Murder at Mission and Bloomfield Ave.

BY ,  |  Wednesday, Feb 08, 2012 10:34am  |  COMMENTS (35)

The Essex County Prosecutor’s Office has confirmed that a man was murdered on Mission Street in Montclair last night. Breaking News Network reported gunshots at the intersection of Mission and Bloomfield Ave. shortly after 9 p.m.
Thomas Reynolds, president of The Montclair Branch of the NAACP, identified the victim as Ibn Futrell, a former Montclair High School student who was in his mid-20s.  Reynolds said he knew a good friend of the victim, and the two spent the night “talking about this horrible thing.”

The NAACP, along with Fourth Ward Councilor Renee Baskerville, will hold a community meeting on Thursday night at 8 p.m. at the Fire Headquarters on Pine Street to address safety in the area.   Continue Reading

Win Free Tickets to Vertical Road

BY  |  Tuesday, Feb 07, 2012 2:57pm  |  COMMENTS (9)

UPDATE: Thanks, we have our winners!

Haunting, dreamlike and winner of the 2011 Critics Circle National Dance Award for Best Modern Choreography, Akram Khan Company’s Vertical Road will be presented at MSU’s Kasser Theater Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

Peak Performances has five pairs of tickets to give away to Baristanet readers for tomorrow night’s performance (Wed. Feb. 8 at 7:30 p.m.) Just be one of the first five to tell us in the comments. Continue Reading

Police Snipers Guard Rally as Students Proclaim “Human Rights are Sexy”

BY ,  |  Tuesday, Feb 07, 2012 1:08pm  |  COMMENTS (11)

Montclarion editor-in-chief Katherine Milsop, reporting to us live via mobile phone, says police presence at MSU’s unity rally is heavy — with police snipers posted on rooftops, and police on motorcycles and horses. About 100 people have congregated, many wearing purple in solidarity with the threatened gay community, bearing signs that say “Human Rights are Sexy,” “Love Your Neighbor as Yourself,” “MSU Was Born This Way,”  and “Conversation Not Confrontation.”

Read more background on the death threats to MSU here. Continue Reading

Valentines Contest: How Did You Meet Your Sweetie?

BY  |  Tuesday, Feb 07, 2012 11:41am  |  COMMENTS (33)

My original job-hunting letter, framed and presented by my honey on our 25th wedding anniversary.

UPDATE: An extra prize!

Here’s my story: 1983. I had finished graduate school in North Carolina and was looking for jobs in New York, collecting names of everybody and anybody in the journalism business. Someone gave me the name of AP Radio’s correspondent in New York,  who had worked at WCHL in Chapel Hill a few years before I got there. My very first Monday in New York I called him. Twice. When we met for lunch that Thursday, I asked if he knew anyone who used freelancers. He did. I started working for him, doing five-minute radio features for $25 a pop, and was charmed by the news poems he recited from memory in his radio studio. The rest, as they say, is history.

Continue Reading

Bloomfield Crime: Shoplifter Threatens Home Depot Guard With Knife

BY  |  Tuesday, Feb 07, 2012 10:19am  |  COMMENTS (1)

Just in from the Bloomfield Police, last week in crime in 07003:

ROBBERY

2-6-2012 60 Orange Stree [Home Depot]. At 0755 hours, a suspect threatened a security guard with a knife as he was fleeing the store with stolen merchandise.

2-06-2012 Washington street at Lackawanna Plaza. At 2235 hours, the victim stated that he was approached and surrounded by three male suspects, one of which demanded his cell phone. Two of the suspects were apprehended minutes later by patrol officers responding to a 9-1-1 call from the victim. Continue Reading

Montclair Schools Super Alvarez to Resign

BY  |  Tuesday, Feb 07, 2012 9:45am  |  COMMENTS (25)

UPDATE: For school board reaction, read Barista Kids.

Frank Alvarez, superintendent of Montclair Schools, announced in a letter to parents today that he will step down in June after almost nine years in the district. He did not announce any future plans.

His resignation letter thanked parents, staff and fundraising organizations and cited “narrowing the minority student achievement gap” as the district’s biggest accomplishment.
Continue Reading

Montclair State Stares Down Death Threats Today

BY  |  Tuesday, Feb 07, 2012 9:03am  |  COMMENTS (29)

The messages got increasingly menacing: “Die Fags” followed by “you will die soon Faggots” and then, on Jan. 30, scrawled on the wall of a ladies room in Montclair State’s student center, “Fags will die on 2/7.” MSU’s gay community has endured similar threats before, but in the era of Virginia Tech, no one can laugh off a death threat on a college campus.

Continue Reading

Happy Birthday, Montclair BID

BY  |  Monday, Feb 06, 2012 3:30pm  |  COMMENTS (9)

BID's Luther Flurry in downtown Montclair.

Congratulations to the Montclair Business Improvement District, which turns 10 today. Its mission, now as ever, says executive director Luther Flurry, is “to make Montclair Center a vibrant place to shop, dine, work and live.” The BID is currently crafting a survey for downtown businesses and shoppers, which it will disseminate broadly. As a jumpstart, we’ll ask our readers: what’s great about Montclair Center and what needs work?

When Should Christmas Lights Come Down?

BY  |  Monday, Feb 06, 2012 12:06pm  |  COMMENTS (12)

Should there be a statute of limitation on Christmas lights? A Walnut Street resident we know has been complaining on Facebook about his neighbor’s unending Christmas light display. “It’s utterly ridiculous. Christmas ended six weeks ago!” he fumes.

February 6 is apparently the magic date for Montclair Township, which was out with a cherry picker today taking lights off its “Holiday Tree” on Church Street. Have you taking yours down yet? Let us know when you think signs of Christmas should disappear. Take our poll after the jump. Continue Reading

Giants Parade, Stadium Rally Set for Tuesday

BY  |  Monday, Feb 06, 2012 8:52am  |  COMMENTS (3)

Photo by Geoff Gove.

UPDATE: It appears that Gov. Christie has pulled off a NJ rally for the Giants at their stadium after all/. It’s set to start at 3 p.m.

The Giants will be feted with a ticker tape parade in downtown Manhattan Tuesday morning. The parade will begin at Battery Place and Washington Street at 11 a.m. and continue northbound up the Canyon of Heroes to Worth Street. The parade will be followed by a ceremony at City Hall Plaza, where Mayor Bloomberg will present the Giants with keys to the city. More details here.

And will there be an event for the Jersey Giants fans at the stadium itself? Governor Christie, who got to hoist the Vince Lombardi Trophy last night, apparently is working on it. Continue Reading

Featured Comment

Perhaps yesterday's heavy police presence would have been better applied to Mission Street than to the Montclair State campus.
Posted by
cathar

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