NJN News; Friday November 20, 1998

You You The Jersey City Teachers Union faces $100,000 a day fines for defying a judge

is back to work order. Nursing home patients and employees protest propose Medicaid cuts at a Trenton hearing. A judge weighs the state takeover of the HIV health system. A New Jersey member of the House Judiciary Committee weighs in on Kenneth Starr's testimony. NJN News for Friday, November 20. Major funding for NJN News is made possible by Grants Truff. The Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, which believes that an informed citizen released to a healthy democracy. The SE&G 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, the heart of communication in partnership with public television, serving to inform and lighten 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. It's going to be a costly strike for Jersey City's Education Association. A judge has ordered sanctions against the union for as long as teachers are on the picket lines. Teachers and staff walked off the job yesterday after nearly 10 hours of negotiations failed to bring about a settlement. Belinda Morton has the story. A Hudson County Superior Court judge has fined the Jersey City Education

Association $100,000 a day for as long as its members remain on strike. They have a contract with us and they are breaking the law. My hope is we'll negotiate Sunday and they'll be in the classroom on Monday. Jersey City teachers defied a court order and returned to the picket lines this morning for the second day despite a court order to go back to work. Earlier today, members staged an informal rally calling for the outskins of District Superintendent Dr. Richard DePatri. All throughout bargaining, we've not seen the superintendent once. Now that's fine in the early stages of bargaining, but you're in a crisis situation. District is offering an 11 and a half percent increase. I don't know where they're going to get that money. I don't know how our property taxes will cover it as an example. I don't know whether they think they can get that from the state.

The teachers are asking for 17 percent increase when they're already according to the American Federation of Teachers and I can give you the material right here. The second highest paid teachers in the United States of America. Union officials say it's striking members would go to jail if they have to. Union leaders and teachers could also face economic sanctions if the strike continues. The union has until Monday to appeal. Belinda Morton in JN News, Jersey City. There's plenty of concern tonight about the financial future of New Jersey's nursing homes. The state is proposing to cut more than $20 million in Medicaid reimbursements. Rich Young reports nursing homes are predicting they'll have to scrap programs and layoff workers. It's absolutely shameful to cut the elderly poor. 96-year-old Ruth Smith is not happy. She was one of scores of people who packed this Trenton hearing room today, devised concern about the state's proposal to cut aid to nursing homes. It's a shame because there are other sources where money can be taken.

I know that. I'm not going to say where. The state wants to reduce Medicaid reimbursements to 330 nursing homes state-wide by $24 million. The state insists the cuts are targeted, primarily aimed at reducing administrative costs that are in some cases out of line. These are very small, very targeted or policy-driven reductions. We are trying to improve efficiency in the operation of these many hundreds of facilities that spend a really large proportion of the state's budget. The whole problem with the cuts the way that they're proposing to do it is that they're painting everybody with the same brush. Rick Abrams is from the Association of Healthcare Facilities. He says the state's cuts will penalize all nursing homes for problems at just a few. Let's take a look at each individual nursing facility. While there may be some that may be a little high and administrative under the Department of Proposal, they assume everybody is. Management here at the Hamilton Continuing Care Center say if the state reduces funding

they'll be forced to reduce many programs, possibly physical therapy, social programs, and dietary offerings. We face a lot of other cuts in our industry from other sources of funding such as Medicare and additional cuts with Medicaid. Now we'll just make our already difficult job much more complicated. The Health Department has promised to consider the concerns expressed today but they do believe there are inefficiencies in the system. There is proposed legislation to restore the cutbacks but nursing home proponents are hoping the state officials have a change of heart before places like this are forced to cut back. Rich Young, NJN News, Hamilton Township. State officials wear in court today asking a judge to allow them to take control of New Jersey's first, fourth rather, largest health insurer, HIP Health Plan of New Jersey. State House correspondent Jim Hooker is back now with the latest on the story. Jim? We're in state superior court judge Jack Lintner's courtroom late today as he attempted to hammer out a plan to help keep the health care giant from going under.

What officials are attempting to do here is ensure health care continues for HIP's 190,000 members statewide. Now the trouble started after HIP sold its health care operations to Virginia-based PHP a year ago. That company and its subsidiary have now declared bankruptcy. We've just learned that the judge has ordered the state to seize the 18 health centers controlled by HIP and begin providing care, possibly using existing staff supplied by PHP and its subsidiary pinnacle health group. Lintner, we understand, has also ordered PHP to turn over access to computer records and other files the state says it needs to run the operations. Now lastly, Kent Lintner, let's stand a restraining order that requires doctors and hospitals to continue to provide care for HIP patients. So those subscribers can rest a little lazy at least for now in terms of continuation of their coverage? Yes, we understand that the hours at the centers have been reduced somewhat but for the time being it looks like the health care will be provided. Thank you, Jim, and you'll stay on top of the story for us.

Well, all of the 46 states that could, including New Jersey, did agree to sign on to a historic settlement with the tobacco industry. So now the $206 billion deal will be signed Monday. As part of the settlement, New Jersey should collect $7.6 billion over the next 25 years. The deal will stop tobacco companies from advertising on billboards, buses and T-shirts. It will also ban the use of cartoon characters like Joe Camel. With all that money headed to New Jersey's way, the question is how to spend it. Legislators and the governor are set to haggle over that. On the day after the historic testimony of special prosecutor Kenneth Starr, National polls show not many minds were changed. Still about two-thirds of the country wants the impeachment process to stop in its tracks. Our senior political correspondent Michael Aaron is here now with the latest on New Jersey's reaction. Michael? Kent, the reaction here in New Jersey seems pretty much to track the national picture. Cliff Zoukin keeps his finger on the pulse of opinion in the state as director of the star ledger Egleton Poll.

So we asked him what effect yesterday's hearing might have had. I don't think it had any effect on public opinion. I think it's very different than Watergate, very different than I ran contra hearings. And that's partially because there was nothing new that came out, so the storyline wasn't changed. Zoukin says a majority of the public has made up its mind. People simply don't think having oral sex with an intern is an impeachable offense, whether they think it's in poor taste or not. And right now that is still basically the charge against Clinton, true. And again, the public says that's enough of this. We're ready to move on. We found that view here on the streets of New Brunswick, but we also found people who were impressed with Kenneth Starr. For someone who wasn't in favor of him before, I thought he's very eloquent in what he had to say, as far as my opinion on the content, I'm going to leave that up to the professionals. I thought he was pretty well possessed for being under the scrutiny he was. But I also had some questions about his complex of interest, with respect to the things he had done at his Kirkville Kirk in Alaska.

He's smart. He doesn't shoot his mouth off. He knows what he's talking about, and he's articulate. There's spent a lot of money, 50 million, 60 million. There's other things to do with the money. That's the way I look at it. I personally took offense that in this country, people, we can insult the president of our country like that in front of a national audience. You have any feeling about what's going on down there? I think there's a lot of partisan posturing going on. That's about it. Now, New Jersey has one member on the House Judiciary Committee, Democrat Steve Rothman of Bergen County. We talked to Congressman Rothman earlier today. Congressman, you used your five minutes yesterday to make a statement instead of asking any questions. Before we talk, let's see a little of that. Mr. Star, you are, as you have said, an eyewitness to nothing relevant to your referral. You have heard nothing firsthand. You saw nothing firsthand.

You have no direct knowledge of any facts relevant to your case for impeachment. You have simply provided us with a one-sided 450-page prosecutor's opening statement with unnecessary details of explicit sexual activity designed solely to humiliate and damage the president of the United States. Congressman, why did you use your five minutes to lecture Mr. Star instead of asking many questions? Well, Mr. Star had two hours and 20 minutes to continue his opening statement. As you know, he started his opening statement with a 450-page referral to the committee in September. And as the prosecutor, he's entitled to an opening statement. Mr. Hyde and the Republican majority decided to give him another opening statement. That was two hours and 20 minutes yesterday. I thought it was prudent and to put the matter in perspective important for me to remind my constituents and the country that Mr. Star has taken it upon himself, which is his right to be the prosecutor. And the prosecutor gets an opening statement, but that doesn't constitute evidence.

And if we on the judiciary committee are just like jurors, we need to hear from witnesses so that we can cross examine them and get to the truth. All of the witnesses that Mr. Star referred to in his report were not cross-examined. In fact, none of them were cross-examined. When this judiciary committee process started two months ago, you made a point of saying you were going to keep an open mind on everything. It sounds now like you've made up your mind. Oh, on the contrary, and if you heard my statement yesterday, I said I have still not decided how I'm going to vote on impeachment. But what I wanted to make clear is that some of my Republican colleagues on the committee are ready to vote now, just having heard Mr. Star, who's the prosecutor having given his opening statement. And I think it's on American, it's a violation of due process to ask a juror to vote on the innocence or guilt of someone just on the basis of the prosecutor's opening statement. Do you want to hear a lot more witnesses, Bob Bennett, Bruce Lindsay, et cetera, et cetera, in public session before making up your mind? Well, I, as the juror, am waiting to hear what the state, what the prosecution wants to present to me, to persuade me beyond a reasonable doubt, or with substantial, incredible evidence that the President of the United States, for the first time in 200 years, has been found guilty of treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors.

I'm going to leave that burden to the prosecution. My mind is open. If he proves that, I will do what is my job and impose the sanction provided under the Constitution, but I'm waiting to hear from the prosecutor. Very quickly, in 10 seconds, did the hearing yesterday change the dynamics of the situation at all? I don't think so. The Republicans now have to decide that they're going to just have the prosecutor speak and vote on the prosecutor's view of it. Are they going to bring in people who were there and saw things so we can find out the truth and then vote on what the truth is, not just one person's version of the truth. Congressman, thanks very much for joining us. Thank you. Rosman later told me he'd be happy to see the future witnesses that the Republicans choose to call testify in public as star did. Thank you, Michael.

Thank you very much. After a delay of more than nine months, plans are back on track for a $5 billion pair of commuter rail lines. Underneath the Hudson River, the plans are underway again because of a funding package approved by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. The actual construction is years away, though. It's an effort to help ease congestion at Penn Station in New York. If funded, the job could take 15 years or more to finish.

The golden years were truly golden for an elderly couple in Haddon Heights today. 74-year-old Michael Sassyunas and 84-year-old Phyllis Calabrese tied the knot today at a senior citizen center where they met a few years ago over a game of cards. Ken St. John has their love story. Friends and family of the couple gathered at the Archway Senior Citizen Center to watch Mike and Phyllis share wedding bells. According to Mike, Phyllis was not an easy catch. Both have been married before and both admit to having the same old feelings again on this their wedding day. I started a sweat. I got flurries in here. I sweat now. I know it's cool. Getting a little nervous, huh? Yes, sir. Are you nervous? Yeah. I like to shake. I wasn't nervous this morning, but I'm shaking now. It'll all be over in a minute. I answer. The groom's son says this is a very special moment for him.

This is sure rare, I would say. And I'm glad for him. He'd find happiness at any age. I guess that's great. And then it was time for the special moment. And for saking all others, keeping only to her so long as you both shall live. Now, therefore, by the authority vested in me as the mayor or the borough of Hayden Heights, and by the authority of the laws of New Jersey, I now pronounce you husband and wife. And with that, Mr. and Mrs. Michael Stassiunis walked down the aisle. I think it's beautiful. I think it's beautiful that you live that age. And enjoy life together. I think it's great. They need company for each other, and they'll be fine. Michael and Phyllis planned to have their honeymoon in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. And as far as the wedding night goes, Michael says not to worry.

He has plenty of experience. Are you kidding? I am better at well experience. Ken St. John and JN News, Hayden Heights, Kevin Kellen. Young and hard for sure. Dick's Business Report coming up shortly. He's here now with a preview. Well, Newark's International's biggest air carrier spruces up its fleet. And from the cradle to the cash register, cashing in on the newest baby boom. No story is coming up. And the business B tonight, Percivity Bay Send-Dand Corporation until this year, known for its voracious appetite for acquisitions, is slimming down to raise some much needed cash.

The franchising giant, which owns such names as Avis Renekar. Century 21 real estate and Ramada INS is selling its consumer computer software business to a French company for $1 billion. Paris-based Havas SA will get Send-Dand's unit, which markets software and computer games under various names, including Sierra Online, Knowledge Adventure, and Blizzard Entertainment. Reflecting its status as the fastest growing of the major airlines this year, Newark International's largest air carrier, Continental, is moving to upgrade its fleet. According to the Wall Street Journal, Continental has ordered 10 Boeing 767 wide-body aircraft for use on its transatlantic and Latin American routes. The new aircraft are expected to replace aging Boeing 747s and McDonald's D.T. D.T. Tens in Continental sleep.

The Park Place Casino remained Atlantic City's most profitable gaming hall this summer, according to new figures from the State Casino Control Commission. Altogether, profits for the seaside resorts 12 Casinos rose 8 percent to $73.6 million in the third quarter. The Park Place accounted for slightly more than 19 million of those net earnings, only one Casino Trump's marina lost money in the third quarter. Playing to its strength for Amos-based Toys are us today, opened its newest babies are us, Superstore in New Jersey. The store targeted at new parents, stock products from ranging from bass and ads to baby bottles to stuffed animals. We have an automated baby registry that customers can use with automatic scanning guns that they can go out throughout the store and be able to collect the data for their registry, and then a customer can come in and either go to our registry desk for a personal service or go to our kiosks to get a printout of that customer's registry. While sales fell at its Toys are us and kids are us stores last quarter, sales in its babies are us division showed double-digit growth.

So, Toys are us corporation is counting on the chain of 109 babies are us stores across the country to do more than simply sell customers, diapers, strollers and infant toys. Babies are us has always been an interval part of Toys are us, it is kind of the customers handshake to the RS family. And so, for people who are new to the experience of parenthood, who are just having a baby, it's a good way to bring them into the RS family, to get a feel for the kind of merchandise we carry, and then hopefully we'll move on to kids are us and toys are us later on. Well, the newest location in Parabas brings to 7 the number of babies are us stores here in New Jersey. Wall Street caught the tail of a worldwide rally in stocks today, the Dow industrial surge 103 and a half points to close at the 91-59 level. The MX composite edged up about 1 and 3 quarters, that as that composite added 8 and a half in the S&P 500 rose about 11. Bonds traded on eventfully, the price of the long bond up more than a quarter of a point as it's yielded east to 5.21%. That's business.

Temperatures are going down, we have some cold weather to tell you about coming up next in the forecast. Jerry, how about sports? The big bat debate can't won New Jersey conferences, band aluminum bats will all lose. Others, that story next. In sports, as we reported earlier this week, the New Jersey Athletic conferences banned the use of aluminum bats for baseball. NJN News learned this afternoon that the Big East may do the same. Meanwhile, the NCAA is calling for new standards for the bats. It could all end up in court before it settled. Here's more. At Rutgers, Newark, this sound is being traded for this sound.

It's wooden bat versus aluminum. Rutgers, Newark and the rest of the New Jersey Athletic conferences making the change for the 99 season. The NJAC is the first conference in the nation to do so. What's more, it won't compete against teams that use aluminum bats. Signing safety as its main concern, Rutgers coach Stan Hyman. Studies have come out and have said, look gentlemen, here's the simple math and the bottom line is, pictures are a danger in particular. Players are a danger, but pictures don't have enough time to react on the mound after they throw baseball to a guy swinging a bat that could hit a ball up to 113 or 119 miles per hour. Just asked one of Hyman's pictures who was hit in high school by a ball from an aluminum bat. They nailed it right back at my shin. They almost severed my bone, almost cracked right in half into my shin. I had a big bruise there for months, but I think I had nothing happen. X-rays were all negative.

Aluminum bats have been used by NCAA members schools for more than 20 years. The NCAA has ordered new safety standards in aluminum bats by August 1st next year. The NJACs move, however, is already met with controversy. At least one aluminum bat maker, Eastern, has threatened to sue the conference. Here was a major company that understood that if a conference took that position, they felt in my mind that others would have to follow. What the NCAA has done is laid all the problems right at the doorstep of baseball coaches, athletic directors and universities. And the analogy I draw is if Chrysler found a defect in one of their vehicles that presented a danger to passengers, or if Mattel found a defect in a toy that presented a danger to children, they sure as heck would not say we're going to recall everything. On August 1st 1999, in the meantime, be careful out there. It doesn't make sense. There is no one available at Eastern today to respond to our calls, but the NCAA is expected to take up the matter in its January meetings, so the debate goes on.

150 miles an hour. 150, yeah. Thank you, Jerry. It was a foggy day this morning across New Jersey. Then that gave way to Gray Cloudy skies. Cast a bit of a shadow, as you can see on this pastoral setting in Mercer County today. Turning to our pollution watch, good air quality is forecast throughout the weekend and taking a look at the New Jersey forecast in the northern part of the state tonight, mostly cloudy conditions with the chance of rain overnight. It will get chilly with lows in the mid-30s. A partly sunny day, though, tomorrow with highs in the mid-40s. There's also a chance of rain in the southern part of the state for tonight with lows near 40s. And tomorrow, a sunny day, chilly highs in the upper 40s. And that's our news for tonight. I'm Kent Maddahan for Dick and Jerry and all of us here at NJN News. Thank you for being with us. Have a good weekend, everyone. We'll see you again on Monday night. Bye.

you you you

you you you

you