New Jersey Nightly News; Episode from 11/01/1979 6:30 pm

We have an exclusive report on pending indictments against two New Jersey Teamster officials. In sports Freebirds New Jersey pro debut and Rutgers readies for its battle. Tennessee. And Gus Humming-Bird will take a closer look at the Blue Law referendum questions. In. New Jersey Nightly News with Karen Stone. Correspondent Gus Henning bird and Bill Perry with sports. Good evening. Tonight we have an exclusive report on indictments that will soon be handed down against two high ranking New Jersey Teamster officials during the past 18 months. New Jersey Nightly News has presented a series of stories dealing with alleged racketeering within the Teamsters Union. Producer Bill irène Hoffa and Raj Wells prepared this latest report. For 20 years. Teamsters Local 560 in Union City has been the base of operations for Anthony Tony prope Provenzano and his family through it. Provenzano has controlled Teamsters union activities throughout New Jersey. Federal authorities believe the local has been the hub of

numerous criminal conspiracies with local 560 officers and business agents deeply involved in sports gambling loan sharking and other criminal activity. Anthony Provenzano is in jail now serving time for two separate racketeering convictions while awaiting retrial on a murder charge. But despite his imprisonment law enforcement officials believe Tony prope continues to call the shots at local 560. The current president of the local is Nunzio Provenzano one of Tony Proz brothers Salvatore semi-pro Provenzano. Another brother is president of the powerful statewide Teamsters organization Joint Council 73 New Jersey Nightly News has learned of the federal government in an attempt to break the Provenzano stranglehold over the Teamsters union is preparing indictments against both Nunzio and Sammy Provenzano and sources intimately familiar with the investigation say the Provenzano will be indicted by the end of the year perhaps within the next two weeks. The indictments are expected to charge him Zeo and Salvatore Provenzano forest area trucking companies to pay substantial bribes in order to ensure labor peace. Such payoffs

violate both Taft-Hartley Act and the federal anti racketeering statutes. This scenario is remarkably similar to what happened at sea train lines in Weehawken where Anthony Provenzano and three other Teamster union officials used a series of truck and driver leasing firms as fronts to hide thousands of dollars in illegal payoffs. In order to avoid labor troubles. The train officials had to make regular pay offs to Anthony Provenzano and his associates. Eventually Tony Pro and three co-defendants were found guilty of labor law violations and are now serving lengthy prison sentences. Anthony Provenzano and the others found guilty in the same case are all considered prime suspects in the kidnapping and presumed murder of Jimmy Hoffa. Unable to solve the Hoffa case federal authorities hope that continued pressure on Tony Pro other members of local 564 members of the Provenzano family may help to crack the Hoffa case. The Justice Department also plans to indict this man Eugene Boffa Sr. of Hackensack. Boffa has become a major force in the trucking industry through labor leasing. Law enforcement

authorities believe Boffa is acting as a front for organized crime. With Anthony Provenzano and reputed Pennsylvania crime boss Russell Buffalo both his superiors and the operation in Newark. I'm Reggie wells. And reputed Philadelphia organized crime boss Angelo Bruno appeared before the state commissioner of investigation in Trenton today but apparently refused to answer any questions. Twice during the day Bruno was taken to a superior court judge to explain why he would not talk. Bruno didn't say much as he entered the building earlier in the day but from the comments he did make it was evident he wasn't happy having to testify. Bruno is the reputed head of organized crime operations in both South Jersey and Philadelphia. And sci investigators think he has a lot to say. Late this afternoon Bruno and his attorney left the courthouse and headed for home. There's no word on what happened inside the judge's chambers. But we've been told Grunow is scheduled to make another appearance before the s.c.i. Sometimes. A 17 year old high school student was shot and killed

last night in East Orange following a high speed chase with two orange policemen. The Essex County prosecutor plans to take the case to a grand jury next week. Meanwhile the two officers Richard Kaante and Ronald Martin have been suspended until the investigation into the shooting is complete. Reggie Wells has more on the story. Darryl Walker is dead today. At 7:30 last night he was allegedly speeding through the streets of orange when police began a chase that ended in neighboring East Orange. The pursuit ended when Walker's car hit a tree. What happened next is open to question. Police say two officers who had started the chase approached the car. They say they saw Walker reach under the seat for a shiny object they thought was a gun. Then a warning shot was fired into the car. By that time five more police cruisers were on the scene but before it was over a total of eight shots were fired and Walker was dead on the pavement. The Essex County prosecutor says the only shiny object found in the car was an empty beer bottle. And this morning he announced the killing will get prompt attention from the Essex County grand jury.

Prosecutor Donald Cockburn's says this case deserves special attention. I have. Call for that to be done. More speedily than we would generally do because I think it's important that this case be reviewed completely and fully and fairly. And. I. Think that that's the appropriate action to take. Meanwhile Daryl Walker's father claims that the police department never even notified him that his son had been shot. Seems it seems to me so I tried to call police twice last night. I couldn't get a straight answer. Anyway what are you trying to call you called the East Orange police. I called the. Police. And what did they tell you when you called them. Well this morning police said that I should come back to the police sergeant the law somebody said get back to him and he is not there yet.

We checked Mr. Walker story. The Orange police chief said that since Walker died in East Orange it was the responsibility of East Orange police to notify the next of kin East Orange. Police refused to comment. Essex County detectives will be working with the prosecutor's office to determine why a warning shot was fired and why General Walker was ever shot in the first place in orange. I'm Reggie Wells foreigner Jerseyans have been confirmed by the U.S. Senate as new federal judges. They will be sworn in later this month. Mercer County prosecutor and Thompson Union County Superior Court Judge Harold Ackerman and true to private lawyers Dickinson double voys and actually Sarah Ken were all approved without objection. New Jersey will not be taking part in the federal flu shot program this fall. State health officials say the vaccine to be used won't help the people who will be getting the free shots. Steve Taylor explains. State health departments have doubts about federal inoculation programs because of the badly run swine flu campaign three years ago. This year older people will get most of the shots paid

for by Uncle Sam. But according to state epidemiologist Dr. Ronald Altman the vaccine to be given is appropriate for young people who won't get it. We just don't understand it. We don't see where we're going to be helping people by giving it. You say it can't do any good. And on the other hand can it do any harm. When you give any vaccine to a lot of people there's a potential for problem. So what you have to say first is the vaccine won't do any good. If it's going to do good then it's far worse. Because the chance of doing good is so far away the chance of doing. Any. Harm. But if it doesn't look like it's going to do any good then why give it. Six other states agree with New Jersey and we'll stay out of the federal shunt program. Altman says New Jersey residents who really need the vaccine can get it from their own doctors. In Trenton I'm Steve Taylor. Metropolitan medicine company the owners of Three Mile Island Rochelle Pennsylvania officials why it should be allowed to keep operating in that state. Citing the recent findings of the presidential

commission on the Three Mile Island accident the chairman of the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission says serious questions have been raised whether men can continue to provide safe and reliable service at a reasonable rate. If the license is revoked it could have a ripple effect here in New Jersey. General Public Utilities of Parsippany is the parent company of my dad and any lies any loss of license and subsequent revenues could reflect on the New Jersey utility Jersey Central Power and Light GP who has already said it is having financial troubles as the result of the Three Mile Island accident and the state Public Advocate has stepped into the latest public service electric and gas rate hike request and complaints filed today the public Advocate's Office says PSC and Jishu should not should be only given 75 million of its 387 million dollar request. A PUBLIC ADVOCATE contends most of the rate hike requests should be thrown out because it will go for future construction and he says customers should not be asked to pay for projects that are incomplete unusable or unsafe. Governor Byrne

travelled to Cherry Hill today to take a look at the still vacant Garden State racetrack with him were promoters who want to rebuild the burned out track. If they can get enough help from the state. Mariam are also records the garden state race track burned down two and a half years ago. And Cherry Hill has felt its absence ever since in the form of lost jobs for area residents and last restaurant and hotel business. It's also meant lost tax revenues for the state about 8 million dollars worth. This man Edward Ellis has been trying to rebuild the track and he and the governor were both at the track today for an impromptu press conference. Vern said within two months he expects some kind recommendation from a task force he's appointed on what to do with the track. Ellis was a lot more optimistic. He said With help from the state groundbreaking could be within two months. But Ellis has been having a hard time getting investors in this period of double digit interest rates. And so he and his investment banker Robert Hayden are asking a lot from the state.

The most important thing that we need from the state is for them to set aside out of the 5 percent that they get of that handle about three and a half percent. So they can be put into escrow only for the protection of the bondholders. Should anything happen. And you know there is some catastrophe. The investors are also looking for permission to race on Sunday. And they've already gotten legislation that could give them 100 extra racing days each year the state racing commission says there's still another possibility that the state could come in and operate racing in a kind of meadow land south in Cherry Hill. Mary Rose So the saga of ocean growth continues with residents of that seashore community now wanting to secede from Neptune township. The state Supreme Court ruled in June that the municipal functions of the Ocean Grove camp meeting Association were unconstitutional and should come out of the jurisdiction of Neptune township. Now more than 40 600 residents of Ocean Grove have signed a petition asking the legislature to let the

Methodist Community break away from Neptune and become a separate municipality. Ocean Grove is known for its strict blue laws which bans swimming driving or even hanging out laundry on a Sunday. Now here's the weather forecast for the state tonight will become increasingly cloudy with fog developing by morning. The low temperatures will be in the low to mid 40s in London near 50 along the coast. Tomorrow should be cloudy and breezy and there's a chance of rain in late afternoon Miles High should reach the mid 60s. And at this point the weekend doesn't look very good. Saturday's outlook calls for cloudy skies with showers likely. And in sports the bird is the word. Here's Bill Perry right Karen.

Boston 116 and 79 that was the final last night in Piscataway Kevin Lockerby use the words embarrassing and humiliating when it was over. It was all of that Boston jumped out to a quick 10 0 lead. The Nets were in it only as it started with the center tip Dave Cowens got the first bucket after the first quarter. It was $32 11 enough now it's time to birdwatch Larry Bird the horrible self Celtic rookie scored 18 last night on 8 of 17 two of two from the line he got seven rebounds and handed out six assists all in 31 minutes. Red Auerbach is the man who drafted Byrd when he was a junior and I asked Redbirds but everything he expected more closely. Good to see you guys. The coaching set up was such. A very strong he fits in real good because he was to be coached and he was to learn. Believe it or not he's the first one to practice every day. Usually the last one to get out of there. So he has a super attitude. I'd like to ask you about a quote in Sports Illustrated a few weeks ago and that you understand why people don't

like to watch pro basketball you wouldn't either because it's not exciting now. You've been in the league for three weeks or so you hold to that statement. Well first I did but you know I watch the NBA games and I watch on TV this man and you know I would come and watch the NBA game because people say that was an exciting and now that I'm in it. You know the players make it to signing the players. If you get a good passing team and that's all people want to see is good passing teams and you know everybody can score just like any other. Or exciting to get it back in the past in the past. Come back. There's pro basketball and just about what you thought it would be. Well some things I don't know. You know it's a good life and I would trade it for nothing but you know it's a hard road and right now we're winning and it's great right now but if we start losing I'm sure things will change but hopefully we will lose. Right now Boston is seven into just one game behind Philadelphia and the Atlantic Division and Larry Bird is the big reason for the Boston turnaround of last year. The Celtics were last in the Atlantic with a 29 53 record. Never before had a Boston team lost that many games. Rutgers football team will play before 80000 250 Saturday in Tennessee. The volunteers always

sell out. Both teams were idle last week but two weeks ago Tennessee played Alabama tough before losing 27 17. The Vols but it's 17 at one point. Alabama happens to be the nation's top ranked team. Rutgers won its last 24 nothing over William and Mary but Rutgers loses to the quality teams teams like Penn State and temple and now it's Tennessee. Certainly a quality team. The Gaspar's asked Rutgers coach Frank Burns to compare the Vols to Penn State and Temple very favorably. Is there a very fine football team. And I'd have to say they're probably a quicker team than say maybe not quite as physical but they have overall speed better overall speed. OK. In this game against Tennessee How is that going to affect the entire records program on the whole. You mean the game itself. I really don't know. I mean you know if we lose it's not going to help us if we win it can be a great deal of help to us. But either way I don't think it's going to it's going to ruin our program or is going to make our program a success.

We have a racquetball story tonight not your ordinary racquetball story. This man is playing racquetball. Nothing unusual about that except for this. He's been playing since last Saturday. That's right since last Saturday. This is filled with the Course clubmen Windhorst going for a racquetball marathon record of 150 hours straight. He has already topped his own record of 102 hours and 58 minutes it's all for charity. This is raising money for the Muscular Dystrophy Association. He's allowed to accumulate five minutes of sleep for every hour of play. When we started I played for 42 hours straight. And then. Had two hundred and ten minutes. With the swing. We knew every hour that during our first period. We then played for another twenty seven hour. And took. A two hour sleep period and then wait for another 24 hour and took another two hours sleep period. You see the man wasn't even allowed to stop to talk with us but we understand. That's amazing.

Both the Republicans and Democrats are spending thousands of dollars to win seats in next Tuesday's State Assembly election and one out of every $4 of the campaign money comes from special interest groups. Mehram are also takes a look at some of the contributing groups and why they spend money on elections. Real to your doctor your insurance agent your car dealer. They all have clout. Not because of a credit card but because they belong to groups that have each contributed at least $35000 to assembly races across the state. John talk is heading the political action committee of the state dental association. His group expects to contribute a total of sixty thousand dollars to about 70 assembly candidates. Why are dentists so interested in influencing the political process. Ten 20 years ago there wasn't this proliferation of legislation directly or indirectly impacting on the industry in the past five years has been an avalanche of government attempting to regulate the profession. And in the past five years I think it's become more and more where that they have to dissipate the legislative political classes.

Special interest groups are pretty choosy about whom they give their money to. Mostly to people with power. The incumbents especially the heads of powerful legislative committees among those who got the most money this year from special interest groups were Don Stewart chairman of the assembly agriculture and Environment Committee Martin Herman chairman of the Judiciary Committee James Von Heimer chairman of the banking and insurance committee assembly speaker Chris Jackman. And both the majority and minority leaders. The tradition of lobbyists giving contributions to incumbent candidates is well ingrained. So much so in fact that the New Jersey Education Association created a small scandal around Trenton this year when it gave no money to education Chairman Daniel Newman and instead gave thirteen hundred dollars to his Republican opponent Hazel Gluck's. There are 80 assembly races for 80 seats and so a lobbying group can't really spend much more than a thousand dollars per candidate. The group say they're not trying to buy influence just accessibility.

Accessibility to the legislator the ability to communicate positions and to express our views and. Have him listen to what we're saying lobbying groups are getting more and more involved financially with each successive assembly campaign. One of the things government experts fear is that legislators will listen more to the groups who contribute to them and less to the public. They represent in Trenton I marry Amoruso. This evening we conclude our three part closer look series concerning referendum questions on the

ballot and next week's general election. Tonight's culture look focuses on counties voting on blue laws. Here's Gus Henning Berg in Newark. Ten counties in New Jersey have blue laws prohibiting the sale of certain goods on Sundays. Three of these counties Middlesex Union and Monmouth will vote on Tuesday on the question of whether to keep their blue laws clothing building supplies furniture and household goods are prohibited from say on Sunday in those counties move. But residents who want to shop on Sunday say the blue laws are unfair. Some working women say Sunday is the only convenient time for them to shop with their family or other people who want to free the blue laws repealed say they are simply outdated that they were designed for a time when Americans lived another lifestyle. Many opponents of blue laws contend that they are unconstitutional restrictions on individual freedom. Some religious leaders and many small business operators disagree. They simply

subscribe to the old notion that funding ought to be a day for rest and worship. They also charged with special interest specifically the operators of big chain stores and shopping mall behind the effort to keep stores open on Sundays. People opposed to abolishing the law of family homes for the so-called mom and pop operation will suffer if the Blue Laws are abolished. They stress that small emergence of the backbone of many communities and that these merchants will be driven out of business if they have to compete with the big malls on Sunday. The last question has been sharply debated in the weeks leading up to this election. Tom Psylocke who's general counsel for the two guys chain stores is one of the leaders in the effort to abolish the blue laws. And Manny Rockoff is a men's clothing retailer from Elizabeth has one of the small business associations opposed to abolishing the blue laws. Mr. Rockoff Why do you and your colleagues oppose this.

Well we are very much concerned with the decline of inner cities the loss of reliables we bring increased taxes to the consumer. We are definitely concerned about opening on a Sunday. Most cities have very very hard pressed. We wonder where the money would come from to take care of these police the firemen and the sanitation. Also another plus for increased taxes. We're also concerned with another area very very critical in the state and in the country the use of energy or the abuse of energy on the additional opening of something. Mr. Seiler you want to keep the stores open line. That's right. We feel that the principal reason for keeping the stores open on Sunday is that the people of the state of New Jersey have shown that they want stores open on Sunday in an Eagleton poll taken in 1978 71 percent of those polled indicated that they would like the right to shop on Sunday. The fact is that with changing

lifestyles in the modern world some people only have Sunday to shop on. People who who work six days a week there are working mothers who only have that one day to shop. And in addition we think that Sunday shopping will bring an economic boom to the state of New Jersey as it has to other areas such as New York Pennsylvania New York City Philadelphia where the stores have been open on Sunday. It will bring additional taxes. You agree with that. No definitely not. First of all in regards to the poll the poll is not exactly very fair. The poll is in a fair and sense that when you ask the consumer the question would they themselves like to work. Obviously there's a very positive no in regard to the working hours. Most retail stores today are open 70 well over 70 hours a week. I can't quite buy the fact that the consumer doesn't have enough time to spend his money. You have different consumers and he does well I don't think so.

No I think that with regard to keeping the stores open that fits in with what Mr. Rockoff was saying about energy now for instance our two guys doors are open on Sunday at any rate. We can only sell those goods which are not prohibited. Other goods across the aisle cannot be sold. This doesn't make sense when you're running a store you're running your air conditioner what people are driving to the store. I gather you'd like to have them closed all together is that right. Absolutely. You know he's talking about two guys but we're not really concerned about just two guys operation. We are deeply concerned about shopping malls. We're deeply concerned about Bamberger Now when a private poll just survey I should say recently taken in Monmouth County. We're talking about energy. The opening on a Sunday on a Monmouth County Mall would be would equate to the use of energy and eight thousand individual homes. Now multiply that by fifty two Sundays plus the many many malls and mammoth It is not that big a mall. You find that you totally wasted a tremendous amount of energy. Very quickly Mr. Rockoff will the openings hurt the small retailer. Definitely. Absolutely. I believe that small retailer will fall by the wayside and I'm

deeply concerned in another area too if I may just a second or two in most inner cities the small business man is deeply involved in service organizations rotary quantised little league heart fund. You must realize this much when inner cities begin to die. Community lifestyles will change because those service organizations who do great great work will fall by the wayside. Thank you very much. We've run out of time. The Blue Laws question as it's planned on Tuesdays ballot will be confusing to voters but no matter what happens in those counties where the vote will be taken there are seven counties in which no effect will take place and those counties are Essex Marise Passaic Bergen Somerset Hudson and Cumberland those counties will not be affected by what happens on Election Day. Those who favor a Sunday shopping and want to repeal the blue laws must vote no because of the awkward phrasing of the ballot question. Proponents of keeping the Sunday closing laws will have to vote yes.

Now let me repeat that because it is confusing vote no. If you favor Sunday shopping and vote yes if you're opposed. Karen once again our top story new jersey Nightly News has learned that two top New Jersey Teamster officials will be indicted by the end of the year. According to sources federal officials are preparing indictments against Nunzio and Sammy Provenzano. Both brothers Teamsters boss Anthony Provenzano. And that's the news for something and Newark and Bill Perry here in Trenton. I'm Karen Stone. Good night for the New Jersey nightly news. New Jersey Nightly News is a joint presentation the New Jersey Public Television and any team 13