NJN News; Friday March 5, 1993

Major funding for NJN News is provided by the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, First Fidelity Bank, PSENG, and New Jersey Bell of Bell Atlantic Company. This is NJN News with Kent Manaheim, Steve Heistbitt, and Jerry Henry with Sport. Good evening. A Jersey City shake condemns the bombing of the World Trade Center, while federal investigators fan out across that city in an attempt to look for evidence. The eyes of the world are on Jersey City, New Jersey. Two people have been arrested so far in connection with the investigation into the World Trade Center bombing of last week. The first suspect, Muhammad Salomey, of Jersey City, charged with aiding and abetting in the bombing.

The second, Ibrahim Al-Gabrani, who is charged with obstruction of justice. He allegedly assaulted agents during the search yesterday. The FBI today expanded its search of buildings and storage sites throughout Jersey City. Marie DeNoire tonight reports authority, C. Jersey City, as the key to solving the unanswered questions about the deadly explosion. The Jersey City officials would say little today about the FBI's continued presence there, and their own role in an apparently active and volatile investigation. The investigation is ongoing. I just left the FBI, and this will go off at some time. But this afternoon, authorities raided at least one Muslim religious center in search of additional explosives. This despite the mayor's assertion that Jersey City is not a hub for terrorists. But we don't want to see Jersey City become in the minds of Americans as a city where we have a terrorist problem. Jersey City has always been on the step of Ellis Island, the first home of successive ways of immigrants. Early this week, FBI officials had set up a command post at the city police station as

they began to trace their way to suspect Muhammad Salomey. He is a 25-year-old Muslim fundamentalist who lived at these apartments, who allegedly rented the van that held the explosives that ignited below the World Trade Center. Yesterday, hours after authorities arrested Salomey at this rider rental dealership, the FBI raided the suspect's Kensington Avenue apartment, finding what was described to be a bomb factory inside. But I would caution against becoming panicky or concerned. People ought to go about their business. They ought to rely upon law enforcement. Today, FBI chief William Sessions toured the Blosset. He speculates that Salomey, who is from Jordan, has been in the U.S. illegally, may have been left behind as a signature by terrorists associates, some of whom have disappeared, and may have fled to the Middle East according to law enforcement sources. Meanwhile, scrutiny intensified at the local mosque where Salomey worshipped. It is reportedly a gathering place of Muslim fundamentalists.

Under the direction of Muslim radical, Sheikh Omar Abdul Rahman, a man acquitted in the murder of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, who reportedly preaches a message of holy war against the Egyptian government. You know, it's very nice. Like, people have, we know, we respect every religion. And if anybody do this, it's crazy. Unlike yesterday, most of those who worship here were unwilling to speak with reporters today, and no one would comment on the teachings of the Sheikh Rahman. Did he just pray? Did he just... Did he get the sermons? No, he just prayed. Today, the Sheikh released a statement condemning the blast, saying that Islam is opposed to destruction of life and property of the innocent. Meanwhile, Jersey City police officials revealed they have been keeping an active file on Sheikh Omar. As for Salomey, they say they never heard of the man until this week. Marie de Noya, NJN News, Jersey City. Sheikh Omar Abdul Rahman is known to preach revolutions. Some say his talk is of violence, but his actions are not.

He's joining us now from our Trenton Newsroom to discuss the Sheikh and the Muslim community, Professor John Waterbury, Director of Princeton University Center for International Studies. Good evening, Professor. Several Islamic centers, including the Sheikh's issue to condemnation today of violence like the bombing of the World Trade Center, are they all necessarily sincere denunciations? Well, I...it's very hard to judge the sincerity. We know that this particular religious leader and groups with which he has associated have been involved in violent acts in the past. What is Sheikh Omar's message? Is he another Ayatollah? No, I don't believe so. He has not had that kind of pretension in Egypt, but he has been a fierce opponent of the current government and the current political regime in Egypt for many, many years. But he has, in essence, authorized pious Muslims to resist that government by force, if necessary. There are those who have claimed that he has ties to Saddam Hussein or that the bombing

was connected to the anniversary of the liberation of Kuwait, your opinion? I find that somewhat improbable. Saddam Hussein is not a man widely respected by believing Muslims. Saddam Hussein himself has, for many years, repressed, organized religion inside Iraq. I think many Muslims were shocked by the involvement of U.S. troops on Saudi Arabian soil in the attack against Saddam Hussein. But Saddam Hussein is not a hero in the eyes of Sheikh Omar or his followers. How strong is the Sheikh's group in the United States? I don't think I could really tell you that. I don't know. My impression has always been that his main concern has been with the political situation in Egypt and trying to bring about change there. And I don't know what the extent of his following is here. In a sentence, has there been a resurgence of Islamic fundamentalism reflecting despair of Muslims and Arabs recently? The Gulf War, I think, had a very shocking and profound effect on almost all parts of

the Arab Middle East. And to some extent, I think that has provoked a wave of strong Muslim feeling in the last couple of years. But it was already quite strong before the war. Professor John Waterbury, a Princeton University, thank you very much for being with us. You're welcome. Another news tonight. Rain, sleet, and snow fell throughout the state today, but the storm was much less severe than yesterday's. Utility crews over were working at full speed still to try to restore power nearly 220,000 customers without power at one time or another since yesterday. Most of the outages are in North Jersey. Near hurricane force winds thirst, he did most of the damage, but today's weather caused some more problems. Power won't be fully restored until the weekend, and at last count, more than 40,000 customers were still without electricity tonight. Among the many without power were thousands of residents from Bergen County, the SCNG says most of the outages remaining are in Bergen. Belinda Morton reports, hack and sack and little fairy have been the hardest hit. The Red Cross is here to give our heart for me.

The Red Cross of hack and sack gave out free coffee and food to the residents of the North Village apartment this morning. All 408 apartments had been without power since early yesterday evening. We had nothing. No power, no nothing. No heat all night. Where are you going now? I'm going to my mother's in Palisay's park. If still electricity, you know, wouldn't get it like for tonight, you know, I have to go somewhere, yeah, that's for sure. KSC and G workers have been working on the down power lines on Bergen Turnpike and Route 46 in Little Ferry since last night. Several vehicles were hit by the fallen poles. The owner of a nearby restaurant says seeing the down lines was rather frightening. It happened about 530 yesterday evening. Just a big shot and total darkness, and everybody started panicking in the store, and we just kept them, tried to keep them calm. Are you asking people to stay out of this area? Yes, we are.

We have a traffic bottleneck up, bottleneck through various streets because a lot of people work south of here, west of here, and they take different routes to cut through town, and they can't take their regular route. Many of the schools in Bergen County were closed as a result of last night's nor Easter. While temporary evacuation centers are empty today, as many as 50 people sought refuge at two of the local schools last night. The power outages also forced the closure of many Bergen County buildings, including the record of Hackensack. The paper had to print today's edition at another location. Police officials say PSC and G has given them no indication as to when repairs on these down power lines will be completed. So as you can expect, this area along Bergen Turnpike will be off limits to motorists well into the weekend. Melinda Morton, NJN News, Little Fairy. After bracing for the worst, the state's coastal communities are breathing a sigh of relief. As Ken St. John reports, the latest nor Easter left the shore with only minor damage. The strong winds of last night's nor Easter subsided today as shore communities awoke to

what amounted to minimal damage to their shorelines. And most town officials we talk to were considering themselves very fortunate that the expected high ties did not materialize. We've lost roofs off a lot of buildings, we had a lot of sand on Ocean Avenue, and we've lost a lot of beach, but frankly the tide stayed low during the height of the storm. Half the burl of Belmar did lose power for about eight hours last night, and city officials did open up the local gymnasium. We opened up our gymnasium for people who wanted it, but mainly it was for people to get away from, to get to where it was warm and to get to hot water and amenities like that. We did not have to evacuate anyone due to flooding. Our crews were up and down the coastline, salvaging what sand they could to replenish the beaches. In Sebrite, the Seawall held, and there was only minor flooding, but officials were worried earlier this morning. We were very concerned because we had quite a bit of water at the 430 evening tide, and we were, if the wind had to kept up with the 50, 60 mile an hour, we'd probably got about six or seven foot the next morning.

But around midnight the wind did die down, and that's what helped us out. Sebrite did evacuate about a dozen families, but it was the wind that caused the most damage. Here at the local hardware store, the cleanup was underway. We're blowing underneath the doors, and we're going to have the rug fixed and the floor fixed last Wednesday. I'm glad we didn't, we would have to go through this all again. All in all, sure officials say they consider themselves very lucky that the damage done by this latest storm was not as severe as the one in December. So they start the cleanup process once again, with the reality in mind that another nor Easter could come at any time. Kent St. John, NJN News. Coming up a verdict at the newer trial of several suspected mobsters. The flu bug hits some New Jersey school, stay with us. All right.

All right. The 10-month-long mob trial in Newark is over. Erdix have been reached today in the racketeering trial of seven alleged members of the Gambino Crime family. Among the jury's decisions, the jury has found Robert Bessacea guilty of being a captain in the Gambino organization. He could be sentenced to 40 years in prison in two associates, Anthony Proto and Samuel Cossaro also were found guilty of racketeering face similar sentencing.

A fourth defendant, Nicholas D'Stifano, was found not guilty of racketeering and conspiracy. Let her toast took a chance that a jury would say an Atlantic City casino took advantage of him, but at the casino, toast lost. Margie Smith reports a jury in camp today rejected part of the former high-rollers request for money from the Sands Casino Hotel. I consider this a win for myself and for all the people who gamble it to casinos. The last hand hasn't been dealt. Leonard Toast is talking like a winner, even though he lost half of his case. A federal jury has ruled that on four of seven days in question, the Sands Casino and Atlantic City did not get Toast drunk and allow him to gamble away millions of dollars playing Blackjack as Toast had claimed. The other half of the case ended in a mistrial, and the jury couldn't agree on what happened on the three days, Toast gambled the longest at the Sands and lost the most money. The Sands are very pleased, I'm very pleased personally, that they found in favor of the Sands on four of the seven dates, and on the other three dates, they were not persuaded

obviously by Mr. Toast's case. But jurors said most of them did believe the casino let Toast gamble drunk on those three days. They said there was just one holdout. The matters that we could not resolve, it was eight to one. These matters in all honesty were in favor of Mr. Toast. The presiding judge ruled during the trial that only the casino is responsible for losses, if it allows a patron to gamble while visibly and obviously intoxicated, Toast's attorney is predicting a win in round two. The jury found exactly for me in the principal, and that is that this is a case that's going to go to a jury. Now eight to one, I'll wait for the nice one next time. Leonard Toast will be back in federal court in four weeks to try his luck with another jury. A new trial to decide the issues not resolved today will begin on April 5th. Margie Smith and JN News, Camden. A family acquaintance has been arraigned in connection with the death of a 10-year-old Camden County girl.

The body of Tracy Joy Connors was found in a remote, muddy area, off-route 70 following a massive search. A 26-year-old David Knox has been charged with murder and kidnapping. A judge set bail at $750,000. I've already say Knox suffocated the girl in his pickup truck after taking her to McDonald's. An autopsy reportedly revealed the youngster was sexually assaulted. A friend of Tracy's reportedly told investigators she was seen talking with the suspect just before her disappearance. Robert Woodlens has been chief justice of the State Supreme Court since 1979. He's rarely commented publicly outside the courtroom. Among the controversies he's engendered his refusal to allow the filming at the Essex County Courthouse of a scene from Bonfire of the Vanities, that decision is one of many subjects discussed in an exclusive conversation between the chief justice and Michael Errin, a conversation that NJN special produced by Dan Noonan. Here's some of what the chief justice had to say about his Bonfire opinion. In terms of what I did, I think I was right.

I do. I very much think I was right. First of all, I had no desire to suppress anyone's viewpoint. I didn't want to stop anyone from hearing whatever it was that the movie producers thought they could show through Bonfire of the Vanities. Happens to be one of the very, very few books that I've read since I've been chief justice other than law books. I think it was an absolutely superb book and I have no desire to touch one eye odour of what that author wanted to show or what the movie producer wanted to show. Just a question of whether it's got to be filmed in a courthouse, a question of whether that scene has to be filmed in a courthouse. There is a group that's been identified whose confidence in the justice system is fragile, very fragile.

And if what happened in Los Angeles doesn't instruct people on just how fragile their confidence is in the justice system, I don't know what would. So the thought that blacks and minorities in general, but blacks especially having that little confidence in the justice system, should be subjected to their chief justice taking their courthouse where their sons, husbands, brothers are regularly shipped through and sent out to prison, their chief justice who names the presiding judge of the criminal division, who approves of all of the judges, who send their sons and brothers to prison, who names the assignment judge. That chief justice should say to them, well what we're going to do with this courthouse while we're not sending you to prison, so we're going to have a bunch of blacks in their rioting, screaming, in a courthouse, threatening to kill a judge, threatening to kill a defendant. I felt that it was just wrong.

The number of schools around the state are still affected by relatively high rates of absenteeism. And too in particular, Merchantville Public School and St. Mary's Elementary in Borden Town actually had to close down today. Mary Cummings reports. Were you sick before today? Today's the first day that you got sick? Yes. Kanita Ellison is the latest in a long line of children to troop through Nurse Carol Daly's door. Here at the Slackwood Elementary School, things are finally starting to return to normal. The absentee rate is down a bit from a high of 15 percent earlier this week. After all sorts of nasty ailments had set in. I had an headache and a stomach ache, I had a fever. I see basically the flu, but we also have seen some strep throat and some gastroenteritis. Diseases which are easily transmitted from one to another. Okay, you're using it. They're tough to prevent.

We found that the viruses and colds are spread when you touch your eyes and your nose a lot too, so that your hands need to be clean. And they can turn into something serious, if not monitored closely. If the temperature is over 102 orally, if they've had a fever for 24 hours without any other symptoms, or they've had a fever for several days, they really need to contact the doctor to be sure that it's not another illness that we're assuming is the flu. According to state officials, 27 schools across New Jersey have reported absentee rates of at least 15 percent this year. Some, like St. Mary's in Borden Town, have had a close temporarily. In addition, the number of schools affected might actually be higher because reporting is voluntary. So how much longer till flu seasons over? Officials say hang in there for another month or so. This all should end in early April. Mary Cummings, NJN News, Lawrence Township. When we come back, the latest on unemployment. And making the patch a little easier to afford, stay with us. In tonight's money matters, New Jersey last month fell further behind the nation when

it came to making new jobs. The U.S. unemployment rate dropped slightly in February to 7 percent. That's the lowest rate since November of 91. But in New Jersey, the rate went up nearly half a point in February to 7.8 percent. The rate Labor Commissioner Ray Ramucci says the increase in New Jersey is not as significant as it sounds to many people. We hit rock bottom in job loss in September of 92. Since that time, we've created 16,300 new jobs and a matter of fact, 15,000 in January. That's a more positive count because we check with more employers to find out what they've been doing. Commissioner Ramucci says the state needs a federal job stimulus. The West Mr. Bank Corp today opened its new trading floor in New Jersey. That West left its old, smaller digs in Manhattan for newer and up-to-date digs in Jersey

City. The $10 million facility at exchange places three times larger than the Manhattan floor, which will save the new trading operation employees 180 people. That West says the new operation is the largest treasury trading room in New Jersey and the most advanced in the U.S. The technology that is the main difference. The communications technology is the key to successful trading and the key to successfully meeting the needs of our customers who are buying securities from us, who are transacting for an exchange. And we therefore feel that if we can get up-to-date modern technology supporting our traders, our customers will get the benefit of that. That West expects the move will enable its double its business over the next five years. May recall that about a week and a half ago, literally announced its donating two million of its pro-step nicotine patches to help smokers quit. The Wayne-based Lethaly today, so the response has been so good, lethaly will donate another one million patches and rebate one-third of the cost of pro-step to other smokers who have to pay for it.

Wall Street today moved higher on the U.S. unemployment report. The Dow has closed up nearly six losers edge gainers and heavy trading. The MX has finished up a point. The OTC has finished up about a half a point. Public service electric and gas is looking for people to mow the lawn. Well, more to the point, it's conducting a study on the need for emission standards for gasoline power mowers and it wants to find out what people think about electric mowers. So, the Newark-based utility is looking for 100 people to take part in the Enviro Lawn Project. BSENG will exchange your working gas mower for one of its black and decker cordless mowers. You want to find out more right BSENG of this address. The EPA estimates the average gasoline powered mower produces as much ozone-creating pollutants in one hour as driving a car 50 miles. Just ahead, Dave Barber with the Weekend Forecast. And in sports, a surprising coaching move in the NFL today and Seton Hall's Terry and here goes for the record, Jerry's next. Good evening, Dave Barber here in the NJN Weather Center, still an active radar, but at

least not as active as it was yesterday, scattered precipitation across the state. Some too light to be detected by the radar. The light snow is, we've had a rain snow mix much of the afternoon or evening hours across the state, heavier snow is across portions of the New England states moving up closer to that area of low pressure on the top side, moisture from the Atlantic being slung around the top of the area of low pressure, meaning the colder air coming down out of eastern Canada. Still, the clouds extensive, but maybe by Sunday, clouds will break up enough that we will see some sunshine for our weekend. Still though on our Saturday, clouds across the area may be a few breaks and still some scattered flurries possible, but the accumulating snow should be ending tonight. First, towards the night, you can see maybe an intraditional accumulation, maybe two inches, south Jersey shore and across portions of the northwest, especially overnight lows,

close to freezing for tomorrow, some scattered snow flurries with highs in the 30s to low to mid 40s. Kent, Steve. Thanks, Dave. It could. It should and probably will happen tomorrow afternoon at the Mettelands, Jerry. Probably will. Kent and special honors on tap for seat and hall senior Terry to hear tomorrow, as tomorrow, as the pirates take on St. John's and their final regular season game at the Mettelands, the hairs number 24 will be retired. The hair becomes the 10th seat and hall player to receive such an honor. He enters tomorrow's game, needing only seven points to move past St. John's stand out Chris Mullins as the biggest all time leading scorer. It's almost like a storyboard type thing. If you ever had a dream and you know, it's like it's fun to finally come true and happen to be doing it against a team that Chris Mullin actually played for. It's a big game and I think that in a game such as that where I only need seven points I'm not going into the game. We're in about seven points. I think that seven points, you know, will definitely come into the flow of the offense if I just take my time and let the shots come.

It's just a great feeling to have a career that I did and hopefully the next couple of weeks they'll even get better. Seaton Hall could win the school's first regular season Big East title. Elsewhere the Atlantic 10 tournament gets underway Sunday, Rutgers takes on St. Joseph's and in North East Conference play Ryder will host FDU tomorrow. The Bronx beat L.I.U. last night behind senior Derek Supers 26 points. Ryder is now 11 and one at home this season and is undefeated in the conference at the Bronx Zoo where there has truly been no place like home for a Subaru and company. It's a playoff game, a game of that magnitude on your home court. You know, it makes you play harder at the end of the season, at the end of the regular season I'm speaking of. And you know, at the end of our regular season, you know, we noticed that we had a chance to play all of our games that even possibly an ESPN game here. So you know, it was definitely something to work for and you know, it paid off, a hard work paid off. Now we got to put the hard work to the test. Our sales, our fans, you know, all that's speaking of is the ESPN game.

You know, ESPN is going to come in here in our gym and you know, that's not the case. It's very hard to just stay and focus and take it one game at a time, which that's the way it has to be. Surprise in Washington today as Redskins coach Joe Gibbs announced his retirement citing health problems as the reason Gibbs has been with the Washington for the past 12 years, guiding the club to three super bowl victories. Gibbs says he didn't feel well at the end of last season. Adding doctors described his condition as migraine equivalent without headaches. Gibbs says he wants to spend more time with his family, meanwhile the defensive coach Richie Petabon takes over as head coach. Still a race car on her, though. Definitely. Well, that's our news for tonight. I'm Steve Hatchman. And I'm Kent Mountahan from all of us here at NJN News. Thank you for being with us and enjoy the weekend.