Free Republic

A few nights after North Bergen High School premiered its stage version of the 1979 horror film “Alien," the internet is begging for an encore. After Twitter user Paul Owens posted a few shots of the space-themed set from Friday night's production, many were quick to praise the creative and hard-working students and faculty involved in pulling it off. Drama teacher Perfecto Cuervo said art teacher Steven Defendini was the mastermind behind the set design of "Aliens the Play," which premiered March 19 and had another show Friday evening. The crew has been working since September to bring the creepy...

Drivers approaching the Lincoln Tunnel this holiday season will be the targets of an atheist advertisement that its sponsors describe as a strike against Christmas. A billboard sponsored by the American Atheists and posted in North Bergen, on the New Jersey side of the Lincoln Tunnel, reads: 'You KNOW it's a Myth. This season, celebrate REASON.' A billboard scheduled to be displayed near the New Jersey entrance to the tunnel until the end of the holidays shows a silhouetted manger scene with the message, “You KNOW it’s a Myth. This Season, Celebrate REASON.” The $20,000 campaign, sponsored by a national...

<p>A group called the American Atheists has paid for a huge billboard on Route 495 outside the Lincoln Tunnel in North Bergen, N.J., that is raising some eyebrows.</p> <p>The billboard shows a silhouette of the Three Wise Men approaching the Nativity, with the words: "You KNOW it's a Myth / This Season, Celebrate REASON!"</p>

NEWARK — Two New Jersey men intent on killing American troops were arrested Saturday as they boarded flights to link up with a virulent jihadist group in Somalia, authorities said. The men, both North Jersey residents, were charged with conspiring to commit an act of international terrorism through a group tied to Osama bin Laden’s al Qaeda network, according to officials familiar with the details of the arrests. Mohamed Hamoud Alessa, 20, of North Bergen, and Carlos Eduardo Almonte, 26, of Elmwood Park were apprehended at John F. Kennedy International Airport in Queens before they could board separate flights to...

The athletic director and a guidance counselor at North Bergen High School were arrested Tuesday in a drug and gambling ring sting that authorities say was controlled by the Genovese crime family. Athletic Director Jerry Maietta and Guidance Counselor Ralph Marino were among 45 swept up in raids that began at 5 a.m. Tuesday. Bergen County Prosecutor John Molinelli described the two as lower level operatives in an expansive network of bookies, package holders, drug dealers and drug distributors. Mark Iafelice, 49, of Edgewater; Brian DiGuilmi, 48, of Emerson; James W. Skinner, 69, of Allenwood; and his son James J....

An illegal immigrant has been sentenced to a 13-year jail term after pleading guilty to the rape of a 51-year-old North Bergen woman last year in James J. Braddock Park. Judge Camille M. Kenny sentenced Esbin Amadeo Garcia, 26, in state Superior Court in Jersey City after he plead guilty to aggravated sexual assault, said John Mulkeen, an assistant Hudson County prosecutor. County sex crime investigators arrested Garcia, a laborer from Fairview, on Oct. 30, 2005. He was found in a bar at 71st Street and Bergenline Avenue in North Bergen after police traced a call he made using the...