A Little Shameless Self-Promotion in the Local Press

Tom Plante Photo

Union County Freeholder Vice Chair Bette Jane Kowalski (L) congratulates Jim Lowney of Elizabeth on winning second place in the professional category at the 2006 Union County Employee Art Show on May 17 at the Elizabethtown Gas Company in Union.

Help Find A Killer

Jim Lowney Photo

At an emotional press conference this afternoon, Laila and Angelica Linares begged the public to help them find the driver who killed their young niece and nephew in a hit-and-run accident last night in Roselle, NJ.

Their sister Florinda, 27, was crossing St. Georges Avenue while cradling her two-year-old son Hector Montes and holding the hand of her five-year-old daughter Vanessa Montes just after nine o’clock last night when a car struck the trio and continued on its way west toward the city of Rahway.

The impact sent small bodies, shoes and blood flying. The children were pronounced dead at local hospitals. Their mother was treated and released from the hospital today.

Between sobs, the two aunts pleaded in English and Spanish at the press conference at the Union County Prosecutor's Office in Elizabeth.

"This is just a complete tragedy," said 22-year-old Laila Linares. "Please do not ignore this. "These two beautiful, innocent children were murdered. There is no way the driver could not know that he killed my niece and nephew."

Police are looking for a white vehicle with right front-end damage.

There is a $5,000 reward for anyone with information that leads to an arrest. If you have information please call (908) 654-TIPS.

Looking Up In New York City

Jim Lowney Photo

Stabbing Away At The Heart Of Irish Culture

The news is enough to make you cry in your pint--if you can find a bar still open for business.

If the reports are correct, the quaint rural Irish pub will soon be dead and gone.

The Sunday Business Post reports that 600 pubs have closed in Ireland over the last two years. The Dublin paper cited skyrocketing overheads.

"There are varying reasons for these closures – retirement, realising value of licence or property. However, for many small rural pubs they simply could not survive against spiralling overheads," said VFI president Seamus O’Donoghue.

The VFI said that according to a study undertaken by IBEC for the period 2004-2005, waste collection charges increased by 23.2%; local authority charges by 20.5% and water charges by 21%. The cumulative average inflation over the same period was 4.8%.

The Western People last week looked at the high number of pub closures in their neck of the woods and offered different reasons for the cancer eating away at tradition of the local public house.

The fact that people are now drinking more at home because of the smoking ban and cheaper alcohol prices in off-licences are being blamed on the high number of closures.

According to the newspaper, County Mayo has the third highest number of pub closures in the country over the last two years with 48 bars shuttered for good. Mayo is behind only Galway with 57 closures and Cork with 74.

Beyond Words

Over at the April edition of The Digital Journalist is an interesting column by Greg Kelly who did a CBC documentary about war photographers. He offeres some curious, honest and fun insight into the shooters who shoot conflicts.

One photographer asked me if I thought they were screwed up -- not quite the same question as being happy or unhappy. For what it's worth, I don't think they are. But if there were one trait that I'd ascribe to all of the interviewees it would have to be this: they have to see things for themselves. It's not that this trait makes them endearing. In fact, it can make them a little crusty sometimes. But it also makes them compelling. They are the most interesting, original, independent, socially-conscious sub-species in the profession. They seem to be unafraid of life, and reflexively generous. And they're also often very funny, obscenely so, and very salty.

There is also an honest and entertaining column by a retired Newsday photographer who writes about working with reporters.

Newspapers had reporters long before photography made its presence known. I suppose that this fact gives reporters the right to be called the senior service. Perhaps this is why newspaper photographers have always felt that we were the stepchildren of the industry. We always bristled when we heard ourselves being introduced by a reporter as, “This is my photographer.” “My” photographer, my ass What gall. How dare they infer that we are nothing more than their subservient flunkies; on hand only to do their bidding. And though I have heard some editors and even publishers refer to our staff photographers as important members of the journalistic team, it never seemed to translate that way in the real world.

Posted by Jim at 02:18 PM