The Record, Bergen County, NJ

Wayne Sends a Helping of Cheer to Mississippi Police

WAYNE - It's been four months since Hurricane Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast, but police officers here haven't forgotten their still-struggling colleagues down South. The Wayne Police Benevolent Association gathered $2,335 and some 50 pounds of toys over the past few months. It sent the lot to the police department in Pass Christian, Miss., a town of 6,800 people near Biloxi that was obliterated by Katrina.

Sun Setting On First Night? ; Teaneck, Ridgewood Cancel Event for Lack of Funds, Volunteers

Families looking for a non-alcoholic but festive way to ring in the new year together will have two fewer options in northern New Jersey this year, with Teaneck and Ridgewood canceling their First Night celebrations. First Nights are New Year's Eve gatherings featuring music, dance and other performances - but no champagne or other alcohol. This year about 110 towns and cities in the United States, Canada and New Zealand will host First Nights, including nine in New Jersey. First Night celebr...

They've Got the School Thing Covered ; Student Crew Tapes Night Board Meetings

PATERSON - Students tend to look at their schools from the ground up. School officials have the view from on high. And it's the rare person who gets the twin perspectives at the same time. Among those who've acquired that status are three students who have learned how to bring the workings of the city's schools into the homes of district families.

Paterson Mayor Names Panel to Evaluate Police Performance

PATERSON - Mayor Joey Torres has named the members of a blue- ribbon committee that will evaluate the performance of the Police Department. Along with the mayor, the panel comprises the Rev. John Algera, Madison Avenue Christian Reformed Church; Albert Manzo, owner, The Brownstone; City Council President Kenneth Morris Jr.; Passaic County Sheriff Jerry Speziale; School Superintendent Michael E. Glascoe; Maria R. Haberfeld, professor, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, New York; Police Dire...

Paterson Man Is Charged with Robbing 3 Groceries

PATERSON - Police have charged a city man with robbing three bodegas at gunpoint in the past week. In the latest heist, Herbert Brown is charged with holding up the 45-year-old owner of Aracena Grocery at 34 Essex St. on Tuesday night and taking an undetermined amount of cash, police said.

Missing Matawan Man, 78, Found in Rutherford

RUTHERFORD - An elderly Monmouth County man who was the subject of a massive search after his relatives in Matawan reported him missing was reunited with his family Thursday after police found him near Station Square. "They were just happy to find him," police Sgt. John Russo said of the man's family.

Expanding Health Care for the Neediest Patients ; New Center to Offer Alternative to Er for the Uninsured

PATERSON - People with only the barest medical care options will have greater access to a primary care physician when a new health care center opens in January 2007. This morning, the Paterson Community Health Center is to hold a groundbreaking for its new $10 million state-of-the-art center at North Main and Arch streets.

Dad, Son Arrested After Police Chase ; Fake License, Old Warrant Among Charges

EAST RUTHERFORD - A father and son were arrested after a chase that ended near the Sheraton Hotel on Route 3, police said Thursday. Officer Todd Roth was conducting routine radar checks for speeding cars on Route 17 south Wednesday night when he saw a fast- moving red Ford Aerostar, said Sgt. Paul Cece of the East Rutherford Police Department.

Driver, 89, Is Killed in 3-Vehicle Crash ; His Car Is Broadsided, Slides Into Van

LITTLE FALLS - Authorities are investigating a three-vehicle crash that fatally injured an 89-year-old Cedar Grove man as he returned home from a shopping trip. Alexander D. Frascella was driving his Ford Taurus along Cedar Grove Road just after 4 p.m. Wednesday when his car was broadsided by a Chrysler minivan headed east on Lindsley Road, Detective Sgt. Edward Drwiega said. The two cars then slid into a Ford Econoline van idling at a stop sign.

Council Nixes Funds for Lot, Playground

HASBROUCK HEIGHTS - An ordinance that would have appropriated $400,000 for a new parking lot and playground next to Borough Hall has been rejected. By a vote of 3-2, the Borough Council denied approval of the ordinance Tuesday.

Stabbing, Robbery in Separate Muggings

CLIFTON - Police on Thursday were investigating separate muggings near the Passaic border - one in which a man was wounded while fighting off a knife-wielding assailant, the other a street robbery by a couple of young teenage boys. The first occurred Wednesday at 6 p.m. along Highland Avenue. A 19-year-old city resident was walking home when he saw a man coming toward him with a knife and demanding money.

Driver Charged with Running Down Teen ; Alleged Attack Followed Post-Party Street Brawl

A 23-year-old Paterson man stands accused of mowing down another city resident with his car after a Christmas Eve melee. Raul Otero pleaded not guilty Thursday in state Superior Court in Paterson to charges of attempted murder, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, possession of a weapon, and endangering an injured victim. Authorities said Otero's car is viewed as a weapon.

Obituaries

VAGARSHAG ARSLANIAN, 77, of West New York died Thursday. He was born in Turkey and came to the United States in 1971. He had been a watcher embroider for Garry Knitting Mills, West New York. He was a member of Saints Vartanantz Armenian Church, Ridgefield. Arrangements: Frank A. Patti & Kenneth Mikatarian Funeral Home, Fort Lee. CHARLES J. BRENNAN, 71, of Fairview died Thursday. Before retiring in 1984, he was a captain in New York City Housing Authority Police. He was a member of the Superio...

Cliff Sessions, 74; Reported Civil Rights in Miss. For Upi ; Also Helped Found National Journal

Cliff Sessions, a wire service reporter who covered the civil rights struggle at its most tumultuous in his native Mississippi and who later was a co-founder of National Journal, died Dec. 24 of complications of Parkinson's disease at his home in Biloxi, Miss. He was 74. Mr. Sessions came of age as a reporter at a time when it was both exciting and dangerous to be asking questions and digging deeply into the activities of white racist organizations obsessed with thwarting integration and the ...

Bud Blake, 85; 'Tiger' Comic Strip Creator

PORTLAND, Maine - Bud Blake, who created the award-winning comic strip "Tiger" after quitting his job as a New York ad man to pursue his love of drawing, has died. He was 87.