New Jersey Nightly News; New Jersey Nightly News Episode from 04/14/1981

Thank. You. From Trenton Here's Karen Stone. Good evening the space shuttle makes a successful landing and we'll have a report on one of the critical elements involved in that landing. In sports Princeton Karylle has been named the state's basketball coach of the year and will also take a closer look at a photographer with a special for the Garden State. America's space shuttle Columbia and astronauts John Young and Robert Crippen landed safely in California this afternoon after spending 54 hours in space. One of the most critical elements of that space mission was the world wide communication tracking system designed by New Jersey has

the story. The skies were clear and the Columbia had been cleared for a landing on a five mile stretch of runway in the Mojave Desert in California. The Columbia left the launch pad in Florida on Sunday as a rocket ship to return to Earth today as a winged aircraft surviving re-entry temperatures of nearly 20 700 degrees and it 121 this afternoon. The maiden flight of the Columbia was about to end with a pin point landing. And each. This is not the Johnson Space Center in Houston. It is the AT&T command center in Bedminster New Jersey. It was a Bell System Network that Nassar ground tracking systems around the world. Telephone circuits like NASA's observation sites with mission control at Cape Canaveral and the Johnson Space Center. There were

58 tracking sites around the world and AT&T connected those sites by underground cables satellites and specially installed microwave systems. The ground lost contact with the spacecraft at one point but at no time were the ground tracking stations unable to reach out and touch someone. They never lost contact with each other. Are you pleased with the way your Center performed during this mission. We can be more plays. We are in the same position as the now some people are with a spaceship Columbia. We have had no substantial interruptions that we are aware. Things just went one great had the shuttle been forced to land at an alternate site. He was prepared for that. A special communications command center a been set up at the White Sands New Mexico missile range just in case. But that wasn't necessary. And 45 minutes after a perfect landing in the California desert the astronauts emerged and the mission was successfully completed. There have been 100 residential fires in Atlantic City

during the past three months leaving the resort cities in that section. And a battle is also going on there over properties potentially worth millions of dollars. Investigators are trying to determine if later or having buildings burned and residents driven out. Developers correspondent reports. Urban renewal in Atlantic City south inlet it's being done by the torch. This building at 27 South Massachusetts Avenue is seen eight fires in three weeks burned out almost room by room after each fire another family had to move out. Now the building is vacant. City firemen expect more fires here and they've gotten very good at predicting fires. These farm in a most likely to be called to a fire on Tuesdays Thursdays or Sundays between 2:00 and 3:00 p.m. and again after 8:00 p.m. That's how precise the arson investigation has gotten. How accurately you can predict that it's the feeling of fire investigators at the arson increase may be the result of land speculation. Suspicious fires became

epidemic after a preliminary decision to change zoning for more intense development. Education has been obtained has become a crime and a crime. We're going to check in with speculators out of town speculators investors. Groups or dummy corporations whatever we can establish some kind of a pattern more than a circumstantial thing and rather than just allegations we want to start with our place people actually interrogating these people and possibly getting a grand jury indictments. At first firemen thought disgruntled poor residents might be starting the fires. But now those poor are the victims often living in apartments damaged by fires hanging on until they are driven out into the street once too often. There are signs of professionals that work accelerants pattern fires and worse. This is how bad it's gotten. Firemen know that these are professional arsonists because they've been laying booby traps for the firemen. An arsonist will come in here and take out a tread of a stair and

then replace it so it looks a fireman or run up the stairs or through the stairs. The purpose of that not just to delay the firefight but yes to injure the firemen and to ruin morale in the fire department. The suspect a local man has been arrested. And investigators hope he is just the beginning of the end for this arson ring that is destroying the south inlet and endangering the lives of residents and firemen. So far 50 firemen have been hurt 17 seriously no residents have been hurt today but the arsonists are losing their battle to break more out of the fire department. You feel you're winning the war here in the inlet. I don't know if you consider it a war. We do a job and that's it. Hold your own against them. Most definitely. The Atlantic City also has its seventh casino. Today Playboy made it official by opening its 135 million dollar facility to gamblers with real money for the first time. But there wasn't much of a crowd on hand at 10 o'clock this morning. More people turned out for the play money practice nights over the weekend. Still Playboy officials hope its combination of bunnies and a

three tier casino looking out over the ocean will draw big crowds because you know got the OK from the Casino Control Commission late yesterday to open for real gambling that followed three days of evaluation by the commission of Playboys practice gambling. New Jersey's commissioner of energy took the stand today in Brooklyn federal court to deny the state's senior senator ever approached him for help with a garbage recycling deal. Joel Jacobson said Senator Harrison Williams never called him for aid with state approvals contradicting earlier testimony from a key government witness. Sandra King has more. At no time said Joel Jacobson did Pete Williams talk to him about any aspect of any garbage business. Jacobson in 1976 was a member of the state's Board of Public Utilities commissioners. He was named in court last week as the official with whom Pete Williams Five years ago intervened to gain PUC oks. That testimony came from Sandy Williams the senator's friend turned government

witness. He told the court that Pete Williams through his wife Jeanette had a share in the garbage recycling firm called bio cell of Sussex County. So one by a cell in 76 needed go ahead from the PUC. The senator said Sandy called Joel Jacobson But Jacobson today refuted that charge. His testimony was part of a continuing defense effort to discredit Sandy Williams who has linked the senator to the pre Abscam bio cell deals in which influence peddling and hidden shares allegedly played a part. The government says those deals show a predisposition to improper illegal behavior. But the defense contends that only Sandy Williams word Connex Pete Williams two bio cell so the senator's lawyer earlier today called Ronald Pengelly Sandys by a cell partner Bangui said he understood that Jeanette Williams Even before her 1974 marriage to the senator held a share of bio cell. But he acknowledged that his source for that information was Sandy Williams. That he frankly never saw her

stock certificates. He literally worshipped the Senator Pinckney said of Sandy Williams. And he added that Sandy would drop the senator's name and brag of their friendship on an almost daily basis. But one defense attorney calls her asked him today was Senator Williams ever asked to intervene on behalf of bio cell penguin answered. To my knowledge no. This is Sandra King reporting. Two out of three Republicans who intend to vote in the state's gubernatorial primary say they still don't know who they're going to vote for. That's according to a poll ordered by Republican candidate from Essex County Senator James Wallwork former assembly speaker Tom can lead the poll with fifteen point five percent of the voters business when both all of it was next was ten point six percent followed by candidates Wallwork and Paterson Mayor Pat Kramer. Officials will meet tomorrow morning to begin discussing the possible liquidation of the financially troubled commuter and freight line that topic as well as projected rail and bus fare hikes were raised at public hearings in Trenton last night. Jim McQueen has the story.

It was the first of 16 scheduled public hearings across the state on the Jersey transit service reductions by January 1st. Federal aid cut backs a candidate for governor. The situation can get worse in Conrail he said. And the consequences could be far reaching. A number of labor representatives attended the hearing. They were upset by New Jersey Transit officials but antiquated union worker rules and featherbedding were a factor in the requests for higher fares. Yet Florio who heads the House Transportation Subcommittee said

productivity is indeed an issue for both labor and management. New Jersey Transit officials will continue their public hearings tonight in New Brunswick in Hackensack. The last ones will be held April 23rd in Atlantic City in Somerville. Talks are expected to resume Thursday in the bus affecting 10000 commuters in North Jersey and parts of New York Pennsylvania and Connecticut. Two hundred drivers and maintenance man have been off the job of the company's midnight Friday walkout. But commuters are getting a hand from Saddle River company. They've picked up some of the routes usually run by the short line workers at the company are protesting what they say are poor working conditions inadequate health benefits and low wages. A controversy is continuing between state authorities and New Jersey hospitals. At issue a sophisticated new X-ray machine called a scanner. Doctors say every hospital should have one. The health department maintains they're too expensive. Tom Stuart reports.

This machine called a C.T. scan it has a lot of New Jersey hospital shopping lists. But not just any hospital that wants one of these $800000 units gets one. That's because the state health department carefully controls the distribution of scanners mainly to help keep down rising medical costs. But now the New Jersey hospital association contends those restrictions must be removed because they cause unnecessary inconvenience perhaps even cost some patients their lives. There have been cases at my very own hospital which did not have a CAT scan. Patients came in and they were not sufficiently stable to be moved to another institution for a CAT scan. As a result a few days were rest for the pleasure of being stabilized. Subsequently a. Diagnosis read made utilizing a CAT scanner. And by the time the patient could have surgery unfortunate patient expired this happened on at least two occasions in one month last year.

The scanner takes conventional X-rays a step further showing the condition of soft tissues not just bone. State health officials acknowledge the scanner has proved itself but so far only 38 of New Jersey's 107 hospitals are using the computerized unit. The state prefers to allocate them on a regional basis making the service available to the public while holding down costs at most hospitals. Yet if you follow that to its logical conclusion it would mean that every hospital of the state and around the country would do every kind of procedure had every kind of equipment and every kind of Staff capability imaginable. And I don't think that any of us think that we should do that nor do any of us think that we can afford to do that. Right now regulations governing scanners are being reviewed which explains the timing behind the Hospital Association's push to get more installed and state officials concede the unit is catching on so fast. The number of scanners in New Jersey will double once new regulations take effect next fall. At St. Francis Hospital in Trenton I'm Tom steward.

The mayor of Perth Amboy is asking for state help in dealing with the toxic waste problem. Part of that city's water sewer system is being clogged by a massive tar like waste containing the cancer causing chemical pc be the toxic waste was discovered last fall and since then has been forcing raw sewage into the Arthur Kill the waterway between New Jersey and Staten Island Perth Amboy as mayor says it'll cost a half a million dollars to remove that clogged more than 2000 acres of pine land has been added to the Wharton State Forest in Burlington County. The area an abandoned cranberry bog was bought from a New York City for 1.1 million dollars. State officials say the new tract is the home of some endangered plant and animal species as well as colonies of beaver Fox and raccoon. And now here is the weather forecast the skies will clear tonight temperatures should be in the low 30s. It will be mostly sunny and windy tomorrow. Temperatures should be in the mid to upper 40s. And the outlook for Thursday fair. And mild. A.

George Tice is a photographer who wants people to see New Jersey as a distinctive place. He was born in Newark in 1938 and has been for. The photog photographing the state's landscapes for more than 14 years. But Ty says recognition goes beyond his home state. He has a one man show at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and has had those of them also at the Museum of Modern Art and many others. In 1973 his book Patterson won an award as the best photography book of the year. Tonight producer Gabe Rosenthal and I take a closer look at the man and his work. Well I'd certainly want to say luncheon. Confectionery. Would have to

say that it would have to be readable. What kind of interior. What kind of place is. Worse confectionery in Westfield has the kind of look that recently attracted George Tice to spend an afternoon there shooting. It fits in with his vision of the common place has been photographing New Jersey since 1967 and its everyday scenes like this. Many we take for granted but it gave him wide recognition and success. He works exclusively in black and white most often with an 8 by 10 camera. He shoots very little film preferring to edit with the naked eye rather than in the darkroom scenes of urban and suburban New Jersey of industry and nature are all captured in his work and the significance of his subject matter goes beyond whether or not a particular place would make a good photograph particularly interested in. Say colonial America. Or the. Remnants. And relics of. That kind of. Age past.

I'm just interested in things from my own experience. Most of the things I relate to. When I was a child been aware of the state's lack of identity and his goal is to identify the state as a distinctive place. I think what's great about this state is all the things that everybody thinks is awful about it. I read a piece in The New York Times about how the New Jersey Turnpike. Has got to be the ugliest stretch of highway in the country. I don't. Believe that. What unique about New Jersey is it's in this terrain. It's. All the oil. The parkways and turnpikes and bridges that industrial

landscape. Two of his five children live with three cats who were the subject of one of his photo series. His basement has been converted into a large work area where he works quietly and the sound of his favorite music. New York City in the late 1930s. Did a lot of research. And working on it. And

I published. Work in that process as he developed this print portrait. I took this picture. After my wife and I split up my own apartment. For the first time and furnished. Things and the apartment reflected life. I. Wanted to capture my presence without actually being in the picture. So it's a portrait through. Artifacts. Of portraits were very common to tice in his early career as a professional photographer. He supported himself for 10 years taking home portraits but he credits Lee with kin of the Wiccan gallery in New York with freeing him to pursue another area of photography. Urban landscapes in a lot of George's work the landscapes and the buildings. There is that quality of light a quality of loneliness that very American quality and

not only in feeling but design. Ty says the biggest influence on his work has been Edward Weston. And although there are similarities there is a uniqueness to Tyson's style. His pictures contain many subtleties that only close inspection will reveal. This picture of President Garfield is a good example. I think it's beautiful. I think it's beautiful in my pictures I'd like to see. Man I would want to polish the whole thing you know somebody scribbled her name. On the wall and stick. So that's the message in the room. And I like reading those messages. People are not represented in many of his pictures they say a lot about people's lives about life in America in books reinforce that. From his documentary essay on Patterson to his most recently published extended portrait Artie Van Bloch I'm George has dared to

do things some things I like the arty block I'm serious or a gamble the catcher's the soft the soft focus he's been willing to gamble to grow and I think he has grown and I think he will continue to grow because he's not just content to rest. I want he's done in the past gambler of sorts coming out a winner of the day we went shooting with him at the confectionery. OK. Well I think it's what I want. To go. At now Worth's confectionery is history as recorded by toys. He has that special knack of recording the here and now for ever. Thais will be exhibiting some of his work in a show entitled New Jersey evidence at the New Jersey State Museum beginning next week.

The prime minister of Burundi was in Newark today for an official visit any took home a special gift. Last year Newark Mayor Ken Gibson who's also now a gubernatorial candidate toured that East African country and among other things he noticed that the bull run the basketball team had well rather shabby uniforms. But today all that changed the Burundi dynamos now have been outfitted with brand new uniforms

compliments of the city. Today's presentation was quite a media event and although many of these smiles may have been staged for the cameras the prime minister said the new outfits are a symbolic of greater things to come. He admitted that the Burundi dynamos haven't been doing very well and he says that's largely because he's been out of the country so often on business. You see he's the team's coach also. And now here is Bill Perry with some more sports bill. That's what we call a segue to sports. That's right Karen thank you. Rained out the rich today the Mets will try for their home opener against MARGAN St. Louis both Phils and yanks are idled a New Jersey College Basketball Writers Association held its annual awards banquet at Upsala college last night. For instance Brandy Melville and Quentin Wheeler of William Paterson were named University Division and College Division Player of the year respectively Melville screen left was joined by Seton Hall stand right along with Calvin Choi of Rutgers Kevin Rogers of St. Peters and Kenny whether that's due you on the All State University team will arrive at the college divisional State team joining him in Jersey City George Peterson Gary Carter of Monmouth and Steve Selby of Glassboro the outstanding women players in the state are

also honored and on the night for awards month for States Army Galston one college division coach of the year Princeton's inevitable Pete Karylle won an Ivy title went to the NC double A's and won his 250 with career game. He had what it takes and Pete the University coach of the year and this is for Pete. You've got to give them a chance. And. As I've said on numerous occasions the things that we can do a very limited I wish I could say we're going to pick them up

all over the court room to death some like that. But you know we judge our game is our game. I've never put any garbage on the floor here since I've been here. And so that the kids have been good kids and worthy of the support and play hard enough to get the kind of support that you would like to have and eyes also stated you're not obliged to support us it's always well you're welcome when they do. Thank you. For. Being a religious man. Describes your full your happiness to a better way than I have ever. My cup runneth over. That Mr. Pat Skinner and this baseball

note and the lottery game will begin next week the State Lottery Commission says tickets for the new drawing baseball will cost $1 and will win seven different cash prizes are down $3 to $50000 bill. In addition there will be a special drawing with a one million dollar cash prize and that's the news for Bill Perry on Carols Good night from all of us. But New Jersey Nutley. New Jersey not a new joint presentation. New Jersey Public Television WME 213. Potions recall.