TW3: April 17 - April 23, 2006: Plainfield-centered news digest of the past week

*
Mondays, PLAINFIELD TODAY is a digest of Plainfield-only news from the past week: That Was The Week That Was -- or TW3 -- with links to the online stories.

GOVERNMENT / POLITICS

SCHOOL BOARD ELECTIONS: The annual school board elections took center stage early in the week. The well-heeled, well-signed Lovely-Brown/Logan-Leach/Wilkins (CLR) team was silently promoted by a last-minute slime attack on Pat Barksdale and Rasheed Abdul-Haqq that arrived in many mailboxes on Monday, the day before the election. Plainfield Today endorsed Barksdale and Abdul-Haqq on Monday and responded to the sliming mailer on Tuesday--urging people to get out and vote. Results? As noted by Bernice in the Plaintalker, Dan in Plainfield Today and separately by the Courier, Pat Barksdale was the top vote-getter, with Rasheed Abdul-Haqq outdistancing the third-place candidate, Lisa Logan-Leach by more than 130 votes. Dan posted the unofficial stats., and analyzed the sliming mailer in his Friday post. And who do you think mailed it? Coming along at the end of the parade, the Rev. Rick had a letter supporting the Courier's editorial knock on Superintendent Howard from the previous week. As pointed out in Friday's HITS, word in the street is that the good reverend is really peeved that his wife, the Rev. Gloria, has not been given a principalship...

COUNCIL'S NEW MEETING SCHEDULE: This past week launched the Council's new meeting schedule -- and with the school board election sandwiched in, made for a perfect storm of meetings for City Clerk Laddie Wyatt (who along with her staff was thanked for their endurance by Council President Blanco at Wednesday's meeting). Bernice reported in depth on the public comment at the end of the meeting, and Dan logged in with a note on the low attendance by the public.


CRIME: Shootings continued unabated, with two more being added this week. The young man from North Plainfield, shot in the back across from the McDonald's on West Front Street, was reported still in critical condition as of Sunday. As Dan noted, people are dying to hear what is going to be done. Meanwhile, one of the three young Plainfield men busted in Westfield for marijuana and gun possession has now been fingered by the cops as running an East End drug operation. Turns out he had a stash of guns and cash at his home, which happens to be next door to that of Plainfield Area Equality's founder. (See today's CLIPPINGS for today's New York Times story on the Staten Island arrest in the murder of Robert Cody.)

Sunday's Courier and Ledger both reported on the tragic death of Fausto Fabin Ramos, a North Plainfield resident struck and killed by a Plainfield police cruise responding to a report of shots fired on Putnam Avenue. The Ledger got it online, but the Courier flubbed the dub and the story was transcribed and posted by Dan. They did get their act together and put it online later in the day.

ODDS 'n ENDS: Council President Blanco, as duly noted by Dan, called attention to some missing web-production software, duly returned and receipted. The tool is one of the best for building websites, but is only a tool. What is designed depends on the skills of the designer -- and everyone will be watching Plainfield's website to see what happens. (BTW, perfectly adequate sites can be built without the tool the old-fashioned way, using a text editor like Notepad.)

Lastly, a brief in Thursday's Courier noted that Sharpe, Maddox and Soaries are to be honored at a celebrity brunch. After rereading the piece several times, it still is not clear whether they will actually be there to be recognized. Hmmmmmmmmm.......


Last week's H.I.T.S.: "HITS: Laddie a gold-digger?... Rev. Rick riffs on schools... CSI: Plainfield..."
Last TW3: "TW3: April 3 - April 9, 2006"


COMMUNITY

DuCret Student Makes Good: "Step by step to cultural arbiter of the county"
Fire: "Tuesday night fire destroys Brewster Court home"
Green Brook Flood Control: "With video of devastation, officials plead for further funds"
Plainfield Artist Honored [last item]: "Group to honor Mel Holston at annual lunch"
Veterans: "American Legion Post seeking veterans"
Letters to Editor - CN: Maria Pellum: "City should better image, fight crime"
..... - Robert Darden: "Schools' Lobbying: Wrong use of funds"
..... - Valerie Cummings: "City forum offered hope for future"
..... - QUEST: "QUEST challenges School Board on ethics issues"


CONNECTIONS? FOOD FOR THOUGHT

..... - Condos: "Condos coming to Bound Brook"
..... - Construction Inspections: "Licenses suspended amid flak over W. Orange club"
.......... DCA: Inspectors have no right to ignore planning or zoning board decisions
..... - False Alarms at Schools: "Outwitting false alarms at schools"
..... - Gooses and Golden Eggs: "Nest egg set aside by Suliga is eaten by Council"
..... - Homelessness: "Los Angeles aims to conquer homelessness"
..... - Immigration: Robert Samuelson: "Conspiracy Against Assimilation"
..... - Loft Condos: "Lofts proposed for East Newark"
..... - Public Housing Rents: "27% of Tenants Face More Rent Under NYC Plan"
..... - Public Records: "Old Bridge to simplify access, make executive sessions more timely"
..... - Schools: "Corzine backs new scrutiny of school district spending"
..... - Shootings: "Newark cops seize more guns; Violence grows, shootings rise nearly 10%"
..... - Surveillance Cams: "The Camera Never Blinks, but It Multiplies"
..... - Sweetheart deals: "Booker criticizes city sale of properties; says builders get deals'"
..... - Taxes: "Settlement creating different assessments causes tension and confusion"
..... - Transition Plans: "Booker nonprofit creating a guide on urban issues"
.... - Verizon vs. Cable: "Long Island: Tug of War Played With Cable"
..... - Voting Machines: "Voting machine glitch casts doubt on election outcome"
*