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'Where's The Compassion?' NJ Boy With Autism Kicked Out Of Church During Sister's Baptism 'Where's The Compassion?' NJ Boy With Autism Kicked Out Of Church During Sister's Baptism
'Where's The Compassion?' NJ Boy With Autism Kicked Out Of Church During Sister's Baptism A Union County mom says her son who has autism was kicked out of church by the priest during her daughter's baptism. Nicky, 7, was playing with a ball during his sister Sofia's baptism at Christ the King Church Saturday in Hillside, Julia Vicidomini said on Facebook. The service was private, for family only, which Vicidomini said made her feel more comfortable as Nicky -- who is non-verbal -- doesn't do well during long mass services. "Yes, he was playing with a toy where he should not have been, however, the way the priest kicked him out of the church was completely rude and disrespectful…

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by Cecilia Levine
Police & Fire
Missing Nonverbal Closter Boy, 4, Found After Intense Search Missing Nonverbal Closter Boy, 4, Found After Intense Search
Missing Nonverbal Closter Boy, 4, Found After Intense Search An intense search for a nonverbal 4-year-old boy with autism who'd gone missing from his home ended when a Closter police lieutenant heard him crying in a house under construction. The boy’s parents told police that they “went outside to their vehicle for a moment and inadvertently left the garage door open” on Hickory Lane shortly before 5 p.m. last Thursday, Detective Lt. Vincent Aiello said. Lt. Matthew Thornhill was among a massive group of responders that included Detective Sgt. Keith Dombkowski and Officers Justin Krapels and Brian Kelly, as well as police from Alpine, Cresskill, Dema…

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by Jerry DeMarco
Police & Fire
Teen Boy Who Drowned In Raritan Bay Was Reportedly On Autism Spectrum Teen Boy Who Drowned In Raritan Bay Was Reportedly On Autism Spectrum
Teen Boy Who Drowned In Raritan Bay Was Reportedly On Autism Spectrum The Perth Amboy community is rallying for the family of a 17-year-old boy who drowned in the Raritan Bay Thursday. A GoFundMe intended to help fund a funeral service for Johnny Vasquez had raised $740 as of Friday afternoon. Vasquez -- who family members said was on the autism spectrum and suffered from epilepsy -- was unconscious when his body was recovered by NYPD divers around 5 p.m. Thursday. He had been in the water for more than two hours after he went missing and was pronounced dead at the hospital, his family told news outlets. A 30-year-old man who jumped in to rescue V…

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by Cecilia Levine
News
'TERRIFIED': Central NJ Dad Ripped Away From Family By ICE In Traffic Stop Faces Deportation 'TERRIFIED': Central NJ Dad Ripped Away From Family By ICE In Traffic Stop Faces Deportation
'Terrified': Central NJ Dad Ripped Away From Family By ICE In Traffic Stop Faces Deportation A Middlesex County family is desperate to keep their father in the U.S. after he was taken into custody by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in a traffic stop. Melvin Herrera of North Brunswick, who is an undocumented immigrant, was arrested last November for an expired registration of a vehicle that wasn't even his, ABC7 reports. Herrera was driving a van in Plainfield for his job as a construction worker, and instead of being ticketed, he was arrested and handed over to ICE. The breadwinner and father of three -- whose younger kids, William, 12, and Valerie, 4, have autism -- i…

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by Cecilia Levine
Obituaries
'Bury Me In New Jersey': Friends Make Passaic County Native's Dying Wish Come True 'Bury Me In New Jersey': Friends Make Passaic County Native's Dying Wish Come True
'Bury Me In New Jersey': Friends Make Passaic County Native's Dying Wish Come True Tara Condon Wager's identity was tied to many things. She was a mom and a wife, first and foremost. She was an autism advocate to her son and others at the Santiago & Friends Family Center for Autism, where she worked. Tara was a Jersey Girl -- Paterson, born and raised. And as she spent her final days battling Stage 4 colon cancer, Tara expressed her dying wish: To be buried in New Jersey. More than $5,200 had been raised on a GoFundMe launched by Tara's friend Dorothy Bara as of Saturday morning to help bring Tara's body from Florida to New Jersey to fulfill her dying wish. Tara p…

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by Cecilia Levine