The Bergen Record

Israelis mark 3 years since Hamas attack

KFAR AZA, Israel – Israelis gathered in silence on Oct. 7 in a kibbutz near the Gaza border that was overrun by Hamas militants on Oct. 7, 2023, mourning victims of attacks that set off Israel’s assault in the Gaza Strip and plunged the Middle East...

PITCH PERFECT

A few weeks before win No. 700, Evan Baumgarten wasn’t coaching. He was standing on the sideline at the Big North-NJIC Challenge, bouncing between games, talking soccer with coaches and officials, exactly where he’d want to spend a fall Saturday even...

Pressure to move

Two weeks. That is all the notice a 26-year-old asylum seeker and her lawyer got to assemble records, document trauma and prepare a complex case before an immigration judge. It was not enough. In September, a judge in New Jersey denied her asylum...

NJ Transit under budget for World Cup

NJ Transit spent just over $68 million on capital construction costs for New Jersey to host eight 2026 FIFA World Cup matches this summer — well short of the $100 million the agency’s board authorized. The money paid for construction of a temporary...

A TALE OF TWO TUNNELS

Before the end of 2026, tunnel boring machines will start to excavate 5 miles of New Jersey volcanic rock and Hudson River silt and install the outer lining for a new two-tube rail tunnel through the Palisades of North Jersey, under the Hudson River...

Arts education access for all

New Jersey education organizations have come together to release the Inclusion Guide for Arts Education, a new statewide resource designed to ensure that students with disabilities are fully included in art classes. All in for Inclusive Education,...

ROCK OF AGES

Jim and Sandy Lortz first started listening to AC/DC’s hard rock music in the late 1970s, and it was not by choice. Their adolescent sons used to blast the band’s tunes at their home in Wall. It was a stark departure from the Elvis Presley, Johnny...

In it to win it

Emanuel Saleana, third from right, of Queens, along with Jason Lora and Leo Hernandez, center, of the Bronx, root for the Yankees at Billy’s Sports Bar in the Bronx on Tuesday, Sept. 29, as the Yankees won Game 1 of their Wild Card Series against the...

With spin, tunnel digging gets closer

NORTH BERGEN – Not a nor’easter, not historic blizzards, not even the federal government withholding millions of dollars could stop the forward march to tunneling under the Hudson River this year. In a show of spirited rivalry and camaraderie, elected...

Fuel budgets running on empty?

The surge in diesel costs as a result of the U.S. war with Iran will put additional pressure on school districts, say superintendents and school bus providers, whose operating budgets are already under strain from inflation and health insurance...

FROM NEWARK SHOPS TO GROCERY GIANT

When a handful of local Newark grocers decided to pool their resources in 1946 to cut costs by buying in bulk, they likely had little idea their decision would generate a sweeping network of 154 ShopRite supermarkets across North Jersey. Over the...

NATION OF IMMIGRANTS

You do not have to go to Ellis Island to search for a family name. ● A passenger’s name, age, occupation, nationality, last residence and destination can now be pulled from a database far from New York Harbor, far from the ferry, far from the Great...

Hall of Famers love New Jersey

It was a family affair. R&B superstar SZA professed her love for New Jersey after her parents affectionately professed their love for her during their induction speeches at the Thursday, Sept. 24 New Jersey Hall of Fame Ceremony at American Dream in...

Fighting automation by showing up to work

For New Jersey port workers fighting to keep their jobs against the rising tide of automation, their biggest weapon has proved surprisingly simple: show up to work. Since spring 2025, absenteeism at the New Jersey ports is down 50% and productivity is...

Iran says it will never surrender

UNITED NATIONS – Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said in a speech at the United Nations on Sept. 23 that Tehran would never surrender to the United States but still believes in diplomacy, a day after President Donald Trump used the same forum to...

Fuel for higher bill

The total gas tab for North Jerseybased Chris James Landscaping was just over $68,000 in 2025, said its longtime owner, Chris James. Significant, sure. But something the business was able to budget for. This year, with gas and diesel prices edging...

More NJ students not ready for college math

High school graduates in New Jersey are increasingly unprepared for college-level math, according to a new report that says the state’s much-touted public school system has not been meeting its own standards. More freshmen admitted to Rutgers...

Caldwell probe leaves Sherrill in a tight spot

Gov. Mikie Sherrill has started spreading the wealth from her wellstocked “Mission To Deliver” political action committee, eager to build goodwill and IOUs for a time when she may decide to step out on the national stage. But for now, the former U.S....

ALL EYES ON YOU

Buffett retires as Berkshire chair

Berkshire Hathaway said on Sept. 18 that Warren Buffett will step down as chairman and become chairman emeritus, effective immediately, nine months after handing the CEO reins to longtime lieutenant Greg Abel. The company named his son, Howard...

Dem candidates seek AI safeguards

Amid warnings from artificial intelligence developers that AI could destroy humanity, potential Democratic presidential candidates are calling for increased federal regulation and criticizing President Donald Trump’s dismissal of concerns about the...

Questions, no answers at NJ voter hearing

Minutes into a two-hour hearing Tuesday into the discovery of as many as 6,660 noncitizens on New Jersey’s voting rolls, U.S. Rep. Jeff Van Drew, the Donald Trump loyalist from Cape May County, veered off topic with a diatribe on the state’s...

Court rejects new ballot rule

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Supreme Court on Sept. 14 declined to let the U.S. Postal Service tighten the use of mailin ballots ahead of the November midterm elections that will decide control of Congress. The ruling was a loss for President Donald Trump,...

$125M DEAL ADVANCES PASSAIC RIVER WORK

More than 40 years after the lower Passaic River became a federal Superfund site, federal officials have reached a proposed $125 million settlement to build the facilities needed before dredging can begin along its most contaminated stretch. Under the...

AT THE HELM

In early September 2001, acting New Jersey Gov. Donald T. DiFrancesco was marking time as he planned an exit from politics. ● Months earlier, the Scotch Plains attorney had abandoned a bid for governor amid a crush of negative stories about his...

THE DUST THAT NEVER SETTLED

A generation later, data now shows that three times as many people have died with a confirmed 9/11-related illness than perished during the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. ● Some 9,677 people have died since their exposure to the toxic mix of...

‘A STORY OF GREAT AMERICAN COURAGE’

NEW YORK – As the United States marked 25 years since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Americans across the country gathered to honYet, or the nearly 3,000 people who perished and reflect on the day that forever changed the nation. A...

From ruins to remembrance

Three firefighters stand atop a pile of twisted steel and debris, raising an American flag above the ruins of the World Trade Center. Smoke drifts through the background. ● The towers are in rubble behind them. The landscape is gray, scarred and...

Near but far enough

After the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center buildings and the Pentagon, corporations dramatically overhauled their relationship with security, limiting who could gain access to an office building and even moving some or all of...

Saved by chance

The first thing that saved Adam Lisberg’s life on 9/11 was circumstance. His camera had broken on a recent vacation and was being repaired. Otherwise, the 31-year-old reporter for The Record would have followed a fire company into the burning Twin...

FRIEND OF THE PEOPLE IT SERVES

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.

INESCAPABLE GRIEF

A morgue. A hospital. A courthouse. They are three different New York City buildings, each with very different purposes. Yet, together, they symbolize why the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, still resonate so painfully after a quarter...

‘YOU ALWAYS COME BACK’

COLTS NECK – Marie DeVenezia and Dorothy Featherstone met on the first day of kindergarten in 1937. ● “We had just left our mothers, and for some reason, Miss Fisher (the teacher) had us sitting together on a bench,” Marie recalled. “So that’s how we...

SEEN AND HEARD

Civil rights activist and journalist Gloria Steinem died Sept. 2, at age 92, according to her official Instagram page. Steinem “passed away peacefully at her home in New York City, surrounded by some of the many who loved her,” the post read....

Back to school

TCLIFTON – he dog days of summer may be winding down, but for the city’s schools, they’re just getting started. As students returned to school on Sept. 2, two new four-legged faculty members – Lindy, 4, and Chloe, 6, were there to welcome them,...

NJ WOMAN KILLED WAS BANK VP

A Morris County woman and bank executive was identified as the victim in a fatal Times Square stabbing, police said. Erin Piacenti, 32, of Chester Township, was one of two people stabbed on Aug. 31 by a knife-wielding woman who was later shot and...

Grief is still raw

Disha Rana drowsed on a sofa after drying off from the downpour. The rain had been relentless, and she had rushed indoors from a last-minute game of pool with friends. The cell phone alerts about Hurricane Ida and flash flooding had come and gone, but...

Cost of freedom?

A32-pound piece of cheese. Eight pounds of tea. Two gold rings. Even the brass locks from the doors. ● They were among dozens of items the Rev. Theodore “Dirck” Romeyn said British and Hessian troops took from his Bergen County home during the...

BUILT ON RISK?

Dolly Parton maze opening at NJ farm

MANALAPAN – The Stockel family had no way of knowing what was to come when they began planning their farm’s annual fall corn maze earlier this year. ● Carved into eight acres of corn at Happy Day Farm on Iron Ore Road is the likeness of Dolly Parton,...

Icons & allies “They’re modeling behavior. Not by saying ‘this is how you should do it.’ Simply by living their values and giving people an example to imitate.”

Tim Curry and Dolly Parton, who both died on Tuesday, Aug. 25, both at age 80, are linked by more than a sad coincidence of timing. Both had strong connections to the LGBTQ+ community. Both were, simultaneously, idols and allies. For many gay people,...

NJ Transit $4M loss on Cup called a win

NJ Transit ended up with a $4 million loss after shuttling more than 370,000 people to eight World Cup matches this summer – faring better than it does for most special events at MetLife. “NJ Transit realized 93% cost recovery, resulting in a 7-cent...

‘ETHICAL STANDARDS’

The settler with the flock of sheep and the club in his hand was in his mid-20s. In his features, Rabbi Matthew Gewirtz could see a hint of their shared eastern European Jewish heritage, a reminder of his own youth a generation ago. ● But on the dusty...

Columbia House faces the music

A few months ago, my baby boomer inner child could not resist a novelty T-shirt I saw online. It read: “Columbia House: Life Lessons in Music and Debt Collection.” If you know, you know. If you don’t, gather ’round the turntable, millennials and...

ETCHED IN STONE

WAYNE – It was the type of phone call that mothers fear. Even before Irene Hodupski could answer it, she must have figured that something bad had happened. It was 4:30 a.m. Within hours, on the morning of Sept. 24, 2020, her 36-year-old son, Michael,...

LEFT HIGH AND DRY

No one objects to the essential purpose of New Jersey’s Highlands Water Protection and Planning Act. ● But for a distinct minority of Garden State towns, the landmark law to protect drinking water for almost 7 million people is drying out their...

Cultural enrichment

A $24.2 million project planned for the Battleship New Jersey marks the arrival in South Jersey of a state program that sees cultural attractions as a way to promote economic growth. The New Jersey Economic Development Authority is providing $19.8...

U.S. debt crosses $40T threshold

WASHINGTON – Total U.S. debt has topped $40 trillion for the first time, the Treasury Department said on Aug. 19, drawing fresh warnings that a fiscal crisis is brewing as ballooning costs for social safety-net programs and interest payments far...

THE CULPRIT BELOW

More than two years after an earthquake rattled the Garden State, a group of researchers are continuing to unravel its unusual nature, officially naming a previously unmapped fault where the quake occurred. The 4.8-magnitude earthquake struck near...

Bayonne team grew from kids to athletes

At 5 years old, AJ Tapia used to giggle when he stood on second base after blasting yet another double to right field. ● Connor Reed decided to try switch hitting when he was 6 and shocked everyone when he hit the ball well from both sides of the...

Funding far afield

For the sake of transparency, details on the line-item requests for the fiscal year 2027 budget were made public Aug. 14 – even though that budget was signed into law back on June 30. The projects, commonly referred to as pork spending or Christmas...

Building blocks

New Jersey Education Commissioner Lily Laux’s to-do list is daunting — as districts’ budgets flail under a torrent of rising costs, and students — especially in urban districts — lag behind in early reading and college readiness, all while the Trump...