NJN News; Tuesday July 23, 1996

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NJN News with Kent Manahan, Dick Forney with Business, and Jerry Henry with Sports. He's undergoing treatment for a tick-borne infection, but Governor Whitman says she's feeling fine. Good evening. The governor's doctor isn't sure whether she has Lyme disease, Rocky Mountain spotted fever, or a bacterial infection. Today, the governor underwent a blood test to help confirm the diagnosis. Whitman says she will go ahead with a scheduled Alaskan vacation on Friday. For about a month and a half, I've been feeling very, very tired. Had some joint pains, but just drained more than just a normal schedule would take, but I kind of presumed it was because I'm nearing a birthday that I'd like not to think about. But the fact that the governor turns 50 in September had nothing to do with the high fever she had last week, which sent her to bed to recover. Whitman says she let her feelings of exhaustion and joint pains go for too long, and that was

a mistake. She still doesn't know exactly what brought on the symptoms. I'm mountain biking in the parks, I hike in our woods, I could have gotten it anywhere we have dogs. I could have been from anywhere. I never found the tick. My husband, on the other hand, just recently did get bitten by a tick and did find the tick and has developed the bull's eye, and so he's being treated as well. The Whitman's live on the Somerset Hunterden County border were incidents of reported Lyme disease are among the highest in the state. In November, the governor underwent the removal of an ovarian cyst, and she had shoulder surgery in February. Last week, her illness forced her to send a top aid to fill in before the council of state governments. Now she says she's back to about 80 percent. Now, the important thing for people to understand is that there's a lot of this in the summer, there's a lot of this in the northeast, particularly, that it can be debilitating and it's worth being careful. The governor adds she has no plans to cut down on her schedule. In other news tonight, homestead rebate checks will arrive a lot earlier this year, three

months ahead of the usual late October mailing. Governor Whitman today toured the taxation division's check processing facilities to highlight the advanced schedule. Democrats, being time, say Republicans are capitalizing on a program that they've cut by $2 billion since 1992. Jim Hooker has more. Seven a million homestead rebate checks are spinning off a kind of automated assembly line in taxation's Trenton headquarters, they're being ready for mailing July 31st. Eligible taxpayers should get their checks early next month. That's a far cry from the usual October mailing when checks didn't arrive till early November. Governor Whitman said she was honoring a campaign pledge to get the checks out sooner and attributed the speed to technological advances. New technology that we've purchased over the last two and a half years. It's a new printer reader, it's a new, what is it, it's a new whole new imaging system. Democrats say Whitman is unfairly basking in the glow of a program that Republicans have

cut by $400 million a year since 1992. Right now the program offers very little property tax relief to middle income taxpayers. So it's hard for me to understand why the governor would be bragging today about a program which the Republican party has in effect decimated. People under the program are senior citizens over age 65 that is disabled and homeowners in tenants with earnings of $40,000 a year or less checks average $220. Whether controlled by Democrats or Republicans, rebate mailings often arrived just before election day, prompting criticisms from the minority party that the party in power was attempting to buy the election. Whitman says the new system should put a stop to election season shenanigans. The process they could come up with some very compelling reason is the whole system collapsed and they couldn't get the checks out until October that going back to that date is going to be a little tough for people to explain with a straight face anyway. The reason why so many taxpayers will get their checks so much faster this year is because of this machine right here, it's an image processor that can read tax returns in an instant.

The processors also spell good news for taxpayers doing income tax refunds, officials expect those mailings to be cut from 10 or 12 weeks to five or six. The new imaging processing technology that it's been installed here at the middle of processing center is going to enable us to cut our issuance of refunds and homestead rebates in half. Jim Hooker and JN News, Trenton. On Thursday, the state's Senate is expected to take up two bills that hike the cigarette tax and dedicate the funds to school repair. With the outcome endowed, supporters of the plan called on the senators today to cast their votes for education and against smoking. Michael Aaron has that story. The interest groups outnumbered reporters at today's news conference by at least five to one, representatives of business, labor, education groups, and the New Jersey Medical Society called hiking the cigarette tax to upgrade outmoded school buildings, a win-win-win situation. It's a win for education, it's a win for the children, and it's also a win for labor and the economy of the state of New Jersey, and most particularly, it's a win for the

health of the citizens of New Jersey. The setting was the cafeteria of the Thomas Mundi Peterson School in Pertham Boy. Built in 1871, it houses 300 students in grades K through four, where passes for a gymnasium is really just a converted storage closet. The bathrooms are clean but old, spaces for classes and offices are cramped, and the building lacks hallways, so students have to walk through classrooms to get from place to place. Classes are disturbed anytime someone wants to go from one area of the building to the other. School infrastructure needs are estimated to be a $6 billion problem in New Jersey. The 25-cent per pack cigarette tax hike is being pushed by Assembly Speaker Jack Collins. It would raise $135 million a year that would be used to float a billion-dollar bond issue. That money, it's hoped, would trigger $3 billion in local bond spending for a total of four billion. We need both parties to sit down and look at a good issue here that's going to create 100,000 plus jobs over a decade.

We support this. We hope that the State Senate and Thursday will act bipartisanly. The Assembly passed the measures overwhelmingly, but State Senators on both sides of the aisle are resisting. They're not comfortable hiking a tax and Democrats prefer a bill by Senator Ewing to cause for a new $500 million bond issue, but no tax hike to back it up. That provides only $500 million. You're talking about a bill that will provide several billion dollars worth of construction. Governor Whitman has not yet taken a position on the plans. Michael Aaron, NJN News Perth Amboy. United Airlines today instituted new safety measures in the wake of the explosion of TWA flight 800. Employees have been told to stop accepting small packages that are checked in unless those packages are first open and the owner presents two forms of ID. On international trips, the airline has ordered its X-ray security people to step up spot bag searches. Navy divers now estimate as many as 100 bodies may be contained in a large section of

plane that was found yesterday. Meanwhile, the FBI is hoping the chemical analysis of the wreckage already recovered may bring investigators closer to knowing what caused TWA flight 800 to explode. The White House said terrorism is being closely looked at. Rich Young reports. 100 nine bodies have now been recovered from the Atlantic off Long Island, New York. Today search crews were aided by the USS Gressp, a Navy salvage ship with high-tech tracking and recovery equipment. The FBI is determined to find out exactly why the TWA flight plunged into the ocean last Thursday. The head of the lead investigative agency again said his priority is to recover the remains of victims. We're going to get the bodies up as soon as we can and then we're going to recover the evidence in a systematic manner and we're going to be working with the FBI on the question of looking at that evidence and the answers will be there when they're there. Authorities spent most of this day focused on a 30 by 60 foot section of the jet now sitting

on the ocean floor. Divers report saying as many as 100 bodies trapped in the debris found as a result of a massive search effort. The search box is 46 miles by 65 nautical miles. That area is twice the size of the state of Rhode Island. And we've searched that area, that box, over 40 times so far. Yesterday authorities reported finding explosive residue on a wing retreat from the crash site. Today, the FBI said more testing is needed and more conclusive results should be available within 48 hours. Meantime of viewing was held today for one of the seven New Jersey victims of the crash. Family and friends gathered at Collins and Calhoun funeral home in Rutherford to pay final respects to 23-year-old Jill Zimkowitz, a TWA flight attendant. She was bubbly and friendly and always smiling and just a wonderful person to know. Funeral services will be held for Zimkowitz tomorrow at St. Patrick's Cathedral in New

York. Family members are now making arrangements for three other New Jersey victims so far identified from the crash. Rich Young and JN News. New Jersey transit officials say they have contingency plans ready in case of a national freight strike. Midnight tonight, Conrail's contract with a union representing thousands of clerical workers runs out. If they strike, Conrail would have to shut down. NJT lines which run on Conrail tracks would be out of service. The Atlantic City, Raritan Valley and Port Jervis rail lines would be affected. Coming up next on NJN News, a proposal for a new gun tracking system. In health watch, driving home nutritional services to inner city residents. Two assembly Democrats have unveiled legislation establishing a new system for tracking illegal

guns, especially those confiscated from juveniles. As Ken St. John reports, the plan expands on a gun tracking program proposed by President Clinton. Under the proposal, a pilot computer network would be set up in 30 municipalities across the state to track the source of firearms, especially those used by juveniles. Police would input serial numbers and other information about the seized weapons into the system, which will be linked to FBI and ATF computers, $250,000 in state jug crime forpature money with paper the system, allowing law enforcement to track gun sales from around the nation.

That's going to also help us in terms of the law, the governor's sign in January, which creates the leader of firearms trafficking network of illegal guns. Then we can prosecute. Jersey City was the only municipality to be chosen to participate in President Clinton's gun tracking program, announced several weeks ago. If this legislation passes some 29 new Jersey communities, suburban and rural alike could take part. National PSAs have also taken aim at the problem. You can reach so many more people with your voice than you can with a gun. In 1984, 500 juveniles statewide were 500 juveniles nationwide were charged with murder 10 years later that figure had more than triple to 1700 juveniles nationwide. It's clear that handguns and firearms of all types are the weapons of choice. The sponsors of the bill say state police records indicate juveniles were involved in 35 percent of weapons possession cases in 1994. That's a 50 percent increase since 1988 when they first started recording those statistics. These guns that you see before you that were taken in the commission of a crime with the

juvenile, if we had the ability to track some of these weapons, it would then lead to the possibility of eliminating these weapons from coming into cities like Elizabeth in the future. The measure will be introduced when the legislature returns in September. Ken St. John and JN News trended. In tonight's health watch, nutrition on wheels. It's coming to Patterson and other communities served by St. Joseph's Medical Center. Health and Medical Correspondent Sarah Lee Kessler tells us that the hospital's WIC program is going mobile. It was drizzling at today's ribbon cutting for this new WIC mobile unit, but rain didn't dampen the spirits of the people gathered here. Our involvement in the WIC program is one of the most important things we ever did. That's how much you wait. WIC and acronym for Women, Infants and Children is a federally funded nationwide program that provides nutrition counseling to low income high-risk pregnant women in Paseyok,

Morris and Bergen counties. For how long did you breastfeed? 50 days. Okay. Great. Because every little bit helps. Many years, WIC moms and kids have been coming to this Patterson building for services 18,000 a month. Now this mobile unit will be able to go to them. What are you hoping this mobile unit will be able to do when it's driving around the streets? I'm hoping that it will find young women who have not been in prenatal care so that when we look at our infant mortality rate, we will move that down instead of up. There's a nutritional video and brochures about fruits and vegetables, a caring knowledgeable staff at this, the biggest of the 19 WIC programs in the state, the third to get a mobile unit.

The others are based in Monmouth and Cumberland counties. How important is the WIC program to you? For me, the WIC program is very important because it helps to feed and give nutrition to the mother and children. Okay. Thank you. In Patterson, we serve probably 9 or 10,000 clients a month. We estimate that that's only about 50 or 55 percent of the people who really would be eligible for the program. St. Joseph's WIC mobile unit hits the streets two weeks for now. Look for it in your neighborhood. Sarah Lee Kessler, NJN News, Patterson. Still to come tonight on NJN News, a new Jersey company is fattening its bottom line with a new drug to fight obesity. And dozens of hundred and county jobs are lost in a consolidation at Sprint. Kent, the effects of deregulation are hitting another New Jersey telecommunications corporation.

Sprint, the former United Telephoto of Northwestern New Jersey, is cutting 90 jobs at its Clinton business office. Someone says the functions performed now by the New Jersey customer service personnel will be shifted to its Carlyle, Pennsylvania facilities. The consolidation of our New Jersey business office and our New Jersey customer service centers really being driven by competition and by changes that are taking place at the state and at the federal levels. We believe a consolidation will help to streamline our operations and provide more efficiencies within the organization to prepare for this competition. Our New Jersey customer service jobs at the Sprint 100 and county location will be phased out beginning in October. A risk avoidance strategy is finally paying off for Mount Laurel-based Tyco Toys.

Tyco has decided to avoid risky new toys in favor of the old standards of the toy business, such as matchbox cars and Sesame Street playthings. Today the Burlington County Company reported that its second quarter lost narrowed to $4.6 million. And last year, second quarter of the company reported a net loss more than doubled that amount. Tyco sales fell nearly 12 percent to $236 million. Sales of this prescription anti-obesity drug helped propel earnings from Addison-based American Home Products in the second quarter. The company cited the strong performance and has newly introduced Redux Drug in posting a 31 percent increase in profits to $391.3 million. American Home also experienced higher sales of its centrum vitamin products as well as over-the-counter pain medications, Advil, and Routus KT. American Home says its worldwide sales rose nearly 6 percent to $3.4 billion. Meantime, a Morris County-based neighbor of American Home, sharing plow corporation says its second quarter, its sales, that is, of its allergy medication, Claretin rose

38 percent and that enabled the company to more than double its second quarter profits. American plow had net income of $317 million in the April through June period this year compared with net of $116 million in 1995. The pharmaceutical giant sales rose 11 percent to $1.5 billion. Everyone wants in on the Atlantic City Casino boom in this area in the north end of town is the newest target. A Bahamas-based company says it wants to build a $700 million casino resort at the north end of town near the proposed MGM Grand Development. One international hotel which has casinos in the Bahamas in France is asking the City Council's help in obtaining the site. The Atlantic City Council is still working on a redevelopment plan for the area. The decline continues at Wall Street, the market details are next. Tonight's NJN News Business Report is made possible by... Moore states New Jersey National Bank, providing financial services to New Jersey families and businesses.

Wall Street can be a very unforgiving place, just ask the high-flying Microsoft Corporation. Yesterday the dawning of the computer software business reported net earnings for the second quarter there were 52 percent higher than a year ago. However, they visited reality long enough to warn investors that those kind of results can't continue indefinitely. As a result today, investors dumped the stock. Microsoft's stock will fell today by more than $7 a share. Overall the stock market did continue its slide today. The Dow Industrial's fell 44 in a third point to close at the 53-46 level. The MX Index dropped nearly 6. At the NASDAQ where most of the hard-hit high-tech stocks are listed, the composite lost 32 in a third point and the standard and poorest by 100 slid nearly 7. That Kent is the day in business. Thank you, Dick. Still to come tonight on NJN News, a look at the forecast and Jerry's here with a preview of sports.

Kent, afternoon baseball, and a mid-day game for the rock and rollers at the medallans. Sports is next. It is about time, Jerry. How long have we been waiting for this news? We've been waiting forever for years and football fans have been battling back and forth trying to figure out who's number one. But it's the news that most college football fans have waited years for. Now you only have a couple more for a national championship game in 1998. ABC Sports made the announcement today in Atlanta that the deal will bring together the six

major conferences in one bowl package and it will pit the two top teams in the country on a rotating basis in the major bowl games. The site of the first game has not been set but in the year 2002 it will be at the Rose Bowl. Afternoon baseball, the Mets out in Denver taking on the Rockies today will pick it up in the third. The Rockies up won nothing but Butch Husky would tie it up with his ninth homer of the year. Colorado would have a big fifth inning though sending nine batters to the plate and they would get back-to-back homers. The first one here from Walt Weiss, the next one from Alex Berks, then things got crazy. They would take a 7-1 lead into the eighth but blew it. The Mets tied it up at seven a piece. However, Colorado went on to win the first game today, 10-7. They are playing two today in Denver. At the Olympics today, the U.S. women's basketball team was in action. They beat Ukraine 98-65, the U.S. boxing team suffered its first loss today losing about to Cuba. It was no surprise the Americans are now six and one. And tennis got underway.

Monica Sellers won her match as did Andre Agassim. And at the meta-lands today, a game that's not an Olympic sport yet but is very popular with the kids, especially here in New Jersey. Roller hockey, the Rock and Rollers of New Jersey were an action this afternoon taking on the Empire State. Cobras, the number one team in the Atlantic Division, New Jersey took a three goal lead into the fourth but watched it fade away losing a heartbreaker by a score of nine to eight and falling four, nine and two. During the course of the game, the momentum changes from team to team and just so happen to be the last three minutes of the game. I think we got a little bit on our heels and an empire had that momentum that we're speaking of and you know it's an unfortunate thing but I'm proud of our players, it's proud to play it and the effort was there and we'll go for it that we're going for you. That tough loss today, it felt a four, nine and two in a season but they are very, very popular with the kids. They had a couple of thousand people out there in a midday game, I thought it was pretty good for the world.

Some people, including myself, have to learn to dodge these kids who like to practice that game in the streets. The Roller Belage, exactly. Especially if you go to the park, they're all over the place and I think that's probably a part of the popularity with the game. So the Roller Beleding is so popular and it's moved on to a sport and maybe we'll see that game in the Olympics one day. All right. Thank you, Jerry. Well, let's check out the weather conditions. We had more showers across New Jersey today but the sun, we're going to guarantee it, we'll be back tomorrow. Today's cloudy, cooler weather kept the ozone level in the good range. Tomorrow, warmer temperatures will send the levels well into cold yellow. Taking a look at the forecast for the northern part of the state tonight, it will be cloudy with lows of around 60 degrees. Tomorrow, mostly sunny skies, highs in the low 80s. In South Jersey for tonight, cloudy conditions, lows in the mid 60s and tomorrow, sunshine. Hides in the upper 80s. And that's our news for tonight. I'm Kent Maddahan for Jerry and Dick and all of us here at NJN News. Thank you for being with us and we'll see you again tomorrow night. I know I'm reading the wire and the match came in.