State Briefly

were found at the top of a dam near a waterfall where the Rockaway River flows through the park. Authorities didn’t say how or why the pair entered the water.

The Morris County medical examiner said “there is no cause to believe there was any criminal activity involved in either individual’s death,” the prosecutor’s office said in a statement.

Pennsylvania detention center releases migrant families

LEESPORT, PA. >> A Pennsylvania facility used by the U.S. government to detain asylum-seeking immigrants has released several families and is no longer holding children and parents, according to activists and U.S. Sen. Bob Casey.

The Berks County Residential Center outside Reading was one of three family detention centers in

FIVE-DAY FORECAST FOR TRENTON the U.S. that held children and parents who are seeking asylum or who entered the country illegally. Activists have long called for the detention center’s closure.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement confirmed Monday that no one is in custody at the facility.

Some 25 people, including 15 children, in seven or eight families were released last week, according to Bridget Cambria, executive director of the group Aldea, which represents families at the detention center in Leesport.

“They were released to their families in every corner of the United States where they were received with love, care and support and where they will continue their immigration process,” Cambria said.

The county-operated facility in Leesport, about 65 miles northwest of Philadelphia, has been under contract with immigration authorities since 2001.

Immigrant rights groups have long demanded an end to family detention, alleging medical neglect and other abuses. At one point, the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services refused to renew the center’s license.

Casey, D-Pa., tweeted that he is “pleased that all the families held on the Berks detention facility have been released. This is a long overdue step to deliver justice to vulnerable migrant families, including children.”

NOAA extends right whale protection zones to mid-March

BOSTON >> The federal government is extending three protective zones off the East Coast that are designed to prevent collisions between ships and whales.

The zones are intended to protect North Atlantic right whales, which number only

ALMANAC about 360. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said Monday the protective zones are located south of Nantucket, Massachusetts, east of Boston and southeast of Atlantic City, New Jersey.

Mariners are asked to avoid the areas altogether or transit through them at 10 knots or less. The three zones were established in late February. The Nantucket zone has been extended to March 13 and the Boston and Atlantic City zones have been extended to March 14.

The whales are vulnerable to ship strikes and entanglement in fishing gear.

Pennsylvania Republicans stop just short of censuring Toomey

HARRISBURG, PA. >> Pennsylvania’s Republican Party has expressed its disapproval of U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey over his

TODAY’S UV INDEX