Hurricane Sandy

UPDATE: Nearly 247,000 Without Power in Ocean and Monmouth

Outages to increase as Sandy barrels towards the Shore

Update, 6 p.m.: Outages have reached 126,739 in Ocean County and 120,000 in Monmouth County. --- There are nearly 24,000 reported power outages in Monmouth and Ocean counties as of early Monday afternoon, according to a Jersey Central Power & Light map. As of early Monday afternoon, there were 23,559 outages reported in Monmouth and Ocean. However, there was no way to immediately learn if some without power have not reported it yet because they may have no means of communication without electricity. But according to the information available, the highest number of outages in one town in the two counties was Middletown, with 6,869. Another town with a high number of reported outages was Berkeley in southern Ocean County with 1,848. …

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Hurricane Sandy

JCP&L Readies for Sandy

Utility cautions that using generators can be dangerous

JCP&L is getting ready for Hurricane Sandy, with extra staff on standby and a lot of lessons learned. JCP&L clearly has not forgotten the criticism it took after Tropical Storm Irene ravaged New Jersey in August 2011. Utility officials learned from it, made a wide array of improvements in technology, communications and planning and they're ready to put that to the test, said JCP&L spokesman Ron Morano. "We've made improvements to how we provide customer information," Morano said, adding the company is doing all it can to prepare for Sandy and to plan on how to keep officials and residents informed and well-served. For starters, JCP&L is doing what everyone else is doing: closely watching weather forecasts, trying to figure out when and …

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17-year old Matawan Regional High School Student Dies of Bacterial Meningitis

County Board of Health to hold an information forum Monday evening at the High School, 8 p.m.

A county official confirmed Monday that Chris Dhume, a 17-year old student and star soccer player in the Matawan-Aberdeen School District, died early Saturday morning at Jersey Shore University Medical Center from bacterial meningitis. The cause of death is confirmed, said county spokeswoman Laura Kirkpatrick. On Monday, Jan. 24, at 8 p.m., the Monmouth County Department of Health will give information about bacterial meningitis and answer questions in a public forum at the High School at 450 Atlantic Avenue, Matawan.  The Board of Education meeting has been moved to Wednesday, according to a notice on the district website. The community is trying to cope with the sudden death of a star athlete, who lived in the Cliffwood section of …

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The Jersey 'Sore'

Locals beware: MTV's "Jersey Shore" is Back

Season 3 Preview: My take of this Train wreck of a show that none of us can seem to look away from.

On Thursday night, at 10 p.m., locals will again see images of their beloved Seaside Heights, as seen through the eyes of MTV's Jersey Shore. And if you watched Season 2 of Jersey Shore, then you know that our "favorite" ultra-tanned, foul-mouthed, hair-gel-infused, fist-pumping pack of G-words were down in Miami over the winter. Why a show called "Jersey Shore" had to be taken out of New Jersey still boggles my mind, but I guess they had to venture to warmer climates to get what they needed in the "off-season."    For most Jersey Shore natives, the hot spots of Miami don't have the same recognition to us as the Boulevard and boardwalk of Seaside do. Lucky for us, Season 3 was brought back to where it all started during Season 1 and where …

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Monmouth and Ocean County Superintendents Ousted by Christie

Governor's Office Says Executives Were Holdovers From Previous Administrations

Monmouth and Ocean county superintendents were among seven across the state to be fired by the Christie administration this week, said Alan Guenther a spokesman for the state Department of Education. Guenther said notice was sent out to the seven on Thursday - including Carole K. Morris in Monmouth and Bruce Greenfield in Ocean - that their contracts would not be renewed. Their terms of service ended Monday. The next step in the process will be for Gov. Chris Christie to nominate replacements, Guenther said. No timetable has been set for any nominations, which would have to be approved by the state Senate.  All of the 21 county superintendents serve three-year terms.   Michael Drewniak, the press secretary for Governor Christie said the …

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Adam Hochron

8:20 pm on Monday, January 3, 2011

County superintendents have to sign off on the contracts of the district superintendents. So now until the new one at the county level is hired freehold regional has to wait   more ›