New Jersey Nightly News; 06/22/1978

New Jersey nightly news. With Rebecca Sobel in Trenton and Clayton Vaughn in Newark. Good evening and the news tonight the 20th bill which would have actually boosted police departments pensions after 25 years of service has been killed for this legislative session. A suspect is in custody tonight in the brutal murder of Michelle DeMarzo and an 8 year old cedar knolls boy has taken what may be the first step toward a Hollywood career. But in Rebecca and sports Paul bloodline I was a reporter and I don't the state's only pro baseball team the Jersey ended and on our closer look segment will spotlight New Jersey as your old unit pricing law and find out if we're getting our money's worth. The state assembly narrowly defeated a bill late this afternoon that would have provided police and firemen with full pensions after 25 years of service after only about a half hour of debate the bill went down to a 30 to 33 defeat. This was the latest setback to police and fire unions which have sought the pension plan for the past five

years by a 71 to nothing vote. The assembly gave final legislative approval to a bill providing for state regulation of hospital rates. That bill now goes to Governor Byrne for his signature. Meanwhile a bill that would make it illegal to write an intelligible contracts was released from Committee today. The bill which applies to landlords real estate agents and big business carries a fine of $500 and a cabinet level taskforce has found that conditions are bad at many New Jersey boarding homes. There are 40000 residents in those homes including former mental patients the elderly and disabled. The task force says however there's little the state can do about the problem without spending about 36 million dollars more. The assembly has two more major pieces of legislation to deal with before it adjourns the penal reform bill and restoration of the death penalty. The state assembly Labor Committee today approved legislation that if passed by the full House would raise New Jersey's minimum wage to two dollars and seventy cents an hour that's an increase of 20 cents.

Reporter Michael Norman describes who the new rate will effect and how the Labor Committee came to its decision. A raise in the state minimum wage to 270 an hour would affect more than a quarter of a million people in New Jersey mostly workers in unskilled service jobs like those in restaurants hotels and car washes. Others who work in interstate commerce are covered instead by the federal minimum wage which would go from 265 an hour to 290 an hour next year. So much for the statistics. Even with a 20 cent an hour raise in the state wage workers are earning just the legal minimum would be barely making it. It's almost impossible to support a family on a hundred eight dollars a week. Originally the state assembly labor committee debated raising the minimum wage not to 270 but to 280 an hour this year and to 350 an hour by 1981. But today politics got the upper hand. It was very hard to come up with a compromise. We didn't come up with a compromise if there was any changes they would be made on the assembly floor.

The state's business community has argued that the proposed increases were the highest in the country and if passed. New Jersey industry would lose its competitive advantage. Labor countered that the raise was so small it would barely help those who need it most. Like these workers but the real story may not have been in the testimony. A side issue in the debate on the minimum wage was New Jersey's campaign to keep industry in the state. Businessman cried long and loud that a hiring minimum wage would force them to close and leave. And as chairman for Taro said the Labor Committee just didn't want to take that responsibility. In Trenton I'm Michael Norman. Former Cranford high school football player New York Costanza charged today with the murder of Cranford high cheerleader Michelle Marcel. The couple had dated for two years but you broke off their relationship last fall. Well yesterday said Costanzo tried to talk her into resuming the romance but she refused. She was sexually mutilated and bludgeoned to death. As a truck inspection crackdown underway in New Jersey involving just about everybody from the

United States Army to the state police the campaign here part of a nationwide program aimed at truckers who all illegal or unsafe cargo. Federal and State inspectors are setting up inspection points this week they're concentrating on Puerto Norte the nation's busiest cargo base. One day this week 112 trucks were stopped 110 serious equipment defects were discovered along with a mechanical problem of the jacks are also turning up other things. A similar program in Dallas for instance inspectors found shipments of poison mixed with food cargo and poorly plac explosives. Looks like there will be a new Air Shuttle linking North Jersey with Washington and Boston. The Civil Aeronautics Board today tentatively approved an application from colonial airlines to operate the flights but a formalization is still a week or two away. The CAIB is action a defeat for opponents of the colonial application. The city of New York and some residents of the Morristown area. More than twelve hundred bus commuters in Monmouth County had to find other ways to get to work today as drivers struck the Asbury Park New York Transit

Corporation in a contract dispute. And Amtrak says there could be some real delays ahead because of a possible defect in the speed control indicator on more than 200 New Jersey commuter cars an indicator failure could have contributed to a crash outside Washington earlier this month. Engineers have been instructed not to use the indicator until tests are on a run of the manufacturer. The result of the ban will probably be some slight delays but there are those of course who would say that that's what commuting is all about. Last night we gave you some incorrect figures when we told you that the fares will be going up on the Lindenwold high speed line. The correct figures are lower than we had said the fare hike will range from 10 to 25 cents depending on where you get on and where you get off. If you decide to stick with your gas burner for a while and you have Safeco Insurance then you'll be covered for at least another year. Insurance Commissioner James Jay Sharon said today that safe go which it said it will stop doing business in New Jersey will renew policies for a year

after it cuts off its agents. A few years ago the honeybee was given a place alongside the red oak and the Eastern goldfinch as one of the state's symbols. And this week the state was the subject of a three day course in beekeeping at Cook College of Rutgers University. Michael Norman reports. There is no other way to say when this thing stings it hurts like hell. Thus it should come as some surprise that more than 5000 people in this state are either amateur or professional beekeepers. Some are very bright. Others merely for a few like these novice beekeepers seem just overcome with curiosity. For sure that one day. They came to learn a hobby and worked for a $75 investment in bees hives and equipment they could expect to harvest 30 to 40 pounds of honey a year with the

cap. I am their instructor Dr. Redcliff Roberts a college entomologist program that the honeybee is normally a benign and gentle creature. Yet when cornered it will defend itself. But apparently a strong desire for learning. Profit or fun can overcome even the most earnest warning. Have you worked with bees before you know Aren't you afraid of being stung. Yeah. Dr. Roberts gave the students one last piece of advice. If it be should have been a fright your pants leg. You just stand there calmly. Rattle it stops give it a good whack. In New Brunswick a college. I'm Michael. The State Board of Medical Examiners reaffirmed its opposition to physicians assistants

yesterday. The board voted unanimously to oppose two bills that would permit doctor's aides to work here. The assistants perform routine medical tasks under a doctor's supervision. And New Jersey is the only state in the nation that's banned the P.S. even though many of them are trained here. Governor Byrne is out of his indorsement of the idea of a foreign trade zone in Morris County and such as own companies that import products for sale or assembly don't have to pay tariffs until the goods are distributed. The project could mean as many as 2000 jobs for the general area. Meanwhile a new study says that that old production of 30000 area jobs related to offshore oil development is about 10 times too hot. Three thousand jobs is more like it. According to the study made for the prior State Regional Planning Commission the 30000 prediction came from the American Petroleum Institute which is an oil company Association. It was made during the fight to open up the area for drilling. Today was the first day of summer vacation for a lot of students and teachers in the state more than 400

Matto on teachers are at the beach at Sandy Hook. But it was hardly a picnic. Reporter Jack on today has their story. It was a nice day to spend at the shore but for these teachers members of the mater wine Teachers Association it was a day to clean up the beach that by order of Governor Brendan Byrd because some 162 years in this group faced jail sentences many of those were identified by T-shirts they had made up during their strike last fall. I commuted those jail terms to or thrown out of service and this Sandy Hook cleanup project is part of that service. Teachers agreed it was better than jail even if it doesn't really solve the problems that brought on the contempt citation for refusing to go back to the classroom during the 37 day walkout. I don't think anyone really wants to be here but as long as long as we're here we might do a job and have fun doing it. I don't agree with striking. When there is no recourse What do you do.

The beach here was badly damaged during last winter storms. Many of those cleaning today said they got a lesson in the manmade litter problems in the area ranging from all fires to discarded aluminum cans. Well only those cited by the court last fall have to show up today. Over 400 did you help them out including some friends and even parents. And peers that the teachers would be in target eyes by spectators never materialized. Teachers we talked to weren't sure this kind of punishment would actually discourage another strike. But they say the most positive thing about the whole forced work experience is the number of teachers who turned out. They say that provided a sense of unity that one teachers might not have gotten any other way at Sandy Hook. I'm Jack Carney. Our state house reporter Mariam Rosso now tells us that the penal reform code has passed the assembly by a 50 to 18 vote. The bill now most must go back to the Senate for action on a number of assembly amendments.

New Jersey public television last night announced the winners of its fifth annual New Jersey young filmmakers festival. That announcement during a one hour special program scheduled for rebroadcast Sunday at 5:00. The competition cover three age categories and the first place award in the primary division went to 8 year old Adam Terry of cedar knolls Sandra King has the story. Adams Prize winning film started here in the family rec room with a $100 camera and a crude cardboard set. But what emerged was an ingenious four minute animated feature which Adam and commissioned the second graders third film. The first was made while he was in kindergarten the second one last year first price and the young filmmakers contest. It's since been bought for airing on the PBS children's show and kids world. Predictably Adam's already looking forward to the day he'll go to Hollywood. Thinking about let go and. So the little toy

that still. Says stuff so close to me. Started in like Lake and then. We knew Adam was a winner. But he didn't. So when the program came on the air the Terry family was glued to the set as host Sandy Duncan announced first place in the primary category. Here is the first place primary winner and two nation. Adam was shocked. He didn't really expect to win. Going to win first place clay life. Is just so much better in this one. But his father who teaches filmmaking at the local high school and who helped on the project expected no less. He's. Done something really really good he's the. Best filmmaker in his age in the whole state of New Jersey. I think that's fantastic. 8 years old and now I have my car on the road to professional filmmaking. Last night it was very nice and the young filmmakers wanted in 20 years.

Maybe an Oscar. In theater no. I'm Sondra King. Of the cosmos when again and Paul Budde line is highlights of last night's game coming up. Here's the New Jersey weather forecast mostly clear and cooler tonight. Low temperatures will range from the mid 50s in the extreme northwestern part of the state to around 60 along the coast. New Jersey's weather should be mostly sunny and pleasant tomorrow. High temperatures will range from the upper 70s at the shore to the lower 80s inland ocean water temperatures should be in the lower 60s. The outlook for Saturday in New Jersey continued sunny and warm. First the bad news. American film classics launched Kristie. Hey Little Woman Loves of Carmen soles for sale. The romance of Happy Valley

Star-Club Charlie Chan in Paris my heart and now good New been found for the first time ever on television American film classics lost and now eight great films out of sight for half a century or more. And now they're here Saturday night. Good evening. The Cosmos have now won 21 home games in a row. Last night the team beat the Colorado Caribous 3 to 1. Raising their season record to 15 and 2 despite the weather more than 32000 were at Giants Stadium for last night's game. It was scoreless for the first 25 minutes but then Georgia came up with this interception and goal. That was the 21st of a year tops in the league and gave the cosmos the lead at one and nothing that was all the first half scoring. Then in the second half after Colorado it tied the game at one all. Dennis Seward put the Cosmos back on top with only five and a half minutes to play

two word and Gary Etherington work the given go to perfection. It resulted in a textbook goal. After being injured early in the season Venice. So word has come on strong. Last night's goal was the game winner. Obviously was very important in the first few games are so frustrating I want to see on the bench and watch and I know my my my ability and I was just dying to get out there and show the crowd what I could do because obviously they'd heard about me and they put up a lot money for me it was up to me to come out and show me and. I wanted to do it very much so in the way of accepting me now it's how do you get along with the other girls on the team particularly 0 0 and to be honest the big the big four has been you know he stoops. To two lockers away from me and as far as I'm concerned the guy he's been tremendously well he's got such a knock of goals going I think the biggest thing they can offer me is the fact that if the chance is. Better on for me to school he's not too selfish selfish which he should be for go school

to sell for him and that is good for me because that's always been my place to play for the team and feel that she becomes a school or do school baby. The Cosmos next play Saturday night on the road in Fort Lauderdale. The season is now half over for the jersey Indians minor league baseball team. The Indians finished their first half with a 29 and 40 record. Today the team held a news conference in Jersey City to promote the remainder of their season. The Indians are the only minor league baseball team in the state currently in their third season the Indians are a farm team of the Oakland A's. They play in the Eastern League against teams like the tuck in reading the Indians play their home games in Jersey City's residental stadium a stadium rich in baseball history. The team has had some trouble attracting crowds this tape from last night is a bit misleading. Bad weather undoubtedly kept people away. But you can see there is a problem with attendance. Jersey Indians management thought was confident that minor league baseball despite competition from other

sports is not destined to fail. You know we certainly don't. So this team is the only professional team in New Jersey right now. It certainly offers an alternative for the average fan to come out for a fun evening or expensive evening in relation to other major sports. But that's out on the field is certainly professional and it's certainly very exciting. The jersey Indians are at Roosevelt Stadium tonight once again against the Redding Phillies. The football Giants assigned two of their top draft picks. Number two pick McKinney and number four Billy Taylor have both but put their names on the dotted line. McKinney is a safety from the University of Colorado Taylor a running back from Texas Tech. Rebecca thanks Paul. You've probably seen those unit pricing labels on your supermarket shelves. Can you believe everything you read. We'll see in our closer look segment coming up next.

New Jersey are in the process of being revised to accommodate changing public opinion. The drinking age decriminalization of marijuana social gambling sex among consenting adults and the reinstatement of the death penalty are subject of a special report on the law. The public comments from Attorney General John Degnan public advocate Stanley Van Ness on these important subjects will be aired on Thursday evening at 10:30. A New

Jersey Public Television. For more than a year now New Jersey food stores have been required to post unit prices for the products that they have on their shelves. The idea of these cost per pound or pint labels is to let a shopper make clear price comparisons between similar products and different sized containers. However a little checking reveals that the comparisons are not really that clear and the unit prices aren't really that accurate. Steve Taylor reports. In a nutshell we found in accuracies in the unit pricing labels posted in several New Jersey supermarkets. We don't say the inaccuracies were intentional and we're not out to get any particular store. We do say however that shoppers who rely on unit pricing labels are being misled whether or not it's intentional. To be sure most of the inaccuracies we found were small. For instance in this store French's instant mashed potatoes were selling at 95 cents for 13 and three quarter ounces. The marked unit price was a dollar nine a pound but a little figuring shows the correct

unit price to be a dollar 11 a pound and a 16 ounce box of Hungry Jack mashed potatoes was correctly unit priced at a dollar not a pound. If you were trying to choose between the two brands you would conclude incorrectly that they had the same unit price at the same store. Baby food also presented problems at least four kinds of Gerber junior food priced at 29 cents for seven and a half ounces were marked at fifty nine point eight cents a pound. The correct unit price was almost 62 cents a pound. Nearby were comparable jars of Heinz baby food correctly marked at fifty nine point seven cents a pound. The labels then indicated the unit price was about the same when in fact it was not. Not all mistakes were small. We found good teaching biscuits with a marked unit price of sixty two point six cents a pound for a four ounce package. We figured it at a dollar eighty eight a pound more than three times as much. Jay Edelman who represents most of the state's supermarkets insists that areas like the ones we found are rare.

It's conceivable that the unit price was miscalculated it could have been a machine error. I really have to see the specific case that is not a common problem and we have not particularly heard about that as being one of the great difficulties with unit pricing. So you may have found an exception to the rule. Edelman says a bigger problem with unit pricing has been keeping the labels up to date with inflation. We allowed for that in our informal survey. The majority of the unit prices we checked were accurate but it was by no means an overwhelming majority. We found labels that overstated the unit price. They mislead consumers to imply that a competing product is a better price. That's tough to go around shopping with a calculator in your hand but that's not our point. Needed is a healthy skepticism on the part of shoppers or as the old saying goes let the buyer beware. This is Steve Turner reporting. New Jersey as you know uprising law went into effect in March of last year and forced by the Division of

Consumer Affairs and with me tonight is the director of that division Adam Levin. Mr. Levin who's responsible for posting unit price labels unit price labels the responsibilities of the individual supermarkets that are regulated under the unit pricing laws but in the report Steve said he thought that a healthy skepticism I think was his phrase was really necessary for shoppers do you agree with that. Well one thing was this unit pricing originally was introduced as a way in an age when there is no uniform packaging and when we're not only told that bigger is better but bigger is cheaper that people be able to have some kind of objective unit of measure against which to compare different products in the store. The problem is that we have found a lot of. Basic diversions from the original intent of the regulation in the law. I don't have any idea what you just said or what I'm saying is this. Only much of it seems to me is that the unit prices aren't aren't posted. According to that report aren't really accurate. That said the biggest problem is probably the lack of posting. The second problem is inaccuracy is the

third problem is misalignments or what's the Division of Consumer Affairs doing about this. Well we have a log if you hit a few supermarkets over there that they might pay attention. Well we have been working and now through the series of initial complaints that were filed through the first statewide task force that occurred earlier this year. However the next step is that we have now revised the total inspection procedure for unit pricing we're going to go through a shakeout period in July and in September we're going to launch a full statewide task force for a 30 day period and not only with state inspectors but also with the representatives of all county and local offices of Consumer Affairs as well. Getting back to the original question Are supermarkets being fined for inaccuracy as Oh yes they happen. Yes. Mr. Lemon you how often you grocery shop. At least once a week. You use unit pricing. Yes I do. Do you find that it's fair and accurate insofar as your experience is concerned. I found that in certain stores you have probably more fair and accurate representations than others that's the

problem and I try to shop at different stores in my home area the Westfield area and I find that some do a better job than others and I usually report what I find of the managers of those stores and then report back to my agency as well as keep in touch with Jay Edelman. What I was forced to do a few weeks ago though was to take Mr. Adelman on a tour of three or four of the supermarkets in my locality and show him what was to be described as nothing less than shocking. Mr. Lemon thank you for being with us tonight. I've been out on a closer look. We'll have the story of lore out always Creek in Salem County town stuck with 16 million dollars and no way to spend it all. Again our top stories the assembly has approved a bill to reform the state's penal code and has rejected a plan to improve police and firemen pensions and police have arrested a suspect in the murder of Michelle DeMarzo. Her former boyfriend. Clayton. That's the news or a couple of letters from the viewers coming into CNN 7 7 7 0 0 8 6 2 5 from Joseph saying.

People living in America congregate at church school work in the shopping centers. Tons of recyclable materials including paper glass metal and plastic are discarded on to try Asian garbage heaps daily. Get those containers at gathering places so waste materials may be processed into affordable things that improve our life with family neighbor and stranger. And there is this from London and Stephen Smith. Please excuse the writing because I had my right hand partially severed in an industrial accident two years ago. That's what my complaint is about. Why do people in authority allow the insurance companies and big business the right by law to control working men and women such as myself who have had the misfortune to get disabled because of a malfunction of their machines. There are laws forcing us to buy insurance but nowhere is there any recourse as to time limits as to when these companies have to pay their legal obligation. In addition they use this superficial guise of a contract to literally call you anything they wish because they have the money and the power to do so.

They would rather spend twice as much as we would settle for just in order to show us they can do what they wish. Goodnight Rebecca. Goodnight Clayton. Good night for the New Jersey nightly news. New Jersey Nightly News is a joint presentation of Jersey Public Television w any 13 year portions pre recorded.