Top Kid Toy Picks for 2012 Holiday Season: Gift Guide

A look at the hot toys for tots this holiday season.

Every holiday season, the mailbox fills with the latest toy catalogs. Children peruse the pages as they scribble their lists, daydreaming about what they will find under the tree come Christmas morning. Parents pull out their pocketbooks, spending hard-earned cash as they anticipate the joy on those little faces. What will be the runaway favorites this year is always a guess, but here are some of the latest trends, mixed with tried-and-true perennial favorites.  jChews Smartphone teether by Jellystone No tears for parents or babies. Babies love nothing more than to gum Mom and Dad’s cell phone, but now they’ll be too intrigued with their own smartphone to chew on. The Jellystone smartphone teether comes in seven funky colors and is BPA …

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Hillsborough's Top-10 Business Taxpayers

Business that pays the most in township taxes isn't a storefront location.

The highest business taxpayer in town doesn’t have a huge storefront or sales galore. Instead, the merchant paying the highest property taxes, Texas Eastern Transmission, runs miles of natural gas pipeline underground. The pipeline company, which is part of Spectra Energy, paid about $1,329,579.08 in taxes in 2011, for seven locations in town that are designated vacant land, industrial and commercial properties. The lack of storefront businesses on the town’s highest commercial taxpayers list is a trend that extends to many of the spots on the list with many industrial locations included. The second highest business taxpayer in town, KD Hillsborough 44A, Inc., which owns the Hillsborough Promenade complex on Route 206 and Falcon Road, is …

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Green Village Site Plan Hearing Continues Tonight

Apartment complex, extended stay hotel and retail site plan goes before Planning Board again.

A site plan hearing on a proposed 469-unit apartment complex, 130-room extended stay hotel, and a 20,000 square foot retail space on a 50-acre Route 206 lot continues during Thursday's Planning Board meeting—but faces concern over traffic to and from the site. “I’ve been on this corner for 25 years, so I know how the traffic is on this intersection,” Mike Avolio, United Rent-All Owner, said. “I’ve seen I can’t count how many accidents. “I’m not against the project, because I’m a small business owner,” he added. “But I’m worried about the safety issue. It’s (Route 206) not going to have enough room.” The site plan suggests two site entrances, both of which open onto Route 206. One of the entrances would allow drivers to make a right turn …

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The Girl Files

Counterpoint: Full Service, Low Price, Neat Job

The Girl Files heads to Fox Chase Nails for manicures.

Editor's Note: Welcome to the Girl Files, a column where two Patch editors review the best spots for girly indulgences. Want to accompany us and add your review? Email Eileen.Oldfield@patch.com or Audreyl@patch.com I have a confession prior to this week’s Girl Files edition. It’s that I have an incredibly hard time sitting still during manicures. I just get bored and sick of not being able to use my hands to turn book or magazine pages, type out emails or text messages and the like. By the time our next appointment rolled around, I was already anxious to get the gel polish off my nails—I simply didn’t like having it on my nails any longer, which meant a trip to Fox Chase Nails in the Martinsville section of Bridgewater. Still, it remained …

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Cranbury Bank Buys Amboy Bank Locations

The transaction is expected to be complete in March.

The Cranbury-based 1st Constitution Bancorp announced Dec. 31 that they plan to buy three nearby Amboy Banks, including a location in Hillsborough, for nearly $110 million. Robert F. Mangano, 1st Constitution's president and chief financial officer, said on Wednesday that the company plans to complete the transaction by the end of March. According to a press release, 1st Consitution will acquire the deposit liabilities, real estate, and related assets of the Amboy branches in Rocky Hill, Hillsborough and Hopewell, respectively.  1st Constitution Bancorp stated it will acquire the deposit liabilities of the purchased branches for cash, with an option to purchase certain loan relationships associated with three branch offices, on or before …

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Getting on the Road to Financial Fitness

Powerhouse Gym hosts forum to help folks get financially fit

Ken Turash of Powerhouse Gym knows that shaping up for the New Year means more than just getting physically fit; it also means getting financially fit. Recognizing that tax time is not far away, Turash approached several business associates with an idea to help others deal with their financial health, particularly in light of tax law changes that are now in place. The result: a free Financial Fitness Forum to be held Monday, Jan. 10 at 7:30 p.m. at Powerhouse Gym, 129 Stryker Lane. Led by John Nalepka of Name Benefits in Hillsborough, Dean Ludwig of Tee to Green Financial in Hillsborough and Colin C. Quinn of Applegate, Quinn and Magee in Madison, the forum will be a discussion of financial, insurance, tax and estate planning issues and …

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On The Town

DreamCricket Academy: Expanding the Sport’s Popularity

Indoor practice, training facility and equipment shop draws cricketers from near and far

If Kranthi Bayya's vision comes true, 10 years from now cricket will be offered in schools across the United States. Bayya is the chief executive officer of DreamCricket, an indoor facility at 5 Jill Court that is considered one of the pre-eminent cricket training centers in the tri-state area. DreamCricket opened in Hillsborough about three years ago. It is an offshoot of DreamCricket.com, which was started as a fantasy cricket website about eight years ago by two "grads who had some time on their hands," Bayya said. When a third partner joined, it went from a gaming site to a complete one-stop shop for news about cricket in the United States. "It is a great site for aspiring cricketers in the United States. It shows what they have to …

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