Westchester Now
Newsday Westchester's news blog, covering snippets of government, politics, crime, transportation, education and local events in Westchester, Rockland and the Hudson Valley.
Matt Sartwell
Matt Sartwell is the Deputy News Editor for Newsday Westchester. Sartwell, a married man with two young sons, is a Red Sox fan, an avid outdoorsman and friend to all-you-can-eat buffets everywhere. He grew up in Vermont, currently lives with his family in Pearl River and can be found pushing the kids around in a shopping cart two or three times a week at ShopRite.
Follow on Twitter: @mattsartwell
NJ Transit's Pascack Valley Line goes ticketless
Goodbye, punch. Hello, tap.
Every week or so I take the zombie train from Pearl River to Penn for journalistic repointing and managerial face time at our Manhattan office.
I take the 5:22 a.m. on the Pascack Valley Line and I'm easy to spot. I'm the shambling, coffee-spilling wreck with the nine-months pregnant computer bag.
But today, NJ Transit's pilot digital ticketing made...
Read more »March Madness, stop and frisk, 'Dancing with the Stars': Top stories for Monday, March 18
Photo credit: AP
1) New Rochelle High's boys basketball team ran out of miracles, but the Iona College Gaels and their fans are hoping for one of their own after they were riveted to jumbo television screens Sunday evening to find out whom the Gaels would play in the NCAA Tournament. The answer: No. 2 seed and Big Ten powerhouse Ohio State in a West Regional game later this week.
2) A lawsuit over New...
Read more »Pope conclave begins, tiger den jumper in court among Top 5 stories for Tuesday, March 12
Photo credit: AP
1) When will puffs of white smoke over the Sistine Chapel at the Vatican announce the successor to Pope Benedict XVI? We'll know sometime after Tuesday afternoon, when a conclave of Catholic cardinals gathers to elect the new pontiff. The cardinals won't have access to any outside news or media while they weigh their votes and will sleep in close quarters at the Apostolic Palace. Read what Hudson...
Read more »Unusual sighting: Turkeys in Yonkers
Photo credit: Matthew Sartwell
Making reporters write stories about my commute from Pearl River to Yonkers is just part of the editor gig.
As the hoary journalism maxim goes: "News is what happens to your editor on her way to work."
Reporter John Dyer just told me, "Those are stories I don't like to get."
So instead of asking Dyer, who's working with me this Sunday, to write 900 words...
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