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VIDEO: Sussex County Hiker Dubbed 'Calm Queen' In Close Encounter With Bear VIDEO: Sussex County Hiker Dubbed 'Calm Queen' In Close Encounter With Bear
Video: Sussex County Hiker Dubbed 'Calm Queen' In Close Encounter With Bear A 25-year-old Monmouth County hiker has been dubbed the "Calm Queen" by internet users after a video of her slowly walking away from a black bear on a Sussex County hiking trail went viral. Julia Tupy of Eatontown was sitting on a lookout along "Stairway to Heaven" in Vernon when the bear came out of the woods, then went back in last Wednesday. Tupy and her three friends didn't think the animal would come out again. But moments later, Tupy looked up, and her friend Joe Kun, 24, also of Eatontown, looked stiff, she said. "I think we should move now," Kun said from behind the camera. Kun's …

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by Cecilia Levine
Police & Fire
Former Passaic Mayor Samuel 'Sammy' Rivera Dies Former Passaic Mayor Samuel 'Sammy' Rivera Dies
Former Passaic Mayor Samuel 'Sammy' Rivera Dies Former Passaic Mayor Samuel Rivera has died in a nursing home in Pennsylvania, current Mayor Hector Carlos Lora confirmed Friday. He was 73. A cause of death wasn't immediately disclosed. "As a city we extend our condolences to the Rivera family on the passing of former Passaic Mayor Samuel Rivera," Lora wrote. "I still speak to people today who share stories of how he helped them personally and how much he cared about people.  "Many in our community can remember his approach to cleaning up the streets of violent crimes and how visible he was in Passaic," the mayor said. Born in Caye…

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by Jerry DeMarco
Police & Fire
4 Charged In $380K Armored Car Heist, Essex Sheriff Says 4 Charged In $380K Armored Car Heist, Essex Sheriff Says
4 Charged In $380K Armored Car Heist, Essex Sheriff Says A series of sting operations led to the arrests of four people -- including two Newark residents and an Elizabeth woman -- in connection with the robbery of an armored car,  Essex County Sheriff Armando Fontoura said Wednesday.  The armored car was robbed Oct. 9 in Abington, Pa., with $380,000 taken. The sheriff's office became part of the investigation when authorities learned the suspects lived in New Jersey and had warrants out for them in Essex County, Fontoura said.  Following three sting operations, Newark residents Alberto Torres, 37, and 35-year-old Christopher Flores…

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by Paul Milo
Police & Fire
Passaic County 'Cash Jet' Pilot Gets 13 Years In Fed Pen For Smuggling Coke Kilos In, $7.5M Out Passaic County 'Cash Jet' Pilot Gets 13 Years In Fed Pen For Smuggling Coke Kilos In, $7.5M Out
Passaic County 'Cash Jet' Pilot Gets 13 Years In Fed Pen For Smuggling Coke Kilos In, $7.5M Out A private "cash jet" pilot from Ringwood must spend the next 13 years in federal prison for bringing hundreds of kilos of cocaine into New Jersey and New York, then laundering more than $7.5 million in proceeds back to Guyana. Khamraj Lall, 52, of Ringwood was convicted by a federal jury in Trenton last October of using the proceeds of a "cocaine empire” to buy jets, homes and cars, U.S. Attorney Craig Carpenito said. “He also paid more than $2 million in cash stuffed in suitcases to a Florida contractor to build an airplane hangar in Guyana,” Carpenito said. The Guyanese-born Lall -- who …

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by Jerry DeMarco
Police & Fire
VIDEO: Florida Braces For Direct Hit After Strengthening Dorian Spares Puerto Rico VIDEO: Florida Braces For Direct Hit After Strengthening Dorian Spares Puerto Rico
Video: Florida Braces For Direct Hit After Strengthening Dorian Spares Puerto Rico Dorian spared Puerto Rico on Wednesday but threatened to become a major hurricane that could slam directly into the Florida coast on Labor Day. By then, forecasters said, the Category 1 storm could rise to Category 3, with winds stronger than 111 miles an hour. Georgia and South Carolina were also potential targets, they said. As always, forecasts are never precisely correct, so it won’t be until Thursday, the earliest, before the potential impact on the U.S. will be more certainly known. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis nonetheless declared a state of emergency on Wednesday while urging coastal…

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by Jerry DeMarco
Police & Fire
Man Gets Maximum Sentence For Dumping Baby’s Body In Jersey City Man Gets Maximum Sentence For Dumping Baby’s Body In Jersey City
Man Gets Maximum Sentence For Dumping Baby’s Body In Jersey City A Virginia man must serve at least 10 years of a 20-year sentence for leaving a suitcase containing his baby daughter’s remains next to the PATH tracks in Jersey City, the Hudson County Prosecutor’s Office said Friday. Te’Myah Layauna Plummer, who was just under two years old, was found in a pink suitcase on April 11, 2018 by Port Authority workers. The child died of cocaine intoxication and “violence,” NJ.com reported. Her father, Travis Plummer, 38, disappeared with the girl from their home in Richmond, Va., in the summer of 2017. She is believed to have died around that time, prosecutor…

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by Paul Milo
Police & Fire
Father Found Guilty Of Desecrating Baby's Remains Discovered In Jersey City Father Found Guilty Of Desecrating Baby's Remains Discovered In Jersey City
Father Found Guilty Of Desecrating Baby's Remains Discovered In Jersey City A Virginia man has been found guilty of desecrating the remains of his baby daughter, whose body was found in a suitcase near some railroad tracks in Jersey City a year ago, the Hudson County Prosecutor's Office said Tuesday. Travis Plummer, 38, was arrested last year after his 23-month-old daughter Te'Myah disappeared from their home in Richmond, Va. The girl's body was found near Journal Square.  Plummer was eventually picked up in Puerto Rico.  In an interview last year, the girl's mother, Teshauna Cooper, said she had last seen her daughter in September 2017. Plummer had…

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by Paul Milo
Police & Fire
Haworth Sergeant Recognizes, Nabs Ex-Englewood Basketball Star Who Claimed To Be Someone Else Haworth Sergeant Recognizes, Nabs Ex-Englewood Basketball Star Who Claimed To Be Someone Else
Haworth Sergeant Recognizes, Nabs Ex-Englewood Basketball Star Who Claimed To Be Someone Else Call it fame or call it notoriety: Trying to tell a police officer in Bergen County that he's someone else wasn't getting 6-foot-8 former Englewood basketball phenom turned career criminal Sean Banks very far. Banks was a passenger in a car with Florida license plates that was pulled over for a traffic violation by Haworth Police Sgt. Gianluca Ragone last Friday. Wanted by Englewood police for yet another domestic violence assault, he gave Ragone a different name, Detective Sgt. Justin Fox said. Trouble was: Ragone knew the onetime Bergen Catholic star from his days on the hardwood, which …

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by Jerry DeMarco
Business
Parsippany, Westwood Payless Stores To Shutter In March Parsippany, Westwood Payless Stores To Shutter In March
Parsippany, Westwood Payless Stores To Shutter In March Payless Shoesource will begin closing 2,600 stores in the U.S. and Puerto Rico this month after filing for bankruptcy in February. All of the source will be shuttered by late May. Below are the New Jersey stores to go in March. Atlantic City: Baltic Avenue Brick: Brick Boulevard Carteret: Roosevelt Avenue Freehold: Route 9 Jersey City: Mall Drive West Jersey City: Central Avenue Linden: West Edgar Road Parsippany: Route 46 Perth Amboy: Smith Street Plainfield: East Front Street Trenton: S Clinton Street Wall Township: Highway 35 #3 Westwood: Broadway Woodbridge: Woodbridge Center Drive Liq…

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by Cecilia Levine
News
Worth Losing Sleep Over: Spring Forward This Weekend Worth Losing Sleep Over: Spring Forward This Weekend
Worth Losing Sleep Over: Spring Forward This Weekend We'll be springing forward this weekend (QUICK: Which two U.S. states don't follow Daylight Saving Time?). Unless you still have a flip, your cellphone will take care of the change from 2 a.m. to 3 a.m. this Sunday. The same for most digital devices. We'll have to take care of traditional clocks and those in older-model vehicles, stoves, microwaves, etc. So long, seasonal affective disorder! ****** If you're having trouble getting to sleep, consider: It's "Daylight Saving," not "Savings"; Benjamin Franklin came up with the idea 235 years ago (1784); When it was established in the U.S.…

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by Jerry DeMarco
Police & Fire
Scuffle At DMV: Bronx Man Caught Trying To Use Fake Docs To Get NJ License, Oakland Police Say Scuffle At DMV: Bronx Man Caught Trying To Use Fake Docs To Get NJ License, Oakland Police Say
Scuffle At DMV: Bronx Man Caught Trying To Use Fake Docs To Get NJ License, Oakland Police Say Some pushing and shoving at the DMV office in Oakland preceded the arrest of a Bronx man who police said tried to use a fake driver's license from Puerto Rico to get one in New Jersey. An investigator and security guard tried to stop Sean Volguez, 26, from leaving when things got a little physical last Tuesday, Detective Lt. Christian Eldridge said. Officer Jonathan Coleman and Sgt. Ryan O'Keefe responded to the Motor Vehicle Commission office at the Copper Tree Mall on Ramapo Valley Road, where Volguez gave them a bogus name, Eldridge said. They took him into custody, he said. Both the s…

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by Jerry DeMarco
Police & Fire
Fugitive Accused Of Sexually Assaulting Passaic Girl Captured In Puerto Rico Fugitive Accused Of Sexually Assaulting Passaic Girl Captured In Puerto Rico
Fugitive Accused Of Sexually Assaulting Passaic Girl Captured In Puerto Rico A fugitive accused of sexually assaulting a Passaic girl when she was between 5 and 7 years old was captured in Puerto Rico and returned to face prosecution in Passaic County, authorities said Friday. Miguel Medina, 53, of Bloomfield, was originally charged with aggravated sexual assault and several counts of child endangerment last October. When he knew authorities were on to him, he fled the state, Passaic County Prosecutor Camelia Valdes said. “Medina sexually assaulted and showed pornography to a female child when she was between the ages of five and seven years old from 2005 through 2…

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by Jerry DeMarco