New Jersey
Palestinian-American teen from North Jersey shot and killed in the West Bank
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Gazans march in largest anti-Hamas protests since war with Israel began
Thousands in the Gaza Strip marched in anti-Hamas demonstrations, the largest since the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks triggered the ongoing war with Israel.
CBC English
A 14-year-old boy, an American citizen from northern New Jersey, was shot and killed by Israeli military forces in the West Bank on Sunday.
Amer Mohammad Saada Rabee, formerly of Saddle Brook, was shot along with two other teenagers in Turmus Ayya, a town in the occupied West Bank where many Palestinian Americans live or own homes, according to the wire service Reuters.
The Israeli Defense Forces said in a statement that its troops opened fire on three people, killing one, after identifying “three terrorists who were throwing rocks at a highway with civilian vehicles” and “who posed a danger to civilians.
“IDF forces will continue to operate defensively and offensively throughout Judea and Samaria for the security of the region’s residents,” read the statement posted on X.
Mourners gathered Sunday for funeral prayers at the Palestinian American Community Center in Clifton, where Rabee’s uncle, Saleh Rabee of Wayne, is a board member.
“Amer was shot by Israeli military officers along with two other 15-year-olds from the village,” the center said in a statement. “The ambulance was not allowed to pass the checkpoint for 30 minutes, a denial in medical treatment that ultimately resulted in Amer’s death. Amer’s death was entirely preventable and horrifically unjust. He was a child, a 14-year-old boy, with an entire life ahead of him.”
Rabee’s death comes amid a rise in tensions and violence in the occupied West Bank since the Hamas-led attack in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2003. Settler attacks, military raids and attacks on property have become a near daily occurrence during Israel’s war in Gaza.
More than 900 Palestinians have been killed in the occupied West Bank by Israeli settlers or soldiers since the Oct. 7 attack, according to the United Nations.
On Sunday evening, Rabee’s two brothers, his uncle and his wife, who live in Wayne, were on their way to the airport to travel to the Palestinian territory and were not immediately available for comment.
The Israeli Army detained Rabee before he was pronounced dead, Reuters reported. Relatives told Rania Mustafa, executive director of the Palestinian American Community Center, who gathered information from his family for the statement, that Rabee’s body was returned to his parents with multiple bullet holes. Rabee, Mustafa said, moved from Saddle Brook to the West Bank when he was in elementary school.
The Palestinian foreign ministry condemned the incident as an “extrajudicial killing” against children, saying it was the result of Israel’s “continued impunity.”
In its statement, the Palestinian American Community Center called on the U.S. to investigate Amer’s killing, saying the nation “has a duty to protect and bring justice to its citizens.”
“We are united in grief,” the center wrote, “but also in our collective hope for a future where such atrocities no longer occur and where justice prevails for all.”
The incident resonated in New Jersey’s large Palestinian community. Turmus Ayya is a popular destination and a hometown for many Palestinian Americans, who spend summers there, live there part time or retire there. Its mayor has stated that Palestinian Americans with dual citizenship make up an estimated 85% of the town’s population.
Its residents have pleaded with United States officials to protect them after attacks by Israeli settlers, who have torched homes and cars and fire at residents, and to demand accountability for crimes against them.
In February 2024, the administration of President Joe Biden and European countries imposed financial sanctions on Israeli settlers who have attacked Palestinians in the West Bank. President Donald Trump repealed those sanctions.
This story contains material from Reuters.
New Jersey
Exclusive | NJ grandma with heart of gold goes viral for making salami sandwich for her mailman
This is one first class hero.
A New Jersey granny with a big heart recently went viral for making a salami and cheese sandwich for her mailman — who thought it was the best thing since sliced bread.
Antoinette Giancamilli, better known as Nonna Netta, has a tradition of presenting her postman, Kyle Frankenfield, with homemade food when he delivers the mail to her Alpha, NJ home, just east of the Pennsylvania border.
“It started out when I was roasting chicken and I gave him a chicken leg,” Giancamilli, 83, told The Post.
“Sometimes I just give him scones or a muffin or a piece of pizza. Whatever I have, I give him … But he loves a bagel with salami and cheese, that’s his favorite.”
The viral clip, which got close to 9 million combined views, started with the octogenarian in her kitchen, putting together the Genoa salami and provolone cheese on a bagel and toasting it.
“Got a sandwich for you, Kyle,” Giancamilli announces when she sees him approaching.
“This is like the third time this week,” the grateful mailman answers incredulously.
Once she hands him the sandwich, he gushes, “Anything you ever make is the best thing I’ve ever had. Thank you so much. You’re like a third grandmother to me.”
After the sandwich became so popular online, Giancamilli started to share it with other visitors.
“The guy just came to change our water heater tank and I said, ‘Do you want the mailman special?’ and I gave it to him too,” she said.
The mom of four and grandma of nine has more than 2 million combined followers on social media thanks to her grandson, Luke Hardin.
The idea to share his nonna, which means “grandmother” in Italian, with the world came in 2023 when he would visit her for lunch during his summer internship and post photos of the meals she would make him on TikTok.
“It would be a steak sandwich, hamburgers,” Giancamilli said. “And people commented, ‘Boy, I wish I had a grandma like that.’”
Now, the native of Rome, who immigrated to New Jersey in 1956 at 14 and started working as a seamstress for 75 cents an hour at 16, cannot leave the house without being recognized.
“Every time she goes to the grocery store, there’s at least a couple people that she doesn’t know that recognize her,” Hardin, 24, said.
“Even all my neighbors, they all know me,” Giancamilli added. “They say, ‘I watch you all the time, especially when I’m hungry.’”
The beloved nonna’s most popular videos have been the one of her roasting tomatoes for sauce, which racked up 110 million views, making cinnamon buns, which garnered 95 million, and whipping up pasta with pesto and shrimp, which got more than 21 million.
Her recipes are in such high demand that she’s even releasing a cookbook.
“She’s really seeing the impact that she’s having, all these people saying that they cooked cutlets for the first time or made pizza with their family,” Hardin said.
The spry senior, who is celebrating her 70th anniversary of moving to America next month, cooks for her family of 20 every Sunday.
“She has a saying, ‘If you feed them, they will come,’” Hardin said.
New Jersey
New Jersey Devils named fit for a surprising… and expensive star forward
The New Jersey Devils and Vancouver Canucks are going in very different directions. Well, we hope they are going in different directions. Both teams are currently in the same spot: home. Watching the playoffs on TV. Both also ended the tenure of their GMs, although Jim Rutherford is still in the seat.
The Canucks seem like they know what the path forward is, and it involves a rebuild. Quinn Hughes was traded for a haul. Elias Pettersson has been on the trade block for two years. Everything in Vancouver is available, as long as they hit the cap floor.
One player who is really interesting is Brock Boeser. He’s a former 40-goal scorer who hasn’t been that guy for two years. He seems very similar to Timo Meier, who is also a 40-goal scorer who has struggled to get back to 30 goals.
One might think that the Devils should have no interest in another player who is paid like he’s a 40-goal scorer when he’s actually a 25-goal scorer. That’s Boeser.
The difference is that Meier is a hard-nosed player who adds more than scoring to the lineup. Boeser isn’t a one-trick pony, but he’s also not a “lot of tricks” pony. Boeser needs to score to be effective, and he’s not scoring enough.
That’s why, one year after signing him to a seven-year deal worth a little more than $7 million per season.
Many believe the Canucks only re-signed Boeser in a last-ditch effort to keep Quinn Hughes, but it was never going to work. Now, they are stuck with a pretty bad contract. Boeser still has some value, so many are looking at who might trade for him.
Brock Boeser still doesn’t make sense for the New Jersey Devils
Michael DeRosa with the Sporting News says the Devils are one of three teams that could trade for Boeser. His reasoning includes the Devils’ disappointing finish and Boeser’s possible fit on a line with Jack Hughes and Jesper Bratt.
Boeser does have a similar impact profile as Tyler Toffoli, who has been the best fit next to Hughes since he joined the league.
However, the Devils can’t afford to pay Boeser his price, even if the Canucks retain $1 million for the life of the deal. The only way this works is if the Devils essentially sell on a lost asset. If the Devils can trade Jacob Markstrom for Boeser, maybe Sunny Mehta would consider it.
Without a considerable trade going the other way, the Devils wouldn’t even consider trading for Boeser. This isn’t how to start the Mehta era in New Jersey.
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New Jersey
How are public libraries funded in New Jersey? ⋆ Princeton, NJ local news %
In New Jersey, public libraries are treated as civic infrastructure under state law. They are primarily funded by a mandatory municipal tax under N.J.S.A. 40:54-8, known as the “1/3 mill” formula: 33 cents for every $1,000 of a municipality’s equalized, or true, property value. This minimum must be raised annually for library operations, regardless of local budget pressures.
Many municipalities choose to fund their libraries above this minimum. Libraries often receive additional support from grants, donations, and Friends of the Library groups.
But in municipalities like Princeton, where developers are receiving tax abatements known as PILOTs, or Payments in Lieu of Taxes, that baseline funding can be slowly and quietly eroded.
Under a PILOT agreement, a developer pays the municipality an annual fee instead of conventional property taxes. These agreements can last up to 30 years. The fee is typically far less than what full taxation would generate, and it flows directly to the municipality. The county receives 5 percent. The library receives nothing.
That matters because the 1/3 mill formula runs on equalized property valuation, which is the total taxable value of assessed property in a municipality. When a large apartment complex receives a PILOT, the building’s value is exempt from assessment. Only the land beneath it remains on the tax rolls. A development worth $60 million might contribute the taxable equivalent of a modest vacant lot.
The result: as a town grows — new buildings rising, new residents moving in, new cardholders walking through the library’s doors — the funding formula can stagnate. The tax base the library depends on reflects a version of the town that no longer exists.
The gap has drawn some legislative attention. A 2022 bill proposed adding the value of PILOT-exempt properties back into the equalized valuation used for state aid funding calculations, an acknowledgment that the standard formula fails to account for the full scale of development in PILOT-heavy municipalities. The bill never made it out of committee.
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