One Essex and One Union County Tickets Split $340,778 Jersey Cash 5 Jackpot

TRENTON (Jan. 13, 2020) – Two lucky tickets matched all five numbers drawn splitting the $340,778 Jersey Cash 5 jackpot from the Sunday, Jan. 12, drawing. Each ticket is worth $170,389. The winning numbers were: 05, 15, 19, 28 and 35 and the XTRA number was: 02. The retailers will receive a bonus check for $2,000 for each winning ticket sold. Those tickets were sold at the following locations:

 Essex County: Kings Super Market, 778 Morris Turnpike, Short Hills; and

 Union County: Parkway Exxon, 1601 Route 22 West, Union.

Acting Executive Director James Carey announced that there were 351,851 tickets purchased for the drawing. By adding XTRA, for an additional $1.00 per play, winners are able to multiply their non-jackpot prizes by the XTRA number drawn. For correctly matching four of the five numbers drawn, 68 ticketholders won $399 each and 19 others won $798 each with the addition of XTRA. Moreover, for correctly matching three of the five numbers drawn, 2,473 ticketholders won $12 each and 523 others won $24 each with the addition of XTRA. Lastly 5,528 ticketholders each won $2 for correctly matching two of the five numbers drawn with the addition of XTRA on their purchase.

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View all New Jersey Lottery game winning numbers and drawings for the Pick-3, Pick-4, Jersey Cash 5, Pick-6, CASH4LIFE and 5 Card Cash games on the Lottery website (www.NJLottery.com) or on the official Lottery Facebook Page. Evening draws, with the exception of CASH4LIFE and 5 Card Cash, can be seen on WPIX-TV (PIX11) in New York and WPHL-TV (PHL17) in Philadelphia. Powerball and Mega Millions drawings can be seen on WABC-TV or WTXF stations.

ANE Adds Two New Hires in 2020 with Sights on New York Expansion

MONMOUTH JUNCTION, N.J. (January 14, 2020)

– ANE, Agency Network Exchange LLC, announced the addition of Kevin Grove (right) as Regional Director and Frank Vetrano (left) as Director of Membership.

“The quality of ANE is reflective of the caliber of talent we attract,” added Elizabeth Schenk, ANE’s Chief Executive Officer. “Both Kevin and Frank bring a wealth of knowledge and a stellar reputation to our growing staff. They will be instrumental in achieving our aggressive growth plans with our member agencies and carriers as well as expanding our footprint.”

Frank Vetrano brings 43 years of industry experience, previously with the Hanover Group as Regional Vice President for New Jersey and downstate New York. His career path also included Fireman’s Fund, USF&G, and St Paul. Vetrano has a keen understanding of the New York insurance environment and is well known and respected by agencies and carriers. He will lead ANE’s expansion into New York.

Kevin Grove graduated from Indiana University of Pennsylvania with a BS in business management and a minor in economics. He spent the last 16 years with Travelers as an account executive and most recently, regional director in Pennsylvania. Kevin will manage the relationships with our current members in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, in addition to expanding the company’s footprint in eastern and central Pennsylvania.

About ANE

Established in 2009, Agency Network Exchange LLC (ANE) is a network of independent insurance agencies. It provides its member agencies increased opportunities to grow their revenues and profits. Currently, ANE has over 70 individually owned member agencies in New Jersey and Pennsylvania that place more than $750 million in written premium. Visit

www.ane-agents.com

for more information.

Support veterans and families who need our assistance

Dear American Legion Family and Friends,

It was a year ago when American Legion members, posts and staff members worked together to collect, process and distribute more than $1 million in

Temporary Financial Assistance

(TFA) grants for Coast Guard families who were ensnarled in the

Bill Oxford, National Commander

federal government shutdown.

Fortunately at this time, we don’t have to step in for the federal government to ensure the brave men and women of the Coast Guard are compensated for keeping our nation safe. But there are other urgent needs that we will address now and throughout 2020 through The American Legion Veterans & Children Foundation (V&CF).

Grants from the foundation not only provide vital support for military and veteran parents in unexpected financial crises, they also support American Legion service officers in their tireless efforts to obtain care and due benefits and opportunities for disabled veterans and families.

These service officers provide free expert assistance to more than 700,000 veterans, widows and families as they navigate the complexities of VA benefits and services they have earned through their service.

Sadly, service officer support and TFA grants often go unnoticed in local communities.

But their importance cannot be overstated.

The Veterans & Children Foundation

improves lives for veterans, servicemembers and their families. It is essential that the foundation remain a resource for our comrades in need in communities throughout the nation.

Whether funds are used to assist Coast Guardsmen who are missing paychecks or a veteran and her spouse who lost their home to a fire or a military family struggling to make ends meet, the Veterans & Children Foundation needs your support.

For the remainder of my term as national commander, I will be focusing on my fundraising goal of $25 million for V&CF. That may sound like a lot of money. Just remember that in 1924-25, Legion members created the original American Legion Endowment Fund by raising $5 million — that’s about $72 million in today’s dollars, adjusted for inflation.

I am confident that with your kind contributions, we will indeed assist veterans, support military families and build a strong foundation for the future.

Tinton Falls Man Sentenced to Prison Term for Crimes Against 63-Year-Old Special Needs Victim

FREEHOLD

–

A Tinton Falls man was sentenced to an aggregate 19 years in a New Jersey State Prison following his October conviction for retaliating against a 63-year old male with special needs, announced Monmouth County Prosecutor Christopher J. Gramiccioni.

Luis Vializ, 49, of Tinton Falls, was sentenced by Monmouth County Superior Court Judge Vincent N. Falcetano Friday morning, January 3, 2020. Upon a motion by the State, Judge Falcetano found Vializ to be a statutory persistent offender and ordered Vializ to be sentenced to an extended first degree term of imprisonment.

Vializ was convicted by a Monmouth County Jury on October 25, 2019, after a three-day trial before Judge Falcetano. The jury found Vializ guilty of second degree Witness Retaliation, third degree Possession of a Weapon for an Unlawful Purpose, fourth degree Unlawful Possession of a Weapon, and fourth degree Receiving Stolen Property. Vializ was sentenced to fifteen years in state prison for the second degree Witness Retaliation charge, and a consecutive four year term in state prison for the merged weapons offenses. Vializ was also sentenced to a concurrent eighteen months in state prison for the fourth degree Receiving Stolen Property charge.

Vializ was found in possession of a stolen bicycle in Neptune Township on Sept. 19, 2018, and following his arrest was informed the victim of the bike theft was a 63-year-old individual with special needs. Nearly a month later, on Oct. 11, 2018, Vializ observed that same victim inside of an establishment in the Jumping Brook Plaza in the township, where the bike was secured outside. Upon seeing both the bike and the victim, Vializ used a hammer to repeatedly strike the bike and threatened to strike the special needs victim, in an act of retaliation.

The charges in this case were the result of a joint investigation by the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office and the Neptune Township Police Department.

This case was prosecuted by Assistant Prosecutors Caitlin Sidley and Amanda Dalton Clark.

Vializ is represented by John M. Murphy, III, Esq., of Farmingdale.

Election 2020: Trump Co-Chairs Condemn NJ-2 Candidate Richter for Anti-Trump Rhetoric

New Jersey State Senator Joe Pennacchio & State Senator Michael Testa Jr., who co-chair President Trump’s New Jersey re-election campaign, issued the following statement condemning NJ-02 candidate David Richter for anti-Trump comments he made in today’s New York Times.

“Accusing President Trump of abandoning his principles is the type of rhetoric you would expect to hear from his Democratic Socialist opponents like Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, not an allegedly “Republican” candidate for the US House of Representatives. If Republicans can’t trust Richter to defend the President to a New York Times reporter how could they ever trust him to stand up to Nancy Pelosi and other House Democrats in Washington. Congressman Van Drew stood up to the Democrats’ impeachment hoax and defended President Trump when it mattered most – that’s why the President will be in South Jersey later this month to stand with Republican Congressman Jeff Van Drew. President Trump has kept all of his campaign promises and to say otherwise is intellectually disingenuous.”

Human Trafficking, a World Wide Problem

Every day, HSI agents around the globe work to uncover, dismantle and disrupt human trafficking. They come face to face with the worst of humanity – traffickers profiting off the forced labor and commercial sex of their victims using physical and sexual abuse, threats of harm and deportation, false promises, economic and psychological manipulation, and cruelty.

Human trafficking victims have been found in communities nationwide in the agriculture, hospitality, restaurant, domestic work and other industries, as well as in prostitution that is facilitated online, on the street, or in businesses fronting for prostitution such as massage parlors. Overseas forced labor can be used to produce the consumer goods that are in our homes and workplaces. The victims are men, women and children of all ages and may include U.S. citizens and foreign nationals. Many of them may have thought they had found a good paying job or a better life, only to have their hopes and dreams dashed and placed into modern day slavery.

In fiscal year 2019, HSI initiated 1,024 investigations with a nexus to human trafficking and recorded 2,197 arrests,1,113 indictments, and 691 convictions; 428 victims were identified and assisted. HSI continues to make human trafficking cases a top investigative priority by connecting victims to resources to help restore their lives and bringing traffickers to justice.

If you notice suspicious activity in your community, call the ICE Tip Line at 1-866-DHS-2-ICE or

report tips online

How to Make Your New Jersey Home Sell Faster

(Gloucestercitynews.net)(January 14, 2020)–If you are thinking of selling your home in New Jersey, there are a number of steps that you can take to ensure that your home appeals to the typical New Jersey buyer, regardless of the estate agent that you choose or the time that you choose to sell your home. By following these interior design tips, you will soon be able to ensure that your home only stays on the market for as little time as possible.

Paint Your Walls

Due to the fact that

more people are looking at leaving New Jersey

than staying within the state, it is important that your home is able to stand out from the crowd of houses on the market and ensure that it grabs the attention of potential home buyers. To allow your home to do this, you need to make sure that you are able to present your house to its maximum potential, and you can do this by sprucing up your home’s walls. Although you might not want to completely revitalize your home before moving out, painting your walls can help to cover any chips, cracks, or stains which can mar the modernity and attractiveness of your home. Then, to prevent your home from looking dated, you should invest in the right

painting tools

to enable you to perfect your home’s new finish yourself without having to call in professional help.

Declutter and Depersonalize

Even if your house has the best of décor and interior design, if your home is cluttered or unclean, this can decrease the viewer’s likelihood to buy your home. Instead, your home should be both clean and tidy so that viewers can see all of the features which your home provides, as well as the potential space offered by your home. Not only this, but there is evidence to suggest that depersonalizing your home is the perfect option to get your home in New Jersey sold quickly, as this will enable viewers to envision their own possessions within your home, helping them to imagine what it would be like for them to live within the property.

Make a Great First Impression

However, the interior of your home is not what makes the first impression on guests to your property. Instead, the front garden will be the first view that potential buyers have of your home, and so it is important to maximize the impact of this first impression. You can do this by creating a lavish and decorative outdoor space, ensuring that weeds are eradicated and that your garden is filled with bright and budding flowers and plants. You can also add to this sight by ensuring that your fences are strong and painted well. You can also have benches and other forms of outdoor equipment in your garden to transform it into a relaxing and peaceful space that can instantly appeal to potential buyers.

Conduct Repairs

With

house prices in New Jersey

reaching over a high $360,000 on average, potential buyers in Jersey City and beyond want to know that they are getting a good property for their money and that they will not have to spend extortionate amounts on repairs within the first six months of their tenure. You should make sure that any issues with your home are fixed efficiently before you have any viewings, and these include issues such as blocked drains, which can lead to nasty smells, leaks in the roof, and poor electrics, for instance.

Add Finishing Touches

With there being a lot of competition in

the best locations to buy houses in NJ

, it is important that you are able to add finishing touches that can wow your viewers and make them want to immediately buy your property. Your finishing touches can be added on the day of the viewing to ensure that everything goes smoothly, and these can include adding simple items such as plants and increasing natural lighting to allow your home to appeal to viewers. You may also consider adding incense burners or candles around your home to give off great smells that can influence the ambiance of the interior of your property and stun viewers into instantly loving your home.

Modernize Your Home

New Jersey is infamous for its

inspired home design trends

, and keeping up with the latest fashions is important if you want to appeal to homeowners in the state. In order to modernize your home, you should consider applying rules and trends such as neutral or feature walls, as well as minimalism to help your home look like an up-to-date and fashionable space that will appeal to all ages.

Summary

There are many reasons why you might need to sell your home fast, such as if you are part of a chain or if you need to take on a job in a new area. Although the New Jersey housing market can be competitive, with a few home improvements, as well as a good estate agent and selling platform, it is easy to sell your home fast and move as soon as possible.

image courtesy of unsplash.com

STUDY: New Jersey One of the States Hit the Hardest by Robo Calls

It’s not just in your head: the number of robocalls has increased sharply over the last couple of years. Robocall blocking company YouMail estimates that between 60 and 75 billion robocalls will have been placed in 2019, up from 47

billion last year and 30 billion the year before. What’s more, scams increasingly account for the majority of robocalls—45% of them in 2019, compared to just 17.6% in 2016.

To investigate this issue further,

Let’s Talk

culled robocall complaint and call frequency data from Federal Trade Commission and YouMail, and assigned each state in the U.S. a score. Based on this methodology, Maryland, Nevada, Colorado, Delaware and New Jersey have been hit the hardest by robocalls in 2019. The average Maryland resident receives a whopping

18 robocalls a month

Alaskans have suffered the least from robocalls this year—residents receive an average of 3.3 of them a month—followed by North Dakota, Indiana, Hawaii, Mississippi. Here’s a full list of the state robocall rankings.

As mentioned, scams account for the largest percentage of robocalls (45.7%), followed by alerts and reminders (22.7%), payment reminders (20.3%), and perpetually annoying telemarketing calls (11.3%). The percentage of telemarketing robocalls has hovered around 11-13% over the past three years.

Fortunately, there’s help on the way. A new federal law raises the penalty for a single robocall to a whopping $10,000—which should make spammers think twice. The major carriers have already rolled out a new robocall fighting measure called STIR/SHAKEN, which promises to help to ameliorate the problem as well.

METHODOLOGY

To come up with our state robocall rankings, we calculated each state’s ranking by giving them a weighted score based on two data points: the monthly number of robocalls per person in each state (weighted at 40%) according to YouMail, and the number of monthly robocall complaints per person made to the Federal Trade Commission in each state (weighted at 60%). The states were then ordered and ranked according to this score.

SOURCE: LET\’S TALK

Does Chairman Currie Understand What It Means To ‘Say Anything, Tell Any Lie’

Norcross wants it both ways on Economic Opportunity Act

COLLINGSWOOD – Claire Gustafson, Republican candidate for Congress in New Jersey’s first congressional district, congratulated John Currie on getting re-elected Democrat state party chairman and asked if the Chairman understood what it really means to “say anything, tell any lie” to hold onto a seat in congress.

Currie’s “say anything, tell any lie”

comments

were directed at Republican Congressman Jeff Van Drew in the second congressional district last week after the congressman added “Phil Murphy to the list of reasons” he left the Democrat party.

“While I do congratulate Chairman Currie on winning re-election as New Jersey’s Democratic Party Chairman, I think he might want to refrain from throwing stones from within the glass house of his own party,” Claire Gustafson said. “One need only look at reports of how Congressman Donald Norcross once

proudly proclaimed

he ‘led the charge on getting the Economic Opportunity Act passed into law’ and

more recently

has backpedaled and ‘is trying to downplay his role’ in getting the law that has benefitted his friends and family passed.”

“Rather than accusing a Republican Congressman of being the one to ‘say anything, tell any lie’ perhaps the Democrat chairman should be calling out Congressman Norcross for saying anything and telling any lie.” Gustafson added, “Obviously, Congressman Norcross, by his own words, ‘led the charge’ on getting a law passed before his campaign staff decided he was ‘just one of dozens of cosponsors.’”

Gustafson asked, “Was Congressman Norcross lying when he said he led the charge on getting the Economic Opportunity Act passed into law? Or is the congressman saying anything and telling any lie with his backpedaling and saying he was just one of dozens of cosponsors?

“Whatever the case, Donald Norcross doesn’t get to have it both ways on the Economic Opportunity Act and the scandals it has led to and Chairman Currie does not get to accuse any Republican of saying anything and telling any lie to hold onto a seat when a member of Congress from his own party is doing exactly that.”

YOUR GOVERNMENT: Recycling, Climate Funding, EV Charging Station Bills Go to Gov’s Desk

The following bills have passed both the Assembly and the Senate and are on their way to the Governor’s

desk.

A5681/5682 (Pinkin) / S3939/3944 (Smith):

Establishes Recycling Market Development Council. The Council would look at existing recycling markets and recommend ways to stimulate recycling and how to reduce contamination of collected recyclables. The bill passed the Assembly with a vote of

76-0-0

“We’re seeing a major drop in recycling in New Jersey. In the early 1990’s, we recycled over half of municipal and household waste. Now we are down to 37%. China’s decision to no longer import plastic waste has caused the recycling market to collapse. Some towns are no longer taking plastics. Recycling facilities are closing, or opening only once or twice a month. This bill says that New Jersey needs to develop new recycling markets. Rutgers has invented the first plastic lumber that uses recycled plastics, and more innovation needs to be encouraged. We need to focus on coming up with more markets for recycling, and establishing a Recycling Market Development Council is a step in the right direction,”

said Jeff Tittel, Director of the New Jersey Sierra Club.

A6014 (Vainieri Huttle):

Establishes NJ Climate Change Resource Center at Rutgers University, appropriates up to $500,000. The resource center would carry out interdisciplinary research activities to help New Jersey adapt and prepare for climate change. The bill passed the Assembly with a vote of

53-20-1

“Establishing a Climate Change Resource Center is a good step forward when it comes to being prepared and stronger than the next storm, but $500,000 is not enough money to get the job done. Rutgers is spending $4 million a year on a new football coach, but we can only spend $500,000 for climate change research. They need to get their priorities straight. This is a fumble when it comes to climate change. A recent study found that much of New Jersey, including inland counties, are more vulnerable to climate impacts now than before Sandy. We must start taking real actions to fight climate change now. We are in a climate crisis, and New Jersey is the only state on the east coast that does not have any kind of sea level rise climate adaptation plan,”

said Jeff Tittel.

“This Resource Center will help use the latest science to put climate and sea level rise in DEP rules and state legislation, but more money needs to go toward this center for it to be effective.”

A1030 (Johnson)/ S2421 (Smith/Bateman):

Concerns installation of electric vehicle charging stations in common interest communities. This bill would promote, encourage, and remove obstacles to the use of electric vehicle (EV) charging stations by prohibiting common interest communities, such as condominiums and homeowners’ associations, from adopting or enforcing any rule that prohibits the installation or use of an EV charging station in a unit owner’s designated parking space. The bill passed the Assembly with a vote of

75-1-1

“This legislation is a critical step forward towards making EV infrastructure accessible for everyone. Residents should have RIGHT-To-CHARGE where people can petition their landlord or condo association for a private charging station or pay for a public charging station. We can also have the Economic Development Authority require any project with state funding to have charging stations,”

said Tittel.