It doesn't take a Harvard-educated Barack Obama or a Dartmouth College graduate like Timothy Geithner to tell us that their economic strategy isn't working. The cost of filling our gas tanks and then taking the car to the grocery store, where we find more sticker shock, is as real as it gets.

The tailspin in the national economy often translates into acts of desperation and a spike in criminal activity, and this recession is no different. Just last month we reported on the theft of metal grave markers in several Nesquehoning cemeteries and the thefts in Carbon County were not isolated. Cemeteries in surrounding counties also reported grave marker being stolen.Now thieves are targeting much heavier items, like metal grates and manhole covers, which can bring more of a return for their scrap value.In Hazle Township, Luzerne County, two drainage grates were reportedly stolen along a stretch of Route 924. Officials report that it's nothing new, and that they've seen about a half dozen cases in the past year.Similarly, five storm grates were reported stolen in Bowmanstown last month, representing a loss of $1,600 to the borough.The grates weigh nearly 100 pounds each and cost the township about $239 apiece. Since municipalities are watching every penny and expenditure in their budgets, these thefts do - no pun intended - carry weight.The next step for the thieves is to try to cash in by selling their metal to a scrap yard, which the police are closely watching. In October of 2008 the governor signed House Bill 1742 which created the Scrap Metal Theft Prevention Act. This requires scrap processors and recycling facility operators to collect information concerning the purchase of scrap material and requires records to be made available to police. For scrap sales of $100 or more, sellers have to show ID, a license plate number, and sign off for every sale.At the time the bill was being debated, opponents argued that the legislation unfairly targeted and regulated the recyclers and did not address the real problem - the metal thieves. But state Rep. Eddie Day Pashinski of Luzerne County, who wrote most of the act, accurately made his case. He said at the time that although many scrap dealers followed the law, there were some who allowed persons to cash in on everything and anything from manhole covers from Philadelphia to veterans markers, mausoleum doors to copper tubing from residents.The theft of grave markers in his home district inspired Pashinski to crusade for the legislation which produced closer regulation of the scrap yards. Last month, we commented how despicable it was to steal grave markers from veterans' plots, and that will always be the case.But stealing grates and manhole pushes the crime to a new level. The hole in the pavement left by the removal of manhole covers or grates presents an immediate hazard to motorists as well as pedestrians, especially at night.While the state legislation allows for tougher regulations on scrap yards, law enforcement officials are also depending on tips from ordinary citizens to help in the apprehension of the heavy metal thieves.By Jim Zbickjzbick@tnonline.com