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NJ.com boys basketball Top 20, Jan. 15: How did huge matchups affect rankings?

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Did the top teams maintain their slots?


Girls Basketball: 19 can't-miss games for the week of Jan. 15

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See what the biggest girls basketball games across N.J. are this week.

Ice Hockey: 21 can't-miss games, Jan. 15-21

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See which games you should keep an eye on this week.

Car plows into hair salon, severely injuring woman leaving shop

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A car plowed into a hair salon in Essex County, leaving a customer who was standing outside with severe leg injuries, police said.

A car plowed into a hair salon in Essex County, leaving a customer who was standing outside with severe leg injuries, police said.

An 81-year-old woman drove her 2015 Volkswagen into the Hair Core salon on Fairfield Road just before 10 a.m., police said.

Before hitting the storefront, the vehicle struck a Totowa woman who had just left the salon, cops said.

The 60-year-old woman was transported to a local hospital for injuries to her legs and feet. She was in stable condition with non-life threatening injuries, but will need further orthopedic treatment, Fairfield Police Chief Anthony Manna said. 

The driver, from Fairfield, was checked by medical personnel at the scene and refused any treatment, Manna said. She possessed a valid driver's license and told police she has no medical condition.

Van crashes through front of floor covering shop, driver flees

"Substantial" damage was done to the storefront, Manna said. The car drove into a cinderblock wall, destroying the cinderblocks and shattering the window.

It remains unclear what caused the crash, but the driver may have mistakenly hit the gas instead of the brake, Manna said. 

The car was impounded to check the mechanics as Fairfield Police continues its investigation.

No summonses were issued to the driver. 

Sophie Nieto-Munoz may be reached at snietomunoz@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her at @snietomunoz. Find NJ.com on Facebook.

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Hundreds march at Newark airport for higher wages

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Airport workers and their advocates are counting on support from New Jersey's incoming Democratic governor to boost airport wages to $15 an hour, by law or a Port Authority policy Watch video

Hundreds of Newark airport workers joined union leaders and federal, state and local elected officials Monday for a Martin Luther King Jr. Day march and rally to demand higher wages.

Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, former mayor and U.S. Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.), the state Assembly's new speaker, Craig Coughlin, and others addressed more than 600 aircraft cabin cleaners, custodians and others who had gathered inside Terminal C at Newark Liberty International Airport, after marching through Terminal B, then outside along the airport road on the frigid but sunny federal holiday honoring the slain civil rights leader.

Officials noted that King was pressing for economic equality when he was assassinated in April 1968 while in Memphis to support sanitation workers seeking higher wages.

"It's important for us to understand when we celebrate Dr. King, we have to celebrate what he stood for," Baraka told the large crowd inside Terminal C.

More than 600 airport workers carried placards reading "Justice for Airport Workers," "I AM a woman," and "I AM a man," and chanted in call-and-response refrains, "No justice! No Peace!" and "When we fight...We win!" 

Many of the workers wore purple beanies of Local 32BJ of the Service Employees International Union,which represents about 2,500 airport workers in Newark. Others wore the trademark red colors of UNITE HERE, the merged Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees and Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees union, which also represents some Newark airport workers.

About 10,000 people work in low-wage ground support jobs at Newark Liberty for firms contracted by Newark Liberty's main tenant, United Airlines, and other carriers there.

The unions have been gradually organizing airport workers into bargaining units at their respective companies in recent years, while at the same time pushing for higher airport wage requirements by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, the which operates Newark Liberty in New Jersey and John F. Kennedy International and LaGuardia airports in New York.

Workers at LaGuardia and JFK typically make more than their counterparts at Newark Liberty despite doing the same work at airports run by the same bi-state agency because New York State has a higher minimum wage than New Jersey.

Specifically, the minimum in New York -- which applies to workers at Kennedy and LaGuardia -- rose to $12 an hour on Dec. 31, and is scheduled to rise to $15 an hour as of Dec. 31, 2018, under the law signed by Gov. Andrew Cuomo of New York.

New Jersey's minimum wage, by contrast, rose to $8.44 an hour on Jan. 1.

The effective minimum wage at Newark Liberty is higher than that thanks to a Port Authority airport minimum wage policy that took effect in 2015, requiring airport tenants or their contractors to pay their workers at least $10.10 an hour. But that still lags behind the New York State minimum that applies to workers at Newark and JFK.

Millie Perez, a 47-year-old terminal cleaner at Newark Liberty who was at Monday's rally, said she makes $11.70 an hour. That's $1.60 above the Newark airport minimum, but still barely enough to cover the $950 rent on the 2-bedroom Newark apartment she shares with her twp kids.

"It's not much for me," Perez said in Spanish. "I'm always struggling."

The unions staged a similar airport march on the King holiday last year, with little immediate effect.

But Perez, her coworkers and their advocates are hoping things will be different this year, when Gov.-elect Phil Murphy is scheduled to be sworn-in Tuesday to replace Gov. Chris Christie.

Murphy, a Democrat who enjoyed union support in the November election, had appeared before the Port Authority Board of Commissioners during his campaign urging members to adopt a $15/hour airport wage that would apply to both sides of the Hudson River. The board declined.

But because the governors of the two states share control of the Port Authority through their power to appoint commissioners and to veto their actions, officials say Murphy will be able to do more than just urge the 12-member Port Authority board to raise airport wages.

Specifically, said 32BJ President Hector Figueroa, Murphy can direct the Port Authority's New Jersey commissioners to reconsider the airport wage issue, while working with Cuomo, a fellow Democrat, to insure that New York's commissioners also support a $15/hour airport wage policy.

Murphy issued a statement released by 32BJ, saying he was "proud to stand with all workers who demand a stronger and fairer New Jersey economy that works for every family."

"Today, we honor Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s legacy of fighting for justice - a legacy kept alive by airport workers fighting for a fair wage. Tomorrow, and together, we will turn the page and begin anew the work to strengthen our communities and our economy."

Dan Bryan, a spokesman for Murphy, declined to say just what concrete steps Murphy intended to take once he is sworn in.

Figueroa and Booker both said that, based on their conversations with Murphy, they were confident there would be action soon.

"Tomorrow we have a new governor in New Jersey," Figueroa said in an interview after the march. "We are not going to waste time, and aiport workers are going to get a raise."

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

Service to social justice: How N.J. spent MLK Day

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Though the Civil Rights icon, Martin Luther King Jr. was killed nearly 50 years ago, New Jerseyans showed the fight for justice continues.

Newark man stands tall with renewed dignity after pardon from Gov. Christie | Carter

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Altorice Frazier of Newark can stand with renewed dignity after Gov. Chris Christie called to tell him that he had been granted a pardon.

 The text message I received from Altorice Frazier on Friday evening relayed the good news he needed to jump-start 2018.

"Gov. Christie just called me.''

"What did he say?

"Full pardon.''

When I wrote about Frazier last February, he didn't want anyone to know he had applied for a pardon.

MORE: Recent Barry Carter columns  

My column then was how Frazier, 41, a Newark resident who had been convicted of selling drugs, returned home from jail in 2004 and proved that men like him can make it. I had not seen him in eight years when he tapped on my car window and began to explain how education saved him.

Frazier is now a married man, proud father of five, and most importantly, a vocal parent leader in the charter school movement.

His personal rebirth and parent advocacy were the only things he wanted to highlight when we bumped into each other. He mentioned the pardon, asked that I not include that angle, thinking it would leave an impression that he was grandstanding.

Today, Frazier can stand with renewed dignity after answering Christie's unexpected call at 5:58 p.m. Friday.

"I never thought that this would happen,'' said Frazier, who was among 26 people granted clemency. I feel like the state recognized now that's not who I am.''

He was eating at Wendy's restaurant on Market and Bergen streets in Newark with his 5-year-old daughter, Alanna, when an unfamiliar number appeared on his cellphone.

"This is Gov. Christie.''

Frazier had been waiting for this since he applied in May, but he began to worry when his name wasn't on the pardon list Christie issued last month.

All he could do was wait, pray and hope something would happen before Christie, who has issued 55 clemency orders during his tenure, left office. When the call actually came, Frazier was so excited to hear Christie's voice that he wanted everyone in line ordering food at Wendy's to know who had just called him.

"Hey, y'all. The governor is on the phone."

The conversation might have taken all of three minutes, but Frazier said it felt like 20.

"I can walk around now like I've never been locked up before,'' Frazier said. "It's like, wow. It's over.''

Considering how life started for Frazier, this is some kind of ending. Frazier bounced from one foster home to the other until he was adopted at age 9. By 16, Frazier was selling drugs and going nowhere when he dropped out of high school. The Garden State Youth Correctional Facility in Yardville became his home in 1999, when he was 22 and received a 13-year sentence for drug trafficking.  Frazier, however, served five, the earliest he was eligible for parole.

While locked up, Frazier wised up and education became important. He earned his General Educational Development diploma and took college courses in accounting, math and small business training. After his release, Frazier focused on self-improvement classes, anger management and cognitive thinking while he was at the halfway house.

Convinced that his life had purpose, Frazier remained employed in all sorts of positions, determined to stay out of jail. He worked for Pathmark, then an accounting firm. Next he prepared taxes for H&R Block, until he was hired as a re-entry coordinator at the Community Education Center, a rehabilitative service for ex-offenders that once helped him.

Parent advocacy wasn't in his sights at all. He got into it as a way to bond with his stepdaughter when he unexpectedly won an election in 2005 to be president of the parent organization at North Star Academy Charter School.

From there, he was hooked, moving on to serve as a parent representative for five years on the board that governs the charter school. He was president of the parent group at one of the Newark Preschool Council sites, then chairman of its policy council. Now he's co-chair of the Essex County Council for Young Children, an initiative of Program for Parents, which is a non-profit group that advocates for parents and children.

This pedigree is not grandstanding. It's about commitment.

His mother, Patricia Frazer, is astounded. Her son didn't like school growing up in Elizabeth. Teachers called her constantly about his behavior, but look at him now.

His passion is education, school reform and working with parents.

"I would have never in a million years thought my son would be in the school system,'' she said. "He's always been a good guy who just needed a fair chance and he was blessed to get one.'' 

MORE CARTER:  He empowered Newark parents to fight for their children's education | Carter

The pardon does that. It recognizes his work, that he is worth having his transgressions wiped from the record.

That's what Oscar James, his friend and former Newark South Ward councilman, told him when he encouraged Frazier to apply.

"Why not you?'' James said.

He had a story to tell, and he did so in 2008, when I first wrote about him.

Last year was the second time. This is the third, a trifecta worth every sentence.

Frazier gets the final word, in the form of another text message, which he sent to me at 12:53 a.m. Saturday. It contained a digital copy of the pardon.

"It's official, my brother,'' he wrote.  

Barry Carter: (973) 836-4925 or bcarter@starledger.com or 

nj.com/carter or follow him on Twitter @BarryCarterSL

Boys basketball Players of the Week for all 15 conferences, Jan. 8-14

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Who stole our attention on the hardcourt this week?


Wrestling Top 20, Jan. 16: Pair of shocking upsets shakes up rankings

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For three Skyland Conference members of the New Jersey Wrestling Top 20, Tuesday, Jan. 16 is moving day.

How N.J. brothers found lost Rembrandt worth $1M under a ping-pong table

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The 9-inch painting in Roger Landau's basement turned out to be a long-lost Rembrandt.

When three brothers from Teaneck approached auctioneer John Nye about selling off a collection of old family possessions, Nye thought the silver tea set would fetch more than the cracked and faded 9-inch painting.

"The varnish had discolored tremendously," said the auctioneer, who heads Nye & Company Auctioneers in Bloomfield. "It was crackled and there were (paint) losses. The painting was dark and the monogram in the upper right corner wasn't visible."

Ned, Roger and Steven Landau inherited silver, china and the painting when their mother died in 2010. She had inherited the items years earlier.

"It was a wall painting and it never looked like much," Roger Landau said Tuesday. "My parents had larger paintings that we considered much more valuable."

The painting, which depicts two men attempting to revive a woman, made Ned Landau uncomfortable.

"It was of a woman passed out in a chair, and two men trying to revive her. As a kid I thought, 'why did we have a painting like that in our dining room?'" he told Jamie Colby of Strange Inheritance on Fox Business. The painting ended up in a box in Roger Landau's basement under the ping-pong table.

It wasn't until the strange painting was sold at auction that Nye and the Landaus found out what they had -  a long lost, million-dollar Rembrandt.

"Rarely is an Old Master painting an Old Master painting," said Nye, explaining that many 19th Century artists copied works from the 16th Century greats as a way to develop their own skills.

rembrandt-top.jpg"The Unconscious Patient (An Allegory of the Sense of Smell)" is was one of five in a series painted by Rembrandt as a teenager.  

"I thought that (a copy) was what we had," he said. "Nobody and I mean nobody recognized we had something of historical significance created by a household name."

And Nye says he thought nothing of it when three people from England, France and Germany requested to bid on the artwork over the phone as other bidders gathered in the sales room.

"There was no indication that there was anything going on at this point," Nye said. "We signed each one of them up for a phone bid."

None of the bidders from Europe asked for a condition report. Nor did they ask for additional photos of the painting. Nobody asked questions, Nye said.

"They were keeping the cards close to the vest," he said.

The bidding started at $250 and soon passed Nye's $800 high estimate.

Then the caller from France bid $5,000.

The caller from Germany countered and bidding reached $100,000.

The winning bid of $1.1 million came from the French caller, Nye said.

At that price, the German caller backed off.

And then he explained to Nye what was going on.

"You just sold a Rembrandt," the caller told Nye. "I have been looking for this painting my whole professional life."

"That was the first inclination we had handled something historic," Nye said.

When the painting was cleaned up, Rembrandt's monogram became visible, Nye said.

Turns out Rembrandt painted the piece as a teenager in the 1620s. It was called "The Unconscious Patient (An Allegory of the Sense of Smell)" and was one of five highlighting the human senses and the only one monogrammed by the artist, Nye said.

The French bidder sold the painting to Thomas and Daphne Kaplan, who own three others in the series. The fifth painting, depicting taste, has not been found.

Nye said the amount the Kaplans paid for the painting has not been disclosed. A published report states they paid around $4 million.

The Landau brothers have no idea where the painting came from. And since it was so unremarkable, they never asked.

"It's a bit of a mystery," Roger Landau said. "Both of my parents are gone and we don't have any way of finding out."

gallery.jpgGallery owner Bertrand Gautier shows the Rembrandt titled "The Unconscious Patient (Sense of Smell)" dated at around 1624-25, in Maastricht, southern Netherlands, Thursday, March 10, 2016. (AP Photo/Mike Corder)  

Anthony G. Attrino may be reached at tattrino@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @TonyAttrino. Find NJ.com on Facebook.

 

Double shooting leaves 1 man dead, another injured

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The 31-year-old man was pronounced dead less than 20 minutes after being shot, investigators said.

A 31-year-old man was killed Monday night in a shooting in Newark, and another person was injured, the Essex County Prosecutor's Office said.

Pedro Dillahunt, of Newark, was pronounced dead at 8:06 p.m. after being shot about 20 minutes earlier in the 200 block of Hunterdon Street, Acting County Prosecutor Robert D. Laurino and city Public Safety Director Anthony F. Ambrose said in a joint statement.

The prosecutor's office said a second man who was shot is in stable condition.

Authorities declined to name the surviving victim, and said the investigation is ongoing.

Investigators have asked anyone with information about the shooting to call the prosecutor's office's homicide and major crimes tip line at 1-877-TIPS-4EC or 1-877-847-7432.

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

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Philip Roth calls Trump 'a massive fraud,' talks about Springsteen book

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Roth also says that David Simon is adapting 'The Plot Against America' for TV

Philip Roth has not changed his opinion of Donald Trump. 

When asked recently about today's America, the author did not hold back. 

"No one (except perhaps the acidic H. L. Mencken, who famously described American democracy as 'the worship of jackals by jackasses') could have imagined that the 21st-century catastrophe to befall the U.S.A., the most debasing of disasters, would appear not, say, in the terrifying guise of an Orwellian Big Brother but in the ominously ridiculous commedia dell'arte figure of the boastful buffoon." 

The acclaimed novelist, who stopped writing fiction in 2010 and officially retired in 2012hails from Newark's Weequahic neighborhood, where he set many of his novels. He offered his comments in emails with The New York Times. Roth's writerly responses made him a top trend Tuesday on social media. 

There was also a little tidbit of news he let drop in his email: David Simon, creator of "The Wire," is adapting Roth's 2004 Newark-set novel "The Plot Against America" for TV in the form of a six-part miniseries. (He told the Times that his novel is in good hands.)

Roth on Trump

Roth, 84, addressed the current president specifically when asked about parallels between the America imagined "The Plot Against America" and Trump's America. In the book, Charles Lindbergh, known for his anti-Semitism and racism, becomes president when he defeats Franklin Delano Roosevelt. 

The main difference between Lindbergh and Trump?

"He was also -- because of the extraordinary feat of his solo trans-Atlantic flight at the age of 25 -- an authentic American hero 13 years before I have him winning the presidency," Roth writes. 

"Trump, by comparison, is a massive fraud, the evil sum of his deficiencies, devoid of everything but the hollow ideology of a megalomaniac."

This, of course, isn't the first time Roth has weighed in on the president.

In email correspondence with the New Yorker about a year ago, Roth called Trump "humanly impoverished," going on to say that he is "ignorant of government, of history, of science, of philosophy, of art, incapable of expressing or recognizing subtlety or nuance, destitute of all decency, and wielding a vocabulary of seventy-seven words that is better called Jerkish than English."

Roth on #MeToo

Roth was also asked about another theme that has inhabited his novels: "male sexual desire," and what he thinks of the current outpouring of allegations of sexual harassment and assault.

"I've stepped not just inside the male head but into the reality of those urges whose obstinate pressure by its persistence can menace one's rationality, urges sometimes so intense they may even be experienced as a form of lunacy," Roth writes, in part. "Consequently, none of the more extreme conduct I have been reading about in the newspapers lately has astonished me."

Roth on Springsteen's autobiography

Since he's not writing, Philip Roth, who currently lives on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, spends his time reading, seeing friends, going to concerts, watching movies and checking email. Among his recent reads are works by Ta-Nehisi Coates, Nell Irvin Painter, Edmund Morgan, Teju Cole, Stephen Greenblatt and ... The Boss.  

"How in the midst of all this I came to read and enjoy Bruce Springsteen's autobiography, 'Born to Run,' I can't explain other than to say that part of the pleasure of now having so much time at my disposal to read whatever comes my way invites unpremeditated surprises," Roth says. 

 

Amy Kuperinsky may be reached at akuperinsky@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @AmyKup or on Facebook.

 

Wrestling: Updated statewide, sectional, group power points

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Check out the NJSIAA wrestling power points based on dual meets completed as of Jan. 13

53-year-old woman killed by a hit-and-run driver

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Investigators said they are now searching for a white Hyundai sedan that may have front bumper damage.

Essex County law enforcement authorities on Tuesday identified a 53-year-old woman as the victim of a fatal hit-and-run early Sunday morning in Newark.

In a joint statement, Acting County Prosecutor Robert D. Laurino and city Public Safety Director Anthony F. Ambrose said Alyce Grady, of Newark, was struck while crossing South Orange and South Munn avenues around 12:36 a.m. Sunday.

Grady was pronounced dead at the scene approximately 16 minutes later, authorities said.

Investigators said they are now searching for a white Hyundai sedan, with a model year between 2015 and 2018, that may have front bumper damage. Authorities said they have not made any arrests or identified any suspects, and that the investigation remains ongoing.

The prosecutor's office has asked anyone with information about Grady's death to call its homicide and major crimes tips line at 1-877-TIPS-4EC. 

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

Have a tip? Tell us. nj.com/tips

 

Jan. 16 weight class rankings: A new No. 1 among many huge shifts

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A former state champion re-classified this week to highlight several weight-class changes


Girls basketball Players of the Week for all 15 conferences, Jan. 8-14

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Who shined in the past week on the basketball court?

Last-minute heroics, tourney upsets, and other hot topics in HS ice hockey

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Check out the biggest stories in N.J. ice hockey from this week.

Essex County school closings, delayed openings for Jan. 17, 2018

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The snow coming down Tuesday into Wednesday has caused some schools to announce closures and delays.

As a winter storm hits New Jersey, some schools in Essex County are implementing a delayed opening schedule. 

Schools have begun to announce delayed openings for Wednesday. The following list of schools will be updated Tuesday night and Wednesday morning: 

CLOSED:

  • Seton Hall Prep

DELAYED OPENINGS: 

  • Caldwell University, opening at 10:30 a.m.
  • Caldwell-West Caldwell, schedule on district website
  • Cedar Grove, 2 hrs.
  • Essex Fells, 2 hrs. 
  • Fairfield, 2 hrs.
  • Millburn Twp., 2 hrs. 
  • North Caldwell, 2 hrs.
  • Pride Academy Charter, 2 and one-quarter hours 
  • Roseland, 2 hrs.
  • Verona, 2 hrs. 
  • West Essex, 2 hrs.

Marisa Iati may be reached at miati@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @Marisa_Iati or on Facebook here. Find NJ.com on Facebook

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NJ.com boys ice hockey Top 20, Jan. 17: Shakeup after county tourney upsets

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Which N.J. hockey teams are currently the state's best?

Who's hot: Girls basketball season stat leaders

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See who the top stat leaders are in each girls basketball category on Jan. 17.

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