One thing that the newspapers published by Montgomery News and Ambler Gazette's Editor, Carrie Compton's story assignments have taught me is that buying our newspapers from local businesses is one of the most beneficial ways to stabilize our economy.

One of my first multimedia stories was about the Wissahickon Growing Greener Group. Founded by Erin Crump, the Group aims to educate local residents on how we can be more beneficial to our environment, such as disposing of batteries properly and eating hormone-free and pesticide-free foods from local farms instead of supermarkets.

It was Erin who turned me on to staying away from big grocery stores. She pointed me to Maple Acre Farm in Plymouth Meeting. Maple Acre is a farm which I have driven past virtually my entire life without thinking to stop and buy food.

I was reading the Economist this afternoon when I saw an interesting article about buying local. Maybe this story wasn't about buying food or caring for the environment; however, I think it is a good example for people who see the world in terms of the dollar.

The story was about two local book stores who were about to be put out of business if the city of Austin, as planned, extended a $2 million dollar incentive to a developer who wanted to put a brand new Borders book store in town. The new Borders would end up being built right across the street from one of the local book stores. Big trouble, right? Wrong.

The local stores had a consultant study the benefits of the local businesses compared to the corporate store and they found out that out of every $100 spent at the local stores, $45 went back into the local economy through staff wages and money spent on supplies at other local merchants. At Borders, only $13 went back into the local economy.

The rules are the same in Montgomery County. When we buy from local businesses, those businesses buy supplies and products from other businesses in the local economy. So keep this in mind when you light the grill this weekend. Are those vegetables helping your community or are the profits going cross-country?

Supposedly the thief walked into the TD Bank found at Walton Rd. and Township Line Rd. and slipped a note to the teller ordering the money in the drawer to be handed over.

Now if this guy had any patience, who knows, he may have gotten away. Instead, he reached over the counter and grabbed a hand full of cash and took off. Little did he know (period) that in his haste he had actually grabbed an ink stack. When he ran out to the parking lot, the teller who was robbed said that everyone saw a sudden burst of ink explode all over the guy who left on foot.

I can't begin to imagine how simultaneously scarring hilarious this situation must have been for those young tellers. Great story!

By about 8:10 p.m. the dark sky had somewhat subsided slowly fading to a brighter white. This was not the end however, as I kept my eyes on the horizon while I finished my meal, I suddenly saw a white mist forming in the distance.

The Pa. Turnpike is in my backyard, about 50 yards from my kitchen window. Its brown walls vanished as the mist moved closer to our home. I felt like I was in that Stephen King book/movie "The Mist."

The mist kept moving toward us until it swallowed us and the backyard became nearly impossible to see. BOOM! That was the sound of the thunder as rain fell like fireworks on our roof. By this time winds were picking up and the trees in my backyard were arching at a 90 degree angle.

My mother and I walked to the front door, opened it and saw the disaster area that had become my neighborhood: A six foot tree limb had fallen literally centimeters from my car. Up the street, I guessed because I couldn't see for sure, four or five trees had fallen on my neighbors property.

I stepped out onto my front porch and noticed my neighbors roof. The rain was bouncing about a foot-high off the roof showing a visible aura forming around the house. Then, the rain stopped.

It truely felt like some kind of hurricane had come through the neighborhood. My neighbors were walking down the sidewalks looking at the aftermath. One neighbor said that on Jolly Road a tree had fallen on a house, this was the home which I had guessed maybe four or five trees had falllen.

I grabbed my camera and hopped in my car, drove up the street and found my neighbors house which was off of Jolly Road in Plymouth Meeting. The entire family was standing outside, arms folded, heads down looking at the damage.

Incredibly, no tree had hit the house. However, a 10 foot tree had fallen on an antique tractor in the backyard. This is a family who once farmed the land that is now my enitre block, until they sold the land to Plymouth Township. That tractor had most likely been used by someones father or grandfather. The next house down, which was owned by this families mother, may have been worse. More than half of the drive way was completely covered with fallen tree limbs. The wind had piled the limbs about as high as my ribs. "Incredible," I thought. The storm had lasted no more than 20 minutes and it looked like it had been raining all day.

After snapping a few pictures, which proved to be a tough job due to the amount of light in the sky, I drove back home and typed up a few sentences which went up on our main page as breaking news. Just another night at a weekly paper right?