White Plains and Valhalla region

This is the first installment of the Greenburgh police blotter on the White Plains area blog. The blotter will cover crimes not reported in The Journal News/LoHud.com and will cover reports from the previous week, with the most recent listed first.

June 27, 7:36 a.m.: An assistant manager at Best Buy, 299 N. Central Ave., reported that someone cut a hole in the roof of the store overnight and stole several Sony laptop computers with a total value of $17,000.
June 27, 4:15 a.m.: Jennifer Ascencia, 20, of Monroe, N.Y., was charged with aggravated driving while intoxicated during a traffic stop at the intersection of Tarrytown Road and Knollwood Road. Police said she was swerving and had a blood-alcohol level of 0.23, nearly three times the legal limit.
June 27, 3:10 a.m.: Christopher James Cardone, 26, of the Bronx, was charged with driving while intoxicated after, police said, he was stopped at 200 N. Central Avenue for driving more than 60 miles per hour in a 30 mile-per-hour zone. Police said his blood-alcohol level was 0.14.
June 26, 9 p.m.: Kwame Howard, 26, of Greenburgh, was charged with first-degree criminal contempt and second-degree menacing. Police said he violated an order of protection and threatened to kill a family member.
June 26, 4 a.m.: Jason Escalera, 28, of the Bronx, was charged with second-degree menacing and criminal possession of a weapon. Police said he brandished a knife and threatened to attack a 33-year-old man at 300 Executive Blvd.
June 25, 1:50 a.m. Ray Mcmillian, 34, of the Bronx, was charged with driving while intoxicated after police said he was stopped on South Central Avenue for driving twice the posted speed limit of 30 miles per hour. Police said his blood-alcohol level was 0.12.

On June 8, the People’s United Community Foundation made a grant of $2,500 for the Cornerstone Nursery Program at the Andrus Children’s Center’s clinic at 19 Greenridge Ave. in White Plains. The grant will ensure clinical support for the children.

Eileen Fisher of Irvington also collected and donated swim suits, towels, flip-flops and sunscreen for the children of the clinic.

Andrus operates the therapeutic nursery at three sites in Westchester county: White Plains, Peekskill and Yonkers.

The clinic specializes in therapeutic care for toddlers (ages 2-5) who have come from emotionally distressed environments.

At least three of the vehicles involved in this accident were from the same White Plains business.

New Rochelle’s Officer Vincent Marco diverts traffic off I-95 northbound, near exit 16 in New Rochelle after an accident involving five vehicles June 29, 2010. At least three of the vehicles were from the same White Plains company. ( Xavier Mascareñas / The Journal News )

See more photos from the five-vehicle accident on I-95 at this gallery, check I-95 traffic right now on Thruway Authority cameras, and read updates at LoHud.com.

Just in from a press release…

Kensico Cemetery’s 2009 annual report, “Cornerstones: the Early Years at Kensico Cemetery,” took top honors in the corporate design/annual report category at the June  Advertising Club of Westchester’s Big W awards gala.

The annual report, including photographs of the landscaped property and text drawn from early records, traces Kensico Cemetery’s first 25 years of activity as a membership corporation serving the burial needs of the New York metropolitan area since 1889.

The Gold Award was given to Kensico Cemetery based on the critique of 12 judges from graphics studios and advertising agencies in Westchester,  Fairfield County, Conn.  and New York City. The 16-page, four-color annual report was designed, written, photographed and produced by Judith C. Mitchell, president of Black Forest Communications, Inc. of Tarrytown.

This is the ninth award and second gold that Kensico Cemetery has earned in its 15 years of participation in the Ad Club competition. For a copy of the Kensico Cemetery 2009 annual report booklet, call 1-888-KENSICO or request a copy via email at www.kensico.org.

Yonkers resident Russell Giglio was among the leaders in the final round of the Ike tournament at Metropolis Country Club today.

Look for the story at Lohud.com and in tomorrow’s edition of The Journal News. View photos from the Ike MGA Stroke Play Championship.

The Greenburgh Nature Center is presenting a live butterfly exhibit and butterfly programs running until September 30.

The indoor exhibit, “Walking Among Live Butterflies,” includes native butterflies such as Monarchs and Painted Ladies in the center’s greenhouse full of fragrant flowers and greenery. The exhibit showcases the life cycle of a butterfly—from egg, to caterpillar, to chrysalis, to butterfly—as well as its relationship with specific plants.

Additional Butterfly programs:
-Flights of Fancy, Saturday, July 31 at 2:30 p.m., an informal chat with Travis Brady, Curator of Living Collections, who will answer any questions about “flying flowers.” Included with museum admission.

-Bold, Beautiful, Breathtaking Butterflies, Sunday, August 22 at 2 p.m., Join Brittany Burgio, Assistant Curator of Living Collections, for a tour through the life of a butterfly, followed with a butterfly craft session. Recommended for children 8 and younger. Members $2, non-members $6.

-Flights of Fancy, Sunday, September 19 at 2:30 p.m., an informal chat with a GNC naturalist. Included with Museum admission.

The exhibit is free for members and children under 2, $7 for adults, $6 for seniors and students, and $5 for children ages 2 to 12.

The Greenburgh Nature Center is located at 99 Dromore Road, Scarsdale. Parking is free and handicapped accessibility available. For further information, call 914-723-3470 or visit www.greenburghnaturecenter.org.

An evening of fun with a wine tasting at St. Bartholomew’s Episcopal Church from 6:30-8:30 p.m. tomorrow will raise money for the church’s music program.

The Rev. Gawain F. deLeeuw, rector, and friends will lead a basic introduction to the six major wine grapes and introduce several wine regions. There will be live music provided by the soloists of the St. Bart’s choir.

Novices and experts alike are invited to this no-pretense event. Refreshments will also be served.

All proceeds will benefit the music program at St. Bartholomew’s. This is the biggest fundraising event of the year for the choir. The money raised will ensure that the choir remains one of the finest in the area and enable it to continue to perform top-notch choral music.

In addition to the tasting, there will be a raffle and a silent auction. A number of excellent wines, including an Opus One, a few gift baskets and cases of wine will be available as prizes as well as a wine-tasting dinner with the rector and music director.

Tickets to the events are $35; $50 for couples. Raffle tickets are $10 each or $25 for three. You need not be present to win.

RSVP and additional information: 914 949-5577, 917 304-4831 or email st.barts.wp@gmail.com.

In an age when youth theaters can charge big money for a double-cast production of “Annie,” it’s refreshing to learn of a program that won’t cost theater-loving high-school kids a penny to participate.

Director Betsy Hooper is launching Free Theatre Westchester with auditions tomorrow night at the Mamaroneck Avenue School in White Plains. The program is sponsored by the White Plains Youth Bureau. Hooper and her staff are donating their time.

Hooper has taught in schools across the Lower Hudson Valley, including Hastings, Greenburgh, Irvington and Pelham. She has directed “Guys & Dolls,” “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum,” “Company,” “Urinetown,” “Kiss Me, Kate,” “Noises Off,” “Black Comedy” and “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” to name several. At the Purchase College Summer Youth Program, she founded and directed the Playwriting and Film programs. These days, she works at the Windward School in White Plains.

“Free Theatre has been a long-time goal of mine because I have seen the transformative effect of theatre on a young person,” Hooper says. “The collaboration and sense of belonging, the joy of creative thinking, the chance to gain confidence that theatre offers should be available to any kid who’s willing to commit. (Our tag line is: The only cost is your commitment). At a time when summer jobs are scarce, Free Theatre offers kids an opportunity to have a productive, challenging summer.”

Hooper held a preliminary meeting and attracted more than a dozen kids to get in on the ground floor of this program. Tomorrow, June 30, at 7 p.m., she’ll hold general auditions for actors and actresses entering ninth through twelfth grades. Rehearsals will be from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m., so kids who work days can still take part.

Hooper and her team will look at who shows up and then decide which show best suits the new company. She says that her past shows might provide a hint as to the caliber of work Free Theatre kids should expect to perform.

“I’m into musicals, comedies and musical comedies,” she says.

The five-week program runs from July 6 to Aug. 6, with a performance at 7:30 p.m. on Aug. 6. If you have questions, contact Hooper at freetheatrewestchester@gmail.com.

Check out Free Theatre Westchester’s Facebook page.

I saw a show at the National Theatre in London today and was home in time for dinner.

The show was Irishman Dion Boucicault’s “London Assurance,” a sold-out London smash directed by Nicholas Hytner that closes tomorrow. I saw it today — with a full house — live at the Jacob Burns Film Center in Pleasantville. When Londoners in the Olivier Theatre laughed at the antics of Simon Russell Beale, right, as Sir Harcourt Courtly, we in Pleasantville laughed along.

One of the most pleasant developments this past season is the advent of “NT Live,” live theatrical productions beamed via satellite to cinemas in 15 countries.

On hand in Pleasantville was David Sabel, producer of NT Live, who is in Westchester this week visiting his sister, who lives in Larchmont and is about to give birth to a Sabel niece or nephew any day now. I chatted with him before the 2 p.m. curtain and he said he has been in the production truck for the previous NT Live productions, but that today’s show gave him the opportunity “to see what it feels like for our audience.”

(Perhaps because her producer was sitting with us, the Burns earned a shout-out from pre-show host Emma Freud, who mentioned “Pleasantville, N.Y.”  as one of the venues participating.)

Sabel said that while past efforts to present live theater on the big screen have been met with decidedly mixed results, he’s pleased with his team’s efforts to maintain “the theatrical DNA” of the productions at the National Theatre, a complex of three venues on the River Thames.

“It was launched very much as an experiment and actors and directors, rightly, had big concerns because historically, it has been done so poorly,” Sabel said. He said advances in technology—and the advent of HD—has helped. Also, the National plans the filming in an empty theater. They set the cameras in their best positions and then fit the audience in the spaces between. This puts the production first and audiences in London understand that they’re part of a big experiment.

The fast-paced play was broad and very funny, with plenty of eye-rolling and double entendres. Read a round-up of London reviews on the Guardian’s Web site.

There were a couple of glitches. About a half-hour into the show — tickets for which cost $25 for non-members and $20 for JBFC members — a strong storm knocked out the satellite feed for five minutes, costing us half of a scene. Had this come later in the action or, say, during the final scene of next year’s “Hamlet,” it could have been disastrous. As it was, we missed a little exposition.

The show will be broadcast again on Wednesday at 7 p.m. Go to the Jacob Burns Film Center’s Website. While not live, this will be the very last time to see the show, as it will have closed on the West End when it airs at the Burns.

Check out the show’s Facebook page, where folks who saw the live feed weigh in from all over. Pretty cool.

Photos by Catherine Ashmore: Simon Russell Beale is Sir Harcourt Courtly in the National Theatre’s production of Dion Boucicault’s “London Assurance.”

Carl Paladino, the Buffalo developer running for governor, talked about his candidacy on Monday in an Editorial Spotlight interview.

Paladino, who lost the Republican nomination to former Rep. Rick Lazio, is gathering petition signatures in an effort to receive a place on the Sept. 14 primary ballot. He’s also running on the Reform Party line. We talked with him about his positions on the issues and the various controversies surrounding his campaign.

Here’s a video of our interview: