New Jersey
July 4th 2025 Fireworks, Events Around Berkeley
BERKELEY, NJ — Independence Day falls on a Friday in 2025, kicking off a star-spangled three-day weekend packed with fireworks, festivals and other Fourth of July fun in and around Berkeley.
To help you fit it all in on your 4th of July calendar, Patch has put together a guide to what’s going on in Berkeley and the surrounding areas.
July 4 Festivities For 2025
What: Berkeley Sounds of Summer Concert
Where: Veterans Park, Bayville
When: July 2, 6 p.m. to 9 p.m.
Enjoy live music from Jukebox Legends and Naked Jake Band, followed by fireworks at 9 p.m.
What: Lacey Township Fireworks
Where: Lacey Township High School
When: July 3
Festivities begin at 7:30 p.m.; fireworks are at 9:15 p.m.
What: Surf City Fireworks
Where: Barnegat Bay off 17th and 18th Street
When: July 3, 9 p.m. to 10 p.m.
What: Seaside Heights Fireworks
Where: Seaside Heights Boardwalk
When: July 4, 9:30 p.m. to 9:45 p.m.
What: Beach Haven Fireworks
Where: Taylor Avenue bayfront behind Bay Village
When: July 4, 9:30 p.m.
What: Tuckerton Fireworks
Where: Lake Pohatcong
When: July 4, dusk around 9:15 p.m.
What: Barnegat Fireworks
Where: Barnegat High School
When: July 5
Festivities begin at 5 p.m.
What: Beachwood Fireworks Over the Toms River
Where: The Toms River
When: July 5
Note that this annual tradition is held on July 5 this year.
Independence Day commemorates the adoption of the Declaration of Independence by the Continental Congress on July 4, 1776. In that document, the 13 original colonies declared their independence from Great Britain.
During the pivotal summer of 1776, the pre-Revolutionary celebrations honoring King George III’s birthday were replaced with mock funerals as a symbolic break from the crown.
It was an exciting time in Philadelphia — the Continental Congress voted to break from the crown and, two days later on July 4, the Declaration of Independence was adopted by the original 13 colonies —New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland. Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia — to adopt the Declaration of Independence.
The first annual commemoration of the nation’s independence was in Philadelphia on July 4, 1777, while the Revolutionary War was ongoing. Fireworks have been part of Fourth of July festivities since the first celebration in Philadelphia.
Today, Americans celebrate with fireworks, parades, concerts, and family gatherings and barbecues. Celebrations, though, predate by centuries the designation of Independence Day as a federal holiday, which didn’t happen until 1941.
NEWARK, N.J. — Nico Hischier scored his second goal of the game on a breakaway at 3:42 of overtime to give the New Jersey Devils a 3-2 victory over the Seattle Kraken on Wednesday night.
Hischier took a pass from Jack Hughes and broke in on goalie Philipp Grubauer. As Seattle’s Matty Beniers caught up, Hischier turned to to his backhand to shield Beniers and put a shot past Grubauer. The New Jersey captain leads the team with 15 goals.
Cody Glass also scored for New Jersey, and Jacob Markstrom made 15 saves. The Devils built on a 5-2 victory Monday night in Minnesota that ended a four-game losing streak.
Jared McCann and defenseman Adam Larsson scored for Seattle, and Grubauer stopped 23 shots. The Kraken have two games left on a trip that opened with a loss at Carolina and a victory over the New York Rangers.
McCann tied it on a power play at 5:06 of the second period, scoring off a rebound just 1:33 after Hischier gave New Jersey the lead on a power play with a shot from the top of the right circle to the far side.
Glass opened the scoring at 54 seconds of the first period. He won a faceoff, then scored off a rebound of Dougie Hamilton’s shot. Larson tied it at 8:55 of the period, stepping up between he circles for a shot to the far side.
Up next
Kraken: At Boston on Thursday night.
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Devils: Host Carolina on Saturday night.
New Jersey
Governor-elect Sherrill Nominates Tom Hauck to Serve as Director of Homeland Security – Insider NJ
Governor-elect Mikie Sherrill announced today that she will appoint Marine Corps Veteran Tom Hauck to serve as New Jersey’s Director of Homeland Security. Hauck is currently serving as the Director of Intelligence and Operations of New Jersey’s Office of Homeland Security, where he leads the state’s counterterrorism and counterintelligence efforts, works in coordination with the FBI and local law enforcement, and implements intelligence collection and outreach programs to keep communities safe.
“I’m on a mission to deliver for New Jersey, and that means first and foremost keeping our residents safe. Tom brings decades of professional law enforcement experience that will help us do just that. As Director of Homeland Security, Tom will help us protect houses of worship, run the nation’s first state-level cyber information-sharing and incident response center, and be a key part of our preparations to welcome the world to celebrate both the FIFA World Cup and America’s 250th anniversary,” said Governor-elect Sherrill.
“I am honored to continue to serve the State of New Jersey as Director of Homeland Security. I look forward to working alongside the Governor-elect to lead the Office in our mission to intercept and mitigate threats before they reach communities. Together, we will continue to run the nation’s premier cyber information sharing center, work with state and local law enforcement to protect communities, and be a partner in preparing New Jersey to safely host world-class events this summer,” said Tom Hauck.
Thomas Hauck joined the New Jersey Office of Homeland Security and Preparedness (NJOHSP) in July 2022 as the Director of the Intelligence and Operations Division. Mr. Hauck oversees the activities of three bureaus that work in close collaboration with federal, State, and local partners: Operations Bureau, Intelligence and Analysis Bureau, and Mission Support Bureau. He leads NJOHSP’s collaboration efforts on counterterrorism, domestic terrorism, counterintelligence, and other specific criminal matters with the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force and other law enforcement entities. He also implements intelligence collection and outreach programs and resources to help NJOHSP meet its mission of helping to keep the residents and visitors in New Jersey safe. Mr. Hauck brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to the agency, having served the FBI for two decades, most recently as an Assistant Special Agent in Charge and Compliance Officer at the FBI’s Newark Field Office. Prior to the FBI, he served in the U.S. Marine Corps as an Intelligence Officer/Captain.
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3-minute read
Charter schools explained. What is a Charter School?
What exactly is a Charter School? Let’s break down the basics: what they are, where they came from and how they work.
Paul Wood Jr, NorthJersey.com
New K-12 bills aimed at curbing inflated salaries and nepotism by improving transparency in the state’s public charter schools are headed to Gov. Phil Murphy for signing, coinciding with a state comptroller’s report that accuses a prominent South Jersey charter school of violating state laws.
The school installed a private vendor to oversee its management without due process, with the school superintendent appointing herself as the vendor’s CEO and naming other family members to key leadership positions, the report said.
The new proposals address transparency, governance, athletics, budgets and salaries for top leadership, said Harry Lee, head of the state’s charter school lobby, the New Jersey Public Charter Schools Association.
They also reward high-performing charter schools by making it easier for schools to consolidate, and introduces a 10-year-renewal clause, up from a five-year renewal, through the state Department of Education.
Story continues below photo gallery.
“These bipartisan bills modernize New Jersey’s 30-year-old charter school law by strengthening transparency, accountability and oversight, while continuing to support high-performing charter schools,” said the bills’ sponsor, state Sen. Vin Gopal, D-Monmouth. “Public dollars deserve public accountability, and New Jersey’s students and families deserve nothing less.”
The comptroller’s report targeted CAPS Greater Asbury Park Charter School. News reports detailed the charter school executive director’s husband renting out school property and receiving cash for uniform sales that were not documented.
School staff members called attention to corrupt practices for three years, ending in the board of trustees firing the executive director and her husband in 2024, the comptroller’s report said.
The state has also identified other murky practices, such as school authorities installing CAPS Inc. as its charter management association through a contract process that bypassed competitors and gave it “sweeping authority.”
Several high-performing charter schools in the state, including in Plainfield and Paterson, operate under the umbrella of CAPS, or College Achieve Public Schools.
While many charter schools in the state have been compliant with the law, there were outliers that made it necessary for legislators to act and update the state’s charter schools law, which dates back to 1995, Lee said.
“This bill provides consistency and will require more transparency around school leader contracts,” Lee told NorthJersey.com. “We had issues of a couple of school leader salaries that were out of control. This will absolutely clamp down on that.
“This also improves governance,” Lee said. “So there’s now new requirements for governance around qualifications, residency, where one-third of school trustees have to live or work in the district or region in which the charter school is located, as well as new training requirements.”
Prevents athletic ‘super teams’
The bills will also prevent the creation of “super teams” in high school athletics, after CAPS Greater Asbury Park faced allegations that it built a winning basketball team that won a state title with players recruited from all over the state, including Trenton and Irvington, who were motivated to transfer to CAPS to train under a reputed coach.
If the bills become law, every charter school will also have to post all board of trustees meeting notices, meeting dates and the minutes of each meeting on the charter school’s website in accordance with the provisions of the Open Public Meetings Act. A second bill prohibits charter schools from imposing further criteria that would narrow the pool of students already selected by lottery, bars them from advising or counseling enrolled students to leave the school, and lays out rules for interscholastic athletics participation.
The proposals have the support of two parties that have historically opposed each other — the powerful public school teachers’ union, the New Jersey Education Association, and the New Jersey Public Charter Schools Association.
Critics and many public school advocates have long accused charters of siphoning off public funds from public districts, while serving selective populations. The NJEA, which opposed them for years on the grounds that they adhered to fewer accountability measures, views the new bills as a step toward addressing this.
Public charters, on the other hand, are viewed by many as a solution for underserved students, as evidenced in improved test scores and student performance in the state’s six urban districts where most of the 85 schools are. An analysis of 2025 test scores on the New Jersey Student Learning Assessment showed that 71% of charter school students in six urban districts, Camden, Jersey City, Plainfield, Trenton, Paterson and Newark, were more likely to read at grade level and 65% more likely to do math at grade level compared with their district peers, the state charter association said.
Charter schools enroll students through a free lottery entered by parents. The schools’ chargers, or “contracts,” can be revoked at any time by the governor’s office if they do not meet key benchmarks of student performance and fiscal and organizational sustainability. However, like public schools, charters are free of cost and are run primarily using taxpayer money from sending school districts, based on the number of students the districts send.
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