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<p>Gunshots killed one man and critically wounded another early Saturday morning in Passaic, county officials said.</p><p>City police responding to the area of Harrison Street and Hope Avenue located two shooting victims, according to a statement from Passaic County Prosecutor Camelia M. Valdes and Passaic Police Chief Luis A. Guzman.</p>

Unknown individuals using fake names hacked into the virtual portion of the City Council meeting on Tuesday night and used racial slurs and antisemitic remarks. There appeared to be three or four hackers who interrupted Mayor Hector Lora's remarks a few minutes into the meeting. The audio and visual portion of the meeting was temporarily taken over and occasionally flashed back to Lora, who was trying to speak. The hackers, who all appeared to be men, shouted racial expletives and untruths regarding the Sept. 11 attacks. Three of Passaic’s seven council members are Orthodox Jews. The city Police Department is...

<p>In 2010, Cleveland was dubbed the most miserable city in the U.S. by Forbes. More than ten years later, its reputation hasn’t changed at all. Commonly known as “the mistake by the lake” about its proximity to Lake Erie, Cleveland isn’t a place anyone wants to live.</p>

U.S. Census Data Reveals the Most Miserable Cities In AmericaSeptember 14, 2023 | Jessica Bedewi Share in Facebook Miami Gardens, FloridaWhen you hear Miami, you automatically think of sun, sand, and party vibes. Miami Gardens, however, is a little different. The water in the city is supplied by a plant owned by the City of North Miami Beach, which pushes water prices in Miami Gardens through the roof. Subsequently, the entire cost of living in the city is sky-high. Getty Images Photo by Olga Kaya The city also implemented a stop and frisk policy that led to about 57,000 people...

One of New Jersey’s largest public school districts is requiring masks starting Wednesday due to rising COVID-19 cases. Passaic Public Schools has 17 schools, including Passaic High School, and enrolls approximately 14,000 students. Superintendent Sandra M. Diodonet told parents on Tuesday that, under a school board policy, masks are required “during periods of a High Activity Level” of COVID-19 as documented by the state health department. “Therefore, effective Wednesday, December 21, 2022, all employees, Pre-K through grade 12 students, and visitors are required to wear face coverings in all district facilities, school grounds, and buses,” Diodonet wrote in a letter...

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You Tube -- Resisting immigration? Maybe it's just in our natureImmigration officials last week arrested 105 people in New Jersey suspected of being in the country illegally, including four people with international criminal warrants. This came the same week that state officials announced new rules on how local police will handle immigration matters.ICE said the arrests had been planned before state Attorney General Gurbir Grewal released his directive, which the federal agency has criticized. The policy prevents police from inquiring about a person's immigration status unless it is relevant to an investigation. Jails also will not be allowed to detain...

They had a habit of targeting banks in disguises. Over three months last year, the two young women went to four of them in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Once they dressed as nuns. Other times they wore hijab head coverings. Twice, they fled banks empty handed. At another, they tried to pry open an ATM machine with a screwdriver. They did not complete the withdrawal. They actually robbed a Spencer Savings branch in Garfield, New Jersey, at gunpoint, on Sept. 27, 2017. Their take was $2,900. Now, Melisa Aquino Arias, 23, of Passaic and Swahilys Pedraza-Rodriguez, 19, of New Haven,...

The mystery winner of a $338 million Powerball jackpot has come forward, according to a report on NorthJersey.com. Pedro Quezada, a 44-year-old father of five who owns a bodega on 8th Street in Passaic, showed up at the liquor store where the ticket was sold to claim his prize this afternoon, the report said.

Martin Coyotecatl-Aca, his younger brother Jesus and a friend, Ricardo Gonzales-Gutierez worked for 10 hours as day laborers ripping shingles off a roof. At the end of the two days, they said, their boss refused to pay them for one of the days. What happened next is in dispute. The three now are sitting in the Passaic County Jail, charged with robbery and facing possible deportation, according to Detective Capt. Robert Rowan of the Clifton Police Department. A lawyer for the three Mexican nationals, whose names were supplied by police and who all live in Passaic, say the men are...

Two state lawmakers accused of accepting bribes for political favors have officially resigned from the Assembly. Alfred Steele, D-Passaic, and Mims Hackett, D-Essex, both sent letters Monday to the Assembly’s clerk saying they would formally step down. Steele, Hackett and nine other public officials -- including Passaic Mayor Samuel “Sammy” Rivera -- were arrested on influence-peddling charges last week following an 18-month FBI corruption sting. All remain free on $200,000 bail. The government alleges Steele, who is also county undersheriff and a Baptist minister in Paterson, accepted $14,000 in exchange for his promotion of a phony insurance firm set up...

NEW YORK -- Eleven public officials were charged Thursday in a widespread FBI corruption investigation, officials said. At least one state assemblyman, several local mayors and school board officials were arrested by FBI agents in early-morning roundups. The officials are expected to be arraigned on corruption charges in Trenton Thursday afternoon. United States attorney Chris Christie and FBI Special Agent in Charge Weysan Dun are expected to explain the charges at a 3:30 p.m. press conference in Trenton. WNBC.com has learned that several of the officials were allegedly caught accepting payoffs from undercover agents in a sting operation. Others were...

<p>PASSAIC, New Jersey (Reuters) -- Believers are flocking to a rundown street in New Jersey to see a tree stump they say has the form of the Virgin Mary and is a divine sign of hope for the impoverished neighborhood.</p>

Bishop Pataki of Passaic Retires at 80 PASSAIC, New Jersey, DEC. 7, 2007 (Zenit.org).- Benedict XVI appointed Bishop William Skurla of the Byzantine Eparchy of Van Nuys, California, to lead the Byzantine Catholic Eparchy of Passaic.Archbishop Pietro Sambi, apostolic nuncio to the United States, announced Thursday that the Pope accepted the resignation of 80-year-old Bishop Andrew Pataki of Passaic for reasons of age.Father Gerald Dino, 67, of the Passaic Eparchy and pastor of St. George Parish, Linden, New Jersey, will succeed Bishop Skurla in Van Nuys.Bishop Skurla, 51, will be installed Jan. 29 at the Cathedral of St. Michael the...

ATLANTIC CITY, Sept. 7 — Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton wowed the crowd. So did Gov. Jon S. Corzine. And there to cheer them on, relishing every partisan barb aimed at President Bush’s policies on Iraq, the economy and health care, were about 1,000 of the state’s most ardent Democrats. But the person who all but upstaged the state Democratic Party’s annual convention here was a Republican who was 117 miles away in Newark: the United States attorney, Christopher J. Christie, whose office announced on Thursday the arrests of 11 current or former public officials — including two Democratic assemblymen —...

Another prominent Hillary Rodham Clinton supporter is facing serious criminal charges. Passaic, N.J., Mayor Samuel "Sammy" Rivera, recently named to Clinton's national Hispanic outreach team, was one of 11 Garden State politicians snared in a federal sting yesterday involving school contracts. It's not clear if Rivera was due to attend Clinton's speech to New Jersey Democrats in Atlantic City today. Rivera's troubles surfaced just a day after Clinton super-donor Norman Hsu failed to show up for his $2 million bail hearing. The former first lady cut ties with the Chinese-born financier after news reports revealed he was a fugitive on...

Among the 11 public officials arrested in an F.B.I. corruption sting in New Jersey today was a leading Democratic supporter of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton’s presidential campaign in that state, Mayor Samuel Rivera of Passaic. It was the latest legal embarrassment involving an ally of the Clinton campaign, coming only one day after a wealthy Clinton donor, Norman Hsu, missed his court date in a California fraud case and apparently disappeared. Clinton advisers this spring and summer have been aggressively touting their long list of endorsements from elected officials and prominent Democratic donors, to indicate the breadth of establishment support...

Amid the familiar sights in Passaic at this year's Mexican Independence Day Parade -- the festive floats blaring norte񯠭usic and mariachi ballads; girls in swirling rainbow-colored skirts and thick black braids woven with flowers -- a new type of pageant queen made her debut: Miss Day Laborer 2006. Katrina Ferman, 18, blew kisses to the crowd and waved a huge Mexican flag as she posed -- in ball gown, tiara and sequined sash that read "Queen of the Day Laborers" -- from the back of a streamer-covered construction pickup. Flanked on both sides by her runners-up -- 18-year-old Princess of...

PASSAIC - There are few Lemkos left, and even fewer who speak their original Slavic dialect. Most of those who do remember have gray hair. But over dill chicken soup in the meeting room of Saints Peter and Paul Russian Orthodox Cathedral on Sunday morning, the dozen or so members of the Lemko Association agreed on one thing: They were proud to be Lemkos, even if they always have to explain themselves. "We're a people without a country," said Maryann Bacsik, 53, of Little Falls, whose grandfather came here from Eastern Europe in 1907. "Many people my age have no...