LITTLE SILVER: GO-PRO-ING OLD-TIME GAME
A glove? Who needs a baseball glove when you’ve got your bare hands… and a body-mounted camera?
RED BANK: CRIME VICTIM RIDES MEDIA WAVE
What do you do when your beloved surfboard gets stolen from your driveway? Well, first, you call the cops. Then, if you’re media maven and Red Bank resident Brian Donohue, you go wide, using your job as a video reporter to rally everyone within reach on a hunt for your most prized possession.
FAIR HAVEN: PROPOSED JERSEY FLAG DEBUTS
Closing out his quest on Flag Day, NJ.com video reporter and Red Bank resident Brian Donohue unveiled the winner of a contest he championed for a new New Jersey state flag Tuesday. And the winning design, chosen from nearly 400 submissions, was by Andrew Maris of Fair Haven.
In the above video, 19-year-old Maris describes the vexillolographical thinking that went into his red, white and blue design in response to Donohue’s bugle call for “a bolder, simpler, more recognizable state flag that New Jerseyans could be proud of.” Maris has also set up an online petition calling for a new state flag. (Click to enlarge)
SANDY HOOK: NUDISTS GET MORE SAND
Any Jersey Shore denizen knows that sand migrates, even as its being used to replenish storm-depleted beaches. But the biggest beneficiary of the millions of cubic yards of sand pumped onshore to Monmouth County beaches in the past two decades turns out to be New Jersey’s only nude beach, according to NJ.com reporter Brian Donohue.
In his latest video post, Donohue informs us replenishment sand has drifted north to clothing-optional Gunnison Beach at Sandy Hook, which has expanded by more than 500 feet over the past two decades and “continues to grow and grow and grow.”
So “even if all that beach replenishment doesn’t offer much long term protection against storms and rising sea levels,” says Donohue, “it certainly makes it easier for timid New Jerseyans to find some space to shed their inhibitions.” (Video courtesy of NJ.com)
RED BANK: WILLIAMS’ STORY NOT IMPROBABLE
NBC News anchor Brian Williams onstage at the Count Basie Theatre in December, 2012. (Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
Was news anchor Brian Williams robbed at gunpoint while selling Christmas trees in Red Bank in the late 1970s, as he has repeatedly claimed – including once before a packed house at the Count Basie Theatre?
That question, and some speculation by local old-timers, threw fuel on an already-raging firestorm about the truthfulness of the NBC News helmsman and former Middletown resident, who was later suspended by the network earlier this month for misrepresenting facts about an incident in Iraq.
Brian Donohue, an nj.com writer and commentator, did some legwork on the Red Bank piece of the story. And while he and his colleagues failed to unearth any specific evidence supporting Williams’ claim, he found plenty to refute the rose-colored reminiscences of locals who said it could not have happened because stuff like that just didn’t happen in Red Bank in the 1970s.
ON THE GREEN: NEVER MIND BREAD. BUY WINE.
While other residents of the Greater Red Bank Green were in panic mode in the bread aisles of supermarkets, some were preparing for the looming blizzard by stocking up on their favorite beverages. NJ.com’s Brian Donohue caught up with some of them at Spirits Unlimited in Middletown, home of the famous “evil clown” sign.
RED BANK COPS “HAVE AN IDEA” OF SHOOTERS
Residents packed a hastily organized community meeting on the recent shootings Tuesday night. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
Red Bank police believe they know who’s behind a recent spate of West Side shootings, including one Monday night, but are hamstrung by a lack of evidence sufficient to obtain search warrants, Chief Darren McConnell said Tuesday night.
“Do we have an idea who’s doing this? Yes, we do,” McConnell told a packed community meeting at borough hall, less than 24 hours after the latest gunfire, on West Westside Avenue, “but we can’t prove it yet.”
RED BANK: COMMUNITY MEETING SLATED
A string of shootings on the West Side, including one Monday night, has prompted Red Bank officials to schedule a community meeting for Tuesday night.
From an announcement sent out by the borough at noontime Tuesday:
Mayor Pasquale Menna and Police Commissioner Arthur Murphy have scheduled a Community Meeting for 7pm tonight, Tuesday, December 23, 2014 in the Council Chamber/Courtroom on the first floor of the Municipal Building at 90 Monmouth Street to address concerns about a recent incident on West Westside Avenue. Police Chief Darren McConnell will be available to address the situation.
RED BANK: COPS WERE NEAR SHOOTING SCENE
A view east along West Westside Avenue, the scene of Tuesday night’s shooting, in which a parked car was struck by two bullets and at least eight shots were fired. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
Off-duty Red Bank police officers out delivering Christmas presents for the PBA heard the gunfire in Monday night’s shooting on the West Side, police Chief Darren McConnell tells redbankgreen.
“They were literally a block and half away” and immediately responded to the scene, on West Westside Avenue just a few doors east of Leighton Avenue, arriving even before nearby residents had called in the 8:39 p.m. shots, he said.
By the time they got there, however, the shooter or shooters, and any intended targets, were gone, McConnell said.
RED BANK: SHOOTING ‘TARGETED,’ MENNA SAYS
By JOHN T. WARD
A shooting in which a vehicle was struck by at least one bullet Monday night is believed to be related to two shootings in November, Red Bank Mayor Pasquale Menna tells redbankgreen.
“The good thing is no one was injured” in the latest incident, which occurred at about 8 p.m. near Leighton Avenue and West Westside Avenue, Menna said.
RED BANK: SHOTS FIRED AGAIN ON WEST SIDE
By JOHN T. WARD
A vehicle was struck but no one was injured when shots were fired on Red Bank’s West Side Monday night, NJ.com reported.
The shooting occurred within the same three-block area of a November shooting that left two people critically injured and another shooting in which a parked car was shot up in broad daylight two days later.
RED BANK: RESIDENTS PAN COUNCIL RESPONSE
Kirsten Ramirez speaks with police Captain Mike Clay after Monday night’s council meeting. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
Red Bank residents put elected officials in the hot seat Monday night for their response to two shootings on the West Side earlier this month.
Addressing Mayor Pasquale Menna and the six-member council at a bimonthly meeting, West Westside Avenue resident Jill Burden criticized what she called a “lack of communication or even acknowledgement” of the concerns of neighbors following the shootings, which occurred less than two days apart.
RED BANK: TRAINING IT TO THE BIG GAME?
En route to an NFL press conference where officials touted their readiness for “the first-ever, cold weather, mass transit Super Bowl,” Ledger Live reporter Brian Donohue’s train broke down in Red Bank Wednesday morning.
DEFENDING TAXES IN A SNUGGIE
Ledger Live‘s Brian Donohue, a Red Bank resident, thinks his property taxes are a pretty good bargain, considering what they buy him.