By: Lisa Fleisher/Statehouse Bureau
March 09, 2010, 7:41PM
NJ.com

TRENTON — Some top lawmakers have this message for public workers: If you work in Jersey, you should live in Jersey.

That’s the thrust behind a proposed bill that would require all public employees in New Jersey — whether they work for the state, colleges, towns or even boards and commissions — to live somewhere in the state.

While similar bills in the past have stalled, this has the support of Senate President Stephen Sweeney and Gov. Chris Christie.

"If you’re coming here to work, what’s wrong with coming here to live?" said Sweeney, who sponsored an identical measure himself last year before he came to power.

Unions and some lawmakers said the latest legislative shot at public workers could spark a war among states dragging their workers back home.

By: DEBORAH HIRSCH • Courier-Post Staff • March 9, 2010

CAMDEN — Church and community leaders will hold a public rally tonight in support of proposed legislation that would make it easier for police to keep drug dealers from returning to the places where they were caught.

Camden Churches Organized for People pushed for the change after working with police to remove up drug dealers in East Camden.

The perennial problem had become even more blatant in recent months, said Monsignor Robert McDermott, co-chairman of CCOP.

"It's spoiling a neighborhood that we have worked hard to develop," McDermott said. "Neighbors are scared to death."

Despite cooperation from the police, drug dealers would return to the same spots not long after they were arrested, McDermott said.

"We want to blame the police sometimes for this kind of stuff, but their hands are tied," McDermott said.

February 25th, 2010
NJ101.5
Racquel Williams Reporting

To listen to the audio click here.

Two state assemblymen Wednesday asked the state's Acting Transportation Commissioner to detail exactly what is being done to address customer service complaints filed by motorists against New Jersey Turnpike Authority toll collectors.

The recently published complaints range from threats of bodily harm to hurling racial slurs, to throwing change at drivers. Assemblymen John Wisniewski and Paul Moriarty want to know how this behavior could have been tolerated for so long...and what feeds it. Wisniewski says it's shameful because people who work for the state of New Jersey, including toll collectors, are ambassadors of the state.

By: EILEEN STILWELL • Courier-Post Staff • February 18, 2010

CAMDEN — Camden County will receive $5.8 million in federal stimulus money to construct two miles of bike paths through Camden to connect the suburbs to the waterfront and Philadelphia via the Benjamin Franklin Bridge.

That's nearly $3 million a mile.

Camden County's share is part of a $23 million, bistate grant to create a regional network of bike paths.

Philadelphia and surrounding counties will receive $17.2 million for the same purpose. The total grant is part of $1.5 billion in Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) grants that have been earmarked for improvements to roads, bridges, rail, ports, transit and intermodal facilities.

Though multiple agencies on both sides of the river collaborated on the application, Philadelphia's Deputy Transportation Commissioner Steve Buckley was the principal applicant. Together, the two states applied for $36 million to create 17 trails.