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$1M Mega Millions Ticket Sold In NJ, Jackpot Balloons To $600M $1M Mega Millions Ticket Sold In NJ, Jackpot Balloons To $600M
$1M Mega Millions Ticket Sold In NJ, Jackpot Balloons To $600M He or she might be a runner up, but someone in New Jersey bought a Mega Millions lottery ticket worth $1 million. One of five second-prize winners in Friday's blockbuster $520 million lottery, the lucky customer bought the ticket at at Jersey Bagel & Food Mart on Sicklerville Road in Sicklerville, lottery officials said. In doing so, he joined others from Massachusetts, California and Georgia, as well as a winner from New York whose ticket is worth $2 million thanks to the 2x Megaplier. Players had a 1 in 12,607,306 shot to win the second prize by matching five white ball numbers.…

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by Jerry DeMarco
News
COVID-19: Pennsylvania Averages Record 5,000 Hospitalizations Daily COVID-19: Pennsylvania Averages Record 5,000 Hospitalizations Daily
Covid-19: Pennsylvania Averages Record 5,000 Hospitalizations Daily Nearly 6,000 COVID-19 patients are hospitalized in Pennsylvania, which has seen record levels of cases across the state this past week, authorities said. . The Keystone State has averaged more than 5,000 patients in the hospital every day during the past week due to COVID-19, state officials said on Tuesday. That's an all-time high for the state since the coronavirus epidemic arrived in  In fact, it's nearly double the state's last peak in spring, officials said. It also coincides with the nation's peak for hospitalizations which was recorded on Monday, according to The Hill.  A total of…

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by Jon Craig
News
Trump Issues 26 Pardons Including One For NJ's Charles Kushner Trump Issues 26 Pardons Including One For NJ's Charles Kushner
Trump Issues 26 Pardons Including One For NJ's Charles Kushner It seems President Donald Trump understands his time in office will soon end, as he has granted clemency to 26 of his allies over the past two days. Among them, New Jersey's Charles, the father of Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner. The elder Kushner previously pleaded guilty to 16 counts of tax invasion and one for retaliating against a federal witness. Others given pardons include Roger Stone, who was convicted of lying to Congress and Paul Manafort, Trump's 2016 campaign manager who was convicted by a jury of banking and tax crimes, and had been serving his 7.5-year sentence at …

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by Cecilia Levine
Police & Fire
Jersey Shore 'Patient Broker' Gets 13 Months For Bribing Drug Users Into Out-Of-State Rehab Jersey Shore 'Patient Broker' Gets 13 Months For Bribing Drug Users Into Out-Of-State Rehab
Jersey Shore 'Patient Broker' Gets 13 Months For Bribing Drug Users Into Out-Of-State Rehab A Jersey Shore man was sentenced today to 13 months in federal prison for bribing drug addicts to enroll in rehab centers as far away as California in order to collect kickbacks for himself. Peter J. Costas, 27, of Red Bank, took a deal from the government rather than go to trial, pleading guilty via teleconference with a federal judge in Newark this past May to conspiring to commit health care fraud in exchange for the sentence. He’ll have to serve just about all of his sentence because there’s no parole in the federal prison system. Costas paid some addicts several thousand dollars to us…

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by Jerry DeMarco
News
Air Force Captain, Doctor From NJ Dies In United Arab Emirates Crash Air Force Captain, Doctor From NJ Dies In United Arab Emirates Crash
Air Force Captain, Doctor From NJ Dies In United Arab Emirates Crash A 30-year-old physician and Air Force captain from New Jersey died in a crash on base, the U.S. Defense Department said Saturday. Kelliann Leli, of Parlin (Middlesex County), died Friday in a non-combat related vehicle incident at Al Dhafra Air Base in the United Arab Emirates, military officials said. Leli was assigned to the 60th Healthcare Operations Squadron, Travis Air Force Base, California. “Our entire Travis family is beyond heartbroken over the tragic loss of our teammate, Kelliann,” said Col. Corey Simmons, 60th Air Mobility Wing commander.  “We are thinking of and praying …

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by Cecilia Levine
News
'Rotten' Apple Pays NJ $3 Million To Settle iPhone Rip-Off Complaint 'Rotten' Apple Pays NJ $3 Million To Settle iPhone Rip-Off Complaint
'Rotten' Apple Pays NJ $3 Million To Settle iPhone Rip-Off Complaint New Jersey is getting more than $3 million from Apple as part of a settlement of charges that it hid and lied about a defect with million of iPhones that made customers buy new ones, authorities announced Wednesday. A multi-state investigation led to a complaint accusing the electronics giant of hiding unexpected power-offs (UPOs), battery health and performance issues, as well as software upgrades that slowed down or “throttled” performance, state Attorney General Gurbir S. Grewal said. Apple doesn't admit to any violations of the law under the $113 million settlement reached with 34 state…

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by Jerry DeMarco
News
Edgewater Man Gets 7 Years In Fed Pen For Plot To Traffic 20 Kilos Of California Coke Edgewater Man Gets 7 Years In Fed Pen For Plot To Traffic 20 Kilos Of California Coke
Edgewater Man Gets 7 Years In Fed Pen For Plot To Traffic 20 Kilos Of California Coke An Edgewater man must spend the next seven years in federal prison for scheming to truck nearly 45 kilos of cocaine from California to New Jersey. Irving Olivero-Pena, 48, was the last of three men sentenced after all admitted that they gave a courier $549,950 to bring to California to buy the drugs. Authorities in California seized the cash and kept the drug shipment from leaving the state, U.S. Attorney Craig Carpenito said. Also striking deals with the government were Robert Crawford, 45, of Long Island City, NY, who was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison in July 2015, and Melvin F…

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by Jerry DeMarco
News
Englewood Cliffs Man Gets 14 Years In Fed Pen For $7.8M Law Firm Swindle, Huge Cocaine Deal Englewood Cliffs Man Gets 14 Years In Fed Pen For $7.8M Law Firm Swindle, Huge Cocaine Deal
Englewood Cliffs Man Gets 14 Years In Fed Pen For $7.8M Law Firm Swindle, Huge Cocaine Deal An Englewood Cliffs man was sentenced to 14 years in federal prison Friday for a pair of high-priced schemes – one to steal $7.8 million from two high-powered law firms where his wife was a partner and another to traffic more than 44 pounds of cocaine. Both Melvin Feliz, 54, and Keila Ravelo, 55, previously admitted that they’d formed two limited liability companies that purported to provide litigation support for Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP and Hunton & Williams -- but, in fact, didn't. Ravelo, who’d been a partner with both firms, approved invoices submitted by her husband. …

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by Jerry DeMarco
Police & Fire
Feds: Agents Find More Victims Of Elizabeth Pimp Who Beat, Raped Out-Of-State Escorts Feds: Agents Find More Victims Of Elizabeth Pimp Who Beat, Raped Out-Of-State Escorts
Feds: Agents Find More Victims Of Elizabeth Pimp Who Beat, Raped Out-Of-State Escorts For several years, an Elizabeth man lured out-of-state escorts to New Jersey with promises of tens of thousands of dollars for sex and then choked, raped and threatened them, federal authorities charged. FBI agents captured Jose Torres, 43, after finding four victims but suspected there were more. They were right. Two more travelled from New York to New Jersey to work for Torres as prostitutes, an indictment returned by a federal grand jury in Newark this week says. Torres met the escorts through websites such as EROS, Erotic Monkey, Tryst and Backpage, U.S. Attorney Craig Carpenito said.…

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by Jerry DeMarco
Obituaries
Chatham High School Graduate, Tri-Varsity Athlete Cory Heidaran Dies, 27 Chatham High School Graduate, Tri-Varsity Athlete Cory Heidaran Dies, 27
Chatham High School Graduate, Tri-Varsity Athlete Cory Heidaran Dies, 27 Former Jersey City and Chatham resident Cory C. Heidaran died Oct. 8. He was 27 years old. Heidaran was born in Rockville, Maryland and spent time in California and North Carolina before settling in Chatham, where he graduated high school in 2012, according to his obituary. Heidaran was known for his passion of sports and was an avid football, lacrosse and ice hockey player, making him a tri-varsity athlete, his obit says. Cory attended SUNY Cortland and had most recently been working as an entrepreneur in Jersey City, according to a GoFundMe created in his memory. “He was the type of fri…

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by Valerie Musson
News
Feds Charge More Than 300 In U.S. With Violent Crimes ‘Under Guise’ Of Peaceful Protests Feds Charge More Than 300 In U.S. With Violent Crimes ‘Under Guise’ Of Peaceful Protests
Feds Charge More Than 300 In U.S. With Violent Crimes ‘Under Guise’ Of Peaceful Protests More than 300 “violent opportunists” nationwide are being prosecuted federally for crimes committed “under the guise of peaceful demonstrations” against racial injustice, the U.S. Justice Department announced Thursday. They include a saboteur who inadvertently engulfed himself in flames when he poured liquid from a gas can onto three U.S. Supreme Court vehicles in Washington, D.C., the department said in a release. Several defendants “leveraged social media platforms to incite destruction and assaults against law enforcement officers,” the release says. Nearly three dozen defendants are ch…

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by Jerry DeMarco
News
Convicted Essex Pervert Gets 5-Year State Prison Minimum For Trafficking Child Rape Images Convicted Essex Pervert Gets 5-Year State Prison Minimum For Trafficking Child Rape Images
Convicted Essex Pervert Gets 5-Year State Prison Minimum For Trafficking Child Rape Images A Belleville convict must spend at least five years in state prison for trafficking a child rape video and similar pornography. Luis Felipe Pacheco-Loja, 33, was among 79 defendants nabbed in “Operation Safety Net,” a multi-agency child protection sweep led by State Police. Jurors earlier this year convicted him of distributing, storing, maintaining and possessing the images. Superior Court Judge Siobhan A. Teare sentenced Pacheco-Loja in Newark to six years in state prison, five years of which he must serve before becoming eligible for parole. He also must register as a sex offender under…

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by Jerry DeMarco