Sponsored by: |
Bob Baird, local columnist for The Journal News in Rockland County, has worked for the newspaper since 1972, spending many of those years editing or commenting on the news in the county he calls home. From 1976 to 1984, Bob was news editor, managing editor and executive editor in Rockland. During that time, the newspaper was a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize and twice won The Associated Press Managing Editors Association's national community service award.
Bob had been honored for his editorials by the New York State Bar Association, for his columns by the New York State Associated Press Association and for his feature writing in the Best of Gannett Competition. Bob also worked in a variety of editing roles in Westchester before becoming local columnist in Rockland. As local columnist, he has been honored by the Rockland County Association for the Learning Disabled as its Humanitarian of The Year in 2001 and by HOGAR in 2003 for his efforts to highlight the need for affordable housing in Rockland. In 2004, he received the County Executive Arts Award from the Arts Council of Rockland in the Literary Artist category.
Bob, who now lives in Nanuet, raised his three grown children in Suffern, where he lived for almost 30 years. He devotes his spare time to making it possible for people with disabilities to enjoy the game he loves — baseball. In 1993 he was a founder of the Rockland County Challenger Little League, for children with a wide range of special needs. In 2002, he founded Touching Bases, a similar league for 240 adults with disabilities, which now has affiliates in Buffalo, N.Y. and Richmond, Va., with others in the planning stages.
E-mail Bob Baird at rbaird@lohud.com
I’d like to be sympathetic to the family that feels they got a bait-and-switch treatment from the Orangetown Mighty Midgets, but as the dad of a former travel player, I’m finding it hard.
I’m also finding it hard to believe that travel soccer — and other sports, too, I’m sure — are having to resort to [...]
Ya see, I’ve got this screenplay. It’s for a thriller that has nothing whatsoever to do with a late-night talk-show host.
But ya know. I don’t think I’d try the marketing approach that’s got a CBS News producer in hot water.
But you gotta give his attorney credit for thinking up an imaginative defense.
But will a jury [...]
It’s an odd juxtaposition of stories.
On one hand, Rockland County government extends the period people get to catch up with their unpaid property taxes before the parcel can be put up for foreclosure auction.
Good thing, given the state of the economy.
But the day after the County Legislature extends the period from two years to three, [...]
If you see girls with pink hair in Suffern, they’re not getting a jump on Halloween.
They’re doing their part to help fight breast cancer.
Lisa Daly of Montebello, who owns Salon Atelier at 95 Lafayette Avenue in Suffern, has installed about 275 pink hair extensions for girls and women who donate $10 to Pink Hair for [...]
Good to see the Department of Transportation get the new James A. Farley Memorial Bridge done, not only on time, but ahead of schedule.
Looks like offering a financial incentive — in this case $900,000 on a $14 million project — worked to motivate the contractor to get it finished.
The DOT has taken it’s far share [...]
I’ve written dozens of times in a decade about my skepticism regarding the safety of Indian Point and with every passing month, little happens to alleviate my worry.
Time was we couldn’t depend on Con Edison to be up front and timely in admitting problems at the plant. There have been engineering and maintenance issues, leaks [...]
When the old Liberty Street School in Nyack, right across from the longtime location of The Journal News on Hudson Avenue, was torn down about three decades ago, I started my collection of bricks made from Hudson River clay in the heyday of the Haverstraw brick industry. I’ve added to the collection periodically since then, [...]
You hope that things change, but a rejection of an affordable housing law in Orangetown was pretty much to be expected.
That’s been the prevailing sentiment in town for decades and nothing seems to change it much, not even when there’s what might be expected to be a more sympathetic Democratic majority on the Town Board.
But [...]
If the weather has you thinking about things to do indoors, a couple of exhibits I’ve written about may make for interesting alternatives.
Opening tonight at the GAGA Arts Center, 55 West Railroad Avenue in Garnerville, is “Pictures from Croatia: Through the Eyes of Children,” an exhibit of about 50 photos taken by young students of [...]
Ervin Williams of Spring Valley knew this day would come. After all, when he was a young man, his great-grandmother, Hattie Lafayette of Albion, Mich., was older than just about anyone around.
Over the years, he’s made frequent visits back to Michigan, were he grew up, making sure to spend time with his relative, whose life [...]
Copyright ©2009 The Journal News, a Gannett Co. Inc. newspaper serving Westchester, Rockland and Putnam counties in New York.
