NJN News; Friday April 17, 1998

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. . . . . . The same family in Newark now pays 2,380, but if the cap is lifted that would rise by 2,097 dollars according to industry figures throwing the 15% rollback in the new premium is 3,805. Even in South Orange today that didn't seem fair. I think everyone should pay the same. It should be equal because in our areas it's pretty tough to pay that amount of money for insurance. Premiums in the city under the urban cap cannot be more than 35% higher than the statewide average. Assembly Speaker Collins says that means 80% of New Jerseyans are subsidizing the other 20% and that's unfair. But urban legislators say it's Collins's position that's unfair. Some people's insurance will go up by 2,000 dollars.

Others will go down by a couple of hundred dollars. Those who will experience the largest increases are the people who are at least able to pay. We look at things we've done in the past in the state of New Jersey, supported subsidies for other areas, whether that's beach erosion, whether that's milk prices, whether that's open spaces. There's got to be a balancing act done for all New Jerseyans. The urban insurance agents and brokers association came out in favor of Collins' bill today, but largely for self-interested reasons, they think they can sell the new bare-bones policy and vast numbers. The lead parties now are all talking about trying to fashion a compromise. Some kind of compromise is going to be necessary because right now the speaker is on one side of the issue. The Senate president, the governor and urban democrats are on the other and the idea of a strong bipartisan auto insurance reform solution is suddenly sputtering. Michael Aaron, NJN News, South Orange.

And later in the broadcast hour, political insiders will put their spin on the proposed auto reform bill. Are there enough state troopers in New Jersey? The Whitman administration wants to spend $2.7 million to graduate and put a new class on the payroll. But the troopers union tells NJN News that falls far short of the manpower the state police need. The state house correspondent Jim Hooker has our story. There's no question the Whitman administration has boosted the number of state troopers over its first four and a half years and another 80 to 90 state police officers are expected to graduate from the next class. We have absolutely increased trooper strength since the start of the administration. It's been steady and consistent and I think significant. And as Attorney General's a chief law enforcement officer, I'm quite satisfied with those statistics. The numbers Vanero sites are these 2,421 state troopers when the governor took office in January 1994 and 2,522 today, excluding 153 new state troopers who were merged into the division from other agencies like the Marine Police.

But the president of the state troopers union sees the numbers differently. I see 66 bodies over a period of four years, all right? The 66 bodies have just disappeared. If we could track to special units. His Ricky says troopers engaged in tracking drugs or organized crime or even manning road construction sites are taken from road troops that are now stretched thin. They take the troopers off the road and they can't replace them fast enough. The road patrol is of course very, very important but there are other important functions such as investigations, such as work in our anti-drug initiatives. So just how much more manpower to union leaders feel troopers need? We need to be far force up actually another 250 bodies. Vanero says he's satisfied with the level of manpower, but that the administration could take the troopers demands into consideration in the future, Jim Hooker and JN News. Senator Frank Lautenberg, Congressman Robert Menendez and a representative from housing

and urban development joined forces with a group of real estate agents in Jersey City today. They're pushing for congressional approval of a plan to make home buying more affordable for urban middle-class families. The proposal would set a single national federal housing authority loan limit. Currently in New Jersey, the limit is $173,000. The new ceiling would be set at $227,000. And the objective is very simple and that is to help merge our various ethnic and cultural differences into a common community, with those who are on the more modest side of the income gauge with those on the higher side. The proposal has passed the Senate and heads now to the U.S. House. Gentlemen, start your engines. That's what residents of one Cumberland County town would like to hear. There's now another plan to lure a NASCAR track developer to South Jersey. This can say John reports this time, folks in the area are hoping with state help.

They can finally get the checkered flag. NASCAR racing is said to be the fastest-growing spectator sport around. The popularity has prompted tiny rural towns like Millville and Cumberland County to convince a NASCAR developer to build a track. Assemblyman Nicholas Aselta has sent a proposal to the president of Motorsport Speedway that operates five NASCAR tracks nationwide. To show him that we have a package, we have the inducements, we have support from the governor on down to bring this project to New Jersey and specifically to our South Jersey region. A NASCAR track would cost $250 million and would pump $40 to $50 million annually into the regional economy. The business that it would create, the jobs that it would create, the NASCAR arena itself, it would be just a wonderful thing. It's something that we need, we would love to have, and it would be a blessing. Motorsport Speedway has expressed interest to build a track at the Atlantic City race course.

But the plan is said to have skidded off track. Meanwhile, Aselta and Commerce Commissioner Gil Medina recently visited one of the Speedway's tracks in Fort Worth, Texas. They hope the developer will take advantage of New Jersey's urban enterprise zone 3% sales tax. That could mean millions and millions of dollars in savings in a construction cost. A tremendous inducement when we get down to a large project this size. Meanwhile, shop owners in Millville, who sell NASCAR merchandise, welcome the plan. It would be tremendous. There would be many more businesses like mine, plus existing businesses, restaurants, motels, you name it, everybody, everybody's going to benefit, everybody. But not everyone believes a NASCAR track will be the economic engine, it's said to be. Taking advantage of the interest in Motorsports is a great strategy, but I think that in order to take best advantage for the local businesses and for the infrastructure and so on, that you need a more diversified approach. At one point, we wanted to find out what Dale Earnhardt himself had to say about NASCAR track coming to Millville. Well, I guess that means no comment. Ken St. John, NJN News, Millville, Cumberland, Ken.

Here's something you'll need to know. If you travel by rail this weekend, no path trains will run to and from Hoboken. The port authority plans to install new tracks and switches. Free shuttle buses will operate between the Hoboken terminal and the Grove Street Path Station in Jersey City. Passengers should allow, of course, additional time for travel. For information, you can call Path at 1-800-234-Path. There's more ahead tonight on NJN News. Fish and Game officials say this trot breeding spot was ruined by a state road project. The City of Trenton hopes a new downtown eatery serves up some local development. Stay tuned. State transportation officials say they've fired a subcontractor responsible for damaging

an important trot breeding stream in Hunterden County. State fishing game officials say the Prescott Brook is a high quality trot waterway, but the stream was damaged by a subcontractor working on nearby Route 31 on a widening project. The State Department of Environmental Protection is investigating just what happened. The DOT says it's working to bring the stream back to its original pristine condition. As we reported earlier to you tonight, attempts to reform auto insurance have hit a roadblock over urban rate caps. More to political analysts are at the New Jersey mayor's conference in Atlantic City where auto insurance was the political talk. Well here we are again at the mayor's conference and a year ago, Roger, it was a case of everyone

talking about gubernatorial politics. Well you thought that was over? Here we come this time. It's still gubernatorial politics about the biggest issue, auto insurance. In this auto insurance issue, as you know, has been around in a state for over 25 years. I teach a class at Eagleton Institute at Rutgers University and I show a TV commercial in 1973, a Brendan Byrne running the first time telling us how he's going to fix up auto insurance. I'm not surprised it's still with us. Well, it's actually impacting. I think a lot of things that are being said here are true. DeFrancisco, the Senate president and Collins, the assembly leader there, they're both taking different views. And it's very interesting. DeFrancisco has taken one that might be better for him in the moderate side of the election. Collins has taken a radical side that might help him in the primary because of the areas very interesting. You're talking about the territorial rate caps issue, which is really, as another thing you Democrats dreamed up, which is one of these Rob Peter to pay Paul's social engineering programs or 80% of the people that pay more for auto insurance to subsidize the 20% in the urban centers. They pay less under the program. And I think Speaker Collins is right. And I think Don DeFrancisco would go along with it's the Democrats in the Senate and the Democrats all over the state that opposed that approach.

Well, wait a minute. Like that, so do you. You know, right? And the Republicans were silent. Keep being in place all that time. Let's just say it's got to be fixed. One of the things you mentioned, 80% increased rates, lower rates if this went into affecting the boss, the rate caps, interesting thing is all these people that would benefit are in areas that would help Republicans in the mainstream. Well, so big. So big. But it's 80 of the point is it's one of these Rob Peter to pay Paul's programs. You know, Mike Adam Botto, a Democratic Assemblyman, arrested his soul, a real character, you know, dreamed up this idea back in 83 that said, all right, let's have 80% of the people subsidized 20. Now, Don DeFrancisco has got a good bill and he tried to make it bipartisan and he got Senate support from the Democrats while the one had passed. But, you know. It's a good effort overall for DeFrancisco. The interesting thing is Collins wanted to make it further, basically DeFrancisco has a stand up triple. Collins wants to run around and make an inside the car come run by abolishing rate caps. Collins wants to make it fair and he wants to make people pay what they truly should have. And the humanitarian politics aspirations are here because it's in a primary that's a concern for Collins and DeFrancisco says, oh, we're about that next year, but that's all the time we have back to you at the desk. Thanks, Roger and Jim.

Here's something interesting. We want to tell you about a new eatery in downtown Trenton with an international fair. The restaurant started with the help of a million dollars in government loans is part of a plan to revitalize the capital city. Rich Young gives us a taste of the new Trenton hotspot. It's called Maxine's. From the outside, it looks like an ordinary city building. Inside, it's all brand new. Maxine's is the brainchild of Henry Page. The 48-year-old started his restaurant career as a bus boy at age 15. He since worked at several eateries in New York and New Jersey, 33 years later, he not only oversees a restaurant, he owns one, too. We just want to become the restaurant with the best food in the area. Maxine's is located just blocks from the state house and just steps away from the planned Marriott hotel. Recently, Governor Whitman was among those who cut the grand opening ribbon. She has high hopes. Trenton is coming back. We have seen a lot occur here in Trenton over the last few years and we're going to

be seeing even more exciting things happen in the future. So what do you say to the naysayers who say Trenton is a place to come in at nine and be out by five? Well, it's hard to talk with food in your mouth and that's what's going to be happening because people will be here and have places to go and things to do. The page is spent about $1.5 million, transforming what was a 50-year-old restaurant called Casa Lido into the place it is today. We're told they had opportunities to open restaurants elsewhere, but for Henry, there was no choice. We had the opportunity to go to Princeton and open the restaurant, but we chose Trenton. We love Princeton. The Trenton is our home and we had to open our first restaurant in Trenton. The restaurant offers a wide variety of international entries, many with a soul food twist. On weekends, there's jazz. Weekdays, the lunch crowd is already piling in. Why would people want to come here? The food. Food is great. The ambiance. The restaurant is beautiful. The page has got about $1 million in government loans to get the place off the ground, but it's

seen as an investment in the city. 32 people work here, 20 live in Trenton. Page says the pre-opening days have been successful. In fact, he's already talking expansion. We're looking to do Maxine's tooth down the road there. We don't know what that might be, but Trenton had to be our base. Rich Young and JN News, Trenton. Rich Henry and Maxine, well. I don't know about you, but it made me hungry. Me too. But we have to talk business. You're going to tell us what you got. Let me see what I have for a bite here for you for business. State regulators are planning a crackdown on cable television late fees, and Kiwi Airlines gets the big Apple's attention with humor and mayor Giuliani's expense. Stay tuned. What a difference a couple of days makes, Dick.

On Wall Street, anyway, a couple of days ago I was telling you this was the hottest rumor going around. Well, merger rumors about Princeton-based summit bank orp and sovereign bank have cooled a bit. This now are downplaying the likelihood of a merger between summit and Pennsylvania-based sovereign. A key executive is leaving sovereign, and analysts say that decreases the chances that summit will make a bid for sovereign. And earlier this week, summit authorized a buyback of 5% of its own stock, spending some of the capital on hand that could have been used for such an acquisition. Someone has had no comment on the rumors of its interest in sovereign from the beginning. State regulators are preparing to act on what they see as abusive late fees charged by some cable companies. The Board of Public Utilities has proposed capping at $3 of the amount a cable company can charge a customer who is late on a monthly payment.

But the BPU says it's ready to act after receiving complaints that some cable companies in New Jersey were charging over to accounts as much as $10 a month in late fees. Governor Whitman and an appearance today before the prestigious council on foreign relations pledged to continue New Jersey's outreach to the international community. Whitman touted his state's success in establishing international trade links with several nations, which she told the members has helped New Jersey's economy expand. She also announced that she'll need a trade mission to Mexico later this year. The first time a city governor has done so. Wall Street ended the work week with a flurry of buying that propelled many indexes to new record highs at now average, soared nearly 91 points today to close the week at the 91-67 level for the week the Dow added about 170 points. The MX composite today rose five that has that composite moved up eight and a third. The S&P 500 jumped 14 and a half bonds again little changed. The long bond off an eighth and probably a point in price it's yielded 5.87%. Rudy likes it.

Well, at least he doesn't hate this ad campaign devised by Kiwi Airlines to lure New York passengers. The Newark disbased discount carrier put this ad on billboards around the big apple this month. Weak Giuliani by saying, great job Rudy, but some people still want to leave New York. Unlike last winter when the mayor staff threatened to take New York magazine to court for running ads that poke fun at his honor. Last night Giuliani actually joked about Kiwi billboards. He called it a fruity flighty airline. It's disposition a little sunny with those days. He's kind of cheerful. That nice weather. All right. Thank you, Dick. Well, the rain and stormy weather they'll stay with us for the weekend. The forecast just ahead. Jerry, how about sports? We ask another question. It's a do-or-die time for the New Jersey Nets Air Story Nets. That's the question we've been asking since the beginning of the week with a five game

winning streak going. It's not quite do-or-die time for the New Jersey Nets yet, but for those faithful who thought making the playoffs was going to be easy. Dick again, take a look back at the beginning of the week Tuesday, in fact, when the Nets had a chance to clinch, a playout spot at home with a team on a 13 game losing streak. The Raptors instead, they were handed their most disappointing loss of the season, followed by a loss at Charlotte Wednesday. Kendall Gill sums it up best Tuesday. You know, we're still not in it yet, and that's why we're trying to tell everybody that you know, don't count your chickens before they hatch, because I mean, it's not done deal yet. You know, it would have been nice if we could have clinched. You know, I would rather not, you know, celebrate yet. I think maybe people start celebrating a little bit too soon, you know. Nothing's over till it's over, and now we got to fight again.

New Jersey will have yet another shot at clinching a spot tonight in Orlando. They will wrap up the regular season Sunday at the Metallands with Detroit. The Nets after beating Toronto last night have already clinched the playoff spot. And tomorrow is draft day in the NFL, the Giants have picked number 24 in the first round, and they're expected to look for an offensive player either running back or a wide receiver. And that's sports. Jerry, thank you. How about some furry New Jersey natives? Well, they were on board. The Space Shuttle Columbia today, is it blasted into orbit this afternoon? Three, two, one. And lift off of Space Shuttle Columbia, on a mission expanding our knowledge and understanding of the human nervous system. The mission will be assisted by 18 Garden State lab mice, which joined more than 2,000 rodents, crickets and aquatic animals on board. The animal experiments will help unlock some mysteries of the brain and the nervous system. The New Jersey mice and others will be test subjects, as part of an effort to understand

how the brain functions in weightlessness. The local mouse trinots became the first American mice in space. The homegrown payload comes from the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School. Seven astronauts will conduct the lab experiments 150 miles above Earth. While they blasted off with nice sunny weather and Florida day back here on Earth and our area, we saw some wet and stormy conditions around most of the state today. But in some places, the sun did poke through the clouds and skies brightened up a bit for a while. The conditions were calm here along the Raritan Creek in Hunterton County. Certainly, a picturesque scene as the trees continue their beautiful blooms and the birds their songs as we move toward the end of April. Here's a look at the New Jersey forecast in the northern part of the state tonight cloudy with the chance of more rain overnight lows in the mid-40s, a-ha, but tomorrow partly sunny with a high of 65.

South Jersey tonight partly cloudy with a low of 40 and tomorrow a mix of sun and some clouds too with highs in the lower 60s, not bad. And finally tonight, it's been called by some a wonder of the world, a 16-acre attraction in Flemerton, which draws kids and their parents from all over New Jersey. They come to Marvel at the Great American Railway, a mile-long indoor display featuring 135 trains and eight miles of track. Oh, but there's more. There are 35-foot mountains and 40-foot bridges and thousands of handcrafted miniature buildings. 25 years of imagination and workmanship has gone into creating Northlands. In addition to the railway, you can see a 94-room doll mansion, a music hall, and an art gallery. Tours are booked on a regular basis. Word from the kids is pretty awesome. Not bad for us adults, too, we liked it, right? Awesome. That's our news for tonight. I'm Kent Mattahann for Dick and Jerry and all of us here at NJN News.

Have a good weekend, everyone. We'll see you back here again on Monday. There's three engines navigating the throttle back up to 104 percent of rated performance standing by for the throttle up tall. You can throttle up tall from spacecraft, communicator, kind of roaming, or acknowledge the You

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