Asbury Park Press
Breaking barriers over a long career
JACKSON TOWNSHIP – Mary Nelson is no stranger to being first. In 2004, after 14 years with the Jackson Police Department, she became the first female lieutenant in township history. Six years later, she became Jackson’s first woman to be a...
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Mother shares her lymphoma battle
As a professional hairstylist, Aleksandra Smith looked the part, sporting long, lustrous, curly blonde hair. “My identity,” she said. “I’m known for my hair.” Last summer, after being diagnosed with a rare form of lymphoma and embarking on an...
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Slice of history
What’s the all-American pie? Apple, or cherry? h Most of us would — likely — say apple. The phrase, after all, is “American as apple pie.” h Except when it isn’t. h “Violence is as American as cherry pie,” said the revolutionary H. Rap Brown in 1967....
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Nostalgia remains for Chester-Bridgeport Ferry
Running for 44 years, and the quickest, most popular way to get from Pennsylvania to South Jersey, the ChesterBridgeport Ferry started with two ferries. The Chester held 60 cars and the Bridgeport 48. The crossing took only six minutes across a...
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This friendship spans 9 decades
MIDDLETOWN – The smoke alarm started beeping in Helen Holland’s apartment. Dinner was cooking in the oven for too long. It didn’t faze Holland and her guest, Joyce Bernarducci. They were too busy needling each other with one-liners. After 80-plus...
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Attorneys sum up Caneiro murder case
FREEHOLD – Paul Caneiro’s defense attorney for the first time on Feb. 11 floated the idea that two people may have been involved in the quadruple murders her client is accused of. Detectives “never considered a two-person theory because they focused...
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NJ proposes stricter water testing rules
As North Jersey utilities work to identify and replace aging lead service lines ahead of a 2031 state deadline, regulators are proposing stricter rules for how drinking water is tested and monitored. The state Department of Environmental Protection in...
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Residents say to be prepared for ICE
Recent sweeps by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in Morristown, Palisades Park and other North Jersey towns have growing numbers of anxious residents – including African Americans and those of Asian descent – choosing to carry passport cards...
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Caneiro juror notes ‘sadness’ at photos
FREEHOLD — “It was a heavy day.” That’s what one juror on the Caneiro quadruple murder trial told his wife Feb. 4, after sitting through graphic testimony of two medical examiners describing autopsies they performed on Keith and Jennifer Caneiro and...
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Persephone reminds how close U-Boats came to Shore
During World War II Nazi threats came closer to Long Beach Island than the distance the island is from the mainland. Casualties from the German attack on the Persephone met their fates well within sight of Barnegat Light. The 488foot-long x...
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‘We will rebuild’
KEANSBURG – This is supposed to be a downtime for Keansburg Amusement Park owner Hank Gehlhaus, but his phone has been buzzing since Tuesday, when another of his iconic properties — the 2,500-foot long Keansburg Fishing Pier — suffered a partial...
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‘Amazing’ journey
Bryan Sosoo’s introduction to bobsledding was harrowing. He was attending USA Bobsled’s rookie camp in Lake Placid, N.Y., and didn’t make it all the way down the run on his first attempt. “My pilot had a little trouble, and we actually crashed coming...
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Expert: Caneiro’s gun fired bullets at scene
FREEHOLD – Bullets found at the Colts Neck crime scene of the Caneiro family murders were fired from a gun recovered from Paul Caneiro’s home in Ocean Township the next day, a state police firearms expert testified on Feb. 3. The expert, Detective...
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Cocaine probe nets 4 Ocean County arrests
Streets Task Force and the Beachwood Police Department. The investigation, which began in October 2025, identified Ibn Moye, 34, of Beachwood, as a primary suspect in a local cocaine distribution network. The takedown On Jan. 29, detectives tracking...
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BELOW ZERO
While the weekend freezing temperatures are keeping many indoors, the icy conditions created a playground for ice boaters to take their gliding machines to local rivers in Red Bank, Oceanport and Toms River. Members of the Long Branch Ice Boat & Yacht...
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‘A real blessing to be invited in’
For eight years, Paul Aronsohn served as New Jersey’s first ombudsman for people with developmental disabilities. He built the office from scratch, took calls at all hours, drove thousands of miles to meet families in crisis and often found himself at...
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FORKED RIVER STATE MARINA
The Forked River State Marina is located at 311 S. Main St. (Route 9). At the end of the day, it is filled with power and sail boats. There are slips for 125 boats, lengths for 50’ yachts, and the marina is dredged to 6 feet. Amenities include TV,...
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CAN CASINO BE SAVED FROM DEMOLITION?
ASBURY PARK – Once again, the city will issue notices of default to its waterfront developer for allowing the nearly-century old Casino building along the boardwalk to deteriorate. But whether that will force any action by the developer, which has...
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Detective tells of body bags, bullets
FREEHOLD – A detective took jurors on a photographic tour of the crime scene at 15 Willow Brook Road in Colts Neck during his testimony on Jan. 28, showing the panel everything from body bag labels to bullets, cartridge casings and a chef ’s knife...
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CITY TO FIGHT TEARDOWN PLAN
ASBURY PARK — The city does not want its waterfront developer to demolish the nearly century-old Casino building along the boardwalk and is vowing it will take steps to keep that from happening. The potential demolition came to light this week, when a...
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A day remembered
On Jan. 28, 1986, the world watched in horror as the Space Shuttle Challenger exploded above the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Cape Canaveral, Florida, 73 seconds after liftoff, killing all seven aboard. Forty years will have passed on Wednesday,...
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Jersey Shore plows roads after storm
The snow may be over but the Jersey Shore remains under a cold weather advisory at least until Wednesday evening, with dangerous subzero wind chills in the forecast, according to the National Weather Service’s Mount Holly station. Extensions to the...
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Dems slam Murphy’s clemency of mother who murdered kids ‘Unfathomable’
TINTON FALLS – A trio of Democratic state legislators from Monmouth County has broken ranks with former Gov. Phil Murphy, issuing a blistering condemnation of his last-minute decision to commute the 100year sentence of a woman convicted of burning her...
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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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Cop: Found guns and bloody jeans
FREEHOLD – A day after an arson fire damaged Paul Caneiro’s home on Tilton Drive in Ocean Township on Nov. 20, 2018, a search of the premises turned up a cache of firearms and thousands of rounds of ammunition, a crime scene detective told a jury on...
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‘Someone just got whacked’
FREEHOLD – Dennis Corpora was in bed at his home on Rivers Edge Drive in Colts Neck in the early morning of Nov. 20, 2018, when the sound of gunshots awakened him from a light sleep, he told a jury on Jan. 21. “I woke up, I heard the shots and I said,...
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Monmouth Medical split approved
TRENTON – On his last day in office, Gov. Phil Murphy signed the legislation that will preserve inpatient hospital services and a full-service emergency department at RWJBarnabas Health’s Monmouth Medical Center’s facility in Long Branch, helping...
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Shore home prices soar
Monmouth and Ocean County home prices continued their march into record territory in 2025, as buyers continued to search for homes at the Jersey Shore while inventory dwindled, a report released Jan. 16 by the New Jersey Realtors trade group said....
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Springsteen takes on ICE and Trump
The Boss lowered the boom. Bruce Springsteen criticized the Trump administration’s deployment of ICE agents to Minneapolis and the fatal shooting by an ICE agent of Renee Good in comments at the Light of Day Winterfest main event show Saturday, Jan....
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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.
Read Full Story (Page 1)
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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