Councilman Threatens to Shoot Five Year Old Son, School Dean Gets Terroristic Threats in Top State News

Other top stories this week include a Cherry Hill East teacher accused of exposing himself to a child in a Walmart and a former corrections officer indicted on prisoner sex assault charges.

Butler Councilman Sean McNear was indicted on child endangerment charges Thursday after authorities said he pointed a loaded BB gun at and threatened to shoot his 5-year-old son. A Columbia High School student was arrested Tuesday and will be charged with making a terroristic threat after he allegedly placed an envelope filled with white powder under a dean's office door, Capt. John M. Perna of the Maplewood Police Department said. A local high school Spanish teacher was arrested and charged with lewdness and endangering the welfare of a child last week after he allegedly exposed his genitals to a preteen at a Walmart Auto Care Center, the Camden County Prosecutor announced Monday. A corrections officer and the former assistant head of the…

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POLL: Did Your Paycheck Shrink This Year?

January 15 will be the first paycheck of 2013 for many workers. Did you notice the higher taxes you're now paying?

In 2013, the 15th of January isn't just halfway through the first month of the year. For many people who are paid twice a month, the 15th will be their first paycheck of the New Year - and the first check they've gotten since the end of the FICA tax holiday. Remember the Fiscal Cliff? Part of the battle between President Obama and the Republican Congress included whether the employee's share of that temporary tax reduction would be allowed to lapse, and thus hike taxes on middle-class workers. The Fiscal Cliff resolution wound up including the expiration of a 2 percent Social Security temporary tax reduction, the result of which is now reflected in everyone's paycheck. Now, the employee's share of FICA tax is 6.2 percent, up from the 4.2 …

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Hurricane Sandy

Woodbridge FEMA Center to Close on January 5

The FEMA Disaster Recovery Center is due to shut its doors on Saturday.

If you haven't made a claim yet for Hurricane Sandy, time is running out, at least for you to do it conveniently. The Federal Emergency Managment Agency (FEMA) center which opened in the Woodbridge Health Center is scheduled to close this Saturday, January 5 at 7 pm. FEMA opened the Disaster Recovery Center (DRC) in Woodbridge on November 30 to handle residents who had flood and rain damage from Sandy, which slammed the township at the end of October. DRCs were opened until the end of December, and their existance was once again extended to the end of January. But FEMA is now consolidating the municipal DRCs into two centers: one in Jersey City at the Hudson County Government Building at 830 Bergen Avenue, and the other in Ocean County, …

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No Christmas Nativity Display on Township Property This Year?

The traditional Nativity scene is absent from Woodbridge Town Hall, a year after a complaint from an atheist legal organization was lodged.

There's a Christmas wreath over the main doors to the Woodbridge Municipal Building, and inside, a Christmas tree sparkles with holiday lights. It's Christmas around Woodbridge, but one display that has traditionally been part of the decoration seems to be missing. That's the Nativity Scene, a decades-old plywood set of cutouts constructed by employees of the township's Public Works Department, and usually placed in front of town hall as part of its seasonal decorating.  Last year, the Wisconsin-based Freedom From Religion Foundation (FRFF) got wind of the religious display on township property and sent a letter to municipal officials, saying that the nativity was a violation of the separation of church and state. The display, usually set…

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Tom Maras

8:55 am on Tuesday, December 11, 2012

OMG @ Chris Stanley. Perhaps, saying all humans are born both ignorant and innocent would be more correct. In this country people (at least most) lose their ignorance through education. Depending on the education they receive,(including parental guidance) and how they apply it, they are able to make informed choices. The loss of innocence is a subject for another time. Having lived and worked in …   more ›

POLL: Pallone Takes a Walk on Holder Contempt Vote

Rep. Frank Pallone (D-NJ) was one of the Congressional Democrats who walked out of a House contempt vote against AG Eric Holder Thursday.

Dozens of Democrats walked out of a Congressional vote to hold Attorney General Eric Holder on contempt charges Thursday afternoon. Sixth District Congressman Frank Pallone (D-NJ) was among them. Pallone, who represents the 6th District Woodbridge will join in January, was disgusted by the contempt vote, which he called "a political stunt" from the Republicans. "It's totally political," Pallone said. "There was no basis for it. We never had Congress act to hold a cabinet member in contempt." The censure vote was set by House Speaker John Boehner after Congressional Republicans spent months of wrangling with Holder over documents pertaining to Operation 'Fast & Furious'. The paper right culminated in a contempt vote showdown Thursday that …

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