NJN News; Friday March 21, 1997 [Master, Original]

A federal jury convicts Newark Mayor Sharp James' top aid on bribery charges. Classical questions are raised over the administration's push for that pension bond plan. Law school losses, why fewer students are applying in New Jersey. A South Jersey college is grad at university status. And who's really cheering at those net games? All stories and more on NJN News this Friday, March 21st. Major funding for NJN News is made possible by GrantsFront, the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, which believes that an informed citizen relieves 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. Guilty on all counts. That's the finding of a federal jury late today against Newark Mayor Sharp James' former chief of staff. Assemblyman Jackie Madison was convicted of accepting $17,000 in bribes in exchange for influencing the awarding of a city contract.

As Michael Aaron reports, Madison becomes the latest in a string of New York officials convicted of bribery amid ongoing investigations into corruption in Newark. Madison left the courthouse today without comment following his conviction on all 19 counts. His attorney Thomas Ashley had no comment either, but plans to appeal. For the U.S. attorney who has been prosecuting corruption in Newark for two years, today is verdict as significant. This corruption reached the highest levels of government in the city of Newark. That is an abuse of the trust of all the people of Newark who deserve honest corruption-free government. Madison has been a state assemblyman for a decade and was Newark Mayor Sharp James' chief of staff until his indictment, at which point James transferred him to the city health department while vouching for his character. I have complete confidence in his honesty and integrity. He's an outstanding individual. Madison was indicted for helping a North Bergen insurance broker William Bradley win the city's deferred compensation plan for a Colorado insurance firm. Investigators found $157,000 in cash at Madison's girlfriend's home under some floorboards.

The girlfriend testified it was her late father's cash, not Madison's. The government charged Madison with receiving $17,000 in payoffs from Bradley. The defense said it was repayment of a personal loan from Madison to his friend Bradley. The insurance broker was also convicted today on all counts he faced. The jury deliberated over five days before making its finding. There was no immediate reaction at City Hall from Mayor James's office. James himself has reportedly been under investigation. Newark's police chief and two council members have been convicted. But Jackie Madison is the first member of the mayor's inner circle to be found guilty. He's also the first sitting member of the legislature to be convicted of a crime in many years. This verdict certainly today demonstrates this US attorney's continuing commitment to identify, address public corruption on all levels. Governor Whitman's afternoon called the conviction damaging to all public officials. Sentencing is set for June 19th. Madison and Bradley both face possible multi-year sentences and heavy fines.

One immediate political consequences that Madison now will not be running for re-election to the assembly. Some Essex County Democrats were looking to push him out even if he'd been acquitted. Now they don't have to. And can't we got a statement from Newark Mayor Sharp James office two minutes ago saying the mayor is out of town today attending his father's funeral. But saying his heartfelt prayers and concerns go out to Madison's family and his children. And the Jackie Madison never gave the mayor a reason to question his commitment or his professional ability. Michael, thank you for that report. In other news tonight, state treasurer Brian climber was in New York City today meeting with top credit rating companies about the pension bond sale plan. Clymer's sales pitch comes a day after an assembly committee approved the plan and leaflets were distributed to state workers highlighting the proposal. Rich Young has details. When paychecks went out to state workers this week, they got more than their biweekly earnings. They got this two-sided insert by the state treasurer's office. In it, six reasons why the treasurer says the pension bond proposal is sound. On the backside, a statement any homeowner would jump at the chance to cut the term of his or her mortgage almost in half without increasing their monthly payment. That's essentially what the pension security proposal lets the state do. A treasury spokesman calls the insert accurate.

All that that payroll insert represents is simply the most efficient way of getting factual information about the payroll, the pension security proposal to state employees. But not everyone agrees with their facts, not the CWA, the largest state worker union. Their outrage, the state distributed an insert for employees, which they say only presents one side of the issue. The analogy I use is school boards where if a school board wants to get a budget pass, they're not allowed to send things out saying support this proposal because that's politics. Policy is one thing, but politics is another and that's all this is. It was clearly done for political purposes because the administration must be feeling tremendous pressure and the need to get this effort passed.

It's quite common for state workers to get regular inserts in their paycheck. Sometimes there's discounts to theater or circus tickets, other times it's a reminder to give blood. Once in a while they get an update on changes to the state or federal tax code. But one long time Trenton insider told me he can't recall the last time in administration, included a leaflet that is what he calls blatantly politically partisan. This afternoon, however, Governor Whitman said that's not the case. It's communicating with the public employees to tell them the facts about the pension system because there's been a lot of the Democrats and some of the unions have put out a lot of misinformation. Both the union and Democrats are demanding the same opportunity to hand out leaflets with the paychecks in two weeks. Their comments will need state approval. Rich Young and JN News, Trenton. A New Jersey college became a university today. Rowan was granted university status by the New Jersey Commission on Higher Education.

The panel determined Rowan's high quality, diverse comprehensive educational programs at the undergraduate and graduate levels should be recognized. We also will further our efforts to become the comprehensive regional university of South Jersey and achieve that kind of national prominence. It also will help our students. I think it will certainly enhance the degrees, the marketability and the value of their degrees. The name change is Rowan's second in the last five years. Some changes these days for New Jersey's law schools. It was labeled the lawyer glut back when the bar was the place to be when everyone wanted to go to law school and the ranks of New Jersey lawyers tripled. But as Sunder King reports on this week's edition of due process, the Trent has changed and law schools are feeling the pressure. There's a number of things I guess have come together all at once to make it look like now is the worst time to go to law school. And what you have now is the fewest number of students taking the LSAT that they've had in probably 10 to 15 years.

And not just fewer taking the law boards, but fewer applying to law schools and starting last year. Fewer accepted. I should know that that's a defense. You just know that. And that 16% six year slump at Seton Hall was gentle compared to the 23% at Rutgers, Newark and nearly 38% at Rutgers, Camden. 91 was the absolute peak time. It has had no effect on the overall quality of entering class. And Rutgers, Newark expects to keep its next class number stable. With its top 50 rating and national reputation, it insists it can. But Seton Hall and Camden say they can't afford to keep class numbers up. So last year both law schools cut admissions by 12%. The only way they say to keep their standards up. You couldn't get 410 students who you felt were at your standard. That's right. That's right. But what keeps driving the numbers down considering how they'd been climbing for years?

In New Jersey in just the last 10 years, the number of licensed lawyers soared by nearly 300%. The result of what came to be known as the lawyer glut. It started all of us asking, are there too many lawyers and too many law students? Extra still had that boom generation of children coming through the colleges and going to law schools. And could a change in prime time have made a difference too? The mistake of being a lawyer has been tarnished. You know, LA law is no longer on TV. LA law, I guess, helped us in the 1980s. So we need another LA law out there. But in the meantime, how will the law schools cope? Will some not survive? Well, we at some point face a shortage of lawyers or were there just too many to begin with. Those are just some of the questions on the docket for this week's edition of Do Process. That Sunday morning at 10 on New Jersey Network for NJN News. I'm Sandra King. There are now nearly 8 million people living in the garden state. New Census figures show rapid population growth in Somerset, 100 in and Ocean counties between 1990 and 1996.

The population figures fell in Essex, Hudson and Cumberland counties over the same time period. Population totals are important because they help determine the amount of federal aid and the state's number of congressional representatives. Federal officials have been called in to help in the investigation of three recent warehouse fires in South Brunswick. The latest blaze occurred Wednesday when flames burning nearly a million boxes of documents at the Iron Mountain storage facility. Local authorities called in the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, which probed the Oklahoma City bombings to assist in the investigation there. The idea of renaming the metallands track after a liquor company is on the rocks. We'll show you which democratic gubernatorial hopeful came out on top at a county convention and a high school competition with mechanical maniacs. Now that it's the continental arena, could Seagram's racetrack be next at the metallands?

No, Governor Whitman thinks it would send the wrong message to miners and the New Jersey sports and exposition authority has no interest in pursuing the idea of renaming the track for the Canadian liquor distributor. Seagrams reportedly approached the metallands with the idea for a price of 1.5 million a year for 10 years. The authority renamed the Brendan Bernerina for continental airlines in 1996 for $29 million over 12 years. Gubernatorial hopeful Jim McGreevy won a key victory last night in his bid to be the democratic nominee. McGreevy won the Bergen County Democratic Convention over his rivals, Rob Andrews and Michael Murphy.

Michael Aaron was there. They came from all over the county to cast their ballots, local democratic activists, as well as top Bergen Democratic officials. They were here to choose between Rob Andrews, Jim McGreevy and Michael Murphy, all of whom were here to court their votes. McGreevy was thought to have the edge of veteran Bergen Democratic, explains why. Well, he had the assistance of the county chairman who came out for him, which is a substantial support, and he has worked this very hard. Why are you from McGreevy? Because I've known Jim for many, many years. And I've known him, I've got to like him. He's a mayor, he knows what the problems are. Myself being a mayor, he knows the problems are running the town. It's the hottest job in the world. The candidates had their own spin in anticipation of a McGreevy win. My expectations will win the primary and will carry the county in June. I don't frankly know what happens in a closed vote like this, but every indication we have is will win the primary going away in June. No matter what the outcome, I think it's important. It's an important limit test, and it's a demonstration of grassroots support, which ultimately is very important in the primary process.

This is an insider's game here tonight. I don't know how it's going to turn out. The reality is that the big names, the chairmen's for Jim McGreevy. I understand Loretta Weinberg and Kenny Aziza who are both in the assembly or for Rob Andrews. It's however many people vote tonight. It's going to be a small fraction of the number of Democrats in this county who are actually going to make the decision. When they read the tally, sure enough, it was McGreevy 577 votes, Andrews 365, and Murphy 17. Thank you, and on to victory! Very good, Jim. Only a handful of counties hold conventions like this, and this one was just a beauty contest or a straw poll. Bergen is planning to hold an open primary with none of the candidates getting a preferred position on the ballot, not even McGreevy. He was now the endorsed candidate. Still, this is the first contested public event of the Democratic gubernatorial primary, and since Bergen is New Jersey's most populous county, the result gives a psychological lift to the McGreevy camp.

What does it show about your campaign? We work hard. Tomorrow, the Mercer County Democrats will conduct a similar exercise with the outcome expected to be either Andrews or McGreevy. Essex County Chairman Tom Giblin's endorsement is still the big prize awaiting someone. Michael Aaron, NJN News, Hackensek. Coming up in Business News, the state's latest unemployment figures are out. And a little later on, some raving over robotics in New Brunswick. So Dick, more people have been successful in their job search. You know, I guess if there was a labor groundhog,

I guess he saw his shadow in February because things got better. Positive news on the state's unemployment front tonight. A breath of spring, last month, boosted hiring. Unemployment dropped. Four cents of a percentage, point to 5.5%. That's the state's lowest unemployment rate at more than six years. And brings New Jersey closer to the national average. Labor officials say good weather helped create some 8,300 jobs in the state. It's been headquartered in Lawrenceville for more than 10 years. And under different owners has been part of Central Jersey's industrial base for more than a century. But now IMO Industries officials say the company may have to be sold or merged. The maker of pumps, remote control systems and other products says it has retained an international investment firm to help it explore the best alternatives. Just when you thought things in Atlantic City's casino business couldn't get nastier or more complicated, Hilton Hotels has made an offer on the same track of city-owned land. Steve Wynn is seeking to buy for his $2 billion casino mega complex.

Mayor James Whalon's office tells NJN business news they have received a letter from Hilton but have a binding legal agreement to sell the land to Wynn and will not entertain a Hilton offer. If Hilton were able to buy the property, it would be a back-end victory for Wynn's arch rival, Donald Trump. Here's a real surprise for you, parents helping the Easter Bunny fill baskets next week. A national survey shows kids prefer chocolate candy eggs and their Easter baskets over hard-boiled eggs, two to one. What a surprise. Love those hard-boiled eggs, Easter. The survey done by the Nestle Chocolate Company, you don't think there's any. Yeah, I guess not. They used experts to gather the data, they tell us chocolate eggs are easier to eat and just plain taste here. Okay. It was not a good week for stocks and bonds. In fact, the Dow industrials lost more than 130 points. Today, the Dow slipped 15 and a half to close the week at the 68.04 level. The MX Composite fell a third.

The Nasdaq Composite lost five, but the standard in poor is 500. Rose, what a half. On the bond market, everything pretty much had a standstill waiting for the other shoe to drop. At the Federal Reserve. The 30-year treasury today was unchanged with the yield at 6.95%. That's business, Ken. Will you just a little eggs aspirated with that story? I thought that story eggs sighted. Enough. Still ahead tonight, a check of our weekend forecast is coming up. And Jeremy's here with a preview of what's ahead in sports. Well, Ken, area junior golf gets a big shot in the arm. That story next. It's good. Thanks for watching. Jerry, I saw you editing the story.

You're about to tell us about a little while ago in the newsroom. And this is quite a young man. That's right. And you know, this is my kind of story because you know I'm a golf fan, a golf player, and let's show it to them. All of the above. That's right. Golf may be, though, a step closer to a lot of area young people. If a new program unveiled today and viewing is successful, it's gold to bring golf to the inner city. At age 13, John Pfizer already has the golf swing of a season veteran. He's been swinging the golf club since age seven and plays to a four handicap. Unfortunately, though, thousands of youngsters, Pfizer's age and younger, who live in the inner city, don't get the access to golf that John and others enjoy. But that may end thanks to a program aimed at urban areas. The Princeton Golf Academy and the Minority Golf Association of America are spearheading the program, which will feature junior tournaments and clinics in many cases free to the underprivileged. The other organizations that are doing such things are just unaffordable to the public golfer. For $40, these kids are getting to play bracketed tournaments for the gift certificate monies that I mentioned,

the trophies, and the elite courses that they would never get a chance to get on by themselves. And with a breakfast and lunch thrown in, it's an opportunity of a lifetime for these kids. They can sharpen their skills from ages 10 to 18. They have an opportunity now to play golf in the summertime. It's like a little league and a baby roof league and baseball wrapped into one. In its inaugural program last summer, some 600 kids attended clinics at the Princeton Golf Academy. In addition, this summer, the two organizations hope to establish junior tournaments in New York, Connecticut, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. Obviously, when you see a young black man hitting the ball, you instantly think of Tiger Woods. He is an example of what you want to get some of these kids. I feel that Tiger Woods is going to be a great impetus for the sport and for the youth of America. Not only with the youth, but he's attracting a lot of senior citizens as well. In order for the golf industry to grow and to be able to stabilize and go into the 20th century, is we have to get more youth involved in the sport. He's open doors, so not only minority golfers, but a lot of other young golfers looking forward to being on the pro tour and just enjoying that lifestyle.

What are your aspirations along that one? Well, my golf goal period is to file in his footsteps and be on the pro tour. He's already well in his way, by the way. He does come back and help out in giving clinics to some of the youngsters at the Princeton Golf Academy. Now to the say an age-so department. According to published reports today, your new Jersey nets have been playing foul. They've been bringing in the noise, but it's piped in as in can cheering over the PA system. According to published reports, net employees say the practice has been going on for years, and that other teams use it. However, some five teams poll today say they don't. Piping cheering. Come on, guys. Even the code says this is embarrassing. Do we have to do this? And just when they started to get the public relations all together. Piping the noise. You know, Jerry, do other places do this? Do what?

Do what? Do what? Do what? Do what? Do what? Do what? Do what? Oh, no, I should've said it. According to five other teams that were poll today, of course they want to admit it now. Now that the nets have been caught, we're handed to in good. But when the crowds down, I guess you have to live enough things a little bit. Just keep it safe. You're just getting the spirits of it. That's right for goodness' eggs. That's right. You're saying things a little bit. All right, Jerry. Thank you. We saw a mix of sun and clouds across New Jersey today. Temperatures stayed mainly in the 40s. And here's a look at the forecast in North Jersey for tonight expects some light rain with lows in the mid-30s overnight. Tomorrow, after the rain clears out, we should have a partly sunny day with a chance of some showers though a little later on. Eyes will get into the mid-40s a little higher in some places. In South Jersey tonight expect rain with lows in the upper 30s overnight. And tomorrow, a partly cloudy day in the southern part of the state with a high, look at that of 60 degrees. Having students excited about science and technology can sometimes be a struggle. But as our Maureen Duffy reports, that wasn't the problem in New Brunswick today.

It was a gym and the crowds were cheering, but it wasn't a basketball game they were watching. It was Rockham Sakham Robotics. Welcome to the Mid-Atlantic Robotic Competition, where 35 high schools from nine states compete to create the best robot. We poached things from the demand side of the coin and trying to get them really excited because we know if students are excited about something they will go and find the classes and the books to then learn more about it. The Robo Gladiator Games matches high school students with engineers and gives them six weeks to build a remote control robot. The best part of it was the idea of helping the kids and teaching them a little bit about the physics and the engineering that go behind the design of the robot. Here in the back rooms is where the students fine-tune their machines to prepare them for battle.

We got stuck on a high spot on the course, so we raised the wheels up a little bit, so hopefully we'll do better next time. Some teams even took to hiding the robot. There are too many super secret Russian spies around here. The object of the game is to get this tube on that structure, but it's not as easy as it sounds. Each ring earns team's points, but the games aren't as much about winning as they are about making science fun, and that seems to be working. Maureen Duffy and Jan News, New Brunswick. Look pretty cool. You can do it. Looks like fun. White science figures. They didn't hold a torch. A candle to this. Making science. Like fun. Well that's our news for tonight. I'm Kent Manahan for Dick and Jerry and all of us here at NJN News. Thank you for being with us, and have a good weekend everyone. We'll see you again on Monday night.