The Star-Ledger reports that Dina Matos has dropped her claim that her former husband--and former NJ Governor--James McGreevey committed fraud because he did not tell her he was gay when they got married. McGreevey famously resigned office in 2004, and recently their history was fodder for a public divorce trial with claims of poverty and reports of threesomes. McGreevey's lawyer said the fraud charge was a failed "attempt to secure more money from JIm." Matos,......

The NJ Turnpike Authority presented a plan that would rails tolls 50% next year--and then another 50% in 2012 and 11% in 2023, according to WCBS 2. Given the state's budget troubles, Governor Jon Corzine has been trying to increase the fare to more than $3 in 2014 and to $5.80 in a decade--to much public outcry--but this plan would see a $3 toll in 2023. Right now, the toll is $1.20 (average), and under......

Ever since Jon Bon Jovi gave up his childhood home for a fan on MTV in 1989, he was on his way to sainthood. Or at least the "good guy" title. Now the rock star has teamed up with Newark Mayor Cory Booker and NJ Gov. Jon Corzine to bring more affordable housing to his home state. NJ.com reports the trio "dug shovels into a vacant lot in the city's North Ward" yesterday. The $15......

Pawlee, the NJ cockapoo puppy who scared a bear and her two cubs from her owners' backyard, is officially a star. WCBS 2 visited the Osiason family to find out what family, and apparently the 8-month-old, 15-pound pup "ran up to them and started barking his head off. I thought he was gonna wake up the whole neighborhood." WCBS even uses a clip from the movie Anchorman, noting that the Will Ferrell movie was the......

In New York, there's the Staten Island Ninja Burglar, who stealthily entered homes to steal money and other valuables. In NJ, there's the would-be Shinobi ninja warriors who were trying to rid the streets of drugs, by way of threatening letters. Clifton, NJ police apprehended 20-year-old Tadeusz Pertkiewicz and 19-year-old Jesse Trojaniak early Wednesday morning. They were wearing "black SWAT-type vests and carried knives, throwing stars, swords, nunchucks and a bow and arrows." Apparently they......

When a gas station employee in Englewood, New Jersey refused to give 21-year-old Kadien Jackson a refund on an unopened box of condoms, Jackson allegedly took the dispute to another level and called 911, telling the operator that the gas station was being robbed. He even provided a description of the robber, which happened to match the employee who refused to take back the prophylactics. After responding to the call and realizing they'd been summoned......

John Brennan was arrested after drawing a gun on sheriff's officers who had come to move items out of his 88-year-old mother's foreclosed home in Saddle Brook, NJ. His mother was unable to pay off her refinancing payments and the home was sold at auction in May. When movers and officers arrived yesterday, Brennan refused to let them into the house, wielding a .22-caliber gun. Eventually, the officers were able to calm Brennan down. Charges......

After an acrimonious divorce trial, a judge ruled that former NJ governor James McGreevey does not need to pay his ex-wife Dina Matos any alimony. When McGreevey's lawyer got the news, the Star-Ledger reports Stephen Haller yelled, "No alimony-that's what I'm talking about!" Stiil, McGreevey, who claimed he was so broke that his fiancier-boyfriend had to loan him money, must pay child support, up to $1,075/month (less than Matos's requested $1,750/month) and give a $109,295......

NJ Attorney General Anne Milgram was issued a ticket for driving 69 mph in a 50 mph zone on Route 1 in New Brunswick. Milgram, in a 1994 Honda, didn't identify herself as AG and the officer only realized who she was when he returned to the department. Milgram won't fight the $176 fine (also 4 points on her license), "I made a mistake and know what I did was wrong. I take responsibility for......

A man was killed and his wife and three friends were injured after their boat was hit by another vessel early Sunday morning in the Metedconk River. A four-foot hole was left in Robert Post's 17-foot boat (see photos here); Post died of blunt trauma to his head and body. The Star-Ledger reports the Ocean County DA's office needs more information before determining whether it's the "boating equivalent of vehicular homicide," and the State Police......

Today will be quite the media tour for newly-minted celebrity Princess Chunk. So what if she's a 44-pound cat, found wandering in Voorhees, NJ without a collar? The cat will be on The Today Show and visit Regis Philbin and Kelly Ripa, so be ready for some crazy daytime antics (will Ann Curry try to walk Princess Chunk? will Regis ask the full-figured feline to be his co-host when Kelly's on vacation?). And on Friday,......

Lightning strikes from NJ to Long Island hit twelve people. One of those people was fatally hit--a 38-year-old NJ man who was laying on a Sandy Hook beach with friends (two of them were also hit). Five men who had been playing soccer in HIcksvile but took shelter from the storm under a tree were also hit when lightning struck the tree. Four other were injured during a lightning strike in Cape May, NJ. While......

digg_url = 'http://digg.com/arts_culture/Photos_Darth_Vader_at_NJ_s_Annual_Festival_of_Ballooning'; Just 50 miles from NYC, Readington, NJ is hosting the The 26th Annual Quick Chek New Jersey Festival of Ballooning. The festival, which started yesterday, offers a number of different balloons, including a Pepsi can, a version of Noah's Ark, and some bees. But the coolest--or at least the Sithest--one would be Michel Lambert and Benoit Lambert's Darth Vader Balloon. The Darth Vader Balloon's Belgian creators received permission from LucasFilm to......

In NJ, a bicyclist is in critical condition after being hit by a deer. According to the AP, George Ljutich, who was cycling with Cynthia Mooney, in Hopewell Township when a car hit a deer, which then went flying into the Ljutich's and Mooney's path. The AP reports, "Ljutich was thrown from the bike and struck his head on the pavement. Mooney sustained cuts and bruises"--and they were both wearing helmets. There have been some......

The almost-new Prudential Center in downtown Newark was shut down yesterday. Officials say there were issues "related to its smoke evacuation system," according to the Star-Ledger, which also notes the arena has had to pay for city firefighters to stand in stairwells during events because of these issues. New Jersey Devils owner Jeff Vanderbeek and Mayor Corey Booker were spotted heading into the center this morning, to find out what was going on.......

The man believed to have shot his estranged wife at a YMCA in Montclair, NJ--in front of his daughter--was apprehended in Brooklyn yesterday. Police had been looking for Kenneth Duckett for the past 12 days, and a tip was called in leading them to an apartment in Flatbush. Duckett is awaiting extradition to NJ; Essex County prosecutor Paula Dow said, "He's been formally charged with murder and various weapons offenses. Bail has been set at......

Carla Katz was suspended as the head of the largest local of the Communications Workers of America. The CWA's national executive board believes there's, per the AP, "financial malpractice and suppression of dissent among the local’s 16,000 members, 10,000 of whom are state workers" (see the claims here). Katz denies the charges and says they are "appalling." Her past relationship with NJ Governor Jon Corzine has been scrutinized (Corzine gave her a $6 million settlement......

The Jersey shore town of Belmar has repealed laws that banned unregistered beer kegs and giving someone the finger. Apparently Belmar had instituted these laws to clean up its image as "Fort Lauderdale North" but Belmar's mayor told the AP the rules were hard to enforce. Belmar still has other strict rules as well as code enforcement officers who regularly crack down on summer renters with, say, empty beer cups left on front porches, and......

Five NJ residents have been hospitalized and one has died after drinking oil used to light tiki torches. Apparently the victims from Burlington and Bergen Counties believed they were drinking apple juice, but it's actually a kerosene-like substance (one victim was an 8-year-old girl who now has permanent lung damage; another person "mistook the oil for bottled water and tried to make coffee, but didn't get sick"). NJ Poison Information and Education System executive director......

A group of as many as 20 bottle-nosed dolphins have remained in NJ's Shrewsbury River, forcing authorities to impose a 50-yard distance between the mammals and humans who have come to catch a glimpse of them. It's believed the dolphins followed a school of fish and made a wrong turn from the Atlantic, becoming trapped in the river. While the dolphins seem healthy, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Teri Frady said they are......

Yesterday evening, while her 4-year-old son was in a Montclair YMCA's Kinderswim program, 31-year-old Monica Paul was fatally shot multiple times in the observation room with her 11-year-old daughter watching. No children were harmed. Police believe the children's father, Kenneth Duckett, is the shooter while a friend waited in a car for the getaway.......

Ashley Alexandra Dupre, also known as "Kristen," the high-class prostitute former governor Eliot Spitzer visited on Valentine's Day eve, strutted her considerable stuff at a New Jersey beach yesterday and there was a photographer on the scene to provide enough photos for the Daily News to give us this gallery. According to the News, Dupre was at a beach in Sea Girt with her mother, who looks like she could be Dupre's sister, in "matching......

Former NJ governor James McGreevey was on the witness stand during his drawn-out divorce trial and said he relies on his boyfriend, a wealthy financier, to help him pay alimony to his first ex-wife as well as his currently estranged wife, Dina Matos McGreevey. Matos McGreevey's lawyer is trying to prove McGreevey can pay alimony, but he has been claiming his stunning fall from the NJ Governor's Mansion--by way of admitting a gay affair and......

Today, the new New Jersey Hall of Fame will induct fifteen men and women--living and deceased--in a ceremony today. They are, in alphabetical order, Buzz Aldrin, Clara Barton, Yogi Berra, Bill Bradley, Thomas Edison, Albert Einstein, Malcolm Forbes, Robert Wood Johnson II, Vince Lombardi, Toni Morrison, Norman Schwarzkopf, Frank Sinatra, Bruce Springsteen, Meryl Streep and Harriet Tubman. The inductees, who were selected from a pool of 25 finalists, must have lived in the state......

Cops are on the lookout for a pants-less NJ man accused of breaking into an Edison, NJ woman's home, disrobing, and molesting its sleeping occupant. The police are now recommending that people not leave windows or doors unlocked because the nude intruder weirdo remains on the loose. Thursday morning, a 39-year-old woman awoke to find a nude man in bed with her and stroking her thigh around 3 a.m. He was an uninvited guest and......

A penny here, a penny there, pretty soon it adds up to driving right by a gas station because they've crossed a psychological barrier of asking more than four bucks for a gallon of gas. Area stations are trying hard to hold the line at $3.99 a gallon to keep from scaring the bejeezus out of drivers with the facts, which is that gasoline is the most expensive it's been since the invention of the......

After dozens of cars broke down after getting gas from a few Lukoil stations in NJ, the Russian-owned company explained, "Our company experienced water contamination issues at six northern New Jersey stations [caused by] excessive concentrations of water in storage tanks at an exchange partner's terminal." Lukoil offered to pay for damages to all vehicles affected by the bad gas and will reimburse motorists for rental cars (call 877-858-9962 for more info). Stalled cars were......

Evening commutes are already painful, but a few dozen motorists in NJ had a terrible night when their cars broke down because they filled up with some bad gas. Apparently some Lukoil stations got a "shipment of bad gas," forcing drivers to pull onto the shoulder of the Garden State Parkway and Palisades Interstate Parkway. The shipments were made to a rest area in Bloomfield and another gas station in Fort Lee. One woman, driving......

Sharpe James, five-time former mayor of Newark, NJ, was convicted by federal jury this morning on charges he conspired to, per the Star-Ledger, "rig the sale of nine city lots to his mistress, who quickly resold them for hundreds of thousands of dollars in profit." The jury, which had deliberated for five days before returning a verdict today, found James guilty of 13 counts of corruption. James' ex-girlfriend, Tamika Riley, who bought South Ward properties......

Images of the shrapnel-damaged bedroom from WNBC A NJ family is very angry at the Army for "misfiring" a projectile and having part of a shell crash through their roof and onto their daughter's bed. Their 10-year-old daughter had just left for a sleepover, but the family cat who was sleeping there was so seriously injured she had to be euthanized. The 6-inch by 4-inch, 2-pound piece of shrapnel lay smoldering on the bed......