HRT - Hormone Replacement Therapy in Tenafly, NJ

The end of the school year is an exciting time for many.

There’s also a lot of prep and planning for those final days.

You’re also not paying attention to the final instructions towards the end of the year. Especially if you are a senior.

You’re ready, you’re ready to get out and enjoy the summer with friends. You’re ready to go on that summer trip with the family.

Let’s be honest here, you’re done with the year, but, what if, an unexpected twist hits your end-of-the-year plans.

Many students are preparing for finals. Remember those? The stress, the nonstop cramming, ‘trying to learn everything you should have learned over the course of the school year (or semester) in one-night panic.

What if, out of nowhere, you didn’t have to take them? You’d probably be excited, and a little confused but it happened.

According to a report done by Jackie Roman from NJ.com, their computer systems were hacked with ransomware and the attack took down Tenafly Public schools and Bergen County. This forced the district to cancel the finals.

In short, it's a computer virus that will hijack your entire system. It will take all the files, from your precious photos, important documents, and programs, then lock them so you cannot access them. Then, you will usually be prompted to pay a certain amount, that's where the ransom comes in, to get a "key" to unlock your files. Depending on the situation, you may actually have to do this.

Listen, if this was our class, especially senior year, we would have been celebrating.

According to the report, there is no responsible party at this time.

“It’s unclear who is responsible for the ransomware attack in Tenafly or how much money they requested.”

So, to me, this doesn’t sound like some kid trying to get out of taking a test. This almost seems too sophisticated for that, but then again, kids nowadays are clever.

For the record, and for someone who graduated in the early 2000s, I was a little offended when they referenced how the school had to go “back to basics.” That's literally all we had in high school.

Pens, paper, pencils, and a row of computers that didn't work anyway. No need for a hacker. They just didn't work.

I don’t know about you, but that was all we had back in the day. Yes, I just said back in the day. A whole 20 years ago.

You can knock us down, but we’ll get right back up!

In true Jersey fashion, the mayor of Tenafly knows the Garden State never plays second fiddle to New York—even if his town’s newest A-list resident, the rapper Cardi B, recently told fans she was moving to the Empire State when, in reality, she was packing her bags for New Jersey.

“New York, New Jersey…I don’t consider [Cardi’s remark] any sort of slight,” Tenafly Mayor Mark Zinna tells New Jersey Monthly. “It’s the greater New York City metropolitan area.”

Cardi, who was born and raised in the Bronx, announced to fans this fall that she’d purchased a home in her native New York, posting a photo and details of the swanky pad on Instagram. “Me and my husband have always dreamed of having a crib in NY, and we have decided to add to our portfolio of homes, along with Atlanta and LA,” she wrote on Instagram. “Now having a home in NY, I can have get togethers with my family all the time!!

But the New York Post later revealed that Cardi’s pad was actually a $5.85 million, nine-bedroom mansion across the Hudson in Tenafly, which includes amenities like an elevator, a saltwater pool, a tennis court, a movie theater and a gym.

Dis or not, Cardi, 29, is clearly a fan of the Bergen County town, located less than 15 miles from Manhattan. As for what Cardi should put on her Tenafly to-do list, Zinna recommends the 400-acre Nature Center—which she and hubby Offset can explore with their two young kids—and an “excellent” restaurant scene that includes spots like Tenafly Kosher Deli, which Zinna says serves “fantastic pastrami sandwiches,” and Axia Taverna, a date-night favorite for Zinna and his wife.

Zinna says he plans to reach out to the celebrity couple, like he does all new residents.

Hopefully Cardi and Offset, 30, will find happiness in New Jersey. The rappers have been married since 2017 but have had their share of relationship troubles over the years after he was accused of cheating. Cardi filed for divorce in September 2020, though she called off the divorce filing just two months later.

The stars are parents to a 3-year-old daughter named Kulture and a 4-month-old son, whose name the couple has not yet revealed to the world.

New Jersey Monthly has reached out to Cardi’s team for comment.

Click here to leave a comment

FRANKLIN LAKES — Ramapo has succeeded far beyond expectations for a team that starts three sophomores and has a new coach.

The top-seeded Green Raiders captured the North 1, Group 3 boys basketball title with Tuesday's 58-47 victory over No. 2 seed Tenafly.

Junior Nate Burleson scored a team-high 20 points and sophomore Peyton Seals scored 16 as Ramapo took the lead late in the first quarter and held it for the final three quarters.

“We thought as a team we played well, and we got it done,” Burleson said.

Grant Sloan, the lone senior in the starting lineup, scored 11, while sophomore Wyatt Eglinton Manner chipped in nine.

“Even though we’re an inexperienced group and we’re real young, we’re a real close group and we’ve got good chemistry," Seals said. "We’re good friends off the court and we really just want the best for each other and we all want to win.”

Senior John Celli led Tenafly with a game-high 22 points. Sophomore Reilly Benowitz scored all nine in the second half, including a 3-pointer to cut the deficit to 45-42.

In Tenafly's biggest game in decades, Celli scored 11 in the fourth, including a post-up to pull the Tigers within 39-37 and trigger a Ramapo timeout with 6:47 left to play.

“My guys, they could have come in here and laid an egg, and I think we battled,” Tenafly coach Jeff Koehler said.

Ramapo responded to Tenafly's run by turning a block and a steal into transition baskets. Burleson and Sloan each scored in transition to boost the lead to 43-37 before Celli scored to cut it to 43-39.

“I knew they were going to be tough,” Ramapo coach Nick Vier said of Tenafly. “I knew they weren’t going to go away, no matter where we got in the game, and they made their run, and I’m just super proud of my guys for being resilient and having the composure to handle that run and go on one of our own.”

What it means

Ramapo (22-6) advances to Thursday’s State Group 3 semifinal at 7 p.m. at Phillipsburg and will face the North 2 champion, Colonia.

The Green Raiders last won a sectional in 2019, when Vier was an assistant under Joe Sandberg. They defeated Colonia in the semifinals, 35-32, before losing in the NJSIAA final to Moorestown, 58-44.

“I know one thing – we’re not going to be intimated,” Vier said. “As young as we are, we went at Bergen Catholic [a 77-69 loss in the Bergen Jamboree semifinals] and didn’t back down from them. We didn’t defer in any of these games, the playoffs, or back down from any of these opponents. I know we’re going to have a tough opponent, and I know we’re going to come and bring it.”

Ramapo's terrific transfer

Burleson was Mr. Consistency, scoring two baskets in each quarter en route to his team-high 20. Burleson, who transferred from Don Bosco to Ramapo after the football season, was a key edition to the Green Raiders. He is athletic, can shoot 3-pointers and score in transition.

“Nate was a late gift to us,” Vier said of Burleson, whose father, Nate, played more than a decade in the NFL and was in attendance. “And he was really a difference for us, not just tonight, but all season.”

Tenafly terrific on inbounds plays

Tenafly (20-5) was disciplined and absolutely fantastic on inbounds plays. The Tigers scored on at least five inbounds plays, with Celli scoring twice on them in the first quarter to provide their biggest lead, 8-5. Benowitz’ 3-pointer that cut the deficit to 45-42 also came on an inbounds plays.

They said it

“We had a great run,” Koehler said. “Our fan-base energized the school and hopefully the town and the community is proud of us.”

“Nick is a first-year coach, but he’s a great coach, and he’s been in the program,” Seals said. “He’s known a lot of the guys for many years. I’ve known him since I was a little kid, so there’s really no drop-off. We knew we were going to carry on what the previous team’s had.”

Greg Mattura is a sports reporter for NorthJersey.com. For full access to live scores, breaking news and analysis from our Varsity Aces team, subscribe today. To get breaking news directly to your phone, sign up for our newsletter and download our app.

NEWARK, N.J. – A former New Jersey resident was sentenced today to 29 months in prison for his role in an investment scheme through which he fraudulently obtained more than $1.52 million from at least three families from 2017 through 2019, U.S. Attorney Philip R. Sellinger announced.

Matthew Benjamin, 54, formerly of Englewood, New Jersey, and now of New York, previously pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Claire C. Cecchi to an information charging him with one count of wire fraud and one count of securities fraud. Judge Cecchi imposed the sentence today in Newark federal court.

According to documents filed in this case and statements made in court:

From May 2017 through August 2019, Benjamin falsely represented to at least three families that his company, Clear Solutions Group LLC, had lucrative contracts to purchase closeout or excess cosmetic inventory from a company, which he would then resell at a mark-up to a second company. Benjamin told the victims that he had access to these closeout goods through his contacts in the cosmetics and fragrance industry, which he purportedly made through his work at his family’s cosmetic wholesale and distribution business prior to starting Clear Solutions Group. Benjamin induced the victims to provide him with money to purchase the inventory from the first company and promised significant profits in return. Instead of investing the money as he promised, Benjamin misappropriated the investors’ money for his own use and benefit.

Benjamin provided the victims with falsified documents, including fake purchase orders, invoices, promissory notes and bank records showing inflated assets of Clear Solutions Group. To lull victims and induce them to continue investing, Benjamin provided them with documents that purported to detail the investors’ profits.

Benjamin misrepresented to certain investors that portions of their profits on the investment contracts were being reinvested in additional deals to purchase and sell cosmetics, which in turn would generate more profits. From time to time, Benjamin made payments to the investors that were purportedly their profits on certain cosmetics contracts.

In reality, Benjamin misappropriated the investors’ money by making payments to other investors in Clear Solutions Group, which were characterized as those investors’ profits from the nonexistent cosmetic contracts, thereby enabling Benjamin to continue to perpetuate his fraudulent scheme and funding Benjamin’s lifestyle, including paying for car and house rental payments, food, international travel, legal fees, technology equipment, and summer camp tuition for his family members.

In addition to the prison term, Judge Cecchi sentenced Benjamin to three years of supervised release and ordered forfeiture of $1.53 million and restitution of $909,539.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has filed a civil complaint against Benjamin based on allegations underlying the securities fraud charge.

U.S. Attorney Sellinger credited special agents of the FBI, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge George M. Crouch Jr. in Newark, with the investigation leading to today’s sentencing.

The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Jennifer S. Kozar and Catherine R. Murphy, Chief of the Economic Crimes Unit of the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

An extra half-hour or more of sleep in the morning is a possibility for New Jersey's high school students if legislation introduced last week gains enough support.

The bill calls for a later start time for the school day to boost mental health and wellness among teenagers, said its sponsors, Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin, D-Middlesex, and Sen. Vin Gopal, D-Monmouth, chair of the Education Committee.

The bill calls for a start time of 8:30 a.m. or later. Currently, most state high schools have a starting time between 7:20 and 7:40 a.m.

Research shows teenagers tend to fall asleep around 11 p.m. and are more likely to suffer depression and anxiety if they do not get enough sleep.

Some districts have already made the change to start the school day later in the morning.

Tenafly High School made the change in 2019 and begins four out of the five days per week at 8:10 a.m. and the fifth day at 8:30 a.m. The Millburn district pushed its start time later by 20 and 25 minutes for an 8 a.m. start for the middle and high schools last September. Last month, Chatham school officials decided to push the start time for their high school and elementary schools to later in the morning starting next school year.

Ridgewood High School considered switching to a later start, but it has held off making a decision. Princeton and South Orange/Maplewood high schools switched to later start times in 2018 and 2017 respectively. A spokesperson for Tenafly school district said West Caldwell district had consulted with them three years ago and shifted their start times.

The legislation comes on the heels of the pandemic, whose impact on students' social and emotional health has become a concern. The New Jersey Department of Children and Families' hotline received more than 14,000 calls from parents and youth seeking help in February, the highest number recorded in its history, with more calls expected in March. The state run Children's System of Care sent 4,201 mobile dispatch units to families and youth needing urgent care to address mental health needs, compared to 2,582 dispatches during the same period last year. The youth mental health crisis is a "parallel pandemic," Christine Breyer, commissioner of the department, said at a hearing in the Senate in March.

Teacher shortage:Teacher shortage is 'big priority,' says US education deputy secretary during NJ visit

The spotlight on mental health, and previous research that proves teenagers tend to feel sleepy two to three hours later than adults, and that late school starts resulted in better grades and improved wellness, paved the way for lawmakers to introduce the legislation.

"This has been suggested for a while, but what really brought it to the forefront is the fact that we have a growing crisis of young people who face mental health challenges in part because of the pandemic," Coughlin told The Record/NorthJersey.com.

State lawmakers have been aware of the need for later start times for years, Coughlin said. In 2019, districts were invited to participate in a later start time pilot study. When the pandemic hit in early 2020, schools switched to remote learning and the pilot study was not implemented.

However, remote learning and adjusted school schedules during the pandemic gave staff and students a taste of what it would be like to have a late start, adding impetus to the effort of making those schedule changes permanent.

“Nothing has proven school districts are capable of making rapid changes to adapt and optimize student learning more than the pandemic,” Coughlin said, noting that this moment in time was also the best window to propose a law that would apply to all public high schools, which have already demonstrated flexibility in the face of change.

"There is that biological shift in teenagers' circadian rhythms that are very different from kids or adults. They have a two- to three-hour phased-in delay when they fall asleep and when they wake up," said Dr. Bert Mandelbaum, chair of the New Jersey branch of the American Academy of Pediatrics.

'Moment of crisis':Wayne Valley students to be instructed in mental health first aid

Making teenagers wake up at 6 a.m. to be in school by 7:20 a.m. for seven or eight years of their lives makes them sleep-deprived, Mandelbaum said. He runs a voluntary, grassroots task force on school and sleep start times, and has been advocating for later high school start times in the state for five years.

The American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Academy of Sleep Medicine and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have all made policy statements recommending start times of 8:30 a.m. or later for teenagers.

Mandelbaum said he has been invited to school districts to make presentations that demonstrate the science behind later start times, but logistical and cost issues often got in the way of decision-makers. He welcomed the legislation proposed by Coughlin and Gopal because it would require all schools to change and make necessary adjustments such as tightening bus routes in districts that share buses for elementary schools and higher.

Transportation obstacles were the most serious logistical problem faced by districts interested in a later start time. After-school conflicts arose especially for athletic events between schools with different start and end times. Mandelbaum said these problems created the need for legislation to smooth things out.

"We are hearing from our middle and high school students that even this half-hour change has been a great benefit to them," said Millburn High School's spokesperson, Nancy Dries. The school moved start times back by about a half-hour to start middle and high school at 8 a.m. when school reopened in September after the pandemic. Dries said the 8 a.m. shift is not as ideal as 8:30, and that the school is "very interested to see what comes out of Trenton."

Nobody has argued the science behind changing start times, said Mandelbaum, meaning that implementing this change is the real hurdle. He said the state's largest teachers' union, the New Jersey Education Association (NJEA), has a representative on the task force, as does the New Jersey School Boards Association and the New Jersey School Nurses Association. He said Gopal will be meeting with the task force next week.

The NJEA said it has not reviewed the bill or issued a formal statement about it, but is open to the idea.

"We are well aware of a large body of research that indicates that later start times would be physiologically and academically beneficial to many teenagers. We believe that any reform that might benefit students is well worth considering and implementing," NJEA spokesperson Steven Baker said in a statement.

Mary Ann Koruth covers education for NorthJersey.com. To get unlimited access to the latest news about New Jersey's schools and how it affects your children, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.