The night of April 10th, a man lost a brown leather wallet and a pair of black frame converse glasses on a NJ Transit train between New York Penn Station and Watchung Avenue. If anyone has seen or picked up these items, please send an e-mail here.
To have a lost or found item posted on Baristanet, send an e-mail to lostandfound@baristanet.com and your item will be included in the next “Lost and Found” roundup.

The Barista’s calendar is filled with cool events this weekend — take a peek to find your favorites. Among the offerings:
The world premiere of “Not God” officially opens at Luna Stage after a week of previews. The play, which explores the relationship between doctor and patient, was written by oncologist and published poet Marc Straus. It will be Luna’s last production in their long-time Montclair space. Tonight, you’ll find free chair massages before the show and a talkback session after with Melissa Graff of The Urban Muse spa, which works with cancer patients. Also, be on the lookout for original works, including the painting shown here by GRHS senior Andrea Badagliacca, and for upcoming readings by authors, including Andrea’s dad, Raphael Badagliacca. And…

Continue Reading

Bloomfield Mayor Raymond McCarthy, NJ Transit Executive Director Richard Sarles, and Essex County Executive Joseph DiVincenzo broke ground on Monday for an express bus service along Bloomfield Avenue between Bloomfield and Newark. The project will include new bus shelters and “traffic technology.”
The new service will link passengers and workers from residential areas of Bloomfield and Newark to commercial zones in downtown Newark. The route will be a one-ticket ride to Newark International Airport and a connection to other bus services in the ports of Newark and Elizabeth.

Continue Reading

The projected weather for this weekend has me howling with excitement. Or at least, yapping away at my laptop, penning lupine puns. Anyway, if you have any inclination to spend the gorgeous weekend outdoors, consider a day trip out west to the Lakota Wolf Preserve, in Columbia, New Jersey.
The preserve was opened 11 years ago by wildlife photographer Dan Bacon, who was alarmed by conditions on some of the nature preserves he visited. He and his wife Pam, along with business partner Jim Stein, opened the Lakota Wolf Preserve in hopes of educating the public and providing better living conditions for the animals. “Lakota is the name of a Sioux Indian tribe from the Dakotas. Our first and favorite wolf was named after them, and we named the preserve after her,” says Stein.

Continue Reading

Gentle Reader, in case you were wondering why the much-anticipated Kathy Griffin Live show has been postponed, a glimpse at the comedienne’s Twitter feed relieved us of our bewilderment.
The show, originally scheduled for tonight at the Wellmont Theatre, has been rescheduled for June 4th, and all tickets previously purchased for tonight’s performance will be honored. In the meantime, follow Kathy on her Twitter account. I’m sure she’ll update once she has vanquished her derriere-thrashing virus.

An hour ago, we invited you to celebrate the power of well-designed websites and their ability to foster debate and spread ideas. But here at Baristanet, we can’t ever leave a good thing alone, can we?
United States Senator Robert Menendez (D-NJ) will be speaking at George Washington Middle School in Ridgewood today about his proposed Internet Safety Education and Cybercrime Prevention Act. The act would establish a grant to facilitate Internet safety programs administered by state, educational and nonprofit agencies, as well as a task force charged with researching best practices for Internet safety.

Continue Reading

In a double win for Montclair, Graphic Design USA has recognized Montclair Art Museum’s retooled website with an Award for Excellence in their American Web Design Awards competition. The winning website was created by Lform Design, a Montclair-based web and graphic design company.
Graphic Design USA, a publication about professional design, has previously hosted competitions in other areas, but this is the first year the magazine judged entries in web design. From a press release sent by MAM’s Director of Communications and Marketing David Gillespie:

This newest annual competition celebrates the power of well-designed websites and other online communications to attract audiences, generate engagement and response, and promote products, services, and ideas. In selecting winners, the competition emphasizes visual design and aesthetics.

Continue Reading

Glen Ridge Mayor Carl Bergmanson – former Whig, Pluto crusader, and Democratic Primary challenger – has announced that if elected, he would abolish the toll system on the Garden State Parkway within 18 months of taking office, and all toll roads in New Jersey within 3 ¬Ω years.
From his gubernatorial contender’s website, Bergmanson wrote:

Machine politicians love toll roads because tolls are a great way to generate patronage jobs and slush money. Toll roads are also a remarkably inefficient way to collect taxes, and eliminating tolls will not only save us the expense of collecting tolls, it will allow us to obtain millions of dollars in matching federal highway funds that are not available for roads that have tolls. What’s more, eliminating toll roads will reduce congestion, reduce pollution, reduce the number and severity of accidents and we’ll also save gas – a whole lot of gas.

Bergmanson said he would appoint a bipartisan committee to develop plans for removing Parkway tolls by 2011, and all roadway tolls by 2013.

This week, we let you know it was time to Turn Off Your TV. We asked parents over at Barista Kids to challenge themselves to the fullest. We asked them to turn off their tubes as long as they could. They whined, and they fussed, then they committed to No TV Thursday.
How did it go? Barista Kids editor Kristen lived to tell about it. Though she’s up to her eyeballs in cookies, see left. As for events editor Georgette, well, she’s still not so sure…