Ecuadorian textiles at Library

*

The Plainfield Public Library is showcasing an exhibit of handcrafted rugs and fabric art in the Anne Louise Davis room through the end of January, 2007.

The textiles are designed locally by Plainfield resident Fernando Muñoz. Mr. Muñoz is an interior designer who supplies both traditional and custom-designed pieces on commission.

Examples in the exhibit give an idea of the wide range of designs available -- from indigenously inspired village scenes to African and Native-American inspired designs to a bravura piece drawing on the abstract graphic art of M. C. Escher of the Netherlands.

For three generations, Mr. Muñoz' family has developed these custom-designed textiles, and their work is well-known and widely exhibited in his home country, where they have received a variety of rewards and recognitions.

The family's custom-designed works have found collectors abroad, including -- besides the US -- Germany, Sweden, Spain and the Netherlands.

Mr. Muñoz came to New York in 2000, where he studied hand weaving with Steve Andersen. He came to Plainfield in 2002, and established his firm here.

The exhibit is free and available for viewing during during normal Library hours.

For more information about the exhibit, contact Jessica Myers, head of Special Collections, at (908) 757-1111 x136.

-- Dan Damon

View today's CLIPPINGS here. Not getting your own CLIPPINGS email daily? Click here to get started.

2006 Holiday decoration videos

2006 Holiday Decoration Videos
*
Video ONE


Video TWO


Video THREE


Video FOUR


-- Dan Damon
*

Kwanzaa begins today

*

(Kwanzaa commemorative stamp, USPS, 1997.)

Kwanzaa begins today. The seven day festival runs through January 1.

Read more about the festival, its background and traditions here, a site including links to many other resources. Dr. Karenga's official Kwanzaa site is here.

Plainfield's official celebration, sponsored by the Recreation Division and Mayor Robinson-Briggs, will be this Saturday, from 1 - 6 PM, at the Washington Community School.

The event is free and open to the public.

-- Dan Damon

View today's CLIPPINGS here. Not getting your own CLIPPINGS email daily? Click here to get started.

A needed message

*

PEACE

ON EARTH

TO ALL OF

GOODWILL

-- Dan Damon

View today's CLIPPINGS here. Not getting your own CLIPPINGS email daily? Click here to get started.

PT taking advantage of tech improvements over holidays

*

Plainfield Today is taking advantage of improvements in technology being offered by Blogger, the service which hosts both PT and CLIPS.

I plan to begin the switchover to the improved format over the remainder of December.

Accordingly, both PT and CLIPS will be on a 'lite' schedule from December 24 through New Year's Day.

Happy Holidays!

-- Dan Damon

View today's CLIPPINGS here. Not getting your own CLIPPINGS email daily? Click here to get started.
*

Murder No. 10 - Updated Chart

PLAINFIELD MURDERS - 2006
	Date: August 25, 2006** Victim: Aurelios Landeros, 54, of Plainfield. Discovered unconscious at his residence, 1300-block of East 2nd Street on August 10. Slipped into a coma and died August 25. Autopsy was inconclusive about cause of death. Further forensic examination led the Prosecutor to declare the death a homicide in December. Suspect: Unknown; AT LARGE Drugs Involved: Unknown **Reported by Ledger and Courier on Thursday, 12/21/2006.
	Date: December 16, 2006 Victim: Maria Flores, 16, of Plainfield, multiple gunshot wounds Circumstances: Reported anonymously to 911 about 9:55 PM, victim was found in a car outside deli area of Global gas station at West Front Street and Grant Avenue. Suspect: Unknown; AT LARGE as of 12/16/2006 Drugs Involved: Unknown
	Date: September 3, 2006 Victim: Joel Whitley, 26, of Burlington County Circumstances: Shot after dispute at party on East 6th Street, shooter pulled up in silver van Suspect: Bryden Williams, 29; IN CUSTODY as of 9/20/2006 Drugs Involved: Unknown
	Date: July 6, 2006 Victim: Robert Clayborne Circumstances: Shot, Hallway of Viola Aptmts., across from Crescent Ave. Presbyterian Church Suspect: Unsolved Drugs Involved: Yes
	Date: July 1, 2006 Victim: Frank Puri Circumstances: Beaten, found under Liberty Street underpass Suspect: At large: Robert Hayes, 19, of North Plainfield. In custody: Robert Johnson, 18, and Dante Faulcon, 19, both of Plainfield, and a 17-year-old North Plainfield male. Drugs Involved: Probable
	Date: June 18, 2006 Victim: Lonnie Phillips Circumstances: Stabbed, daylight, East Front at Church Street Suspect: Dennis Thomas, arrested minutes later Drugs Involved: No
	Date: April 12, 2006 Victim: Sergio Suarez Circumstances: Shot, Innocent bystander, West Front across from McDonald's Suspect: Shaun D. Oatis, arrested April 12, 2006 Drugs Involved: No
	Date: March 24, 2006 Victim: Michael Gregory Circumstances: Shot, broad daylight, Green Brook Park Suspect: Jeremy Watson, arrested March 24, 2006 Drugs Involved: Yes
	Date: March 14, 2006 Victim: Robert Cody Circumstances: Shot, Liberty Street underpass Suspect: Donald Johnson, arrested Staten Island, April 23, 2006 Drugs Involved: Suspected
	Date: February 16, 2006 Victim: Antwine McAllister Circumstances: Shot, broad daylight, 6th & Park Suspect: Shawn Wafi-Long, arrested May 19, 2006 Drugs Involved: Suspected

Season's Greetings from Plainfield Today

Ordinances are a team sport

*

Readers have asked what's up with the Certificate of Compliance ordinance, and why it keeps appearing and disappearing from consideration.

Actually, there are several reasons, but they all boil down to one -- enacting ordinances is a team sport.

Like any team sport, success depends both on the quality of the players and the quality of the teamwork.

And that's where it gets interesting.

ORDINANCES are laws intended to be permanently binding within the City of Plainfield.

(As opposed to RESOLUTIONS, which generally only bind for the life of the Council enacting them -- each Council considered a separate entity upon its reorganization every January -- or the date certain specified in a contract.)

ORDINANCES may come to the Council in several ways -- generally they are proposed either by the Administration (through its various Departments and Divisions) or occasionally by the Council itself.

How exactly they are drafted varies from administration to administration, but basically the nuts and bolts of what is desired is put into a framework by the Department or Division as a Microsoft Word® document.

The Corporation Counsel then reviews and/or formally writes or rewrites the ordinance.

Once the Corporation Counsel and the responsible Department or Division have worked out the wrinkles, it goes to the Municipal Clerk.

The Clerk, working with the Council President, decides when the proposed ordinance will be placed on the Council's agenda.

This must be done with an eye to allowing enough time for the proper legal notice to be published as required by law. (There are, as always, exceptions.)

All this may seem straightforward enough.

But when ordinances actually come before the Council and there is PUBLIC COMMENT, the Council may ask for changes or the Administration may withdraw the ordinance to rework it.

Then it gets tricky.

Making sure the changes are made as requested needs to be done by one of the team players. Could be the Department or Division. Could be the Corporation Counsel. And reviewed.

The REVISED proposed ordinance then needs to go to the Clerk, to be RESCHEDULED and READVERTISED.

If the Clerk's office gets the WRONG VERSION from the party doing the changes, or if the Clerk's office accidentally sends the wrong version to the newspapers, the ordinance will need to be rescheduled and reprinted (your tax dollars at work, again).

The LEGAL NOTICE must detail the action that the Council is expected to take at the meeting announced (with again, SOME wiggle room).

As if there weren't enough chances for confusion and delay here, the Council holds a trump card because it has parliamentary methods for avoiding or refusing to take action on an ordinance when it finally does come before it.

Think the play diagrammed at the top of the page can be tricky?

Try diagramming an Administration/Council/Clerk play.

So, when it appears someone has dropped the ball, an observer will be hard-pressed to find out who.

Why?

City government has no instant replay.

-- Dan Damon

View today's CLIPPINGS here. Not getting your own CLIPPINGS email daily? Click here to get started.

Homeowner fees considered tonight

*
NOTE: The proposed ordinance revising fees for Certificates of Compliance, originally scheduled for 12/20/2006 action, will NOT be presented this evening.

City Council was previously scheduled take up the matter of proposed increases to the fee for Certificate of Compliance inspections tonight. The item has been postponed yet again.

Certificates of Compliance are required when homeowners sell their property. (They are also required when landlords turn over a rental unit.)

PT recalls vividly when the current scheme was enacted. He was active as a real estate professional, and one of the concerns at the time was that Plainfield's housing stock was being undermined by illegal conversions to multi-families and rooming-houses.

Tightening up on inspections was considered a necessary step to preserve the safety and quality of life for ALL Plainfielders.

It has had a decidedly beneficial impact, though many homeowners have found enforcement to be onerous.

There is a great deal of grumblling that inspectors are arbitrary and picayune in their enforcement, and even suggestions that some inspectors are susceptible to bribes -- varying from furnishings and appliances to outright cash.

The question of equitable enforcement is certainly a matter that needs to be looked into.

However, the measure proposed by the Administration to the Council will be considering RAISING THE FEES for these inspections from $50 to $175. That is a 350% increase, as PT pointed out in a previous post ("Never give a sucker an even break").

And that, to PT, seems excessive.

Certainly, the time has come to consider an adjustment in the fees as the cost of performing these inspections has no doubt risen since their inception. However, no one can justify an increase of 350% -- based SOLELY ON THE COST OF RUNNING THE PROGRAM.

Which is THE ONLY BASIS on which to make an argument for increasing the fees, since the state does not allow municipalities to set fees willy-nilly to raise income for the general fund.

Realtor® representatives have been actively lobbying the Administration, and PT has heard rumors that the proposed increase may be moderated.

If you are selling or may ever consider selling your home, you have an interest in what happens in regard to these inspection fees.

City Council meets tonight at 8 PM in the Council Chambers / Courtroom, East 4th Street and Watchung Avenue, where Construction Fees -- NOT Certificate of Compliance Fees -- will be acted upon.

-- Dan Damon

View today's CLIPPINGS here. Not getting your own CLIPPINGS email daily? Click here to get started.

Aid needed for victim's burial

*
PT received the following message from reader Maria Pellum concerning the needs of the family of Maria Flores, Plainfield's 9th homicide victim of 2006.

As this family faces both tragedy and financial need during this holiday time, my hope is that many will reach out and offer a helping hand. Here is Maria's letter --

First of all, let me apologize for taking the liberty of using this medium to come to you. Many of you know me because of my work in the Crescent Avenue neighborhood, many of you know me for my work with daylaborers, and then so many of you know me just because.

I read with horror the news on Monday of yet another crime in the City. This time a young girl, a teen, a Latina. As a mother, I could only think of what the mother was going through. I know had it happened to me I would be going crazy.

Monday morning as I was walking to the Post Office, a person who knew the victim's sister and knew me put us in touch. I learned that they came from Guerrero, Mexico. Guerrero is one of the most poverty stricken states in Mexico. Many people leave because of the poverty and now they are leaving because the Mexican government is incapable of controlling the drug cartels from taking these people's land.

The Flores family came just as many families do, looking for a better life. What they have found is a land that is strange to their customs and language, yet they have managed to live better than what they had in Mexico. As with every immigrant tale there's the pluses and the minuses. The minuses for Maria Flores came when she became hopeless knowing that her dreams would come to a halt when college would come. Giving up, she dropped out of school, joining her mother a factory job. Perhaps she was hanging out with the wrong crowd. Perhaps she didn't have enough information to make different choices. We will never know.

Today I'm appealing to your kindness as we are trying to help this family cope with the financial burden that was imposed on them when their youngest daughter was shot and killed in front of her own home while she was saying goodbye to her friends.

The Latin American Coalition is handling all the formalities that are needed for this young girl's body to be transported to her family's homeland. The father will be flying with her to make sure that the proper burial is given to his 16 year old daughter. He himself will be constructing the crypt in which to lay her body.

As part of the Latino community I feel obligated to assist this family in their present needs. As part of the community I regret that our young people feel so angry that life has no value to them. I have many times advocated for attention to simple matters that could make a difference, but it seems to me that today only actions could make a difference.

Please, if you find it in your heart to help this family, let me know, or direct your help to Flor Gonzalez from the Latin American Coalition. Her office is located on 410 Watchung Avenue, Plainfield, NJ 07060 and her phone number is (908) 753-7155.

Thanks.

Sincerely,

Maria Pellum

Once again, to help the family, please contact --

Flor Gonzalez
Latin American Coalition
410 Watchung Avenue
Plainfield, NJ 07060
(908) 753-7155

NOTE: The viewing for Ms. Flores will be FRIDAY EVENING, 6 - 10 PM, at Brown's Funeral Home, 122 Plainfield Avenue.

-- Dan Damon

View today's CLIPPINGS here. Not getting your own CLIPPINGS email daily? Click here to get started.

Flu shot shenanigans

*

(Vaccine is produced by culturing chicken eggs. As the virus mutates from year to year, each year demands a fresh vaccine formulation. Manufacturers try to hold customers to their orders in order to protect their profit margins in this speculative environment -- an entirely understandable tactic. Photo, Baltimore Sun.)

Y'know, nothing seems to be straightforward around here anymore.

Take flu shots.

The City has coordinated offering them to Seniors and other residents for dog's years.

When PT reported on Sunday ("Flu season? What flu season?") about the lack of flu shot clinics by the City this year, he thought it was a one-liner -- None offered. Period.

Turns out that based on last year's experience, ADDITIONAL FLU SHOTS were ordered IN MAY for this year's flu season.

THREE FLU CLINICS were scheduled -- one at the Senior Center on Saturday October 21, and two at the Health Department in City Hall Annex on Saturdays October 28 and November 4.

ALL THREE WERE CANCELED BY THE ADMINISTRATION. (See the PS at end of post.)

But not, it seems, the entire order for flu vaccines. Why not?

PT is told that while PARTIAL CANCELLATIONS of advance orders are allowed, cancellation of an ENTIRE ORDER invokes a financial penalty.

Canceling only part of the order allowed the City to escape the penalty.

What happened to the vaccines the City DID TAKE?

A flu clinic was offered to CITY EMPLOYEES ONLY on December 12, according to a flyer that PT picked up at the Information Desk in the City Hall rotunda.

No cost was mentioned.

Did the Administration plan to cheat the public of the opportunity for flu shots? Or was it simply incompetent?

What value DOES the Administration place on the public health?

One wag suggests the savings may have helped fatten the Mayor's 'eats and treats' budget.

Such a suggestion is a cold cut indeed.

But PT will not go there.

-- Dan Damon

PS -- As you can see from the comment below, flu shots were offered at the Annex on November 18th, whether for the general public or for employees only is not clear. That's NOT the day originally scheduled. As for whether it was 'widely advertised'. . .WHERE? PT regularly scans the flyers at the City Hall information desk and didn't see any -- though of course they could all have been scarfed up. Meanwhile, the point of the whole exercise was that the MOST VULNERABLE population is SENIORS, and PT was told by Senior Center staff that NO CLINICS were offered there. PT does not consider the comment a KO or even a TKO.

View today's CLIPPINGS here. Not getting your own CLIPPINGS email daily? Click here to get started.

Murder No. 9 - and Summary Table

PLAINFIELD MURDERS - 2006
	Date: December 16, 2006 Victim: Maria Flores, 16, of Plainfield, multiple gunshot wounds Circumstances: Reported anonymously to 911 about 9:55 PM, victim was found in a car outside deli area of Global gas station at West Front Street and Grant Avenue. Suspect: Unknown; AT LARGE as of 12/16/2006 Drugs Involved: Unknown
	Date: September 3, 2006 Victim: Joel Whitley, 26, of Burlington County Circumstances: Shot after dispute at party on East 6th Street, shooter pulled up in silver van Suspect: Bryden Williams, 29; IN CUSTODY as of 9/20/2006 Drugs Involved: Unknown
	Date: July 6, 2006 Victim: Robert Clayborne Circumstances: Shot, Hallway of Viola Aptmts., across from Crescent Ave. Presbyterian Church Suspect: Unsolved Drugs Involved: Yes
	Date: July 1, 2006 Victim: Frank Puri Circumstances: Beaten, found under Liberty Street underpass Suspect: At large: Robert Hayes, 19, of North Plainfield. In custody: Robert Johnson, 18, and Dante Faulcon, 19, both of Plainfield, and a 17-year-old North Plainfield male. Drugs Involved: Probable
	Date: June 18, 2006 Victim: Lonnie Phillips Circumstances: Stabbed, daylight, East Front at Church Street Suspect: Dennis Thomas, arrested minutes later Drugs Involved: No
	Date: April 12, 2006 Victim: Sergio Suarez Circumstances: Shot, Innocent bystander, West Front across from McDonald's Suspect: Shaun D. Oatis, arrested April 12, 2006 Drugs Involved: No
	Date: March 24, 2006 Victim: Michael Gregory Circumstances: Shot, broad daylight, Green Brook Park Suspect: Jeremy Watson, arrested March 24, 2006 Drugs Involved: Yes
	Date: March 14, 2006 Victim: Robert Cody Circumstances: Shot, Liberty Street underpass Suspect: Donald Johnson, arrested Staten Island, April 23, 2006 Drugs Involved: Suspected
	Date: February 16, 2006 Victim: Antwine McAllister Circumstances: Shot, broad daylight, 6th & Park Suspect: Shawn Wafi-Long, arrested May 19, 2006 Drugs Involved: Suspected

Flu season? What flu season?

*

Flu season? What flu season?

Have you noticed the media are not hyperventilating over the flu season?

Nor is anyone else, it seems.

By this time last year, the media were chock-a-block with stories of flu vaccine shortages.

The City of Plainfield had conducted MULTIPLE flu clinics at the Senior Center and had cooperated with doctors and health care providers to make sure enough vaccine was available throughout the community

This year?

When someone inquired of PT where and when clinics were to be held, I scurried to find out what was going on.

Not much, it seems.

In fact, November 27 to December 3 was National Influenza Vaccination Week. Did you even know? Didn't see ANY buzz from the City about it.

There are no flu clinics planned for the Senior Center, PT was told. The reason? PT was told that Seniors objected to paying for shots, so they were bused to Runnells, where vaccines were administered by the County, presumably at no -- or less -- charge.

That may be fine for the 1,500 or so registered members of the Senior Center, but what about the rest of the 4,500 or so Seniors in the community? Not to mention the other populations considered prime candidates for the vaccine, such as infants and toddlers? (The CDC recommends vaccination for 218 million of the total 300 million population in the country.)

According to the New York Times, there are an average of 36,000 deaths and 200,000 hospitalizations per year from the flu. No small potatoes.

And consider this -- many more flu vaccines are available this year as a result of last year's shortages and the accompanying publicity.

Further, if the available flu vaccines are not sold off by the manufacturers while there is still time, they will suffer a loss in profits based on their projected sales. That means that they may plan to produce LESS vaccine for next year's season.

And that is without regard to whether next year will be a severe season or not, which cannot be known until the time approaches.

Mr. Smith's invisible hand gets a real workout here!

If you have not yet had your flu shot and want to get one while there is still time (they can still be gotten into early January), call your health care provider or the Plainfield Health Department at (908) 753-3092 for more information.

-- Dan Damon

View today's CLIPPINGS here. Not getting your own CLIPPINGS email daily? Click here to get started.

Hold the fort!

*

Gunshots last night.

PT had company over for dinner, and while saying goodbye on the back porch, a little after midnight, there were two short bursts of gunfire.

Nearby.

Unusual in this West 7th Street block, even if we have had problems with drugs in the apartments across the street in the past.

Then I get up and find an email in my inbox this morning from readers over in the Muhlenberg Hospital neighborhood that they heard about a DOZEN shots fired in two bursts about 10:40 PM last night.

Operation CeaseFire is supposed to be coming to Plainfield soon.

It is a policing tactic in which there is supposed to be INTENSE response to EVERY GUN INCIDENT, INCLUDING REPORTS OF GUNSHOTS FIRED.

As it was explained to PT by a law enforcement professional, every incident is supposed to be treated with the intensity there would be in the case of a shooting with a victim.

How successful will it be? We won't know 'til we've been there.

But PT's sense is that people are ready. . .and waiting.

Puts him in mind of the old union song Hold the fort, for we are coming.

-- Dan Damon

PS -- If you're not familiar with this great song of the American people, you can listen to it here.

View today's CLIPPINGS here. Not getting your own CLIPPINGS email daily? Click here to get started.

Will Plainfield make a mitzvah?

*

There is a heartwarming story in the Courier today.

Isaac Salomon, owner of Rex Bedding, the company that suffered the loss of its storage warehouse this week, has said that he will compensate his employees for their lost time until the business reopens.

Observant Jews would refer to this act of generosity and kindness as a mitzvah.

Highly appropriate, given the season -- the Jewish festival of Chanukah begins at sundown today, and the Christian celebration of Jesus' birth is a week from Monday.

It is a season of goodwill and gift-giving.

There is another gift that could be given -- not by Mr. Salomon, but by the City.

Rex Bedding is in need of space, as Mr. Salomon points out.

PT knows that it is not fashionable these days to celebrate light industry -- the manufacturing, assembly and warehousing jobs that keep thousands of blue collar men and women employed and their families fed, housed and clothed.

Light industry is not glamorous or glitzy, and plenty of people would like to see it replaced with condos.

It is getting to be, as the developers like to say, NOT the 'highest and best use.'

Nevertheless, PT sings the song of industry, the people who keep it going and the people it keeps going.

Let's hope that if Mr. Salomon needs help finding space or other needs to keep his business flourishing in Plainfield, the City will step up to the plate.

It would be a mitzvah for Plainfield.

Entirely appropriate for the season.

-- Dan Damon

View today's CLIPPINGS here. Not getting your own CLIPPINGS email daily? Click here to get started.

Ka-ching! Holiday gifts from City Hall

*


Ka-ching!

That's the sound of the Administration's holiday gift(s) to the taxpayers.

The cockles of your cold hearts should be warmed by learning -- as PT was told recently -- that the Mayor's bodyguards security detail have earned $15,000 in overtime this year.

That's on top of the approximately $150,000 the two of them earn in regular salary.

That's to protect a part-time Mayor who is paid $35,000 a year, whom no one has expressed any interest in harming.

And the deal was supposed to be that they would serve WITHOUT OVERTIME.

Ka-ching!

If the $3,000± spent by the Mayor on 'eats & treats' in September is a good measure, are we looking at an annualized item charged against the taxpayers of $36,000?

Does that include things like private luncheons celebrating the promotion of members of her security detail?

(PT is told that TRADITIONALLY, the promotee foots the billl for a lunch honoring his or her promotion, and that such have NEVER been held at City Hall.)

Lots of folks are pestering to find out what the tents and spread for the holiday tree lighting set the taxpayers back. We'll get to that later.

Ka-ching!

Then we've got the matter of the so-called 'information technology consultants' which it seems will FAR EXCEED the paltry $129,000 PT was told was committed before the Council was informed. Rumor has it the total tab may run in the neighborhood of $400,000, when all is said and done.

Ka-ching!

Puts PT in mind of the famous quip of the late Sen. Everett Dirksen of Illinois -- "A billion dollars here, a billion dollars there, pretty soon we're talking about real money."

Happy Holidays to you and yours from the Administration!

Ka-ching!

-- Dan Damon

View today's CLIPPINGS here. Not getting your own CLIPPINGS email daily? Click here to get started.

Free Holiday parking starts

*

Once again, shoppers in Plainfield will have free Holiday parking, courtesy of the Mayor and the City Council.

White plastic bags announcing the policy appeared on city parking meters in the last couple of days, though the policy actually takes effect today, Wednesday, December 13, and runs through January 2, 2007.

Happy Holidays!
*

Rex Bedding fire videos

Video footage from the Rex Bedding fire of Tuesday, December 12, 2006. Also see photos and video at Plainfield Today's "Exclusive: Rex Bedding fire"

VIDEO 2 - FIGHTING THE FIRE

VIDEO 3 - REPACKING HOSE

VIDEO 4 - HOSING AFTERWARD, FRONT

VIDEO 5 - HOSING AFTERWARD, REAR

VIDEO 6 - 6:45, THE MORNING AFTER

--Dan Damon

View today's CLIPPINGS here. Not getting your own CLIPPINGS email daily? Click here to get started.

Exclusive: Rex Bedding fire

*
NOTE: The original post incorrectly identified the burning building. Subsequently, it was learned that the building which burned actually abutted the Arteferro building, and was used by Rex Bedding to store materials used in its mattress manufacturing business.

This post corrects that misinformation.

A major fire at a Rex Bedding storage facility,
Central Avenue, adjacent to Fire Division HQ

VIEW YOUTUBE VIDEO HERE:





PT is posting photos of a major fire that broke out in the Rex Bedding storage facility, next door to the Plainfield Fire Division's headquarters building.
PT was alerted by diligent readers R and R and hotfooted it over -- literally, in slippers -- with camera and videocam in hand around 8:30 AM.

Flames are visible on the first floor

Traffic was being shunted off Central Avenue at the West 4th Street intersection.

Crowds of onlookers gathered in front of the Allen Apartments across the street and in little knots along Central Avenue.

The ladder truck pumping water on the roof

By the time PT left, after about 30 minutes, the Fire Division was completely mobilized with the ladder truck pumping a stream into the burning building's roof and ground hoses being hooked up.

Three news helicopters arrived and circled the site as PT was leaving the area.

A news chopper hovers over the fire scene

-- Dan Damon

View today's CLIPPINGS here. Not getting your own CLIPPINGS email daily? Click here to get started.

Exclusive: Arteferro fire photos

*
NOTE: The original post incorrectly identified the burning building. Subsequently, it was learned that the building which burned actually abutted the Arteferro building, and was used by Rex Bedding to store materials used in its mattress manufacturing business. To avoid confusion, the post has been moved to a correctly identified URL.

Go to "Exclusive: Rex Bedding fire" to view the photos and video.

Thanks,
Dan
*

A message from Guadalupe?

*

Is the Virgin of Guadalupe offering Plainfield a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity?

PT has followed the practice of religious processions in Plainfield for a number of years

Jean Mattson, former president of the Plainfield Historical Society, and an avid photographer, made it a point for many years to document the Good Friday processions from Library Park to St. Mary's Church.

As mayor, Al McWilliams was a regular guest and participant in the annual Guadalupe processions, and I, too, have noticed how they have grown over the years -- both in numbers and in spirit.

Suddenly, this year, the size seems to have become an issue.

It seems to PT that we should look down the other end of the tube.

What is going on here?

Is the growth in attendance a good thing or a bad thing? Is it a problem or an opportunity?

What is going on is that without our planning it, LIFE -- in the form of an EXUBERANT, MULTI-DAY CULTURAL as well as religious FESTIVAL that is spontaneously drawing hundreds more participants every year -- IS HANDING US A FREEBIE.

OK, maybe not a FREEBIE, but an OPPORTUNITY OF POTENTIALLY AMAZING PROPORTIONS.

Why not turn Plainfield into THE CENTER OF NEW JERSEY'S CELEBRATION OF THE FESTIVAL of Our Lady of Guadalupe?

A multi-day, multi-cultural opportunity for food, music, crafts literally handed to us?

PT has long ruminated on the success other communities have had in attracting visitors -- and their dollars -- through such culturally-related activities.

Think of the huge West Indian festival in Brooklyn every year. St. Lucy's in Newark. The Portuguese in the Ironbound.

Is this a wakeup call?

-- Dan Damon

View today's CLIPPINGS here. Not getting your own CLIPPINGS email daily? Click here to get started.

Sex, pols and videotape

*

As Wally said, "Really, you can't make this stuff up."

Wally Edge, that is, of the website PoliticsNJ.

Yesterday, PT included in CLIPS an AP story on Atlantic City Councilman, the Rev. Eugene Robinson, having been caught on videotape in a sex act with a woman whom the Councilman apparently paid for the encounter.

PT is hardly interested in fanning the flames of prurience, but he was curious about HOW the story got around.

He had stumbled on it while trying to get an online clip of the Jay Williams NBA story which was in the Courier print edition but not online. The hunt led to Newsday, the Long Island newspaper which is legendary for the completeness of its online AP feed, constantly updated.

Lo and behold, the AC item was right next to the NBA story, so PT included it under the New Jersey heading.

It was only after CLIPS had been sent out that there was the luxury of time to read the story.The first thing noted was that the AP item was dated the 8th -- Friday.

But the story itself says a 4-minute DVD -- evidently transferred from a videotape -- was delivered to South Jersey journalist and talk show host Virginia McCabe on Monday, November 27.

The DVD was delivered by a man apparently wearing a disguise of oversized glasses, fake beard and baggy clothes. She broke the story online with a blow-by-blow description of the DVD contents the same day.

Almost two weeks to seep to the outside world? That intrigued PT.

Surely, other attention must have been paid?

The Press of Atlantic City, the town's paper-of-record, gave it scant attention on the 28th with a two-sentence brief --

"A local radio talk show host claims to have a videotape showing Atlantic City councilman Eugene Robinson performing a sex act with an unidentified woman. Robinson's attorney claims the tape is the creation of former city council president Craig Callaway who pleaded guilty to federal bribery charges in August."

PT had better luck with Wally Edge, perhaps the most entertaining columnist and political trivia-meister on the PoliticsNJ website.

Wally posted three entries (see links at end of this item), making an oblique jab at McCabe, who, it seems, may have been hawking the DVD for sale.

NBC's local affiliate, WMGM Channel 40, was shown the DVD by McCabe. Their technical staff determined it had been copied from a videotape, and was able to construct a clear shot of the woman's face, which had been edited on the DVD by 'pixellating' her image in different frames.

WMGM's news story was taped and posted to YouTube here.

Robinson and his attorney connect the videotape and an alleged attempt to blackmail him into resigning his Council seat by former City Council president Craig Callaway, who resigned in August after pleading guilty to receiving bribes. Robinson and Callaway had been political allies. Callaway wore a wire for an undisclosed period of time, and further indictments of local political figures and vendors are expected.

Meanwhile, the Callaway family held a press conference denying Robinson's charges, the details of which are included by McCabe in her posts.

As AP's Mulvihill observed, in other places, such surreal politics might be devastating, ". . .but Atlantic City is not like other places."

And, thank God, Plainfield is not like Atlantic City.

-- Dan Damon

Links of interest --

• Virginia McCabe's complete coverage: "Robinson sex videotape stories"
• Press of Atlantic City, 2-sentence coverage: "A.C. councilman Robinson on sex tape?"
• Geoff Mulvilhill's AP story: "AC politics: Sex, lies, and videotape"
• NBC News40 Video on YouTube: "Atlantic City councilman sex-tape scandal"
• Wally Edge's coverage on PoliticsNJ: Posts One, Two and Three.

View today's CLIPPINGS here. Not getting your own CLIPPINGS email daily? Click here to get started.

'Taint so, Counselor

*

At Wednesday evening's Council meeting, Corporation Counsel Dan Williamson -- left alone at the Administration's table to speak on its behalf in the absence of Mayor Sharon Robinson-Briggs -- answered questions posed by property owner Larry Thul concerning the proposed East 3rd / Richmond Streets redevelopment proposal.

Mr. Thul asked three important questions: Why has there been no impact statement as required? Why isn't the developer approaching property owners privately rather than have the City declare the area blighted? How can someone barred from participating in public contracts be involved in this deal?

Mr. Williamson asserted that the barred contractor has assured the City (is that in writing?) that he is NOT INVOLVED. Strikes PT as odd, since past research indicated he was a principal and that the business address was his home. What was the no-no that got the guy barred in the first place? Failing to pay prevailing wage rates. Nice, huh?

Mr. Williamson also asserted that declaring a redevelopment area was necessary ". . .because there has been no development in the area for years and years. . ."

Everyone is still waiting to see the impact statement.

Today's Ledger editorialized about this week's NJ Supreme Court ruling on eminent domain --

"In too many instances eminent domain is used to take property that is not blighted from [owners] for development of pricey high rises or other private development. Often the beneficiaries are developers who have been generous political donors. . ."

Generous political donors like the Capodagli interests?

In any event, the notion that there has been no development in the area 'for years and years' is flatly false.

The fact that the Plainfield Municipal Utilities Authority (PMUA), shoehorned into the 'area in need of redevelopment', has invested over $2 million in improvements, planning, and property acquisition over the past few years -- in preparation for building its new centralized operations facility -- is being totally ignored by the City.

They've even been in a bit of a tussle with the City over it, with the City claiming improvements were made without City permission. The PMUA contends it does not NEED City permission as long as it follows the codes.

Mr. Williamson's remarks put PT in mind of the famous comment by Josef Goebbels, Hitler's Propaganda Minister --

"If you tell a lie big enough, and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it."

Nice try, Counselor, but 'taint so.

-- Dan Damon

View today's CLIPPINGS here. Not getting your own CLIPPINGS email daily? Click here to get started.

Symphony now offers online shopping & contributions

*

(Coffee mug is one of many PSO items available online.)

The Plainfield Symphony is now offering online shopping through its website, say PSO board members Pat Ballard Fox and Duncan Alexander, who also serves as the group's treasurer.

The service, begun several weeks ago, has already generated sales and income for the 87-year-old community orchestra, the oldest in New Jersey and one of the oldest in the country.

The new shopping choices include a PSO 'store' at CafePress, the megasite for nonprofits to market their merchandise, and a link to Barnes & Noble's online bookstore. (Ballard Fox notes that for the Symphony to get credit for any book orders made, a shopper MUST enter the B&N site through the link, and not just by going to the general B&N home page.)

Links to the shopping services are on the PSO website's front page, where you can also find links to the Symphony's current season's performance schedule and ticket purchase options, plus news of the PSO and contacts for the organization.

Donors can also make ONLINE CONTRIBUTIONS via the secure servers of JustGive, an online fundraising service for nonprofit organizations. The direct link for contributions to the Plainfield Symphony Orchestra is here.

Have a PSO fan or classical music lover at your house? You can order the perfect gifts here -- from mugs and teddy bears to all kinds of apparel.

Check it out.

Now.

-- Dan Damon

View today's CLIPPINGS here. Not getting your own CLIPPINGS email daily? Click here to get started.

Day of Infamy Remembered

*

(The attack began at 7:55 AM. National Archives)

Today is the 65th anniversary of the surprise attack by Japanese forces on the US naval base at Pearl Harbor on the Hawaiian island of Oahu, Sunday, December 7, 1941. A date, as President Roosevelt said, "which will live in infamy."

A Japanese naval force had steamed undiscovered entirely across the Pacific, launching the surprise attack at dawn from north of the island, with the first wave hitting at 7:55 AM.

(Map showing the Japanese attack routes. Wikipedia)

America's Pacific Fleet was dealt a crippling, though not fatal, blow, with 2,408 servicemen and civilians losing their lives. Most of the fleet lying in the harbor was sunk or destroyed.

As luck would have it, the three aircraft carriers stationed in Hawaii were not in port and escaped unscathed. These carriers, along with onshore facilities that escaped destruction, formed the basis for American recovery and eventual victory in the Pacific theater.

(Draft of President Roosevelt's speech to Congress. FDR Library)

On Monday, December 8th, 1941, the day after the attack, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt addressed an emergency joint session of the Congress, asking for a declaration of war against Japan.

That declaration was passed with only one dissenting vote, and FDR signed the declaration later the same day.

(President Roosevelt signs the Declaration of War, December 8, 1941. FDR Library.)

Americans rallied in support of the nation, with thousands lining up to enlist voluntarily.

Women would come to play an important role in World War II -- more important than ever before -- through enlistment in women's auxiliary forces and in massive participation in the war industry effort.

(Women played important roles in the military effort)



(America could not have produced the materiel needed without women)

The war would also forever change the situation of African-Americans in American society.

Black Americans would make great strides to leave behind the legacy of invisibility fostered by social norms, taking a proper place in the leadership of the war effort, though not without struggle.

(The first class of 'Tuskegee Airmen'.)

America -- and the world -- would never be the same.

Today, those who were young men and women at that time are being lost at the rate of a thousand a day.

Their contribution was priceless. Their stories deserve to be heard, preserved and shared.

If you know a veteran of World War II, consider reaching out to them today to tell them how much you appreciate their sacrifice.

And listen to their story.

-- Dan Damon

Links of interest --

• FDR Library: "Franklin Roosevelt asks Congress for a Declaration of War with Japan"
• Naval Historical Center: "Pearl Harbor Raid, Overview and Special Images"
• National Geographic: "Remembering Pearl Harbor"
• Wikipedia: "The Attack on Pearl Harbor"
• Tuskegee Airmen: "National Website"
• Wikipedia: "Tuskegee Airmen"
  

View today's CLIPPINGS here. Not getting your own CLIPPINGS email daily? Click here to get started.