Mom charged in fatal boat crash—NJ Top News
Here's the stories you'll be talking about on the New Jersey 101.5 Morning Show.
🔗 Why are goats eating their way through this NJ shore town?
🐐 Fifteen goats are spending two weeks in Sea Girt eating invasive plants around Wreck Pond.
🌿 The animals are targeting knotweed, honeysuckle, mugwort, English ivy and other non-native growth.
👀 Visitors can watch the goats at work but are being asked not to feed or pet them.
SEA GIRT — Fifteen goats have returned to this Jersey Shore town with a job to do: eat invasive plants
On Wednesday, Sea Girt brought in 15 goats from Rhinebeck, New York, which is home to 7,500 people and sits along the Hudson River. Rhinebeck is also home to Green Goats — the farm that brought Lulu, Honey and 13 other goats to New Jersey.
The borough said the animals will be in Sea Girt for two weeks to thin out non-native plants on steep slopes at Wreck Pond.
Invasive plants have dominated the five acres around Wreck Pond, and other efforts to remove them have been unsuccessful, according to the borough. The use of goats is natural and environmentally friendly because it minimizes the use of herbicides and heavy mechanical equipment, according to the Sea Girt Conservancy.
The goats can be seen on The Terrace between Fourth and Fifth Ave.
🔗 Trump gets final approval for new ballroom at his NJ golf club
☑️Trump's Bedminster golf club won final approval for an 11,300-square-foot ballroom
☑️Club officials said growing membership has made it harder to accommodate events
☑️The approval comes as the proposed White House ballroom faces an uncertain future
BEDMINSTER — While the future of President Donald Trump's White House ballroom remains unclear, the one at his Somerset County golf club has received final approval.
Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster filed an application with the Bedminster Land Use Board in the spring to expand the existing clubhouse with an 11,300-square-foot ballroom on the first floor. The plan includes a new parking area and “associated site improvements.”
General Manager David Schutzenhofer made a final presentation to the board at its Aug. 13 meeting and said the club's membership has nearly tripled over the past 20 years, causing problems accommodating events. While the plan includes increases in seating capacity that exceed the township's limit, the club does not necessarily plan to increase the number of events it hosts but instead improve how it accommodates them.
“The intent here is to make the club better for the members who are there. There are times when we cannot accommodate members. Thus this ballroom comes along which makes the service better, it makes the experience better and keeps people like me employed,” Schutzenhofer said.
🔗 Mother charged after son dies in Barnegat Bay boat crash
🚨Jennifer Pearson faces charges in the May crash that killed her 28-year-old son
🚨Investigators say her BAC level was between .09 and .12 at the time of the crash.
🚨Four people have died in motorboat crashes on Barnegat Bay this summer.
The mother of a man killed in a motorboat crash on Barnegat Bay during Memorial Day weekend has been charged in his death.
Gunnar Pearson, 28, of Barnegat, died on May 25 after the Trophy 2203CC center console he was riding in slammed into a day marker around 5:45 p.m. Pearson and his girlfriend were thrown into the water during the crash and rushed to a hospital, according to State Police. Four others on board were injured.
Pearson's mother, Jennifer Pearson, 59, was driving the boat when it crashed into Intracoastal Watermarker #79 near the Brant Beach Yacht Club, according to court documents. She told investigators, who smelled alcohol when she arrived to speak with them, that she had two alcoholic drinks earlier in the afternoon.
She was charged Wednesday with death by vessel for operating a vessel recklessly while under the influence of alcohol.
Pearson is being held at the Ocean County Jail. Her detention hearing is scheduled for Friday morning.
New Jersey 101.5 has learned that at the time of the crash, Jennifer Pearson's blood alcohol level was between .09 and .12.
🔗 Two NJ people killed in Millville shooting, now 2 men are charged
⚠️ Ashley Brown and Andy Steven Brazil, both 32, were found dead from gunshot wounds.
➡️ Police say Daniel Gilmore, Jr. shot into a vehicle carrying the victims and two others.
🔴 James Harris was also charged after police say shots were fired at another vehicle.
Two men are criminally charged in Cumberland County, after an early morning shooting near a gas station left a man and woman dead.
On Sunday around 3:40 a.m., Millville Police responded to shots fired in the area of 815 N. High Street.
Officers found Ashley Brown, of Millville, and Andy Steven Brazil, of Vineland, both 32, dead of gunshot wounds inside a Honda CRV.
Brown was in the driver’s seat, where she was shot in the head, while Brazil was a rear seat passenger when he was shot in the head and torso, according to a criminal complaint filed by investigators.
On Tuesday, 50-year-old Daniel L. Gilmore, Jr., was charged with two first-degree counts each of murder and attempted murder.
Gilmore spoke with Brown while both were inside the adjacent convenience store, as seen on surveillance video, according to an affidavit filed by investigators.
He then followed her out to the CRV, and briefly went around the building to get from his own car what appeared to be the gun he then fired at the victims, the same affidavit said.
Gilmore is accused of firing at least 10 gunshots into the Honda, in which Brown and Brazil were seated — along with another woman and a female juvenile, both of whom were unharmed.
🔗 NJ teachers staring at massive health insurance hike
💸 New Jersey's state health plan for active school employees is facing a staggering 34.4% premium increase in 2027.
🏫 The panel responsible for setting rates deadlocked Wednesday, leaving teachers and school districts with no resolution.
⚠️ Rising medical and prescription costs have put the school health plan under severe financial pressure.
New Jersey teachers heading back to their classrooms for a new school year still don't know exactly what their health insurance will cost them next year.
They do know this: It could get a whole lot more expensive.
The state actuary is recommending a staggering 34.4% increase in health insurance premiums for active employees enrolled in the School Employees' Health Benefits Program in 2027.
And after a meeting Wednesday that was supposed to provide some clarity, teachers and school districts remain in limbo.
The School Employees' Health Benefits Commission deadlocked Wednesday on the proposed rates, according to the New Jersey Monitor. Without enough votes to approve the increase, the commission took no final action.
That doesn't mean the massive increase has gone away.
It means there is still no final resolution for a health benefits program already under enormous financial strain.
The 34.4% recommendation includes a 32.4% increase in medical premiums and a whopping 45.5% increase in prescription drug premiums for active employees.
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Gallery Credit: Erin Vogt
Asbury Park and the perfect summer day in the summer of '26!
Gallery Credit: Eric "EJ" Johnson
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