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

🔗 Nearly 2,000 layoffs announced in New Jersey to start 2026

💼 Nearly 2,000 NJ layoffs already announced in early 2026 across retail, tech and logistics
🏬 Macy’s store closures in Livingston and Ramsey add to mall and retail decline fears
📦 Amazon, T-Mobile and others fuel worker anxiety after a turbulent 2025

New Jersey has started 2026 with almost two-thousand notable layoffs, revealed by nine employers, so far.

Once giant retailer, Macy's announced a combined 89 layoffs at three New Jersey locations — Paramus, Ramsey and Livingston.

Both the Ramsey store and the Livingston store, an anchor at the struggling Livingston mall, will be closing entirely, while one of the brand's Paramus locations is moving.

Macy’s would be left with roughly 26 locations in New Jersey.

Similarly, T-Mobile USA has announced a total of 78 layoffs across New Jersey between April and September. The cell phone service provider that is based in Washington State.

Easily the largest contributor to the grim start of layoffs has been Amazon, with several New Jersey locations impacted.

🔗 Paul Caniero quadruple murder case — all you need to know

Just a few days before Thanksgiving in 2018, a family of four was brutally killed at their sprawling Colts Neck home that had been set ablaze.

Keith Caneiro was shot five times on the lawn. His wife, Jennifer, was shot and stabbed inside the house. Their children, 11-year-old Jesse and 8-year-old Sophia, were repeatedly stabbed and left to die in the flames.

Within weeks, Paul Caneiro was charged with double arson and four counts of murder of his brother and his family. He has maintained his innocence since his arrest.

Police say he killed the family and then set fire to his own house in Ocean Township to cover his tracks, citing financial desperation as a motive.

After more than seven years of pre-trial hearings and appeals, the trial by jury got underway in January.

Check out the case as it has unfolded so far, with serious evidence, defense strategies, and the coverage of the trial in Superior Court.

🔗 NJ officials warn of scam blitz tied to Verizon outage

🚨 Middlesex County officials warn scammers are exploiting Verizon’s recent outage.
🚨 New scams flood New Jersey residents with fake texts, emails, and calls.
🚨 Xfinity and Verizon customers are being targeted with phishing links.

Authorities in Middlesex County are warning of a recent surge in scams in the wake of Verizon's recent service outage.

Regardless of which service provider they use, New Jersey residents are getting more unsolicited texts, emails, and phone calls, according to the Middlesex County Prosecutor's Office. However, the scam is tailored to each intended victim's telecommunications company.

Two of the new scams target Xfinity customers. They both use phony links that can be used to steal passwords and personal information. If a customer isn't sure that a link may be real, they can call 1-800-934-6489 (1-800-Xfinity) to verify it.

The first scam is an email that claims it's from Xfinity and says that the Terms of Service and Privacy Policy have changed. It directs the intended victim to click a link and threatens that they'll lose access to emails if they don't.

🔗 Seaside Heights bans prom-age renters, igniting Shore court fight

🏨 Seaside Heights bans young adults from renting motel rooms during prom season.
🏨 Local motel owners are fighting back in court, calling the age restriction discriminatory.
🏨 Officials say the rules are about public safety.

SEASIDE HEIGHTS — Get a room? For young adults looking to celebrate during prom season down the Jersey Shore, it's a move that could earn them a huge fine.

Now, local motels and hotels are fighting to get their business back.

On Tuesday, those owners told New Jersey appellate judges that it was discriminatory for Seaside Heights to ban 18- to 20-year-olds from renting rooms during prom season, the New Jersey Monitor reported. The ban runs from April 15 through June 30, ending just in time for the start of the Fourth of July holiday.

The operators of the Sunrise Motel and Hershey Motel jointly filed a lawsuit against Seaside Heights in Superior Court in Ocean County. Their lawsuit had previously been dismissed by a lower court.

"During the period commencing April 15 and ending at midnight of June 30 of each year, no room in a hotel or motel shall be rented to any person under 21 years of age."

Motel owners say age restriction unfairly targets young adults
The motel and hotel operators are represented by Christopher Ryan O’Shea, an attorney based in Toms River. He's been fighting the ordinance since it was first passed more than two years ago.

"In this modern age, you can go fight a war for the United States, but the borough in Seaside Heights right now is saying you can't rent a short-term rental within its borough," O'Shea said to the council at a July 19, 2023 meeting.

🔗 NJ council leader slams ‘Nazi’ label for ICE as ignorant

☑️An Old Bridge Township council leader defended ICE at a meeting
☑️Dr. Anita Greenberg-Belli called comparisons to Nazis offensive and inaccurate
☑️Greenberg-Belli says NJ's Immigrant Trust Directive arguing makes towns less safe

OLD BRIDGE — One of the few New Jersey politicians to speak positively about ICE's presence in New Jersey is a Township Council member who extoled the agency from the dais this week.

Township Council Vice President Anita Greenberg-Belli urged people to stop comparing ICE to Nazis. The Republican talked about the positive difference that ICE agents have made during the current immigration crackdown.

"All the drugs that were pouring into this country, killing a hundred thousand people a year, that's unbelievable. How about all the trafficking of children and human trafficking?" Greenberg-Belli said. "We have to recognize that ICE is not the problem," adding that there is a "difference between protest and disruption."

She called those who compare ICE agents to Nazis ignorant and despicable. Unlike Jews taken from their homes in Germany during the Holocaust, Greenberg-Belli said those who come to the U.S. illegally have a home country to return to.

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.

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

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