NEWARK, NJ — Area politicians and education advocates are now discussing ways to improve student proficiency in English Language Arts and math after a recent study of New Jersey schools found significant drops during the COVID-19 pandemic.

JerseyCAN, a nonprofit focused on advocating for high-quality schools for all New Jersey students, released the first statewide study, ...

Students will still face a version of the mandatory exam in the fall. But questions on the details linger.

Special to TAPinto.net. This story was written and produced by NJ Spotlight. It is being republished under a special NJ News Commons content-sharing agreement related to COVID-19 coverage. To read more, visit njspotlight.com.

In a bit of a surprise, the Murphy administration ...

WAYNE, NJ — Wednesday night’s Wayne Town Council meeting was one of the longest in recent memory. The council members, administration and concerned members of the public stayed up past 1:00 a.m., and the most hotly debated subject of the evening was Ordinance 16, the proposed ban of all marijuana businesses in Wayne.

The ordinance, introduced in March and up for a vote on ...

WAYNE, NJ – Township Chief Financial Officer, Heather McNamara presented the proposed 2021 Wayne Township Municipal Budget at Wednesday night’s Wayne Town Council meeting. She provided some worrisome news and some good news. The worrisome news was that the economic fallout from pandemic mitigation efforts is likely not to be felt by the township this year, but the CFO predicted issues ...

TRENTON, NJ — The state Department of Health has directed all New Jersey vaccination sites to cancel or put on hold appointments for the one-shot Johnson & Johnson coronavirus vaccine — following recommendations by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration.

The health agencies today issued a pause in the vaccine’s ...

WAYNE, NJ – Mayor Chris Vergano provided a COVID-19 update during Wednesday night’s Town Council meeting. From February to March, new positive cases increased by more than eight per day, though there was a slight decrease in the daily average for the first six days of April.

Now that Wayne Town Council meetings are held once per month, Vergano has made a point to provide a monthly ...

WAYNE, NJ - Law enforcement use-of-force data, including statistics from Wayne, is now publicly available as part of a new statewide dashboard that debuted recently.

The Use of Force Dashboard tracks more than 3,000 New Jersey use-of-force cases from October through February as part of a “beta” test dashboard created by state Attorney General Gurbir S. Grewal. The data includes ...

WAYNE, NJ – A Wayne resident was arrested last week for strangling an employee of the Burger King on Route 23 South. A fellow employee intervened during the assault and the suspect fled. He was later found and arrested by Wayne Police.

According to Detective Captain Dan Daly of the Wayne Police, video footage from the Burger King security cameras showed two scenes.

Earlier, the ...

HAWTHORNE, NJ - The first annual Man Cave/She Shed Garage Sale was held on April 10 at Paul's Motors on Goffle Road. The parking lot was set up like a flea market and vendors displayed unique items for sale at their tables.  From tools to toys, autographed baseball jerseys and vinyl records, oddities from around the world could be found and purchased.

Norm Geyer and Richard Benz of ...

NEWARK, NJ — When Judy Rodriguez was a sophomore at Elizabeth High School, her history teacher gave her a key piece of information that would empower her, then one day power New Jersey.

"She gave us an aptitude test, and the result for me was that I would be good at the STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) subjects. Her reaction was 'You should try for ...

SCOTCH PLAINS, NJ -- "I totally forgot I submitted. I was in shock when I won!"

Scotch Plains-based author Robert Constant's marketing plan for his latest children's book was derailed by COVID, but a recent award is giving his book new life. 

Hello Grandma!, Constant's second children book recently was named the Bronze/Third Place winner in the 2021 Feathered ...

TOTOWA, NJ - Totowa’s second annual Car Show will take place on Sunday, April 25 at the Wells Fargo Parking lot between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. To register a car, can pay $20 on the day of the event. Spectators can attend for free.

The event is open to all cars, trucks and motorcycles of all years and will be judged per class. Each class is based on the year of the car and the ...

WAYNE, NJ — It was a beautiful, warm spring afternoon that turned into a gorgeous spring evening when the Wayne Hills High School wrestling team squared off against Lakeland High School in the first ever Wayne Hills spring outdoor wrestling match last week.

“[This] will go down as one of the most fun nights Wayne Hills Wrestling has ever had,” said head wrestling coach Dan ...

WAYNE, NJ — The Wayne Parks and Recreation Department, in conjunction with TAPinto Wayne, is holding the Township’s first-ever Cornhole League. It’s time to find out who is the best of the best when it comes to throwing a bean bag into a small hole on an inclined wooden board.

The league will be hosted by the Taphouse – Wayne on French Hill Road and the Village Inn on ...

WAYNE, NJ - Our latest Where in Wayne contest featured a mysterious picture of a meat cleaver stuck into...something.  It turned out to be a unique door handle at the entrance to Wayne's newest steak house the Meat Market on Berdan Avenue.

Less than 20% of the entrants in the contest were able to identify the location correctly

The winner, chosen at random from those who guessed ...

Hostess Snoballs have been recalled due to an undeclared allergen, announced Hostess Brands, LLC.

According to the company, certain Hostess SnoBalls were "inadvertently manufactured in the packaging for Hostess Chocolate CupCakes and the packaging doesn't list coconut, an ingredient as an allergen.

The recall included SnoBalls manufactured on March 12, 2021 with a UPC of ...

Approximately 2,100 cases of Sabra Classic Hummus have been recalled due to possible Salmonella contamination, announced Sabra Dipping Company, LLC. The contamination was discovered after the FDA did a routine screening of a single tub of hummus.

Consumption of food contaminated with Salmonella can cause salmonellosis, stated the FDA. The most common symptoms of salmonellosis ...

(TRENTON) – New Jersey Department of Agriculture Secretary Douglas H. Fisher is encouraging New Jersey residents to help take part in eliminating Spotted Lanternfly egg masses before they hatch near the end of April or in early May. Secretary Fisher and NJDA Plant Industry Division Director Joseph Zoltowski provide information and instructions on how to find and destroy the egg masses in a ...