Compilation of NJN News packages; AC Edit Tape #29

The majority of it is political So these are all political. Reactions to the Pylea in playing and they are being watered down with the original owner doesn't. It. Bob Chevrolet is the animal control officer for Little Egg Harbor Township. His specialty is catching skunks. He guesses a couple almost every day usually in people's backyards. He uses bait traps like this one and after several years in the business there's not much doubt about which bait works best.

Chicken in peanut butter. Not the best thing. Oh yeah. After spreading a piece of chicken with a liberal helping of peanut butter apparently any brand will do. Chadli said that in the trap and says nine times out of 10 it works. A lever on the floor shuts the door to the trap when the skunk steps up to get the chicken Chevrolet has only been sprayed once in 80 years. But he says you have to be careful you know raise their tail up in the air and do a hop hop up and down and this is this is like saying don't come by. I'm going to get it through. The best thing to do in a case like that is just go around and make the tour concert. Freshly plentiful in eastern ocean Burlington and Atlantic counties due to the close proximity of the pine lands moderate temperatures and from scavenging opportunities along the coast. Often the skunks will burrow under houses and sleep near the water pipes to keep warm. A sudden shock of hot water though often prompts an odoriferous reaction the smell can linger for weeks.

Oh what a stink. You know very displeasing smell now worse than sewer smell it's really bad. The order is just one of the problems very Steinmetz and his neighbors have had to catch a skunk in their neighborhood a few weeks ago. The grass and you know what the lawns and costs today with the lawns that gets you know costly enough for the garden oh look you know whatever vegetable they can you know get to they'll eat it. Maybe take a chunk out of it and go to the next one says the problem is actually considerably less than it was a few years ago. He lets the 300 or so skunks he catches every year loose in the nearby forest area and says he could get even more. But he has only two traps since vandal stole his other ones. This area where the skunks are released is less than 5 miles from nearby towns. But she says that after the skunks have been caught once they'll stay in the woods away from the people. That's what the residents around here just fine. In Little Egg Harbor Township Ocean County.

I'm Dan Hodgson. A coalition of community groups has been circulating a change of government petition for several months in Atlantic City. They submitted a petition for evaluation by the City Clerk this morning but most people were surprised when a group of supporters of the current government submitted a different petition three weeks ago that petition contained only a third of the number of names required and most of those signatures were invalid because the signer wasn't a city resident or wasn't registered to vote. A few days ago one of the petition circulators admitted the whole thing was just a ploy by the drive organizers job below and Anthony thinks the only hers or a ploy to prevent the second petition from getting on the ballot the unit he said let anybody sign. You don't have to come from New York for half a day off flies and all are kept out a lot.

Everybody sighed. I said it's not like I'm telling you we want to get that on this get out and they don't know where on us until the third of September they get us protection and now advocates and first of all these guys got they started out a roach and dropped it and blocked the whole works. Calibra says he collected signatures for the petition only because he supports the current city government wants him to have a chance to finish their terms in office. The county prosecutor is now involved and says there are several clear cases of forgery on the petition and says there may be indictments in the near future. Despite all this Anthony still maintains that his petition was a serious attempt to improve city government and insists he is not responsible for the forgeries. I believe that we were infiltrated by the opposition that they deliberately slipped forgeries in there to create chaos since state law only allows one petition to be submitted on a single question at one time.

And since petitions must be submitted at least 60 days prior to the election the petition could have kept the other petition from being considered. If the city clerk had not completed evaluation of a petition ahead of schedule. That evaluation was completed just yesterday and the community group took quick action this morning at 7 o'clock and went to the city hall and waited outside told city hall open the nine and I was the first person that a clerk's office and we submitted 30 700 signatures. We felt that we would better turn him into some as possible which was this morning to preclude someone from going to starts again. The city clerk now has to decide if this second petition is valid Mazlan says he's sure it is. But he only says he'll continue his fight to keep Madison's plan from succeeding in Atlantic City. I'm Dan Hart's I'm worried about legal action. All seven of New Jersey's southernmost counties are reporting the incidence of hepatitis is

significantly higher for the first half of this year over last. The increases range from 47 percent in Gloucester County where the number of cases went from 36 to 53 to a 263 percent increase in Cumberland County where the number has risen from 11 to 40 in Camden County. The cases reported has risen from 67 to 156 and in Atlantic County It went from 14 to 30. 24 23 28 40 morning. I mean on 20 24 reading down the ages of hepatitis victims you'll rarely ever hear anything over 30 years of age. Hepatitis is a young person's disease that's transmitted most often by unsanitary conditions surrounding drug use. And today's more relaxed sexual mores. We have traced this to small family clusters or social plasters. These would be your people priority in sharing common food common drink common sexual partners. Using cigarettes from mouth to mouth want to be a normal cigarette or marijuana.

McCloskey also says he thinks the reason for the higher numbers in Camden County is a greater emphasis on reporting hepatitis when it does occur. Health officials have various theories on why the hepatitis numbers are increasing so rapidly. But they admit they are just theories. Those we spoke with said they had no idea why the numbers are going up so much faster. There's a man in North Jersey. Health officials say the hepatitis problem is nowhere near epidemic proportions. But still it's relatively easy to keep from getting it at all. Well they should try and avoid anyone that they know has had hepatitis or has been exposed. They should practice good old fashioned hygiene and hand washing. If they use drugs they shouldn't share anybody else's were commonly known as their spite. Hepatitis is easily spread because an infected person often doesn't feel the symptoms for up to a month. Symptoms include nausea fever depression yellowing skin and liver damage often

infected people refused to name friends who may also be infected for fear it would implicate them with illicit sex or drugs. For those who do get the virus it can mean from a couple of weeks to a couple of months in bed it can even be fatal. It's a high price to pay for as one physician told us what is often simply a case of people just don't want to get high alone. I'm Dan Hudson. The newly formed Association of Atlantic City casino employees or Ace held a rally at the racetrack last night to get out support for 24 hour a day gambling. I had to get casino employees to register to vote. The group claims of potential membership of 20000 but all the employees were offered free admission only 800 showed up after a month long effort only 5000 dollars have been raised and only 30 400 voter registrations have been submitted. Still peace organizer Baskin Arthur says the support is there.

I know that what numbers it takes to have political strength within of the Atlantic County area and we have that right now. But again. That's saying that I'm expecting 100 percent of those people to go to the polls on Election Day. And you might be lucky if you get 60 percent of it. So I have to go for even larger figures like Governor Byrne is the biggest roadblock to 24 hours a day he says as long as he's in office. But I want to go out of office with the casinos operating in a way that I represented they would be operating but Bernie only has four more months in office. And Arthur says he'll have voter support. Politicians will have to listen to that he says 24 hour gambling will mean fewer layoffs this winter. More jobs in the long run. And most of all regular eight hour shifts instead of the 10 to 11 hour shifts that most dealers pit bosses and Foreman work now. But not everyone agrees with that assessment. Some casino employees say they like the extra dollars that overtime hours bring at some casino executives say they're not at all sure that all day gambling would mean more jobs. Fewer layoffs and regular shifts. I'm not certain that.

There's enough of a market there to justify the cost of New Jersey which is quite high for staffing up the casino. And it may just mean a rescheduling of the people that you have. Now that might be a more efficient way to to cover it. Playboy President Arnie Fleischmann says 24 hour a day gambling would probably mean more jobs and regular shift. But there is no guarantee that the businesses here and the requirements for employees will exist if business is lacking. Other results have to take place whether it's 18 hours or 24 hours. That's correct. But overall the casinos have not taken any position on 24 hour a day gambling. In the end their support will be crucial if the doors are ever to stay open all day. In Atlantic City I'm Dan hot. I'm a coalition of community groups have been circulating a widely

publicized change of government petition for several months. So everyone was surprised when four weeks ago supporters of the current government submitted another petition. Anthony Becky only and Joseph Bello submitted a petition with just a third of the names needed once and with most of those invalid because the signers were not residents of the city or weren't registered to vote. You'll find the script the seasonal petition drives. But opponents of the petition said it was a blatant dirty tricks effort to prevent the community group petition from getting on the ballot. Under state law only one petition on a given question can be considered at a time. In fact one of the political vacuum petition circulators has admitted that he was told by Vicki only the petitions only purpose was to block the community group petition and that no real effort was to be made to get legitimate signatures. The county prosecutor is now investigating the below but he only petition to see if any election laws were violated. Holly refuses to comment at this point on what the outcome of that investigation may be he does admit that several cases of forgery have been found.

These petitions were witnessed by Joseph. But when you sign your name on it aren't you saying that you witness all signatures. Yeah that there would be a problem there. Possibly not every signature was witnessed and I'm sure and many other petition drives not every signature is actually seen to be signed and taken for granted and there's a lot of problems with the Titian in this case. There seem to be some problems with it. So we have boarded the petitions co-sponsor Vicki only goes even further and claims the other group is responsible information that we did receive from various intelligence sources in the case that we were infiltrated by the opposition and they successfully. For audit 10 petition sheets and submitted them to us without signing a thank you only and political dropped their petition drive when word of the forgeries came out but still claimed they were honestly trying to change the government in a better way than the community group. They say they will still work to defeat the petition that was submitted after theirs was withdrawn. We believe it to be a fraud judging by the reaction we've been getting in the street. People have been

approached to sign the petition whether they're registered voters or whether they died. Kind of like your petition. It's sort of in a way but the city clerk's office is evaluating a second petition now and will make a preliminary determination on its validity within two weeks. But even if it is valid and does get on the ballot. A little win back you only vow they have just begun to fight. In Atlantic City. I'm Dan Hodson. The operations along the Delaware Bay clamors along the coast depend on enforcement of state regulations to protect the shellfish population to make sure they're not stolen from fishermen with leeches or caught in polluted water. And we have the potential people taking polluted product out of these waters. And putting it out on the market and destroying the good image that the New Jersey.

Shellfish has nationally and internationally. Mr. Jeffries is chairman of the state's Marine Fisheries Council. It reviews proposed regulations affecting the state's fishing industry. On July 1st Operation of the marine police was transferred from the Department of Environmental Protection to the state police as a result of the switch. Jeffrey says the number of people in the state enforcing fishing regulations and monitoring the harvesting operations has dropped from 30 to just three. This forty six foot crew boat is the largest one owned by the state marine police. It's the only one big enough to keep up with commercial oyster boats and monitor their activities. But since the reorganization it's no longer used for fishery inspections. In fact state police say they don't have enough money to buy fuel for it and since they took it over July 1st it hasn't been used at all. The state police say their primary responsibility is ensuring the water safety but the Levy says differently. A state police spokesman however told us today he has a memo from the DI stating that the

DP would continue to enforce shellfish laws and regulations. Freeman of the EPA however said he had never heard of that memo. Meanwhile Jeffrey says he and other fishing interests in the state have been getting nowhere in their efforts to clear up the situation. I understand that some people in the DPD officer are under a gag order that they're not supposed to voluntary information to me or to industry people. But if you were the chairman of the state's shell fisheries council you know that's correct. But if I'm able to make progress with ADP the state marine fisheries Council in the Delaware Bay and the Atlantic coast shellfish councils have adopted a resolution to the state assembly and Senate asking that something be done. Jefferies also says the Federal Drug Administration beginning to investigate the possibility that fish from New Jersey's polluted waters may be being sold to the general public. And for Marshall township Cumberland County I'm Dan Hudson.