ASBURY PARK PRESS

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FRIDAY 10.30.15
Jersey Alive

Never
fear
Scary good Halloween concerts, parties and events this weekend

13,000 signatures on lawmakers desks;

most of Assembly now for reform

Teen gets
15 years in
stabbing in
Colts Neck
KATHLEEN HOPKINS @KHOPKINSAPP

THOMAS P. COSTELLO/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

A stack of letters and petitions to encourage political leaders to cut property taxes sits on the desk of Assemblyman Jon
M. Bramnick, R-Union, in his Statehouse office in Trenton Thursday.

TAX PETITION
HITS TRENTON
Im going to ask the

BOB JORDAN
@BOBJORDANAPP

TRENTON - The Asbury Park Press citizen petition calling

for reform of New Jerseys highest-in-the-nation property taxes
prompted one of the states top lawmakers to promise Thursday
to press for changes as more than half of his fellow Assembly
members signed the Press tax reform pledge.
After what seemed like an uphill battle last week, when only a
minority of lawmakers in the state Senate and Assembly signed
the Press pledge to set in motion a plan for property tax reform
by the end of the year, the tax drive gained an upswell of support
in the last few days as five more assemblymen joined the effort.
The count now stands at 40 Assembly members who signed the
pledge, with 38 not responding.
The 39th and 40th signatures came hours after the Press de-

Democrats, what is
your answer to these
petitions? When are
you going to answer
the taxpayers? What is
your plan to change the
direction of the state?
JON BRAMNICK,

See PETITION, Page 9A

GOP ASSEMBLY LEADER

FREEHOLD - A Colts Neck woman thought it was

her cat she heard scratching at a screen late at night in
the summer of 2013, so she opened her front door to let
in the animal.
But it wasnt her cat it was a stranger with a 10inch knife who forced his way into her home, the woman told a judge on Thursday.
The knife-wielding intruder slashed her face and
stabbed her in the neck multiple times, she said. Then
he plunged the knife in her chest and pulled it out.
When she sank to the floor, covered in blood, the intruder stabbed her in the back of the neck, she said.
I could taste, smell and feel the blood that was pouring out of me, the woman said. I was bleeding to
death.
The person who did this to her, Brennan Doyle of
Colts Neck, was just 16 when he committed the crimes.
Now 18, Doyle stood before Superior Court Judge Ronald L. Reisner Thursday to be sentenced for the womans attempted murder on July 7, 2013, and for carjacking; he took her car keys and escaped in her automobile.
Reisner sentenced Doyle to 15 years in prison for the
crimes, under terms of a plea bargain that was accepted by another judge.
See SENTENCE, Page 7A

Farewell, Godspeed
to you as my next
adventure awaits
MICHAEL RILEY
THE IRREVERENT REVEREND
Listen. Can you hear that? That is the
sound of the fat lady singing.
Indeed, this is my last column. After
nearly 20 years chronicling my faith
and my family, I have taken the paper
up on its generous offer of early retirement way early, as it turns out. At
the tender age of 57, Ill need to find
other employment sooner rather than later.
Give me two or three weeks to do absolutely nothing at all, and Ill be on the hunt for gainful employment. Whatever it is I wind up doing, it will not include taking a stab at the professional gigolo business, according to my wife, Susan. At least I think Sue
is against it. She could not stop laughing when I
brought it up.
Besides, gigolo-ing is a young mans game as is,
come to think of it, journalism these days. I look
around the newsroom at the young people full of spirit, energy, technical savvy and intelligence and think
that whatever newspapers turn into, they will be in
good hands.
See RILEY, Page 7A

ANALYSIS: NEW CHINA BABY POLICY TOO LITTLE, TOO LATE PAGE 1B

Rumson grabs
conference title
Girls field hockey team repeats as SCT champions and earns its
second title of the sort in program history. SPORTS, 1C

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VOLUME 136
NUMBER 260
SINCE 1879

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