Broadening the number of health care professionals who can administer vaccine, New York Gov. David Paterson issued a sweeping executive order Thursday officially declaring a state of emergency due to the increase in H1N1 cases, including 75 H1N1-related deaths in New York state.

A New Jersey man has been charged with murder in the slaying of a Roman Catholic priest who was found dead in the church rectory with wounds, the chief prosecutor said Saturday.Chatham Borough police had 50 to 100 officers and detectives investigating the case, according to Bianchi. Hinds, the parish's pastor, also oversaw the church's Catholic grade school. "When you're the sole pastor and you do most of the baptisms and weddings and funerals, people end up loving you. This ...

Residents of the New Jersey town where a priest was found dead in the kitchen of his church's rectory Friday morning should exercise caution, Morris County Prosecutor Robert Bianchi said. Due to the nature of the wounds, the death of the Rev. Ed Hinds, 61, of St. Patrick's Church "in all likelihood was in fact a homicide," Bianchi told reporters at a news conference Friday afternoon. He said investigators believe Hinds was killed sometime between 11 p.m. Thursday and 8 ...

He is neither old, nor a priest, nor particularly attached to time-honored traditions. At 35, John Eriksen, one of the nation's youngest Catholic school superintendents, offers a ruthless assessment of parochial education. "The biggest threat that urban Catholic schools face is nostalgia," he says both of districts nationwide and his own diocese of Paterson, N.J. A Notre Dame and Harvard graduate fluent in Spanish and Arabic, Eriksen is part of the next generation of Catholic leaders in search of ...

Today, you get a call from a friend. They need a favor. Would you mind spending your vacation time this summer in Death Valley, a desert where temperatures hover around 130 degrees Would you be OK with sleeping in a van, if you get to sleep at all, for three days, because you'll be working your tail off spraying runners down with water, dunking them in ice and keeping track of everything that goes in (and -- yes -- ...

The New York State Assembly passed a same-sex marriage bill Tuesday evening, bringing New York one step closer to legalizing such marriages. The bill, which passed 89-52, will now go on to the state Senate for a vote. If it is passed there, it will go to Gov. David Paterson, who has made it clear he will sign the bill. "I applaud ... members of both parties for moving this historic legislation forward," New York City ...