The life-saving experience of Lee Bartolicius Jr. and his 15-year-old son, Lee III, earlier this year should serve as a reminder of why everyone should know how to perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR).

The Bartolicius father and son's quick action saved the life of a neighbor, William Boehme, who suffered a heart attack while eating dinner.

The two Lees, who had been en route to watch a high school wrestling match in Mars, heard of Boehme's plight on their police scanner and beat the first responding medical personnel to Boehme's home.

They performed CPR until medical help arrived.

Boehme and his wife, Janet, were told by doctors that people who go into full cardiac arrest outside of a hospital environment have about a 6 percent chance of survival.

Fortunately for the Boehmes, their neighbors had opportunities to learn CPR, the elder Bartolicius through his employment as a telephone equipment installer and his son as a junior volunteer firefighter for Middlesex Township.

The father and son were presented well-deserved certificates of recognition by the Penn Township Police Department at a township supervisors meeting on April 15. As for Boehme, he was back to driving and enjoying retirement.

Knowing CPR is in everyone's best interest.

State lawmakers and the criminal justice system need to wake up to the fact that a person like Timothy Frederick Alter, 29, of Transfer, Mercer County, deserves stronger punishment for repeatedly driving without a valid operator's license.If the courts, and particularly the state General Assembly, had previously acknowledged that fact by way of beefed-up laws and more fitting penalties for habitual offenders, Alter might not have been driving a van that struck the rear of an Amish buggy on May 5 in Mercer County, seriously injuring the driver of that buggy.At the time of the accident, Alter was driving without a valid driver's license, despite seven prior convictions for driving with a suspended license dating back to 2000.Meanwhile, the 22-year-old Amish man still was being treated Friday in the intensive care unit of a hospital in Youngstown, Ohio.In response to Alter's guilty plea last month to driving during suspension on Feb. 27 in Hempfield Township, Mercer County, Alter was fined just $284 — a slap on the wrist for a seven-time offender.Now Alter, in addition to the latest driving-during-suspension charge, faces charges including a hit-run accident causing injury, failure to stop and render aid, and failure to immediately notify police about an accident.If Alter is found guilty this time, a slap on the wrist would smack of judicial irresponsibility.It is evident Alter has little or no regard for driving laws or restrictions — or directives from courts of law. Whether he has much regard for the lives of other human beings also is open to question, based on his decision to flee the crash scene.The May 5 accident never should have had the opportunity to happen, and it's an incident that should finally wake up the legislature and the courts that they need to keep people like Alter from behind the wheel of a motor vehicle for a long time.

Federal lawmakers continually tout their dedication to the best interests of America's taxpayers.However, that claim rings hollow when the cost of producing pennies and nickels is above their face value.According to U.S. Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill., who chairs the House panel that oversees the U.S. Mint, striking the two coins at costs well above their face value set the Treasury and the taxpayers back about $100 million last year alone.Currently before Congress are worthy proposals for bringing back steel-made pennies like those of World War II and possibly using steel for nickels as well.At the end of 2007, metal prices were significantly higher than what they now are. A penny cost 1.26 cents to make last week as compared with 1.67 cents as 2007 ended. Meanwhile, a nickel cost 7.7 cents to make; at the end of last year the cost was about a dime."If we continue under the status quo, with each new penny and nickel we issue, we will also be contributing to our national debt by almost as much as the coin is worth," Gutierrez said.That's certainly not a bargain, by any good sense of judgment.