These towns saw home values peak in the first quarter of 2017, despite a slow statewide recovery from the recession. They are the epitome of a seller's market.

The ticket was the largest single jackpot winning ticket sold in New Jersey

TRENTON -- A year ago this month, the Smith family's lives changed in an instant when they won the $429.6 million Powerball jackpot.

The family of eight -- matriarch Pearlie Mae Smith and her seven adult children -- didn't throw away the money on expensive new houses or luxury sports cars or write checks willy-nilly to the dozens of long-lost friends and relatives who came out of the woodwork.

Sure, they treated themselves, but from the beginning, they knew they wanted to do something meaningful with their newfound wealth.

Since they chose the cash option, their prize came to about $284 million and was split eight ways.

The family members each gave a portion of their winnings to help start the Smith Family Foundation, a grantmaking fund with which they hope to give back and make a difference in their hometown of Trenton and elsewhere for years to come.

Just as it was "divine intervention" that inspired Smith to pick the winning numbers, the family says it's that same faith in God that continues to help guide them in their decisions.

"I could have gotten a yacht and never come back, but we just have a heart and mind to do this work," said Valerie Arthur, one of Smith's daughters. "It's a blessing to have the ability to do whatever you want to do in this life and yet you choose to come and help somebody else -- that right there is divine intervention."

Arthur said the importance of giving back was a lesson they learned at a young age, from starting a garden in their backyard for the community's use to volunteering at the soup kitchen.

"I think that seed has always been with us ... but after winning the lottery, we're able to do it on a much larger scale now than we have in the past," Arthur said.

Harold Smith, Arthur's nephew and the foundation's program manager, said that rather than simply giving away money to anyone who asks, they see themselves as investing in organizations and programs that will bring about long-term change in categories like education, neighborhood development and youth and families.

"We want to fund programs that directly affect systems of poverty so we can help change the systems or change the dynamics that are causing people to be in poverty," he said. "Rather than just helping them find food or give away food, we can make it so they now have the ability to obtain employment, get their proper education in order to be able to go out and get their own food."

He said they want to partner with organizations that share their core values of education, cultivation, transformation and urban ministry.

"When people think of the city of Trenton, we don't want the first thing they think of to be gangs and violence," he said. "We want people to think of a vibrant city, a city that's on the upswing, a city that's bringing new life into the community, the capital of the state."

Funding will range from small-impact grants and summer programming to one-year and three-year grants.

"We're making an investment in our community and when you make an investment, you expect a return," Arthur said. "So we want to see what the social return is going to be, what the educational return is going to be, what the transformations in people's lives is going to be."

Katherine Nunnally, another of Smith's daughters who for 15 years has led a program to mentor young women in Newark, serves as the executive director and is training her siblings as well as her nieces and nephews on how to run a foundation.

"The foundation is a legacy for the family," Harold Smith said.

A grand opening of its headquarters at 407 W. State St., Trenton, will be June 10 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

For more information, visit smithfamilyfoundationnj.org.

Cristina Rojas may be reached at crojas@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @CristinaRojasTT. Find NJ.com on Facebook.

Newark Museum plans to reopen its main entrance on Nov. 3, as part of a $5.5 million improvement project that will also add exhibition space and enhance accessibility

NEWARK -- In 1997, the Newark Museum closed its main entrance to keep temperature and humidity fluctuations from harming centuries-old paintings in the acclaimed exhibition, Crowning Glory: Images of the Virgin in the Arts of Portugal.

But while that show is long gone, the protective measure has remained in place and the double doors on Washington Street kept locked, and for 20 years the public has entered the museum through a side entrance by the parking lot.

The situation has been handy enough for visitors driving in from the suburbs, but uninviting to foot traffic and hardly conducive to the kinds of rendezvous like those on, say, the steps of Manhattan's Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Now, with the streets surrounding New Jersey's largest art collection increasingly buzzing with life, the Newark Museum is throwing open its main doors to the public once again.

As part of a $5.5 million plan to expand exhibition space for the museum's extensive collection of African art while enhancing visitors' arrival experience, museum officials announced this week that the Washington Street entrance will reopen Nov. 3.

"We see all around us how the neighborhood is changing quickly to accommodate its renewed development and growth," Newark Museum Director and CEO Steven Kern said in a statement. "With this move, the Newark Museum is poised to reaffirm its role as both cultural and business anchor in the community. With the doors open, the Museum will project neighborhood vitality, stability and security." 

The project also includes a terrace on Washington Street at the base of the main entrance.

The beaux arts main building was designed by Jarvis Hunt and constructed in 1926 with funds from Louis Bamberger, the Newark department store mogul. Hunt had also designed Bamberger's flagship store in Newark.

The museum includes other structures that have been incorporated since then, including the adjacent former YMCA, where the public now enters the museum, and the John Ballantine House, former home of the Newark beer baron. 

Architect Michael Graves worked on the museum's later expansion projects, including the side entrance now used by the public.

A spokesman for Mayor Ras Baraka called the main entrance's reopening, "another milestone in the renaissance of Newark."

"This is one of the city's classic buildings," said the spokesman, Frank Baraff. "It's regrettable that the entrance has been closed for so long. But it's exciting that it will be open once again, and the people of Newark will have a fitting gateway to the outstanding collections within."

Those include works of American, decorative and contemporary art, as well as collections of Asian, and Central, South and Native American art, and art of the ancient world.

The museum is known for its Arts of Global Africa collection, and the project will include a new special exhibition space of more than 5,000 square feet, with wood floors, new ceilings and walls to accommodate major shows.

A lift will be installed in the museum's Engelhard Court, making it accessible to all visitors, and a ramp will be installed at the front entrance.

Funding for the $5.5 million came from sources including NEH, The MCJ Amelior Foundation and the Sagner Family Foundation.

Visitors may follow the museum on Facebook, on Twitter or at newarkmuseum.org.

Steve Strunsky may be reached at sstrunsky@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @SteveStrunsky. Find NJ.com on Facebook.

Eight New Jersey students are competing this week in the 90th annual Scripps National Spelling Bee.

NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. -- Shruthika Padhy of Cherry Hill made it to the finals of last year's Scripps National Spelling Bee before misspelling "tyee," a large Chinook salmon.

The now 11-year-old from Cherry Hill is back for a second try Wednesday, one of two returnees among the nine students representing New Jersey in the 90th competition. She tied for 22nd last year.

So too is Julian Connaughton, a 13-year-old from Shohola, Pa., a seventh grader at Delaware Valley Middle School who is sponsored by the Tri-State Spelling Bee Committee in Montague.

In all, 56 spellers are returning for a second time. Another 14 are back for the third time and three for the fourth time. There are 291 contestants in all.

New Jersey's last four-time contestant was Katharine S. Wang of Morristown, who was ousted on the final day in 2015 when she misspelled cinqueciento, a term referring to the 16th century Italian Renaissance.

Any N.J. students make Bee finals?

A sixth grader at Rosa International Middle School, Shruthika plays the flute and piano, swims, runs cross country and considers Indian classical music among her interests.

The others from New Jersey:

-- Ishaan Akula, 10, of Morganville, a fifth grader at Frank Defino Central Elementary School in North Marlboro.

-- Anmol Bhatia, 12, of Green Brook, a sixth grader at Green Brook Middle School.

-- Naomi Castellanos, 11, of North Bergen, a sixth grader at Franklin Elementary School in North Bergen and the winner of the 58th annual Jersey Journal-Hudson County Spelling Bee.

-- Asha Chauhan, 13, of Elmwood Park, an eighth grader at Elmwood Park Memorial Middle School.

-- Alexandria Ciurlino, 13, of Egg Harbor Township, a seventh grader at St. Vincent de Paul Regional School in Mays Landing.

-- Tanay Nandan, 10, of Short Hills, a fourth grader at Hartshorn Elementary School in Short Hills.

-- Christopher Serrao, 11, of Whitehouse Station, a fifth grader at Holland Brook School in Whitehouse Station, whose sister, Danielle, competed last year.

The winner receives an engraved trophy, a $40,000 cash prize, a $2,500 U.S. savings bond, and an Encyclopaedia Britannica reference library. In addition, there are trips to New York City to interviewed on "Live with Kelly and Ryan" and to Hollywood to appear on "Jimmy Kimmel Live."

Wednesday's competition will be aired live online on ESPN3. Thursday's final rounds will be broadcast on ESPN2 during the day and then on ESPN in prime time.

Katharine Close of Spring Lake, a 13-year-old, is the only New Jersey student ever to win the spelling bee. She came in first in 2006 after correctly spelling ursprache, a language reconstructed from later languages.

Jonathan D. Salant may be reached at jsalant@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JDSalant or on Facebook. Find NJ.com Politics on Facebook.

These were the athletes that put up big points at sectionals

Highlighting the best moments and performances from the sectional quarterfinals and semifinals on May 30.

With the new administration pushing for more aggressive deportation policies, immigration advocates say those facing removal proceedings in New Jersey should get legal assistance if they cannot afford an attorney.

NEWARK--A coalition of immigration advocates, law professors and private attorneys are calling for New Jersey to provide legal assistance to detained immigrants facing deportation.

"We think it's desperately needed here in New Jersey," said Lori Nessel, director of the Seton Hall University School of Law Center for Social Justice. "We have a dire need for representation."

With an administration in Washington now aggressively seeking to deport anyone here illegally, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo earlier announced he would allocate money in the fiscal 2018 budget to create a legal defense fund to ensure all immigrants have access to representation. Several cities across the country have also been putting together programs to provide attorneys to those being held in detention.

A spokesman for Gov. Chris Christie had no immediate comment.

Unlike defendants in criminal court, undocumented immigrants in this country challenging their deportation have no right to an attorney if they cannot afford one. In a report last year for Seton Hall's Immigrants' Rights and International Human Rights Clinic, Nessel found that nearly 70 percent of those detained in New Jersey in immigration removal proceedings have no representation.

"Universal legal representation would ensure that all low-income detained immigrants have access to counsel and would follow a public defender model, which guarantees that anyone accused of a crime be afforded a lawyer--the bedrock of our legal system," said Nessel.

According to the group, detained immigrants without legal representation have only a 14 percent chance of prevailing in their cases.

Krishna Roca, 43, was one of those who found herself locked up for four months without an advocate on the outside.

"I was scared, fearful," she recalled in an interview conducted in Spanish. "You don't know anything and imagine the people that care for you--they were people who were abusive. They humiliate you. There was a lady that would scream at you."

Roca, who is now a legal permanent resident, said she arrived on a tourist visa and was detained by immigration officials over passport issues.

"They told me that I was a narcotrafficker or a terrorist and the officials told me they were going to deny me entry and he had me a whole day in the airport," she said.

She was taken to a detention facility and the first time she went to the court, it was through video conference. She had no attorney.

"It was the first time in my life I had ever been through an experience like that. It's a difficult experience. Not only do they treat you like a criminal. They take you in handcuffs on your hands and feet and your waist. And when you go back to the court, it's the same experience. It's a story that's very hard, very sad."

Ultimately she was represented by the American Friends Service Committee, which filed a petition for asylum based on a history of domestic violence in Guatemala.

American Friends has an ongoing program that provides legal assistance for detained immigrants, funded by foundation grants, representing about 400 individuals over the past two years. But attorney Matthew Boaz said the the group does not have the resources to handle all the cases of those being held.

"We only have funding for a certain number of attorneys," he said.

While hundreds of immigrants in New Jersey obtain legal status with the help of law firm "pro bono" volunteers, Catherine Weiss, of the Lowenstein Center for the Public Interest at the law firm of Lowenstein Sandler said that work focuses mainly on non-detained immigrants.

"The pro bono community cannot possibly fill the gap in representation for detained immigrants, nearly 5,000 of whom at any given time have no representation in this state," she said.

Sara Cullinane, state director of Make the Road New Jersey, which provides assistance to immigrants, said with the widening crackdown by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the situation is just going to get worse.

"There is a dearth of affordable legal service providers in our state," she said.

Ted Sherman may be reached at tsherman@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @TedShermanSL. Facebook: @TedSherman.reporter. Find NJ.com on Facebook.

Karen Yi may be reached at kyi@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter at @karen_yi or on Facebook.

The McDelivery service will bring you food in parts of four counties for $5

McDonald's delivery is now available in parts of four New Jersey counties as the fast-food giant expands its McDelivery service to the New York regional market.

The McDelivery service lets customers order burgers, fries or just about any other items on the menu at more than 30 locations in Bergen, Essex, Hudson and Passaic counties and have it delivered to their door for a $4.99 "booking fee".

The only thing McDonald's won't bring to you is a soft-serve ice cream cone. The service went into effect on Wednesday.

Orders are placed through UberEats.com or through the UberEATS app, McDonald's said in a news release.

If you're not in one of the towns whose McDonald's offers delivery, you might not be out of luck. For example, McDonald's in Jersey City will deliver to Hoboken. 

Trader Joe's to open another store in N.J.

"People in New Jersey search for McDonald's in the UberEATS app almost daily, so we're excited to expand our reach and deliver" Prabhdeep Singh, UberEATS New Jersey general manager said in a statement.

Now available in more than 1,000 U.S. zip codes, the newly expanded delivery service is available for McDonald's eateries in the New York City area as well as Miami, Chicago, Los Angeles and other cities. More than 300 of the zip codes are in the New York area. 

The New York-area delivery service includes Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx, Westchester and Fairfield County, Conn. 

In New Jersey, McDelivery is available in the following towns:

• Bayonne
• Belleville
• Bloomfield
• Edgewater
• Englewood
• Fairview
• Fort Lee
• Garfield
• Hackensack
• Hasbrouck Heights
• Jersey City 
• Little Ferry
• Newark
• North Bergen
• Orange
• Paramus
• Passaic
• River Edge
• Saddle Brook
• Union City
• West New York

Jeff Goldman may be reached at jeff_goldman@njadvancemedia.comFollow him on Twitter @JeffSGoldman. Find NJ.com on Facebook.

Of the nine contestants representing New Jersey, seven advanced to the next round.

NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. -- Seven of the nine contestants representing New Jersey in the 90th Scripps National Spelling Bee made it out of the morning preliminaries Wednesday and prepared for a second round of spelling in the afternoon.

The list included Shruthika Padhy of Cherry Hill, a sixth grader at Rosa International Middle School, making her second straight appearance at the bee. She correctly spelled fastuous, which is ostentatious or showy.

Another returnee, Julian Connaughton from Shohola, Pa., didn't make it. The 13-year-old seventh grader at Delaware Valley Middle School who is sponsored by the Tri-State Spelling Bee Committee in Montague, misspelled sirenomelus, a rare deformity in which the legs are fused together.

"Aww," he said after the bell rang, indicating a wrong answer. "OK, thank you."

Student tries again to W-I-N

The afternoon round will be aired live online on ESPN3 and Thursday's final rounds will be broadcast on ESPN2 during the day and then on ESPN in prime time.

After the next round, judges will tally the scores of the students remaining on stage, including written spelling and vocabulary tests, and up to 50 contestants will be invited to return for the final rounds beginning Thursday morning.

Asha Chauhan, 13, of Elmwood Park, an eighth grader at Elmwood Park Memorial Middle School, was the first New Jersey contestant to stand in front of the microphone. She correctly spelled surmountable, capable of being overcome.

She was followed by Tanay Nandan, 10, of Short Hills, a fourth grader at Hartshorn Elementary School in Short Hills, who correctly spelled loirikeet, an Australian parrot; and Alexandria Ciurlino, 13, of Egg Harbor Township, a seventh grader at St. Vincent de Paul Regional School in Mays Landing, who said she was "splendid" before she correctly spelled tetrapteran, having four wings.

The others who advanced were:

-- Christopher Serrao, 11, of Whitehouse Station, a fifth grader at Holland Brook School in Whitehouse Station, who correctly spelled flageolet, a small flute. His sister, Danielle, competed last year.

-- Anmol Bhatia, 12, of Green Brook, a sixth grader at Green Brook Middle School, spelled fluoroscope, an instrument used to view X-rays.

-- Naomi Castellanos, 11, of North Bergen, a sixth grader at Franklin Elementary School in North Bergen and the winner of the 58th annual Jersey Journal-Hudson County Spelling Bee. She correctly spelled Websterian, relating to former U.S. Sen. Daniel Webster.

Ishaan Akula, 10, of Morganville, didn't make it out of the first round. The fifth grader at Frank Defino Central Elementary School in North Marlboro misspelled kakapo, a New Zealand parrot.

The winner receives an engraved trophy, a $40,000 cash prize, a $2,500 U.S. savings bond, and an Encyclopaedia Britannica reference library. In addition, there are trips to New York City to interviewed on "Live with Kelly and Ryan" and to Hollywood to appear on Jimmy Kimmel Live."

Katharine Close of Spring Lake, a 13-year-old, is the only New Jersey student ever to win the spelling bee. She came in first in 2006 after correctly spelling ursprache, a language reconstructed from later languages.

Jonathan D. Salant may be reached at jsalant@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JDSalant or on Facebook. Find NJ.com Politics on Facebook

An old face back as the new No. 1 team in the state

You want your school to have one of these polls to determine the four best athletes to ever attend

Update, May 31, 12:40 p.m.: The polls have closed, and the Rushmore schools for the summer of 2017 are set.

The top eight finishers in the poll below will get Mount Rushmore polls: Roxbury, Union City, Rancocas Valley, South Plainfield, Old Bridge, Pope John, Montgomery and Shawnee. The winner of the Times-area poll is Nottingham, and the winner of the South Jersey Times-area poll is Woodbury.

The 10 predetermined schools are Delbarton, Kingsway, Linden, Manasquan, Millburn, Montclair, Ridgewood, Scotch Plains-Fanwood, Toms River North and Wayne Hills.

Thanks to all who participated in our selection process and congrats to the 2017 Rushmore schools. Before long, we will post the five-week schedule that will start July 5. Each Rushmore school should look out for a call for nominations before the poll actually goes up.

For the third straight summer, NJ Advance Media will feature best-ever-athlete polls for schools all over N.J. to select the Mount Rushmore of athletics for schools they care about.  And this year we're bumping the number of schools to 20.

Which schools? Well, that's half up to you. This year, we've selected 10 schools ourselves (list below) and we're leaving the selection of the other 10 to be determined by your voting. Eight schools will be selected in the statewide poll below. One school will be selected from a poll for South Jersey Times-area schools, and one will be selected from a poll for Times, Trenton-area schools.

We'll send reporters to the 20 schools to dig into athletic archives, interview key alums and school historians to come up with a list of the top all-time athletes (and coaches) from those schools. Over a five-week period starting July 5, we'll again leave the selecting to you in polls to determine the top four - the four best-of-the-best athletes to put on each school's athletics Mount Rushmore.

What else you need to know:
• The voting options below aren't final - if you don't see your school and want it to be in the running, write a comment below, and we'll add it. Then, it's up to you to round up the votes. That's how Piscataway became a Rushmore school in 2015.
• Check how these turn out. Here are the results from the 2015 schools, and here are last summer's results. (Note: Schools who have already participated are ineligible to go again and are left out of these selection polls.)
• The Rushmore polls for the selected schools will happen four at a time over a five-week span starting on or around July 5.

Important: We know you take these polls seriously. We do, too. We encourage you to come back and vote often. Please note, the poll will view rapid-fire voting from any individual IP as an attack and will put that IP in a time out.

You can do anything you want within reason to win these polls - make your case in the comments below, use Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Google+, MySpace, carrier pigeons, telegrams ... whatever you want to get the vote out. BUT any tech-based method designed to rack up votes will be flagged and those votes will be thrown out.

• South Jersey Times-area selection poll
• Times, Trenton-area selection poll

Statewide selection

Already selected as Rushmore schools this year are Delbarton, Kingsway, Linden, Manasquan, Millburn, Montclair, Ridgewood, Scotch Plains-Fanwood, Toms River North and Wayne Hills.

The list below is alphabetical. The top eight finishers will be selected as Mount Rushmore schools this summer. Voting closes at noon on Wednesday, May 31.

Pat Lanni may be reached at planni@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @PatLanniHS. Like NJ.com High School Sports on Facebook.

Teen died late Tuesday, officials say.

NEWARK -- Authorities on Wednesday identified the 16-year-old Weequahic High School student who was gunned down in Newark's South Ward.

Rashawn Cooper, of Newark, died at University Hospital around 10:30 p.m. Tuesday, according to the Essex County Prosecutor's Office.

Police found Cooper unresponsive and suffering from gunshot wounds after they responded to reports of shots fired on the 100 block of Goodwin Avenue around 10 p.m., acting Essex County Prosecutor Carolyn Murray and city Public Safety Director Anthony Ambrose said in a statement.

There were no immediate arrests and no suspects have been identified, the officials said.

A Newark Public Schools spokesman said the district was saddened by the death.

"In support of the affected school community, grief counselors were on site this morning and will remain in place as long as necessary to help students and staff during this difficult time," the spokesman said in a statement. "The district will also work with school administrators to support the victim's family and school community in the coming days."

Bashir Akinyele, a history teacher at Weequahic High School and member of the Newark Anti-Violence Coalition, said Cooper was one of his students.

"[Cooper] told me he was tired of the streets! I warned him of the streets everyday," Akinyele wrote on Facebook. "Now, all I have left of Rashawn is a memory and his student portfolio."

The slaying marked the 22nd killing reported in the state's largest city this year, according to police records. There were 39 killings in the same period last year.

A 22-year-old man was shot to death and a woman was wounded in a separate shooting Saturday night in Newark. 

Anyone with information was urged to call the Prosecutor's Office tip line at 1-877-TIPS-4EC or (877) 847-7432.

Noah Cohen may be reached at ncohen@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @noahyc and on Facebook. Find NJ.com on Facebook.

Have a tip? Tell us. nj.com/tips

The agencies behind the promised summer of commuting hell were grilled about their lack of communication about what commuters should expect during Amtrak work at Penn Station.

NEWARK -- The agencies behind the promised summer of commuting hell were grilled Wednesday about their lack of communication about what commuters should expect during Amtrak work at Penn Station New York. 

Representatives from NJ Transit, PATH, Amtrak and the New York Waterway were in Essex County to testify about the disruptions of train service that are required to fix some of Penn Station's tracks.

NJ Transit Executive Director Steve Santoro said that it alone had decided on a service plan to reroute the Morris & Essex lines trains to Hoboken Terminal during the work.

"My job today is to convince you, and all the panel members, that there is no better plan than what we've proposed," Santoro said.

After legislators criticized the decision to divert the one line, some saying the pain should be felt "equally" among commuters, they turned their questioning to the plan's rollout.

Specifically, why the first time they heard about it came from Gov. Chris Christie.

Santoro reiterated that NJ Transit presented the plan to Christie, who suggested the agency increase the fare reduction offered to commuters on the Morris & Essex lines.

The fare reduction will be about 50 percent.

Using private carriers, bus service will also be expanded, though this is still in the works, Santoro said. There are direct routes into Manhattan planned for South Orange, Newark and Hoboken.

PATH is currently operating at 80 percent capacity on its Hoboken line during the peak morning rush hours.

"The trains are going to be crowded. I"m not going to say they won't be crowded," PATH Director Michael Marino said. "We honestly believe we'll be able to move people quickly enough without platforms overcrowding. They'll be safe and standing in the car."

A supplemental ferry service could run from the Hoboken train station to its West 39th Street stop in Manhattan. A two-boat service could carry 1,800 passengers per hour, Chairman of NY Waterway Armand Pohan said.

Both Amtrak and NJ Transit promised to put staffers at train stops to answer any commuters' questions. They also said commuters should look to updates they send via social media for real-time updates on the state of the trains that morning.

NJ Transit's summer train schedule

"You've got to find ways to represent people who are riding those trains on a daily basis and I can't offer you the answer right now, but it seems to me you should have it," State Senate Majority Leader Loretta Weinberg said.

Santoro repeatedly expressed frustration with Amtrak during his testimony, at one point saying his agency "was not aware of the level of degradation that exists at Penn Station."

"There was no indication that tracks were in such poor condition that two derailments would occur in one month," Santoro later said.

Amtrak's Stephen Gardner, executive vice president for planning, technology and public affairs, said his agency was committed to working with NJ Transit and that he knew it would be a "frustrating" summer for commuters.

"There are no easy solutions to address the overuse and under investment that we now face," Gardner said.

Amtrak, which said will face the biggest reduction in proportional reduction in train service, will also change its schedule, including cancelling three weekday round trips between New York and Washington.

NJ Transit said it had not yet sat down with local law enforcement agencies to deal with the additional traffic issues a new bus service might cause. 

There were a number of local mayors at the hearing Wednesday to tell officials what was wrong with the plan, even as the days to the service changes tick closer. Many of them were allegedly dodged by NJ Transit a day earlier after rescheduling a meeting.

"We could be planning ... creatively ways to support or communities," Collum said. "We are literally weeks away from this taking effect and we have not set down to talk out the details."

Millburn Township Deputy Mayor Jodi Rosenberg said "the quality of life this summer is going to be hellish."

"I don't think we heard anything today that we made us feel any better," she said. "I really don't understand why our lines are affected. I really don't have a good reason."

Sara Jerde may be reached at sjerde@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @SaraJerde.

Three men face charges.

(Photo: Dept. of Public Safety) 

NEWARK -- A traffic stop in Newark's South Ward led detectives to arrest three men and seize a loaded gun along with various drugs late Tuesday, authorities said.

Newark police Special Enforcement Bureau members pulled over a black Lincoln Town Car for driving without headlights around 11 p.m. at Bergen Street and Madison Avenue, according to city Public Safety Director Anthony Ambrose.

Police smelled raw marijuana coming from the car and saw a handgun inside, Ambrose said in a statement.

The driver, Kenneth Lee, 55, of Newark, was charged with weapons offenses and drug possession after detectives found he had a single glassine envelope of heroin, authorities said.  

A passenger, Darryl Hall, 29, also of Newark, was charged with having 59 glassine envelopes of heroin and 10 Ziplock bags of marijuana, Ambrose added. Hall faces charges including drug distribution.

The second passenger, Derrick D. Dennis, 25, of Newark, was arrested for having an unspecified outstanding warrant, according to police. Both passengers were cited for not wearing seatbelts.

Noah Cohen may be reached at ncohen@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @noahyc and on Facebook. Find NJ.com on Facebook.

Have a tip? Tell us. nj.com/tips

A State Police trooper said they found a 38.-caliber handgun in his waistband when he was taken into custody.

NEWARK -- A man accused of leading police on a high-speed chase through Newark and East Orange earlier this year appeared in court Wednesday to face a gun charge, Acting U.S. Attorney William E. Fitzpatrick said. 

Richard D. Williams, 39, of Newark was charged with one count of possession of a firearm as a previously convicted felon. 

Richard D. Williams, 39, of Newark was charged Wednesday with unlawful possession of a firearm as a convicted felon. (Courtesy Essex County Corrections) 

The chase occurred on Feb. 18 after State Police followed a white Infiniti that matched the description of a stolen vehicle, officials said. Troopers attempted to pull the car over, only for the Infiniti to drive away at a high rate of speed, officials have said. 

Troopers chased the car through Newark and East Orange until the Infiniti crossed oncoming traffic on Bergen Street in East Orange and crashed into an unmarked police vehicle, causing a fire. 

Williams was originally charged with multiple counts of aggravated assault on a police officer and the gun charge, police said. Another man and two teenage girls in the Infiniti were charged with receiving stolen property and resisting arrest.

Troopers recovered a .38 caliber revolver loaded with four rounds of hollow-point bullets from William's waistband, officials said. 

The felon in possession of a firearm charge carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. 

County officials said the 11-year-old giraffe had a problem with his teeth, prompting veterinarians to put him under anesthesia to perform the procedure.

Hodari. (Courtesy Essex County Turtle Back Zoo)
 

WEST ORANGE -- An 18-foot-tall giraffe living at the Essex County Turtle Back Zoo has died, officials confirmed Wednesday.

Hodari, an 18-foot-tall, 11-year-old Masai giraffe, died from complications from a dental procedure at about 3 p.m. Wednesday, County Executive Joseph DiVincenzo announced in a release. 

In a statement, Turtle Back veterinarian Dr. Jon Bergmann said he noticed something wrong with the teeth in the back of the giraffe's mouth about three weeks ago. At that time, Bergmann said he put the animal under anesthesia so he and a dental specialist could examine the issue. Hodari woke up and did not experience any side effects from the anesthesia, Bergmann said.

"We observed that Hodari was having difficulty eating and decided performing (a) procedure would prevent further complications from occurring in the future," Bergmann said in the release.

Wednesday, Hodari was again placed under anesthesia to undergo the procedure, but experienced complications, officials said.

"We believed this would give Hodari a better quality of life, improve his overall health and allow him to continue to thrive at Turtle Back Zoo. We knew there were risks when putting an animal of Hodari's size under anesthesia, but we also knew repairing his teeth would be more beneficial for him," Bergmann said.

Meet the 3 new Turtle Back animals

The giraffe's official cause of death will be determined by a necropsy, which officials said would take about a month to complete.

Hodari was one of four giraffes that moved into the West Orange zoo in December 2015, to great fanfare. He came to the $7 million African Adventure exhibit from South Carolina.

County officials called the animal "beloved" by zoo visitors and staff.

"We are deeply saddened by the passing of Hodari. On behalf of Turtle Back's staff, we cannot express how great this loss is," DiVincenzo said.

"The Giraffe Exhibit quickly became Turtle Back Zoo's most popular attraction, and it was because of Hodari."

Jessica Mazzola may be reached at jmazzola@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @JessMazzola. Find NJ.com on Facebook.

The 11-count indictment includes charges of murder, conspiracy, robbery and burglary

NEWARK -- Two Atlantic County men have been indicted on murder charges in the fatal shootings of three people at a Maplewood apartment complex in January.

Lavelle Davis (left) and Jimmy P. Mays. (Essex County Correctional Facility)
 

Lavelle T. Davis, 37, of Galloway, and Jimmy P. Mays, 34, formerly of Egg Harbor Township, were first arrested by the Prosecutor's Office in February in connection with the deaths of Michael Davis, 45, of Maplewood, Roshana Kenilson, 30, of Paterson, and Lance Fraser, 44, of Newark.

The new 11-count indictment, filed May 19 in state Superior Court in Newark, charges each man with three counts of murder and one count of felony murder, as well as burglary, robbery and weapons offenses, according to court records.

Authorities on Thursday were not immediately able to provide further details regarding the indictment's accusations, and have previously declined to comment on a possible motive.

Records show the new charges include possession of a weapon during a drug offense and using criminal restraint risking serious bodily injury to the victim.

The Prosecutor's Office previously said Davis, Kenilson and Fraser were found by firefighters on Jan. 29, shot to death in Davis' apartment on Van Ness Court.

Authorities said the bodies were discovered after someone reported being unable to reach the trio.

Mays was later arrested in Columbia, Md., and Davis was apprehended in Yonkers, New York.

Superior Court Judge Ronald D. Wigler ordered Davis and Mays detained pending trial, and both remain jailed at the Essex County Correctional Facility, records show.

Court records show both men are scheduled to be arraigned on the indictment June 12 before Wigler in Newark.

Thomas Moriarty may be reached at tmoriarty@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter at @ThomasDMoriarty. Find NJ.com on Facebook.

One New Jersey student advance to the final rounds taking place on Thursday.

NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. -- Shruthika Padhy of Cherry Hill outlasted more than 200 other students and reached the final rounds of the 90th Scripps National Spelling Bee.

Shruthika, 11, a sixth grader at Rosa International Middle School, is making her second straight appearance in the bee finals. She correctly spelled defibrillator, a machine that delivers an electric shock to keep a heart beating, in the second round to remain in competition. 

She is the only student from New Jersey in the finals. 

Of the nine contestants from the state, six spelled both words correctly in Wednesday's competition. But the final students were chosen not only from their oral spelling abilities on Wednesday but from the earlier written spelling and vocabulary tests they also took as part of the competition.

How N.J. spellers fared in 1st round

Overall, 188 of the 291 spellers got both words right, though just 40 made the finals.

Shruthika has a chance to do what only one other New Jersey resident has done in the bee's 90 years: win.

Katharine Close of Spring Lake, a 13-year-old, came in first in 2006 after correctly spelling ursprache, a language reconstructed from later languages.

Asha Chauhan, 13, of Elmwood Park, an eighth grader at Elmwood Park Memorial Middle School, began the second round by spelling scrupulosity correctly. The word refers to an excessive concern about moral or religious issues.

But her final score was too low to make the finals. While Asha said she was disappointed, her father, Hari Lal, said he was "really proud" of his daughter to get as far as she did in her first bee.

Here's how the others did:

-- Anmol Bhatia, 12, of Green Brook, a sixth grader at Green Brook Middle School, spelled stevia, a sweetener, correctly.

-- Alexandria Ciurlino, 13, of Egg Harbor Township, a seventh grader at St. Vincent de Paul Regional School in Mays Landing, spelled complicit, which means involved with others in an illegal action.

-- Tanay Nandan, 10, of Short Hills, a fourth grader at Hartshorn Elementary School, correctly spelled liquefaction, where an earthquake causes soil to lose strength and stiffness.

-- Christopher Serrao, 11, of Whitehouse Station, a fifth grader at Holland Brook School in Whitehouse Station, correctly spelled napoleon, referring to the pastry and not the French leader.

Word trend alert! Shout out to our history buffs..."Napoleon" followed by "Bonapartism" #spellingbee pic.twitter.com/s4CHHw2naZ

-- NationalSpellingBee (@ScrippsBee) May 31, 2017

His sister, Danielle, competed in the bee last year. "I'm so happy to see him following in my footsteps," she said.

Christopher has three more years of eligibility and he said he was planning on competing next year.

"What goes unnoticed is all the hard work that goes on behind the scenes," said their father, Dominic. "I told them this is like getting to the Super Bowl. Getting there is an achievement in itself." 

Near the end of the round, Naomi Castellanos, 11, of North Bergen, misspelled cinquain, a poem of five lines. The sixth grader at Franklin Elementary School in North Bergen had won the the 58th annual Jersey Journal-Hudson County Spelling Bee.

Two students didn't make it out of the first round:

-- Ishaan Akula, 10, of Morganville, a fifth grader at Frank Defino Central Elementary School in North Marlboro, who misspelled kakapo, a New Zealand parrot.

-- Julian Connaughton from Shohola, Pa., making his second bee appearance, who misspelled sirenomelus, a rare deformity in which the legs are fused together. He is a 13-year-old seventh grader at Delaware Valley Middle School who was sponsored by the Tri-State Spelling Bee Committee in Montague.

The winner receives an engraved trophy, a $40,000 cash prize, a $2,500 U.S. savings bond, and an Encyclopaedia Britannica reference library. In addition, there are trips to New York City to interviewed on "Live with Kelly and Ryan" and to Hollywood to appear on Jimmy Kimmel Live."

Jonathan D. Salant may be reached at jsalant@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JDSalant or on Facebook. Find NJ.com Politics on Facebook.

Six champions will be crowned on Wednesday. Find all the results here.

WEDNESDAY, MAY 31

NJSIAA GROUP FINALS

No. 1 Delbarton vs. No. 2 Seton Hall Prep, 7:30 p.m.
Group 3 Championship @ Livingston
• Live updates
• Game story
•  Photo gallery
• Box score

No. 6 Montgomery vs. No. 3 Ridgewood, 7:30 p.m.
Group 3 Championship @ Hopewell Valley
• Live updates
• Game story
•  Photo gallery
• Box score

No. 9 Rumson-Fair Haven vs. No. 7 Ramapo, 5 p.m.
Group 2 Championship @ Shore
• Live updates
• Game story
•  Photo gallery
• Box score

No. 5 Moorestown vs. No. 12 Summit, 7:30 p.m.
Group 3 Championship @ Shore
• Live updates
• Game story
•  Photo gallery
• Box score

No. 14 Mountain Lakes vs. No. 20 Madison, 5 p.m.
Group 3 Championship @ Livingston
• Live updates
• Game story
•  Photo gallery
• Box score

Pingry vs. Bishop Eustace, 5 p.m.
Group 3 Championship @ Hopewell Valley
• Live updates
• Game story
•  Photo gallery
• Box score

FEATURED LINKS
• Who's TOC-bound? Picks & previews for all 6 group finals
• NJ.com boys lacrosse Top 20, May 29: Sectional final shakeup
• Which N.J. boys lacrosse programs have the most state titles?
• Statement wins, upsets through Wednesday's games
• Updated brackets
• ICYMI: 50 players that will impact the state tournament

Brandon Gould may be reached at bgould@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @BrandonGouldHS. Like NJ.com HS sports on Facebook.

The people and events from New Jersey that shaped history in the state, country and world.

In our continuing series "This Month in New Jersey History" we jump to June for another look at important people and events from the Garden State.

If there are dates you don't see on our timeline but believe should be remembered, let us know in the comments section.

Here are links to previous "This month in N.J. history" galleries:

May          April          March          February

January          December          November

October          September          August          July

MORE: Vintage photos around New Jersey

Greg Hatala may be reached at ghatala@starledger.com. Follow him on Twitter @GregHatala. Find Greg Hatala on Facebook.