New Jersey Nightly News; New Jersey Nightly News Episode from 07/03/1979

Fight me into drivers asking those drivers to skip the tolls. There was no evidence of that here at the road in the whole plaza. Administrative workers and some relief and boys manned the turnstiles and officials say everything is running smoothly. But union officials say the Bill Worley that many drivers will begin avoiding the one way to honor the strike if they do it will aggravate the loss of revenue already fell here in the wake of the gas shortage and that will be even fewer dollars from an already depressed collection coffee. From the river can hold was on the Garden State Parkway. I'm Jack. Parkway officials refused to comment. Federal investigators in Detroit say the case of ex Teamsters boss Jimmy Hoffa's murder could turn on next week's sentencing of New Jersey Teamsters boss Anthony Tony Pro Provenzano and three associates in a labor racketeering case. Prosecutors say the goal in the HOF a case is to force a

low echelon participant in the killing to try for immunity by becoming a government witness. A federal investigator in Detroit says that if the judge is lenient next week here a Newark investigation into the half a case will be right back where it started. Former state Republican chairman Nelson gross today lost his latest bid to overturn his 1974 campaign fraud conviction. The charge that U.S. Marshals who guarded the jury romanced female jurors but the judge ruled that gross did not prove his case. The judge says there may have been a slight romantic interest but no proof of what the judge called prejudicial communication or extensive romantic involvement. A 45 year old Piscataway woman who shot her husband five times after he threatened to throw boiling water on Earth when she refused to cook for him has received a suspended summons. The case became a cause on the issue of battered wives and church social and women's organizations had asked for a suspended sentence but the judge said there was no evidence of wife beating presented and explained he suspended the prison term because the shooting was an isolated

incident that would not be repeated. The husband recovered from his ones. The issue of Abbott and service in New York still up in the air. The College of Medicine and Dentistry is rejected the city's latest proposal to turn ambulance service over to the college. Now the city and the college share responsibility but there's a pending contract that would put service in the hands of the school for the next 50 years. The problem according to the school is that the city won't promise funding for more than one year. So negotiations are under way again. A new proposal could be ready for the city council by next week. Doctors in New York say a 13 year old girl who has been crippled since she was three years old may eventually be able to walk now thanks to a bone transplant from her good leg. And the modern miracle of microsurgery the transplant which is designed to strengthen the crippled leg while not damaging the good one was done in a 14 hour operation on June the 11th. The girl hopes to enter school in Jersey City this fall says now that she wants to learn how to play volleyball. Two North Brunswick men were arrested 41 cases of

firecrackers seized over the weekend in a raid by Middlesex County prosecutors. They over the alleged leader was set at forty eight thousand dollars. And some local law enforcement officials say that reflects the growing concern over the number of firecracker injuries in New Jersey. Read Wells reports. Fireworks have become an institution on the Fourth of July. Most communities use them to conclude their Independence Day festivities. People who set off the fireworks. The exhibitors are supposed to be licensed by the state. They're also supposed to be carefully supervised by local fire departments. When everything is done the right way. No one gets hurt. But on the street things can be different. This man lost part of his hand when an M-80 firecracker exploded too soon. He bought that firecracker illegally from a friend and I just sat with these down in a friend's house and somebody approached me and would you like some you know and maybe I said sure. And I took five M-80s and I threw them all together. And then in the process of sending them off one of the fuses were defective and I never saw it burn.

I use a cigarette to light it at the time. And it. Was two seconds a second ago my hand. An M-80 has the same explosive force as a half a stick of dynamite. All firecrackers are illegal in New Jersey and may be used only with a permit from the state. But even though the possession and use of firecrackers is against the law we had no problem buying them on the streets since they are illegal. We turn them over to the Newark fire department. Fire officials showed us how dangerous common street but firecrackers can be. Whoa. Coming to the opening of the show the advice from the Newark choir Department of the Division of Consumer Affairs is to go to the public fireworks display tomorrow night. And you'll have a much better chance of having a happy and safe Fourth of July. In Newark. I'm rated well. On the. 25 year old National Guardsman from New York Benjamin Perras Jr. killed yesterday in a training

accident at Fort Drum New York. Or as was a member of an Armored Division stationed out of West Orange A military spokesman said the death was a tank related accident but he couldn't give any more details. A superior court judge in Trenton has ruled that Kemper insurance House to stop charging its automobile insurance policy holders two and a half percent higher rates for camper got an eight point six percent rate hike back in March but it based its rates instead on an increase of more than 11 percent which was granted to a major ratings organization of which camper is a member. There's still the issue of whether camper is going to have to give back the difference to its policyholders. That's to be decided later in another lawsuit. Efforts continue today to clean up that major spill of diesel fuel Saturday night in Newark Bay just north of Staten Island skimming recovery operations continued in the bay until then calling around the bay on military ocean terminal but the major threat was to New York beaches to Staten Island beaches are already closed. Others in the city are threatened with chemical dispersant was dropped by a helicopter today in the Atlantic off Coney Island. Here's the weather forecast for

tonight and for the holiday. Tonight will be clear and a little cooler with low temperatures in the middle 50s tomorrow. The fourth will be sunny and mild in the lower 80s even Thursday will be nice sunny and pleasant. Arthur Fiedler and the Boston Pops played over 300000 fans along the Charles River in Boston. Don't miss the 1812 Overture or the break with church bells are worked on this evening up special. Celebrate July 4th on the esplanade Wednesday at 10:30 on your jersey public television. Now here's Paul Budde line in front man tonight sports.

Thank you Clayton beginning tonight boxing is coming to Atlantic City on a regular basis every Tuesday night for the next 10 weeks professional bouts will be held on steel pier promoters are talking about major five cars in the future similar to those now in Las Vegas. Tonight's card and those coming up through the summer will be held at the movie theater on steel pier It seats about 2000. Today the fighters are weighing in and taking their mandatory physicals. Tonight's card is headlined by a heavyweight match up against George Kaplan. You remember Bob the Great White Hope knocked out in the first round by Kenny Norton knocked out in the first round by John Tate. But that was the old Wayne Bobbitt he now claims to be a born again fighter. Right now it's on the way to the championship. I'm feeling really good I got everything but. I'm ready to get down and get to work. Look out for anybody who gets in the ring with me because I'm going to start hurting people. But you said the same thing before before. Norton before John. No I didn't say I was going to start hurting people and I want to start or you know you mean a whole different attitude whole

different attitude. I'm ready to go. I mean the fact that what brought that on. What brought that on. First round. First round was John to a first round with John Tate first and I mean guys who I know I can beat anyone better than Andy you know who was with today not other than Ed too tall Jones you know too tall all pro defensive end Dallas Cowboys 6.9 £270. Well two weeks ago Jones quit pro-football to take up a career in boxing instead. Not many people are taking this seriously but says he means business. I have two weeks of training on my bill as of today. And where you are is it headed from here the boxing career. My goal is to hopefully be able to put in a word and that's something I feel I can do and I think it would come in a short period of time. Jones is in Atlantic City today to get the feeling of what it's like the day of a fight. He and Wayne Bobbitt have the

same manager did not say when I'll be making his professional debut and basketball the Jersey Shore league is now in progress. Every summer this league features some of the best players in the entire area. Right now there's only one team still undefeated in the Jersey Shore league. That team is known officially as Phoenix computer but might be more familiar as Rutgers revisit in all the starters from the Rutgers team of three years ago the team which was 31 and 0 before reaching the final four are back together again. Right now only one of them number 15 Ed Jordan is playing in the NBA. He's a starter with the nets but the others aren't bad either. They get everybody to sort out that paper records coulda made the pros so it's not really a big comparison a big difference. Everybody could've been on the team but I got a couple of breaks and that would help me. There's not really a thing different up to these guys before. I really used to play with them more than I guess it would prove. The brightest star of that undefeated Rutgers team was number 12. Phil sellers sellers

so far has not been able to cut it in the NBA but he'll keep on trying to make it as a pro definitely thinking about getting back into it. You know this windows of a plane in Europe you know and it was a good experience for me and it gave me some confidence that I think I need it. And then there's number 32 Mike Dabney another legitimate star in college. Adnan now is a good job with a major corporation yet pro ball is still in the back of his mind. Would have to be a very legitimate offer I think in decent shape I'll be getting in better shape throughout the summer league here. But it would have to be a good offer. OK. Because the bottom line is making a good income year and year their summer team by the way also includes former Scarlet Knights Hollis Copeland adèle Anderson and James Bailey Bailey was recently the Seattle Supersonics first round draft pick. The Jersey Shore league plays its games off of Route 35 in Neptune really excellent basketball and that's fourth place. Thank you Paul. A state appeals court ruled today that the Agway of petroleum corporations he troll pumps were really self-service gasoline pumps just disguised barred

Agway from using them. A legislature banned self-service gas pumps in 1949 as a safety hazard. Since then of course self-service pumps are pretty much revolutionized the gas station business all over the country. But the state ban has never been lifted in the Ag wakey troll system the customer has the key to the pump which is connected to an underground tank. But the appeals court ruled today that that amounts to self service and therefore it's illegal. Experts say the cost of home heating oil will go up to 80 cents a gallon this winter and there may be shortages even at that price. Now these twin threats are causing many homeowners to convert their oil furnaces to natural gas. Steve Taylor reports public service electric and gas company was tearing up powered Stobbs lawn this morning and hammering holes in the Hamilton Township street where started the company was installing a gas line to the stops her. That's because the oil burner there is coming out and will be replaced by a furnace which burns natural gas. I figure it's going to be cheaper. Any idea how much cheaper.

I really don't know him but you can put your price to where I was wonder and you know it's going to be high. Howard started paid $700 for oil last winter and if the price of oil goes on. To 80 cents a gallon you'll pay over one thousand dollars this winter. That's enough incentive for the stocks to want to convert now even though they must buy a new furnace to do it. And there's another incentive. Many gas companies including public service will run a gas line to your home for free. If there's a gas main in the street and if your house is reasonably close to it and thousands of homeowners are converting people who've been burning oil and are afraid they'll be cold or broke this winter they're going to gas because for the last two years it's been plentiful and at about forty eight cents for the equivalent of a gallon of oil. It's cheap right now. Well isn't it an economic fact of life that when the price of any product say oil goes up the price of competing products a natural gas also goes up to some degree yes. So we can expect the price rise for natural gas.

I would think that would be natural to expected Yes but that of course is the price of gas probably will not go above oil and supplies will stay high for years by thousands of homeowners like Howard stop are betting. That's true in Hamilton Township. I'm Steve Taylor in New Jersey now has laws on the books involving child custody cases and displaced homemakers governor Byrne signed the measures today. One specifies when state courts can take jurisdiction in interstate child custody cases. You know the homemakers bill sets up training and counseling programs for women who haven't been in the workforce for some years. And the search is on in the Fort Hood River area for Cappy a 1 and a half foot tall capuchin monkey who broke out of his cage and jumped a fence to freedom last weekend. Happy's meat left the local humane society with Cappy but she was quickly recaptured. The state police and police from three townships are supposedly on the lookout but even if happy is spotted these going to be hard to corral senses very quick. He also likes to hang around in trees and there are lots of them in the area at least is no menace happy as a vegetarian. Therefore he should be able to get along quite

nicely for the summer and fall certainly on the blueberries in the wild and strawberries. On this week's performance of a Beethoven festival the Detroit Symphony Orchestra will perform Beethoven Symphony Number 7 in a major opus 92. This Symphony has been referred to as the Symphony of the rhythm and pulse of life. Join Maestro I'm told a rowdy and easy marshal for discussion of Beethoven at the time of his seventh symphony and them for a memorable performance of this great work here on PBS. Beethoven on Thursday at 8. The accreditation agency for Essex County College has found serious perhaps fatal flaws with the school report comes from the Middle States Association of Secondary Schools and Colleges. The college is accredited now but not all states has postponed the renewal of

accreditation for perhaps a year or until major reforms have been enacted. SANDRA KING reports. The Essex County College mega structure was four years and thirty two million public dollars in the building. The design is starkly modern. The visual effect dramatic critics say the complex is underutilized and this never used green house is symptomatic of a good idea that somehow just didn't work. But problems with the physical plant are not what concerns the middle states Association the accrediting agency has focused on a top heavy sometimes inept administration backed by a sometimes troublesome board of trustees. J Harry Smith is a former Middle state's official as well as the college's past president. Many of the academic problems that we faced at the institution came as a direct consequence of intervention by the board in the academic program. And there is what I consider the call that we have to swallow but it's one that can be corrected easily by changing the board.

There's a true fold appeal to this school. For some it's the true year associate's degree that can mean new skills about a job. For others it's the crucial possibility of transferring those two years of credits. Four year colleges and a loss of accreditation. To put it all in jeopardy. So it's not surprising that students here are worried the fears are that their credit won't be accepted in other colleges or in their diplomas or degrees will not be worth anything when they go seeking for a job. The typical Essex student is black female about 25 years old and from Newark. In short the person who has few other higher education options but the school has been given a little more than one year to correct its deficiencies. A process that is likely to begin with a near complete overhaul of its trustee board. In the end if Middle States is not satisfied as its County College would be stripped of its authority to grant degrees in Newark. I'm Sandra K.. With all of the problems that the school faces the job of president of Essex County College

has not been easy in its 10 year history the college has had five presidents one of whom quit after only two hours on the job. George Harris is the current president of Essex County College Dr. Harris has held that position for a little less than a year. The middle state's evaluation team the visited Essex County College founded. These are their words serious perhaps fatal flaws in the school. So the question I suppose Dr. Harris is whether or not given that kind of situation of Essex County College can really survive. I think it can it's a very viable and stable institution in spite of its problems. But many of them are a necessary part of an evolutionary process of being located in an urban center. A necessary part of an evolutionary process does that mean political games. I would say that its ability to serve a number of constituents of the college is not remote or removed from that. Dilemma or perhaps a situation and it is said she is perhaps

torn and as we begin to address those problems and establish the necessary decision making processes and mechanism for the community to be involved we will go through this process. Well Dr. Harrison as we all know there is no college no large institution of education that is immune completely from politics. But the kind of politics that the middle states evaluation team found seem to be quite different than the normal university politics. You think that's correct. I would say so that the in I in are in is that unique to New York. I would say it would be unique to this particular institution of higher education in the state of New Jersey. Well can they co-exist side by side without cleaning it away. I think the current administration supports that and understands the the need for the college to be perhaps a political or de politicized and that's a very key element in that crucial element since that's been established

in the leadership of. County executive Peter Shapiro doesn't seem to be a major problem to overcome. What about all the patronage that's gone on over the past years the hiring practices the promotion practices that are mentioned in the report referred to in the reports that were done not only this one but the prior one that came out by the state I think in 1970. Well that's how it is end back and I think that's the most serious problem that I'm addressing now in terms of trying to be fair and to see that the individual there are really producing and are in positions that are commensurate with their experience and capabilities that take say a review process which we're undergoing now and where we find individuals that are not perhaps competent or deserving of those positions they will be removed from the institution. What about all the public in terms of what these reports have done to the school. You think that's a plus or minus.

I would say that it's a president as much as the reporting and the exposure the school is receiving now will enable us to acknowledge that fact that we've had problems that we're addressing those and I think it's a much better situation than to have the kind of innuendo that has plagued this school for a number of years. The current administration the board is quite open. What we have problems at the institution we will address those and we feel that a part of a community college's responsibility is to be responsive to the community and to keep them informed and so that where we have a problem that we way to salute resolve those problems is to acknowledge them and then began to implement the kinds of plans and programs in which to do that the colleges function as it should. Dr. Hurst thank you for being our guest today. Well thank you for inviting me. Finally 11 year old Billy hollow out of Roseland as one is right to peddle coffee and snacks on the gas lines even though his coffee goes for a nickel less than that in the neighborhood luncheonette whose owner blew the whistle on delay for peddling without a license. The borough attorney now says Bill is operations OK because

of its temporary nature and a realistic interpretation of the word business. But even enterprising young businessmen do have their problems. Billy's latest He got into has got to resume his business just as the gas lines. What a way and that's the news I'm quite involved goodnight for the New Jersey knightly new. Jersey is a joint presentation of the New Jersey probably 13. The program is broadcast weeknights at 6:30 on Channel 13 and at 7:30 the New Jersey Public Television.