92.7 WOBM News Flash Briefing: September 8

https://jerseyshorepodcasts.townsquaredigital.com/WOBMFM201709081700.mp3

Country star Troy Gentry's life ends in a helicopter crash in Lumberton. The 50-year-old, half of the Montgomery Gentry band, was one of two aboard the chopper that went down at the Flying W Airport. Neither survived.

Equifax offers free credit monitoring and identity theft protection for any of the 143,000,000 Americans caught in the security breach that it revealed Thursday. Enrollment, which includes all three major monitoring firms, takes several days to complete, and appears to exempt enrollees from the multi-million-dollar class-action lawsuit, filed today in Oregon. The system was hacked from mid May until late July.

Starting September 12, for three months, Ocean Countyans who took Medicaid benefits illegally can admit it, and avoid prosecution. The arrangement by the New Jersey Comptroller's Office with the cooperation of the Ocean County Prosecutor's Office, requires admitted violators to repay Medicaid in full, pay civil penalties, and disconnect from Medicaid for a year. It follows 26 Medicaid fraud arrests in Lakewood during Summer.

The latest about Hurricane Irma is that she is now stepped down one degree to Category Four, and is responsible for at least 23 deaths in the Caribbean. The same islands that she flattened are now threatened by Jose, also a Cat Four. Evacuations continue from Florida through southern coastal Georgia, and warnings are up for the Carolinas.

Governor Chris Christie today approved deployment of New Jersey Army and Air Naitonal Guard resources to South Carolina, ahead of the storm. A separate crew left Cape May for Florida before sunrise today.

Hurricane Harvey victims will get help also from Toms River teachers and students. Dress codes will relax on Jeans Day, September 15, in return for five-dollar donations that will be given to the United Way of Greater Houston.

A former Edison cop from Manalapan heads to prison for at least 17 years, for firebombing his supervisor's house. Prosecutors contended that Michael Dotro was angry about a transfer and a psychological exam he was required to take.