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Reports on outcomes of a study by the Office of the Child Advocate showing that New Jersey is doing a poor job of investigating cases of child abuse, leaving children in unnecessary danger. Actions of state investigators when abuse as reported in any setting other than the child's home; Backlog of cases waiting to be investigated; Department of Human Services commissioner James M. Davy's reaction to the report.

Reports on acting Governor Richard J. Codey's unveiling of a pilot school safety program at a school in West Paterson which includes a computerized security cameras that can alert authorities to suspicious activities.

Reports that a group of artists has decided to move out of a historic factory building in Jersey City, New Jersey after settling dispute with owner New Gold Equities. Plans of New Gold Equities to demolish the building because of structural problems; City's commitment to preserve the site.

Reports on the discovery of a toxic waste dump in New Jersey's Ringwood State Park. Closure of a portion of the park's hiking trail after a state-certified lab found that lead levels in paint sludge dumped in the area exceeded acceptable level; Dangerous levels of arsenic and other toxic chemicals; U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's call on Ford Motor Co., former owner of the property, to clean the site again.

The article describes the story of Kisha Theodore from New Jersey, who received help from a nonprofit organization for homeless families Family Promise of Union County and also discusses workshop organized by a nonprofit Imagine, on grief counseling.

This article reports on the murder of three college friends in Newark, New Jersey. Police are investigating leads and are questioning the only survivor of the shootings, Natasha Aeriel. Newark residents and the families of the deceased and Ms. Aeriel don't understand why the victims were attacked because they were all ambitious, hard-working college students with no criminal backgrounds. Garry F. McCarthy of the police department said that Ms. Aeriel did not know the attackers.

This article reports on how some families in New Jersey are holding children's birthday parties with no gifts. In lieu of gifts, invitations suggest a donation of money or specified items to a charity of the child's choice. The article cites examples of donations that various people have made to charities instead of gifts. Fundraiser Davida Isaacson says there is a growing trend to involve young children in no-gift parties to teach them the value of philanthropy.

The article offers information about the services offered by the support group Mothers of Only Children of Northern New Jersey for parents of one child in New Jersey. The monthly meetings of the group alternate between child-centered play dates and nights out for parents of only child. The parents in the group exchange tips on vacation destinations that attract children, how to be a main playmate for toddlers and how to face strangers in supermarkets.

This article discusses flooding in New Jersey during April of 2007. The article notes that, as of April 17, 2007, more than 900 residents of Bound Brook, New Jersey were living in shelters due to flooding, and 3,000 people in New Jersey were without power. The article profiles several New Jersey residents who have endured flooding troubles.

This article discusses the legal status of civil unions for same-sex couples in New Jersey. The author notes that the civil unions law in New Jersey does not provide equality for same-sex couples as compared to their heterosexual counterparts, especially in regards to insurance benefits and taxable income.

This article reports on a public library in Maplewood, New Jersey. In December 2006, students at Maplewood Middle School have been caught fighting in the library, urinating on the bathroom floor, scrawling graffiti on the walls, talking back to librarians, and refusing to leave when asked. The police have been called multiple times a day in order to deal with the students disruptive behavior. As a result, in January 2007, the library will close in the afternoons until further notice.

This article discusses how a student in a high school history class at Kearny High School in New Jersey tape recorded his teacher's comments about religion. Matthew LaClair said David Paszkiewicz's comments made him uncomfortable so he reported them to the principal. LaClair's parents are considering suing the school system for constitutional violations of the separation of the church and state doctrine. The parents believe the teacher was proselytizing, but his supporters believe he was exercising his freedom of speech rights.

This article profiles the town of Brick Township, New Jersey, during 2006. The article discusses the lack of crime in Brick Township, noting that there were no murders or rapes reported in the town during 2005, a stark contrast to many neighboring towns on the New Jersey shore. The author calls Brick Township an "oasis" in a state struggling with gang violence issues.

The article states that the New Jersey Supreme Court has ruled that same-sex couples can have the same legal rights as married couples and discusses economic aspects of the decision. The New Jersey State Legislature will decide whether to call the partnerships civil unions or marriages. Legal aspects involved with this decision include health care benefits for partners, estate or inheritance taxes, and a right to family leave time.

The article focuses on the results of a study by Harvard University researchers which found that Asian women in Bergen County, New Jersey live longer than any other ethnic subgroup of people in the United States, according to federal statistics. Elderly women in the county from Korea, China, and Hong Kong who were interviewed attribute their longevity to a healthy diet, belief in God, and their close-knit communities.

This article reports on a day care center in New Jersey that was closed after the discovery of unacceptably high mercury levels. A third of the 60 children tested have shown abnormally high levels of mercury in their systems and will require long-term monitoring. Officials are questioning how a building that was once a mercury thermometer factory could have been allowed to be used as a day care center. Mercury vapor levels in the building were 27 times the regulatory limit.

This article presents information about the shooting and death of Orange, New Jersey police officer Kieran T. Shields and the arrest of suspect Raynard Brown. Shields had responded to reports of a shooting and arrived to find Brown with a sawed-off shotgun. Brown ran and Shields chased him and was consequently killed by the shotgun. Shields was described as an excellent police officer and family man and Brown was described as a gang member with a troubled past.

The article focuses on the New Jersey's child welfare system. According to the author, few changes have been made to the system since an effort to reform its inadequacies began more than 18 months ago. It is the author's view that the difficulty New Jersey officials have had in providing promised medical exams to children offers a glimpse into some of the obstacles that the state has faced in trying to repair the system. It is suggested that the system is still suffering from staff shortages, poor financing and poor communication. United States.

The article reports that two northeasters that hit the Jersey Shore in October have caused the beach to erode so far that homes may be in danger. An estimated nine million cubic feet of sand was lost in the storms. The beaches usually protect the shore in the harsh winter months and expand when the weather mellows in the summer.

This article discusses a recent report from the panel charged with monitoring the overhaul of the New Jersey child welfare program. The overall conclusion of the report states that even though the state has poured millions into the program, it still fails to provide the most basic services. Attorney Susan Lambiase of Children's Rights Inc. says that the federal court may intervene and initiate a takeover if the panel and the state can't come to an agreement on fixing the system.

Reports on the fire accident killing three people and injuring others at the Irvington Motor Lodge in Irvington, New Jersey.

Focuses on a residential motel in New Jersey, the Irvington Motor Lodge, where three people died in a fire. Citations given the business for illegally chaining its exit doors shut; Investigation into the cause of the fire; Comment of motel owner, Randy Maisuria, about complaints of drug use and prostitution; Problems at the motel that caused the American Red Cross of Metropolitan New Jersey to stop housing displaced people there.

Focuses on the difficulties that American farmers are having this season because of lost crops due to lack of rain and because of high fuel costs. Indication that the New Jersey Emergency Board of the federal Department of Agriculture want Acting Governor Richard J. Codey to ask for a federal disaster declaration; The amount of loss at Gaventa Farms in New Jersey; How the dry conditions and other problems have affected New York and Connecticut.

Looks at how Hellfest, a three-day punk music festival scheduled to being on August 19, 2005 in Trenton, New Jersey, has been cancelled at the last minute, leaving fans stranded in the area. Comments from stranded fans regarding the cancellation; Review of how the event would have been the ninth consecutive year for Hellfest; Reports on how promoters hoped all the ticketholders would receive refunds.

Reports on the project of officials in New Jersey to establish the nation's first state-supported stem research institute.

Reports a federal indictment in New Jersey accuses eight women and two men of participating in a smuggling ring that brought females from Honduras to the United States. Charges against the ten for conspiracy to commit forced labor offenses, alien smuggling, and harboring illegal aliens; How Honduran women were recruited for slave labor and abused; Comment from the federal prosecutor, Christopher J. Christie; The names listed in the indictment, including the ringleader Luisa Medrano, a naturalized citizen who is from El Salvador.

Offers a look at ecotourism in the marshes of the Hackensack Meadowlands in New Jersey. Statement that the Hackensack River offers biodiversity and lessons in environmental preservation; Report that the Hackensack Riverkeeper and the New Jersey Meadowlands Commission offer boat trips on the river; Report that the tours on the Hackensack River visit Mill Creek Marsh and the Saw Mill Creek Wildlife Management Area; Discussion of fights between real estate developers and preservationists.

Looks at the efforts of wildlife researchers to track and preserve wood turtles in New Jersey. Details of the work of the New Jersey Audubon Society, which studies wood turtles and protects a wildlife preserve area; Report that researchers use radio transmitters to track wood turtles; Vulnerability of wood turtles to predators and adverse effects of real estate development; Claim that wood turtles are on New Jersey's list of species at risk for extinction.

Discusses the merger of Catholic churches in the Newark, New Jersey archdiocese. Description of the last mass at the Immaculate Heart of Mary Church in Maplewood, New Jersey and its merger with another church; Comments by the church's pastor, Rev. Frank J. Rocchi; How the archdiocese's New Energies project will ask other parishes to consider merging; Other churches which have agreed to merge; How St. Andrew Kim, a Korean Roman Catholic church may move into the Immaculate Heart of Mary Church.

Reports on the efforts of New Jersey to help migrating birds known as red knots. Information on the birds, which migrate 20,000 miles every year between South America and Canada; How the horseshoe crabs, vital to the birds' survival, have fallen in numbers along the shores of Delaware Bay; Attempt by volunteers and the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection to help the red knots, listed as a threatened species in New Jersey; Beach closings along the coasts of Cape May, so that the red knots can feed on the crabs.

Focuses on a New Jersey megachurch and its fight to build on a new site. The robust growth of Christ Church, a nondenominational church in Montclair; How its quest for a new home has led the church into federal court; Objections of residents to the building plans; How local land use laws can make it difficult for religious congregations to build new homes; Intent of Christ Church's leaders to build offices, Bible study rooms, an elementary school, gym and outdoor sports facilities; Comments of the Reverend David Ireland; Diversity of the church; Details of the church's complaint.

Focuses on the use falcons, or other birds of prey, to control the presence of birds flying over airplane runways at McGuire Air Force Base in Wrightstown, N.J. When the base began using a peregrine falcon to scare away starlings; Number of reported collisions between birds and aircraft at the base in the last 20 years, noting the deaths and monetary damage resulting from the accidents; Comments from Stuart Rossell of Falcon Environmental Services, the company that runs the base's wildlife management program, regarding the targets of the falcons.

A petition in New Jersey signed by more than 2,300 Democratic officials, advocates and residents has helped sway members of the State Senate Judiciary Committee to call for a vote on a bill to legalize same-sex marriage. But the bill has a long way to go, and recent votes against same-sex marriage in a Maine referendum and in the New York State Senate led opponents of the New Jersey measure to say that the political tide had turned against it. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Girl-on-girl bullying or hazing is old news by now, for anyone who has seen ''Mean Girls'' or ''Heathers'' or ''Gossip Girl'': popular girls organize a perfectly-coiffed and designer-clothed gang; fringe girl is targeted; bullies use their meanness and power to further marginalize fringe girl and reassert their status. But news of a ''slut list'' at a top-ranked New Jersey high school last week highlighted two disturbing points: the increasingly explicit and sexual nature of the taunts, magnified by the Internet. And, in another twist, the perception that allegations of promiscuity -- however fictional -- are a badge of honor, a way into the cool group, and not a cause for shame. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The president of the Millburn Board of Education said on Monday night that district administrators would have to undergo sensitivity training and ordered them to come up with a plan within the next two months to address the longstanding tradition of hazing at Millburn High School. The action came at a board meeting that drew about 50 parents and lasted more than three hours. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Msgr. Robert Sheeran, who has led Seton Hall University through 14 years of academic improvements, the opening of a school of diplomacy and three notable basketball seasons, said on Thursday that he would be stepping down as president at the end of the next academic year. He may be best known, however, for leading the university after the deaths of three students in a fire in the Boland Hall residence in 2000. The day the dorm reopened to students, he moved in to live with them. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Brittany Catanzaro, 19, is NY Waterway's first female ferry captain, and the youngest ever. She takes commuters from Weehawken and Hoboken, N.J., to Manhattan. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

James V. Samuelson, 58, is New Jersey Transit's deputy general manager for safety and training, working from an office at Pennsylvania Station in Manhattan. Since 1970, he has worked for railroads of New Jersey, where he lives. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

It was, in a way, the fox delivering a message to anyone in the henhouse who cared to listen. The fox, in this instance, was Christopher J. Christie, the United States attorney for New Jersey, whose office has convicted or secured plea agreements from 126 public officials in the past six and a half years. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The New Jersey surfer defies stereotype. He may work as a carpenter or as an eye surgeon. Could be in his 20s or late 50s. He's able to ''rip the swell'' in water temperatures of 50 degrees for up to six hours, then hop on a one-speed bicycle with a board and steer one-handed. Or no-handed, while doing that signature thumb-and-pinky sign. On a sunny but cool afternoon here on Holgate beach, several wave aficionados shrugged their well-cut shoulders or shook their soggy heads over the township's recently passed Ordinance 08-07C, pertaining ''to peace and good order.'' Its stated purpose is ''to prohibit the change of clothes in any public area or public street unless within a permanent enclosed structure.'' [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

For a dozen years, Mohammad Qatanani has supported the members of the Islamic Center of Passaic County by speaking at funerals, hashing out ethical dilemmas and sometimes opening his home to domestic-violence victims at a moment's notice. But now Dr. Qatanani, 44, the imam of the mosque here, requires the support of the members: he has been barred by federal immigration authorities from renewing his driver's license, and must call on friends to ferry him to hospitals for visits with the sick among his flock. There are fund-raisers for him at the mosque. And after Friday prayers, the hugs the men give him seem to last extra long. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Two blocks from the wood-paneled office where Sharpe James ran New Jersey's largest city for 20 years, the former mayor made a stealthy exit through a back door of the federal courthouse here on Wednesday after a jury found him guilty of fraud for conspiring to sell city-owned properties to a former companion at a fraction of their value. For Mr. James, 72, who had built a formidable political machine before his tawdry fall, it was a day of mixed images. After listening stone-faced to the verdict, he kissed his wife of five decades on the cheek as his former companion, Tamika Riley, 39, trailed a few steps behind. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

A federal appeals court ruled Tuesday that the public school district in East Brunswick, N.J., was not violating the constitutional rights of a football coach when it prohibited staff members from participating in student prayers. Marcus Borden, who has been the head football coach at East Brunswick High School since 1983, sued the district in 2005, saying its policy violated his rights to free speech and due process, as well as to academic freedom and freedom of association. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

It is not uncommon for shots to ring out at night in the West End housing projects, where public surveillance cameras rise over parking lots. Across town, private cameras guard historic homes in the exclusive Sleepy Hollow section where the former governor, James E. McGreevey, lives. Early Thursday in this city of contrasts, local police officers and state troopers swept in and arrested 27 people, completing a roundup that was begun in January and ended with the arrest of a total of 91 people suspected of being gang members. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Over their dinner table in Maplewood, N.J., Joy and Jeff Yagid tried to answer delicately when their daughter, Della, 6, asked why her father had remarked that Gov. Eliot Spitzer of New York was having a bad day on Monday. Pause. Mr. Yagid looked to Ms. Yagid for help. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article reports that a 4th grader 9-year-old boy has been suspended from his school in Plainfield, New Jersey for taking a loaded .45-caliber semiautomatic handgun to the school. It is mentioned that the boy could be charged with juvenile delinquency for possession of the handgun. The investigation officials are trying to determine how the boy obtained the weapon and what he intended to do with it.

The article reports on the decision of Jon S. Corzine, Governor of New Jersey, to keep the government open on the day after Thanksgiving day. It is mentioned that the governor had taken the decision as it would help the state to save huge amount of money by working on an assigned holiday. However the governor's decision was not appreciated by several government officials who had been following the trend of celebrating the Thanksgiving day.

The article reports that the New Jersey civil union law is not working effectively. This was told to the Civil Union Review Commission constituted to monitor the effectiveness of the law. In September 2007, dozens of couples attended the hearings of the commission. Jodi Weiner, an electrician form Montclair, said that she did not get health benefits for her partner and was told that her plan did not cover civil unions. She got benefits when she told them about their marriage in Massachusetts.

The article reports on the progress achieved in various child welfare programs in New Jersey. According to E. Susan Hodgson, a New Jersey based child advocate, despite the introduction of new health reforms in the health welfare system in New Jersey much improvement has not been achieved. He states that the progress has not been achieved in the health care system due to the inefficiency of health care workers.

The article offers information on the findings of a report related to child care in New Jersey. It was revealed that the New Jersey Department of Children and Families has been successful in improving the conditions of the neglected children in the state. According to the report the department has accomplished several remarkable works in the welfare of children such as introduction of new computer systems, reduction of caseloads and introduction of medical facilities.