Grenade launcher, 30 pot plants seized in Howell drug raid

HOWELL — A cache of weapons, including a grenade launcher, and 30 pot plants were seized from a township home on Friday, police announced on Tuesday. Christopher Kilbride, 42, was arrested after police raided his Route 34 house, the former home for high-level officers with Naval Weapons Station Earl, Howell police Detective Sgt. Christian Antunez said… Read the rest of this entry »

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Second Sandy Hook beach closed for high bacteria levels

SANDY HOOK — Another beach at Sandy Hook has closed because of elevated bacteria levels. Gunnison Beach was open for sunbathing on Tuesday but beachgoers weren’t allowed in the water because of high bacteria levels, according to the Sandy Hook’s Facebook page. The closing comes as New Jersey is in the middle of a heat wave,… Read the rest of this entry »

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JCP&L Takes Another Run at Spinning off Transmission Assets

 Jersey Central Power & Light is still trying to win regulatory approval to spin off its transmission assets into a separate company. In an amended petition, the state’s second-largest electric utility is slightly modifying a previous proposal rejected earlier this year by the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities. In denying the spin-off, the board balked… Read the rest of this entry »

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Greg’s List: Things to do in Monmouth County this weekend, July 29-31, 2016

By Greg Kelly

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Friday, July 29

• Leader of the Pack by Spotlight Players (Matawan) – MORE INFO
• Monmouth County Fair (Freehold) – MORE INFO
• Red Bank Sidewalk Sale – MORE INFO
• To Kill a Mockingbird by Holmdel Theatre Company – MORE INFO
• Butler by NJ Repertory Company (Long Branch) – MORE INFO
• “And Then There Were None” by Center Players (Freehold) – MORE INFO
• The Little Mermaid at Algonquin Arts Theatre (Manasquan) – MORE INFO
• “Presidents at the Monmouth County Shore” Exhibit (Ocean Twp.) – MORE INFO
• “Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives” Art Exhibit (Belmar) – MORE INFO
• Visionary Tattoo Arts Festival (Asbury Park) – MORE INFO

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With transportation funding negotiations deadlocked, County has plan to restart Shark River dredging

Freeholder Director Tom Arnone said he will announce a plan to restart the Shark River dredging project Wednesday morning at the Shark River Marina in Neptune Township.

The project, which had restarted on schedule on July 1 was halted at midnight on July 8 when Governor Christie’s executive order halting projects funded by the Transportation Trust Fund took effect.

The legislature failed to pass TTF funding with a $.23 per gallon gas tax on June 30th. The Senate’s plan was to increase the gas tax while phasing out the estate tax and reducing income taxes on retirees.  Christie and the Assembly agreed on a bill that would have raised the gas tax and reduced the sales tax from 7% to 6%.  Senate President Steve Sweeny and Assembly Speaker Vincent Prieto agreed to pass a revised version of the Senate’s original bill last week.  Yesterday, Christie said the Democrats plan is “dead on arrival.”

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Cuba: It’s more than cars!

By Muriel J. Smith 

(photos Tricia Curtin and Nancy Zockoll)

Indeed, they really are all there, those classic American-made cars of the 1950s. They’re all over the well paved and not so well paved roads of Cuba, and most of them are taxis.

There are thousands of them, all brightly painted, the sun bouncing off shiny chrome; all with their windows down…pre-air conditioning days, remember…their interiors either plush or vinyl cleverly patched or taped to look good, and who knows what under the hoods to keep them purring, or growling gently as they navigate the streets.  The cars presumably date back to the 1950s when they were new, Cuba and the USA were friends, and Cubans enjoyed a middle class status that enabled them to purchase foreign cars.  For good reason, most chose American rather than Russian vehicles, though some of them were also available during ‘the special period,’ the time in the 1960s when Russia was the alleged friend of Cuba. The vehicles have been handed down from father to son, and with an embargo prohibiting the import of car parts, have been kept in running condition through ingenuity and a strange conglomeration of makeshift and re-made parts.  Cuba is on good terms with Venezuela, so fuel for the vehicles is no problem. Nor do they spend a lot of time or effort on repairing windows that no longer rise or close, given those 90 degree sun-filled days.

But there’s so much more to Havana than cars.

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Moran donates to Wasserman Schultz’s reelection campaign

Maggie Moran, the Managing Director of the Asbury Park based Democratic consulting firm Kivvit and the wife of Belmar Mayor “Lawless Matt” Doherty, announced on facebook yesterday that she has donated to the reelection campaign of Debbie Wasserman Schultz.

Wasserman Schultz is the Chair of the Democratic National Committee until Friday. She announced her resignation after DNC emails that proved she rigged Hillary Clinton’s Democrat nomination for president were released.  She was then named Honorary Chair of Clinton’s campaign.

That’s perfectly consistent with the Monmouth County Democrats’ ethos that it is OK to cheat and the ends justifies the means.

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Five days in Cuba

By Muriel J. Smith

Perhaps the best solution to the problems between Cuba and the United States is to leave it up to the teenagers. Especially if they are teens like Catherine Curtin of Atlantic Highlands and Ava Zockoll of Bay Head.   Because while negotiations are going on at high levels between the bureaucrats of both nations, and compromise and trade-offs are slowly making it easier for Americans to travel there, 16-year old Catherine, a junior at Red Bank Catholic High School designed a week long stay in Cuba’s capital to interact with Cuban teens on the volleyball court. Eager to join her on the expedition were RBC’s girls’ volleyball team captain Zockoll, Ava’s mother, Nancy, and Catherine’s parents, Dan and Tricia Curtin. And me. The Curtins asked me to accompany them on the trip so I could report it for newspapers and magazines.

Life is certainly good.

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Are those sharks or rays swimming along the Jersey Shore? Experts disagree

MONMOUTH BEACH — Are those sharks or rays swimming along the shore in Monmouth Beach and Belmar? The answer to that question can’t seem to be agreed upon among those in the ocean research community . Police received a call Tuesday when residents spotted dorsal fins less than 10 feet from shore in Monmouth Beach. An… Read the rest of this entry »

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County combats West Nile Virus in Atlantic Highlands, Middletown, Lake Como, West Belmar and Spring Lake

Deputy Freeholder Director Serena DiMaso

Monmouth County’s Mosquito Control Department has discovered evidence of the West Nile Virus in Atlantic Highlands and the Hillside section of Middletown.

Residential streets in Atlantic Highlands east of First Avenue to Sears Avenue and north to E. Washington Avenue in Atlantic Highlands, and from Portland Avenue to Grand Avenue north of Hillside Avenue in the Hillside section of Middletown will be ground sprayed on Tuesday morning July 26 from 4 a.m. till 6 a.m., weather permitting, according to an announcement by Deputy Freeholder Director Serena DiMaso.

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