Storm cleanup: What to expect Monday morning—NJ Top News

UPDATE: Commercial vehicle restrictions have been lifted, NJ Transit is slowly returning to normal, but speed limit reductions remain on these major highways

🔗 State offices closed; Schools announce closings for icy roads on Monday, Jan. 26

As New Jersey digs out of Sunday's winter storm most schools are cancelling or delaying the start of classes on Monday.

Gov. Mikie Sherrill said Sunday that all state government offices would be closed Monday.

No part of the state escaped the storm, from heavy snow in North Jersey, a mix of snow and sleet through the middle and a combination of snow, sleet and rain in coastal areas that held down accumulations.

🔗 NJ Transit to resume operations

NJ TRANSIT expects to begin a phased resumption of service on Monday, starting with all three light rail lines - Newark Light Rail, Hudson-Bergen Light Rail, and River LINE - will operate on a weekday schedule at the start of the service day. Customers should expect delays and possible select train cancellations as local and county crews continue clearing secondary and tertiary roadways.

Later in the morning and afternoon, NJ TRANSIT will continue monitoring roadway conditions to support a gradual ramp-up of bus and Access Link service as conditions safely permit.

Crews will also work overnight and into the morning to inspect infrastructure and ensure NJ TRANSIT’s 165 rail stations, system assets, and Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor are prepared for the safe and reliable resumption of commuter rail service.

Customers are encouraged to check NJTRANSIT.com or the NJ TRANSIT mobile app for

🔗 Final messages show desperation hours before Caneiro family massacre

📱 Jurors heard Keith Caneiro’s final text messages, sent minutes before he was killed.
💰 Prosecutors highlight financial disputes, trust withdrawals and altered records as a motive for the killings.
⏰ The texts went unread for nearly 2 hours, as investigators say the Caneiro family was murdered and two homes burned.

FREEHOLD BOROUGH — For the first time, jurors in the Paul Caneiro quadruple murder trial heard the final text messages sent by Keith Caneiro moments before he was killed at his Colts Neck house.

Evidence on Friday in Superior Court also included a flurry of tension-filled emails and text messages, picked by prosecutors from three specific dates leading up to the awful pre-dawn massacre of Keith, his wife and their two young children on Nov. 20, 2018.

Paul Caneiro, now 59, has been accused of brutally killing his own brother, sister-in-law, 11-year-old nephew and 8-year-old niece, which prosecutors say was motivated by financial desperation.

Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office Detective Brian Migliorisi testified about all the data that he pulled from Paul Caneiro’s iPhone, as well as emails from a massive Google Drive of the victim’s.

The transfer of emails and messages from Keith Caneiro’s backup drive was so large that it crashed Google’s servers as they fulfilled investigator requests.

🔗 Deepfake AI nudes app torments teen girls, lawsuit says

🔴 A New Jersey teen says classmates used an AI app to create and share fake nudes.
🔴 Backed by Yale Law School, her family is suing the overseas company behind ClothOff.
🔴 The case highlights growing legal battles over AI deepfakes, child exploitation, and online safety.

A New Jersey teenager and her family are fighting in court with help from Yale Law School to take down websites that use artificial intelligence to make sexual contact from photos of real people, including children.

The lawsuit was filed in federal court in New Jersey on behalf of the Union County girl, who is now 17 years old. She says that three years ago, her New Jersey classmates used an app called ClothOff to generate deepfake photos of her and other young girls at school. Those photos were then shared on Snapchat.

It's not an isolated case. In September 2023, ClothOff was used to create child sex abuse materials of 21 minor girls between the ages of 11 and 17 in Spain, the lawsuit said.

AI/Robotics Venture Strategy 3 Ltd., which owns the ClothOff site, is one defendant. The mysterious company is incorporated in the British Virgin Islands. The lawsuit also names the app's developers, Alaiksandr Babichau and Dasha Babicheva, who both apparently live in Minsk, Belarus.

🔗 Murphy’s clemency crossed the line — and Trenton is finally pushing back

🔥 Former Gov. Phil Murphy’s sweeping use of clemency for convicted killers has triggered a bipartisan backlash in Trenton.

⚖️ The tipping point for many lawmakers was clemency for Maria Montalvo, who murdered her two toddlers in Monmouth County.

🏛️ State lawmakers, including Sen. Vin Gopal, now want limits on the governor’s clemency powers.

Clemency is supposed to be the ultimate safety valve in the justice system — a rare act of mercy used sparingly, carefully, and with humility. But to a growing number of New Jersey lawmakers, former Gov. Phil Murphy treated it more like a routine administrative tool, extending mercy to dozens of convicted killers and violent offenders with little transparency and even less accountability.

Now, in the wake of one especially disturbing case, legislators are openly questioning whether any governor should wield that kind of unchecked power.

The case that finally broke the dam: Maria Montalvo.

In 1994, Maria Montalvo set her Long Branch apartment on fire, killing her two young children — ages 3 and 5 — in one of the most horrific crimes Monmouth County has ever seen. Prosecutors said the children were alive when the fire started. A jury convicted Montalvo of murder, and she was sentenced to decades behind bars.

Yet in the final months of his administration, Murphy quietly granted her clemency, making her eligible for parole far earlier than prosecutors or the victims’ family ever expected.

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You can reach him at eric.scott@townsquaremedia.com

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