The Times of Trenton News

NJ government, politics, crime & local news

• Solar array powers city parking garage
TRENTON -- On a clear day from the top of the six-story Clinton Commons garage near the Trenton train station, one can see the historic Battle Monument or the venerable Broad Street Bank Building. The domes of churches and the rooftops of office buildings gleam in the midday sun.

• The future is now for young voters
Before the new Apple iPod cell phone came out, they raved over the flashy technology.

• The housing crisis deepens
Even as the presidential candidates offer competing anti-foreclosure plans and the state Legislature works to help people stay in their homes, the housing crisis continues to worsen in Mercer County.

• City eyes market site for new courthouse
TRENTON -- The city is planning to move its municipal court to the site of a supermarket on Hermitage Avenue, the city council was told at its meeting last night.

• Signup shows voter interest Records numbers register for Nov. 4
As chairman of Sen. John McCain's campaign in New Jersey, state Sen. Bill Baroni is always ready to tout his candidate's qualifications.

• Billboards display many faces of the capital city
Ramzee Mcrae is Trenton.

• School board accepts Armenti's resignation
ROBBINSVILLE -- School board members unanimously voted yesterday to accept the resignation of fellow board member Joseph Armenti, who sparked a furor by suggesting that students' use of the word "faggot" is protected by the Constitution.

• East Windsor gets grant to study traffic on busy road
EAST WINDSOR -- Responding to concerns about traffic speed and safety along Dutch Neck Road, the township council will study ways to improve conditions along the two-mile thoroughfare.

• Officials have a word for supply of flu shots: Abundant
With flu season approaching, New Jersey officials say the vaccine should be in plentiful supply this year and available everywhere from firehouses to pharmacies, community centers and supermarkets, as well as the traditional doctors' offices and health departments.

• Overnight sensation in Ewing
EWING -- When Inn America Hospitality selected a Scotch Road industrial park to build its new Courtyard Marriott in 2004, the choice was viewed as a bold -- and perhaps risky -- departure from the perennially successful Route 1 hotel market.

• Santiago is once again a top cop
Call him the cop with nine lives.

• 1-man audience steps into the spotlight
PRINCETON -- Sitting in a small office on the lower level of McCarter Theatre, Bill Lockwood looks as if he is positioned at the center of a perfect paper storm.

• The Garden State is uniquely vulnerable
Gov. Jon Corzine will address the Legislature on Thursday about the economic perfect storm that's breaking over New Jersey. No doubt he'll try to give the lawmakers and the rest of us grounds for hope over the long haul. He's got his work cut out for him.

• Hospital contract disputes worry Horizon members
As the mother of two young children who were born with Down syndrome, Stephanie Pratico of Hamilton has plenty to worry about even under the best of circumstances.

• Proceeding with caution
Gary Coleman has been selling cars 36 years, but he's never seen anything as bad as this.

• A sunny salute to Italian-Americans at Columbus Day Parade
HAMILTON -- It wasn't just Italian pride that swelled yesterday, but county pride as hundreds of area residents came out to see the Mercer County Italian-American Festival Association's Columbus Day Parade.

• Edison graduates a lesson in perseverance
TRENTON -- Yesterday's 36th commencement ceremony for Thomas Edison State College was a celebration of perseverance and flexible education.

• Potential conflict on council
ROBBINSVILLE -- The township paid an affordable housing attorney for his advice about whether two council members had a conflict of interest by voting on projects for a developer since their part-time employer contracts with that developer.

• Area brokers work to calm investors
If investors hadn't been bruised and shaken enough, yesterday's markets opened with a sickening jolt -- a 700-point decline in the Dow Jones industrial average -- that set phones ringing in brokers' offices once more.

• Trenton seeking to chop 150 jobs
TRENTON -- The city government is looking to eliminate roughly 150 positions through a combination of layoffs and leaving vacancies unfilled as part of its attempt to close a multimillion-dollar budget gap.

• Gang leader denies giving orders to kill
Jose "Boom Bat" Negrete denied yesterday that he gave orders to kill anyone while he was the leader of the Trenton tribe of the Latin Kings in the summer of 2004.

• Students told voting can make a difference
TRENTON -- With four days to go before the Tuesday deadline to register to vote, Trenton high schoolers received a lesson in the importance of voting yesterday.

• Board member quits over slur
ROBBINSVILLE -- A school board member who used a derogatory term for homosexuals during a public meeting has stepped down from his post after gay-rights advocates and school officials condemned the statement.

• Residency again an issue in Trenton
TRENTON -- On Irving Bradley Jr.'s second day as police director, he was already facing a lawsuit seeking to have him ousted, while some residents see racism in the opposition to his appointment.

• Hamilton's own survivor
HAMILTON -- Before her face appeared on fliers and donation cans across Hamilton, before hundreds lined up to donate blood in her name, Jessica Glodowski was a normal toddler with a bright smile.

• Wave of gun violence hits city
Trenton police are concerned that an armed robber is targeting businesses along the city's boundary with Ewing after the latest two occurred Wednesday evening within minutes of each other.

• Princetons ready for property revaluation
PRINCETON BOROUGH -- The Princetons are gearing up for their first property revaluations since 1996, with both the borough council and the township commit tee selecting Morristown-based Appraisal Systems Inc. for the job.

• Stimulus money due city residents
Go ahead, pinch yourself.

• Towns look at regional utility
Mayors and officials from five suburban townships met in Hamilton yesterday to discuss the creation of a regional water utility.

• Good times on the farm
'Tis the season to go pickin.'

• Officials discuss more library funding
TRENTON -- City council members are discussing whether to increase library funding to allow four neighborhood branch libraries to stay open.

• Palmer names police director
TRENTON -- Irving Bradley Jr., the former Newark police chief who has run Trenton's police and fire dispatch for the past year, is the city's new police director.

• Resume doesn't show felony conviction, controversy
On paper, Irving Bradley Jr. has the resume of a police official with a career track to the top.

• Crime up at Princeton U
On-campus crimes involving ag gravated assault, drugs and alcohol spiked in 2007 at Princeton University, topping a jump in violations at Rider University and going counter to a decline in problems at The College of New Jersey, according to school safety reports.

• The Times will go on
The union that represents about 90 drivers for The Star-Ledger of Newark approved a renegotiated contract yesterday, the last of four conditions that had to be met in order for The Times and The Star-Ledger to continue operations.

• Write from the heart
TRENTON -- "Dear Mayor Palmer," reads one letter. "Please find a way to keep our libraries open. We need them."

• Gasoline prices take a tumble
Just because you want to travel to a certain destination doesn't mean you actually have to.

• Catholic school uninvites Whitman
As a New Jersey governor and national Republican figure, Christie Whitman won votes and political acclaim by supporting abortion rights.

• Chemist is charged after car blast probe
CRANBURY -- Finally breaking their silence about the investigation into a mysterious explosion that destroyed a car nearly two weeks ago, authorities announced yesterday that the vehicle's owner was arrested after experts determined the blast was caused by volatile chemicals smuggled home from the corporation where the suspect works as a chemist.

• Trenton is abuzz about its future police director
TRENTON -- Mayor Douglas H. Palmer said he will make an "imminent" announcement on his choice to be the city's next police director.

• "This is a community service building. You hurt this community." JOSE A. HERNANDEZ, chief executive at YWCA, speaking to those responsible for the vandalism and burglary
TRENTON -- Thieves who stole thousands of dollars worth of computers and inflicted serious damage in nearly every room of the YWCA on East Hanover Street didn't just commit a burglary and vandalize property.

• Ewing a step closer to luring Lowe's
EWING -- Developers looking to build a Lowe's home improvement store in West Trenton cleared a major hurdle last week when the township planning board endorsed zoning changes that allow big-box development in certain parts of town.

• His love of running comes at a high price
It was a pleasure to run.

• End of sanctuary darkens celebration
EWING -- For Scudder Stevens and Scott Scudder, yesterday's festival marking the 300th anniversary of Ewing Presbyterian Church was a bittersweet tribute to their heritage.

• Princeton building designed for big ideas to happen
PRINCETON BOROUGH -- Princeton University is celebrating the completion of Sherrerd Hall, a glass building designed to reflect its desire to host small chats that lead to big ideas.

• Playwrights discuss Thornton Wilder's underappreciated genius
EWING -- Thornton Wilder was a playwright's playwright, though his most famous work, "Our Town," which won a Pulitzer Prize in 1938, is often misinterpreted as warm and sentimental.

• Pipeline accident causes oil leak
HAMILTON -- A subcontractor working on the New Jersey Turnpike expansion accidentally drilled into a pipeline carrying diesel fuel from Houston to Linden, causing an undetermined amount of oil to spill.

• Area lawmakers stand firm
After billions of dollars in tax breaks and other items were added to the federal bailout bill, the end result for three area legislators was the same: Two voted for it while one voted against it.

• Police nab letter-writing suspect
A 68-year-old Ewing man has been arrested on charges of harassment, stalking and making terroris tic threats for allegedly sending disturbing letters to area residents who had written letters to The Times' editorial pages, authorities said yesterday.

• Neighborhood is still puzzling over explosion
CRANBURY -- An explosion and fire that destroyed a vehicle parked in the driveway of an upscale home has neighbors whispering and wondering why federal agents have been poring over the blast site.

• 6th guilty plea made in alleged bribe plot
A sixth person has pleaded guilty in federal court to bribing a private construction manager in connection with building the Lewis Science Library at Princeton University, court documents show.

• Hospital projects remain on track
New hospitals planned to open in 2011 in Plainsboro and Hopewell Township at a combined tab of almost $1 billion remain on track despite the national financial turmoil, according to officials for those facilities.

• Schools fill gap in library services
TRENTON -- It's a little after 7:30 in the morning.

• Traffic control wins support
Municipalities and counties will have the right to put up stop signs, install speed humps, and set speed limits without state approval under a proposal moving through the Statehouse with widespread support.

• Autopsy: Trenton man's death was accidental
TRENTON -- Ronald "Brick" Wilson died from drug use and a heart attack he had during a struggle with Trenton cops last March, an autopsy has revealed.

• Rutgers adds sports-spending sentinel
Amid growing questions over millions of dollars in sports spend ing, Rutgers University has added a financial supervisor to the athletics department.

• Senate panel advances two bills
TRENTON -- The Senate Education Committee advanced a bill yesterday sponsored by Sen. Shirley Turner, D-Lawrence, that would greatly reduce the amount of notice school boards must give superintendents when their contracts will not be renewed.

• City mourns death of respected policewoman
When Emily Martus joined the Trenton Police Department in the summer of 1942 she held the title of policewoman and was assigned mainly clerical duties.

• Furor raised over derogatory remark
ROBBINSVILLE -- A school board member promised to apologize and attend a gay-rights forum to make amends for using a derogatory term for homosexuals during a public meeting even though he said his comment was taken out of context.

• Woman's disappearance baffles family and police
TRENTON -- Investigators spent yesterday gathering evidence from the South Broad Street apartment of a 31-year-old woman who disappeared early last month, leaving behind her job, her dog and her family who fear the worst.

• Developer may buy W. Windsor strip mall
WEST WINDSOR -- A developer is weighing whether to buy the Acme Shopping Center on Route 571.

• High court censures city judge
The state Supreme Court censured a retired Trenton Municipal Court judge for his behavior and ordered that he never be appointed to judicial office again.