- even if the (government) does not act."

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Battle over insecticide pits beekeepers against big agribusiness

Published: Friday, August 8, 2014 at 10:56 p.m. Last Modified: Friday, August 8, 2014 at 10:56 p.m.

LAKE HAMILTON | When Phillip Miller walked into the Lake Hamilton public works barn and saw his supervisor lying on an American flag spread across the grease-stained concrete floor, he was shocked.

Public Works Director J.D. Johnson on Friday acknowledged using an American flag as a drop cloth while working on a lawn mower in the barn on July 31.

Miller and a co-worker had taken down the 5-foot-by 8-foot flag from the Town Hall flagpole about a month ago because of its fading and frayed edges. Because Town Hall was closed at the time, they left it in the public works break room. Miller said the flag disappeared after that.

He said the next time he saw it was when Johnson had it on the floor.

"I was so appalled, I was speechless," Miller said. "I could not believe anybody would do that."

Miller didn't say anything to Johnson at the time, but he used his town-issued cellphone to take a photo of the flag on the ground after Johnson had walked away. He brought the photo to Mayor Marlene Wagner the next day.

While the mayor said she is not happy about the situation, no decisions have been made regarding disciplinary action.

The incident was not brought up during the Town Council meeting this week.

Johnson, a U.S. military veteran, said the flag had been in the barn for a while, on the floor and draped over tractors, before he ever touched it.

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Treatment of Flag Creates Controversy in Lake Hamilton