White Castle Shakes are Readers' Choice

Chocolate or vanilla, they're the favorites in our weekly poll.

White Castle proved to be a late bloomer in this week's Readers' Choice poll on favorite milkshakes—with only a handful of votes through most of the week, the chain's fans came through overnight and catapulted White Castle to first place. White Castle in Green Brook      105 (48 percent) Sonic Drive-In in Green Brook     4   (21 percent) Smoothie King in Warren             39 (17 percent) Country Squire in Warren            13  (  5 percent) Cold Stone Creamery in Warren   11  (  5 percent) Baskin Robbins in Watchung          3  (  1 percent) Total votes:                              217 Next week, we'll check to see which local music venue is the Readers' Choice—be sure to watch for the polling Monday morning.

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Facebook at $38: Buy or Sell?

Social Media megasite goes public tomorrow—are you buying in?

In the biggest financial news since the economic collapse of 2008, social media titan Facebook will become a publicly-traded corporation tomorrow. The company announced an opening price of $38 per share today, making it one of the largest initial public offerings ever. How are local investors reacting? "I'm getting a lot of inquiries," Neal Drasin, of Edward Jones Investments in Warren, said. He added he's been hearing from some of his clients who normally aren't interested in buying IPOs. But he's not too keen on helping his clients buy tomorrow—before the IPO price was announced, he noted if priced at $35 per share, the stock would be selling at 80 times the company's earnings. "That's like hamburger selling for $50 a pound," he said. "I…

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United Way Raises $110K For Area Nonprofits

Commercial real estate luncheon honors industry's best, helps to fund improvements.

The United Way of Northern New Jersey raised an estimated $110,000 for the capital improvement needs of area nonprofits through the help of the real estate industry at its 13th annual Commercial Real Estate Network Legacy Luncheon. About 300 professionals from the industry attended the luncheon to support area nonprofits while celebrating the positive impact of several key real estate transactions of the past year. One of those belonged to SHI International Corp. The company received the United Way's 2012 Commercial Real Estate Impact Award for undertaking one of the largest commercial renovations in the northern region and keeping energy efficiency and conservation a focal point of the project.  The project relocated the company's world …

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Top-10 Last-Minute Gifts for Mother's Day

Waiting until the last minute only means you were thinking harder than everyone else

If you're reading this, you're in a club of which no one wants to be a member. The club of those who haven't yet gotten a present for their mom for Mother's Day — which is this Sunday. Never fear, here are 10 quick and easy last minute gift suggestions to steer you away from the Valley of Guilt and Disappointment.  1. Homemade gift certificates: Grab a pen, some colored paper and start creating gift certificates she can redeem for a lunch, a visit, a shopping trip, a certain number of phone calls, whatever your mother enjoys. Maybe she wants you to weed the garden, throw that in as well. 2. A gesture of love: There are lots of reasons you love your mom. Write some of them on small pieces of paper, fold up the papers and send her a box with…

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Local Boutique Sets 'Inappropriate' Mother's Day Event

Fashion show one of Hillary's special events for local moms (and those looking to find a gift).

You may not think mom is into it, but Hillary's Fashion Boutique thinks mom will want to try out some inappropriate fashions. This all isn't quite as risque as it sounds, since the fashions are the design of Katie Johnson Seigel and made to look best on women who may have young children at home. "Her fashions are just made to look better on many women," Laura Melesius, of Hillary's, said. "The clothing drapes right, so it always looks good." Seigel started as a designer locally, though is now gaining national prominance. Since Hillary's has had long-standing connection to her innovative "Innapropriate Fashion" line, Seigel is holding a special trunk sale at the Warren store Friday. She'll be presenting some of her latest designs, which …

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Swim Club Invites All to Spring Fling

First springtime event may become a regular feature for Green Brook.

For local residents who anxiously await the carnivals that spring up in the area in the summer, the Green Brook Swim Club has some good news: you don't have to wait. Starting Wednesday and running through Saturday, the club's Spring Fling Carnival is bringing Warren's EXPO carnival rides vendor, the Somerset Patriot's mascot and possibly NJ 101.5FM radio's on-air personalities together. Green Brook Swim Club's Jolaine Moffitt said the event, aimed at being a fundraiser for the 160-member club and its competitive swim team for kids 6 to 18, may become an annual event.  "This carnival will hopefully bring some people in—a lot of people don't know we're here," Moffitt said. She said she even drove by the club's entrance off of Greenbrook Road…

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Warren Resident Providing Forum to Discuss State's Important Issues

Rebecca Perkins has experts talk about what's facing New Jersey.