Asbury Park Press
More than living up to its name
In 1910 a schooner was built with a rounded bow strictly for fishing. Built in Gloucester, Massachusetts, at the John Bishop Shipyard, Vincent Cove, this schooner had the classic New England look at a time when less sailboats were being constructed by...
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NJ comptroller leaving office
TRENTON – Some very powerful people in New Jersey politics spent the last six years hoping acting State Comptroller Kevin Walsh would just go away. Lawmakers tried to strip his office of much of its investigatory powers. Lobbyists wanted him...
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Details emerge in brutal slayings
FREEHOLD — As Paul Caneiro’s trial in the 2018 slayings of four family members got underway Jan.12, a prosecutor revealed a startling detail never before made public — that the smallest victim, 8-year-old Sophia Caneiro, suffered 17 stab wounds before...
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‘Preemie’ turns 21, meets Shore nurse
NEPTUNE – In 2004 Madison Kennedy was born premature at 22 weeks — four-and-a-half months early — and weighed one pound, three ounces. With severely underdeveloped lungs, her odds of survival were iffy at best. Madison’s life was in the hands of the...
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Touching moon 80 years ago
On the morning of Jan. 10, 1946, scientists at Camp Evans aimed a radar antenna at the moon and fired off a signal. It bounced back two-and-a-half seconds later, and the world was changed forever. “It was a sensation. It changed our whole view on what...
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Monmouth leaders sworn in, talk goals
FREEHOLD TOWNSHIP – Three of Monmouth County’s most influential elected officials were sworn into new terms on Tuesday, Jan. 6, promising smart growth and expanded public safety services during a ceremony attended by hundreds of local, county and state...
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Funding for homeless at Shore motel running out
TOMS RIVER – Sixteen people who have been living for a year or more at a Toms River motel were facing eviction Jan. 5 as funding for their motel stay was about to run out. Among them are several people who previously lived in a camp located deep in...
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Rodrick vows to sue Toms River council
TOMS RIVER – A new year started in Toms River with the same bitter political partisanship that has become common in this sharply divided township. New council members Harry Aber, Robert Bianchini and Clinton Bradley were sworn in to their first...
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U.S. CAPTURES VENEZUELAN PRESIDENT MADURO
Get the latest at usatoday.com. And find more coverage in the Nation & World Extra section, a subscriber-only feature in your eNewspaper.
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‘We’re not a babysitter’
George Orwell described his ideal pub in a 1946 essay: great location, vibes, food, service. Notably, and maybe surprisingly to modern-day craft brewery patrons: families with kids. “It is the puritanical nonsense of excluding children – and...
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SPANNING THE DECADES
Commuting on the Northeast Corridor will likely get worse before it gets better. That was the case in the first 10 days of December, after NJ Transit and Amtrak customers endured delays or cancellations on five of those days due to overhead wire...
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Trump administration opens DEI investigations
The Trump administration is investigating diversity initiatives at major companies under the False Claims Act, a federal law the Department of Justice uses to take action against contractors that defraud the government. As USA TODAY reported in...
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Benefit concert to honor former coach
Jacob Bedel-Franklin became a nurse in 2025 after serving as an emergency medical technician for five years. One of his assignments made such a deep impression, it moved him to action. Bedel-Franklin spent four months at the home of Scott Goldbserry,...
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Gubernatorial race was a pricey process
New Jersey has a reputation for being expensive, and our election practices are no different. The state’s Election Law Enforcement Commission announced on Dec. 22 that the 2025 gubernatorial election was the sixth-most-expensive in United States...
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Historic Walnford offers a unique peek into the past
Visitors enter Historic Walnford, once a thriving mill and agricultural village, through a corn crib filled with husks. Five generations of Walns inhabited Walnford, located on the Upper Freehold Historic Farmland Scenic Byway in Monmouth County. It...
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County historian led remarkable life
MIDDLETOWN – The last thing local historian Randall Gabrielan did was take in his favorite opera, Mozart’s “Don Giovanni,” at The Metropolitan Opera at the Lincoln Center in Manhattan. A big opera aficionado, he attended The Met weekly. His family...
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Baby turtles find a home
Five rescued northern diamondback terrapin hatchlings from southern Long Beach Island will spend the winter at the Liberty Science Center in Jersey City as guests at the center’s exhibit “Our Hudson Home.” The hatchlings were discovered long after the...
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50 years of crossing the Delaware River
Ronald Rinaldi has crossed the Delaware on Christmas for five decades. The 64-year-old Branchburg native has been reenacting the historic 1776 event, a pivotal moment in the Revolutionary War, often portraying Maj. Gen. Nathanael Greene of...
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DRIVEN BY VOLUNTEERS
In November 2020, longtime Point Pleasant resident Barbara Ciancia became a single mother when her husband Robert died after a short-term illness. Her youngest kids were 9 and 14 at the time, and a group of big-hearted neighbors made sure they didn’t...
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Homeless person shifts between sites
Winter weather has set in, with bitter cold and half a foot of snow, and Rob Zahn and two other homeless people have relocated to a new camp in northern Ocean County. Zahn, 61, is at his fifth campsite in the woods this year; he’s shifted between...
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Flexible Flyer sleds have deep history in Jersey
Did you have a Flexible Flyer sled? Have you ever heard of one? Are you aware they were designed, tested and made in New Jersey? If you were raised near a hill, there is a good chance you have been on a Flexible Flyer sled, or an imitation. I...
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PENNY SOLUTION
If you’re pay with cash at ShopRite, you should probably make sure you have enough change, including pennies, to pay the exact amount. In response to a shortage of pennies, ShopRite has implemented a new policy to round change up or down to the nearest...
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Hanukkah brought in a colorful way
What does a white 2022 Subaru Impreza have to do with Hanukkah? For one group of Jewish religious instructors, it’s become the key component of a menorah distribution campaign like few others. With a few changes, including the installation of an...
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Tulips all lit up for Winter Wonderland
Holland Ridge Farms, 108 Rues Road in Cream Ridge, is known for growing more than 8 million tulips in the spring. h But this time of year, the farm invites guests to walk through fields of more than 50,000 illuminated tulips as part of its Winter...
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‘WHEN WILL THE WORLD WAKE UP?’
Two gunmen opened fire on a Hannukah celebration at a Sydney beach Sunday, killing at least 11 people in what Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese called an act of antisemitism and terrorism. Rabbi Moshe Zev Weisberg, former township...
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NJ asks: What has happened to Tillie?
ASBURY PARK — The last time anyone from the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection checked on the original Tillie, the smiling face on the exterior of the demolished Palace Amusements building, was in 2018. Now the state is asking the...
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If it’s local you want, we’ve got it.
Our Sunday refresh offers more local news and sports, as well as “Weekend Exclusive” content to help you navigate your lives. So enjoy your Sunday reading filled with stories that will inspire, educate, inform and entertain you.
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NJ lets developer knock nest down
ALLENHURST – A nest that became a home for a pair of bald eagles atop an old radio tower at the former Jersey Central Power & Light building is now gone. Workers have removed the antenna from the side of the building and brought down the nest too —...
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Iconic Ferris wheel to be rebuilt — in PA
The iconic and pioneering Ferris wheel that adorned Palace Amusements, a boardwalk staple that carried countless Jersey Shore locals and tourists from 1895 to 1988, is on the verge of rising again — in a bucolic Pennsylvania borough 92 miles to the...
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Work underway on Lido luxury condos
ASBURY PARK – Developers broke ground on the Lido Asbury Park on Dec. 8, saying they hope to complete the eight-story luxury condo development over the next two years. A total of 112 residences are planned for the Ocean Avenue development that will...
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MUSKETS ROAR IN BARNEGAT
History buffs and more came out to mark the annual Cedar Bridge Tavern Commemoration on Sunday, Dec. 7. The event reenacted the last land skirmish of the Revolutionary War and took place at the Cedar Bridge Tavern Historic Site in Barnegat. Scheduled...
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Giant Toms River tree lights up for holidays
TOMS RIVER – Santa Claus arrived on a fire truck to light the township’s Christmas tree and kick off holiday festivities on a chilly night Dec. 5 in downtown Toms River. The township’s annual tree lighting featured live entertainment and festivities...
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Delaware Bay breakwaters are bland, but crucial for preserving coastline
Why are the breakwaters in Delaware Bay so great? Or even interesting? Most of the time they are rocks seen from boats or the shore, south of the Delaware River. Some rise from the water, acting as foundations for lighthouses, or abutting land. They...
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Homeless man on the move in woods
BRICK – Rob Zahn has had a rough year. “I don’t know what they think you should do,” said Zahn, 61, who became homeless after he divorced and was forced to go on disability for injuries suffered in his job at New York City’s Metropolitan...
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Senator laments ‘broken politics’
TRENTON — U.S. Sen. Andy Kim waited four hours before he was called to testify against a bill before a state Senate committee. He was told by the chairman that he wasn’t special. He was cut off after speaking for three minutes. When Kim, D-New Jersey,...
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Watchdog overhaul bill clears a hurdle
TRENTON – A bill that would strip the State Office of the Comptroller of investigative powers advanced after a fiery Senate committee hearing on Dec. 1 despite objections from dozens of advocates who said it would lead to more corruption. The bill’s...
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Turning calamity into a good cause
Kayla Smock was 13 years old and playing for a travel softball team when she collided with a teammate while trying to catch a fly ball. The Jackson resident was diagnosed with a concussion, whiplash and a neck sprain. “Doctors kept saying, ‘just stay...
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Hospital makes money, so why make a move?
Monmouth Medical Center, facing critics who say its proposal to move its acute-care hospital from Long Branch to a new $800 million facility in Tinton Falls is little more than a money grab, already is the Jersey Shore’s most profitable hospital, a...
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Fire aboard steamer Leona left tragedy, questions
Steamship Leona had left her home port of New York bound for Galveston, Texas, when she caught on fire off the Delaware Capes. Sadly, 13 lives were lost on May 9, 1897. The nature of her cargo was listed as “general.” Captain James Wilder was in...
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Lessons from above
Tucked into a back corner of the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority complex at DeKorte Park in Lyndhurst, the William D. McDowell Observatory, at first glance, doesn’t seem all that special. h But on Wednesday nights, when the observatory staff...
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HAPPY THANKSGIVING
There is no print edition of the paper today, but you can find today’s puzzles, comics, national news and sports here in the eNewspaper.
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Sherrill won’t discuss combining watchdogs
ATLANTIC CITY – The next governor of New Jersey was noncommittal on the controversial proposal to combine two of the state’s most powerful watchdog agencies. In an interview with NJ Spotlight News, Gov.Elect Mikie Sherrill wouldn’t discuss the plans...
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Chef greets people who supported him
ATLANTIC HIGHLANDS – Ruperto Vicens tried hard to fight back the tears when he faced the community that fought so hard for his release after he was snatched up by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers on his way to work at his restaurant on...
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NJ Hall of Fame adds new faces
They’ve rocked a million faces around the world but at the New Jersey Hall of Fame 2025 induction ceremony these Bon Jovi guys brought the jokes. Frontman Jon Bon Jovi inducted band keyboardist and Broadway composer David Bryan into the Hall on Nov....
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Gov. Murphy pardons 11 veterans on Veterans Day
HOLMDEL – Gov. Phil Murphy marked Veterans Day by issuing pardons for 11 New Jersey veterans, saying “actions taken during a person’s hardest chapter should not define them, especially for those who have sacrificed so much in service of our...
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Sherrill faces early tests
Within the first seven months of Gov.-elect Mikie Sherrill’s term, New Jersey will be on the world stage, preparing for eight FIFA World Cup matches, including the final, that will take place in June and July of 2026. Those matches will fall around...
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Disabled veteran gets Howell home
HOWELL – In late October, as Dolly Harris got a look at the home being built for her in Howell, she marveled at the extra wide doorways, the roomy garage for her accessible van, and the electronic ceiling-track lift that will help her get from her...
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Who is NJ’s new Lt. Gov.-elect?
New Jersey has a new Gov.-elect in Mikie Sherrill — and also a new Lt. Gov-elect in Dale Caldwell. So who is he? New Brunswick resident. Princeton, Wharton, and Seton Hall graduate. Pastor. Founder of the Black Tennis Hall of Fame. He is also the...
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Marine Society of NY has long history
and a hospital. It has been recorded that Randall’s famed lawyer and friend, Alexander Hamilton, suggested a marine hospital be included in the group of buildings. Thus, it would be “giving back to the sea” on money earned from the marine trade....
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Mom says husband began fight with son
FREEHOLD – As a Middletown man went on trial for manslaughter Nov. 6 in the 2024 death of his father, his mother insisted it was her husband who started the physical fight that ended his life. Testifying at the trial of her son, 37-year-old Kyle...
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Selling a Wall estate was no easy feat for owner
WALL – Jon Biondo thought the sprawling compound he bought here in 2018 would be a forever home for him and his three partners, so they didn’t cut any corners when it came to amenities. The home included a nightclub, a barber shop, a conference room...
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GOP retains Monmouth, Ocean seats
TOMS RIVER – Despite a disappointing night for Republicans across the state, both the Monmouth and Ocean county GOP organizations will maintain an ironclad grip over their county governments in 2026. Ocean County voters on Tuesday elected Republican...
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‘Much more than a vice president’
WASHINGTON – Richard Bruce Cheney was the most powerful and the most controversial vice president in American history. Cheney, 84, died surrounded by family members on the evening of Nov. 3, of complications of pneumonia and cardiac and vascular...
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Vote could be gauge of anti-Trump sentiment
Election Day has arrived. Democrats are trying to bounce back from their 2024 thumping, while Republicans are working to blunt the typical momentum for the party out of power as voters hit the polls Nov. 4 for contests that show the mood of the...
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Shore neighbors fear food prices
OCEAN TOWNSHIP -- With her SNAP benefits in peril, Barbara Malone walked from her apartment at Heritage Village to the clubhouse on a blustery late October day and gladly accepted a bagful of carrots, spinach, beets and sweet potatoes that had been...
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Collaboration yields insights on barriers to health care
Our news reporters’ beats are typically organized two ways. There are geographic beats, covering several towns and enabling the reporters to understand those towns inside and out. Or the beats cover broader topics that affect North Jersey residents...
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Trenton leaders to step up funding for food
income, resources, and expenses for medical care, shelter and dependent care. State officials are beginning to prepare for the program to be suspended. As of August, New Jersey had 812,966 recipients from 436,452 households. There are 341,529...
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Veteran’s legacy finds a home
LITTLE EGG HARBOR - Atop a flagpole in the front yard, the Stars and Stripes flutter in the wind. Inside this newly built ranch house, the walls are adorned with patriotic photos. This is Larry’s Home, a transitional, sober-living residence for Ocean...
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MAKING JERSEY SHORE SAFER
SEASIDE PARK -- Paul Jeffrey remembers his Ortley Beach neighborhood after Superstorm Sandy passed in October 2012: 98% of the structures were damaged or destroyed, with more than 200 homes simply washed away. It was a month before Ortley residents...
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Family: ICE grabbed him in error in church sweep
ATLANTIC HIGHLANDS — The head chef and coowner of a popular restaurant in Atlantic Highlands has been detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement for more than week, sparking a rally Monday, Oct. 27, in the borough, a fundraiser and a...
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THE PRICE WE PAY
New Jersey’s property taxes are expensive — no doubt about it. New Jersey in 2023 had an effective tax rate of 1.77%, behind only Illinois, according to the nonpartisan Tax Foundation, a Washington-based think tank. The Tax Foundation defines this...
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IF THESE WALLS COULD TALK
When selling a home, you’re required to disclose certain details to potential buyers, like roof issues, flood risks and the presence of hazardous materials. But what if the home also comes with some ghostly residents or an eerie past? It depends. h...
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Beauty, pains of buttons made from freshwater mussels
I learn more about New Jersey’s illustrious history, especially maritime, on a regular basis. I volunteer at the New Jersey Maritime Museum (528 Dock Road, Beach Haven, NJ 08008, njmm.org, 609-4920202). Visitors tell us stories of ancestors who were...
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DEMOLISHED
WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump shocked historic preservationists and incensed Democratic critics with the demolition on the East Wing of the White House to make room for a $300 million ballroom he plans to pay for with private dollars. Demolition...
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No word from feds on Gateway threat
“Complete and utter silence” — that’s what Sen. Andy Kim said he has received in response to multiple inquiries to the U.S. Department of Transportation and White House about whether or not the $16 billion Gateway rail tunnel program has been...
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Hearing on move of Monmouth Medical
LONG BRANCH – The state Department of Health announced the public hearing for the controversial proposed relocation of Monmouth Medical Center from Long Branch to Tinton Falls will be Oct. 29 at Ocean Place Resort. The state Health Planning Board will...
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Lost lantern restored to Manasquan statue
PtheOINT PLEASANT BEACH – At a few minutes past noon on Sunday, Oct. 19, United States Coast Guard Auxiliarists Pete Ferro and Jim Bemiss climbed up rocky base of the Fishermen’s Memorial at Loughran’s Point Park and replaced the missing lantern in the...
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Can protest turnout give clue in election?
Thousands of people lined the Route 35 bridge linking Red Bank and Middletown on Oct. 18, where they held signs and protested President Donald Trump’s policies — part of a national movement involving thousands of “No Kings” demonstrations across the...
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NJ still dealing with drought
A year after a series of destructive wildfires burned across New Jersey and New York, fueled by historically dry weather last fall, experts say the threat is lower this year, but the region is still at risk for wildfire, especially if the current...
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Delaware has rich Scandinavian roots
Swedesboro, New Jersey, lies along the Rancocas, which meanders along Raccoon Creek with various twists and turns out to the Delaware River. As the name connotes, it was settled by Swedish immigrants as a portion of Woolwich Township in...
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Rutgers launches underwater craft
Rutgers University and Teledyne Marine launched the first world-circumnavigating underwater glider on Oct. 10, a move scientists expect will unleash new opportunities for ocean research. Called the Sentinel Mission, this is the first attempt to launch...
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Landmark’s fate in limbo
SANDY HOOK – The movement to save the historic Sandlass House — the final, crumbling vestige of a once-bustling resort near the entrance to Sandy Hook — has found an investor. With the federal government shut down, however, preservationists are in the...
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Gubernatorial foes target electric bills
It’s pretty clear. Something has to be done about skyrocketing electric bills. The problem has electrified the governor’s race between the Democrat, U.S. Rep. Mikie Sherrill, and the Republican, Somerset County businessman Jack Ciattarelli, who have...
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Nor’easter carves up Jersey Shore dunes
The weekend’s violent nor’easter overtook Jersey Shore beaches and reached the dunes in some communities. Some officials began the damage assessment on the afternoon of Oct. 13 as the storm-swollen high tide receded. “The major damage (from the storm)...
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Suit against sheriff claims retaliation
TOMS RIVER – The head of the union representing superior officers in the Ocean County Sheriff ’s Office has filed a lawsuit alleging he was passed over for a promotion in retaliation for his union and whistleblowing activities. Sgt. Peter Glass, an...
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