DUI Lawyers in Lower, NJ

Garciagaona was working as a contractor at a private home along Big Timber Creek in Westville when he lost his footing on an embankment and entered the water, according to the Gloucester County Office of Emergency Management. The incident prompted a large-scale response involving dive teams and marine units from Gloucester, Camden, and Cumberland counties, authorities said.

It is with deep sorrow that we share the sudden passing of Valentin, a devoted husband, loving father of two, and the...

Posted by Sarah Porter on Thursday, May 15, 2025

His body was recovered by dive teams at 9:29pm on Wednesday, officials said.

R.i.p to Valentin Garcia-Gaona this hits different when it happens right out side your window, i watch these guys landscape every day on my street

Posted by Teddy Bullock on Thursday, May 15, 2025

A fundraiser has been launched for Garciagaona's family, which includes his wife, Joanne and two daughters, Nicole and Sheena. As of Friday, May 16, $6,390 has been raised.

With deep regret and complete sadness I'm very sad to announce my dear friend Valentin García has passed on to heaven...

Posted by Robert Hauck on Thursday, May 15, 2025

To view the fundraiser, click here.

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This may be TMI, but I've suffered from annoying lower back pain ever since hitting puberty.

To keep it PG, let's just say I grew up too fast. Now, I suffer from some pain after my spine and back muscles said "absolutely not" after I went from no chest to, well... If you know what I look like, then you get what I mean.

If you've ever dealt with back pain, you know how it feels when you move too much in the wrong direction. It's like I advance three decades with what should have been one simple movement

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Looks like I'll be taking quite a few dips in the ocean this summer to try and keep my back pain at bay.

Swimming may be the cheapest and easiest fix for lower back pain. If you live near the Jersey Shore, you're literally sitting right next to a giant therapy center.

Water takes the pressure off of your joints and spine, right? It makes moving around way less painful. SO, that means you can do exercises that strengthen your core and back without worrying about making the pain any worse. It's like working out, but make it gentle.

A new study actually found that people suffering from chronic lower back pain saw way better results swimming than doing regular exercises at home or even physical therapy. Their back muscles actually got stronger. As a result, they had much less pain and felt even better overall.

Sounds good to me.

If you live near the beach, you're probably paying crazy rent. You might as well get some free physical therapy out of it, right?

We could all use some saltwater healing. Hopefully, more pain-free mornings are in our futures.

Taylor Stietler and Bailey Leninger drove in six runs each, as Lower Cape May outlasted host Bridgeton, 40-26.

Stietler went 5-for-6 with a double and a triple. Leninger was 5-for-8 with a home run to help the Tigers prevail in a game that saw seven lead changes, 38 hits, five errors and 31 bases on balls.

Complete Box Score »

Bridgeton opened an 18-10 lead with 11 runs in the third inning. Lower Cape May answered with six in the fourth, then 14 in the fifth, then 10 in the sixth.

The Tigers totaled 40 runs on 22 hits. Bridgeton, 26 runs on 16 hits.

It was their second meeting of the season. Lower Cape May took the first, 33-23, on April 4; meaning these schools combined for 122 runs in two games. For perspective, the schools scored 109 points between them in their girls basketball meeting last December.

Isabella Arbelo Miranda, Raegan Notch and Abigail Pelicano had three hits each for the Tigers. Notch and Miranda drove in five runs each -- as did Ivy Smith. Pellicano brought four runs across.

Lower Cape May improved to 3-7. The Tigers have totaled 94 runs in those three wins. They have 23 in their seven losses.

Bridgeton, now 2-8, has both eaten and served a “40-burger” this season; the Bulldogs pushed 40 across in a win over Pleasantville on April 14.

John Lewis can be reached at hssports@njadvancemedia.com.

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Last year, Dr. Montrea Thomas thought she had a few more years left before she would have to retire her pediatric practice in Orange.

But in a couple of weeks, the 78-year-old pediatrician, who mostly cares for low-income children, will close her office because she can no longer pay the bills.

“I am in debt, quite a bit,” Thomas said. “And when I close my practice, that is one of the reasons I’m going to have to close.”

Thomas is paid mostly through Medicaid, a state and federally funded insurance plan that covers low-income patients.

Nationwide, doctors who accept Medicaid are paid much less than private insurers. In New Jersey, data shows Medicaid rates are among the lowest in the country.

As a result, experts say fewer doctors accept Medicaid, which means low-income residents have fewer options for care than their wealthier counterparts.

“There needs to be a better focus on supporting us financially,” Thomas said.

Primary care physicians like Thomas focus on preventative care, such as addressing day-to-day health concerns and conducting annual health checkups. They can be doctors, nurse practitioners, or physician’s assistants.

Research shows that access to primary care decreases illness and death and bridges the gap in health outcomes between Black and brown people and their white counterparts.

New Jersey ranked 48th in the nation for health insurance spending on primary care visits in 2019, including Medicaid, according to a study published by the New Jersey Health Quality Institute last year. This means doctors like Thomas get paid less than they would in other states.

“In New Jersey, we’re facing a crisis on the ground floor of health care,” said Dr.Alfred Tallia, a Department of Family Medicine and Community Health professor at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and one of the study’s authors.

For example, if a doctor treats a patient with a fever in New Jersey, Medicaid will pay $50 for the treatment compared to private insurers, which would pay anywhere from $70 to $110, Tallia said.

These rates disincentive doctors from accepting lower-income patients, he said.

“There are clinicians who, despite the terrible remuneration, will still serve an underserved population, but they’re few and far between, and they’re not enough,” Tallia said. “So as a result, New Jersey has a huge disparities problem.”

Dr. Rosario Zambrano, a pediatrician and owner of Essex Pediatrics in East Orange and Pediatrics of Morristown, has seen this occur firsthand.

Before she opened her practice in Morristown, residents had to drive out of Morris County to find a pediatrician who took Medicaid.

“We realized there was a void here,” Zambrano said. “The immigrant population and the lower-income population that worked part-time at McDonald’s, that cleaned the bank, that did the babysitting would have…nowhere to go in Morris County.”

As Thomas tries to find new doctors for her patients, she’s encountering the same issue.

“We’re finding it difficult to transition our patients to people who are accepting the insurance,” Thomas said, referring to Medicaid. “They may be accepting new patients, but they’re not accepting certain insurances.”

When Thomas started treating patients 50 years ago, she had a full-time pediatrician and a physician’s assistant on staff. She would also train a recently graduated medical student every couple of months. But as she took on more patients insured through Medicaid, she had to make tough decisions to keep her practice afloat.

“My income dropped drastically,” Thomas said. “I let staff go.”

She also said she relied on part-time workers and took in more residents.

“That helped a great deal,” Thomas said.

In her personal life, Thomas said she lived paycheck to paycheck.

“I would have loved to add more income to splurge. I would have loved that,” she said.

Still, Thomas, a pastor’s wife and preacher’s daughter, says the sacrifices were worth it.

“That was my mission from the beginning to give the best of mine, whatever I had, into my community, even though it meant a huge sacrifice in terms of finances,” Thomas said.

She said closing her practice has been painful for her and her patients.

“We are shedding a lot of tears in these next few days and weeks,” she said.

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Winter gas prices in New Jersey have reached some of their lowest levels since 2021, during the COVID-19 pandemic, when travel restrictions, business closures and public health concerns softened demand.

As of March 10, gas in New Jersey cost an average of $2.94 a gallon, reported GasBuddy.com, a fuel-savings website.

“The average price of gasoline in the U.S. hasn’t been this low in March since 2021," Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy.com, said Monday.

Gas prices on Monday were also 23 cents cheaper than they were just a year ago, data from the travel club AAA showed.

Story continues below photo gallery.

“Additionally, OPEC+ announced last week that it would gradually begin restoring oil production after nearly two years of cuts, adding further downward pressure on oil prices,” De Haan said. “As a result, the typical seasonal rise in gas prices has yet to materialize, and if and when it does, it may be considerably smaller than expected.”

Prices also were pushed down by softer demand over the winter, said AAA Northeast spokesperson Mark Schieldrop.

That said, prices were even lower on Jan. 1, at $2.88 a gallon, and $2.86 a gallon in November 2024, GasBuddy figures shows.

It's a far cry from the highest recorded average price in New Jersey of $5.05 for a gallon of gas in June 2022, AAA said.

Gas prices plummeted during the height of the pandemic in 2020 amid a wave of business closures, travel restrictions and stay-at-home orders.

Will it last?

It's hard to say whether the current lower prices will linger, but don’t be surprised if prices inch back up, De Haan said.

Of particular concern would be tariffs on Canadian goods, which include oil.

As of December, about 4.2 million barrels of crude oil were imported from Canada each day, accounting for more than 60% of total imports, reported the Energy Information Administration. Another 451,000 barrels came in from Mexico each day on average.

Tariffs are essentially taxes on foreign goods. Those increased costs are either absorbed by the business or passed on to the consumer.

Any tariffs “would likely end up being spread around a bit, with consumers paying a little more at the pump, producers eating some of the cost and refiners absorbing some as well,” Schieldrop said.

In addition, gas stations will switch in the coming weeks to the more expensive summer blends of gasoline, which — when coupled with traditional stronger demand due to summer travel — could boost prices, Schieldrop said.

How was oil trading on Monday?

West Texas Intermediate, the U.S. standard, was trading at $67.02 a barrel, the lowest since September, according to OilPrice.com.

Can the president really lower gas prices?

Former President Joe Biden was given credit for reducing gas prices going into the election last November, both by supporters and by opponents.

But in reality, gas prices dropped ahead of the election because of the switch to the winter blend of gasoline, which is cheaper to produce, experts said.

Gas stations start selling winter gasoline as early as mid-September, AAA said.

Likewise, President Donald Trump has promised to “drill, baby, drill” in a bid to lower domestic gasoline prices. Experts say it’s not so simple.

“It’s a world oil market that determines the supply and demand balance,” Robert Kauffman, a Boston University professor who studies global oil markets, climate change and land use changes, told USA Today in December.

A significant boost in U.S. production would trigger responses from other producers that would leave crude and gas prices roughly unchanged, he said.

This article contains material from USA Today

Daniel Munoz covers business, consumer affairs, labor and the economy for NorthJersey.com and The Record.

Email: munozd@northjersey.com; Twitter:@danielmunoz100 and Facebook