It was all about the defense. The March 1 quarter final Section II, Group IV basketball game pitting the Franklin High School Warriors against the North Hunterdon Lions was a textbook lesson in how an explosive offense is generated by tight defense. After posting a shaky second quarter following a dominant opening frame, the Lady Warriors focused on defense and …

Updated with new information throughout. An application to double the maximum number of students at Central Jersey College Prep Charter School was approved March 1 by the state Board of Education. The school will be allowed to enroll up to 1,320 students in grades Kindergarten to 12 between now and 2020. The school currently enrolls 480 students in grades K-2 …

Feb. 21 Halakkuma Patel of Lawrenceville was cited for careless driving after his car rear-ended one driven by Tarra Wilson-Torrise of Jackson. Wilson-Torrise said she was entering the Pleasant Plains and Claremont roads intersection, then stopped for traffic when her car was hit. Sihan Cheng of Somerset was cited for failure to yield the right-of-way after her car collided with …

Bridgewater, NJ – The Somerset Patriots have announced that Major League infielder and former New York Met Zach Lutz has been signed for the 2017 season.   “I am excited to join the winning tradition I have heard about in Somerset,” said Lutz. “I am pleased to be a part of everything that is going on here, and am looking …

The 20-year-old township man wanted for a January Dewald Avenue shooting has surrendered, authorities said March 1. Jaki Hooks-Lewis turned himself in at 2 p.m. Feb. 28 while at his lawyer’s office in Newark, according to a press release from the Somerset County Prosecutor’s Office. Hooks-Lewis was charged with 2nd Degree Aggravated Assault after he allegedly shot a man outside …

The $59.3 million budget introduced Feb. 28 by the Township Council carries something that hasn’t been seen in quite a while: a decrease in the local portion of the property tax rate. The decrease is slight and varies depending upon whether a property has been reassessed in the last year, but it’s a decrease, nonetheless. The proposed $59,306,412 spending plan, …

Work on the Route 518 bridge is expected to resume this week, nearly two weeks after contractors found traces of a possible carcinogen in the ground around the construction area. Workers found creosote, a wood preservation chemical, in the ground and water near the bridge earlier this month. Work was immediately stopped so that an environmental plan could be created …

Area residents who want to defeat a proposed natural gas compressor station must remain engaged and fight it at every level. That was the word from a panel of activists gathered Feb. 27 at Sampson G. Smith Elementary School in a forum hosted by the township’s newly formed Task Force on Compressor Station 206. About 300 people showed up for …

The Franklin High School Lady Warriors dominated the Dickinson Rams Feb 27 in a 70-52 win in the first round of the NJSIAA sectional tournament. The Warriors next play North Hunterdon High School on March 1, after their victory over Franklin arch-rival Piscataway. The game began slowly, but the Warriors soon got down to business in the first quarter, ending …

Bridgewater, NJ – The Somerset Patriots have announced that 2015 Atlantic League Champion and four-year Patriots catcher Adam Donachie has been signed to a new player/coach role for the 2017 season. This will be the first time in Somerset Patriots history that the team will have a player/coach on the roster.   “I can’t wait to be back in Somerset,” …