Here's the stories you'll be talking about on the New Jersey 101.5 Morning Show with Eric Scott on Thursday:

⬛ Cops find slain brother, missing eye, next to bloody dinnerware

🔺 Man allegedly beat, slashed brother
🔺 Family knew of mental struggles
🔺 Police found gruesome scene

PRINCETON — Police walked into a nightmarish and bloody scene after receiving a 911 call from a Princeton man who they charged with murdering his brother.

Matthew Hertgen has been in custody since his arrest on Feb. 22, accused of brutally killing 26-year-old Joseph Hertgen and the family cat.

Investigators revealed in court documents that the suspect has suffered from mental illness and disturbing "visions." Graphic details of the crime scene also disturbingly echo a bizarre poem Hergen shared on Facebook five months earlier.

When police arrived at the apartment, they found the victim lying on the dining room floor, with signs of blunt force trauma to his head, a large, deep cut to his chest and cuts to his right eye, which appeared to be missing, the affidavit of probable cause says.

Officers also saw a cup full of what appeared to be blood and a blood-smeared plate and utensils placed on the floor near the victim.

⬛ Toll increases coming this year for NJ commuters

No matter how you travel, trips around New Jersey and especially into New York City or Pennsylvania likely cost more in 2025.

Drivers and mass transit users already saw expenses increase last year.

In July, NJ Transit enacted a 15% across-the-board fare hike for its trains, light rail and bus lines. The action also set up an increase for this year.

In September, the Delaware River Port Authority added a dollar to tolls on the four bridges connecting New Jersey and Pennsylvania (Ben Franklin, Walt Whitman, Commodore Barry and Betsy Ross), to $6.

The E-ZPass frequent bridge travelers discount remains unchanged (cross 18 or more times in a month, save $18).

⬛ NJ property taxes: Average bill at least $10,000 in 251 towns

🏠 Average New Jersey property taxes pass $10,000
🏠 One town had a staggering 153% increase
🏠 See your town's property tax bill in the list below

Owning a home in New Jersey is more expensive than ever before as property taxes rose by 2.98% last year, according to new state data.

The average New Jersey homeowner now pays $10,095 in property taxes — a jump of $292 from last year.

It's the first time that number has reached five figures.

New Jersey residents paid over $34.5 billion in property taxes in 2024, according to figures just released by the state Department of Community Affairs. That's around $1.2 billion more than 2023.

Where those tax dollars went was similar to last year. Just over half of those dollars — or $18 billion — went to New Jersey schools. Around 30% went to municipalities, while the rest went toward county spending.

⬛ DEI not dead: NJ joins states fighting Trump schools agenda

New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin is making clear that DEI-related initiatives will remain in New Jersey's schools, despite pushback at the federal level.

Platkin has once more teamed up with other attorneys general to counter an executive action from the Trump administration, joining 15 other Democratic state attorneys general in issuing guidance to schools of all levels regarding diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility initiatives.

The guidance is in response to a slew of White House policies targeting DEI in education, most notably a Department of Education memo (known as a "Dear Colleague letter") that gave schools across the country two weeks to eliminate all race-based diversity practices at the risk of losing federal assistance. That memo is currently tied up in the courts.

“New Jersey’s schools are among the top-ranked in our country precisely because they embrace our state’s great diversity and provide a high-quality education to students across the state – and no toothless threats from the Trump Administration will change that,” Platkin said in a statement from his office on Wednesday.

⬛ NJ Transit to finally address the No. 1 rider complaint

🚆The dirty windows on NJ Transit rail cars cannot be cleaned
🚆NJ Transit will spend $18.5 million to replace them within 3 years
🚆It is the #1 complaint from riders, according to NJ Transit's CEO

NJ Transit will solve one of its most complained about problems: dirty, grimy, scratched windows on its railroad passenger cars that no one can see through.

The windows are nearly impossible to clean with regular chemicals. The material used to make the windows causes them to become cloudy over time because of acid rain, heat and UV rays. That means passengers cannot simply look out the window to see where they are by reading station signs.

"We take the feedback that our customers give us very, very seriously. Franck Beaumin, our customer advocate, focuses a lot on talking to our customers. This is one issue that comes up all the time," NJ Transit CEO and President Kris Kolluri said Wednesday.

NJ Transit first went to the Rutgers Center for Advanced Infrastructure and Transportation. When they concluded that the damage to the windows could not be reversed, the agency decided to replace the windows.

"The decision we've made is to now replace all 13,000 windows not in six years or eight years as was originally thought of but within three years. We will replace them at a rate of about a third a year," Kolluri said.

Start your day with up-to-the-minute news, traffic and weather for the Garden State.

Eric Scott hosts the New Jersey 101.5 Morning Show from 6 - 10 a.m. on New Jersey 101.5.

Join the conversation by calling 1-800-283-1015 or download the NJ101.5 app.

Eric Scott is the senior political director and anchor for New Jersey 101.5. You can reach him at eric.scott@townsquaremedia.com

Click here to contact an editor about feedback or a correction for this story.