Route 287 Plane Crash in Top State News

A third defendant in the 2007 schoolyard murder of three college students  Friday, officials from the Essex County Prosecutor's Office said. Morristown resident Shahid Baskerville may face a 30-year prison sentence after his plea to four counts of robbery, one count of conspiracy and one count of aggravated criminal sexual contact in connection with the Aug. 4, 2007 triple murder in Newark.

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The acrid odor of burning plastic continued to envelope Elizabeth on Friday, as waves of black, dirty smoke poured from a mammoth warehouse, ablaze for three days. [NJ.com]

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Gov. Chris Christie announced Thursday the state would  totaling $3.83 million in state and federal funding to transitional housing programs statewide, according to a release from the governor's press secretary Michael Drewniak. Christie made the grant award announcement at Community Hope's "Hope for Veterans," a transitional housing program for homeless veterans situated on the Lyons campus in Somerset County.

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One big question remained unanswered Friday after a non-partisan tiebreaker gave Republicans a victory in redrawing New Jersey’s congressional district map: What will Rep. Steve Rothman do now? [NorthJersey.com]

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Gloucester Township is fast . The township planning board recently approved a 26-acre solar farm.

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For the second year in a row, the Music Makers of Eleanor Rush Intermediate School have , this time for NJ101.5's Christmas Choir contest. The singer performed live in studio Friday morning and an hour later, on their bus ride back to Cinnaminson, heard they won.

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Whether it's cookies and cakes, or ham and potatoes, food is rarely in short supply over the holidays, and that is a growing teenager's dream. It can also be a .

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Galloway Township officials  with members of the local media to tell them the township is overwhelmed with OPRA requests. Galloway Township has received 539 information requests since Oct. 4 of this year, compared with 242 received by the township all of last year, representatives of the township council said Thursday.

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During the inaugural Ocean City First Night New Year's Eve celebration in 1992, a policeman told Ocean City Public Relations Director Mark Soifer, "I've never seen this many people in Ocean City on New Year's Eve." It was a small holiday miracle: almost 1,000 people on the boardwalk in the dead of winter in the summer resort. Twenty years later, First Night organizers are  and welcome thousands more as part of a two-day First Night/First Day celebration that has become a highlight of Ocean City's event calendar.