The Bergen Record

U.S. fighter jets crash in Kuwait

The Trump administration’s war with Iran will not be “endless,” Secretary of War Pete Hegseth said on March 2, as the United States’ and Israel’s joint air strikes against Iran expand, the death toll rises and a congressional debate over President...

Spiritual quest

Muhammad Abuhadba wakes up every morning moments before the alarm sounds. Lately, his internal alarm has been programmed to go off ahead of the 4:50 a.m. setting. With sunrise quickly approaching and little time to spare, Abuhadba races to the...

Trump’s combative State of the Union

He stuck to the script, mostly. President Donald Trump’s signature has been his willingness to ad lib his way through big speeches with bombastic rhetoric, but at the State of the Union address on Feb. 24 he read a statistics-heavy speech that focused...

TOP OF THE HEAP?

The record-breaking blizzard that rocked New Jersey on Feb. 22 and 23 was one of the largest snowstorms in state history. The blizzard of February 2026 holds the Bergen County record for most snowfall in one town: Lyndhurst had gotten 30.7 inches as...

WINTER WALLOP

New Jersey woke up to blizzard conditions Feb. 23, with more snow on the way in what is shaping up to be one of the biggest storms in years. Heavy snow fell overnight after a wet and windy day on Feb. 22, with some areas seeing as much as 2 feet by...

THE LOCKED FILE

PISCATAWAY – Like thousands of New Jerseyans who file public records requests every year, Jerry Toto Jr. just wanted answers. Toto, 35, was abruptly terminated from his role as a volunteer firefighter and EMT at the North Stelton Volunteer Fire...

A CITY BUILT AROUND HISTORY

U.S. Supreme Court strikes down tariffs

WASHINGTON − The Supreme Court dealt a major blow to President Donald Trump’s economic agenda, ruling that he does not have the authority to impose sweeping tariffs at the stroke of a pen. The court on Feb. 20 tossed the tariffs that are the...

‘HURRY, HARD!’

Like many curlers, Jim Mantia got introduced to the sport during an Olympic year. Mantia, a 50-year-old Leonia resident, was looking to try an Olympic sport after watching the 2018 Winter Games. That year, the U.S. men’s curling team surprised many...

Life for commuters goes off the rails

Many mornings for NJ Transit train commuters require deep breaths, patience and a little luck — and this Tuesday was no different for some train riders as a four-week train schedule disruption started this week so workers can switch over to the new...

Civil rights icon ‘kept the dream alive’

The Rev. Jesse Jackson, a towering civil rights icon who battled alongside the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., negotiated global hostage releases and shamed corporations for their lack of diversity and failure to support voting rights, died on Feb. 17. He...

Her turn on center ice

LITTLE FALLS – Olga Mikutina circled the ice rink at Montclair State, first slowly, testing out how her blades cut into the fresh sheet, and then faster. Music started and stopped. Skaters sped by, single or dancing in pairs. Some wore Israel’s blue...

Slice of history

What’s the all-American pie? Apple, or cherry? ● Most of us would — likely — say apple. The phrase, after all, is “American as apple pie.” ● Except when it isn’t. ● “Violence is as American as cherry pie,” said the revolutionary H. Rap Brown in 1967....

LAST CALL

1641 A Dutch immigrant named Aert TeWnissen Van Patten builds North Jersey’s first breWery in Hoboken to supply early settlers. (It burned doWn tWo years later.) 1840 1858 German immigrant Gottfried Krueger opens G. Krueger BreWing Co. in NeWark....

High court orders NJ reply in affordable housing case

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito has ordered the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office to respond by Feb. 17 to an emergency application by the group Local Leaders for Responsible Planning, which is seeking a stay for some of its members on the...

Dead mall walking

Google the phrase “dead malls in New Jersey” and you’ll be hit with a few contenders – but a standout in North Jersey is Livingston Mall. With the Macy’s anchor store closing sometime in 2026, and Barnes & Noble expected to leave sometime in 2027,...

Cross-country trip saves young girl’s life

The email that saved Ellaura Smith’s life was sent across the U.S. on a cold, gray January day to Matthew Ostroff ’s inbox at St. Joseph’s University Medical Center in Paterson. It was from Ellaura’s parents, who found Ostroff during a desperate...

Rail tunnel laborers fume over layoffs

NORTH BERGEN – Lamonte Richardson had a feeling of déjà vu last week when he went home to tell his family and three school-age children that he had been laid off from his job as a shop steward on the Gateway rail tunnel project, halted because of a...

Calls intensify to stop ICE detention facility

The fight over a proposed ICE immigrant detention center in Morris County isn’t cooling down. Activists and local residents continue to pressure Roxbury Township officials to adopt ordinances they say could block U.S. Immigration and Customs...

Hospital expands to meet booming demand

When Dr. Dominic Ruocco began working at Palisades Medical Center in North Bergen, the area surrounding the hospital along the Hudson River was scattered with empty factories, dilapidated piers and vacant lots from a bygone industrial era. That was in...

UNSAFE AT ANY SPEED?

Seattle. New England. One title. Super Bowl 60 lands in Santa Clara,

AN UPSET IN THE MAKING?

With the special Democratic primary to fill New Jersey’s vacant 11th Congressional District seat still too close to call, the current leader declined to declare victory and the runner-up didn’t concede. At midday on Feb. 6, activist Analilia Mejia led...

Gateway’s fate a legal debate

Scattered on the concrete slab project site for the Gateway rail tunnel project in North Jersey are weatherized containers full of rubber materials and electronics that need to be protected from the harsh temperatures. Nearby are empty white cars that...

Inflation bowl Your party for the Big Game to cost slightly more

Americans can expect to spend $2 more on average this year than in 2025 for a 10-person Super Bowl feast when the New England Patriots face off against the Seattle Seahawks on Feb. 8. ● That’s according to a January report by the Wells Fargo Agri-Food...

Trump vs. tunnel

The agency overseeing the largest federally funded infrastructure project in the country is suing the Trump administration for withholding more than $205 million needed to keep construction going on a $16 billion rail tunnel project beneath the Hudson...

Port Authority friction

New York and New Jersey argue and negotiate about a lot of issues – with varying degrees of resolution – and right now they are squabbling about an obscure bureaucratic role: the deputy executive director position at the Port Authority of New York and...

‘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...

LEADERS OF CHANGE

Cynthia Wilks knew what she wanted to do for a living while still a student at Bridgeton High School. A three-sport athlete in the late 1990s, Wilks told girls athletic director Kay Ballinger, “I want to do what you’re doing.” ● All Wilks needed was a...

Real lifesavers

ALLENDALE – It’s a rare game when a high school athletic trainer has to deal with more than one medical emergency, but that’s just what happened at the Northern Highlands-Teaneck basketball game this week. Northern Highlands’ athletic trainer Pete...

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 have passed as of today, but...

DIGGING OUT

Much of North Jersey is still digging out from the weekend’s storm, the most severe to hit the area in nearly five years, experts said. Upper Greenwood Lake, a neighborhood stretching across parts of Sussex and Passaic counties, led the area with 17.3...

Sherrill pressed to protect migrants

Now that Mikie Sherrill is the governor of New Jersey, immigrant advocates in the state want to know what she plans to do about protecting immigrants. Sherrill did express some thoughts on immigrants during her inauguration speech on Jan. 20 by...

NJ MAN KEEPER OF THE JACKSON SOUND

NJ MAN KEEPER OF THE JACKSON SOUND

BLIZZARD OF SHOPPERS

Brooklyn comedian Vic DiBitetto summed it up nicely. In a Vine video skit – a precursor to TikTok – posted ahead of the February 2013 blizzard, a panicked DiBitetto rushes into his car against the backdrop of an iron-gray sky, repeating that he’s...

Storm to bring days of weather mayhem

Tens of millions of Americans awoke on Jan. 22 to some form of winter weather alert as a winter storm threatens to spread huge totals of snow and freezing rain from New Mexico to New England over the course of a few days. The impact of the major storm...

PJM to ease strain from rising demand

Regional electric grid operator PJM Interconnection approved a set of emergency measures in mid-January to manage the rapid growth of data centers and other large electricity users in an effort to shield New Jersey households and small businesses from...

SHERRILL THROWS THE FIRST PUNCH

Mikie Sherrill was sworn in as New Jersey’s 57th governor — and second woman chief executive — on Jan. 20 in front of an assembly of more than 2,000 people. During the ceremony, held at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark, Sherrill, a...

Hard work begins

After she takes office Jan. 20, Gov.-elect Mikie Sherrill will have to hit the ground running to address New Jersey’s next fiscal plan. Traditionally, the governor presents a proposed budget to the Legislature in late February. According to New Jersey...

STAR POWER

Blood, toil, tears and sweat. Winston Churchill’s dictum about World War II could apply to any struggle — including civil rights. The death of Emmett Till, the bombings in Birmingham, the children being sprayed with firehoses, the assassination of...

HOPE LIFTS OFF

Sixty-two miles above the Earth, the thick layer of clouds that surrounded Michaela Benthaus gave way to darkness. She had just achieved her dream: She was the first wheelchair-user in space. Benthaus, a 33-year-old aerospace engineer from Germany,...

NJ residents hoping for change in Iran

Iranian Americans are watching mass protests ripple across Iran with a mix of hope, fear and vigilance, as demonstrators challenge a government that has ruled since 1979 – and face a violent crackdown in response. Many say this moment feels different...

Presidential debate

The Hudson River Bridge was the only thing most everyone agreed on, until it wasn’t. Today commonly known as the GWB, the span was once known for exactly what it was. For four years, in blueprints, contracts and newspaper stories, it was the Hudson...

Governor will leave with a mixed legacy

As early as 2015, little-known Phil Murphy began his focus-group tested climb onto the New Jersey political stage at Monmouth University. Dressed in a brown V-neck sweater and chinos, the lanky ex-Goldman Sachs executive who never held elected office...

FUROR CONTINUES OVER ICE SHOOTINGS

Tensions remained high Jan. 9 after shootings involving immigration agents in Minneapolis and in Portland, Oregon, drew protesters to the streets and deepened fractures between federal and state officials. In Portland, a U.S. Border Patrol officer...

Maduro adversary promises to return

WASHINGTON – Venezuela’s main opposition leader, Maria Corina Machado, has vowed to return home quickly, praising President Donald Trump for toppling President Nicolás Maduro and declaring her movement ready to win a free election. Trump appears,...

MADURO, WIFE PLEAD NOT GUILTY

Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro pleaded “not guilty” in federal court on Jan. 5 on U.S. drug trafficking charges, days after he and his wife were captured by U.S. forces in a surprise attack on the oil-rich country. Maduro, dressed in prison garb,...

$11B midtown makeover

For commuters enduring most major transportation construction projects, there is pain before improvement. That will be the case at the Port Authority Bus Terminal in Manhattan, as an $11 billion project to reconstruct and expand the world’s busiest...

WEATHERING THE STORM

On a shelf in his Washington office, U.S. Sen. Andy Kim of New Jersey keeps a reminder of the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol. ● It’s a brass eagle that once adorned the top of a flagpole inside the Capitol’s majestic Rotunda. ● The eagle’s...

First born

As far as first babies of the New Year go, little Nova Nicole Norton didn’t try to beat the clock nor did she take her time in ringing in 2026. Nova came into the world at 1:05 a.m. at Mountainside Medical Center in Montclair, weighing 6 pounds and 3...

Subscriber-only eNewspaper

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PAY AS WE GO

State leaders had a pitch to sell the New Jersey Turnpike in the late 1940s: Tolls were only temporary. Once the construction debt was paid, the user fees would disappear and the road would become a free public highway. Not only did that toll-free...

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...

Voices of America

Ihad no idea of the emotional and creative backstory of Bruce Springsteen’s “Nebraska” album until the recent release of “Deliver Me from Nowhere,” the intimate biopic chronicling the making of his 1982 masterpiece. Despite some biographical references...

A YEAR IN PREVIEW

When a year comes to a close, it’s natural to want to reflect on what has transpired. ● As we say goodbye to 2025, it’s also natural to look ahead, and perhaps predict the future, which often can appear uncertain. ● One thing that most of us in New...

FADING HISTORY

ISLAND BEACH STATE PARK – For decades, handcrafted cottages and crude fishing shacks have dotted the landscape of southern Island Beach State Park. Over generations, their caretakers replaced roofs, rebuilt decks and set potted flowers on porches of...

50th crossing of the Delaware – man’s milestone

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...

Come, all ye faithful

It’s dark this time of year. Dark, in terms of daylight. Dark, perhaps, in other ways as well. “A time when Want is keenly felt, and Abundance rejoices,” as Dickens says in “A Christmas Carol.” Which is one reason Christmas sermons and homilies,...

PENNY ANSWER

If you 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...

Trump not the only dragon AG must battle

Jennifer Davenport, a former federal and state prosecutor with a wide portfolio of law enforcement experience, made headlines last week by vowing to fight the Trump administration if confirmed as the state’s next attorney general. The Monmouth County...

Holiday history hits home

Merry Christmas. And you’re welcome. ● No need to thank us — the people of North Jersey and the Lower Hudson Valley — for inventing Christmas as everyone knows it. ● Santa, reindeer, letters to the North Pole, stockings full of presents, tins full of...

When is shortest day? Get set for winter solstice

The shortest day of the year is Dec. 21. Not something to celebrate, you might think. Something to get through, like a layoff or a cold, in hopes of better – or at least longer – days to come. But the ancients didn’t think that. They thought the...

Meadowlands casino plan on track despite NYC move

With New York gaming officials approving three casinos in New York City, New Jersey public officials and business executives have set their sights on a casino in North Jersey to keep gambling dollars in the Garden State – though any major push would...

GETTING READY TO DIG IN

Disassembled sections of the first of two tunnel boring machines that will dig a $16 billion rail tunnel under the Hudson River between North Jersey and Manhattan are on their way to the Garden State. The German-made machines were assembled, tested...

Hanukkah sorrow

For many Jews around New Jersey and the world, the act of kindling the Hanukkah menorah carries extra resonance this year: It’s a reminder that their light cannot be extinguished. In the aftermath of the antisemitic attack at a Hanukkah celebration in...

The future of first response

Emergency services in Bergen County have gone through an array of changes over the last couple of years, on both a countywide and a municipal level. ● Most recently, Paramus and Bogota merged their rescue squads with their fire departments. ● “In this...

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.

Reading with empathy

This holiday season, North Jersey families looking for children’s books can find a variety of choices that feature disability as part of everyday life. ● Teaching for Change, a nonprofit that runs the Social Justice Books project, curates a reading...

UNITY UNDONE

When FIFA officials announced the names of 42 countries that would compete in the 2026 World Cup during a fanfare-filled ceremony last week, soccer fans around the globe celebrated. But for fans of two qualifying teams – Haiti and Iran – the...

Mixed marks

Four years after the pandemic emergency ended and K-12 performance plunged nationwide, New Jersey’s third through eighth graders are finally edging up to be on par with prepandemic levels, although they are yet to match their highest performance in...

No masking flu concerns

Flu is on the rise in New Jersey a few weeks earlier than last year, leading more patients to seek care at emergency rooms and prompting some hospitals to impose mandatory masking. ● The number of reported infections is still relatively low, with just...