nj.com • July 22 2026

N.J. school district to cut all junior varsity middle school sports amid $2.2 million budget deficit

Facing a multi-year budget deficit, the Robbinsville Township school district has approved plans to eliminate all junior varsity sports at the middle school level — a change that will affect more than 200 middle school athletes. At the high school level, golf and swim programs, along with several coaching positions, will also be cut.The Robbinsville Board of Education approved the 2026-27 budget on April 28 to address a $2.2 million shortfall driven by declining state aid and New Jersey’s 2% cap...

nj.com • July 19 2026

Security guards grab 10,000 ‘anti-Trump’ red cards from World Cup protest group

A coalition of artists, organizers and advocacy organizations was set to distribute 50,000 red cards to fans headed to MetLife Stadium for the World Cup final on Sunday to stage an in-stadium protest of FIFA and President Donald Trump.The plan was for fans to hold up the red cards following the Spain-Argentina match when Trump and FIFA President Gianni Infantino presented the championship trophy to the winning team. But security guards outside the American Dream mall disrupted part of the plan.O...

nj.com • July 19 2026

The first FIFA World Cup halftime show was a rushed sampler hoping to be the Super Bowl

The first FIFA World Cup halftime show made me feel like I was walking through a mall food court. You peruse each booth as workers entice you with free samples, hoping to get you to buy a full meal. Ultimately, I’ll probably end up going home to get something I already have. Instead of quenching hunger or thirst, Coldplay frontman and the show’s artistic curator, Chris Martin, treated the show like a Spotify playlist. For 11 minutes, fans got a taste of good music and artistry in a rushed and ch...

nj.com • July 7 2026

The World Cup has been an incredible melting pot for N.J. It exists in a state of contradiction.

The sound of a loud bass drum announced the arrival of dozens of French soccer fans as they marched through the exit gates of MetLife Stadium. Minutes after their country’s masterful 3-1 World Cup victory against Sweden, they sang and danced right through into the FIFA Fan Zone in East Rutherford. Behind them, a sea of blue French flags and jerseys collided with the yellow of the sunset.The scene was energizing. “Sha la la la la la la, Allez les Bleus!” (meaning “come on the Blues”) they chanted...

nj.com • June 30 2026

After years of fierce debate, N.J. basketball is finally getting a shot clock — and coaches are worried

After years of heated debate, the shot clock is finally coming to New Jersey high school basketball.But the long-awaited change has reignited debate among coaches and school officials who fear the added costs could further strain already-shrinking budgets, increase blowouts, and make it even harder for weaker teams to compete.In a narrow 170-166 vote on May 4, the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association membership agreed to become the 33rd state to adopt a 35-second shot clock begi...

nj.com • June 29 2026

This N.J. district almost eliminated middle school sports due to budget difficulties. The community stepped up to restore them.

Parents of students in the Tabernacle School District succeeded with a spirited grassroots effort to save middle school sports after they were grudgingly cut from the 2026-27 budget before the fall. Tabernacle residents approved a proposal on June 15 to increase sports fees to $160 per sport, closing the minimal portion of the $14,000 gap needed to restore funding for middle school sports. Becky Skare, a district parent and member of Tabernacle Home and School Association, said at the June board...

nj.com • June 28 2026

A witch doctor promised to lift a curse on this World Cup striker. His response was legendary.

Mother Nature mostly spared MetLife Stadium for the first three World Cup games in East Rutherford. On Saturday, she decided to spice things up. Steady rain and comfortably humid mid-70-degree temperatures didn’t dampen the loud and lively sold-out crowd of 80,633 English and Panamanian fans or the play on the field. England, which had already punched its ticket into the round of 32, didn’t let its foot off the gas with a 2-0 victory over Panama - grabbing seven points and first place in Group L...

nj.com • June 26 2026

Ecuador hadn’t scored a single goal in two World Cup matches. Everything changed against Germany in N.J.

Around 22 Ecuadorian fans nervously looked up at one of the many large screens at MetLife Stadium and quickly erupted into screams and hugs. The South American team, which hadn’t scored a single goal in their first two Group C matchups of the 2026 World Cup, finally got the spark they were looking for. In the ninth minute, winger Nilson Angulo sent a beautiful ball into the bottom right-hand corner past legendary Germany goalie Manuel Neuer for a much-needed 1-1 equalizer. Do you believe in mira...

nj.com • June 14 2026

Travel disaster strands N.J. World Cup fans for hours: ‘It’s hard to believe we’re in America right now’

More than three hours after Brazil and Morocco ended their World Cup match in a 1-1 tie at MetLife Stadium on Saturday night, hundreds of frustrated soccer fans remained ensnarled in a travel nightmare just outside the venue in East Rutherford. UPDATE: $20 shuttle bus tickets to Tuesday’s game already sold outGridlock choked the highways and streets surrounding the stadium near midnight, and fans waited in thick crowds at the designated rideshare area at Meadowlands racetrack. Some had been in l...

nj.com • June 12 2026

Want to see how much the World Cup will cost you? Check out our interactive cost tool.

The renamed New York-New Jersey stadium in East Rutherford will host eight FIFA World Cup games, including the World Cup final on July 19. But it will cost you - a lot. There has been a lot of discussion about the exorbitant costs, from record-high ticket prices to the round-trip cost of mass transit. NJ.com thought it would be interesting to put the power of figuring out the tab in our readers’ hands. ‘The Price of the Cup’ is a new interactive tool that lets you select how much a FIFA World Cu...

nj.com • June 3 2026

20 women inside Delaney Hall met with these N.J. congressmen. Here’s the message they want heard.

Seated in the library of Newark’s Delaney Hall ICE detention center Tuesday, about 20 detained women told two visiting members of Congress they were struggling to get medical care, separated from their children and uncertain when they would see a judge again.The closed-door meeting between detainees and U.S. Reps. Donald Norcross and Herb Conaway, both Democrats, came as allegations of inhumane conditions at the ICE facility continue to mount, fueling protests, lawsuits and growing demands from...

nj.com • May 21 2026

N.J. school district to cut all middle school sports amidst a $13.5 million budget deficit

Facing a deepening budget crisis, the West Orange Township school district announced plans earlier this month to eliminate all middle school sports programs — a sweeping cut that would reshape athletics across the community.The West Orange Board of Education approved a controversial 2026-27 budget on May 4 aimed at addressing a $13.5 million deficit, advancing a sweeping plan that would eliminate the district’s popular middle school athletic programs. The cuts also call for the elimination of 77...

Substream Magazine • May 4 2026

Bring Me The Horizon's Sold-Out MSG Show Is Another Feather In Their Cap

Bring Me The Horizon vocalist Oli Sykes kneeled in the upper middle of the band’s elaborate stage setup, as a mixture of red confetti and streamers draped the 20,000+ fans in Madison Square Garden in New York this past Saturday night. His close-cut platinum hair is covered in sweat as he screamed and sang his heart out for a little under two hours. The claps and “woooo” from the fans overtook him. With tears in his eyes, he looked all across the arena and managed to get out, “Oh fu–king hell.” D...

Substream Magazine • April 30 2026

Oscar Boyson On 'Our Hero, Balthazar,' Class Issues, and The Dwindling Hope For Young People - Substream Magazine

Gun culture, social media connection (or the illusion of), class warfare, a dark-comedy subversion of the buddy story, and touches of do-good nature for optics and the entrapment of incel-related thought processes. Each of these themes could command a separate two-hour narrative within its own right, but director/co-writer Oscar Boyson put them together in his directorial feature debut, “Our Hero, Balthazar.”
This film, co-written with Ricky Camilleri, understood that the landscape for young peo...

Substream Magazine • April 29 2026

'Leviticus' Applies Blunt, Supernatural Allegory To Depict The Regressive Persecution of Queer Romance - Substream Magazine

We gravitate to the “star-crossed lovers” trope because love seems to be one of the only things that can get through the muck of conventional life. It often transcends death itself.  The stories of people who fully embrace it often etch their names into time. But not everybody gets to experience those moments equally. For marginalized groups, it’s not as simple as overcoming two warring families and professions from a balcony. What Adrian Chiarella’s first feature, “Leviticus,” shows is that som...

Substream Magazine • April 28 2026

'Apex' Should Be A Survival Guilty Pleasure, But Never Gets There - Substream Magazine

Robert Frost once said, “The only way out is through,” and that is the core of Baltasar Kormákur’s survival thriller “Apex” – a 90-minute film that is simplistic by design and not formulated for staying power. Within it are two major obstacles the protagonist has to overcome: grief and a maniac hellbent on ensuring Australian vacationers have the opposite experience to that painted by Men At Work’s 1980s hit, “Down Under.” Sasha (Charlize Theron) and Tommy (Eric Bana) are a thrillseeking couple...

Substream Magazine • April 24 2026

The Beauty Of 'Blue Heron' Shows The Imperfect Dance of Memory and Documentation - Substream Magazine

Memories can either be a Polaroid picture that yellows and fades over time or feel as real as the day you experienced it. One of the most painful feelings is growing older and discovering that the stories you grew up with are incomplete – perhaps colored by a lack of understanding in that present moment. In Sophy Romvari’s beautifully moving film, “Blue Heron,” she uses the power of storytelling to unearth parts of her past about a family member she had not been able to grasp as a younger person...

nj.com • April 23 2026

This N.J. college graduate’s clutch play is the center of the women’s professional hockey renaissance

Sarah Fillier knew she had to activate her clutch gene.The New York Sirens’ playoff hopes looked all but lost as they battled the Minnesota Frost April 1 at Prudential Center in Newark, staring down a two-goal deficit late in the third period.On a four-game losing streak, the young but resolute team got a much-needed energy boost from Fillier, a former Princeton University star, who shot out of the penalty box with urgency, stole an errant pass, and scored a goal on a beautiful double deke. Just...

Substream Magazine • April 23 2026

'Over Your Dead Body' Has Two Tonal Lanes and Coasts In The Middle - Substream Magazine

Dan (Jason Segel) and Lisa (Samara Weaving) are married. Hold your applause because that’s where the celebrations end. Professionally, they are not in the best position. Dan is a director who had modest success with his film years ago, but that’s all in the past. He’s mostly resigned to working on TV commercials, wanting to be anywhere else in the world. Lisa, well, she’s an actress, and Hollywood hasn’t exactly broken down her door as of late. They have both amassed quite a large amount of debt...

Substream Magazine • April 23 2026

‘Lee Cronin’s The Mummy’ Is 'Evil Dead' With Tethered Bandages - Substream Magazine

If it walks like “Evil Dead” and talks like “Evil Dead,” it’s “Evil Dead,” right? Well, no. It’s “Lee Cronin’s The Mummy.” As the marketing leading up to the film’s release will tell you, no, this is not the comedic, action-adventure tone of the 1999 film (or even the 1932 original film). It’s something different, yet extremely familiar. Kudos to Cronin for not giving the audience the tightly bandaged, slow-walking classic monster film people have come to expect from this character. But the spir...

Substream Magazine • April 21 2026

Are We Actually Ready To Grapple With 'Michael's Knotty Legacy? - Substream Magazine

How do you chronicle the life of a legendary artist whose aura almost transcends the confines of a two-hour film? And most of all, are you ready to do it honestly? 
The parallel roads of biopics that prefer to codify all that’s good and spaces of fandom that are not ready to grapple with nuance were always meant to collide at Michael Jackson — whose stature in pop culture resonates just as strongly as it did 17 years after his untimely death in 2009.  Antoine Fuqua’s biopic  “Michael” knows “Thr...

Substream Magazine • April 7 2026

'Faces of Death' Uses The Infamous Film As A Metatextual Compass To Examine Our Unruly Social Media Hellscape - Substream Magazine

Even discussing the infamous 1978 mondo horror film “Faces of Death” now feels like an electric current running through both morbid curiosity and apprehension. The enticement of director John Alan Schwartz’s faux shockumentary is that it was something you couldn’t see easily, and the mere existence of it was whispered like a foreboding legend – contained to a grainy VHS tape in the “adult section” of the video store. But the heart of this film’s enduring legacy is a magic trick and the scarcity,...

Substream Magazine • March 25 2026

The Co-Directors and Cast of 'Edie Arnold Is A Loser' Tell You Why Taking Chances Is Cool - Substream Magazine

What are the key ingredients to a good coming-of-age comedy? Well, you have to have laughs, relatable characters, growing pains, and a few epiphanies to bring it home. Maybe you weren’t as uncool as you thought you were. Perhaps, amid all the extensive pressures of being a teenager, you were more of a trendsetter than you thought. 
“Edie Arnold Is A Loser” is born out of an eccentric love for films with the style of 2010’s “Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World” and the buddy hijinks of 2007’s “Superbad,”...

Substream Magazine • March 20 2026

'Wishful Thinking' Takes A Fantastical Twin Flame Premise And Grounds It With Hard Revelations - Substream Magazine

In 1986, Bryan Ferry once asked, “Is Your Love Strong Enough?” for the “Legend” soundtrack. But really, think about it. Is love truly strong enough to move mountains and resourceful enough to build a bridge over oceans? The right relationship may make it feel that anything is possible. It could also mean that strife and conflict could be a natural disaster. Are you able to stand inside the constant repetition of destruction and rebuilding? 
Writer/director Graham Parkes’ debut “Wishful Thinking”...