NJN News; Monday December 28, 1998

New concerns tonight about water quality as New Jersey's drought worsens. Two crashes in less than a week lead to a call for congressional hearings on bus safety, casino bus passengers air their concerns about high speeds and the wake of two accidents, and will look at a program that gives disadvantaged students a helping hand. This is NJN News for Monday, December 28, 1998. Major funding for NJN News is made possible by Grandstruck, the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, which believes that an informed citizen released to a healthy democracy. The SENG committed to serving customers strengthening the business community and investing in New Jersey's future.

First union serves the financial needs of individuals and businesses from Connecticut to Florida. HIP Health Plan of New Jersey dedicated to providing quality health care to employees of large and small businesses, as well as individuals for two decades, and by Bell Atlantic, in partnership with Public Television, serving to form, fighting and educating citizens of New Jersey. From NJN, the New Jersey Channel, the Emmy Award-winning NJN News with Kent Manahan, Dick Forney with Business, and Jerry Henry with Sports. Good evening, everyone. Kent Manahan is off tonight. I'm Kent St. John. Could New Jersey be headed for a drought emergency? Officials say that is a distinct possibility without some significant rainfall within the next several weeks.

As Trish de Gasper reports, a public hearing was held today on the issue, gathering state officials, those who run the water companies, and environmentalists. For as long as records have been kept, and that's been since 1895, these last six months of 1998 in New Jersey have so far been the driest. Reservoirs across the state are about 40 percent below their normal levels. The 1Q reservoir storage is currently at 26 percent of capacity. Our combined storage, which is the 1Q plus per month's bill, is down to 35 percent, driving us deeper into our drought warning range and closer to a drought emergency. The DEP called this public hearing today in Madison. By law, public hearings have to be held before a drought emergency is declared. For now, state officials say voluntary conservation will help. This hearing does not mandate restrictions on consumers, but we would encourage them to fix leaky faucets. At this time of the year, there's not much outdoor water use, but certainly try and limit indoor water use to what they really need, you know, full washers, et cetera.

Soon, the DEP plans to order the various water companies to share their supply, which is routine in a drought. Companies also plan to pump water from the Paseyak River to add to the supply. Environmentalists spoke out against that today. But the first question I have is, what percentage of the Paseyak River is currently sewage treatment? What percentage of the flow of the Paseyak River is currently sewage treatment? I have been told from a variety of sources within the department that that figures 90 percent currently. To illustrate just how low water levels are in some rivers, on Christmas Day for George Washington's traditional crossing of the Delaware, this year it had to be done on foot over a bridge. The Delaware was too shallow. Environmentalists say that low water levels in rivers and streams increases the risk of contamination from sewage and industrial discharge. Not only are we running out of water, but the water that's there is getting dirtier and dirtier. There is another public hearings scheduled for next Tuesday, the Delaware River Basin Commission says the state could be in a drought emergency by mid-January.

Tristigaspers, NJN News, Madison. In the wake of two charter bus accidents in the space of three days, including the Christmas Eve crash that killed eight people, calls are heating up for increased bus safety. The latest accident occurred yesterday, when a bus returning from Atlantic City veered off the roadway near the New Jersey Turnpike. Injuring several passengers and the bus driver. Jim Hooker has more on the story. By this morning, the latest bus accident scene had few signs of the calamity that surrounded the bus, its driver and passengers only hours earlier. The accident near the exit 10 interchange of the New Jersey Turnpike might even have escaped widespread publicity, except for the fact that it was the second involving a motor coach during the long holiday weekend. Both crashes involve New York City passengers headed to were returning from the New Jersey gambling mecca Atlantic City. The first on Christmas Eve claimed eight lives.

In the aftermath of these crashes, some elected officials are calling for a crackdown on bus safety. Congressman Robert Menendez says he wants to take the issue to Washington for congressional hearings. Let's look at safety maintenance in terms of these buses. Let's look at training in terms of the drivers. These are all the issues we should be looking at because we're talking about thousands of lives at stake across the country. We're talking about a lot of money and property damage and medical bills, and ultimately we're talking about saving lives. And the fallout from the accidents is already being heard in Trenton, where the Senate Minority Leader criticized the Whitman administration for failing to implement state regulations dating to 1995. That would increase penalties for bus safety violations. The administration shot back that while it should have moved faster, the senators' criticisms were, quote, premature since there have been no findings by state or federal investigators as to what caused either accident. But the administration says those stiffer fines, which could reach a maximum of $5,000 from the current $40 should be adopted by spring. Meantime, federal and state investigators say it'll be at least six months before the federal authorities officially determine a cause for the Christmassy crash.

Speed, coupled with a hairpin turn, are suspected in Sunday's crash. Jim Hooker, NJN News, Edison. Of course, bus safety is now a major concern for casino patrons in the wake of the two crashes. Mary Ann Bennett reports from Atlantic City. It was back to the fast lane for many buses headed towards Atlantic City today. On our way down the AC Expressway at 65 miles per hour, we couldn't keep up with a few. And some of the passengers off this New York tour bus said they are familiar with how it feels to fly down the parkway in a crowded bus. But today, that familiar feeling made them a little nervous. Some of those drivers do drive fast and do take chances. And the passenger is at risk for sure. Do you think that your bus driver sped it all? Is he near here? I think it was going a little fast at some points, but I just looked at the window the other way. Investigators say high speeds may have contributed to recent crashes. And today, some passengers were asking, what's the rush?

Bus drivers we talk to on and off camera say there is no real need to speed, but there are plenty of incentives. Some of the riders give you a bigger tip. If you get them here and get them some extra time, that's what it's all about. Money. Although some bus drivers say customers actually shell out larger tips for a speedy arrival, the passengers we talk to say a driver with a heavy foot can be frightening. You should do slow down more and watch how they're driving that's you. When it's road condition and stuff like that. This casino dealer says some of the tour bus drivers he knows want to make time on the highway so they can spend time elsewhere. They have places that they usually when they come to Lanark City that they go and they do. And people they spend a little bit of time with, you know, that's their own time. That's our free time. One way passengers can get drivers to slow down is to report them to their company and to the state police. Marianne Bennett and JN News at Lanark City.

U.S. warplanes fired missiles and precision guided bombs at Iraqi anti-aircraft sites aircraft sites today after the Iraqis fired surface to air missiles at them. President Clinton said the pilots took appropriate action because they were attacked. The Iraqi military, meanwhile, says the action which took place over northern Iraq killed four Iraqi soldiers and injured seven others. The incident comes less than two weeks after American and British forces conducted four days of air strikes against Iraqi targets. New Jersey's Democratic Party will pay a $15,000 fine for improperly transferring campaign funds. The Federal Election Commission says the Democrats mixed money raised under federal law with money raised under a more permissive state law. Now the FEC says New Jersey Democrats transferred more than $117,000 from its state account to its federal account on five different occasions in 1996. Coming up a new mission for the William Hughes Technical Center and two former governors talk about the important political stories of 1998. Keep it here. If you have a comment, call 1-800-Jersey-1 or our email address. NJN News at NJN.org.

The William J. Hughes Technical Center in Atlantic County will have a new role next year. Federal officials plan to open a runway testing facility at the Egg Harbor Township site. The FAA, along with aerospace giant Boeing, plans to use the building for simulations to help design runways to withstand the new weight of new jumbo jets. The FAA says the joint venture will save the agency and airport operators hundreds of millions of dollars.

In Education News, planting a seed. There's a growing privately run program in the state called New Jersey Seeds. It gives financially disadvantaged young people, mostly from urban areas, a chance to attend any one of a number of private schools free of charge. Rich Young reports a goal of the program is to plant a seed now and help it grow in the future. Brio Parker is like most high school students. He likes sports, using computers and having fun. The 17-year-old is a freshman at the Petty School, a prep school in Mercer County. Most to attend this school are bright and ambitious and many come from affluent families. While Brio has the intelligence and the ambition, his family does not have a lot of money. That's where seeds came through. The program gets seventh and eighth graders ready for a prep school education. Those enrolled are given a scholarship to a private school. For Willingboro Native Brio, seeds is a chance to succeed. Because the environment was in like, it was hard to get out of there. No chance to get out of there really. I had no way out. It's about a public school estimate on it.

There are six seed students now enrolled at Petty. There are about 225 in prep schools statewide. Olga Yakov comes from Trenton. I think it's the best decision I've ever made in my life because it gave me an opportunity that I just couldn't pass up. And it gives me the opportunity to go to any college I wish. Once they graduate, the students owe nothing to the program, but it's hope they will eventually give back and maybe plant a seed in the future. I think what we're giving them is an opportunity to go to a school like Petty. Find a school, talk about, you know, where is Petty? What are these schools like? A lot of the parents will say to me, I've never even heard of these schools. Petty scholarship seventh and eighth graders spend every Saturday for 14 months learning how to study, learning how to do well in prep school. The first 42 graduates are now college freshmen. JR Winbush is a microbiology major at Princeton University.

It was an all around experience. It wasn't just academics either. I mean, just being with a bunch of people who were in the same situation as me is definitely, you know, uplifting. I would say I was already a determined and, you know, self-motivated person and it helped me along. It put me where I needed to be and helped me get to places that I wanted to be in the future. For Brielle, the seed is planted. He now has to help grow. It has opened a big door for me, like, another chance to improve myself, to show them that I'm worth something that I can be somebody in life. And I think that helped me a lot. Brielle wants to mature, so maybe his branches can someday help others climb to the top. Rich Young, NJN News, Heightstone. Looking back on 1998, Tom Kane and Brendan Byrne have a few thoughts about the past political season. Kent Manahan recently asked the two former chief executives about Governor Whitman's record on auto insurance, education reform and open space acquisition. I think she's had a wonderful year because I love that open space. This is going to be something which our children and our grandchildren are going to be very thankful for.

Million acres of new open space. That's just wonderful for the state's future. But also get that court case out of the way. I mean, the idea that that is really settled now, and now whether or not the state is going to do what it promised over the years, we still got to see. But that court case is now out of the way, and that's wonderful. An insurance reform? Let's wait and see. Governor Byrne, with a Republican-controlled legislature, should the people of New Jersey be satisfied with these claimed accomplishments of the year past? Remember that old song with a line, another year older and deeper in debt? I think that this sort of summarizes where New Jersey has been in the last year. We've got things happening, but we're not paying for anything. And I think that it's troublesome. Not that debt is not gotten an appropriate place in the political progress of the state, but I think it's gotten to huge proportions now. I think that the Democrats have their work cut out for them in the coming year to watch out for what this administration is doing.

Well, let me ask you this, Governor Byrne, looking back over the year, what do you think was the big Democratic mistake of the year? Well, I don't know that the Democrats make mistakes. No, I think the Democrats have been all right. I find very little criticized among Democrats. We're not running the government. They've been cooperative with the governor. When that's appropriate, they have not been throwing roadblocks in a way. I think that the Democrats have been rather exemplary. How about the Republicans, Governor Kane? Have they goofed? Could you give me the big GOP goof of the year? Oh, I think I don't know of any goofs this year. They got a pretty good agenda throw, and it was happened to be the governor's agenda. It's going to be tougher this year, because it's always tougher this coming year going into another legislative election. And it's also not easy for a governor with a majority of her own party.

You know, the public always thinks if you get Republicans and it's a Republican governor ought to work more smoothly. That's not true, necessarily. What's changed the most since you've been the executive in charge of New Jersey over the years? Expenses. Expenses and debt. I used to be criticized for having the first $5 billion budget in the state. What is it now? It's $20 billion and there's a lot of off budget debt and things like that that really make this a very expensive state to live in. Governor Kane? Certainly campaign finance. It costs much, much more to get elected now than it did when I was governor. And that is also a ramifications and legislation when people have given you lots of money calling the phone and want this or that. And that's probably as big a change as anything. Now, later this week, governors Kane and Bern make a few predictions for the new year.

As the next millennium approaches, an organization is working behind the scenes to spot and encourage future leaders. The group is looking to bridge generational leadership gaps by urging young people to start thinking about tomorrow's problems. We had our Zachary think take a look. It's been said that every generation blames the one before it. Problems not solved by one generation will be passed on to the next. But a program known as Advocates for the Future is helping to identify tomorrow's leaders and it's asking them to think about tough problems. We are an advocacy and educational organization and in a nonpartisan way, we try and educate people about what the next generation is going to be facing in the United States. Advocates for the Future is a collaboration between the board of education in Newark and third millennium, a national nonpartisan organization. Third millennium sponsors several programs aimed at educating young people about long term problems. In New Jersey, students are selected from Newark public schools and asked to write essays on topics they deem important. In their essay, students wrote about a broad range of topics from the national debt to the decline of the American family.

In one case, a student wrote about school safety. The safety is very lacking in the schools. The students abuse the teachers. Sometimes it's vice versa. And after school, you have kids smoking in front of schools. Very violent. Our technology far exceeds our humanity and that's kind of like what I live by, which is true. Again, we're so busy looking at checking our watches, checking our email that we kind of forget to have dinner with our families. And some students tackle broader issues like racism. If you want to be prejudiced, fine, be prejudiced. But once you start using it against me, that's where the problem lies and I think that's what racism is. The essays are then published and distributed nationwide. Participating students are hoping their essays will generate awareness and inspire activism. Zachary Fink, NJN News, Newark. Coming up on NJN News, the States Millionaires Club continues to grow and cashing in on cyberspace. Business is next.

Dick has the night off here's a look at the day's business news. Sales in cyberspace made it a somewhat profitable holiday for some businesses. The latest tally shows holiday sales grew and estimated 3.5% over last year. That's less than last year's rise of almost 5%. Analysts blame the deflation of product prices for the smaller game.

The hot shopping spot this season was on the internet. The Wall Street Journal says some retail websites were overwhelmed by holiday shoppers. According to the Boston Consulting Group, online revenues were up 230% from last year. But there is still hope many shoppers say they are planning to make additional purchases this week. The stock market was mixed today in slow post holiday trading. It was the seventh straight gain for the Dow. But most of the action was in internet-related stocks. When it was all over, the Dow Jones industrial average gained eight and three quarters. The AMAC's composite lost nearly a point. The NASDAQ rose 17 and a quarter for a record close. And the S&P 500 fell for action. The 30-year treasury bond was up a little more than 1 to yield 5.14%. Wall Street's boom made for more millionaires in New Jersey. The annual analysis of income tax returns shows more than 8% of all the money earned in New Jersey during 1996 went to residents who earn more than a million dollars each. Only about 5% made a million in 1993. According to the State Treasury Department, those residents earning a million dollars a more a year is rising in about 1,000 a year.

Hudson County, the state's poorest county, had the slowest rate of income growth in 1996. It wasn't a good day. I say it wasn't a good day to be a losing coach in the National Football League. Jerry Henry is here with the preview of sports. It wasn't right, kid. It was moving day in fact in the NFL. That story next. In sports, when the bloodletting was over today in the NFL, 5 coaches were without a job, including Philadelphia's Ray Roads. He is a victim of what may be the biggest one-day coaching purge in NFL history. His firing follows yesterday's 20 to 10 loss to the Giants. The Eagles finished the season 3 and 13. This is a business about production and I'm very well aware of that. When you don't win, changes have to be made. This is part of the business. This is a tough part of the business, but this is part of the business.

I'd like to also say that Tom Moe-Drek is a general manager here. The charge of football operations is going to do a great job of getting this thing turned around. He'll be getting a new coach in up and I have to turn this thing around and I have a lot of confidence in time. I know he'll do a great job. Most who follow the Eagles agree that the problems are many, starting with the quarterback position. On the upside, because of the 3 and 13 record, Philly will pick second in the upcoming draft. It's highest selection since 1962. When asked where Rose went wrong, Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie had this to say. I don't want to say that. I think that when you lose, when you're 3 and 13, you lose as a team. The answer to the problems of the Eagles is not simply to find a new head coach. It's to operate the franchise in a way that will drastically improve the chances for big success.

I think that there's probably going forward. Six elements that I see to really achieving the kind of success our fans deserve and we all hope for. That, of course, begins with the hiring of a new coach. Some possibilities include the Steelers defensive coordinator, Jim Haslett, and Minnesota's offensive coordinator, Brian Billick. There's coaches getting the axe today include Chicago's Dave Onestead, Dom Capers of Carolina, Ted Marcher, Brodo of Baltimore and Seattle's Dennis Erickson. And he didn't have a losing record, by the way. He was eight and eight. Got to ask you a question. Okay, Jeffrey Lurie. Does he need to spend more money? Eagles will be high in the traffic. Three quick questions. Eagles will be high in the traffic. And does anybody want to come to Philadelphia? Those are all very good questions. Does he need to spend more money? Yes. And some people question whether he has that money to spend. So we'll have to see. Okay, Jerry. Thank you. Taking a look at the forecast. It was a perfect day for these gase to forage on this lake in Plainsboro rather than the snow covered grasses they usually take to in the garden state.

Taking a look at our pollution watch moderate air conditions are predicted in the north eastern part of the state tomorrow because of smoke and particulate pollution. Looking at the forecast in North Jersey tonight, mostly cloudy with a chance of light rain or drizzle lows in the mid 30s. Cloudy with rain likely tomorrow. We need that highs in the low 40s in South Jersey tonight. It will be mostly cloudy lows in the mid 30s. It will be mostly cloudy tomorrow with a 50% chance of rain late in the day highs in the upper 40s. That's the news for Kent Manahan, Jerry Henry and all of us here at NJN News. I'm Kent St. John. You have a good night. you

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