By Bruce Shipkowski • ASSOCIATED PRESS • August 30, 2010

TRENTON — New Jersey lawmakers are touting legislation aimed at ensuring that the state's colleges and universities have plans in place to address major on-campus emergencies.

Under the proposal, schools would file comprehensive five-year campus security plans, which would identify their preparedness for potential emergencies, with state homeland security and higher education officials.

Those officials, if needed, would then provide specific comments on areas of plans they deem deficient.

The plans would spell out a clear delegation of authority and provide for the protection of vital records. They also would specify procedures for periodic testing, to help ensure that plans are current and working properly.

And if a major on-campus emergency did occur, the affected school's security plan would then be immediately reviewed to see how it worked and what -- if any -- changes should be made.

By Pamela Lampitt • COURIER-POST • August 29, 2010

Just like you, I opened the paper recently and read some outrageous news.

State Comptroller Matthew Boxer recently released a report saying that one in six state government funded phone lines goes unused, wasting nearly $3.2 million in taxpayer money each year. In one extreme case, the state even continued to pay for a mobile phone for an employee -- six years after that employee had resigned.

Imagine that -- the state footing the bill for six years, with literally nobody on the line.

That's unconscionable.

I hear from hard-working New Jersey families in my district each and every day. From Audubon Park to Cherry Hill to Winslow and everywhere in between, I have heard one very common theme -- people are sick of government wasting their hard-earned tax dollars.

By Nathan Koppel and Ashby Jones- WALL STREET JOURNAL- August 25, 2010

State lawmakers around the U.S. are struggling to decide if teenage "sexting"—the practice of sending nude or sexually suggestive photos by cellphone—is a serious crime, or juvenile folly run amok.

About 20 states have enacted or proposed measures that deal with teenage sexters. Generally, the legislation is aimed at treating minors in a more lenient fashion than if they were prosecuted under existing child-pornography or child-exploitation laws, which include the possibility of prison time and sex-offender status.

Since May, states including Arizona, Connecticut, Louisiana and Illinois have enacted laws that impose relatively modest penalties against minors who sext, while maintaining harsher penalties for adult offenders.