Late night open thread

With everything going on with Johnny's move we're gonna knock off here for a few days. Closing, painters, handymen, utility changeover, hell you know how it is. Johnny's gonna give the interns a few days off as well so this place will go dark until hopefully only next weekend. You'll just have to go get that infotainment somewhere else, yes we know that can be hard in the innerwebs. When we're back up at he new place the Jersey City Desk will be just as craptastic as ever with 40% more filler! You'll have that to look forward to, which is nice.

Johnny WOULD like to point out to his new bestest hometown of Jersey City he could have moved anywhere around here he wanted. He could have bought a condo in Hoboken, Weehawken, Union City, Bayonne or yeah, even New York City. He picked Jersey City for several reasons, a crooked mayor liable to get drunk and slug cops, half a city government under indictment, plenty to write about but mostly good people, real salt of the earth people. SO Jersey City, it's a mutual common law marriage, you n' Johnny.

Johnny's already driven his sleek machine 'Over the Jersey State Line' and now friends, he's gonna take his stand 'Down in Jun-gle-land'. Sing it proud friends, Johnny always does.


Time for Jersey City, After Dark

St. Paul's westbound at Tonnele is closed this morning

So please, reroute your driving hell in the Tonnele circle accordingly...

If you are one of the 1900 residents without power down by the water

We sympathize, we'll soon be one of you but, then again, you can't read this anyway...

On a related note, the Jersey City Desk, in order to move our offices to bigger and better digs will be going dark at sometime tomorrow and beginning to rebroadcast sometime over the weekend. Just an FYI for our loyal readers. The subscription cost of the JCD will, as always remain at the low low cost of free...

Late night open thread

If your birthday is Monday you share it with several stars of note;

Ed Sullivan
Brigitte Bardot
Koko Taylor
Janeane Garofalo
Naomi Watts

Not a a bad list

Time for Jersey City, After Dark

NFL open thread

Jets and Giants both winning, good lord the Lions are winning and of course the Browns are getting blown out...

Talk NFL here today...

Late night open thread

Saturday night scoreboard edition:

Iowa 21
Penn State 10
Bye bye BCS for the Nittany Lions. So much for getting revenge on Iowa

Oregon 42
Cal 3
Another top Ten team gets taken apart. After beating Minnesota to be called Golden last week the Bears are now the Aluminum Bears

Florida 41
Kentucky 7
Here's the video, maybe you've seen it. Divine retribution on Florida coach Urban Meyer for trying to run up the stats of his Heisman QB hopeful Tim Tebow and run up the score on Kentucky. Stupid move by Meyer nets Tebow scrambled eggs where his brains used to be


Around the Big East
Rutgers 34
Maryland 13
The Scarlet Knights use a big 4th quarter to put Maryland out of their misery

UConn 52
Rhode Island 10

South Florida 17
Florida State 7
All our critisism of USF's pansy ass schedule goes out the window with this huge win

Cincinnati 20
Fresno State 20
Bearcats stay perfect and are looking like the class of the Big East

Syracuse 41
Maine 24
The 'Cuse is now having to resort to beating Maine to make themselves look respectable

Utah 30
Louisville 14
The Cards are all 2's and 3's, no Aces

Around America

Princeton 17
Lehigh 14
Johnny's Dark Horse Mountain Hawks are now a cool 0-3

Bucknell 17
Marist 16
Bucknell is now 2-2 for those scoring at home

New Mexico State 20
New Mexico 17
Bragging rights go to State

Navy 38
Western Kentucky 22
The only Division 1 team worse than Eastern Michigan, WKU goes belly up again

Western Michigan 24
Hofstra 10
There is joy in Kalamazoo tonight

Tulane 42
McNeese State 32
Tulane get their first win

Northern Michigan 34
Ferris State 0
The first college Johnny ever went to kicks Ferris State's ass once again. Ferris State is lucky NMU didn't hang another 80-14 pasting on them like they did in 1982. The Yooper Dome is a beautiful stadium but it's too bad they don't play outside in Marquette Michigan anymore. Some of those late November home games at Memorial Stadium meant a REAL homefield advantage. -20 degrees with a wind howling off of Lake Superior and wind chills at -55 usually meant the opposition packed it in as soon as they got off the bus.

Johnny's a Halverson Hall alumni but do enjoy the annual Magers vs Meyland Hall Syrup Chugging contest. Northern Michigan University, where 'N" stands for Nowledge


And tonight's Jersey City Desk game of the Week

The College of New Jersey 67
Morrisville St. 34
Take THAT Morrisville St. The College of New Jersey Takes NO Prisoners

Time for Jersey City, After Dark

The Jersey City Desk offices are being packed up so here's your open thread

Talk Rutgers or Princeton football or share moving stories of your own, good bad or otherwise. The Jersey City Desk will be publishing sporadically over the next couple days until the movers come to take all our servers, teletypes and wire service machines work stations, are they unpacked at the new space. We'll be going dark on Tuesday night thru next weekend.

Late night open thread

Looks like we could have us a barn burner in Maryland tomorrow with Rutgers visiting the Turtles. Maryland has not at all looked good this season dropping their second straight to MIddle Tennessee State but the Scarlet Knights could be without super freshman QB Tom Savage, Could be a close one from College Park Maryland tomorrow and you know the Jersey City Desk will give you full coverage and unbought and watered down analysis..

Time for Jersey City, After Dark

Friday night MULTIMEDIA EXTRAVAGANZA with POE!

From the brilliant album 'Haunted' here is Poe with 'Hey Pretty'. Johnny was looking for the song 'Could've Gone Mad' but apparently it's not available out here on the innerwebs yet.

Friday night MULTIMEDIA EXTRAVAGANZA with MAZZY STAR!

Mazzy Star keeps us rolling along tonight with the baleful tune 'Blue Light'

Friday night MULTIMEDIA EXTRAVAGANZA with WANDA JACKSON!

Rockabilly, gospel, and country western legend, the fabulous Wanda Jackson to wrap up the music series tonight...

Here she is with 'Sparklin Brown Eyes'

Nidia Lopez's attorney tries the old "trust us" defense

"But your honor, you simply have to trust us, we'd never intentionally do anything wrong. Trust us, just throw this silly case out."

In one of THE worst defense claims ever that Nidia Lopez and or Nidia Boehringer is indeed a resident, Lopez's attorney William Northgrave used the old "but she had more votes than the other candidates combined". Oh, and the reason she stayed registered to vote in Florida? Well she simply thought if she registered in New Jersey that it would cancel out the Florida registration. If only the fact she hadn't paid New Jersey taxes in three years and that she used a home in Florida listed as her primary residence since 1997 to get big tax breaks weren't such a sticky issue.

Mrs Lopez/Boehringer, step down, we don't want you as a councilperson, you're obviously trying to get over on Jersey City and the state of New Jersey by not paying taxes, just go. Head back down to Florida where you seem to want to be anyway.

Late night open thread

The Jersey City Desk will be announcing their 'Douchebag of the Year' next week so make sure you don't miss that. Believe it or not, it's NOT an elected official from Jersey City. Incredible ain't it? That somebody could actually be a bigger douchebag (And if it's a lady it'll be the 'DoucheCanoe of the Year') than a corruption-laden elected official should keep you wondering just who and HOW they won the award.

But tonight, it's Mr. Tori Spelling's BFF Chelsea Hander with a few good comedic minutes before bed. Johnny thinks Chelsea Handler is the funniest person in America. No, of either sex. He has a white hot crush on her. If you haven't heard her riff on "Mr. Ed Lookalike Mr. Tori Spelling" you're certainly missing something. Headphones please, coarse language abounds...



Time for Jersey City, After Dark

The New York City police really owe all of us an HONEST accounting of this terror probe

Since they are funded with tax money, and since their only job is keeping the public safe, the New York City police owe the people of this area a complete and honest update as to whether or not they screwed up the FBI's terror investigation over this pantsload from Denver. No need to protect people's professional reputation, no excuse in keeping information from the public. Your job is to protect residents and visitors and OUR best interests are not served hiding behind the blue wall of silence. The stakes are too important. If somebody messed up it MUST be acknowledged.

MUST be.

Late night open thread

Boy oh boy Johnny is in one foul mood tonight and he's soon gonna plant a tombstone in somebody's ass (more on that soon enough) so the only thing that'll suffice for our open thread tonight is sheer comic gold. The very first time we meet Larry, Darryl and Darryl...



Time for Jersey City, After Dark

Mayor Healy was against tax abatements before he was for them before he's against them

When the Mayor was running for his first term he was against tax abatements. They were mere giveaways to the rich and powerful. Once he became mayor he passed them out like a Jersey City Johnny Appleseed, they were oh so necessary and good for the city despite the blow to the tax base (and a mea culpa, Johnny is moving himself and the Jersey City Desk offices to a downtown tax abated building next week) and woe be to those who dared call him on it. Now, after a good portion of the Jersey City government has been cuffed and booked on public graft charges, suddenly da Mayor says tax abatements are on a case by case basis.

Ya follow?

Whereas Healy told Crystal Point's Fisher Development Associates in June "come and get you some tax abatement loving" he's now telling K. Hovnanian owner of 77 Hudson "hard cheese."

Funny isn't it? Healy claims one building is done for the most part and doesn't need an abatement while the other is still being worked on so an abatement is necessary.

Uh huh, we think the fact that so many went to city employees were exposed as crooks, and the fact the vultures are circling the mayor might just account for his newfound need to protect tax monies.

U2 tonight at the Meadowlands

Some Irish band with a lead singer who wears sunglasses all the time (which he must have stolen from Johnny) and a guy with the name 'Edge' with a melodic yet grinding guitar style will be playing before 80,000 of our friends and neighbors tonight. Johnny thinks at some point this band may have a hit record or two.

With so many people heading out on a school night, local traffic authorities are suggesting you, the concertgoer, make use of rail service to and from the Meadowlands tonight. One could catch NJTransit to the Meadowlands in Hoboken, in fact, many will. Tickets for said train service are $3.50 each way. Bring your slickers and rubbers as it might rain tonight in East Rutherford, but only in East Rutherford, everywhere else will be sunny and clear.

Late night open thread

We're gonna break from our normal routine and Johnny's gonna give you all a heads up and let you get out front of some possible big news. As some of you know Johnny is a cold case maven and has helped a lot of people do a lot of research on famous cases. There are quite a few who do this kind of thing and a few have achieved quite a reputation doing such. One of Johnny's sleuthing pals who is an expert on one of America's greatest unsolved set of serial killings says that may be changing SOON. Due to the use of new DNA technology, the Zodiac case may be close to being solved. If this kind of thing interests you, start your reading and research now, things may start moving fast any day now...

Time for Jersey City, After Dark

A nice write-up in the NYT on the Newark documentary 'Brick City'

Airing on the Sundance Channel, noted documentarians Marc Levin and Mark Benjamin have put together a five part show on the troubles facing Newark as seen through the eyes of several residents and Mayor Cory Booker. Booker is quoted in the article as saying: “The power of this film is that it deals with real people.” Benjamin said the project is an outgrowth of the incredibly high murder rate in Newark, something very much discussed in the show.

Newark faces many issues to be certain and it's very interesting to see a microcosm of them playing out before the cameras.

Late night open thread

State trivia edition:

This state is home to the most visited National Park in America, so which state is it? Answer here

Time for Jersey City, After Dark

A fashion show that actually matters

Let's face it, fashion is normally laughed at by regular folks. We see the runway shows in Milan or New York and snicker at the 'latest fashions'. The Newport Mall in Jersey City will be hosting a fashion show that everyone who can go to, should go to. On October 10th, as part of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, the Newport Mall will hold a fashion show with fashions modeled by breast cancer survivors.

Women will be able to get free mammograms between the hours of 9 am to 4 pm, there will also be free blood pressure screening stations.

With all that seemingly divides us anymore, as politically the fabric of the nation tears further let's remember this, breast cancer doesn't care if you're a Republican or a Democrat. It doesn't care if you're rich or poor, black or white or orange. These are the kinds of events that should bring us together until we make enough progress until nobody's mother or sister or wife or daughter ever has to suffer from it again.

For more information, call the mall Shopping Line at (201) 626-2025.

Monday morning open thread

Ah, business calls this morning for the staff here so feel free to talk New Jersey Jets, New Jersey Giants, or the U2 concert Wednesday or whatever you want...

Late night open thread

If your birthday is today you share it with bombshell actress Sophia Loren who was born in 1934.

Time for Jersey City, After Dark

Set your clocks for the St. Peter's vs Monmouth basketball game--No, really, set your clocks

Smaller and mid-sized colleges will do anything to get on the golem that is ESPN and have their games shown live. St. Peter's is no exception. In order to get in on the College Basketball Tip-off Marathon, wherein ESPN will show 19 games in 24 hours on their network of stations, St. Peter's has agreed to change the staring time of their November 17th game vs Monmouth to....6 am. Yes, not PM but AM. As in 'wakey wakey eggs and bac-y' 6 am.

The game will be broadcast like from St. Peter's Yanitelli Center so if you simply aren't a 'go to a basketball game at 6 am' kinda person it will be on the teevee. Johnny has pretty much decided he's gonna go, since he gets up at 5:30 in the morning as it is, why not have some basketball with your coffee...

Late night open thread

Saturday scoreboard edition

Notre Dame 33
Michigan State 30
The Irish beat MSU for the first time at home since early in the first Clinton Administration

Michigan 45
Eastern Michigan 17
It really was 24-17 at one point

Rutgers 23
Florida International 15
Stout effort by the Rutgers defense dominates FIU

Around the Big East

Kentucky 31
Louisville 27
That must have been some kind of meeting of the minds in the parking lot before the game

Connecticut 20
Baylor 22
Huskies over Bears

Pittsburgh 27
Navy 14
Why does Pitt hate our armed forces?

Cincinnati 28
Oregon State 18
Oh da Beavers

USF 59
Charleston Southern School for Old Maids 0
USF really playing some top quality opponents ain't they?

Syracuse 37
Northwestern 34
Orange you glad we didn't say purple. They're a punchline in there somewhere

Elsewhere across America

Washington 13
USC 10
Johnny is still laughing. Of course Washington will pay 70-7 next year but for today it's hilarious

California 35
Minnesota 21
The Golden Bears beat the Golden Gophers for the right to be called golden. Minnesota will now be called the Silvery Gophers. Minnesota's new stadium did look very nice however

Florida State 54
BYU 28
15 yard penalty on FSU for abuse of Mormons

Virginia Tech 16
Nebraska 15
Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Liberty 19
Lafayette 13
Lehigh fans had no game to go to today but this'll do pig, this'll do

Holy Cross 27
Harvard 20
This was Harvard's first game, what where they doing, studying?

McNeese State 56
Savannah State 0
Savannah State should have stayed home and played with themselves

Stony Brook 21
Brown 20
So much for Brown's BCS chances

Middle Tennessee State 32
Maryland 31
Turtle soup. This is the second staright year MTSU has beaten the Terps

Today's Jersey City Desk Game of the Week
Delaware 27
Delaware State 17
Maybe Delaware State can beat Michigan in October when they play. Yes, you read that right, Michigan scheduled Delaware State.

Time for Jersey City, After Dark

Rutgers football gameday!

Again we'll be brief this week. Rutgers shouldn't find Florida International too tough a nut to crack BUT, the Golden Panthers DID give Alabama a tussle at least for a little while last weekend. You can't sleep on them but drowsy may work. Small school Florida teams do seem to bring kids with speed to burn so again, Rutgers needs to guard against overconfidence. Another thing to lok out for is that hey say (Who is they?) a team improves the most between their first game and second game, and this will be FIU's second game.

Expect heavy doses of breakout running back Jourdan Brooks and old faithful Joe Martinek. If Rutgers can establish the run early it'll make freshman QB Tom Savage's much easier. He only had to throw 13 times last week and Johnny thinks he'll have to throw at least 20-25 times today. We're thinking Mohamed Sanu is gonna have a huge day if needed.

Again, don't get too overconfident but it should be a good day for football in Rutgersland. Kickoff is 5 pm in Piscataway.

Our Prediction:
Rutgers 31
FIU 20

Arrrrrrgh you scurvy dogs, tis September 19 which here be 'Talk Like a Pirate Day'

Lessen ya wanna be tied to the yardarm or get 20 lashes with the cat o' nine tails, ya best be doing your best pirate imitations today.

Yarrrrr Hoboken, ya smell like a kettle of fish...

The noose is beginning to tighten around our erstwhile mayor here in Jersey City

OK scandal and corruption fans, Mayor Jerramiah Healy has taken a fall back position now that Steady Eddie Cheatam admitted in open court during his sentencing to funneling dirty money into Healy's campaign. Healy who before has said he's done nothing wrong and that he didn't wanna discuss the situation must have realized the more damning admission by Cheatam was rather damaging.

According to the Jersey Journal Hizzoner is saying:
"any donations to my campaign account by those individuals charged in this federal investigation have been isolated for donation to charity."

Ya see Mayor, it doesn't matter if that money is now designated for charity, the FACT it it was funneled into YOUR campaign and certainly a big strong man like yourself knows YOU are responsible for how that money gets into your account. YOU must take ownership of your campaign finances. We find this an apt quote:

Grima Wormtongue from Tolkien's 'The Two Towers'
"Who knows what you have spoken to the darkness, alone, in the bitter watches of the night, when all your life seems to shrink, the walls of your bower closing in about you, a hutch to trammel some wild thing in? So fair, yet so cold like a morning of pale Spring still clinging to Winter's chill."

It won't be long now Jersey City but keep up the watch and we commend those taking the message directly to the Mayor. If you haven't yet seen this video of citizens protesting at the Jersey City Hall using theater to do so, well pull up a chair:

Late night open thread

Time for Jersey City, After Dark

Friday night MULTIMEDIA EXTRAVAGANZA with THE RAMONES!

How this for variety tonight? The Ramones who we haven't played in a while, Barry White and Deee Lite. That's eclectic or something.

Yes, the Ramones, another New York City band and the band Johnny will argue at length with you is the best US band ever. Meet him down in comments if you'd like to have that debate.

The Ramones with 'Pinhead'

Friday night MULTIMEDIA EXTRAVAGANZA with BARRY WHITE!

The Walrus of Love and don't you forget it. Barry White, man what smoov voice. Did you know the Galveston Texas native sold over 100 million records? That's a fact. People love that romance ya know? While growing up in Los Angeles Barry had some difficulties with the law and he later said it was hearing the Elvis Presley song 'It's Now or Never' in the hoosegow that gave him the epiphany to set things right and become a singer. Barry also wrote songs and had one recored by none other than the Saturday morning show 'The Banana Splits'.

Here's Barry White with 'You Are The First, My Last, My Everything'

Friday night MULTIMEDIA EXTRAVAGANZA with DEEE LITE!

New York City's own club DJ's and club dance group finishes off our series tonight. For a group from New York they sure came to it the roundabout way. Super DJ Dmitri is from Kiev Ukraine, Lady Miss Kier is out of Youngstown Ohio and
Towa Tei is from Tokyo Japan. Although the band has since long gone their separate ways, you can still catch them DJing from time to time in clubs should you be so lucky.

Deee Lite with 'Groove is in the Heart'

Poor Dari Alexander, she looks like she's sitting on an airhose

Ernie Anastos on FOX 5 a couple nights ago tried to work in an old chicken company advertising slogan into his banter with weatherman Nick Gregory. The old tagline goes "It takes a tough man to make a tender chicken." Fair enough, no harm done. That was until Anastos tried telling Gregory "Yeah, keep plucking that chicken." Only, he didn't say 'plucking'. Yeah, he said exactly what you're thinking we're here for, he used the F version of plucking. The only thing funnier than someone saying f*** on the teevee in this case was Anastos' co-anchor Dari Alexander's reaction, poor gal looks like she's sitting on an airhose.

This seems to be a trend suddenly in New York City newscasts, earlier this year Sue Simmons at NBC channel 4 let fly with the f*** invective while on air. Johnny moves out here and suddenly all decorum goes out the f****** window.

Both clips and yeah, use the headphones if you're at work. No headphones necessary for the image of a horrified Dari Alexander.





Awesome

Late night open thread

They say you should never revel in anyone else's failure. Hell if that were the case Johnny should just shut this dump down for good. Enjoy some failure by others before bed tonight...


Time for Jersey City, After Dark

Minutes long crime spree in Union City and Weehawken is thankfully over

According to police in several jurisdictions, Kevin Felder is one enterprising crook. Kevin, a Jersey City guy, began his minutes long crime spree with a mask and pellet gun in Weehawken at Peter Street and Park Avenue accosting a person returning home from work. Felder demanded money and a cell phone. The victim handed over $300 bucks and couldn't find their cell phone. Seeing as how Felder is a busy crook with places to go and people to rob, he took off. Magically the Weehawken victim found their cell phone and dialed 911, like ya do. Moments later Felder was off to Union City where at that point another robbery on 39th Street had just taken place, and the description of the perp was amazingly close to that of the crook in the Weehawken theft. Union City police saw Felder, who then declared his innocence by running but was captured by the nimble Union City po-po.

Mr. Felder will be charged in both cities with robbery, aggravated assault and weapons offenses. Send cards and letters to Felder in care of the Hudson County jail in Kearny.

NJ Transit wants to extend the light rail system west to the Hackensack River

But hopefully not into it. Yeah we know har har har. The light rail currently stops at the West Side Avenue terminal, the proposal being looked at would extend it out across Route 440 to the river. NJ Transit is spending $251,000 on a feasibility study to see if linking Bayonne, the Jersey City waterfront and North Hudson to residential and commercial development planned for an area that's about a half mile west of West Side Avenue Station. Early voting on the plan on NJ.com shows strong support for such a plan and we here have to say it would indeed be a great idea. The more area we can cover and connect with public transportation the better it is for residents getting back and forth to work and shopping and would bring more people into Jersey City for whatever reason.

Make it happen NJ Transit.

Nathan Brinkman WILL be running for Mayor of Hoboken

Co-Founder of the Hoboken Republican Club will be running for mayor. He filed the necessary signatures and will join Dawn Zimmer, Beth Mason, and Patricia Waiters in the bare knuckles battle for top office of the Mile Square City.

Brinkman said in a press release the reason he's running is quality of life issues in Hoboken. He said taxes are too high, city government spends too much and transparency of the mayor's office is severely lacking.

It will be interesting to see with all the Democrats running if they don't cancel out some votes and possibly help put Mr. Brinkman over the top.

Late night open thread--UPDATED

Anybody catch the SyFy series Ghost Hunters tonight? They were out in Elizabeth at the Union County courthouse. They were there to look for the ghost of Hannah Caldwell and in what could only be called the holy grail of ghost hunting (something Johnny does himself from time to time), they did indeed catch a full bodied apparition in the records room. If you wanna see it tonight the episode will repeat at 11 pm on SyFy, channel 226 on digital cable.

Time for Jersey City, After Dark

UPDATE
Here's the video of the apparition

The ice men are back, Rangers at Devils tonight!

In a sign all is right with the world, The Prudential Center will be the home to some preseason NHL hockey tonight as The Rangers venture west to take on the Devils. Don't just dismiss preseason hockey, there are a lot of kids looking to make a name for themselves and it could wind up being a spirited affair.

Late night open thread

OK rock and rollers, here's your chance to answer a question correctly before Johnny gets back here by 6:30 am and pick a tune or band or whatever you want for this Friday's music series.

What do Keith Moon, drummer for The Who and "Mama" Cass Elliot of the Mamas and the Papas have in common? It's something quite specific. Feel free to guess away, like Mr. Garrison says on South Park "There are no stupid answers, just stupid people."





Time for Jersey City, After Dark

The Hoboken mayor's race is filling up fast

Besides current mayor by default Dawn Zimmer (and she warned you people Cammarano was no good), second ward councilwoman Beth Mason, Frank Raia a former Board of Education trustee, Hoboken resident Patricia Waiters who STILL supports Cammarano, are all in. Possibly (be still our fluttering hearts) Nathan Brinkman will be entering the race. All petitions to run for Hoboken Mayor and to get needled by the Jersey City Desk are due tomorrow, September 16th by 4 pm.

So, New York City is looking to ban smoking in city parks and on city beaches--Your thoughts?

This always seems to crank off a few people when proposed, it's already got Mayor Bloomberg all weak kneed, what do you think of this proposal? New York City Health Commissioner Dr. Thomas A. Farley said he's looking to ban smoking in city parks and beaches, furthering the indoor workplace/restaurant ban put in place in 2002. Mayor Bloomberg, ever the hemming and hawing political animal and looking to not upset any potential voters took a wait and see approach to the proposal saying he wanted: “to see if smoking in parks has a negative impact on people’s health.” Hmmmm, well we know it'll harm the smoker's health anyway.

So what say you, would you be in support of furthering such a smoking ban?

Late night open thread

We're going to go out on a limb here. There was a wild shootout (in Jersey City you say incredulously) with a feller on a bike shooting into a crowd and at least one person in the crowd had a gun and shot back and killed the bike rider. Now, not wanting to get too far out front of the story the Jersey Journal reports:

"The exact cause of death would be determined by an autopsy to be performed tomorrow..."

Again, going out on a limb we're going to guess and say the fact the biker's body had significant deceleration trauma from stopping hot lead traveling at 1100 feet per second did him in. That's just us...

Time for Jersey City, After Dark

Monday open thread

Johnny's under the weather this sunny Monday morning so he's leaving it up to you to entertain yourselves. Maybe today would be a good day to check on the happenings in Naperville...

Late night open thread

On this day in history in 1814, Francis Scott Key penned poem that became the US national anthem. While it was written in 1814, it wasn't until 1931 that it became the national anthem.

It goes something like this...


Time for Jersey City, After Dark

Serena Willams loses her ever loving mind and forfeits match point at the US Open

In case you missed it tennis fans, over in Queens at the US Open, Serena Willams went all threatening with a line judge who called her for a foot fault and according to reports told the line judge, using bad language, she'd be happy to feed her her racket and then said something about ending her life. Now, if you listen to the crowd in this clip while Serena is saying she didn't say she'd kill her, at least three voices can be heard from the crowd over by where the incident happened say "Yes you did".

Kids, no matter how bad you think a call goes against you, on match point you have to keep your cool. You HAVE to.

The New Jersey Giants are at home today while the New Jersey Jets travel to Houston

Johnny's gotta be careful with this, his wife is a devout Redskins fan so he'll just say kickoff at the Meadowlands is at 4:15 pm today against said Redskins. The Jets meanwhile are down in Houston to begin their season and are on at 1 pm.

Use this thread for all your New Jersey Jets and New Jersey Giants commentary.

Late night open thread

Saturday college football scoreboard show

Johnny doesn't ever remember a Saturday with this many safeties being scored. He must have counted 7 or 8 on the replays and game recaps today. One cost Connecticut a ballgame. That being said let's hit the scores!

Rutgers 45
Howard 7
Johnny predicted Rutgers winning 44-7, that ain't too bad. Email him for lottery numbers.

Central Michigan 29
Michigan State 27
Maybe the Spartans offensive line will show up in South Bend next weekend

Northwestern 27
Eastern Michigan 24
Yet another disappointing loss for Eastern. It's a self-fulfilling broken record if there be such an animal

USC 18
Ohio State 15
No couches will be spared in Columbus tonight

Michigan 38
Notre Dame 34
It's a shame one of these teams had to win, seriously

Around the Big East:

South Florida 35
Western Kentucky 13
USF beats one of the five worst Division 1-A teams

North Carolina 12
Connecticut 10
A late safety puts the Huskies down

Penn State 28
Syracuse 7
Yawn

Pittsburgh 54
Buffalo 27
Lots of scoring in game people actually payed money to watch

West Virginny 35
East Carolina 20

Cincinnati 70
Southwest Missouri State 3
Those who had Cincy and 67 points came up with a push

Elsewhere around college football:

VIllanova 38
Lehigh 17
This one doesn't make Johnny happy. Stupid Lehigh.

Houston 45
Oklahoma State 35
The #5 team in the country should never ever give up 45 points. The Choklahoma State Cowpokes did and they won't be #5 again for a loooooong time

UCLA 19
Tennessee 15

Georgia 41
South Carolina 37

LSU 23
Vanderbilt 9
Johnny's Oddzy special score

Iowa 35
Iowa State 3
Land a goshen and fire up the John Deere for a victory lap. Thankfully it only happens once a year

Louisiana-Lafayette 17
Kansas State 15
Didn't Kansas State used to be GOOD not too long ago?

Louisiana-Monroe 58
Texas Southern 0
Frank Goodwin had 3 TD's for you fantasy geeks and you'd have to be a SERIOUS fantasy geek to have Frank Goodwin from Louisiana-Monroe

And tonight's Jersey City Desk game of the week®
Elon 41
Presbyterian 7

Time for Jersey City, After Dark

If you have little or no water pressure near Tonnele and Secaucus Road, we have the reason

A big hat tip to reader Wicked Mouse who sent in this image to the Jersey City Desk newsroom. It shows, well a LITTLE water main break at Tonnele and Secaucus Rd. this afternoon...Who knew there was an Old Faithful in our area?

Rutgers football gameday!

The patsie part of the Rutgers football schedule kicks in today with lightly regarded Howard coming to Piscataway. The game should be a great chance for the Scarlet Knights to regain some confidence, work out some kinks (especially defensively) and get back to level with their record. We can only hope that Coach Greg Schiano stays with freshman Tom Savage who gave a good accounting of himself Monday. He'll need some games like today against Howard and next week vs Florida International to warm up for tougher foes down the road.

Expect a big dose of running back Joe Martinek. We'd also like to see more of receiver Mohamed Sanu who looked so good on Labor Day.

We won't waste a lot of ink on this game, it should be a blowout. We'd certainly have more to say tonight if this is a close one or heaven forbid Rutgers blows this.

Our prediction:
Rutgers 44
Howard 7

Late night open thread

Like so many people tonight, Johnny and Mrs. Johnny went down to the riverfront before dinner at the Light Horse Tavern for some quiet reflection and some photography. Mrs. Johnny who is phenomenal photographer and travels all over the world to shoot was even impressed by some of the lenses we saw down by the Hudson River tonight.

Here's a picture Johnny took and wanted to share.

Time for Jersey City, After Dark

Music-A-Palooza with Pet Shop Boys

Nothing says 80's like the Pet Shop Boys and 'West End Girls'

Music-A-Palooza with The Who

Never, never ever has a show been stolen quite like The Who stole the show at the concert for New York City after 9/11. Many people used to point out how Queen had stolen the Live Aid show in among so much talent. Why was it The Who resonated at such a moment in time? Johnny has a hunch. It's simply the anthemic music The Who is known for. They are raw, they break stuff and on this night with so much emotion permeating the air they were indeed the perfect messengers of hope, respect, and rock and roll. At points you can actually hear the din rise as they play.

Never has a performance ever meant so much to so many.

The Who with 'Baba O' Reilly' at the concert for New York City. The roar at the end is emotionally cleaning and so very moving.

Music-A-Palooza with a very fitting song by David Bowie

'Heroes'

Music-A-Palooza continues with Bruce Springsteen

Lets get the afternoon rocking with some 'Badlands'

Music-A-Palooza rolls on with The Police

A two-fer from the Police actually. On the Old Grey Whistle Test from 1978 we have a hilarious sunglasses moment with Sting. Rumor has it he irritated his eyes something fierce while applying plenty of hairspray to his coif. Is that true? Dunno but you'd think if he had more time he'd have come up with some better looking shades.

The Police with 'Can't Stand Losing You' and 'Next to You'

Oh hell, Johnny's just gonna make this a Music-A-Palooza Friday

This will encompass our Friday night Multimedia Extravaganza and much more today. Look, we all know what today is, let's not avoid the 800 pound gorilla in the corner, but let's listen to some awesome music instead of dwelling on the past. Maybe in some way the music can help you make sense of the senseless.

We'll start with Patty Griffin and the baleful and haunting song 'Making Pies'. Good stuff to be certain.

The FBI sure has taken a shine to visiting with Mayor Healy...

Maybe they'll like him so much they'll just take him off our hands entirely. Mayor Jerramiah Healy said the FBI paid him a visit in city hall yesterday, this after checking out his Bradley Beach home in August. Now we're never ones to speculate here but if we didn't know better we'd say his time as mayor might just be getting shorter. Either the mayor is about to become a star witness for the FBI or he's smelling like toast.

Sources told the Jersey Journal that 'six to eight agents visited the City Hall offices of the business administrator, tax assessor, tax collector and city clerk'. We don't suppose any of these people could be sharing info under threat of arrest now could they?

Speculate away Jersey City.

Late night open thread

Hey Jersey City, what's for breakfast tomorrow?


Time for Jersey City, After Dark

If you plan on using a coupon at the 'Crisp' restaurant in Manhattan, be prepared

The website Midtown Lunch points out a customer used a coupon for a buy one get one free falafel that the Crisp chain put out and apparently the restaurant at 110 W. 40th St. wasn't all that enthused that the coupon was actually used.

How lacking in enthusiasm were they? Click here but maybe not from your work computer. If you're dying to know and only access JCD from work we'll clue you in. The computer receipt print out calls them the slang name for a female dog for using a BOGO (buy one get one) coupon, or BOGO B****.

Think about that the next time you feel the urge to stop in at Crisp.

Two Jersey City officials busted in graft sting plead guilty

Guy Catrillo was serving as a planning aide in the Jersey City Division of Planning when he accepted $15,000 in bribes. Maher Khalil was deputy director of the Jersey City Department of Health and Human Services when he accepted $72,500 in bribes. Both pled guilty as charged in Newark yesterday and now await sentencing.

Sentencing, the final step in what so many Jersey City officials are going to face. Already guilty in the in court of public opinion they now face the court's sentencing for being corrupt, classless, thieves. We suuuuure hope it was worth it, it seems so many were bought for so little. It really sickens us here at the Jersey City Desk to know our government from top to bottom is filled with so many crooks.

We should make a pleads guilty/found guilty template story and just change the names out to save ourselves some time. What poor city government we have here.

Late night open thread

Famous last words edition:

"I knew it. I knew it. Born in a hotel room - and God damn it - died in a hotel room."
-- Eugene O'Neill, writer, November 27, 1953

Time for Jersey City, After Dark

The walkway between Jersey City and Hoboken is now a reality

The waterfront walkway between Jersey City and Hoboken opened with no big celebration or ribbon cutting ceremony yesterday but opened nonetheless. The walkway runs from Jersey City's Newport area to Hoboken.

There are no border crossings just yet but we here in Jersey City will want to address this matter sooner rather than later. We'll want to be checking ID's of those Hoboken residents wanting to enter JC. You can't be too careful with these people. What starts out as a friendly waterside walkway could easily become the Ho Chi Minh Trail of stolen property from Jersey City being fenced in Hoboken.

It could happen.

Late night open thread

Tonight before bed a few good minutes with comedian Ron White. Hilarious, and it's clean too....


Time for Jersey City, After Dark

Here's an awesome chance to put your history cap on and get your learn on

Some amazing footage of the famed Morro Castle ship disaster which claimed 137 lives and changed the industry pertaining to public transport ships forever has surfaced. Two stories on Nj.com give a history lesson as well as delve into a possible murder mystery.

The main story with all the background on the Morro Castle which washed ashore in Asbury Park can be found here, while the story that asks the question if the Morro's radio operator, one George White Rogers, was responsible for the fire as well as the deaths of a Bayonne couple is here.

Good stuff.

Suuuuuure there was no connection between the contribution to Team Healy's campaign and the tax abatement request

Who are we to question the motives or sheer goodness of Crystal Point, a waterfront condo tower and their managing member Brian K. Fisher and his attorney James McCann? According to McCann, the fact he donated $3500 and Fisher donated $4000 to 'Team Healy' on the very same day McCann went before the city council requesting a sweeter tax abatement.

Of COURSE it was a coincidence. Of course there is no history in Jersey City or Hudson County of anyone getting favors or payoffs. The FBI didn't just bust seemingly half the city government here on bribery charges. Merely a mirage.

Suuuuuuure there was no connection. You have the developers word on that.

Late night open thread

Wasn't that just a magical effort by Rutgers today?

Time for Jersey City, After Dark

Rutgers football gameday!

It is not often a team plays a conference game to start the season. It's even more rare that the conference game is such a huge game and will have such an impact on the season going forward. Such is the case with Rutgers at home today vs Big East rival Cincinnati. Cincinnati is picked by many to win the Big East, but with a win today, suddenly Rutgers and their vaunted defense leaps into the favorite position.

A lot of people are saying the key to the Scarlet Knight's season is how do they replace the offense provided by departed starters QB Mike Teel and WR Kenny Britt. The 3400 yards plus that Teel threw for along with his 25 TD's don't just replace themselves. For as great a receiver Britt was he only caught 7 of those 25. Johnny thinks the key is how well new QB's Dom Natale and Jabu Lovelace redistribute that offense. Do these passes go to tight ends? Are the running backs more involved in the passing game? Another thing that will need to improve is the running game. Sooner or later your running game has to win a couple games for you. It must control tempo some Saturdays and must be able to bleed the clock on other Saturdays. Rutgers, if they have sights on a Big East title will HAVE to run better than they did last season. No Kordell Young early this year, that hurts.

If the defense is as good as advertised things are looking good. Head Coach Greg Schiano's front seven is as good as it's ever been at Rutgers. LB Ryan D'Imperio will be expected to lead the charges all season long and will have a GREAT first test in Cincinnati QB Tony Pike. It'll be a great cat and mouse game this afternoon between those two. The defense may have to pick up the offense at points early this season, this would be one of those days. Not lot of offenses come out in mid-season form in week one unless you're USC playing San Jose St. Here's hoping Rutgers employs a HAM defense this year; Hostile-Agile-Mobile.

Rutgers has a dream schedule this year. They get Cincy, Pitt, South Florida, and West Virginia at home. The league road games against the bottom feeders in Syracuse, Louisville and UConn. If Rutgers wants to sit at the adult table this Thanksgiving, meaning being taken SERIOUSLY as a BCS team, they HAVE to make hay at home. There is no reason they can't run the table in Piscataway this year.

Now, Johnny knows the Star-Ledger wants you to follow the game over there and comment over there but the Jersey City Desk offers you the ability to do something here you can't do on nj.com, swear. Fell free to let 'er rip in comments. If the refs make a bad call, say it don't spray it. If Schiano makes a questionable play call, have at it. You'll not be censored here.

Johnny hates Cincnnati head Coach Brian Kelly. He was a real dickhead at Central Michigan University, something Johnny knows something about. He acted like a perfect ass in his dealings with other MAC coaches. Johnny can't imagine he's improved that much and become a human being. Reason enough to root against the Bearcats we think.

Prediction:
Rutgers 24
Cincinnati 20

Late night open thread

Have no fear Rutgers fans, we'll have you covered front to back tomorrow starting with out game day thread...

Time for Jersey City, After Dark

Ah, love

Sometimes love is a walk down Broadway holding hands. Sometimes love is a romantic candle lit dinner. Sometimes love is a box of candy. And sometimes love is a 150 mile car chase through New Jersey with threats to crash the car if police don't stay back.

In what New Jersey State police are calling a lovers quarrel, Eleanor Valdenarro of Dumont led police on a 150 mile chase, with her jilted lover who resides in Jersey City, up and down the New Jersey Turnpike and all around the Garden State until it ended in the Firestone tire shop in Bayonne as love so often does. Her lover police said did not want to be in the car.

After Valdenarro had threatened to crash the vehicle if police didn't back off, police did keep a respectable distance until the wild ride ended. Valdenarro's being held on $23,000 bond and is being charged with criminal restraint, making terroristic threats and eluding and simply caring too much...

Late night open thread

It's a college football Saturday scoreboard

First things first, Michigan State creamed Montana State 44-3. Nice going Sparty. On the other hand, Eastern Michigan laid yet another egg against a named team with a miserable 27-14 loss against Army. Eastern has had one signature win in forever and that was a 30-27 victory over San Jose State. Too bad that was back in the 1987 California Bowl. New big man on campus for Syracuse, former Duke basketball guard Greg Paulus, utterly blew the game in overtime versus Minnesota's Golden Goofers with an incredibly bad interception that cost the Orange a chance at any points. Welcome to Syracuse Greggy.

In other action Notre Dame and their coach "Front Butt"® Charlie Weis got it done in South Bend vs. Nevada. Ohio State pretty much shut down the betting line in next week's USC game at the Horseshoe by turning in an anemic effort vs Navy barely winning 31-27. Seriously, Ohio State showed America they'll only need to watch the first quarter next Saturday night before everyone can head off to a late supper. Oklahoma took the typical OU Sooner gack today in losing to BYU. So what if their Heisman QB was injured? OU was SUPPOSED to be third best in the country. The bigger the game the smaller the Sooner. #1 Florida beat down the Mississippi Widow's Home for the Blind, while #2 Texas had no trouble with some guys throwing the ball around the parking lot they found around a kegger.

NCAA Roll Call:

Around the Big East

Liberty 20
West Virginia 33

Youngstown State 3
Pittsburgh 38
(So in essence Pittsburgh beat the Penguins)

Connecticut 23
Ohio 16

Wofford 7
South Florida 40
Guess Wofford just didn't have it today...

Indiana State 10
Louisville 30
Louisville must really suck this year, Eastern Michigan beat Indiana State last year in their opener 52-0

Central Connecticut State 28
Lehigh 21
If you want the BOLD around your name Andy Coen, Lehigh head coach, you have to WIN.

Fordham 28
Rhode Island 41
Johnny said before this game the Rams would win, it was his lock of the year. It helped both teams are named Rams

William Penn 0
South Dakota 52
You could SO smell this beat down coming

Western Kentucky 7
Tennessee 63
Welcome to Division 1-A WKU

Stonehill 45
Wagner 42
A lot of Stonehill Alumni had been jamming our phone lines for this score

Jersey City Desk 27
Hoboken A&M 9
Johnny ran wild and intern Zoltron hit a 47 yard field goal

Tonight's Super Special Score of the Week
Texas A&M-Commerce 7
Southeastern Louisiana 41


Time for Jersey City, After Dark

Make sure to come back for the college football scoreboard "show" here Jersey City

We have a lot of fun with our take on the Saturday scoreboard show...

Hey, mayor, you can't get more supportive of Nidia Lopez than "we're confident she's a resident"

Mayor Jerramiah Healy really went to the wall for his candidate in Ward C, embattled (who isn't embattled on Healy's team at this point?) councilwoman and Florida resident Nidia Lopez. When asked about her residency Healy came out with this rock solid supportive comment:

"This matter is winding it's way through the courts and we'll await the resolution. Once again, we are confident that Nidia Lopez is a resident of Jersey City's Ward C."

Yep, nothing says I know for a FACT she's a resident and you stupid reporters get off my lawn like "This matter is winding it's way through the courts..." WHY is it winding it's way through the courts? How does that even happen? Did you not vet her? Did you not ask where she had paid taxes the last decade? Oy...

In more Jerramiah Healy news, Mr. Clean was visited by the FBI the day before all the busts happened. You can read about the tainted Mayor and the FBI here.

Late night open thread

Some breaking news before bed tonight...

Time for Jersey City, After Dark

Friday night MULTIMEDIA EXTRAVAGANZA with BLONDIE!

On remix and remade night we're going to start you off with a real treat. Nobody spent more time remaking and remixing their own songs than Debbie Harry and Chris Stein of Blondie. But this is the original version, the original REGGAE version of what would later become one of the biggest disco hits ever, 'Heart of Glass'. This song was such a hit during the disco era in many circles it came to be known as simply 'The Disco Song'.

Here's the original version from 1975 when it was known by the title 'Once I had a Love'

Friday night MULTIMEDIA EXTRAVAGANZA with SHERYL CROW!

Say, have you ever heard the original version of 'If it Makes You Happy'? Not the one with the grinding guitars and hook and chorus you're so familiar with but the original COUNTRY version. Yep, Sheryl Crow has said the song 'If it Makes You Happy' was originally written in New Orleans as a country song. Tonight on remix night we'll give you an acoustic version with that original country flavor.

Friday night MULTIMEDIA EXTRAVAGANZA with THE CLASH!

You're all familiar with the song 'Rock the Casbah' but what about it's 'sister' song 'Mustapha Dance' which is far more danceable? There are many stories about his song and which exact record is was a B-side to but what matters is that you get to hear it tonight maybe for the first time...

The Clash with 'Mustapha Dance'

Yes Jersey City, Nidia Lopez is all about our fair city, unless you ever ask her to pay taxes here

Once again we find a twist in the Nidia Lopez story. As we all know by now in the soap opera named 'As the Third Ward Council Member Turns' there are real questions about just WHERE Lopez is a resident. She has a dual residence in Florida where she has been voting and using to escape paying taxes in Jersey City (Florida coincidentally has no income tax) and NOW we come to find out Nidia Lopez has an entirely second PERSONA, one of a Nidia Boehringer.

Isn't that precious Jersey City? So long as she can have a second persona in Florida and get away with paying no taxes she's all about supposedly representing jersey City as part of 'Team Healy' and voting YOU higher taxes she herself never intends to pay.

This is beyond disgraceful. Nidia Lopez or Nidia Boehringer or whomever she is this week needs to go, NOW, by hook or by crook. Just another example of Team Healy's 'Change we can see'. Yeah, we can see the change in in this case means voting for higher taxes as long as you doesn't ever have to pay them.

Go. Now.

Late night open thread

Tonight we're going to share some of the universe with you. A Jersey City Desk hat tip to reader K who emailed Johnny the link to some amazing space photos online today. What you will see here is "...the star HD 87643, beautifully shows the extended nebula of gas and dust that reflects the star's light."

The picture was taken at the European Southern Observatory which you'll find to be filled with more brilliant images than we could ever hope to share.

You don't need 39¢ or 89¢ to supersize things here, just click on them.

Time for Jersey City, After Dark

Don't forget kids, tomorrow is 'National Wear Your School Colors to Work Day'

The penultimate Hallmark holiday to sell clothing, tomorrow, the Friday before the kickoff of the college football season, is wear your colors to work day. Johnny is not on the sauce, its a real event. Rutgers lists it here, the Florida Gators know it too, as well as the Arkansas Razorbacks. So get out there and support which ever team it is you support and tell the boss it's more than casual Friday, it's get hyped because it's college football season.

Oh, Johnny's favorite team? That would be a tie between his alma mater Eastern Michigan University and those Spartans of Michigan State...

Let's welcome EMU to the 2009 season


And of course, the famed Spinning of the S in East Lansing. These Spartans look like they could have a real impact at the top of the Big Ten this season

Crowne Plaza hotel in Secaucus--Apparently dumping sewage laced water into the Hackensack River

Here's a story of a fine corporate community citizen; According to the New Jersey Attorney General, the Crowne Plaze hotel in Secaucus was dumping raw sewage from the hotel into the Hackensack River via a special pipe system the hotel staff had set up. Hackensack Riverkeeper Bill Sheehan, one of the heroes of this story (the other being the citizen who stopped Sheehan ont he street and told him of the nefarious piping), found out that the Crowne Plaza employed a underground tunnel system in which raw sewage leaking from hotel pipes was flushed into the river.

According to New Jersey Attorney General Anne Milgram:

"...hotel staff rigged a pump in a grate-covered pit beside the hotel to run the sewage-laced wastewater through a hose and across a grassy area to the riverbank."

Assholes.

Of course the Crowne Plaza is simply shocked by the news. They claim they had no idea the pipes carrying the sewage from their place to the river existed. They issued the boilerplate 'no way--we simply can't believe this since we're such upstanding community citizens' load of legalese crap. They even had the guts to trot out the "but but *sniff* if we're forced to pay the huge fines that could come down we're not sure if we could continue to employ the 200 Hudson County residents we do now" teary-eyed self pity.

Again, assholes.

Go get 'em Anne Milgram and thank you Bill Sheehan, you both are doing the public proud on this one.

Late night open thread

Classic comedy night. Triumph the Insult Comic Dog takes aim at a crowd of Star Wars fans in line awaiting the premiere of one of the last Star Wars flicks.


Time for Jersey City, After Dark

Labor Day weekend plans?

Heading off to the shore one more time? Having a small staycation? Heading into the city a couple time? If you got plans, share 'em with us this morning...

Late night open thread

If you are so politically inclined there will be a candlelight vigil tomorrow night at 7:30 pm on the Journal Square plaza in support of the so-called "public option" in the national health care debate. Anything that sticks a finger in eye of private insurance companies that badger you to pay your premiums again and again and again and again then have the cahones to deny you your coverage you paid for Johnny kinda likes. The private insurance companies now behave like a health care mafia. Something like a "public option" SHOULD scare the bejeesus out of them.

Time for Jersey City, After Dark

Boil Water Advisory for Jersey City this morning

Due to the water main break Jersey City is under a boil water advisory. To stay safe residents should:

"boil their water at a rolling boil for one minute before using it for drinking, cooking, brushing teeth and all other consumption."

That is all.

This sure would have been helpful before Johnny made coffee....

Water main break in Charlotte Circle leaves much of Jersey City with low water pressure

Not just Charlotte Circle is being affected, reading comments from residents in the Jersey Journal story much of Jersey City is suffering from low water pressure while some have no water at all. Johnny was getting his coffee ready last night and noticed the water pressure was very low and this would have been at 11 pm. Flooding is also a problem according to the story which would have explained the news helicopters hovering around the city this morning.

Feel free to share your water pressure story and location with us...