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Plane Bound for New Jersey Plunges Thousands of Feet After Possible Strike by Cosmic Rays from Other Galaxy, Investigators Say

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A New Jersey-bound airplane that suddenly plunged thousands of feet in the air — sending 15 people to the hospital in October — was likely struck by cosmic rays from a star that exploded in another galaxy, according to space experts.

The JetBlue Airbus A320 flight was hit by a stream of high-energy particles from a distant supernova blast that traveled millions of years, according to Clive Dyer, a space and radiation expert from the University of Surrey who spoke to space.com

“Cosmic rays can interact with modern microelectronics and change the state of a circuit,” Dyer told the outlet. “They can cause a simple bit flip, like a zero to one or one to zero. They can mess up information and make things go wrong. But they can cause hardware failures too, when they induce a current in an electronic device and burn it out.”

The flight was headed from Cancun to Newark on Oct. 30 . . . Pilots regained control and made an emergency landing in Tampa, Florida, but roughly 20 passengers suffered serious injuries, including bloody head wounds.

Airbus officials blamed the glitch this week on “intense solar radiation” from the sun interfering with the 20-year-old plane’s navigation computer. (Read more from “Plane Bound for New Jersey Plunges Thousands of Feet After Possible Strike by Cosmic Rays from Other Galaxy, Investigators Say” HERE)

Photo credit: Flickr

New Jersey Korean Spa Forced to Allow Trans Women in Female Nude Section After Being Sued

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A popular Korean spa in New Jersey, where nudity is compulsory, will now let transgender women use the female-only section — even if they have male genitals — after being slapped with a lawsuit.

King Spa in Palisades Park recently changed its policies after it was sued by a trans woman for refusing to let [him] use the female facilities — despite [him] still having male anatomy, according to court documents obtained by The Post.

Under the change, the spa’s policy now clearly states that any guest may use the locker room that aligns with the gender identity displayed on their government- or state-issued photo ID.

If any spa-goer is uncomfortable with sharing facilities with a trans person who may have different genitalia from them, the policy states the customer can either request a private spa or give up use of the communal facilities going forward.

The wellness facility, which models itself after the traditional Korean spa known as a jimjilbang, requires men and women to be segregated in certain areas where clothing and any form of covering is banned. (Read more from “New Jersey Korean Spa Forced to Allow Trans Women in Female Nude Section After Being Sued” HERE)

Photo credit: Flickr

NJ Cop Allegedly Ignored 911 Call About Double Murder-Suicide — and Went to ATM, Pizza Shop Instead

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First responders typically run toward danger — but a New Jersey cop allegedly hit an ATM and then a pizza parlor instead of responding to a 911 call about what turned out to be a double murder-suicide, prosecutors said.

Franklin Township Police Sgt. Kevin Bollaro has been on administrative leave since Aug. 2, the day authorities found the bodies of veterinarian Lauren Semanchik, 33, and her new boyfriend, volunteer firefighter Tyler Webb, 29, inside her home.

Nearby, authorities found the remains of her 45-year-old ex, New Jersey State Police Lt. Ricardo Santos, who had killed himself.

Bollaro had been dispatched to investigate three 911 calls from Semanchik’s concerned neighbors, but never actually went to the home, Hunterdon County Prosecutor Renée M. Robeson said.

Instead, Bollaro “falsely stated in his report that he ‘checked the area along Upper Kingtown Road again and was unable to locate the source of the shots,’ and that he ‘cleared the scene after approximately 20 minutes,’” Robeson’s office alleged of the Aug. 1 incident.

Bollaro was outed by GPS data and surveillance footage that contradicted his account — and instead revealed his drive 1.5 miles in the opposite direction, to a TD Bank on Route 31 in Clinton Township, prosecutors said. (Read more from “NJ Cop Allegedly Ignored 911 Call About Double Murder-Suicide — and Went to ATM, Pizza Shop Instead” HERE)

Messy New Jersey Voter Rolls Have More Than 32,000 ‘Questionable’ Voter Records, Report Says

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Registered New Jersey voters pick a new governor in the Nov. 4 general election, but before that the state really needs to clean up its voter list.

After reviewing New Jersey’s statewide voter roll, a report from the Public Interest Legal Foundation (PILF) shows an “urgent need for improved list maintenance practices,” after identifying more than 32,000 registration issues, many of which could allow people to vote more than once.

PILF found 14,059 duplicate registrations, with voters registered in New Jersey and at least one other state at the same time. But PILF did not look at all 50 states, meaning there are certainly more to be found. PILF identified duplicate registrations in New Jersey and Florida (6,972 cases), New York (5,725), and Pennsylvania (925).

PILF also found 15,655 registrations using fictitious birth dates, which are sometimes used as placeholders — such as New Jersey’s most common placeholder date, 1800-01-01, that is, 225 years ago. The PILF report found 5,166 such birthdates in Essex County, 2,108 in Passaic County, and 1,928 in Middlesex County.

Of the 15,655 registrations with bad birth dates, 85 percent are marked as active voters, the report shows. But PILF says it is an easy fix. The organization took a random sample of 10 such registrations and compared the “New Jersey voter roll, Social Security records, and Experian reports,” and within minutes found the correct birthdates for all 10. PILF found that seven voter registrations were accurate after the proper birth date was added; Social Security records indicated that two registered voters had died more than 20 years ago; and one individual had seemingly relocated to St. Lucie County, Florida, and registered to vote there in 2017. (Read more from “Messy New Jersey Voter Rolls Have More Than 32,000 ‘Questionable’ Voter Records, Report Says” HERE)

Police Chief’s Alleged Sick Pranks — Including Stomach-Turning Bathroom Behavior — Revealed in Images and Court Docs

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New details surrounding the depraved antics of a New Jersey police chief accused of creating a toxic workplace through disturbing “pranks” — like spiking the office coffee pot with Viagra, pricking an officer’s penis with a hypodermic needle, and defecating on the floor — emerged in court documents and shocking images outlining the alleged harassment.

Court filings from five officers planning to sue the Township of North Bergen allege a wide range of shockingly inappropriate behavior from North Bergen Police Chief Robert Farley — including disgusting pics that detail his deranged defecation habit.

One photo in the filings shows Farley executing one of his reportedly favorite pranks — standing shirtless over a subordinate’s desk and shaving his body hair so as to deliberately leave a mess.

Another nasty photo, taken by the office’s elderly cleaning woman, shows a deuce planted on the bathroom floor that was allegedly left there by Chief Farley.

The 20-year veteran of the force would also regularly poop in the upper part of the toilet and was unafraid to drop trough and take a number-two in front of staffers, something he did outside the restroom on several occasions, a filing from Lieutenant Alex Guzman alleged. (Read more from “Police Chief’s Alleged Sick Pranks — Including Stomach-Turning Bathroom Behavior — Revealed in Images and Court Docs” HERE)

Alleged 14-Year-Old Cop Killer Can’t Be Tried as Adult in NJ — Handing Him All Sorts of Perks: Expert

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He’s accused of killing a Newark cop — but he won’t be tried in public and likely won’t even serve out a 20-year sentence if convicted.

That’s because the suspected triggerman is a 14-year-old boy — and in New Jersey, the courts won’t move kids of that age up to criminal court, no matter how heinous their crimes.

“The state statute requires somebody to be 15 years old to treat it as an adult case,” said Laura Sutnick, a criminal defense lawyer and president of the Bergen County Bar Association, to The Post on Sunday.

“But if you’re 14, you can’t be waived to adult court.”

One year in age may not seem like much, but it will make a world of difference for the unidentified teen, who’s been charged with murder for allegedly gunning down 26-year-old Detective Joseph Azcona with an automatic weapon Friday night on a Brick City street corner. (Read more from “Alleged 14-Year-Old Cop Killer Can’t Be Tried as Adult in NJ — Handing Him All Sorts of Perks: Expert” HERE)

Teachers Will No Longer Need to Pass Basic Reading, Writing and Math Test for Certification in This Blue State

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A New Jersey law that removes a requirement for teachers to pass a reading, writing and mathematics test for certification will go into effect on Jan. 1, 2025.

The law, Act 1669, was passed by Democratic New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy as part of the state’s 2025 budget in June in an effort to address a shortage of teachers in the state, according to the New Jersey Monitor. Individuals seeking an instructional certificate will no longer need to pass a “basic skills” test administered by the state’s Commissioner of Education.

“We need more teachers,” Democratic Sen. Jim Beach, who sponsored the bill, said according to the New Jersey Monitor. “This is the best way to get them.”

New Jersey is especially in need of math and science teachers, according to an annual report from the state’s education department.

Just months earlier, Murphy signed a similar bill into law that created an alternative pathway for teachers to sidestep the testing requirement. A powerful teachers union, the New Jersey Education Association, was a driving force behind the bill, calling the testing requirement “an unnecessary barrier to entering the profession.” Teachers in the state are paid an average of $81,102 annually, according to the National Education Association.

(Read more from “Teachers Will No Longer Need to Pass Basic Reading, Writing and Math Test for Certification in This Blue State” HERE)

China Mocks America as ‘Breeding Ground for Delusion’ Over NJ Drones

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China’s state-run Global Times on Thursday mocked the United States as a “breeding ground for delusion” because of the furor over drone sightings in New Jersey.

The Chinese Communist propaganda organ was particularly irked by House Foreign Affairs Committee chair Michael McCaul claiming the mysterious aircraft were “Chinese spy drones.”

“Some American politicians seem to have a special preference for sensationalizing the ‘China threat.’ Much like the ‘spy balloon’ incident that unfolded in early 2023, the latest accusations against Chinese drones follow an old script, repackaged with new rhetoric aimed at smearing China,” the Global Times hooted.

The Chinese spy balloon of 2023 was, of course, a real Chinese spy balloon, as numerous studies of its behavior have confirmed. Beijing has developed a penchant for floating suspicious balloons into the air space of adversaries – either to gather information or to test how adversaries respond to the penetration of their air defense zones. . .

“From ‘spy balloons’ to ‘spy cranes’ to ‘spy drones’ … these absurd and paranoid labels reflect the distorted and narrow-minded mentality of some U.S. politicians in their attempts to contain and suppress China,” the Global Times lectured. (Read more from “China Mocks America as ‘Breeding Ground for Delusion’ Over NJ Drones” HERE)

NJ Military Base Confirms Multiple Contraband-Smuggling Drone Incursions This Year

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A New Jersey military base said that after numerous drone incursions this year, it has established countermeasures to detect and thwart the aircraft attempting to smuggle illicit items into a federal prison within its perimeter.

Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, which houses FCI Fort Dix prison, confirmed to military blog The War Zone that it’s taken the defensive measures after numerous attempts to sneak drugs and other contraband into the federal penitentiary.

The airspace above the joint base has “standing flight restrictions” in place which prohibit drones or other aircraft from operating without authorization, base spokesperson Kitsana R. Dounglomchan told the outlet.

“We take each case seriously and aggressively coordinate with local law enforcement to ensure the safety and security of our installation. The majority of the drones were intercepted or recovered,” he said. . .

The Garden State has been inundated by unexplained drone sightings over the last month, with thousands of reports received so far, according to law enforcement sources. (Read more from “NJ Military Base Confirms Multiple Contraband-Smuggling Drone Incursions This Year” HERE)

Mayor Says Radioactive Material Missing From Port, Connects It To Drone Mystery

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By Daily Caller. Belleville, New Jersey, Mayor Michael Melham connected a string of mysterious drone sightings to a report of a radioactive shipment that went missing earlier in December.

Melham said the drones have been hovering over critical infrastructure and residential areas in his state for at least four weeks, suggesting that their grid-like flying patterns indicate they are searching for something specific. . .

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) confirmed in an event report Friday that a Ge-68 pin source shipped by New Jersey‘s Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) went missing from the Port of Newark on Dec. 2. Melham said the materials were lost in transit.

“It was a shipment. It arrived at its destination. The container was damaged, and it was empty,” he told the hosts.

The NRC classifies Ge-68, a radioactive isotope of Germanium, as a “Less than Cat 3” material, which the NRC describes as “very unlikely to cause permanent injury to individuals or contain a very small amount of radioactive material that would not cause any permanent injury,” though it can still be hazardous to humans. (Read more from “Mayor Says Radioactive Material Missing From Port, Connects It To Drone Mystery” HERE)

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New Jersey Governor Urges State to ‘Calm Down’ as FBI Looks Into Drone Mystery

By The Guardian. The governor of New Jersey has asked residents of the state plagued with unexplained drone sighting to “calm down” as federal and state authorities warned of pilots of manned aircraft being hit in the eyes by laser pointers aimed from the ground.

The FBI and New Jersey state police said in a statement on X: “There is also a concern with people possibly firing weapons at what they believe to be UAS [unmanned aircraft systems] but could be manned aircraft.”

The law enforcement agencies added that they have been out every night to legally track down drone operators “acting illegally or with nefarious intent” and warned that there could be “dangerous and possibly deadly consequences” if manned aircraft are targeted.

The warnings came as the FBI, US homeland security department, Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and defense department issued a statement that said an examination of “the technical data and tips from concerned citizens” concluded “the sightings to date include a combination of lawful commercial drones, hobbyist drones, and law enforcement drones, as well as manned fixed-wing aircraft, helicopters and stars mistakenly reported as drones”.

“We have not identified anything anomalous and do not assess the activity to date to present a national security or public safety risk over the civilian airspace in New Jersey or other states in the northeast,” the statement said. (Read more from “New Jersey Governor Urges State to ‘Calm Down’ as FBI Looks Into Drone Mystery” HERE)