New Jersey

NJ couple to reopen restaurant more than a month after being detained by ICE

Published

11 months ago

March 30, 2025

NJ couple to reopen restaurant more than a month after being detained by ICE

The owners of a New Jersey restaurant held a community celebration and are set to officially reopen their business more than a month after they were detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

On Sunday, March 30, 2025, Emine and Celal Emanet held a celebration in Haddon Township, New Jersey, and served food to show their gratitude for their community’s support and to also mark the end of Ramadan, the Islamic holy month.

“We are a small business,” Emine Emanet said. “You know everywhere is small. But we have a big heart for all of everybody.”

The couple’s restaurant, Jersey Kebab, officially reopens on Tuesday, April 1, 2025.

“I’ve been missing them,” Steve Barton, a Haddon Township resident, told NBC10. “They’ve been sorely missed throughout this entire ordeal.”

The restaurant – located on 150 Haddon Avenue – has been closed since Feb. 25, 2025, when ICE officers raided the business and arrested Emine and Celal Emanet. An ICE spokesperson said the two Turkish citizens were in the United States illegally. While Celal Emanet was released from custody with an ankle monitor, Emine Emanet remained in custody at an ICE detention center in Elizabeth, New Jersey, for two weeks.

Immigration attorney Joseph Best told NBC10 the couple moved to the United States from Turkey in 2008 on a religious visa. According to Camden County officials, Celal Emanet applied for a green card before the visa expired. Emanet said his application was denied three times and the couple has been in limbo since 2016.

During Emine Emanet’s detainment, the couple received support from both New Jersey leaders as well as community members. During a press conference in late February after their arrest, Haddon Township Mayor Randall Teague described the couple’s restaurant as a “pillar” in the community.

“We consider this situation maybe somewhat different than some of the other ones that we hear on TV where there’s criminals and rapists and so forth coming into our country,” Mayor Teague said. “They came in here legally and they’re trying to stay here legally.”

Teague also said the family has participated in Toys for Tots drives and organized food drives that have “left a lasting impact” on the area.

The couple’s arrest occurred amid a nationwide push from President Donald Trump’s administration to detain immigrants who entered the United States without the proper documents.

“This family is a family that embodies the very best of Camden County. And now they’re torn apart by this broken immigration system,” Camden County Commissioner Director Louis Cappelli Jr. said in February. “It is time to stand up for good people. It is time to stand up for humanity. These folks do not deserve this. These folks do not deserve this. Fix the immigration system and let’s fix it now.”

Haddon Township residents also donated more than $327,000 to a GoFundMe in support of the family.

On Tuesday, March 11, a judge set a $7500 bond for Emine Emanet’s release. She was released and reunited with her family the next day after the nonprofit Envision Freedom Fund successfully posted the bond.

Emine Emanet and her son Muhammed Emanet during Sunday’s community celebration

While the family is back in business, their legal battle continues.

“We have to prove ourselves,” Celal Emanet said on Sunday. “We are here. We have business. We’re regular people. We don’t have a criminal record. We pay our taxes so I hope they are going to accept it.”

Community members who attended Sunday’s celebration said they will continue to support them.

“They never let us down,” Barton said. “We are not going to let them down.”

The couple’s next court date is scheduled for the end of May 2025.

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New Jersey

Did anyone win Powerball? Winning numbers for March 4, 2026

Published

2 hours ago

March 5, 2026

Press Room

Did anyone win Powerball? Winning numbers for March 4, 2026

APP.com Digital Desk
| Asbury Park Press

Powerball winning numbers are in for the Wednesday, March 2 drawing with a jackpot that reached an estimated $20 million ($9.4 million cash option).

The winning numbers in Wednesday’s drawing are 7, 14, 42, 47, and 56, with Powerball number 6. The Power Play number is 4.

Did anyone win the Powerball jackpot?

No one won the Powerball jackpot

When is the next drawing of the Powerball?

The next Powerball drawing is Saturday. Drawings are held at 10:59 p.m. every Monday, Wednesday and Saturday.

How late can you buy a Powerball ticket?

In New Jersey, in-store and online ticket sales are available until 9:59 p.m. on the night of the draw.

What does it cost to play Powerball?

Powerball costs $2 to play. For an additional $1 per play, the Power Play feature can multiply nonjackpot prizes by two, three, four, five or 10 times.

Are you a Powerball winner? Here’s how to claim your lottery prize

All New Jersey Lottery retailers will redeem prizes up to $599.99. For prizes over $599.99, winners can submit winning tickets through the mail or in person at New Jersey Lottery offices. By mail, send a winner claim form, winning lottery ticket and a copy of a government-issued ID to New Jersey Lottery, Attn: Validations, PO Box 041, Trenton, NJ 08625-0041.

Winners can drop off their claim form and winning ticket in person at the New Jersey Lottery office where a secure drop box is available. Claim forms are also available at the office. Hours are Monday to Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.; Lawrence Park Complex, 1333 Brunswick Avenue Circle, Trenton, NJ 08648.

To find a lottery retalier, you can search the NJ lotto website.

What is the Powerball payout?

The complete guide to winnings is:

Match 5 White Balls + Powerball: Jackpot
Match 5 White Balls: $1 million
Match 4 White Balls + Powerball: $50,000
Match 4 White Balls: $100
Match 3 White Balls + Powerball: $100
Match 3 White Balls: $7
Match 2 White Balls + Powerball: $7
Match 1 White Ball + Powerball: $4
Match Powerball: $4
Match 5 White Balls with Power Play: $2 million
Match 4 White Balls + Powerball with Power Play: $200,000
Match 4 White Balls with Power Play: $400
Match 3 White Balls + Powerball with Power Play: $400
Match 3 White Balls with Power Play: $28
Match 2 White Balls + Powerball with Power Play: $28
Match 1 White Ball + Powerball with Power Play: $16
Match Powerball with Power Play: $16

What are the odds of winning the Powerball jackpot?

The overall odds of winning the Powerball are 1 in 292.2 million.

How do I find the Powerball winning numbers?

Powerball drawings are broadcast live every Monday, Wednesday and Saturday at 10:59 p.m. from the Florida Lottery draw studio in Tallahassee. Drawings are also lived streamed on Powerball.com. The winning numbers are posted to the Powerball and New Jersey Lottery websites.

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New Jersey

NJ’s biggest Catholic diocese hits pause on plan to merge parishes

Published

14 hours ago

March 4, 2026

Press Room

NJ’s biggest Catholic diocese hits pause on plan to merge parishes

Last June, the Catholic Archdiocese of Newark launched a review called “We Are His Witnesses,” which aimed to consider potential consolidations or closures of some of its 211 North Jersey parishes.

But amid confusion and pushback from many parishioners, Cardinal Joseph Tobin said Wednesday that the archdiocese will now extend its review to allow for further study and conversations.

In a letter published on the Archdiocese website March 4, Tobin, the archbishop of Newark, noted the challenges remain the same: a steady decline in membership and a shortage of priests projected to grow worse in the coming years. He did not specify how much longer the process would take but said he would have more to announce in June.

The largest of New Jersey’s five Catholic dioceses, the Newark Archdiocese serves approximately 1.3 million people in Bergen, Essex, Hudson and Union counties.

Story continues after gallery.

Some parishioners, Tobin wrote, “came to believe — incorrectly — that the overall goal of We Are His Witnesses is to close churches. That has never been the purpose.

“This work is not driven by downsizing, but by mission: by the call to strengthen parish life so that it can truly form disciples and reach those who are not yet engaged in the life of the Church.”

The program’s aim is not to close churches, but to “strengthen parish life” he added.

He said a follow-up announcement would come on June 12 but reassured parishioners that “there is no need to fear that an immediate and wholesale closure of parishes will be announced.”

‘The Church is not a museum’

Current circumstances demand Church leaders to make difficult decisions, he said. “The challenges we face are real: fewer priests, fewer people in the pews, communities that look very different than they did even a generation ago, and financial strain. Ignoring the changed landscape does not preserve parish life; it weakens it. The Church is not a museum to preserve what it once was,” he wrote.

The initiative kicked off last summer, with meetings at churches around the region to allow parishioners to offer feedback. Many expressed fears about their future of their church, Tobin said.

Parishioners at many of the meetings and in letters to Tobin expressed concerns about the program. As a result, Tobin concluded that “it is clear that the communities of the Archdiocese need more time for honest discernment. We are extending this phase of our work to allow for deeper reflection and broader consultation throughout our local Church.”

“This is not a pause in mission. It is a call to take the mission seriously and to ask ourselves, with renewed honesty, what it means to be a missionary Church today.”

Msgr. Richard Arnhols, pastor emeritus of St. John the Evangelist Roman Catholic Church in Bergenfield and a member of a committee of pastoral leaders helping to guide the review, said that, “Based on the input from the priests and people of the parishes which took place last fall, Cardinal Tobin has approved a period of additional study and reflection before any decisions are made.”

The first step is further conversation among parish priests, which will take place this month, he said.

Gregory Hann, a religious instructor at St. Vincent Academy in Newark, applauded Tobin’s decision. “If we continue to do things the way we have been doing them, we become a stagnant Church and we allow the comforts of our culture and the outside to keep us from moving from the Cross to glory.”

Nicholas Grillo of Bloomfield, a parishioner who attended several listening sessions at Holy Rosary Church in Jersey City, approved of the decision. “Hopefully the pause will give them time to reevaluate this going forward,” he said.

He added that it was a “waste of money” to pay large sums of money to a consultant that “doesn’t understand the intricacies of the Archdiocese of Newark,” he said, referring to the Catholic Leadership Institute, a Pennsylvania group that the archdiocese has engaged.

Instead, Grillo suggested, “they should put together a group of lay parishioners and priests from the diocese who can collaborate on a better path forward.”

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New Jersey

Devils Out to Rattle the Leafs | PREVIEW | New Jersey Devils

Published

1 day ago

March 4, 2026

Press Room

Devils Out to Rattle the Leafs | PREVIEW | New Jersey Devils

THE SCOOP

The Devils began their season-high seven-game homestand with a decisive victory over the Florida Panthers on Tuesday night. The win was their second consecutive victory after picking up a win in St. Louis earlier in the week.

There’s not a lot of runway left in the season, and stringing together a run of victories is at the top of their minds. New Jersey is 11 points out of the final Wild Card spot, and 13 out of third in the Metropolitan Division. Tuesday will mark the Devils final game before the NHL Trade Deadline, which is on Friday at 3 p.m.

The Toronto Maple Leafs are having a down year, based on where the expectations were set heading into the season. The Leafs have struggled to gain any traction in their season and sit just two points ahead of New Jersey with 64. Toronto is 12 points out of third in the Atlantic Division, and nine points out of a Wild Card spot.

The Leafs have a tendency to give up an abundance of shots to their opponents, ranking first in the league in shots against, per game with 31.8, which bodes will for a Devils team that averages 29.4 shots per game, ranking sixth in the league. Despite their overall struggles, the Leafs do have the league’s fourth-best penalty kill, working at an 83.1 percent efficiency.

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