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Over 1,000 schools, companies, and government agencies are taking part in a nationwide movement to support returning veterans this Memorial Day and help them get the assistance they need as they come home.

From schools and teacher associations to government agencies and Fortune 100 companies, employers of all kinds are participating in the GI Go Fund “Jeans for Troops” Drive today, May 23, to help raise funds for veterans and their families. Employers from across the country will allow employees to wear jeans to work for a $5 donation to help the GI Go Fund further its mission of providing veterans with help finding employment and educational opportunities, homelessness assistance, and connections to critical benefits.

They may not exactly be the Big, Bad Bruins of the early 1970s, a team that ran roughshod over the Rangers during much of that era.

This version of the Bruins is muscular, mobile and determined. And the Rangers haven’t found an answer to their opponent’s style.

Rangers' coach John Tortorella talked about his team’s inability to establish a  forecheck in Boston’s 2-1 victory in Game 3 at Madison Square Garden on Tuesday.

A powerful upper level disturbance approaching from the Northern Plains this morning will produce unsettled weather conditions through the first half of the Memorial Day Weekend, spoiling plans for some outdoor activities this weekend.

Today, the cold front that has produced significant severe thunderstorms and tornado outbreaks in the Plains and Mississippi River Valley will finally move through the Philadelphia and New York City metropolitan areas today.  Showers and thunderstorms will develop through the day and into the evening hours.  Most of thunderstorms will remain below severe levels, however the thunderstorms that do reach severe levels will be capable of wind gusts over 60 mph, very heavy downpours, hail, and frequent lightning.  There is an isolated threat for a brief and weak tornado, however I stress the word isolated here.  The primary threats today include localized flash flooding, very poor visibility, and the potential for wind damage due to straight line or down burst wind gusts.  Winds will be from the southwest at 5 to 15 mph, gusting to over 20 mph ahead of thunderstorms.  Temperatures will rise into the mid to upper 70's over much of the region, lower to mid 70's along the immediate coast, and upper 60's to lower 70's along the south shore of Long Island.

Not that it really will mean anything whatsoever come November, but Gov. Christie garnered an endorsement from the Democratic council president of Patterson earlier today. Patterson is Democratic like South Carolina is Republican, so the move is mostly am empty and showy attempt to cultivate an image of bi-partisanship for 2016. Symbolically, it definitely helps.

A closer look at the debt scenario in New Jersey

Earlier this year, Congress passed a bill which prohibited raising the debt ceiling until May 18, 2013. The Treasury, as it has done in the past, is making manoeuvres so that it can borrow for longer. Not a very reassuring picture. The state of New Jersey too is experiencing serious debt issues. Thanks to its failure to meet pension payments and lack of funds to cover health insurance for retirees, NJ’s debt is up by $6 billion (FY 2012). In such a situation, where does the common man in New Jersey stand in terms of personal finance? Do they have the option to pile up more debt? The answer for most New Jersey people is NO.

The Palestinian question is one fraught with anger, confusion, bloodshed, and all types of foreign interference. But none of that seemed to matter to one Palestinian and resident of South Patterson (or little Ramallah), who proudly raised the flag of the Stateless nation at the City Hall in Paterson--an act that is probably the first at any city hall in the country. The flag-raising was part of Palestinian American Day and the event organizer did reportedly receive harassing phone calls but did it anyway. Nonetheless, no major problems or rival protests appeared to have this past Sunday when the flag was raised in front of elected officials and 150 people.

“Palestine is our country and we are proud of that,” said Clifton resident Salwa Ramadan. “We’re happy [to be] recognized finally.”(NorthJersey.com)

Simple math, that’s what baseball is. It’s a game of numbers and more commonly balls and strikes. On Tuesday night a Vineland native took that game of numbers to the limit completing the most elite of offensive accolades ‑ hitting for the cycle

What does a red-haired ponytail, television super chef and Spanish Theater of the Golden Age all have in common. Absolutely nothing – but when it comes to creating super delicious, creative meals, in the life of world renowned chef, Mario Batali it reminds him of his college years at Rutgers University.

While spending his undergraduate years in New Brunswick, Batali actually studied Finance and Spanish Theater of the Golden Age before graduating in 1982. “In college, when we were hanging around at the end of the evening after many potent beverages,“ he laughed as he told CNBC’s “Off The Cuff”, “we would get together and decide we were hungry after the restaurants had closed.“

“That was the beginning of my sneaky tricks,” he continued. ”That's when I started to figure out just what ‘al dente’ meant in pasta and how simple things could actually be remarkably delicious, provided I did not have to do the dishes.”

Jon Bon Jovi is on tour in Europe right now – without Richie Sambora.  Many fans may wonder if Richie has left the band – or if there is bad blood between the two rockers.  Has Sambora become a Stranger in this Town?

In an interview with the Daily Mirror in London, Bon Jovi addressed Sambora’s absence; all but admitting that Sambora was missing due to addiction issues.   Bon Jovi says that Richie bailed out of the tour at the last possible moment – just hours before the opening night show.  He didn’t even show up, he had his manager call it in on his behalf.

Let’s face it, the guy was a Runaway.

Police are here to protect and serve our communities in times of need, but what happens when the tables are turned and the police need our help. That was exactly the case early Monday morning when a 24-year veteran of the Edison Police Department and his family were fire bombed in their home.

According to a report by The Star-Ledger, veteran police captain, Mark Anderko’s Monroe Township residence burned as a result of a gas can or Molotov cocktail, while his wife and children were left fleeing to safety in the early hours of Monday morning.

It was the spring of 2011 and Monmouth head coach Kevin Callahan said it so often you would have thought he was about to enter the 2012 presidential race with a stump speech already prepared: fundamentals, fundamentals, fundamentals – that’s what spring practice is all about.

But for this spring, the spring of 2013, Hawks spring practice took on a different feel – a feel of competition and question marks. Everyone knows the Hawks have a four-way quarterback race that by any estimation is wide open. This all begged the question: how does one improve when their competing for arguably the most important job in all of football?

A 55-year old Plainfield woman was attacked and injured by two dogs on a city street on Saturday.

Police officers who responded to the scene shot and killed the two dogs.

When the officers arrived one of the dogs was biting the woman on or near the head, according to mycentraljersey.com. Plainfield Police Captain Ed Santiago said the dogs’ owner and a Good Samaritan were trying to protect the victim, but the dogs went back to her.

Georgios Spyropoulos, manager of the Tick Tock Diner in Clifton, was released from Passaic County Jail on Tuesday after posting bail of $600,000.

Spyropoulos had been arrested six weeks ago on charges of plotting to kill his uncle, Alexandros Sgourdos, co-owner of the diner.

Exposure to 'uplifting material' should come before 'pent-up self-rage, anger and emotions get out of control.'

From my experience as a retired New York City/State peace officer of 32 years I started to write many motivational quotations as a public service in the hope of reaching and inspiring young people to help overcome a lack of self confidence, low self-esteem and inferiority issues. There are numerous examples of great thought and inspirational quotes/ideas turning a troubled life around, preferably at the pre-teen period before their pent-up self-rage, anger and emotions get out of control.

One could make the argument that the lap-band surgery that Christie got a few months ago has made has boosted his ego even further and given him a delusions of grandeur, perhaps making him the Fat Actress of Jersey politics. He might be  appearing in tax-payer funded commercials to boost his Jersey comeback broken record (or skipping mp3) mantra, but actual governance is rearing its inconvenient head and showing a major shortfall in Christie's budget.

David Rosen, the state's top budget officer for the non-partisan Office of Legislative Services, intends to tell the Christie administration that his budget will fall short of nearly one billion dollars. Rosen may want to say his good byes to his family now since Gov. Tony Soprano already laid into Rosen a year ago when he called Rosen the "Dr. (Jack) Kevorkian of the numbers" following a similar forecast.

Showers and thunderstorms will be a lingering threat of the Philadelphia and New York City metropolitan area today as disturbances interact with a warm and humid tropical air mass over the northern Mid Atlantic.

One such disturbance will continue to dive through Connecticut this morning and through Long Island with periods of heavy rain, wind gusts up to 40 mph, and occasional lightning.  Meanwhile, fog will slowly lift over the Philadelphia metropolitan area with visibilities rebounding from around 2 miles to over 6 miles by the late morning hours.  The stationary front will slowly rebound northward which will lead to winds veering to the southwest at all locations by this afternoon.  Meanwhile, disturbances to the south and along the stationary front will keep the threat for showers and thunderstorms in the forecast.  These thunderstorms will be capable of heavy downpours, wind gusts over 40 mph, hail, and frequent lightning.  Most thunderstorms are not expected to reach severe levels, but it's not out of the question.  Temperatures will vary on location this afternoon.  High temperatures will range from the lower to mid 80's over interior Connecticut, mid to upper 80's over the rest of the interior, much of New Jersey, and southeastern Pennsylvania, lower to mid 80's over the immediate New York City  metropolitan area, upper 70's to lower 80's along the New Jersey coast and Connecticut coast, and lower to mid 70's over Long Island.

In methodical fashion the Bruins have taken command of this series, and the Rangers appear to have few ways to respond.

The Rangers certainly had no answer in thwarting Boston forward Danielle Paille.

The hustling and physical 6-2, 200-pound forward curled around the Rangers net and swept in a loose puck that had eluded Henrik Lundqvist with 3:31 left in the third to snap a 1-1 tie as the Bruins forged a 2-1 victory last night at Madison Square Garden in New York.

With the decision Boston took a commanding 3-0 lead in the series and will look to close out the Rangers tomorrow at 7 p.m. at the Garden. The loss was the first at home for the Rangers this post-season, leaving their record at the Garden at 3-1 in this playoff campaign.

Seaside Heights volunteer fireman Tim Farrell was one of many who lost their homes to Hurricane Sandy last year.

It would be hard to blame Farrell for feeling unlucky after he responded to a call last week, but learned that his new home had gone up in flames.

Farrell had responded to a report of a fire at a bait shop next to his home. “When I got maybe a block away, I noticed it was our house,” he said, according to The Asbury Park Press. “Fire was coming out the front door and windows. Little was salvageable.”

Exhilarating entertainment in every way, “Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812” is an unusually smart and tuneful new musical cunningly crafted from a romantic hunk of “War and Peace.”

Making the off-Broadway show all the more memorable, it is staged evocatively in a pop-up tent known as Kazino that is situated directly beneath the High Line in the meatpacking district. The Broadway-scale ticket price includes a Russian-style dinner that is both substantial and tasty.

BY JOE SINAGRA

NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM

Yes we have the highest taxes due to the last two previous administrations. Corzine and McGreevey combined added over 154 tax increases. A budget that was in the toilet, the state was going broke and Corzine was writing checks knowing the well was running dry. On July 15, 2006 the sales tax was raised from 6% to 7% that was supposed to fund our rebates and the following year there was no rebate. So we funded our own rebate and the foll0owing year there wasn’t any money. Tax and spend, spend and tax with Barbara Buono supporting the tax increases.  Now she is running on what platform . . . cutting taxes?

In July of 2009 Corzine had an email that stated “13,000 private sector jobs were added last month because of our business-friendly policies,” when in actuality the state lost 3,100 jobs in June of 2009.  Jon Corzine claimed he created 13,000 jobs, but his actions after his inauguration shows the facts speak differently. Faced with an unemployment toll that rose to 9.2 percent, the Corzine administration spin was that the loss of jobs in June was the smallest since the recession began. Yet there were thousands of unemployed who were already standing in line, long before Chris Christie was even thinking of running for Governor.