NJN News; Wednesday March 11,1998

A landmark terrorism verdict, a judge orders Iran to pay hundreds of millions of dollars to a New Jersey woman's family. When's it coming? Who will pay? Electronic Tolls are on the way to three of New Jersey's major roadways. Emotional testimony today from the families of victims pushing to speed up the death penalty process. A high-profile prosecutor reflects on Capitol Punishment as he prepares to leave office. And a new look is washing ashore on Camden's waterfront, and J.N. News for Wednesday, March 11. Major funding for NJN News is made possible by Grant Strough, the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, which believes that an informed citizen released to a healthy democracy. The SENG committed to serving customers strengthening the business community and investing in New Jersey's future.

The union serves the financial needs of individuals and businesses from Connecticut to Florida. H.I.P. 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, in partnership with Public Television, serving to inform, fight 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. It's a landmark verdict that execs a price for terrorism. A federal judge in Washington has ordered Iran to pay hundreds of millions of dollars to the family of a New Jersey woman killed in a 1995 suicide bombing in the Middle East. The Iranian government must pay $247 million to the parents of Alisa Flato.

Lawyers for the Flatoes claimed the group responsible for the terrorist bombing in the Gaza Strip that killed the student from West Orange was financed by Iran. Today in Washington, Stephen Flato reacted to the decision. There is no closure. You lose somebody in a terrorist attack when someone is ripped out of the prime of life. You can't replace that person. You can't clone that person. You can't make up for that person. Alisa Flato was a 20-year-old student at a Jerusalem seminary when she and seven Israeli soldiers were killed in the blast. The court's decision is believed to be the first time U.S. citizens have been awarded punitive damages against a foreign nation accused of sponsoring terrorism. It was New Jersey, U.S. Senator Frank Lautenberg, who amended the 1996 anti-terrorism act, allowing families to sue foreign governments involved in terrorism. No nation can pick on American citizens at their direction, at the country's direction,

without our country responding in some lawful, but the direct way. Today's decision includes $226 million in punitive damages and some $20 million for economic hardship and pain and suffering. It's unclear how much the Flato family would ultimately receive. Their attorney says they will have to go after the government of Iran to collect. Last night, we told you about a half a billion dollar agreement reached by the New Jersey toll roads to bring easy pass to the Garden State. Today officials laid out details of the project's timeline and funding. Statehouse correspondent Jim Hooker is in Hamilton Township at a Turnpike toll plaza with the latest on how this computer age program will work. Jim? Can Easy Pass has already been in use at the Hudson River crossings and the New York through way for some months now. Well, today, reporters got a demonstration of how it would work here in New Jersey. And officials also gave us the low down on just when we can expect the system to be in

place here. With Easy Pass, drivers digging for hard currency will be a thing of the past along the three major toll roads. Instead, motorists will glide through toll plazas without even stopping for change. An electronic eye picking up signals and building a single prepaid account that takes care of any muscle fuss. This is probably one of the most significant and major changes since the invention of toll booths, which is, of course, the introduction of Easy Pass to our systems in New Jersey and the surrounding areas. Officials promised to have the system running on the Atlantic City Expressway within eight months and the Turnpike in Parkway in 22 months or by January 2000. The contractor has experienced delays in a trial project on the Expressway and in California, but company officials say much of that was due to contractual changes. There are penalties of up to $5,000 a day and financial incentives built into the New Jersey contract to ensure timely completion. We're not looking at how do we get this thing done on schedule.

We're looking at how do we get this thing done ahead of schedule and up here as fast as we can. A $25 fine for toll cheats is expected to raise $450 million over 10 years and the toll authorities expect to lease space on newly laid, fiber optic cable to come up with $200 million for the system over 20 years. Some New Jersey drivers say they're looking forward to signing up. And probably we'll make it a much easier and more convenient because sometimes I'm always having to have change if I go through the parkway. I think it's better in it as much as it's starting in that long queue. These New Yorkers already have Easy Pass and they like it. It's easier just like go straight through, it stops all the delays. Today I used Easy Pass pass by a whole row of trucks and people that are just waiting online. How much time do you save yourself? At least 15 minutes just on that one toll. Now the Delaware Memorial Bridge will also be hooked into this system. There's no word on whether the bridge is between New Jersey and Pennsylvania will be hooked in.

Now an 800 number will be set up for those who want to sign up for this and we're told they'll be an extensive marketing campaign. As always into the future as far as the I can see, hard cash will still count if you want to go with that. Can't that sit from here at the turnpike back to you in the studio? Jim, thank you. The right to die issue will soon become an official public debate in New Jersey. The State Board of Medical Examiners has voted to hold hearings on when patients and families have the right to make the delicate decision. The board is looking at the requirement that doctors consult with two independent physicians in order to decide if a terminally ill patient is competent to refuse life-sustaining treatment. What's holding up the death penalty process in New Jersey? That was the topic of discussion today at a hearing held by a death penalty study commission appointed by the governor. Trish Gaspers has that story. Robert Marshall, who paid a hitman to kill his wife, has been on death row longer than anyone in New Jersey since 1986. Although his appeals are nearly exhausted, he's at least several years away from facing lethal

injection. New Jersey, like other death penalty states, averages between 13 and 17 years after conviction before a death sentence is actually carried out. Fifteen and a half years after its reenactment, New Jersey's death penalty has yet to be carried out, and it's unlikely that a single murderer will be executed for years to come. That is wrong. The death penalty study commission is looking into how to speed up the process. It's made up of lawyers, legislators, and even the father of a victim. As a member of somebody who's a victim of a crime, you always think, well, what are they waiting for? I was there, I know it's everything's all done. But there are certain things that have to be followed through with, and that's what we're trying to shorten that process up a little bit if we can. There are now 14 people on death row since the state reinstituted the death penalty in 1982. Those on the row have used years of legal appeals to avoid or at least postpone lethal injection.

Even the man who wants to die, John Martini, who kidnapped and murdered a businessman, is protected by that appeals process. Richard Pompeo, a lawyer, founded a legal group to help the families of victims. His own teenage son was murdered. Pompeo would like to see the million spent on death penalty appeals go to help victims. There are parents of murdered children who are becoming alcoholics and getting divorced. And there's nobody helping them. There's no money going in that direction. Where's all the money going? All the money is going for that guy sitting on death row. And we all know that you're not going to rehabilitate him. You're not going to do anything but warehousing and hope that Gotti dies before he's 75 years old. And we got another problem as to what to do with him. The commission has several more months of hearings after which a report will be given to the governor. Trishti Gaspers, NJN News, Paramis. Not going Middlesex County prosecutor Robert Gluck does not believe the death penalty needs

to be speeded up. Gluck leaves office this week after six years as his county's top lawman. Governor Whitman is replacing the Democrat Gluck with Republican Glenn Berman. Gluck talked about his tenure with Michael Aaron today. I'm not sure that I support speeding up the implementation of the death penalty. Robert Gluck didn't even believe in capital punishment when he was sworn in six years ago, then a young mother, Gail Schaller, was carjacked, raped, killed, her daughter left overnight out in the cold by Scott Johnson. The prosecutor broke with tradition in Middlesex and personally tried the case. This is the type of case that the prosecutor, if he's going to try a case, should be out there trying. The one that the specific crime that everybody, everybody in this county fears, to be plucked out of their normal everyday activities and be treated the way Gail Schaller was treated. Seeing the problems that this crime caused, seeing the pain in the victims and the victims family, I decided at that time that there was a place in our society for the death penalty.

That converted me so to speak. The jury spared Johnson's life. Gluck thinks a faulty jury selection process led in two jurors firmly against capital punishment, but he thinks the criminal justice system is working well in New Jersey. Gluck was on the job just one month when young Timothy Wiltsy's body was found after a year and suspicion fell on the mother, Michelle Litzinski. That crime remains unsolved. The mother is still a suspect. Back then says Gluck, the criminal case backlog was 2,500 today, it's 500, he says. In part because he put an assistant prosecutor inside every police department. His advice to his successor, remember, you're there to process criminal cases. The only fear I have ever had about prosecutors in my thought process about prosecutors, my theory about prosecutors is they lose sight of that core function and think they're something else. They're media stars or some other social service organization. You can be that, as long as you're not lose sight of that core function.

The office is full of mementos, packed up now for a move. Gluck returns to criminal defense work next Monday, something he did for 17 years and says it won't be much different. To be very honest with you, being a prosecutor as a matter of fairness, just as being a defense attorney as a matter of fairness. Michael Aaron, NJN News, New Brunswick. Governor Whitman is asking U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno for help in getting Joanne Chesemard extra-dited from Cuba. She says if the U.S. is moving toward normalization of relations with Cuba, the return of the convicted murderer should be a precondition. Chesemard was convicted of the 1977 murder of New Jersey State Trooper Werner Forrester. She escaped prison two years later and has been a fugitive in Cuba ever since that time. Whether we have to wait until Castro is no longer the head of Cuba, that's one way, and then really put pressure on the State Department and then Janet Reno in the Justice Department would have much more leeway in bringing her back because right now there's no extradition treaty.

The Whitman administration has set aside $50,000 in discretionary state funds as a reward for the apprehension of Chesemard. Looking for more money, individuals and groups testified today at the first public hearing on the governor's proposed state budget. The $18 billion spending plan got a going over from some speakers who asked for more money for charity care for hospitals and state colleges. Two more hearings are scheduled for later this month in Newark and in Trenton. Billboards will soon line the roadways surrounding the metal land sports complex. The cash straps, sports and exposition authority, which is also sold naming rights to continental airlines and other sponsors, is helping to raise nearly half a million dollars more with new billboards. The plan calls for six locations along Route 120 and Patterson Plank Road. Officials are also looking into the possibility of bringing in more dollars yet with additional signs along Route 3. The leader of one Hudson County town is calling for a new source of funding for education. As a caucus mayor, Anthony Just wants a bipartisan commission for him to push forward change

in the current system, which relies on property tax dollars to pay for schools. Just displayed some 1,500 letters, mailing out to every New Jersey mayor or school superintendent and state lawmaker, asking for support. There's more news ahead tonight on NJN News. More than 200 acres of blighted, inter-sitting area in Trenton will soon get a facelift. I'm Ken St. John in Kenden, where there are 50 plus acres of undeveloped land that soon will be developed. Officials hope it can bring economic prosperity and jobs to this economically depressed city. I'll have that story. Could 50 acres of prime undeveloped real estate along the Camden Waterfront be another

step toward the revitalization of the economically depressed city? One nonprofit agency thinks so. Ken St. John has more on the plan and the new look. Speaking out of his A-floor window on the Camden Waterfront, Tom Corcoran sees the future. His corporation is spearheading an effort to develop 50 acres of land between the Camden Aquarium and the Ben Franklin Bridge with private and public money. That will make the Camden Waterfront in combination with Penn's Landing and Independence Mall over in Philadelphia, the center of probably one of the premier tourist destinations in the country. One such project is the Camden Children's Garden to be built next to the aquarium groundbreaking is scheduled for the fall. The best way to think of it is a horticultural sesame street place. There are also plans to build a 6200-seat minor league baseball stadium and create a museum

of recorded sound. A place that will really celebrate the rich heritage of the industry that was born in Camden with RCA Victor. It will talk about all the artists who performed here, Caruso, Louis Armstrong. And then there's to be a family entertainment center. A unique way for families to have fun, virtual reality, very active, participatory activities for families to do. The entire project will be connected to Philadelphia via a tram, stretching over the Delaware River. And then you come across a fixed cable, 135 feet above the water, just like the bridge. And on this side, then you come down and land in Camden. Camden can be viewed as a tale of two cities. On the one hand, you have high crime and unemployment. Closer to the riverfront, you have success and prosperity. And it's that success and prosperity that officials hope can spread to the rest of the town.

The waterfront by itself is only one part of the overall answer to the revitalization of Camden. Meanwhile, Corquan says the project has the support of the state, county, and the Delaware River Port Authority. Ken St. John and Jan News, Camden. Further north of Camden, more than 200 acres in Trenton are getting set for a facelift. The city received a $3.8 million grant to buy land in the Canal Banks area. The Housing and Urban Development Secretary Andrew Cuomo designated the area as a home ownership zone. About 250 homes will be built or restored, and over half will be reserved for low-income families. At the redevelopment project going on in Trenton's historic Canal Banks area, where the subject of a Hollywood movie, this grant would play the starring role, and that's how important it is. Trenton is the eighth city in the nation to receive such a grant. Dick's business report coming up shortly, and he's here now with a preview for us. All right, Kent, there's new life ahead for the closed, rickall home centers, and a North Jersey food processing giant goes shopping in the serial aisle.

It's going to be a great story coming up. It's going to be a great story coming up shortly, and it's going to be a great story. Boxes are getting more and more expensive. It's hard to go with the name brand. Everybody's looking for an alternative, and some of those are those in-store brands. You know, when you go to the supermarket, they have their own brand next to some of the

more famous brands. Well, did you ever wonder who makes those house brand cereals? You see in the supermarkets? Well, one grain processor, which supplies such well-known chains as Pathmark, Shop Right, Acme, A&P, and Superfresh, is Grist Mill Company of Minnesota. Grist Mill will soon be owned by a New Jersey food processing company with a pantry full of famous names, International Home Foods of Percivity, which already has Chef Boyard Bumble Bee Tuna, Gouldins Busted, and Poliner Fruit, and other brands on its shelf will pay $105 million for Grist Mill. Sales rose, but profits fell at Toys R Us in its last fiscal year. The Paramus-based toy retailing giant says for the 12 months ended January 31st. Its sales rose nearly 7 percent, but because of heavy promotional costs and other factors, its net income fell 1.2 percent. The company plans 15 new stores in the U.S. and 35 new outlets internationally in the next 12 months, while it works to trim its operating costs. Bankrupt Rikkel home centers has found a buyer for 26 of its store leases.

Staples will take over space to the left vacant when Rikkel's closed last December included our 19 locations in New Jersey, including this store in Hamilton, Mercer County, not this truck, but the store itself. In some location, Staples says it will use part of the store as its own, and sublet the remainder of the space. Rikkel's will get about $34.5 million, which it will use to pay creditors. A new report says unemployment in South Jersey fell to an 8-year low in January, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Labor, which surveys for South Jersey counties as part of its Philadelphia unemployment report. Joblessness in the region fell to 4.4 percent. Now, that number is the lowest unemployment rate since July 1990, and is half a percent lower than New Jersey statewide average for January. The surge of buying at Wall Street didn't stop with today, in much the same scenario as yesterday's run-up. Today, the Dow added 32 and 2-thirds to close at a record 86.75. The AMIX composite edged up one and a quarter of the NASDAQ composite, tacked on eight

and a third, and the S&P 500 gained four and a quarter for another record close. Bonds again today, little change. The 30-year issue up less than a quarter of a point in price, and it's yielded at 5.94 percent. That can't as a day in business. Did you get outside today? As little as possible to be honest with you. You're not very cold out there. A big chill has settled across the region. Will it stay with us? We'll tell you about it in the forecast. And Jerry, what do you have in sports tonight? What does women get ready for the big dance, how to have their story next in sports? So we don't all get started tonight.

You've still got a little time to get your sheets in. One national tournament gets underway tonight with two new jersey teams involved. The NIT begins play around the country with Ryder at Penn State and Seton Hall at Georgia Tech. And there's something a bit more than basketball on the mind of Princeton assistant coach John Thompson. His wife is expecting their first child, the baby is due tomorrow when Princeton plays. The two days have been moved up as the 12th now, so that's Thursday. So it's a little nerve wracking right now. It's a little busy time in the Thompson House, so to say. So it was moved up. You were expected to the 15th and it was moved up. It was moved up a couple of weeks ago, I think two weeks ago, the doctor, when she went in for an appointment, it was moved up to the 12th. So it's only a couple of days, and as everyone knows, it could be any time. I was kind of hoping for the last Saturday after the inner squad, it's going to be perfect for me.

But it didn't work out that way, so we'll see what happens. So what kind of plan do you have? You're playing on Thursday, Thursday evening. We're going to cross that bridge when we come to it, or she's going to tell me tonight when I go home. So far this morning, no baby yet. Elsewhere at the Rutgers women, a basketball team is set to make a run in the NCAA tournament. They leave tomorrow headed to Ames, Iowa, where they're seated number five. Those who will play Oregon in the first round on Saturday, coach C. Vivian Stranger says she expects her team to make a strong showing after making it to the finals of the Big East tournament. Well, what can you say when you play the, at least the number two team in the country? And I think that we play with a high level confidence. So, frankly, I don't think that there's any team that we're going to fear. I think that our attitude will be, if we can play with Connecticut, we can play with anybody. So let's just, you know, let's just play and if we have our health and everyone keeps the mental edge that we, you seem to have, then I think that we're, you know, peaking really well and it's the right time for us to get it done here at Rutgers University. And they're in the bracket grade.

They went a couple of games. Can't think of phase number one, Tennessee. That would be really interesting. Just looking at coach Stranger's eyes and then she is focused at all business. So very tough. She's looking forward to going back home to Iowa too, by the way. We wish them the best of luck. Thank you, Jerry. It's back. This winter has returned and Mother Nature made her point today. It was a sunny and very cold and windy day across New Jersey today. This morning with the wind chill, it felt like four degrees in some parts of the northern part of the state. The highs today stayed mainly in the thirties throughout the day and those brought brisk conditions and they hung around in Atlantic City today. Folks had to bundle up against the cold and wind along the famous boardwalk there. As far as our pollution watch goes for tomorrow, expect good conditions all across the state. And here's the New Jersey forecast. In the northern part of the state tonight, clear skies, very cold, with a low tonight of 10 to zero degrees with the wind chill factor. Mighty cold.

Tomorrow, mostly sunny and cold with highs only in the mid thirties. In South Jersey tonight, cloudy with a chance of some flurries, a low of 10. And tomorrow, a mix of sun and clouds with highs in the mid thirties. Burr. And that wraps up our news for tonight. I'm Kent Radahann for Dick and Jerry and all of us here at NJN News. Thank you for being with us, everyone. We hope to see you back here again tomorrow night. All right, friends. You

You You You

You You You

You