Here's the stories you'll be talking about on the New Jersey 101.5 Morning Show on Friday:

🔗 NJ weekend winter storm update: A foot of snow forecast for some

I believe this is the first time since 2021 I have forecast widespread foot-plus snow in New Jersey. And statewide, this will probably be our most impactful winter storm since the 30" monster Blizzard of 2016.

Traditionally, winter storms produce lower snow totals along the Jersey Shore due to the influence of warmer marine air, causing a warmer ground and/or transition to more of a wintry mix than straight snow. That will be the case eventually with this storm. But not to start.

It is going to snow hard for several hours Sunday morning. And because it's going to be so ridiculously cold Saturday and Saturday night, that snow will stick to the ground immediately. That is why I remain confident that 6 inches of snow will accumulate even for coastal areas.

Eventually a changeover to icy mix and even plain rain will likely halt those accumulations through Sunday afternoon and evening. Having said that, 6 to 9 inches of snow still represents a major category winter storm for all points along the Jersey Shore.

Also, I did not include Monmouth County in this lowest color contour because I have this personal theory that Monmouth County always overperforms in winter storms. Often, that is where the statewide maximum snow total occurs, oddly enough. (Latest forecast models also show this could be the dividing line between rain and icy mix.) So I put the intersection of my low and medium contours right on the Monmouth-Ocean county line, at least for now.

🔗 ‘Out of control’: Booker, Sherrill shocking remarks on ICE

🚨ICE arrests spark outrage across New Jersey
🚨Sen. Booker and Gov. Mikie Sherrill blast ICE, accusing the agency of overreach
🚨A fight over ICE funding could lead to a federal government shutdown

MORRISTOWN — Following the arrest of 11 people by ICE, U.S. Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., spoke against a rumored ICE detention center planned for Gov. Mikie Sherrill's home county of Morris.

Booker and Sherrill have been vocal critics of ICE's actions, labeling them as overreaching and detrimental to community safety.

On Wednesday, New Jersey's senior senator was in Morristown and Roxbury Wednesday where he joined residents opposing a large-scale holding center that would house 1,500, according to reports by the Washington Post and Newsweek on Dec. 24. ICE officials inspected a possible site for the facility on Jan. 14, according to TAP into Roxbury.

Booker made it clear that whatever ICE may be planning for Roxbury will not have his support

"Right now, this is an agency out of control and I'm going to do everything I can to stop the nightmares that are visited upon small towns, big cities, and communities all across our country," Booker said. "But here in Jersey, we have to do a lot more. We have to stop to have any ICE detention facility built in our state."

Gov. Mikie Sherrill also spoke out against ICE's actions in New Jersey during an appearance on MS NOW's Morning Joe, calling them President Donald Trump's "proto militia." She said that New Jersey law enforcement will fight "tooth and nail for public safety" to protect against ICE agents entering homes without a warrant.

"This is the bedrock of how we keep people safe is to have our law enforcement who are carrying weapons on our streets with our children on the street, act in scope of their duties. ICE is completely outside the scope," Sherrill said.

🔗 Female Freehold teacher pleads guilty to raping teen student

⚖️ A Monmouth County teacher admits to sexual assault involving a teen student.
📱 Prosecutors say more than 25,000 text messages were exchanged before her arrest.
🔒 The ex-teacher now faces prison, lifetime parole supervision and sex offender registration.

FREEHOLD BOROUGH — A Monmouth County teacher has admitted to the sexual abuse of a teen student.

On Wednesday in Monmouth County Superior Court, Allison Havemann-Niedrach, of Jackson, pleaded guilty to first-degree aggravated sexual assault.

Havemann-Niedrach was a married mother of two children and a special education teacher at Freehold Intermediate School, before her arrest in June 2024.

Over a six-month span, the 45-year-old educator had exchanged more than 25,000 text messages with the teen victim, prosecutors previously said.

Havemann-Niedrach’s criminal offenses with an eighth grader were first investigated after school administrators called Freehold Borough Police.

They said that the teacher had “been bringing the student food, eating lunch with him daily, and had been seen touching him inappropriately,” Jersey Shore Online previously reported.

Once the investigation was underway, the teen spoke with his mother and then police, describing extensive sexual relations at Havemann-Niedrach’s house, the same report said.

🔗 Hillsborough mother pleads not guilty to killing little boys

🚨 A Hillsborough mother has pleaded not guilty to double murder charges in the deaths of her two young sons.
📞 Police say the father called 911 after making the grim discovery after work.
🏫 The boys’ school community is mourning an “unfathomable loss,” as investigators detail disturbing evidence.

HILLSBOROUGH — A Somerset County mother accused of killing her two young sons this month remains in jail after pleading not guilty on Tuesday to double murder charges.

Last week, 35-year-old Priyatharsini Natarajan’s husband told investigators that his wife had confessed to killing their 5- and 7-year-old boys, according to an affidavit of probable cause filed by investigators.

Shortly after he returned home from work before 7 p.m. Jan. 13, the man called 911 from the family’s Hillsborough residence in the Brookhaven Loft apartment complex.

Police found the bodies of the two brothers in a bedroom.

The young victims both appeared to have been strangled, with at least one of them showing signs of having been killed hours earlier, investigators said.

🔗 ICYMI: Murphy’s most indefensible act of clemency: NJ mom who burned toddlers alive (Opinion)

⚖️ Former Gov. Phil Murphy commuted the 100-year sentence of a Union Beach mother convicted of burning her two toddlers alive, making her immediately eligible for parole.
⚖️ Of hundreds of pardons and commutations under Murphy, prosecutors say this case stands apart for its brutality and its insult to victims, jurors, and first responders.
⚖️ The decision now rests with the NJ Parole Board, but critics argue the damage to public trust is already done.

In the final hours of his administration, Murphy commuted the 100-year sentence of Maria Montalvo, a Union Beach mother convicted of murdering her two toddlers by dousing them with gasoline and setting them on fire inside her car in Long Branch. Murphy's act made her immediately eligible for parole — decades earlier than the sentence imposed by a jury and a judge.

Of the 455 clemency actions Murphy approved during his tenure — including dozens for convicted killers — this one stands as the most egregious. Not because it was controversial. Not because it was politically inconvenient. But because it so thoroughly obliterates the idea that some crimes forfeit society’s mercy.

On Feb. 22, 1994, prosecutors say Montalvo strapped her 18-month-old daughter, Zoraida, and 28-month-old son, Rafael, into her Volkswagen Jetta. She stopped at a gas station and bought $3 worth of gasoline. She drove to her in-laws’ home. She poured gasoline inside the car.

Then she ignited it.

The children burned to death while strapped inside.

This is the woman Murphy chose to grant clemency.

Start your day with up-to-the-minute news, traffic and weather for the Garden State.

The New Jersey 101.5 Morning Show airs from 6 - 10 a.m. on New Jersey 101.5.

Join the conversation by calling 1-800-283-1015 or download the NJ101.5 app.

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

Click here to contact an editor about feedback or a correction for this story.