New Jersey Nightly News; New Jersey Nightly News Episode from 05/30/1978; Master

New Jersey monthly. With the Baucus bill in Trenton. And please move on. Good evening in New Jersey today the State Agriculture Department is being sued for its use of a pesticide against the gypsy moth a pesticide that's been associated with cancer. There's another lawsuit in the works against the state challenging the thorough and efficient education program. We'll have an in-depth look at the issue. And ice cream trucks may soon be equipped with new safety equipment to protect children. Then Rebecca in sports Paul bloodline will report on women who have made a career in boxing both in and out of the ring and on closer look this evening we'll talk about the placement of former mental patients in the New Jersey communities. A court challenge now in the works to New Jersey's use of the gypsy moth pesticide because that pesticide seven is listed by the federal government as a suspected carcinogen. That is a suspected cancer causing agent. This is Linda Hill. Bold is filing the lawsuit. It's possible that the dispute could tie up the state's gypsy moth

control program and thus have a negative effect on food production here in New Jersey. The president of the State Farm Bureau says if you can't kill the bugs you can't grow the crop with smaller supply. He says he wouldn't be surprised to see produce prices triple or quadruple. So Ivan is one of the substitutes for DDT widespread use of DDT is now banned on environmental grounds. New Jersey may be facing another round of complicated chords surrounding the still unresolved question of thorough and efficient education do you need. SANDRA KING reports have passed since the filing of New Jersey's landmark case of Robinson versus Cahill eight years of litigation. Court decision and legislative solution. It was as opposed to lead to something called an efficient education especially for the state's inner city poor but the greater new record coalition says it simply hasn't worked that way. And the group intends to take its arguments back where it all started for the state Supreme Court.

It's half ruling that the legislation which until mid-May got passed has really been contrary to what the court intended and. So we're planning to go back to court and say to them that your internet has not been carried out and you have the facts to prove it. The public school education act of 1975 led the state to an unpopular income tax which so far has raised some 300 million dollars. Coming back contends the benefits have not been realized by New Jersey's inner city schools for the more affluent suburbs like South Orange. The app he claims has been a boom providing more state money and further widening the gap between the hard pressed urban districts and their wealthier neighbors. In fact according to a report by the coalition's education reform project the relative position of property poor school districts like North Patterson and Camden has actually slipped since the so-called reforms were enacted. But state education commissioner for A.G. Burke believes the state efforts are reflected in what he

claims are tangible improvements in inner city schools. We also our own indication are the test scores in our urban districts are going up not in every subject area in every grade but by and large in almost every one of our 28 urban areas the test scores are going up and I feel optimistic heading back however insist that test scores and the dollars continue to point to inequities which must once more be rectified by the court in the work. I'm Sandra King. We asked our contributing reporter for Education David y shuttle to join us here in our Trenton studio tonight. Doctor why shuttle is an associate professor of education at Montclair State College and he's had firsthand experience teaching in New Jersey's public schools. Dr. Weiss at all simply briefly stated what are the inequities that Sandra King talked about with the inequities focus around whether the city school youngsters are getting a share or a proportionally greater share of the monies that are been raised through the New Jersey income tax. Why aren't they. Well it's it's partly involved in the politics that have succeeded

since the act has been passed and it's passage. No one wants their constituency to receive less money or less money than other school districts would receive and so there's the the former has been developed not necessarily aimed at improving things in a city but rather improving things throughout New Jersey so there's a there's a broad effect on the on the monies that have been raised. It's been it's been spread about through all the school districts there's been no concentration of money monies into the into the cities as some of the critics would like to see. Now what would you do if you could change the DNA law because you have studied it greatly what would you do. Well change would be slow no matter what happens to it whether it continues the way it is or whether there's substantial change. One of the changes that we could see is the assumption by the state of war cost of education. So that there would not be a dependency on the ability of a local school district to raise taxes.

So you are saying that the state really has to fund all public education in order to make it equitable. Well if we want to make the adjustments that seem to be most appropriate for city school districts that would be one of the ways of doing it. Probably the the only way that we could do it in a relatively rapid period of time. We're looking for to make substantial changes in city schools. Certainly money is a factor and any place we can find money is to a broad based funding process. Thank you very much Dr. Why should I thank you for being with us. It's become somewhat commonplace for educators and librarians to mourn the death of reading among school age youngsters. Reporter Jack comedy looks at one librarian who's taken a rather radical approach to lowering the kids back to the books. One librarian David Mitchell first rode his motorcycle into the quiet residential town of spots what all was not well in the town's new library. It was quiet but at some point it out to quiet. But that was the old days Benjamin's learn how to attract a crowd here.

Things will never be the same. It's not like any library we have ever seen. And in some respects it looks more like a clubhouse but the kids here like it. Maybe because the choice of literature leans more to the practical than the pedantic. How to select ride and maintain your trail bike is a popular book here for instance. But man Jim says reading is reading and the gimmicks get kids off the streets and between the bookshelves. The way management sees it. It's part of the evolutionary process using technology instead of fighting it. The representation of what I believe libraries ultimately have to turn to libraries are by and large in the minds of many people a dying institution they have an aura of artificial intellectuality about them. And that's not necessarily sufficient to capture the minds of young people especially when you live in an era where gratification has to be used. To an extent very immediate and very exciting. There's a contest called Jaws to progress now. The winner takes home a

shark. And of course there's the library motorcycle club as well as animal displays to keep students coming back. It seems more like a high powered sales campaign than a return to the basics so be it. Agencies no shame in using his public relations talents to hustle prizes towards contests. It's all part of the game. If it's done tactfully and with taste and with an intelligent purpose behind it becomes a very dignified matter it becomes a real science. I am a librarian because otherwise I couldn't utilize the techniques I'm utilizing within this particular act most of you would succeed if I wasn't also a professional librarian. Some of Mandaeans colleagues find all this more disturbing than a stack of overdue books but he's convinced libraries are going to have to change or they'll disappear from the glut in Spotswood. I'm Jack Cafferty. Today is the first weekday of casino gambling in Atlantic City and for all the people discovered by

long lines over the weekend the news today is the lines are shorter but casino spokesman say the crowds are still coming to gamble. Enough of a crowd apparently to discourage one lady. This is Norma D'Angelo of New York City spotted reading a novel inside the casino said it's still too crowded for her she said. People stepped on her toes didn't even say excuse me. So she's just sitting the whole thing out. Then a while Sun's residence and parts of several New Jersey towns have been able to use their home drinking faucets for drinking or cooking. The majority of those people depend on well water for home use but in many cases that water is sour. The state puts the blame on industrial pollution. Jeffrey Hall has a report on how one family in Monmouth County is coping with the problem. For nearly two years Marion Masnick and her family haven't been able to use their tap water for drinking or cooking. 14 other families in Howell township are experiencing the same problem. They get around it by using bottled water which is delivered by the township.

Been a big pain in the neck. How else you don't know what you know you get tired of lugging bottles from downstairs to upstairs and throwing away the garbage the Quietus accumulates like crazy. And you've thought of moving I'm sure but who's going to want to buy my house for the contaminant. The state took water samples from all of these homes and found that the wells were contaminated by several industrial chemicals. But after months of investigation no one has been able to pinpoint the source. The inability of a few Howell residents to use their tap water has triggered a general state of fear throughout the township. We've had a very serious problem. That could be psychosomatic. People are deathly afraid to use the word. Many of them even for the purposes of washing which the state has said all along was perfectly all right. The proposed solution for Howell at least is to dig deeper wells to tap fresh water. The state will pay but officials say they're holding off to conduct new cost estimates. Residents here say the delay has already cost them their

patience. In Howell township near freehold I'm Jeffrey Hall. The lights went out in parts of Bergen County this afternoon Public Service Electric and Gas says that about 10000 residential commercial users lost their electric powered 446. The blackout caused traffic havoc at the Paramus Mall where customers were leaving on Mosque only to drive their cars and intersections with traffic lights that didn't work. Power was restored later this afternoon. The two saw the ads arrested 10 days ago here in New Jersey in an espionage case were indicted today by the federal grand jury in Newark. They are being held in New York City on bail of two million dollars each. Both were affiliated with the United Nations along with a third Russian named as an unindicted coconspirator or because he had diplomatic immunity. He left the U.S. about a week ago. The three accused of trying to buy classified documents from a U.S. Navy officer for $20000. Well it's suing of Egg Harbor says his backyard is like a minefield. He says methane gas seeping from a neighboring land field has caused eight explosions in the past three

weeks. State officials say they've been on top of the problem. They say they've ordered special methane alarm systems in Series home and that's to signal the build up of gas. The state legislature has apparently decided that one more category of vehicles needs to be regulated. The Assembly last week adopted a safety law for ice cream trucks. My power has a story. If a bill passed by the state assembly becomes law and it probably will. The neighborhood ice cream truck is going to look more like a school bus. The law will require flashing red lights in the mirror to show the driver the area in front of the truck and a stop sign that pops out from the side. Motorists would have to stop and look out for children before driving on. One of New Jersey's largest ice cream vendors. Good humor says the new law will cost the company about $150 per truck. In good humor officials say they're all for it for reasons of safety and business with the course of insurance rising continuously.

It's something like this certainly would be recognized by the insurance companies as a safety precaution airy measurement and hold down cost and hold down force. Good Humor has a hundred and twenty ice cream trucks and three New Jersey communities. It says children have been involved in accidents near its trucks about six times in the last two years. The company said it always wanted to install the pop out stop signs but current state law doesn't allow it. This is Mike Howell reporting. Whether that law will be changed is now up to the state Senate. But maybe safer to buy ice cream in the street in the future is for sure getting more expensive to eat lunch at the State Park. The state concessions people today so there be a nickel increase in the price of hot dogs hamburgers and sodas in New Jersey's 14 state parks. That is if you can even find a concessionaire one has not been found so far form on the battlefield park which opened this weekend in Freehold. A lady fight promoter and the

rest of the Garden State Sports next when the New Jersey nightly news continues. Here's the weather forecast tonight will be partly cloudy and mild and patches of fog will develop in all parts of the state. Low temperatures will be in the upper 50s to mid 60s. After the fog burns off tomorrow morning the weather will be partly sunny warm and humid with a chance of afternoon showers inland. High temperatures inland will be in the mid 80s to around 90 at the shore the highs will be in the 70s. The outlook for Thursday in New Jersey. Partly cloudy warm and humid. Next on the deserts is. One sixth of the world's population are nomads and farmers living in desert and semi-desert region for thousands of years they lived in harmony with their environment. But in the last half century intense heat has been turning the marginal lands into a desert and an alarming rate. Can this process be stopped or reversed.

The deserts next time on nobody watching over Wednesday at 8:00. New Jersey Public Television. Good evening. A few years ago boxing was a totally male dominated sport for the most part it still is but more and more women are making inroads. In fact the youngest boxing promoter in the entire country is a woman 18 year old a niece Carrie yellow of Trenton. Denise Kerio is actually working under a permit now. She's already put on two boxing shows in the Trenton area. One more show and she'll be eligible for a full fledged New Jersey promoters license. Denise has been around boxing all her life mainly because her father Frank has long been involved in amateur boxing. In fact there are those who say that it's Frank Terry currently on suspension from the trendy place Force who actually runs the shows but the niece disagrees. My father helps me by contact with Abby and I want them to contact you know I'm there with this and he's been in a long time to

tell me to contact us you know several hours before this particular fight the boxing promoters nightmare came true and he was told that our main event Sammy would not show up. Her biggest worries were the people who would want refunds and juggling around the car to create a new main event. But she carried it off. Everything went smoothly. I get I get pleasure out of knowing I did this myself. New Jersey can also boast of another leading lady and boxing professional judges. Eva Shane Fort Lee she was the first woman ever to judge a world title bout. She was also the first woman to judge a pro fight in New Jersey ranks among the top judges in the world. But I've never been to a boxing match until five years ago began when one day decided to go the Golden Gloves and didn't have anyone to go with him and he asked me about coming along with you when I

fell in love with my very first time in the fens ring generalship and punching. In other words those are basically the four points that we watch. That is something that you develop over a period of time that you're getting there and you're watching you're judging him and you know exactly what is happening and you evaluate it from there. A couple of interesting people in lacrosse this afternoon the State High School semifinal games were played and one of them top seeded Montclair down Princeton 13 and 9 and then the other one second seeded Columbia High defeated buta nine to seven. Montclair and Columbia will meet for the State Championship on Saturday. A few weeks ago we reported on javelin thrower might just as a sophomore at last broke state college at the time Mike was remarkable because he had thrown the jab 235 feet after first picking up the event 5 weeks earlier. Things have continued to go well for Mike just just this past weekend he won

the national division three made for small colleges with a throw a better than 220 feet tomorrow Mike leaves for the National Division One meet in Eugene Oregon against all major schools. Quite an accomplishment for a small college athlete especially one in his first year in the sport other New Jersey athletes at that Mabel B Franklin Jacobs the high jumper of from fairly Dickinson and Calvin ville the sprinter from Seton Hall will be watching for them. And tonight coming up next a closer look at the problems of former hospital mental patients and what is happening to them in their communities. This is off Broadway and now for the first time on public television the 23rd

Annual all the awards live from the bottom line. Join Colleen Dewar's Dustin Hoffman Parsons Marilyn Sokol and Johnny 2 in a special two hour telecast live from the bottom line. The night honors excellence and the stars shine on New York's skyline. Tonight on closer look we'll have the first of a two part series. Traditionally both the mentally ill and the mentally retarded have been cared for in institutions. Well now authorities are trying to care for more of them in their local communities. Tomorrow we'll have a special report on the mentally retarded. And tonight we'll discuss the mentally ill are back on the last six years the population of Georgios is mental hospitals has been cut from 11000 to some 4000. This part of the national trend to d institutionalize the mentally ill who are not dangerous to themselves or to others cost the last of the

institutionalized. So it is said to make sense economically at least. However a recent study by the Mental Health Association of Essex County points up some serious problems. Generally the report charges that released mental patients are victims of poor planning by the mental health care establishment and lack of support by local communities. Recommendations involve such things as providing patients with the so-called living income to something as mundane as giving them more bus fare money. Perhaps the most pressing need suitable housing. Dr. Arnall Raven is executive director of the Essex County Mental Health Association is here with us in the Newark studio the CNN doctor. What exactly is the housing problem or is that really too narrow of an area to discuss. I think that the housing is a very important part of it but it what we found in our study and we came to look at everybody leaving the hospital at a given time so we didn't pick a special population. Is that the number of people who are leaving are greater. And they are coming out with more serious problems. And the community isn't prepared for them.

And it presents very serious problems we found the housing part. We learned some things we thought that people were going to boarding homes almost entirely. We found that about half the people returning to their families. A certain portion of them are returning to the two boarding homes. And the problems in the boarding homes were very very difficult. And the problems of licensing or on licensing didn't address the issue of the quality of life of the people out in the community that they had very little going for them there was very little service available to them. And it's a tough scene for them. Doctor let's get back to that quality of life question but first let's introduce from our Trenton studio Thomas Blatner who is the deputy director of the state Division of Mental Health and Hospitals Mr. Blatner the housing problem as you see it is that too narrow a focus. I think it really is I think it's as Arnold said more of a broad quality of life problem and it really had the two ways to look at the issue of mental health one is in the context of

illness which I think has been the traditional point of view. And then the other one is to look at it as a as a as a problem of disenfranchisement. And I think that the problem of housing. It goes further than that it includes social status issues of friendship community acceptance and particularly the we're dealing with a population nobody really cares about and that all the money in the world and all the change in regulations are not going to do much unless we're able to develop some sort of local community support and in providing caring for people less fortunate. Well Mr. Blatter and Dr. Raven we're we're we're done of this quality of life situation you and I were talking a few moments ago about the about the typical person who is released from a mental institution and how well that person blends into the community. I get the impression from you that it is not well as a.. Well the people who we are sending out are no longer being sent out of the hospital because they are all better and no longer need care. They are merely not dangerous they are merely not dangerous and that has always been a small problem. And therefore what we're doing

is we're sending out into the community people who have very very serious problems. And I think that we're as Mr. Blatner is correct in saying that the illness model is a limited one. What we really do have to recognize is that these people are ill in addition to having very serious housing and social service needs. Just why are we dumping people in into local communities. I think it's I would say that four years ago that combination of increased discharges the court mandate to get people into less restrictive environments and humanitarian reasons because people felt that institutions were really bad that four years ago there was more of a of a massive discharge policy. I would say that within the last three years the policy has changed from a discharge policy to one of developing caring communities they have resources and they were were about 15 to 20 percent toward implementation of the policy so I would say that it's a mix. It's a mixed picture at this point. You know what Mr. Blatter let me let me quote from the Star-Ledger of just

last Monday inside the House of Representatives Select Committee on the aging heroes talking about aging and mental patients and so forth thousands of mental patients have been transferred from state and county supported institutions into what is called Intolerable flophouses. That happening here in New Jersey. Well as I said I think that before 1974 it happened at a rather rather large scale fashion because the focus was on getting people out rather than the quality of care. And in fact 70000 people were discharged from the state hospitals I think in the last three years there's been a slowdown in the discharge process as a matter of fact now where about 400 patients over what we were budgeted for in the in this year's budget Dr. Raven you're shaking your head. Well I think that we only have about I think that the problem is that people still are being discharged in greater numbers certainly greater than what the community absorb and certainly greater than what the people are able to deal with and I think that's the challenge and I think it's important that we will address that issue. There are a lot of serious a lot of serious work that still has to be

done. Dr. Ragan here in New York thank you very much Mr. Blatner and Trenton thank you for being with us and see again a similar difficulty with the mentally retarded along with the mentally ill that we've been discussing the CD and tomorrow here on closer look reporter Mariam Rosa will have a report on the conclusion of this two part series. Once again our top stories a Morris County woman is suing the state. She's trying to stop the Agriculture Department's use of a gypsy moth pesticide which causes cancer in laboratory animals. And a bill is halfway through the legislature which would require motorists approaching ice cream trucks to observe safety rules rules similar to those which apply when approaching school buses. Good night. Good night. New Jersey Nightly News is a joint presentation of New Jersey Public Television and

w o any t 13 portions pre recorded. The.