SCOTT FRIEDMAN Lauren Curtis, Somerset, wraps her fingernails, which she has grown for over 25 years, over her photograph titled "A Night at the Prague Museum" at the first annual Barron Arts on Main Street to showcase local artists on Main Street in Woodbridge on Oct. 13. More ... Vigilant neighbors thwart midafternoon burglary Witnesses saw intruders inside neighbor's house BY KATHY CHANG Staff Writer       The keen eyes of a Menlo Park Terrace mother and son helped police foil a burglary in their neighborhood recently. "I saw a group of men on our neighbor's porch and near the hedges of the home," said Danny LePore, 15, a 10th-grader at John F. Kennedy High School in Iselin. "I knew my neighbors di... More ... Gift came early to Ghost Hunters co-founder BY PATRICIA A. MILLER Staff Writer       BRICK TOWNSHIP - The visions began when Boni Bates turned 5. The first-grader had gone to get something out of her bedroom closet. When she looked up, she saw the ghostly faces of an elderly man and woman staring down at her. Then she did what most little girls her age would do. More ... Haunted prison a place of sadness and despair BY PATRICIA A. MILLER Staff Writer       PHILADELPHIA - Even the weather cooperated when the Garden State Ghost Hunters Society visited the abandoned Eastern State Penitentiary in Philadelphia in June. Thunder boomed. Lightning flickered eerily from the skylights and across the stone walls of the medieval-looking prison built back in 1... More ... Katrina still echoes in New Orleans, says author Wardlaw-Hartridge alum recounts experience of covering hurricane BY CHRIS GAETANO Staff Writer       EDISON - A presentation by journalist and author Jed Horne, given before students at Wardlaw-Hartridge School in Edison, portrayed New Orleans as a city racked with confusion and miscommunication during Hurricane Katrina, and facing tough choices about its future in the post-storm rebuilding. More ... Local war monument restoration soldiers on Walk of honor to honor those who served in both war and peace times BY KATHY CHANG Staff Writer       WOODBRIDGE - Township veterans can have their name placed on a brick Cambridge paver at the Soldiers and Sailors Monument, which is at the intersection of Main and Berry streets. "This is part of our ongoing efforts to restore and beautify the monument," said Frank LaPenta, chairman of the Woodb... More ... Keeping cool       PHOTOS BY SCOTT FRIEDMAN Top, firefighter Billy Karlbon has a ball at the open house for Fire Prevention Week at the Avenel Fire Department Oct. 13. Middle, Melissa Onc, 10, of Avenel, emerges from a makeshift room filled with smoke used to demonstrate the proper procedure for exiting a building i... More ... Twp. residents get on popular game show BY KATHY CHANG Staff Writer       Three Woodbridge Township residents got a chance to win big on "Wheel of Fortune," which has been ranked as television's No. 1 syndicated series every year since its syndication 25 years ago. The season-long celebration kicked off with the show returning to Radio City Music Hall in New York City ... More ... YMCA announces expansion plan       EDISON - Officials at the Metuchen- Edison-Woodbridge YMCA have announced plans to expand the facility by 6,000 square feet, a more than 50 percent increase over the building's 11,00 square feet. The organization's CEO, William Lovett, said that the building is expanding with its membership, hav... More ...