NJN News; Tuesday July 7, 1998 [Master, Original]

You A Cumberland County City season alarming rise in the number of eights cases. That as a study by a New Jersey University could help scientists find an AIDS vaccine. A push to shut down the Mercer County Detention Center. A key witness causes a delay in the retrial of a convicted cop killer. And how Lyndon GM workers are dealing with change a month after being laid off.

NJN News for Tuesday, July 7th. Major funding for NJN News is made possible by grants from the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, which believes that an informed citizen relates to a healthy democracy. The SCNG 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, fight and educate the 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. There was a dramatic development in the Jersey City courtroom where Vincent James Landano's retrial on cop killing charges was set to begin today. The man Landano has long maintained committed the crime. Victor Forney made a surprise appearance to say he's changed his mind about testifying. As Michael Aaron reports, the move can be seen as a setback for either side. I just want the trial to start. Let's do it. Let's get this all the way. Today was supposed to be the start of opening arguments, but like everything else in this 22-year-old labyrinth of a case, it took an unexpected turn. Victor Forney was a member of the breed motorcycle gang involved in the 1976 hold-up that ended in the shooting of Newark Police Officer John Snow. He and his fellow breed members served minor sentences for the crime. Jim Landano, they said, had been the trigger man, and Landano was convicted and sentenced to life.

But Landano over the years has maintained his innocence and grown ever bolder about saying Victor Forney was the killer. Mr. Forney, you may come over. So when Forney was brought into the courtroom today, it was a gripping moment for those who followed the case. Forney was supposed to be a key witness for the state. The prosecution is paying his hotel bill and has him in a mild form of custody, but he suddenly developed a change of heart that required a quick hearing today. I don't want to test that. Even after the Hudson County prosecutor's office got Attorney General Peter Verniro to sign a full grant of immunity at noon today, Forney was refusing to answer the prosecutor's most basic questions. Mr. Forney, August 13, 1976, where were you? I have nothing to say. Mr. Forney, do you know Alan Roller? I have nothing to say on any questions. Mr. Forney, do you know Vincent James Landano? Do I have to keep saying that nothing to say?

I am directing you to answer the questions along the lines that Mr. Gardner just made the request of me to do. Yes, but I, my position is, I'm not going to answer any questions. Judge Shirley Tolentino held Forney in contempt. He was handcuffed and led off to the county jail for up to 18 months unless he has another change of heart. Forney served just eight months for his participation in the crime, though Landano always maintained Forney was the mastermind and the trigger man. His refusal to testify means the loss of a key witness for the state. And so the prosecutors asked for permission to read to the jury. Forney's grand jury testimony of two years ago that led to Landano's re-enditement. The defense objected vigorously, the judge-reserving decision. But Landano, too, thinks Forney's withdrawal from the trial, hurts him. We could have gleaned a lot of good stuff, given the opportunity to gross examine Mr. Forney. We could have found out the answer, but he did it. That I didn't do it.

The judge will decide tomorrow morning whether the jury can hear Victor Forney's 1996 grand jury testimony in the absence of Mr. Forney himself. And then the opening arguments that were supposed to begin today are set to begin at 10 a.m. tomorrow. Michael Aaron and JN News, Jersey City. When you think of AIDS cases in New Jersey, you generally think of big cities. But in the smaller Cumberland County City of Bridgerton, health officials warn the number of HIV and AIDS cases are reaching epidemic levels. The percentage of people living with HIV or full-blown AIDS there is more than double the state average. And those infected are mostly people under the age of 30. In fact, 58% of those infected with HIV are in that age group. The statewide average is 34%. Here are some statistics that show how serious the problem is. In the state, one out of every 334 people has AIDS. In Newark, which ranks first in the number of people with HIV or AIDS, one out of 56 people is infected. In Jersey City, the city with the second highest rate, one out of 109 people has AIDS.

In Bridgerton, one out of 163 people has the disease. News of Bridgerton comes as the overall number of cases in the state is holding steady, while the number of AIDS deaths is declining. Our Jim Hooker is in Bridgerton now with more on the health problem in that Cumberland County City. Jim? Ken, as you said, many of us may not think of Bridgerton as a city of just 18,000 as a hotspot for AIDS cases. But an AIDS activist we spoke with today said there's nothing less than a full-blown epidemic here. Now, the community and state of health officials have made moves in recent months to curb that rise in AIDS cases. Brings by farmland and open countryside deep in rural southern New Jersey, Bridgerton has a small town feel about it, but it's also got a share of big city problems. A lot of people using drugs and doing a lot of, you know, having unprotected sex in the streets soon. But it is the small town feel of the place that at least one AIDS activist says shares some of the blame for an alarming spread of the AIDS epidemic here. It's that small town. It's not going to happen in my doorstep. It only happens in big cities. It only happens to Gays.

It only happens to other people. It's never going to touch our doorstep. And there are other factors more in sync with Bridgerton's big city cousins, like having the highest teen pregnancy rate in the state. Consequently, if you have a high teen pregnancy rate, you're obviously going to have a lot of kids having unsafe sex. You have low economic conditions, things like that. People resort to other ways of making money selling drugs, prostitution, and things like that. The percent of cases reported from injection drug use equals the state average of 41%. However, the cases from Bridgerton have a higher reported heterosexual mode of transmission. If you guys ever have any questions about testing or information or anything like that, just give us a call. The state health department has stepped in here to try to stem the rise in AIDS cases. This state-funded outreach program, begun in December, puts case workers in the field to educate the public about the dangers of HIV transmission.

There's also funding for classes aimed at women and children. It's a very slow process. It's been a little frustrating. But Vicki Kernen, who runs the program, says it can make a difference. Even if we get one woman to take the condoms and think about talking to a partner about them, about using them, if we or her son or her daughter. Bridgerton residents, we spoke with, welcome the program. It's worth it because a lot of people need to be up on this literature so far for AIDS, even couples. You know, everybody needs to practice itself. After all, many here say they've seen firsthand the wreckage of the AIDS epidemic. That goes right around the corner from where my mom lives. I see a lot of them. A lot of people selling the body, I'm protected sex, doing drugs in front of us. I mean, I've seen it all. Your dad has a towel, does he? 43.

How do you get it? Uh, messing around. As you can say, sexually. Now that outreach program will run for at least three years. It's funded by the state at $148,000 a year. And the workers hope to reach several hundred women and children over that time. Reporting live from Bridgerton and Cumberland County, I'm Jim Hooker. Kent back to you in the studio. Jim, the story continues, Newark has the most people living with AIDS more than any other people in the state. Not surprisingly, important HIV research is being done at the medical school there. Health and medical correspondent Sarah Lee Kessler joins us now from our New York Bureau with news about a new HIV transmission study. Sarah Lee? Well, Kent, researchers at UMD and J. New Jersey Medical School wanted to know why some people with the AIDS virus infect their partners while others do not. They studied heterosexual couples who repeatedly had unprotected sex. Their findings stunned even them. Those who did not transmit had a much more impressive response in numbers of certain immune cells that called CD8 cells.

Without getting too technical, CD8 cells, when they're working right, help the immune system kill the AIDS virus. But researchers at UMD and J in a study published just this week said they do a whole lot more. Is that CD8 cell that cell that can turn off things also has an ability to protect, we believe, transmission. And that is protect someone from getting infected. That's a new concept. The first time an AIDS study has shown that CD8 cells block the transmission of HIV to another person. We blow the substance and take a better look at it. When we looked at the CD8 number compared to all the other parameters, such as viral load, in all the statistical analysis we did, the CD8 number held up to be the strongest correlator of those who were not infected. The five year study looked at 211 heterosexual couples in which one partner was HIV positive.

It compared them with 67 others in which both were infected one by the other. Among those who did not transmit HIV, 57% had a high number of CD8 cells. You think that they're genetically programmed, some of them, to get this robust response in these CD8 cells that protects them. What are the implications here for development of a vaccine to fight HIV? There are a huge implications. It shortcuts testing. No vaccine should be attempted unless they're measuring this type of CD8 response. Because if that's what people have to get to be protected, then every candidate vaccine should be able to do this. Well, several vaccines have begun clinical trials, but back to the HIV transmission issue. Despite Dr. Lauria's theory that there may be a genetic predisposition to transmitting or to receiving HIV, Dr. Lauria says that certainly doesn't mean that it's okay for some couples to have unprotected sex. It's not.

In fact, he says it's risky behavior, any way you look at it. Kent? Sarah Lee, thank you. In other news tonight, Mercer County wants to shut down the County Detention Center rather than spend a bundle to repair it. Prisoners would be transferred to the other county facility in Hopewell Township. The Detention Center now holds 550 inmates. Officials say it was built to house just over 200. County Executive Bob Prunetti released a report today claiming it would cost millions to fix up or replace the 24-year-old building. We wanted to make sure that in whatever decision we made, it was the most efficient for county taxpayers, meaning both cost effective and yet ensuring that we will maintain the degree of security that we at least already have if not increasing that. Prunetti says he expects a guarantee from the State Department of Corrections to say that all jobs to county officers who face layoffs will be given to them.

Well, there's reportedly a plea in the works in the so-called prom mom case. A source close to the case tells the Associated Press that Melissa Drexler will plead guilty to aggravated manslaughter on Thursday. The 19-year-old reportedly doesn't want to risk being convicted of murder, which would mean at least 30 years behind bars. The Mammoth County Prosecutors' Office will not confirm or deny the story. Under the deal, prosecutors would reportedly recommend that Drexler be sentenced to no more than 15 years in prison, making her eligible for parole in three to four years. Authorities say she strangled and suffocated her son in the bathroom after secretly giving birth at her lacy township prom last year. Still ahead tonight on NJN News, details of another border battle with New York, this one on the field. A California company gets the green light on the new State's new tougher auto emissions inspection system. And it's been one month since Lyndon GM workers were laid off how their lives have been affected. We'll tell you.

It's about a month since more than 2,000 General Motors employees working out of the Lyndon plant were laid off due to a strike at the park. It's about a month since more than 2,000 General Motors employees working out of the Lyndon plant were laid off due to a strike at the park's plant in Michigan. For most of that time, they were getting their company paychecks, but now many are depending on unemployment benefits to make ends meet.

We sent our rich young to the Union office today to see how workers are coping. There was a constant stream of laid off workers heading into UAW local 595 this morning. These linemen, assemblers and welders should be building trucks inside GM's now closed Lyndon truck plant. Instead, they're at the hall trying to collect unemployment. Skip Mayo was among those attempting to file today when working, he normally brings home more than $900 a week. With unemployment, he'll get just $3.75. It's affecting his lifestyle. We used to after church on Sunday go out to a restaurant and spend about $60 to $70 and eating. We don't do that anymore. Besides eating out, the workers say bills like mortgages and payments for cars and credit cards will have to wait. We got to do what they got to do, but right now I think it's digging into a lot of people pockets. Now, especially when they ain't got down to problems working, right?

Others say their work status is forcing the cancellation or postponement of major purchases and vacations. I had to cancel them, and these are two places I wanted to go for long weekends and not bringing that I'd be working to some of the months and all. And it's even affecting their children. It seems there's anything I want. I can't get it because she's at work. The good news for the late-off employees is that GM maintains their medical coverage for the next two years, though their dental coverage stopped at the end of June. And the meantime, individuals and corporations are starting to donate canned food to the union. Union officials, however, are hoping this strike ends, so this food can be given to a pantry rather than to those who are now late-off. Rich Young, NJN News, Lyndon. The state has announced the loan bidder will get the $63 million contract for the new auto emissions testing system. California-based Parsons Infrastructure and Technology Group, which nagged the huge privatization deal, claiming it can have the system up and running by the year 2000.

The agreement calls for Parsons to build and operate inspection services now run by state employees. Federal officials say that tough new environmental standards will help ease air pollution problems. More cars are expected to flunk the test. Those who do pass will get two-year inspection stickers. Coming up on NJN News and our Business Report, GPU may release some power, nuclear power, by the end of the month. And while AT&T stock is dropping, another New Jersey company is piling up the profits with books on tape. If you have any questions, please let us know in the comments. Dick is off tonight. Here's a look at Business News. GPU hopes to close on a deal to sell its nuclear assets,

including the Oyster Creek facility in Lacey Township and Three Mile Islands Unit 1. A spokesperson for GPU tells NJN Business News the utility is in negotiations, but he wouldn't comment any further. The New York Times is reporting the likely buyer is Philadelphia-based Peco Peco Rather Energy. GPU refuses to discuss a price tag, but the utility did put the combined book value at more than a billion dollars. The sale, which is expected by the end of the month, would not include the Unit 2 reactor on Three Mile Island, which experienced a partial meltdown in 1979. Federal lawmakers are looking at the AT&T-TCI merger as a bellweather for cracking local phone markets. During a hearing, that should be monopolies. During a hearing in Washington, regulators and consumer groups said the $32 billion deal holds the promise of bringing competition to the more than $100 billion local phone market. AT&T's chairman, C. Michael Armstrong, testified that the merger will allow consumers to make phone calls over cable providing an alternative to the bell monopolies in areas that TCI reaches. But some investors worry the company won't recoup its investment anytime soon.

Stock prices have plunged 14 percent since last month's announcement. Despite the negative reaction, AT&T claims it will not renegotiate the deal. Meanwhile, the stock of a Maristone company is climbing thanks to the internet. Over the last six months, Audiobook Club, the world's largest seller of books on tapes, has signed in on with Excite, AOL and Yahoo to advertise and offer links to its website. Today, the company added another web access provider called Who Where? That's all helped. Its website grow from a million hits in December to over 11 million a month since March. That plus the ability to sample sound bites from the books is help boost membership. We continue to be committed to primarily stake out our ground on the internet. Make sure that we are the Audiobooks site, the Audiobooks seller on the internet. Most of Audiobooks' revenues come from direct mail sales, but the addition of more than 4,000 new members in June over the internet sparked the stock run-up. On Wall Street today, stocks closed mostly lower, giving up earlier gains on a late wave of program-based trading.

The Dow Jones industrial average edged down slightly to end at the 9085 level. The MX composite ended up more than two and three quarters on the day. The NASDAQ dropped one at a third, and the S&P 500 lost two and two thirds. The interest rates moved higher as bond prices fell. The long bond was down, 1430 seconds, and its yield combined climbed rather to 5.6%. Still ahead tonight on NJN News, a check-up of our forecast is coming up, and we'll show you who's leading the charge as New Jersey's high school best take on New York. On the gridiron this week. The sun disappeared on us late this afternoon. Temperatures made it into the upper 80s today.

Here at the Co-Hansi Zoo in Cumberland County, New Jersey's first zoo, by the way. This one-year-old white tiger is taking a little dip, trying to get cool from the heat of the day. As far as our pollution watch goes for tomorrow, expect moderate levels across the region. And here's a look at the New Jersey forecast. In the northern part of the state tonight, cloudy skies with the chance of showers lows in the mid-60s overnight. Tomorrow showers and thunderstorms are likely a high of 80 degrees. In South Jersey, expect some showers tonight with lows in the mid-60s, and tomorrow rain likely with highs in the lower 80s. This week brings a new face to the Philadelphia Flyer Camp, to the Philadelphia Flyers Camp. Her name is Haley Wickenhizer, a goalie for the Canadian women's team. They won the silver medal in last winter's Olympics. The 19-year-old Wickenhizer says she doesn't really expect to sign an NHL contract, but she hopes to encourage other women in the process. I don't know so much at the NHL level, but I think what it will do is it'll give some exposure to the women's game, and people will watch me here and compare how I do with the men to what the women's game is like.

So I think that's probably a good thing, and it can't hurt the female game. Wickenhizer hopes the extra practice with the Flyers will help her win the gold in Salt Lake City in the year 2002. Well, finally tonight, there's yet another battle for bragging rights between New York and New Jersey. This time, the battlefield is on the football field. Our state's most competitive high school football players will go up against New York's best in the very first Governor's Bowl. As our Marianne Bennett reports, their head coach, living legend in his own right, is leading the way to victory. 84-year-old Joe Covello came out of a 13-year retirement to coach New Jersey's best in the state's first Governor's Bowl. Before he left the field in 1985, he'd won more games than any other high school football coach in state history. Even with that stunning record, Covello says the game taught him and every one of his many boys more than just how to win.

It's a development of character, it's a development of obstacles, clearing them and feel proud to have done something you didn't expect that you could do. Covello retired with 254 career wins. Since then, a brick township coach replaced him as the man with the most wins, but he says it was Covello who helped him make it to the top. Coach Covello is my mentor. He taught me everything about the game of football because I coached with him for 10 years before I went to brick. And he represents high school football. Covello put in 36 years as a high school coach before becoming head coach at St. Peter's College in 1973. Now after being off the field for more than a dozen years, Covello is back and coaching alongside the rest of the greats. He says it's a bittersweet way to end a 48-year career. When you're invited by your peers to come on out of retirement, it's a feeling of great pride that they recognize that they'd like to have me come back. Mary Ann Bennett, NJN News, New Brunswick.

And that's our news for tonight. I'm Ket Manahan for all of us here at NJN News. Thank you for being with us, and we hope to see you back here again tomorrow night. You

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