You really can’t make this stuff up.

Clarkstown police were called to the Palisades Center tonight after it was reported that a man stole 100 bras from Victoria’s Secret. The theft happened around 7:30 p.m. and police got only a vague description. The bras were estimated at $4,000 in value.

So many jokes…

Don’t forget that the next public forum on developing Clarkstown’s comprehensive plan is scheduled for this Thursday at Clarkstown North High School. Officials said they’re looking for suggestions from residents on what should be included in the comprehensive plan, which they want to complete in 2009. Some of the topics include housing, recreation, transportation and cultural resources.

The workshop begins at 7 p.m. and ends around 9:30 p.m. and is one of several meetings to discuss the plan.

UPDATE: The meeting was actually held on Monday, Feb. 4 and we missed it. There is no meeting scheduled for Thursday. Sorry for any inconvenience!

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Ex-lawmaker Karben to plead not guilty to DWI

4 generations evicted in Stony Point

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By about 6 a.m. this morning the bus scheduled to leave from St. Joseph’s Church in Spring Valley for Washington, D.C., still hadn’t arrived yet; and the about 55 people heading to the nation’s capital to participate in the 35th annual March for Life rally, instead, attempted to keep warm, idling in their cars.

Today hundreds of people from the Lower Hudson Valley will join thousands others to protest the 35th anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision, the landmark 1973 case that legalized abortion.

As those departing from St. Joseph’s sipped their coffees and waited patiently in their cars that were parked against the backdrop of a frosty dawn sky, I talked to a few travelers to see what lured them out of their warm beds so early in the morning.

(The Donahues of Stony Point. One of about 55 families heading from St. Joseph’s Church in Spring Valley to the nation’s capital to participate in the March for Life. From left to right: Ryan, 16, Shannon, 4, Thomas, 6, and Chris, 40.)

Just a reminder that Clarkstown officials are holding their next public forum on developing the town’s comprehensive plan on Thursday, Jan. 24, at the Congers Community Center. The meeting will begin at 7 p.m. and last until about 9:30 p.m. People are invited to offer suggestions on topics such as housing, recreation, transportation and cultural resources.

The workshop is among several meetings that officials are going to hold in Clarkstown to get input from the public. Town officials said they hope to complete the comprehensive plan in 2009.

In fact, Clarkstown officials plan to spend much of 2008 studying, consulting, planning and evaluating. There’s the energy audit, the mall study, the parks and recreation forums and housing for volunteer emergency services among many other issues the town is looking at.

As Clarkstown Supervisor Alexander Gromack said in a phone interview yesterday afternoon: “2008 is the year of the plan.”

Check out what the town supervisor has planned for 2008 by viewing highlights of his speech last week in the video podcast below.

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Gregg Brie released without bail on charges of stealing $100,000 from woman
Philanthropist said to defraud P. River woman of $100G
Cops: Mom burned son, 7, in oven
Suffern Islamic house of worship divided
Nanuet Mall’s future in limbo

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• Rockland’s first baby of the year born at Nyack Hospital


• Rockland’s ‘Crow House’ named national historic site


• Pearl River family of 4 loses home in fire


• Repairs to weak spots on Tappan Zee Bridge will begin in spring

If you haven’t already, check out part one of our Year In Review below.

Part 2:

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Rockland’s top stories of 2007

So I’m filling in for Christina Jeng for this week’s Week In Review podcast while she produces the Year In Review podcast. You can find the Year In Review podcast on the Inside Rockland blog on Jan. 1. Enjoy!
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• Local Pakistanis stunned by Bhutto assassination


• Clarkstown officials to consider removing New City mural as part of revitalization project


• Spring Valley store owner accused of unlicensed alcohol sale, illegal gambling

It’s December, and that means we’re gearing up for the annual Year in Review, a look at the 10 biggest news stories in Rockland in 2007.

The main criteria we look at is that the news has to be Rockland-specific, so the war in Iraq would not qualify, but news regarding the criminal military case stemming from the fragging death of U.S. Army Capt. Phillip Esposito would.

We’d love your thoughts and suggestions. Some stories we’re looking at so far, in no particular order:

• Election defeats of District Attorney Michael Bongiorno and Haverstraw Mayor Francis “Bud” Wassmer.

• Wyeth Pharmaceuticals celebrates 100 years in Pearl River.

• The rabbi banned from baking matzos on a converted bus in his backyard.

• Rats, roaches in Clarkstown North.

• Scientists at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory in Palisades share in the Nobel Peace Prize with Al Gore.

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Clarkstown officer critically injured in cruiser crash improving in hospital
South Nyack man charged in false report of stabbing
N.J. man gets 6 months in jail for DWI assault that severely injured cop in Rockland
Rockland health officials warn of measles exposure at Good Samaritan Hospital
Experts: MRSA panic unfounded
Egan celebrates bicentennial Mass in West Nyack

Links to related videos:

District attorney dissusses case

Researchers study different strains of MRSA

Edward Cardinal Egan presides over mass in West Nyack

So … in today’s paper, I wrote an article about the Rockland Center for the Arts’ recent project, which had artists design skateboard decks to raise money for the nonprofit’s children’s programs. (Read more about that here: Rockland artists take on skateboard challenge.) And while I was at the center I was a bit photo-happy. Anyway, here are some other decks that weren’t included in the paper. More photos after the break.

Gobble gobble, I’m back and here with another Week In Review.

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After the break, check out the links to related articles, videos and blogs. Note: These Week In Reviews only show portions of the videos our photo staff puts together, so be sure to view the full videos by clicking the links.

Hey hey Rockland,

Just a reminder that you can get a rundown of the week’s major stories by viewing our Rockland Week In Review podcast. If you have a video iPod, you can also subscribe to this podcast by clicking the link on the right side of your screen so that you can download and view ‘em say … during your commute to work, maybe during a quick sprint on the treadmill or a commercial break at home? Also, below I’ll include any relevant links to the stories mentioned in the podcast. Have a great weekend!

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It’s that time of year again – election season. Even when I’m indoors, typing up a story at my work desk, I can tell. That’s because I get all kinds of calls from people talking about signs. You know the ones – they’re usually red, white and blue with one name written in a huge font. Yes, campaign signs.

Ron Altman, a candidate for Clarkstown Superintendent of Highways, said many his signs have been missing.

“They’ve just been disappearing,” he said. “One was busted in half.”

Altman estimated about 200 signs have been missing so far even though they were on private property and followed all the local laws.

According to Joel Epstein, Clarkstown’s code enforcement officer, signs must be placed on private property with the owner’s permission. Typically, signs should be 10-feet away from the curb, but that could vary depending on the property, he said. The town has become even more strict after passing a sign ordinance a year or so ago that limits the types of signs that can be displayed.

Epstein said the Building and Highway departments have impounded anywhere from 500 to 1,000 signs so far this fall. Many were campaign signs but there were also real estate, weight loss and other advertisements in the mix. Officials perform “random sweeps” of the streets about once a week, he said.

“I think Clarkstown has been very thorough the best they can…to keep the rights of way clean all year long,” Epstein said. “It’s not like we’re out there with every available force all the time. We do the best we can and I think the town looks great.”

Some, like Nanuet resident, Vincent Pacella, would disagree. He said he has seen Pascack Road plastered with campaign signs for days at a time.

“They’re on the guard rail, the street signs, you name it, they’re all over the place,” he said.

And though Pacella said he would like to see the signs removed, he doesn’t think it should be the town’s responsibility. Instead, he would rather the candidates be forced to remove them.

“Something should be done but I don’t think we should be spending taxpayers’ dollars to remove these things,” he said.

Epstein said late October and early November tend to be the worst times of the year for campaign signs. But in just a few days, he said they’ll all be gone.

“The silly season is almost over,” he said.

Doug Hostetter, a Democrat running for Clarkstown Town Board, is planning a “Meet the Candidate/Campaign Fundraising Party” for Sunday, October, 14, from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. Hostetter, whose top two issues are controlled spending and preserving the environment, is running alongside incumbent Shirley Lasker. The event is to be held at Kristi Zea’s house at 495 Mountainview Avenue in Valley Cottage. For more info on the Town Board race, look for my story later this month on lohud.com!

Also, looks like Howard Gerber, an incumbent Democrat who is running for Clarkstown Town Justice, is holding a similar event at Romolo’s Restaurant in Congers this Wednesday, October 10, from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. For more info, call 845-267-5003. Gerber, who has worked in the legal field for some 25 years, has been a town justice since January. You can read more about him and his top issues in a story I wrote before the primaries, which can be found here.

I wrote a story for Sunday’s paper on a group of West Nyack residents and businessmen who came up with some largescale solutions to eliminate flooding on Route 59. In the story, I mentioned some “choke points” they described. Basically, it’s where railroad trestles, culverts or bridges could be widened and/or heightened to allow more water to flow underneath during a storm. Here’s a graphic with specific locations that didn’t make it into the paper:

If you want to read the story, you can find it here.

By the way, just a reminder that the meeting on flooding issues in Clarkstown is still on for Thursday, Sept. 20 at Clarkstown Town Hall at 1 p.m. The meeting is open to the public so anyone else with flooding concerns is encouraged to talk about them there!

Earlier this week, I visited St. Agatha Home in Nanuet moments after the bell tower was removed from the top of the Little Flower House, which was one of the first buildings built on the campus. It was an emotional moment for many, like Kevin Donahue, who has been working on the campus for 31 years. After all, the he and many members of the alumni association had been working to save bits and pieces of their former campus ever since they found out it was going to be sold to the Nanuet school district. I wrote a short story on it.

While there, I took a ride with Donahue to a grassy plot of land on Duryea Lane where the group hopes to construct a museum from the bell tower. On that bare hill, Donahue and another member, Victor Castro, shared fond memories of adolecent mischief. They reminisced about the former dump where they would find interesting knick-knacks and the adjacent grassy slope on which they would roll down in garbage cans. And that’s not all.

“There were many a clandestine meeting with members of the opposite sex near this dump,” Castro said with a chuckle.

In the coming months, members said they planned to restore the bell tower and that they would prepare to move it to the top of the hill once other buildings on the campus were demolished. Many well-known people who live in Rockland County grew up at St. Agatha’s, according to members, and they hope those people will preserve and share those memories on their web site’s guestbook, which can be found at www.stagathahome.org.

After the story ran on August 7, I received an e-mail from a woman named Anne, who said she will greatly miss St. Agatha Home. She said:

“I spent 7 yrs. at St. Agatha’s from 43 to 50 and I must say my only place of solace while there was the chapel. For awhile I even worked in the dormatory [sic] where the cables held the bell so it’s a very sad thing to know that the home is no more but I’m so happy the bell could be saved. It was a symbol of peace for me and for many of us who were raised there, our spirits will always be with what was good about the home.”

Local rap artist Stephen Redmond called me a week or so ago to let me know his new YouTube video is up. If you recall, the artist, who calls himself Lucky Me, offended New City residents with his first video, “I Love New City.” Residents said it incorrectly depicted the hamlet as full of rich teenagers using cocaine. (I wrote about that issue back in June. You can read the story here

The new video is called, LUCKYME RESPONSES TO THE HATERS AND ALL THE PAPARAZZI, and is the 4th or 5th response Redmond has posted to the first video.

The latest video focuses on some of the media attention the artist received, with clips from Channel 12 and CBS segments and a glimpse of the article written by yours truly. Redmond reasserts that his video was a way to thank some of his fans for supporting his music and that he didn’t mean to offend anyone. The new video has about 750 views so far, versus about 15,500 views of the first video.

Some would prefer it if no one watched the videos, like Clarkstown Supervisor Alexander Gromack, who said the video wasn’t an accurate reflection of the hamlet at all. “I think it was probably in poor taste and I just wish those young adults would have channeled their energy into something more productive,” he previously said.

After my story came out, I received a few e-mails from people who said Redmond was a rude liar.

One e-mail said:

“i read the article you did on the “rapper” lucky me and let me tell you something hes a terrible person dont let his lies fool you or the public…he destroys peoples image in society, all these kids are so hurt by this”

There you have it. Those are a few different views on the issue. Anybody have any other opinions or comments to add?

The Trows of West Nyack have their dog back, after a trying week of posting flyers and fielding phone calls about Penelope’s wherabouts. They were reuinted last night after a neighbor found the Newfoundland walking out of the woods and toward his home. The neighbor called the number on her collar.

The dog had fled home nearly a week ago after being scared off by fireworks. Steve Trow said the dog was hungry and drank “about a gallon of water,” but otherwise was unharmed.

So got an e-mail from CJ Miller, spokeswoman for County Executive C. Scott Vanderhoef, updating us on the second homeless couple who moved out of “Woods Way” — the plot of land between Route 59 and the New York State Thruway.

Miller wrote on Friday that a caseworker at the county’s Department of Social Services got a call from Mary Hussain on Thursday who said she and John Howe had arrived safely in Tennessee. She also said Hussain and  Howe “seemed happy and getting on with their life.”

As for the almost completely vacant homeless encampment, Miller said the county’s legal department will check with state officials on cleaning up the area. (A portion of the land is owned by the county while another by the New York State Department of Transportation … the joint ownership had previously complicated efforts to clear the area.)

Steve Trow said he was touched by the response he got from the community after an article appeared in The Journal News about dogs that get scared and run away during fireworks shows. He is still looking for his dog, a black Newfoundland that ran away during a fireworks show in West Nyack Tuesday night.

The family got some 15 calls after the story ran, but most people just called to commiserate or often words of hope. “Some of them had great stories about how they lost their dog and found it days later,” Trow said.

For now, the family continues to field phone calls and keep up hope.

I’ve met Shirley Lasker and her hubby, Steve Fox, on a number of assignments. The first time I saw them together was when I was working on a story about STAR Kids setting up a roller hockey program.

At one point during my interview with Fox, he nodded his head in Lasker’s direction and said in a shy, quiet voice, something along the lines of, “You know we’re together, right?”

It seemed to me, Fox was so proud of his relationship, he would brag about it even to a newspaper reporter! So it was interesting to read this piece on their ceremony in the Times.

Phew! Took me forever, but I finally successfully uploaded the video interview I did on the Rockland 11 mural project. If you were here, you’d see me bowing with a smug smile across my face and perspiration dripping down my cheek.

Two days ago, I was imagining a timely blog entry with a fancy link to reporter Amisha Padnani’s story on the issues surrounding the mural followed by the amazingly edited video by yours truly not knowing how truly difficult it would be to actually post. Sigh! But here it is, the fruits of my cubicle labor. Of course you can see the video on our video section, but blogs are just so much more personal you know?

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A group of 11 artists partner with Keep Rockland Beautiful and the town of Clarkstown to complete a series of murals on the 130-foot-long wall near Maple Avenue and Congers Road in New City. The artists, all from Rockland, each had a 12-by-6-foot panel of concrete to paint on, which they could use for personal, social or political depictions or commentary. Video by Christina Jeng