December 2016

NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ—Concerns over fair and affordable access to clean, safe drinking water have repeatedly made headlines across the nation in recent years, but few communities have as bad of a track record as New Brunswick.

That track record just got a lot worse in December, as multiple unfolding scandals enveloped the troubled New Brunswick Water Utility (NBWU), and the agency recruited police to help them seize potential evidence of their own corruption from the New Brunswick Today (NBT) newspaper.

CARTERET, NJ—Just around midnight on December 6, 63-year-old Briccio Guevara was found dead outside his home in Carteret, fatally wounded by gunshots, according to authorities.

Guevara, a resident of Carteret, was taken to Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in Rahway, where he was pronounced dead shortly after he was discovered at 12:01 a.m.

WASHINGTON, D.C.–Financial companies should watch how they motivate their employees and service providers to obtain sales or business goals, said the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) on November 28.

Programs that tie outcomes to certain benchmarks, says the Bureau, may lead to consumer harm and pose risks to consumers.

PERTH AMBOY, NJ—On December 7, Middlesex County Prosecutor Andrew Carey announced that three people had been arrested and charged with "participating in a series of jewelry store break-ins that netted them nearly $1 million in stolen goods."

Two men from Essex County and a woman from Union County were charged one day prior, following an "intensive investigation involving 17 law enforcement agencies," according to the Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office (MCPO).

Gubernatorial candidates John Wisniewski and Phil Murphy spent some time at Rutgers University’s main campus with the hopes of building support from student voters ahead of the 2017 elections.

NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ—Several years after two men were murdered in Trenton, a 27-year-old from New Brunswick who goes by the nickname "Charmin," was indicted on charges he killed both as part of a criminal conspiracy involving a widespread underground prostitution business. 

Now Wilmer Chavez Romero is facing the potential of being put to death by the federal government if convicted of the crime in a trial set to begin on January 3.

NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ–Within the warm confines of an off-campus house located on Huntington Street, three students, weighed down by the bags of books on their backs, yet, uplifted by the infinite possibility of music, came together to write their very first song “Horizon Fire.”

It was during this meeting during the start of the fall 2013 semester at Rutgers that one of Hub City’s most novel, alternative folk bands was created.