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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.

Reports on the New York State Heart Gallery's exhibition of photographs of children available for adoption. Report that some of the children have had many foster homes; Report that three photographers involved in Heart Galleries across the United States have adopted children; Ability of the photographers to give the children dignity.

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.

Reports that a body found floating in the East River is believed to be that of a 44-year-old woman who vanished in March 2003 while walking on the Upper East Side. Description of body resembling Svetlana Aronov; Where the body was found; Clues and evidence the police were investigating including an eyewitness account that Aronov and a cocker spaniel dog got inside a taxi-cab; Results of lie detector tests taken by Aronov's husband suggesting he was not involved in foul play.

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]

At around 5:45 a.m., armed with a Mossberg 835 12-gauge shotgun painted in camouflage colors and his ''sippy cup,'' a travel mug full of coffee, John T. Rauh pulled his big red Ford F-250 out of the driveway, his Navy dog tags swinging from the rearview mirror. He had permission on Saturday to scout out a large patch of private land where he normally hunts for deer. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

For five days last November, the 29-year-old man was John Doe, lying in Jamaica Hospital Medical Center with a bashed-in skull, a punctured lung, a broken jaw and eye socket and a crushed hand. After a brutal mugging in Queens, he had no wallet, no identification and no shoes. He had managed to tell the police his age, but no one knew he was Risto Prendzov, a man who had left Macedonia four days after winning a green card lottery in 2006, a man whose friends were searching frantically for him. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

''Circle six, parry four, parry, riposte,'' Mickey Zeljkovic chanted, running Bianca Hollywood, 13, through her fencing moves. Bianca has spina bifida and a pronounced S curve to her spine. But when she wears her mask and lame, the underjacket that conducts electricity during fencing bouts, she can compete with fencers who can walk, as well as those who cannot. [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]

The principal of Millburn High, New Jersey's top-ranked high school, says it has gone on for a decade: annual hazing by senior girls who create a ''slut list'' of incoming freshmen for the first day of school. A dozen or more names are written on a piece of notebook paper, with crass descriptions, and copies are passed around -- hundreds this year, some say. ''We've had girls -- which is one of the bad things -- obsessed that their names are on it, and girls who were upset that they didn't make the list,'' said the principal, William Miron. ''It's basically vulgar.'' [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Most people seem to remember the first time they walked across the Brooklyn Bridge. So why not make sure that your child's first memory of the crossing includes you -- and some ice cream, and some Brooklyn serendipity, as well? [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In June, Anthony Leitner was elected chairman of the board of governors of the South Orange Performing Arts Center, which has been carrying a large amount of debt since it opened in 2006. The South Orange Board of Trustees voted July 13 to extend $4 million of its loans to the center. Here are excerpts from a lengthy interview with Mr. Leitner. ALEX LOWTHER and TINA KELLEY How do you differentiate Sopac from nearby venues like the Paper Mill Playhouse, the New Jersey Performing Arts Center and those in New York City? [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]

On Tuesday, The Local voiced its opinion that domesticated cats should stay inside. Then the fur began to fly! Below are arguments in favor of indoor kitties, and highlights from the 154 comments the post generated. According to the organization Keep Cats Inside, Delaware already has a law that all domesticated animals must be inside, or on a leash. Why don't Maplewood, Millburn and South Orange adopt similar rules? [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Sorbrique Grant, 22, is in her second year teaching English as a second language to 18 fourth graders at Public School 70 in the Bronx, through the Teach for America program. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Constantine Katsoris, 76, has been a Fordham University law professor for 45 years, and an arbitrator with the New York Stock Exchange and the National Association of Securities Dealers for more than 35 years. He has a Sandra Day O'Connor bobblehead doll and almost five decades of legal paperwork in his office. [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]

David Berley, 69, is chairman of Walter & Samuels Inc., a real estate firm he has been with for 40 years. He specializes in converting commercial space to residential, having completed about 30 such projects in the past 30 years. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

IN BIG-CITY DIN, A Chance to Hear [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

For the past year, Alexa Weitzman, 29, has worked as a research coordinator, licensed acupuncturist and chef at the Integrative Therapies Program for Children With Cancer at Columbia University Medical Center. She comes to the job with a master's degree in Oriental medicine from Touro College and a lifelong love of cooking. On doing acupuncture on small children: We use much smaller needles. Oftentimes with kids it's easier to deal with the kid when they're doing what they want to do. It's like, ''Keep playing with the toy; we'll do what we've got to do.'' [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Lucy Rodriguez, 57, has lived in the same two-bedroom apartment in Astoria, Queens, for 32 years. The living room is painted in a fashionable gold, and the sun streams in past family pictures. She felt safe there, with at least a dozen cherub figurines watching over her. Until early Labor Day morning. Ms. Rodriguez, who has carefully kept blond hair, worked as a hairdresser until 1990, when she had a heart attack and went on disability. On Sept. 1, she was coming back from an emergency room visit after midnight when a man walked down her entryway stairs from the roof, showed her his knife, and took her purse and jewelry. [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]

Terrence Walcott, 25, has worked for two years as a personal trainer at the David Barton Gym at Madison Avenue and East 85th Street. He grew up in Crown Heights and was on the track team at the University of Michigan, where he could long-jump 26 feet. Slogan on work shirt: Look Better Naked [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

HONORING WILLY On Willis Avenue [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Dr. Elliot W. Jacobs, 63, is a Park Avenue plastic surgeon who describes his field as ''a happy specialty.'' His subspecialty is gynecomastia, enlarged male breasts, with which he had personal experience. How to tell the plastic surgeon in the hospital: He's the one with the camera bag. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Not often does the klieg-lit world of presidential campaigning reach into the shadowy side streets of the garment district or Chinatown. This week, campaign finance reports confirmed that the Republican National Committee spent about $150,000 on clothes for its vice presidential candidate, Sarah Palin, and her family, including $75,062 at Neiman Marcus and $49,425 at Saks Fifth Avenue in September. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Matt Everett, 27, is the visual coordinator at the new Brooks Brothers store on Broadway and 65th Street, in charge of windows, dressing mannequins and maintaining the image of the store, where displays change at least every month. He came to New York City in July 2007 from Plano, Tex., after substituting in his mother's glass workshop in a summer camp in Pennsylvania when she was sick with complications from surgery. Work-related addiction: Custom clothes, with the employee discount. You pick everything -- the collar, the cuff, the fabric -- and they measure you perfectly. I always dress a little bit preppy to go with the theme, but I dress down to go in the windows. When I'm putting things together, I don't want to be in anything I have to worry about. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

With all the talk of bulls and bears lately, what's happening to cats and dogs? At New York City's main animal shelter, monthly calls to the volunteers who can help people keep their pets through tough financial times doubled, to 225 from 115, between January and September. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

A HOLIDAY PLACE To Meet and Eat [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

WEEKEND PLANS Barbara Corcoran [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Richard Horowitz, 84, is beginning his 63rd season with the Metropolitan Opera, where he plays timpani, also known as kettle drums. On the side, Mr. Horowitz is famous for making batons for renowned conductors, revising scores for modern orchestras, making his own timpani mallets, and the occasional anvil imitation. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Aleks Shineleva, 22, who immigrated to New York from Moscow 11 years ago, is a manager-in-training at Gimme! Coffee, in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, which features artisanal coffees ($12-$13 a pound) valued for their molasses-incense aroma, dry pine aftertaste and farmer-friendliness. She also paints and climbs buildings. Words she thinks she pronounces with a Russian accent: cookies, blue, salt, hoodie. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Burritoville, a restaurant chain beloved by hungry folks on a budget and disdained by people preferring more authentic Mexican food, seems to have gone the way of free-market capitalism, with all of its Manhattan restaurants suddenly closed. It is a dark time indeed for some fans of Holy Mole Burritos and Bob Marley's Last Burritos. Kenny Wharton, 36, who works in drafting, was walking by the shuttered Burritoville on Second Avenue and Ninth Street on Thursday. He used to eat there, and at another outlet on Third Avenue, when he lived in the East Village. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

A rare orchid the size of a Volkswagen Beetle is blooming for the second time ever at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, a blessed event that has spurred envy among the handful of orchid growers who will even try to grow a plant this big. Considered the queen of orchidaceous plants, and one of the world's largest orchids, this particular Grammatophyllum speciosum is 12 feet in diameter and weighs about 200 pounds. It last bloomed in 2003 and has four huge flower spikes, at least one of which should remain in bloom for the next week or two, said David Horak, curator of the garden's orchid collection. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Students at Public School 92 in the East Tremont section of the Bronx had a party last year when they were awarded an A by the Department of Education. But on Tuesday, parents picking up their students on Clinton Avenue shook their heads in shock when they learned that their school was the only one in the city to fall from an A to an F. While elementary English scores on state standardized tests rose 7 percentage points and math scores rose about 9 citywide, P.S. 92 had a 10-point drop in English and a 2-point drop in math. The progress students make year to year is the biggest factor in the department's new report card system. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Every big political campaign has its own character and caricature. In the 1996 presidential race, there was the Soccer Mom, eclipsing the Angry White Male. When Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska, this year's Republican vice-presidential candidate, introduced herself to the country on Wednesday as ''just your average hockey mom,'' a new political symbol was born. So it seems like an opportune moment to ask soccer moms what they think of hockey moms. Do they resent being hip-checked out of the national spotlight? Or are they just glad they do not have to get up for some 4:30 a.m. ice time? [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Along the entry path to the Tremont Community Garden, there are seven unmatched tables, each with four chairs tipped toward them to keep rain from collecting on the seats. On many summer evenings half the tables are full -- of gardeners and nongardeners and the children of both -- as the people who live in the neighboring Bronx apartments use the place as a communal living room. Its 17,500 square feet are alive with four o'clocks, magenta blooms you cannot quite set your watch by. Two cabbage white butterflies twiddle above the cucumbers, and a goldfinch perches near a hollyhock. But it is also bustling with a particular kind of people -- self-proclaimed ''diggers'' who first learned their skills in the Carolinas or Virginia or Georgia. They plant okra and collard greens, but they are open to the yams and callaloo favored by fellow gardeners with Latino and Jamaican roots. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Even if they had to sit through grown-up's speech after grown-up's speech, and even if they mispronounced his name a lot, the 33 fidgeting swimmers at the McBurney Y.M.C.A. on West 14th Street on Thursday were ready with questions for Michael Phelps. Stephen Hoey, 7, of Manhattan, said, ''I want to ask him if he can make more medals, really.'' [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

If the sound of the 1,500-pound glass panel that plummeted from a tower onto the covered sidewalk shed sounded familiar to anyone near 42nd Street and Avenue of the Americas on Tuesday morning, there was good reason -- it was the second time in recent months that a sheet of glass had dropped onto that intersection. At 10:30 a.m. Tuesday, the floor-to-ceiling-size glass panel, encased in a metal frame, fell more than 50 stories from the Bank of America building and shattered on a shed on the opposite side of 42nd Street, officials said. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The Myachi Masters at work look an awful lot like the Myachi Masters at play. The four young men, ages 22 to 31, each earn at least about $500 a week tossing a Myachi, a rectangular palm-size beanbag, in the magic section of F.A.O. Schwarz, or at summer camps, school assemblies or bar mitzvahs in Boca Raton, Fla. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The view was delightfully distracting. One could imagine being on that yacht heading up the East River rather than doing push-ups against the eastern tower of the Brooklyn Bridge, where, cheek against the granite, one could see a tiny sliver of water far below. The River Cafe, on the waterfront, looked particularly welcoming viewed through bent knees in deep squat. By the end, the roar of a motorcycle on the roadway below sounded like a personal invitation to head straight to a hot shower and a cold beer. It was such scenery that inspired the Brooklyn Bridge Boot Camp, said Ariane Hundt, a personal trainer who has been leading troops across the span in sprints and stretches all summer. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]