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WHAT THE ACTUAL HECK IS HAPPENING IN NEW JERSEY? This happened a week ago: New Jersey GOP councilwoman gunned down outside her home in targeted attack And then this news broke today, one week later: New Jersey GOP councilwoman gunned down outside her home in targeted attack 51-year-old Milford Councilman Russell Heller was found dead on Wednesday just after 7 am in the Somerset parking lot of the local energy company PSE&G where Heller worked, according to the New York Post. Police identified 58-year-old former employee Gary Curtis as the suspect, and discovered him dead in his car from a...

SOMERSET, Pa. — Pennsylvania State Police troopers arrested the Somerset County District Attorney on Wednesday on charges of rape, indecent assault, strangulation, simple assault and criminal trespass. Troopers began the investigation into Jeffrey Lynn Thomas after an incident was reported in Windber Borough on Saturday. Investigators determined Thomas entered the home of the victim, a woman with whom he was acquainted, without permission and refused to leave. He then reportedly sexually and physically assaulted the woman while her child was in the home. “The charges this defendant is facing for a violent attack are deeply disturbing. Mr. Thomas is entrusted...

An 81-year-old man was allegedly attacked in New Jersey by someone who confronted him for wearing one of President Trump's "Make America Great Again" hats. Somerset County prosecutors said that the man was assaulted at a supermarket after being confronted by the alleged assailant over the hat, according to a local NBC affiliate. The victim had minor injuries from the alleged attack and refused medical treatment, the outlet reported, citing local prosecutors. The cap flashing Trump's signature slogan has fueled other altercations in recent years.

A Manville, NJ student was suspended and ordered to go under a psychological evaluation after it was found out he was doing an assignment arguing against gun control.Student Frank Harvey was doing a project for class that was on gun control, arguing against it, when he left his flash drive with the project on it in the school library. The flash drive was then found and handed over to the school administrators. After discovering the contents of the flash drive, which in the report included anti-gun control political cartoons and videos and reports of armed citizens defending themselves from criminals,...

A body found in a New Jersey river is that of missing Wall Street Journal reporter David Bird, who disappeared more than a year ago, authorities announced Thursday. Bird's remains were pulled from the Passaic River by dive teams Wednesday about a mile from where he vanished -- on the border of Morris and Somerset counties. Bird, an avid hiker and father of two, was last seen by his family on Jan. 11, 2014, as he was leaving his Long Hill Township, N.J., home to go on a walk.

Planned Parenthood Abortion Biz Closing Clinic in New JerseyThe Planned Parenthood abortion business is closing yet another location — this time in New Jersey. The abortion giant will close the facility it operates in Somerset County within the next month.From a local news report: A woman who answered the phone at the Manville Planned Parenthood Thursday afternoon confirmed the location will be closing within the next month, although she said no particular closing date has been set yet.The woman did not provide her name to NJ.com, and she referred comment to the media relations department of Planned Parenthood of Central...

A Virginia man who once spent eight years on the run from naval investigators was arrested in Somerset County early today with a trove of high-powered weapons, including a grenade-launcher and two assault rifles, along with maps of a U.S. military base and a civilian neighborhood, authorities said. The federal government’s Joint Terrorism Task Force quickly joined the investigation into Lloyd R. Woodson, 43, who had been staying at a Branchburg motel since last week. Woodson, whose last known address was in Reston, Va., was wearing a bullet-proof vest and carrying one of the assault rifles — customized to shoot...

BRANCHBURG -- Somerset County investigators seized a cache of weapons including a grenade launcher and hundreds of rounds of ammunition today from the Branchburg motel room of a Virginia man, who also had maps of a U.S. military facility and an out-of-state civilian community. Lloyd Woodson, 43, whose last known address was Reston, Va., today faces multiple offenses, including second-degree unlawful weapons possession and fourth-degree possession of prohibited weapons, Somerset County Prosecutor Wayne Forrest said. At the time of his arrest, Woodson was wearing a military-style ballistic vest with a reinforced steel plate and carrying a .223-caliber assault rifle that...

On Friday, the day Congress passed the stimulus bill, more than 250 people arrived at the Holiday Inn in Somerset for a careers fair. There are scenes like this all over the country. In San Fransisco last week, queues for a similar fair went out of the door and around the block. In Miami last month, a thousand people waited in line, some overnight, for just 35 firefighter jobs. But New Jersey has not quite suffered like the rest of the country, and in Somerset the line of hopefuls is long but moves reasonably fast. For the most part, they...

Three Somerset County residents have learned firsthand the dangers of picking and eating wild mushrooms. The trio from Franklin Township have been hospitalized with liver toxicity; one is in critical condition and may need a transplant. Bruce Ruck, director of drug information and professional education at the New Jersey Poison Control Center in Newark, identified the victims as a mother and her daughter and son-in-law, all Asian Indians. The mother is in critical condition and being evaluated for a liver transplant at University Hospital in Newark; the other two are at Princeton University Medical Center. "They picked and ate wild...

It is the talk of the neighborhood. Police say a 44-year-old woman killed her 12-year-old son, and then tried unsuccessfully to take her own life. On Friday night, the woman's husband came home from work and found a suicide note in the bedroom of their Basking Ridge home. He immediately called police who found the woman and her son in the basement. Twelve-year-old Jack Kimzey was on the floor dead. Preliminary indications are that he may have been strangled or suffocated. His mother, Denise Volpicelli, was found bleeding in a bathroom in the basement. Her wrists, arms and legs had...

A doctor in Cleveland used high-pressure chambers that resembled Pullman train cars to treat a host of diseases with oxygen therapy in the early 1900s, claiming miraculous results. Al Wilson's version of the apparatus almost 90 years later operates out of a trailer parked outside a hotel in Somerset County. Twirling control knobs for pressurization of a steel tank similar to a large, tubular diving bell, Wilson has for the past five weeks treated patients, mostly children with brain disorders, to a breath of fresh oxygen that improves the symptoms of their conditions -- at least in the eyes of...

Throwing 'em a curve Every now and again we must surrender territory to a cause larger than ourselves. Last week, Ron McRae, a self-ordained minister who makes a hobby of lording his holiness over gays, Catholics, Jehovah's Witnesses and Mormons, decided that the use of the term "Crescent of Embrace" to describe a single feature in a multi-faceted Flight 93 Memorial design was a tacit endorsement of Islam. In due course, Michelle Malkin, a right-wing commentator less familiar with the topography of Somerset County than with the direction of political winds, added her thoughts. She said the inclusion of a...

SOMERVILLE, N.J. Somerset County authorities say two members of the Pagans motorcycle gang shot and killed a man because he was wearing a Hells Angels T-shirt. A friend had given the shirt to John Grover, who didn't even own a motorcycle and was not a member of the gang. William ``Rodent'' Martin and Peter Ciarletta are charged with murder. Authorities say the two Pagans were sent to Gatto's Sports Cafe in Manville looking for someone associated with the Hells Angels on Sunday. Authorities say Martin opened fire on Grover, who was shot in the leg and abdomen. The 40-year-old died...

It might surprise some to see how the canidiates fared in the 10 wealthiest U.S. counties (2000 census). President Bush won in only four of the ten, comprising two states (one of which might be a bit shocking for some). So much for "the Republicans are the party of the rich". Presidential election results for the 10 wealthiest U.S. counties. (winner in caps) Teton County, Wyoming: Bush/Cheney - 5,124 - KERRY/EDWARDS - 5,972 Fairfield County, Connecticut: Bush/Cheney - 14,694 - KERRY/EDWARDS - 15,047 Marin County, California: Bush/Cheney - 26,141 - KERRY/EDWARDS - 73,946 Somerset County, New Jersey: BUSH/CHENEY - 67,505...