Free Republic

Quick action by horrified guests at a Park Ridge hotel saved a 20-month-old boy who had been thrown into a pool by a man police said was high on drugs. “These good Samaritans are heroes,” Capt. Joseph Rampolla of the Park Ridge Police Department said Monday. “They would be planning a toddler’s funeral if they did not step up.” The boy, who was unconscious and turning blue when he was pulled from the water, was recovering Monday at Hackensack University Medical Center, where he is in his mother’s custody, police said. “The child is doing well,” Rampolla said. Debbi Katcher,...

Newark's Roman Catholic archbishop is upset part of Bill Maher's movie was filmed at Bergen County parish. Maher set part of his documentary "Religulous," which mocks organized religion, in Our Lady of Mercy in Park Ridge. A spokesman for Archbishop John Myers said the parish priest was aware of a policy that prohibits any commercial filming in churches. But Jim Goodness said filmmakers told the Very Rev. Charles Grandstrand that Maher wanted to film his Jewish mother there because the church was such a big part of her life. Hi father was Catholic. Maher grew up in nearby River Vale....

PARK RIDGE, Ill. - First the city fathers tried bolting it right onto the old street sign. Then they ordered the special vandal-proof steel fasteners and super-strong epoxy. But nothing stopped the souvenir hunters from swiping the little green "Rodham Corner" sign when the sun set on Wisner Street. Last year, officials here moved the marker 15 feet up, onto a light pole. It's nearly impossible to spot unless you've made a pilgrimage to 235 Wisner, the faux-Georgian brick house where Hillary Rodham grew up. "So far no one's gotten to the sign way up there, but they will," city...

School official James Gandolfini More than 400 people paid their respects Friday to James J. Gandolfini, the former director of facilities at Paramus Catholic High School, and the father of actor James Gandolfini. Mr. Gandolfini died Wednesday at age 84. The mourners turned out to view Mr. Gandolfini during afternoon and evening visiting hours at the Robert Spearing Funeral Home on Kinderkamack Road in Park Ridge. They included actors from the TV show "The Sopranos." Mr. Gandolfini's son, James, known for his tough-guy roles, plays mob character Tony Soprano in the popular TV show. Once his son became well-known, the...