New Jersey

Mick Jagger stops in at NJ diner: This week in Central Jersey history, July 29-Aug. 4

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2 years ago

July 29, 2024

Mick Jagger stops in at NJ diner: This week in Central Jersey history, July 29-Aug. 4

Mick Jagger, hours before he went onstage at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford on Thursday, Aug. 1, 2019, grabbed a classic NJ breakfast at the Tick Tock Diner in Clifton.

Jagger ordered Taylor ham, egg and cheese. “So we went to the Tick Tock Diner!” Jagger told the audience. “We had Taylor ham, egg and cheese! With Disco fries! And sloppy joe to go!”

Here’s a look at events that happened in Central Jersey from five, 10, 25, 50 and 100 years ago this week.

Five years ago

July 29, 2019: A state appellate court upheld the conviction of James Quackenbush, 51, of Plainfield, serving a 40-year sentence in NJ State Prison, for murdering his mother, Gail Vandewalle, 69, in February 2013 by hitting her on the head with a 12-pound dumbbell.

July 30: The Marisa Tufaro Foundation, on what would have been its namesake’s 16th birthday, commemorated its second anniversary, announcing the nonprofit had donated more than $100,000 to help pediatric patients and other children in need throughout the greater Middlesex County area.

July 30: Te’Rai Powell, a rising senior at St. Joseph Regional in Montvale, announced on Twitter that he would play football for Rutgers University. Powell helped the Green Knights capture the NJSIAA Non-Public Group 4 championship the previous season, averaging 6.4 yards per carry.

July 31: Walter Yovany-Gomez, aka “Cholo,” 35, an MS-13 member previously named one of the FBI’s 10 Most Wanted Fugitives, was sentenced in Newark to 25 years in prison for killing Julio Matute of Plainfield in 2011.

Aug. 1: It became legal for NJ doctors to prescribe lethal medication to patients with less than six months to live. NJ was one of eight states that allowed medically assisted suicide or medical aid in dying.

Aug. 2-4: The Jersey Fringe Festival, featuring live music and a beer and wine garden, was held at 12 venues across downtown Hammonton, with the Eagle Theatre serving as the central location.

10 years ago

July 30, 2014: The Somerset Patriots beat the Lancaster Barnstormers, 7-0, on “Bark In The Park Night” at TD Bank Ballpark in Bridgewater. Somerset won the nightcap 2-0. The Patriots established a new franchise record for wins in a half with 47, albeit three weeks after the half had actually ended.

July 30-31: Approximately 350 bicyclists, including some local residents, participated in a two-day Bike4Chai fundraiser, beginning in Piscataway and ending at Camp Simcha in Glen Spey, New York, raising more than $4 million for the overnight summer camp for children and teens with cancer and other serious illnesses.

July 31: It was reported Albert Thomson, 48, of Berkeley Heights, was indicted on charges he stole millions of dollars from his employers, Elizabeth-based New England Motor Freight, and two related companies, Eastern Freightways Inc. and Carrier Industries Inc., over eight years.

Aug. 1: Jeff Xie, 17, of Edison, a senior at J.P. Stevens High School, took home $75,000 on the “Jeopardy! Teen Tournament,” beating Alan Koolik of Boca Raton, Florida.

Aug. 3: The Under the Influence of Music tour, with Wiz Khalifa, Jeezy, Ty Dolla $ign, Rich Homie Quan, Mack Wilds, Iamsu! and DJ Drama, was held at the PNC Bank Arts Center in Holmdel.

Aug. 4: In Somerville, State Superior Court Judge Robert Reed ruled David Granskie Jr.’s statement to police two days after the murder of Bridgewater resident Carolyn Stone, 45, could be admitted into his trial, which was expected to begin Wednesday, Sept. 3, 2014. Stone was killed on Memorial Day weekend of 2009 at Granskie’s father’s home in the Bradley Gardens section of Bridgewater,

1999

July 30, 1999: Deborah Caggiano, 34, of South Plainfield, who embezzled more than $2.5 million from Beumer Corp., a Bridgewater manufacturing company, was sentenced to seven years in prison.

July 31: Three teenage girls pleaded guilty to fourth-degree assault for lacing the coffee cup of their teacher at Middlesex County Vocational-Technical High School in East Brunswick with rubbing alcohol, it was reported. The girls were from Spotswood, Perth Amboy and New Brunswick.

Aug. 1: It was reported the Hispanic Riverfront Festival of New Brunswick, featuring music, dance and food, would be held Thursday, Aug. 5, 1999, through Sunday, Aug. 8, 1999, at Boyd Park in New Brunswick.

Aug. 4: The Somerset Patriots regained sole possession of first place with a 4-2 win over the Bridgeport Bluefish in front of 5,384 at Somerset Ballpark in Bridgewater, erasing the sting of a 9-1 loss in the series opener on Tuesday, Aug. 3, 1999.

1974

July 29, 1974: Scott Siegrist and Rich Szumel combined for a no-hitter as Piscataway American West edged Spring Lake-Sea Girt 1-0 and advanced to the Section 3 finals of the state Little League Baseball Tournament.

July 31: N.J. Secretary of State J. Edward Crabiel, 58, was indicted along with The Franklin Contracting Co., which he once headed; George Katz of Fort Lee, a Democratic fund raiser; the Passaic Crushed Stone Co., and the Gallo Asphalt Co., on charges of bid-rigging.

Aug. 2: A fire routed the 130 tenants of the Royal Court Apartments in Perth Amboy from their beds and heavily damaged the first four floors of the five-story building. Ten apartments were destroyed and one elderly tenant was hospitalized.

Aug. 4: Patrolman Jeffrey Royte, who discovered John Burns Jr., 14, of Mount Laurel in Burlington County, sleeping peacefully in a wooded area in Clinton, unknowingly found the youth who was missing from South Jersey since the previous Monday, and was the subject of an intensive search by police and volunteers.

Aug. 4: “Show Boat,” the Jerome Kern musical classic, would be presented by Plays-in-the-Park beginning Tuesday, Aug. 6, 1974, at Roosevelt Park in Edison, it was reported.

1924

July 30, 1924: Three inmates of the NJ Reformatory at Rahway were shot when a riot broke out among the 500 inmates. Before the outbreak was stopped, the institution suffered considerable damage.

July 30: While swimming in Lake Nelson in South Plainfield, Emile Ulmric, 21, a member of the faculty of St. Joseph’s Normal College, near Metuchen, was seized with cramps and drowned before assistance could be given.

July 30-31: The movie “Her Temporary Husband,” starring Sidney Chaplin, Sylvia Breamer and Owen Moore, was shown at Reade’s Strand Theatre in Perth Amboy.

Aug. 1: An attempt was made to “blow” the safe in the Forty-fifth street, Bayonne station of the NJ Central, but the burglars were frightened away by the police who were informed as to what was going on by a woman living near the station.

Aug. 4: In baseball, the St. Peter’s Lyceum beat the Pirates of Sayreville, 2-0.

Brad Wadlow is a staff writer for MyCentralJersey.com

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New Jersey

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

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4 minutes 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.

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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

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12 hours 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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New Jersey

Former Lumberton, New Jersey, mayor Gina LaPlaca pleads guilty to 2025 DUI, sentenced to treatment program

Published

1 day ago

March 3, 2026

Press Room

Former Lumberton, New Jersey, mayor Gina LaPlaca pleads guilty to 2025 DUI, sentenced to treatment program

A former mayor in Burlington County, New Jersey, pleaded guilty to DUI and child endangerment charges after a 2025 traffic stop, according to prosecutors.

Lumberton Township committee member Gina LaPlaca, 46, was indicted last spring on child abuse charges after county prosecutors said she was observed driving drunk with her young child in the car, while serving as the township mayor.

Police arrested her at her home after reviewing video from a witness showing her swerving out of her lane and nearly hitting a utility pole. Lumberton police discovered her blood alcohol concentration was .30%, over three times the legal limit of .08%.

On Monday, LaPlaca was sentenced to three years in a diversionary program for first-time offenders after pleading guilty to driving under the influence and a fourth-degree child abuse charge. As part of the plea deal, LaPlaca will avoid jail time as long as she abides by the terms of the program.

Under the terms of the Pretrial Intervention or PTI program, she must attend regular Alcoholics Anonymous meetings and comply with any requirements set by the New Jersey Division of Child Protection and Permanency.

Judge Craig A. Ambrose also ordered LaPlaca to have an ignition lock device on her car that will prevent it from starting up if the driver has consumed alcohol. She said in court she had already installed one in October 2025, the county prosecutor’s office said.

If LaPlaca violates the terms of the PTI program, she could be prosecuted for the child abuse charge.

LaPlaca completed an intensive treatment program in May 2025 and said in a statement that she is “fully committed to my recovery” and is doing the “daily, intentional work” that comes with it. She apologized to Lumberton residents while acknowledging a private struggle with alcohol addiction that was no longer private.

“The weight of my actions is something I carry deeply,” she said in a statement shared on social media. “What I did was wrong. It was dangerous. It was inexcusable. I drove while intoxicated with my child in the car — a choice that could have caused irreversible harm. That reality is something I will live with, and learn from, for the rest of my life.”

LaPlaca served as mayor through 2025 but remains on the township committee. Terrance Benson was sworn in as mayor of Lumberton this year.

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