Laurel: With jails and prisons bursting at the seams with inmates, officials in our criminal justice system are being challenged to find alternatives to locking up those arrested for minor crimes. Credit Bedford County officials on this one. A 56-year-old woman and her 35-year-old daughter, both of Bedford, were outside the courthouse for 4 1/2 hours on Tuesday holding signs saying “I stole from a 9-year-old girl on her birthday! Don’t steal or this could happen to you!” District Attorney Bill Higgins says that in exchange, he’ll ask for probation instead of jail when the two plead guilty. Higgins says the women swiped a gift card that the girl had set on a shelf while a Wal-Mart employee helped her. The “sentence” became increasingly embarrassing for the two women when the story and photo went out over The Associated Press wire. Wow!

Barb: This isn’t about a harmless Halloween prank or “boys will be boys” mischief. This is about young adults and serious vandalism. State police are seeking help in arresting three white males in their early 20s who last weekend were throwing objects at trucks as the trucks were moving on old Route 22 in Duncansville. One man has brown hair and was wearing a striped hoodie sweatshirt. Another was wearing a blue and black striped shirt and a Pittsburgh Pirates baseball cap. The third was wearing a black T-shirt with the logo, “I didn’t climb to the top of the food chain to become a vegetarian.” What morons. If you have a tip on this, call the state police at 696-6100.

Laurel: Community colleges are a great place to acquire a good education at a fair price. And they’re staying true to their mission of working with business and industry to provide students with skills to move into the workplace. Here’s another good example: The Community College of Allegheny County in Oakdale, west of Pittsburgh, says supply and demand has prompted it to offer a midnight, 4-hour welding class four nights a week. It says the demand for welders is rising but it only has so much lab space to teach the craft, so officials have gotten creative. The school’s welding program had 29 students last fall, but has 109 this fall. The school says the odd-hours program works well for many students, because they may be displaced workers or have child-care issues if they went to school during daylight hours. No wonder community college enrollments are growing.

Barb: It’s rutting season and with that, unfortunately, comes an increase in highway deer kills. Just as unfortunate is the fact many motorists will continue on their way after killing a deer or other other large wildlife, leaving the carcass for others to either run over or to wildly swerve to avoid. Both can be extremely dangerous. It’s not illegal to continue on your way after hitting a deer, the game commission tells us, but common sense should tell you to make sure the dead animal is moved off the roadway or to call police or a game commission regional office to have it removed. “Just be sure to not put yourself in harm’s way,” the commission also advises.

Laurel: Speaking of deer. The Pennsylvania Game Commission’s Hunters Sharing the Harvest program really does make a difference. In operation since 1991, it allows hunters to channel donations of venison to local food banks, soup kitchens and needy families. Here’s how it works: Hunters take a deer to a participating meat processor and identify how much of their deer meat – from an entire deer to several pounds – that is to be donated to HSH. Hunters donating an entire deer are asked to make a $15 tax-deductible co-pay, and HSH will cover the remaining processing fees. Hunters can also cover the entire cost if they wish. For more information, go online to http://sharedeer.org/ or call (717) 545-1188.