What's Wrong with New Jersey

Housing

“Lucy Voorhoeve, ... of the Affordable Housing Network of New Jersey, ... said 45 percent of people who want to rent are either paying more than 30 percent of their income to do so or just cannot afford the cost. The figure is up from 41 percent last year. ‘... The economic condition of the renter population has gotten worse,’ she said. ... A report released last week ... ranked New Jersey among the least affordable states ... for apartment renters. New Jersey was second, behind only Hawaii .... Under New Jersey's Fair Housing Act of 1985, ... 210 towns have submitted plans. Forty others have been sued, mainly by developers. The remaining 316 towns have not acted or have taken the position they do not have the space for new housing. ... At least two bills pending in the legislature ... would enable towns to lower the number of affordable houses and apartments they might have to provide.”
—Tom Hester (Newark Star-Ledger, 1999-09-16)

“New Jersey is the worst state in the nation when it comes to providing rental housing that's within the financial reach of its residents ... This year's report says about 44 percent of New Jersey renters can't afford a two-bedroom apartment, and 57 percent can't afford a three-bedroom apartment. Housing advocates say apartments are too expensive for thousands of New Jerseyans because of higher rents fueled by a robust economy, stagnant salaries for low-paying workers, and an unspoken prejudice against the poor. ... ‘Even workers earning $7 or $8 an hour, such as child care workers, home health aides or machine operators, must work two jobs to make ends meet,’ said [Lucy] Voorhoeve [of the Housing and Community Development Network of Net Jersey] ...”
—Tom Hester (Newark Star-Ledger, 2000-09-28)

“The Newark Housing Authority allowed the Stella Wright Homes to crumble around its tenants by promoting a culture of neglect, according to a consultant's report. Those practices included charging tenants for needed repairs, a violation of federal regulations, as well as ignoring inspections that highlighted problems at the homes. The report painted a picture of the NHA as a badly mismanaged agency some of whose managers adopted an ‘It's not my job’ attitude toward many duties and whose maintenance force was among the worst the consultant had ever seen. The practice of charging tenants for repairs—which continues—alienated residents ... and accelerated the deterioration of the high-rise project ... Last week, the authority announced [that] the Stella Wright Homes, the last of the city's high-rise developments, would be torn down soon.”
— Barry Carter and Christine V. Baird (Newark Star-Ledger, 1999-03-28)

“Median sale prices of homes ... in Middlesex, Somerset and Hunterdon counties shot up 23.3 percent over the last year, more than any other area in the United States ...”
—Mary Jo Patterson and Guy Baehr (Newark Star-Ledger, 2000-02-10)

“The percentage of New Jersey households living in homes of their own fell during the 1990s, surprising experts because it ran counter to a national trend ... Despite a partial recovery at the ... end of the decade, New Jersey's drop was almost twice as large as the others, according to U.S. Census figures.”
—Guy T. Baehr (Newark Star-Ledger, 2001-01-14)

“Property taxes rose last year at almost twice the rate of inflation, as school boards and local officials added $656 million to the bills they sent home and business property owners. Overall, property taxes climbed 4.8 percent last year, to reach a total of $14.2 billion ...”
—Dunstan McNichol (Newark Star-Ledger, 2001-01-30)

“Single-family home prices in New Jersey jumped about 13 percent last year, with most of the hikes concentrated in the northern and central parts of the state. Bergen, Essex, Passaic, Somerset and Union counties all saw increases of more than 15 percent in the median price of existing homes, according to figures collected by the National Association of Realtors. Bergen topped the list with an increase of 23.8 percent from the last quarter of 1999 to the last quarter of 2000.”
—Guy T. Baehr (Newark Star-Ledger, 2001-02-14)

“After an investigation that spanned more than a year, the State Commission of Investigation plans to provide a series of recommendations to the Legislature before year's end. They may include replacing the state's troubled new-home warranty program with stronger consumer protection. The investigation exposed serious deficiencies statewide, ranging from severe flooding, leaks, sinkholes, poorly secured and cracked roof trusses, even garages too small to accommodate cars. It also found local inspectors overwhelmed by large-scale construction, causing them to conduct ‘drive-by’ checks or ones in which they failed to scale ladders to inspect key supports. ... Earlier in the hearing, SCI members sharply questioned two members of a Monmouth County development firm over complaints ranging from flooding to poorly supported decks and walkways. The first, Eli Kornberg, a former vice president and project manager at Victor Construction Company in Wall Township, refused to answer questions, citing his constitutional right against self-incrimination.”
—Steve Chambers (Newark Star-Ledger, 2004-10-13)

“The report showed the median prices of single-family homes across the Garden State rose 12 percent to 18 percent during the October to December period of 2004 from the comparable period a year earlier. The gains pushed the median price for an existing home in New Jersey to $338,000—a major hurdle for first-time buyers, ... ”
—George E. Jordan (Newark Star-Ledger, 2005-02-16)

“The average rent for a two-bedroom apartment in New Jersey climbed to $1,085 per month, leaving the state's rental market far too expensive for low-income households, according to a report planned for release today by a non-profit housing coalition. For the third straight year, New Jersey remains the most expensive state in the nation for a low-income wage earner to rent an apartment. ... Furthermore, affordable housing advocates say, 53 percent of the renters in the state cannot afford the cost.”
— Tom Hester (Newark Star-Ledger, 2006-01-24)

Education

“The universities of California, Michigan, Texas and Wisconsin all belong, but Rutgers leads the pack on professorial compensation. ... Including full professors, associate professors and assistant professors, Rutgers ranked second, at $71,280.”
— James Ahearn (Asbury Park Press, 1997-12-14)

“[New Jerseyans] spend more per pupil to keep school buses on the road than any other state ... Last year the cost of transportation in New Jersey averaged nearly a thousand dollars for every student who rode a bus. ... [The State Commission of Investigation] found bid-rigging, intimidation, even, in one case, evidence of murder, as bus companies jockeyed to preserve contracts. Some districts do receive multiple bids, but others say they get only one, from the same company, year in and year out. Prospective competitors fear vandalism or worse.”
— James Ahearn (Asbury Park Press, 1997-12-21)

“In response to a lawsuit ... Education Commissioner Leo Klagholz has agreed to stop granting waivers to local districts that allowed them to circumvent the state's special education regulations. ... Since ... June 1995, Klagholz has handed out more than 1,000 waivers.”
— Nick Chiles (Newark Star-Ledger, 1998-07-15)

“The League of Women Voters of New Jersey yesterday accused Education Commissioner Leo Klagholz of ignoring the [State] Supreme Court's order to reform schooling in the state's most disadvantaged communities.... The league complained that since May, when the Supreme Court closed out the ... school funding case with a sweeping order for improvements in school buildings and management, Klagholz has done little but impose roadblocks to real reform. ... [Judith] Cambria said the league is particularly concerned that the department is keeping millions of dollars of court-ordered special aid to the districts for itself as an administrative fee ...”
— Dunstan McNichol (Newark Star-Ledger, 1998-09-10)

“Around the country, more and more children ... are eating breakfast in school. But it's still rare in New Jersey, which ranks second to last nationally in the percentage of schools that serve breakfast. ... Only 35 percent of the nearly 2,500 schools in the state that serve lunch offer breakfast, compared to 75 percent nationwide, according to a report release recently by the Food Research and Action Center ... and the Community Food Bank of New Jersey ....”
— Peggy O'Crowley (Newark Star-Ledger, 1998-11-03)

“New Jersey education officials plan to toughen oversight of districts to make sure schools comply with federal special education requirements, following a scathing U.S. Department of Education report. ... The report focused on placing more students with disabilities in regular classroom settings, and rebuked the state for failing to ‘exercise its general supervisory authority over local school districts.’ ... It targets several areas for improvements, in particular decreasing the number of disabled students whom districts send to segregated classes or special schools.”
—Ana M. Alaya and Bev McCarron (Newark Star-Ledger, 1999-03-25)

“Last year's court order called for full-day kindergarten programs in all the 28 Abbott districts. It ordered the state to begin half-day preschool programs by September 1998 if possible but no later than September 1999. The justices endorsed the state's own plan to impose whole school reform ... on 50 schools during the current school year, 100 more starting this September and another 156 in September 2000. And the court accepted a construction schedule that would have local building plans drawn up by last January, blueprints produced this fall and the first construction next spring. . . . The state did not meet the court mandate for full-day kindergarten programs this school year in at least half the school districts. The state has ordered local officials to plan preschool programs for 75 percent of their eligible 3- and 4-year-olds, assuming that at least one-fourth of eligible families will not participate. Local officials say they were told they would not receive any extra state funds to get the new preschool programs running. . . . Many local officials are still recovering from the state's decision last February to turn down every district's plan for setting up the pre-school programs the court mandated. The state has since accepted revised plans that cost millions of dollars less ... and serve fewer than two-thirds of the youngsters covered by the court order. . . . State officials have earmarked $3 billion for [construction], but plans prepared by the local districts could reach . . . closer to $8 billion. The 10 districts that have already completed building plans are seeking a total of $2.6 billion, with Jersey City alone seeking almost $1 billion for school buildings.
—Dunstan McNichol (Newark Star-Ledger, 1999-05-16)

“The Star-Ledger surveyed 22 colleges and universities [in New Jersey] ... 49.7 percent of residential beds are in buildings that incorporate sprinklers.”
—Joe Malinconico et al. (Newark Star-Ledger, 2000-01-22)

“New Jersey continues to spend more money on each of its public school students than any other state in the country ... The Garden State spent $9,461 per student in 1997, the latest year for which figures were available. ... The national average was $5,873. ... ‘Everything in New Jersey costs more, so it's no surprise that education also costs more,’ said Karen Joseph ... for the New Jersey Education Association.”
— Mark Mueller (Newark Star-Ledger, 2000-06-21)

“In the two years since the federal government sharply criticized special education in New Jersey's public schools, stepped-up state monitoring has found [that] deeply rooted problems persist in many districts. ... State monitors found a dramatic rise in the number of special education students in Paterson, particularly for the fourth and eighth grades, when statewide tests are taken. In Newark's schools, untrained substitutes were found overseeing special education classes on a regular basis.”
—John Mooney (Newark Star-Ledger, 2001-06-03)

“A report commissioned by the state concludes that while most of the state-funded preschools are good, nearly one in five of the classrooms were considered inadequate and perhaps dangerous.”
—Associated Press, 2001-08-03

“Three years after the New Jersey Supreme Court ordered the state to set up first-rate preschool programs for all 3- and 4-year-olds in 30 poor school districts, the justices spent more than five hours yesterday trying to figure out why only about half of the 54,000 eligible youngsters are actually attending these classes. Advocates for the schoolchildren charged the state is dragging its feet and needs to be prodded to follow the courts' mandate. ... ”
—Kathy Barrett Carter and Donna Leusner (Newark Star-Ledger, 2001-09-26)

“Emergency repairs to schools in New Jersey's poorest districts remain critically behind schedule leaving thousands of children in classrooms with leaking roofs, windows that don't close and fire alarm systems that are obsolete. The repairs, ordered by the state Supreme Court in 1998, were to start last summer, but because of difficulties securing contractors, the state agency ... lost out on vital time, a state official said. Since much of the repair work cannot be done while classes are in session, many of the projects will likely not be started until next summer.”
—Ivelisse De Jesus (Newark Star-Ledger, 2001-11-09)

“Almost 70 percent of the state's 20,300 school buses failed their motor vehicle inspections this past year, including many with infractions serious enough to force them off the road for repairs, transportation officials said yesterday.”
—Joe Malinconico (Newark Star-Ledger, 2002-05-22)

Health

“New Jersey ranked seventh among states in TB [tuberculosis] incidence in 1996, ...”
— Elizabeth Moore (Newark Star-Ledger, 1998-01-30)

“More children in Newark fail to get critical immunizations than anywhere else in the country, ... [O]nly 63 percent of children get their vaccinations by age 2 ....”
— Peggy O'Crowley (Newark Star-Ledger, 1998-04)

“... the horrendously high rate here of HIV infections among women and children? Is it worth noting that we lead all other states in this category? ...”
— John McLaughlin (Newark Star-Ledger, 1998-10-18)

“New Jersey is the only state that did not experience a decline in pregnancy rates in the early to mid '90s ... The percentage of pregnant girls 15 to 19 who got abortions in 1996 was 58 percent—the highest in the nation ...”
—Carol Ann Campbell (Newark Star-Ledger, 1999-05-07)

“Efforts to provide health care to children in New Jersey have fallen short in comparison with other states, according to a study ... From 1996 to June 1999, the number of insured children in New Jersey increased only 2.7 percent, by about 32,000 children, leaving 300,000 children uninsured ...”
—Lisa Suhay (New York Times, 1999-10-24)

“... Severe smog remains a dangerous health problem in all of the New Jersey counties analyzed by the American Lung Association ... ‘We have some of the worst air in the country,’ said Michael Calvin, an environmental consultant for the American Lung Association of New Jersey.”
—Carol Ann Campbell (Newark Star-Ledger, 2000-05-23)

“Only 5 percent of [New Jersey's] municipalities, serving about 19 percent of the state's 8 million residents, add fluoride to drinking water as a way to prevent tooth decay, according to the state Department of Environmental Protection.”
—Kristen Alloway (Newark Star-Ledger, 2000-06-11)

“A 2-year-old report released yesterday called the treatment of New Jersey's mentally ill inmates inhumane and among the worst in the country. Human Rights Watch ... released the ... report after it sued in federal court to require its release. The study ... found [that] inmates were routinely put in unsanitary solitary confinement, some grossly overmedicated and others who were not given medication for days at a time. Some inmates waited months for individual therapy, and many never received any treatment for drug side effects. ... [The report's] author, Florida psychiatrist Dennis Koson, concluded that the state's treatment of mentally ill prisoners ‘is among the worst I have seen in my 15 years of inspecting correctional systems nationwide.’ ”
—Donna Leusner (Newark Star-Ledger, 2000-09-21)

“Mold that workers blame for respiratory infections, dirty and ripped carpeting where children play, and holes in the walls big enough for a tiny hand to get stuck: These are the conditions in the Plainfield area office of the state Division of Youth and Family Services ... State Labor Department inspectors cited the office for violations in June and ordered them fixed by the end of August. DYFS officials and the landlord say they're working on improvements, but the workers say they've seen little progress so far. ... According to the inspection report, the office was not kept clean, and dirt and debris had accumulated between the outside wall and inner-wall panels. DYFS had not established a preventive maintenance program for the heating and air-conditioning system, and the air conditioner and thermostats did not work ...”
—Jennifer Golson (Newark Star-Ledger, 2000-09-21)

“The quality of health care for New Jersey's elderly residents ranks 48th out of 52 states and districts—just above Puerto Rico, Arkansas, Mississippi and Louisiana—in a ... study published in ... the Journal of the American Medical Association. ... Researchers examined how frequently patients received 24 widely accepted treatments or tests, such as flu shots, mammograms, or aspirin for heart attacks.”
—Rebecca Goldsmith (Newark Star-Ledger, 2000-10-04)

“State regulations designed to protect consumers from food-borne illness fall far short of federal standards—and enforcement of these regulations is inconsistent at best ... New Jersey requires only one inspection [a year], and ... many local health departments fail to meet that level. ... There is no formal system for quantifying the severity of sanitary violations in New Jersey, and records show that while some local departments crack down frequently on violators, others rarely or never take action against restaurants. ... The state allows restaurants to prepare certain foods at temperatures too low to kill all organisms that cause disease, and allows eateries to store foods at temperatures higher than the federal government's recommendation. ... The most recent inspection report of 39 top-rated restaurants in New Jersey ... included 300 violations of the state sanitary code. ... In a third of the ... top restaurants, inspectors found ... inadequate hand-washing facilities. In some cases, sinks were missing towels. In one case, restaurant employees were provided a decorative novelty soap.”
—Robert Gebeloff (Newark Star-Ledger, 2000-11-05)

“The state's new low-cost health insurance program for working-class adults will soon need an infusion of money because an unexpectedly strong demand from the public is quickly eating up its $168 million budget. State officials say FamilyCare could run out of money before the state's fiscal year ends June 30. The demand has prompted the state to cancel a recruitment campaign while it tries to clear a waiting list of 27,000 applicants, which may take four months.”
—Susan K. Livio (Newark Star-Ledger, 2001-03-09)

“Severe air pollution affects New Jersey residents regardless of where they live, according to the American Lung Association's ‘State of the Air 2001.’ The report gave a grade of F to every New Jersey county it analyzed. Counties with rural areas fared as poorly as counties with cities.”
—Carol Ann Campbell (Newark Star-Ledger, 2001-05-02)

“State officials admitted yesterday that a Hopatcong couple were wrongly detained inside Greystone Park Psychiatric Hospital last week after they took photographs of their son to document injuries allegedly sustained in a beating incident ... A standoff between Louis and Christine Rush and hospital workers, who surrounded them and refused to unlock the doors, was due to a mistaken interpretation of state rules, said Pam Ronan, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Human Services.”
—Lawrence Ragonese (Newark Star-Ledger, 2001-06-15)

“Saying the coffers of New Jersey's popular health insurance plan for the working poor are running dry, acting Human Services Commissioner James Smith yesterday announced the state will stop enrolling childless adults beginning next month. Officials worry the $490 million state and federally funded FamilyCare program may run out of cash because of a huge demand among the state's 1.3 million uninsured residents. Since November, 123,000 adults have enrolled for the program, with 30,000 applications yet to be processed. Officials had set a 125,000 limit—and thought it would take three years to meet it.”
—Susan K. Livio (Newark Star-Ledger, 2001-08-16)

“Fewer than half the people seeking treatment for drug and alcohol abuse in New Jersey get help each year while 71,000 others are turned away, according to a report released yesterday by a state task force on substance abuse. The percentage of adolescents turned away from treatment is even greater: 5,130 adolescents get treatment while 9,400 don't, the report said. The report . . . found: —New Jersey hospitals, faced with a cost crunch, have closed detox units. —New York spends $57.21 per capita on treatment; New Jersey spends $10.”
—Carol Ann Campbell (Newark Star-Ledger, 2001-08-16)

“A suspended head nurse at Greystone Park Psychiatric Hospital who is accused of having sexual contact with a male patient was charged yesterday with giving a prescription drug to another patient with the intent of getting sexual favors in return, authorities said. ... Greystone has been plagued for years by incidents involving patients and employees. Last month, nurse ------ ---- pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting a female patient in the hospital's admissions unit in June. In September, counselor ----- ------ was charged with second-degree sexual assault of a 50-year-old patient on hospital grounds and at an Irvington motel.”
—Margaret McHugh (Newark Star-Ledger, 2001-08-23)

“The nation's death rate fell to a record low last year, with fewer Americans succumbing to the major killers: heart disease, cancer and stroke. ... In New Jersey, the mortality rate ran counter to the national average, increasing to 864 from 858 per 100,000. There were 13 other states where the rate increased.”
—Angela Stewart (Newark Star-Ledger, 2001-10-11)

“The state will make good on a $223 loss suffered by a Greystone Park Psychiatric Hospital patient whose bank book and card, mailed to him by his father, apparently were stolen from the hospital's mail room in March. ... Some patients at the hospital have complained that mail is slow to reach them, and noted concern that some packages may have been opened before reaching them.”
—Lawrence Ragonese (Newark Star-Ledger, 2001-10-30)

“Residents of seven New Jersey counties face some of the highest cancer risks from air toxins in the nation ... The New Jersey Public Interest Research Group said Hudson, Bergen, Camden, Essex, Monmouth, Union and Mercer ranked among the top 25 counties nationwide with the highest average cancer risks caused by toxins such as benzene and formaldehyde, which primarily come from cars, trucks, buses and off-road vehicles.”
—Anthony S. Twyman (Newark Star-Ledger, 2001-11-29)

“Dozens of patients at Greystone Park Psychiatric Hospital say they have been showering with cold water since last month. ... Patients at the hospital's Ellis complex say they have been without hot or even warm water since before Christmas, and say repeated complaints to staff members during daily ‘life management meetings’ have been ignored. A couple hundred more patients at the Abell complex also have dealt with inadequate hot water supplies, leaving many with little hygienic option but to wash in cool or cold water this winter ...”
—Lawrence Ragonese (Newark Star-Ledger, 2002-01-09)

“Although the number of infectious syphilis cases has been decreasing nationally since the late 1980s, Newark is among a handful of U.S. cities where the sexually transmitted disease has been on the rise in recent years, according to federal data released yesterday. The city had the ninth highest incidence of syphilis in the country in 2000. ... Newark also had the 12th highest incidence of gonorrhea in 2000 ...”
—Rebecca Goldsmith (Newark Star-Ledger, 2000-03-06)

“The U. S. Department of Justice launched a civil rights investigation this week into the care and treatment of residents at the New Lisbon Developmental Center, where four disabled men died last year. ... In the past several months, inspectors from the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services have documented widespread neglect, poor supervision and staff shortages at New Lisbon, as well as four of the other centers for people with autism, cerebral palsy and other developmental disabilities.”
—Susan K. Livio (Newark Star-Ledger, 2002-03-22)

“Almost two years ago, ... Gov. Christie Whitman declared Greystone Park Psychiatric Hospital a disaster and ordered the 125-year-old facility shut down. ‘We've had enough,’ she said on April 28, 2000, referring to the sexual assaults, escapes, poor living conditions and substandard care the patients ... were receiving. ... Now, two years later, 550 patients remain in Greystone. Top state officials and legislators concede there is no chance the state will come close to meeting Whitman's three-year pledge.”
—Lawrence Ragonese (Newark Star-Ledger, 2002-04-01)

“Cancer mortality rates among senior citizens run higher in New Jersey than the rest of the country—by as much as 10 percent among men and 14 percent among women, according to a state health department report released yesterday.”
—Susan K. Livio (Newark Star-Ledger, 2002-05-21)

“... The state will stop accepting adults into the popular FamilyCare health insurance program for the working poor on June 15 and will scale back some benefits, state officials and the sponsor of the law said.”
—Susan K. Livio (Newark Star-Ledger, 2002-05-29)

“A federal report faults the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency and New Jersey for failing to enforce and oversee a program ... that allowed New Jersey companies to pollute the air more than government regulations allowed as long as they purchased ‘credits’ from other companies that significantly reduced their air emissions. ... According to the report, the EPA and the state did not do enough to make sure the Open Market Emissions Trading program worked. It cited ‘lack of safeguards, use of data of uncertain quality, and limited regulatory oversight of trading activities.’ ”
—Anthony S. Twyman (Newark Star-Ledger, 2002-10-04)

“New Jersey ranks 17th highest overall in cancer deaths among the 50 states and Washington, D.C., according to the C.D.C. Yet the data also show that the ... incidence of cancer in New Jersey is much higher—fourth highest for males, and sixth highest for females ... ”
—Maggie Fox (Newark Star-Ledger, 2002-11-19)

“Few of the sexual assaults, beatings, stabbings, escapes or falsifications of patient logs at Greystone Park Psychiatric Hospital, which prompted the state to decide to close the massive, 126-year-old state institution, have led to convictions. Once those cases entered the criminal court system, charges were reduced or dismissed, and few of those responsible served time in prison . . . ”
—Lawrence Ragonese (Newark Star-Ledger, 2002-11-30)

“Federal civil rights investigators have expanded an investigation of New Jersey institutions for the developmentally disabled, sending inspectors to a facility in Woodbridge this week after concluding that residents at a South Jersey center had suffered abuse and neglect. ... The probe at Woodbridge follows a [U.S. Department of Justice] Civil Rights Division review of the New Lisbon Developmental Center in Woodland, Burlington County, which concluded residents were not given adequate medical and psychological care and were not sufficiently protected from abuse.”
—Susan K. Livio (Newark Star-Ledger, 2003-06-20)

“Authorities are investigating the theft of at least several thousand dollars from a patient funds account at Greystone Park Psychiatric Hospital, and have suspended a clerk-bookkeeper without pay ... The missing money came from a special account for a program at the state hospital's greenhouse where supervised patients grow plants ... and sell them to the public.”
—Lawrence Ragonese (Newark Star-Ledger, 2003-09-06)

“The state health commissioner has ordered inspections of all 151 residential facilities for the mentally ill and has halted new admissions at an East Orange residence because of poor conditions. ... At both Eden House and Haven Manor yesterday, there was no security ... the residence was filled with 71 mentally ill people, some sleeping three to a room. The building smelled like urine and lacked air conditioning in the rooms. Residents wandered aimlessly, many hanging outside of the house. The television room had a hole in the ceiling and a basin was underneath to catch the rain. The residents complain of mice and roaches, and a dead mouse lay on the top floor. Flies buzzed around, even in the kitchen.”
—Jeffery C. Mays (Newark Star-Ledger, 2004-08-12)

“New Jersey is the most expensive place in the country to get sick, according to a study released yesterday, documenting huge markups by hospitals on everything from prescription drugs to operating room services. Hospitals in the Garden State charged patients an average of nearly 415 percent above what it actually cost to provide care ... Bridge Devane, an organizer with New Jersey Citizen Action, says she has heard countless stories from state residents about their astrononical medical bills, especially from people lacking health insurance.”
—Angela Stewart (Newark Star-Ledger, 2004-09-10)

“An audit of medical records over the past year found scant proof that foster children are getting the health care they are entitled to receive, a report issued by the Office of the Child Advocate said. A random check of 82 children's files found many of them were illegible, or missing information that would show whether the children were getting the most basic medical care, such as physicals, immunizations and vision and hearing tests ... .”
—Susan K. Livio (Newark Star-Ledger, 2004-11-10)

“Acting Gov. Richard Codey made a surprise visit to Greystone yesterday, thermometer in hand. He found oppressive heat—in bedrooms, hallways, reading rooms and day rooms—most everywhere he went in the Abell complex at the state psychiatric hospital. ... Codey was distressed to find temperatures hovering near 90 inside the 160-patient complex and demanded to know why some windows do not open and portable air-conditioning units were broken or not operating. He was upset to learn a faulty electrical distribution system cannot provide adequate power to allow the hospital to put fans in patient bedrooms or install more portable air conditioners in the 48-year-old building.”
—Lawrence Ragonese (Newark Star-Ledger, 2005-07-12)

“Patients in New Jersey hospitals are more likely than those in any other state to be harmed by medical mistakes, according to a health care rating company's analysis of federal data. ... The study looked at 13 types of preventable hospital complications, such as post-operative blood clots, bed sores, post-operative blood infections, post-operative hip fractures, or objects such as clamps or sponges left in the patient's body during surgery. ... ‘New Jersey performed worse than expected,’ said Samantha Collier, vice president of medical affairs for ... HealthGrades. The state's poor performance was striking, she said. ‘It was highly statistically significant.’ ”
—Carol Ann Campbell (Newark Star-Ledger, 2006-04-05)

“Some patients at Greystone Park Psychiatric Hospital had to try to find their own way out of a locked, smoke-filled ward in the early morning hours last week as staff sat idly by and one even slept on the job, according to a report released yesterday ...”
—Lawrence Ragonese (Newark Star-Ledger, 2006-07-18)

“The state's hospitals, on average, charge uninsured patients or those who pay out of pocket more than four times what insurance companies and Medicare end up paying for the same care, according to the study published today in the journal Health Affairs. ... The gap was the greatest of any state, and overwhelmingly affected the working poor and other low-income residents, the study concluded.”
—Angela Stewart (Newark Star-Ledger, 2007-05-08)

“New Jersey's health care system is sick, with too many people lacking medical insurance and prenatal care woefully inadequate, according to a new survey ... The state ranked 21st ... compared with 14th last year. The report, issued by the United Health Foundation, the American Public Health Association and the Partnership for Prevention, found the state declining in ... preventable hospitalizations, infections diseases, cardiovascular deaths and number of doctors.”
—Ted Sherman (Newark Star-Ledger, 2007-11-06)

“A 38-year-old Greystone Park Psychiatric Hospital patient died last August from a heroin overdose in a secure ward ... .”
—Lawrence Ragonese (Newark Star-Ledger, 2008-05-01)

“New Jersey's air was given failing grades for a 10th consecutive year by the American Lung Association in its annual ‘State of the Air’ report, which again found that people in rural corners of the state suffer as badly as they do in the grittiest urban areas ... ranked parts of the Garden State among the 25 worst-polluted areas in the nation.”
—Brian T. Murray (Newark Star-Ledger, 2009-04-29)

“A court-appointed watchdog group for Greystone Park Psychiatric Hospital has decided not to disband, saying many patient-care issues have yet to be addressed, and it accused the state of interfering with its recent efforts to assess hospital operations. ... Patients are too limited in their ability to move about the hospital ... Some para-professional staffers ‘do not demonstrate caring attitudes,’ ignoring patients or engaging in rude interchanges with them. ... Developing therapeutic alliances between patients and staff remains a challenge, with difference in race, ethnicity, social class and education creating a ‘them vs. us’ scenario.”

Race Relations

“New Jersey leads the nation when it comes to incarcerating drug offenders, and blacks in the state are nearly 18 times [as likely as] whites to be behind bars, according to a national study released yesterday.”
—Kathy Barrett Carter (Newark Star-Ledger, 2001-07-12)

“Three decades after the civil rights movement and the nationwide push to integrate public education, New Jersey's schools remain among the most segregated in the country ... More than half of the state's black students now attend schools where at least 90 percent are minority students, the fourth highest rate in the country ...”
—John Mooney (Newark Star-Ledger, 2001-07-18)

“Nine out of 10 motorists who consented to searches of their cars by Moorestown-based troopers were black, Hispanic, or Asian, according to State Police records for November 2000 through April 2001. Along the entire Turnpike, three out of four drivers who agreed to such searches were minorities.”
—David Kinney and Kathy Barrett Carter (Newark Star-Ledger, 2001-07-18)

“Despite continuing decreases in crime during the 1990s, the number of people behind bars in New Jersey increased ... As of ... April 1, 2000 ... there were 47,941 people in correctional institutions in the state, up from 18,848 from a decade earlier. ... Overwhelmingly, those behind bars were people of color. The census found that 59.7 percent of those in correctional institutions were black, 20.3 percent were white and 19.6 percent Hispanic.”
—Robert Schwaneberg (Newark Star-Ledger, 2001-08-19)

“Three Orange police officers have been suspended for either lying to investigators probing the death of Earl Faison, or for refusing to testify during the resulting federal conspiracy trial. ... The administrative actions ... come one month after the Essex County Prosecutor's Office told Orange police that it had no plans to ... prosecute any of the officers involved in covering up what happened on April 11, 1999, the night Faison died in police custody. ... Faison, 27, of East Orange, was taken into custody after being mistaken for the killer of Orange Police officer Joyce Carnegie, who was fatally shot three days earlier. Faison, an aspiring rap artist, died of an acute asthma attack after less than an hour in police custody. Authorities said that after an initial scuffle with the arresting officer, other police arrived ... and beat and kicked Faison, then dragged him into a rear stairwell at police headquarters and blasted the unconscious man in the face with pepper spray. ... The initial police ... reports only indicated that Faison—while being escorted down a hallway to be questioned about the gun and resisting arrest ... mysteriously collapsed and died.”
—Kevin C. Dilworth (Newark Star-Ledger, 2001-10-10)

“The operators of three apartment complexes in Morris County have agreed to pay $250,000 to settle Justice Department charges that they refused to rent to blacks and discriminated against families with children ... The lawsuit came after trained testers posed as prospective tenants inquiring about the availability of rental units. Black and white testers presented comparable information about employment and income. ... Black applicants were told apartments were not available but white applicants were told they were available. Families with children were restricted to first-floor units, or told that apartments were not available when there were vacancies, the government alleged.”
—Associated Press 2001-09-22

“African-American political and religious leaders said yesterday the Legislature is dragging its feet on a promised package of bills to end racial profiling by the State Police. ‘Two years have passed since legislation to outlaw racial profiling was introduced, and it still has not been posted for a vote,’ said the Rev. Reginald Jackson ...”
—Kathy Barrett Carter (Newark Star-Ledger, 2001-11-30)

“... allegations of racism surfaced earlier this month after the Giordano family of Bloomfield claimed the owner of the Le Terrace Swim Club openly objected to some of the guests named on their daughter's birthday party list because ... he thought the names belonged to people of color. ... [Mrs.] Giordano said she told Nardone [the owner], ‘If I knew this was the policy, we would not have joined.’ ... Eventually, Nardone told Giordano he would overlook his objections ... ‘He said, “Okay, okay, we will let you have the party. But now you know the policy,” ’ she said. ... Other Nutley-area residents said the Giordanos' experience is not an isolated one. Marci Shepard, who is African-American, said she was turned away from Le Terrace last year after she tried to enter the club as a guest of Michael and Catherine Russo. When Catherine Russo tried to sign Shepard in on the club's visitors register, a desk assistant told them to wait and went to a back office. ‘He ... came back and said, “No visitors today,” ’ recalled Shepard ... ‘The lady behind us said she had a guest, and he said, “Sign right in.” ’ ”
—Rob Williams (Newark Star-Ledger, 2002-06-30)

“Blacks in New Jersey are 13 times [as] likely to end up in jail [as] whites—a higher disparity than any other state, according to a report released yesterday by a Washington research group. The report ... notes that 63 percent of New Jersey's prison population is black in a state with an African-American population of less than 14 percent.”
—Kathy Barrett Carter (Newark Star-Ledger, 2004-01-07)

Transportation

“New Jersey's aging, pockmarked highways are taking their toll on cars. Drivers spend six times more on auto repairs caused by bad roads than the state spends to fix those roads, according to a study released Tuesday by two public interest groups. That's worse than the national average, where the cost of car repairs outpaces road repairs by four times. ... The result: Nearly 36 percent of New Jersey's urban highways are rated poor or mediocre—13th worst in the United States, according to the study.
—Neal Thompson and Jeff Page (Bergen Record, 1997-09-17)

“The purpose of this letter is to express my utter dismay over drivers and driving conditions, especially in Newark. I don't think Route 21 has changed since the '40s, except for increased traffic, of course. As to the drivers, I have never seen so many discourteous and aggressive drivers anywhere. As a driving instructor ... I was appalled at the reckless disregard for the rules of the road and the safety of others.”
— Thomas F. Halpin (letter, Newark Star-Ledger, 1998-07-10)

“With the highest pedestrian fatality rate in the country, New Jersey ... I have conducted research for 25 years on urban transportation throughout the United States, Europe and Canada and have never found motorists as inconsiderate, impatient and reckless as in New Jersey. Car drivers flagrantly violate the legal rights of way of pedestrians at crosswalks and intersections, ... In contrast with California, drivers here almost never yield to pedestrians in mid-block crosswalks, and they often endanger pedestrians at intersections by making right or left turns through crosswalks, even speeding up to beat pedestrians through.”
— John Pucher (Newark Star-Ledger, 1998-10-22)

“With so many drivers, highways and destinations, what can explain the dreadful state of New Jersey's road signs? ... I counted more than a dozen infractions. They included signs placed behind trees or light posts or past the exit points they identified; signs with faded, barely legible lettering; signs that were unreadable at night; signs that were confusing or flat-out incorrect. But at least these signs exist. The most common problem by far is the lack of signs. ... ”
— Scott Schaffer (letter, Newark Star-Ledger, 2000-01-10)

“New Jersey placed last in a national ranking of child passenger safety laws, largely because the state does not require young children to be strapped into car seats. ... Out of a possible 100 points, the state scored 24.3 ... Under New Jersey law, only children 18 months and younger are required to be strapped into federally approved car seats when riding anywhere in the car. Children ... 18 months to 5 years old must be in a [child] seat only if they are riding in the front. ... If the number of children under age 5 ... exceeds the number of available seat belts, the law requires only that they ride in the back seat.”
—Peggy O'Crowley (Newark Star-Ledger, 2001-02-09)

“NJ Transit failed to alert federal authorities to dozens of accidents and injuries involving its train employees and passengers in 2000, violations that could result in fines as high as $297,000, the Federal Railroad Administration determined yesterday. The 91 violations, ... uncovered ... over the past few months, have prompted the railroad regulators to take the unusually harsh step of ordering an audit for all of NJ Transit's safety records for the next three years ...”
—Joe Malinconico (Newark Star-Ledger, 2001-03-09)

“Over the last three years, about 20 percent of New Jersey's traffic fatalities have been pedestrians. New York is the only state with a higher rate.”
—Brian Cook (letter, Newark Star-Ledger, 2001-03-25)

“New Jerseyans paid the biggest bills for auto insurance in the nation in 1999, for the seventh year in a row ... New Jersey's average auto insurance premiums were $1,033.88 in 1999 ...”
—David Ress (Newark Star-Ledger, 2001-06-08)

“New Jersey drivers say they have tried just about everything in their quest to contact the E-ZPass [automatic toll collection] customer service center. They call early in the morning or late in the evening. The use speed dial and redial, and they dial during lunch. Often they get the same message, time and time again, a recording that tells them everybody's busy and then cuts them off ... Those ... fortunate enough to get through to the telephone system's main menu usually end up spending more time on hold than they bargained for. ‘I actually fell asleep with the phone by my ear waiting for them,’ says Emil Halupka of Cranford, who says he woke up 40 minutes later, still waiting for his call to go through. ... Using e-mail has been just as futile, according to some electronic toll users who say they received ‘undeliverable message’ responses ...”
—Joe Malinconico (Newark Star-Ledger, 2001-07-30)

“The little sign says, ‘Please Enter Here.’ So you follow it, down the narrow lane created by the sort of stretch barrier belts you see in banks until you come to a wall, a dead end. Then you turn around to see, across the barrier, another little sign that says: ‘Wait Here for the Next Available Teller.’ But you can't get there without ducking under, or jumping over, the barrier. So you sidle your way back up the entrance lane, trying to avoid bumping into other puzzled people who have foolishly followed you, and get to the obvious entrance. It bears a sign: ‘Exit Only—Do Not Enter.’ Welcome to the E-ZPass Customer Service Center in Secaucus.”
—Bob Braun (Newark Star-Ledger, 2001-08-06)

“Traffic congestion in New Jersey costs $7.3 billion a year in lost time, fuel and additional vehicle operating costs, according to a study released yesterday by the New Jersey Institute of Technology.”
—Associated Press, 2001-10-10

“... Several watchdog groups filed a lawsuit yesterday accusing the state of reneging on its commitments to repair bridges and roads. The activist groups say the state's proposed 2002 budget fails to adhere to pledges made last year to fix half of New Jersey's deficient roads and bridges and to build 1,000 new miles of bicycles paths over the next five years.”
—Joe Malinconico (Newark Star-Ledger, 2001-06-01)

“Returning from a visit to Pennsylvania recently, I stopped at a rest area on Route 287 north ... The nauseating condition of the facilities made me ashamed to be a resident of this state and affronted me as a disabled person. At least a third of the urinals were out of order, and neither toilet for the handicapped was functioning. The facility was disgustingly dirty, with water and fecal material on the floors and toilet facilities. The inside booths were labeled with graffiti. This is a decided contrast with rest areas I used in Pennsylvania. ...”
—David J. Struebel (letter, Newark Star-Ledger, 2002-03-30)

“Surrending to the staggering failures of New Jersey's E-ZPass program, state officials admitted yesterday that they have shut down much of the electronic enforcement system that was designed to catch toll cheats. ... As a result, there is ... nothing ... to stop drivers from beating tolls at 297 of the 320 E-ZPass booths on the Garden State Parkway and the New Jersey Turnpike, officials said. ... Officials said they secretly extended what was supposed to be a six-month moratorium on the violations because they were unable to prevent the equipment from spitting out hundreds of thousands of erroneous penalties per month.”
—Joe Malinconico (Newark Star-Ledger, 2002-12-18)

“During the first 11 months of 2003, Newark Liberty International Airport ranked last among the nation's biggest airports for on-time arrivals and near the bottom for on-time departures, according to federal statistics released yesterday.”
—Ron Marsico (Newark Star-Ledger, 2004-01-08)

“Finally the state is proposing to spend $68 million to correct the idiocy of the Parkway-Route 78 interchange, where southbound Parkway drivers must travel west several miles and do a U-turn to take 78 east. Similarly, northbound Parkway drivers must travel east to go west. But didn't the state announce about three years ago that it was going to correct this problem for $25 million? This is just one of many incredibly poorly designed major highway intersections in New Jersey. Drivers exiting from the southbound Parkway at Newark must maneuver across at least three lanes in about 50 yards to go east on Route 280. Eastbound drivers on Route 80, who do not know about taking Route 19 south at Paterson to pick up the southbound Parkway, must later make more than a complete 360-degree circle. Northbound Route 21 funnels three lanes of traffic down into one where it becomes Route 20.”
—Robert C. Sawyer (letter, Newark Star-Ledger, 2004-03-02)

“Have you ever noticed that without exception the road up to a mile before a toll plaza is on a curve? You are warned of a toll, but then you come around a bend and have to choose a lane. ... Rounding the turn, the mass scramble for the correct lane begins. I have good eyesight, but I have trouble reading the number on the ground and matching it with a lane number at the tollbooth in the split second it takes to round the bend. Shouldn't tollbooths have been put in a straight line?”
—Mike Fleming (letter, Newark Star-Ledger, 2004-04-21)

“Vehicles killed 153 pedestrians in New Jersey in 2004, up 4.1 percent from a year earlier, ... About one-fifth of fatal vehicle accidents in New Jersey kill a pedestrian, a figure that trails only New York and Hawaii and is well above the national average of 12 percent, ... ”
—Jeffrey Gold (Associated Press, 2005-03-09)

“For the second time in three years, Newark ranked dead last among the nation's busiest airports in terms of on-time arrivals, according to statistics released by the U.S. Department of Transportation yesterday. The airport ranked third from the bottom in terms of on-time departures.”
—Ron Marsico (Newark Star-Ledger, 2006-02-03)

“People driving in Newark are more likely to be in a car crash than virtually any other large city in the country. New Jersey's other big cities, Elizabeth, Jersey City and Paterson, aren't much better. In fact, a study by Allstate Insurance Co. finds four of the six worst cities to drive in are right in the Garden State.”
—Joe Donohue (Newark Star-Ledger, 2007-06-27)

“Flights landed on schedule barely half the time at Newark Liberty International during the first seven months of this year, once again giving the hub the worst on-line arrival performance in the nation ... ”
—Ron Marsico (Newark Star-Ledger, 2007-09-05)

“Pedestrians accounted for one of every five traffic-related deaths in New Jersey over the past decade, and victims were disproportionately African-American, Hispanic or elderly, according to a report released yesterday. The study by Transportation for America ... said 1,514 pedestrians were killed in traffic incidents from 2000 to 2009—making up 21 percent of total traffic deaths for the period.”
—Associated Press (Newark Star-Ledger, 2011-05-25)

Government

“After years of holding up payments to automobile accident victims, a state-run insurance pool is finally paying all claims on time.... the financial condition of the Market Transition Facility had improved to the point that it could end its practice of routinely delaying payment of certain insurance benefits for 18 months. As a result, checks totaling $84 million went out earlier this month to 7,013 injured people who had been waiting for their payments, in some cases since August 1996. ...”
— Robert Schwaneberg (Newark Star-Ledger, 1998-02-18)

“Payments to New Jersey's foster parents are among the lowest in the nation. ...”
— Donna Leusner (Newark Star-Ledger, 1998-02-13)

“I recently visited the Wayne office [of the Division of Motor Vehicles] on Route 23 (after I couldn't even get in the door at the Route 46 office). I entered at 12:30 p.m. A sign in the entrance said there was a ‘28-minute wait for service.’ I stood on line for close to an hour. Out of 12 service windows, only four were open. Two were for licenses, one was for registrations and the last was a cashier. To make the wait even more frustrating, we were treated to the sarcasm-laced ‘humor’ of a female supervisor on the public address system. ... Those approaching the counter and asking why the wait was so long were invited to leave if they planned on ‘voicing any more comments on the state of service.’ ... ”
— Andy Fuchs (letter, Newark Star-Ledger, 1999-04-26)

“The ... property tax rebate program officially got under way yesterday—and immediately hit a snag as taxpayers trying to apply for their share of the money overloaded special telephone lines. State Treasurer James Di Eleuterio blamed delays in getting all the new phone lines running at the Division of Taxation. ... The state on Friday started mailing out 2.3 million packets ... that include ... instructions on how to claim the rebate through an automated telephone system. ... Taxpayers ... yesterday barraged the state with calls. Robert Post of Bound Brook ... was among those frustrated by the phone problems. He ... placed two calls to ask questions and got cut off both times after hearing a message that no one was available. He finally got through to a state employee, but she said she couldn't help him and abruptly hung up, he said. ... Robert Lazar ... was equally vexed after waiting 53 minutes on the telephone and then being told by a state worker that she couldn't assist him.”
—Joe Donohue (Newark Star-Ledger, 1999-05-04)

“One-fourth of all property in New Jersey, 1.2 million acres, is enrolled in the farmland assessment program ... Only one-third of the 66 biggest owners of farmland-assessed property say farming is their primary business. The other big ‘farmers’ are developers, builders, real estate partnerships, individuals and corporations whose interest in the land is not agricultural. ... The law has spawned a huge cottage industry of hobby farmers, owning almost 10,000 subsidized ‘farms’ of under 10 acres. ... ‘If you take all the food that the fake farmers raise, you couldn't feed all of New Jersey one breakfast ... ’ says retired potato farmer Joseph Serafin ... ‘All you have to do is ride through North Jersey and see the estates,’ he adds. ‘It's socialism for the wealthy.’ ”
— Joe Tyrell, Bev McCarron, and Mary Jo Patterson (Newark Star-Ledger, 1998-06-28)

“New Jersey once enjoyed a national reputation for rooting out corruption. Agencies created in that era, however, have been cut back, reined in or watered down. For example: —The state's Division of Criminal Justice has fewer people and a smaller budget than it did eight years ago. —The State Commission of Investigation has much less to spend than it did in 1989, and about half the number of staff. In addition, its independence has been compromised in recent years. A bill before the Legislature would put a political officeholder on the commission. —The State Auditor's Office, which has seen its budget decline over 10 years, has a mandate only to look at a state agency's financial books. There have been proposals to extend its reach into more analytical audits, but the Legislature has been loath to act. There is no longer an independent Office of the Public Advocate to challenge whether state departments are doing their jobs. That Cabinet post was dismantled early in the Whitman administration.”
— Ted Sherman (Newark Star-Ledger, 1998-07-05)

“ ‘Pretty dumpy,’ said Dave Hirschman ... as he looked around the Vince Lombardi [New Jersey Turnpike] service area in Ridgefield. Abbi Cooke ... had her own suggestions. ‘There needs to be more bathroom stalls for women, and they need to be much cleaner. None of the locks work on the stalls,’ she said.”
—P. L. Wyckoff (Newark Star-Ledger, 1999-07-23)

“New Jersey's attempts to reform its child welfare system amount to window dressing and fall far short of what is needed, a national advocacy group said yesterday as it prepares to sue the state. ... Her organization ... has concluded that the state Division of Youth and Family Services is violating the rights of thousands of children by letting them languish too long in foster care, separating siblings, and failing to provide enough caseworkers, foster homes and services for families. [M. R.] Lowry said the conclusions are based on discussions with hundreds of caseworkers, foster parents, judges, advocates and service providers. ... The union representing 5,500 caseworkers from Ocean to Sussex counties says more needs to be done. ‘It's not good enough. They starved this division. We need more caseworkers. We need more supervisors. We need more clerical staff. We need more cars. We need a caseload cap. We need more services we can provide,’ said Hetty Rosenstein, president of Local 1037 of the Communications Workers of America.”
—Donna Leusner (Newark Star-Ledger, 1999-07-30)

“Recently, I visited a motor vehicle office to register a vehicle and had 3-1/2 hours to observe its operation. I discovered the order of handling was ... 1) being the friend of an employee; 2) flashing a badge; 3) appearing to create a disturbance. I had to wait because a friend of the clerk had bought a car and was having trouble getting papers. The friend's problem got handled first. I also observed two people enter, flash badges and receive prompt service while others waited....”
—John Kemp (letter, Newark Star-Ledger, 1999-08-03)

“On several trips to New York City and Long Island, I have noticed how clean the Harlem River Drive, the Cross Bronx, Cross Island, Long Island and Major Deegan expressways have become. The exit ramps and properties are equally clean. What is is that Mayor Rudy Giuliani knows how to do that Gov. Christie Whitman does not? ... Since Whitman took office, the Garden State has become the Garbage State.”
—Barbara L. Staine (letter, Newark Star-Ledger, 1999-08-22)

“Four years ago, New Jersey officials promised the elderly an innovative system to help them live independently as long as possible. They outlined plans for a telephone hotline to connect senior citizens and their families with operations such as Meals On Wheels, home health aides and adult day care. ... A computer network would be set up [to] allow agencies to swap data quickly and accurately. ... The program would lead to fewer old people living in nursing homes, most of them on state assistance. ... Today, most of the promises of the program are unfulfilled. Few people realize the hotline exists or what it's designed to do. ... Attempts to obtain the hotline number anywhere in New Jersey by dialing directory assistance were unsuccessful. No number is listed in telephone directories. ... No funds have been spent on advertising. ... The planned computer network never materialized. A computer server purchased three years ago in Essex County sits unopened in a back office. ... [The program] has also exacerbated a problem it sought to solve: closing the social services gap between wealthier suburban counties ... and urban counties. Available services vary widely from one county to the next, and there is little state oversight.
—Rebecca Goldsmith (Newark Star-Ledger, 2000-10-31)

“Swimming would be allowed in state parks and forests without a lifeguard under legislation sent to Gov. Christie Whitman yesterday. The measure is a reaction to the shortage of lifeguards last summer that prompted many state parks to close the beaches before Labor Day.
—“Action in Trenton” (Newark Star-Ledger, 2000-12-12)

“New Jersey did a pitiful job administering Newark school finances in the years following the state's 1995 system takeover. The gross oversights that led to a ‘near collapse’ of school business operations should bring more than just a promise to do better. They warrant a law enforcement investigation. ... Obscene amounts of money flowed through the district without effective controls: —Invoices or other supporting documents weren't properly maintained for at least $25 million in transactions, even with big vendors such as PSE&G [Public Service Electric & Gas]. —Investigators found that $4.5 million in checks had not been recorded in district ledgers. —Auditors couldn't determine whether duplicate payments had been made for some bills.”
—editorial, Newark Star-Ledger, 2001-01-16

“The president of a New Jersey-based national construction firm yesterday admitted he routinely authorized payoffs to public officials throughout the state, saying municipal corruption is so widespread that companies are forced to offer bribes to get work.”
—Robert Rudolph (Newark Star-Ledger, 2001-01-30)

“When acting Gov. Donald DiFrancesco bought a storefront property in Chatham in 1986, he did not have to report the purchase on the brief personal financial disclosure he filed that year. When he defaulted in 1993 on the $1 million in loans he took out for the property, he did not have to make that public either. And when he borrowed thousands of dollars from politically connected friends to pay the bank, he was not required to disclose the loans. ... [The Center for Public Integrity] gives New Jersey's disclosure regulations a ‘failing’ grade—54 out of 100—and ranks the state 30th ... The center found the state does not require the reporting of facts that might raise conflict-of-interest questions.”
—David Kinney (Newark Star-Ledger, 2001-02-14)

“Eight New Jersey towns have settled a lawsuit filed by nine deaf people who claimed ... discrimination in municipal courts ... The lawsuit alleged that the towns and the state violated state and federal laws, including the Americans with Disabilities Act. Most of the plaintiffs were either denied interpreters fluent in sign language or were told they would have to pay for ones ...”
—Jennifer Del Medico (Newark Star-Ledger, 2001-09-02)

“New Jersey has one of the toughest laws in the nation to protect and preserve swamps, marshes and other wetlands from development, but it's not working well because of a lack of state oversight and poor planning, a new state study concludes. The Department of Environmental Protection reviews the results of 90 ‘mitigation’ projects, where developers were required to create new wetlands to make up for those lost to development. It found only 48 percent were completed successfully.”
—Anthony S. Twyman (Newark Star-Ledger, 2002-04-12)

“When two inmates at the New Jersey State Prison in Trenton died three years ago during a brutal heat wave, the statewide response was a collective ho-hum. ... Yesterday, the prison was in the ninth day of a heat alert, which is called whenever temperatures inside the walls reach 85 degrees [F.]. That means 7,000 pounds of ice a day are distributed to inmates, and blocks of ice are placed before huge fans. ... During the second week of July 1999 ... Vidal Prince, Jr., 48, and Hapari Wahaki, 41, died in the isolation wing of the prison, which was built in the 1800s. ... [Ken] Ryan said the medical examiner ruled that Prince died of heart failure but noted the death was heat related. The temperature in his cell was 115 degrees, and his body temperature was 105.2 degrees.”
—Steve Chambers (Newark Star-Ledger, 2002-07-03)

“When Gov. James E. McGreevey sealed 483 categories of state records last month, he said he was acting to thwart terrorists and protect citizens' expectations of privacy. But the long list of sealed records includes scores that have nothing to do with counterterrorism and little if any connection to privacy. The locations of rare plants and animals, historic and archeological sites, Indian burial grounds and group homes are now confidential. So are maps showing farmland the state hopes to preserve, charter school applications and the party affiliations of appointed members of state boards and commissions. Applications to rent Trenton's War Memorial Theatre, a state-owned concert hall renovated in the 1990s at a cost of $34 million, are exempt from disclosure. ... The exemptions are so extensive that Sen. Robert Martin ... who sponsored a new law intended to dramatically increase public access to government documents, fears ‘we have literally perhaps taken two steps backwards from where we were before the bill was signed in January.’ ”
—Robert Schwaneberg (Newark Star-Ledger, 2002-08-04)

“The state's child welfare agency has closed a group home and shelter in Newark for adolescent foster children after an agreement to temporarily replace the management at the troubled facility fell apart. ... In May, DYFS stopped new admissions and began proceedings to revoke the company's licenses. Inspections over a period of more than three years had found supervisors sleeping or otherwise distracted while girls and boys had sex and got drunk and high. Management struggled to maintain staff, who received little supervision and training ... ”
—Susan K. Livio (Newark Star-Ledger, 2003-07-12)

“New Jersey's beleaguered Division of Youth and Family Services failed 13 of 14 federal tests of how well it protects children and monitors their welfare, posting the worst performance among 46 states surveyed so far. The survey, released yesterday by the federal Administration for Children and Families, gave DYFS a passing grade only for having a statewide computer system to track all children in foster care. New Jersey failed to meet 13 other federal benchmarks, including all seven that directly measure child safety and welfare, and showed marked deficiencies in keeping children safe in their own homes.”
—Robert Schwaneberg (Newark Star-Ledger, 2004-05-22)

“New Jersey's only public psychiatric hospital for children must close within 13 months, the chairman of a court-ordered panel of child welfare experts told Human Services Commissioner James Davy late yesterday. ... ‘The panel cannot agree’ to keep Brisbane open, [Steve] Cohen said in a letter to Davy. ‘Twenty years of investigations and reports testify to the very serious problems at Brisbane, which have continued despite many past efforts to ameliorate them.’ ... Child and mental-health advocates for years have complained that overcrowding, deteriorating buildings and untrained staff put children at risk of harm. Calls for Brisbane's closure intensified after 17-year-old Kelly Young of Wharton died there in 1998. She suffocated while staff restrained her to quell an outburst.”
—Susan K. Livio (Newark Star-Ledger, 2004-05-25)

“New Jersey ranks last in the nation in women's participation in politics, a study released yesterday concludes. ... New Jersey has no women in its 15-member congressional delegation and just 19 women among the 120 members in the Legislature. And while 63 percent of New Jersey women are registered to vote, only an average 44 percent of women actually vote.”
—Tom Hester (Newark Star-Ledger, 2004-11-18)

“The state's juvenile justice system is illegally holding hundreds of mentally ill children in overcrowded conditions with so little care that suicidal behavior has become commonplace, according to a report by the state's child advocate. A yearlong investigation of New Jersey's 17 juvenile detention centers found [that] many children who have serious mental disorders are heavily medicated and are at risk of killing themselves. During the first eight months of this year, investigators documented more than 90 suicide threats or attempts. The investigators ... found that mentally ill children who have been arrested and ordered by a judge into a treatment facility that has no openings often languish in the detention center, in direct violation of state law, for weeks or months. These children wait longer, on average, than the most serious delinquents sentenced to lengthy jail terms.”
—Jonathan Schuppe (Newark Star-Ledger, 2004-11-23)

“Forty years after New Jersey began downsizing its psychiatric hospitals, the public mental health system is on the brink of collapse, experts say. ... Prisons are now the state's largest inpatient psychiatric hospitals and the Corrections Department will spend $50 million next year to medicate 3,200 inmates who have an array of psychoses. The department releases, on average, 46 mentally ill prisoners onto New Jersey streets every week, with only a 14-day supply of medication. Nearly half are back behind bars within a year.”
—Judy Peet (Newark Star-Ledger, 2004-12-19)

Other

“About a month ago I visited Florida. One day we decided to go to the beach. After parking (at no charge in a lot next to the beach), we walked onto the beach (at no charge). After a few hours we had lunch. On the beach! The beach was clean, though crowded. There were also well-maintained public restrooms and outdoor showers. / Two years ago while visiting Bricktown, my wife and I went to the Bay Head beach. After finding a parking space, we walked about four blocks to the beach. Once there, we were informed we needed day badges. These could be purchased five blocks away for $5 each. Upon finally entering the beach, we were asked to leave our cooler at the entrance as there was a no-food-or-drink policy on the beach....”
—Tom Christie (letter, Newark Star-Ledger, 1998-07-10)

“The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has issued a report blasting New Jersey's plan to allow cranberry farms to expand by 300 acres ... [It] said that in an aerial survey last month in central Burlington County, it found seven potential violations by cranberry farms involving ... 72 acres of wetlands within the environmentally sensitive Pinelands....”
—Anthony Twyman (Newark Star-Ledger, 1998-08-17)

“New Jersey is one of the priciest places in the nation to dine out, with consumers today paying nearly 8 percent more on average than they did two years ago, according to the latest Zagat restaurant survey. The average cost of dining out in New Jersey—29.78 per person—far surpasses the U.S. average of $21.19....”
—Meg Nugent (Newark Star-Ledger, 1999-08-27)

“The state park system has sent wire baskets, metal trash cans and concrete litter containers the way of the dinosaur. Instead it offers us yellow plastic bags—for free. All we have to do is fill these things with our garbage and trek back into the world.... It's bad enough at small parks, but at beaches and picnic areas, where people visit for a whole day, it is just plain stupid. I remember sitting on the beach at Wawayanda State Park with my yellow plastic bag nearby. No sooner had I stuffed the remains of a peanut butter sandwich into the bag, than a gust of wind came along and whipped the bag far away.”
—Barbara Hudgins (Newark Star-Ledger, 1999-08-18)

“Despite a strong economy, the number of working poor families in New Jersey has increased dramatically in the past decade ... from 43,000 in 1987 to 57,000 today. New Jersey is one of the most expensive states to live in and more breadwinners are working in low-skill, temporary jobs that do not pay enough to lift them above the poverty line.”
—Donna Leusner (Newark Star-Ledger, 1999-09-22)

“Despite a record-breaking economy, four out of five New Jersey residents saw no gain in family income over the past decade when wages are adjusted for inflation ... The wealthiest 20 percent of New Jersey's population saw their family income grow by an average 9 percent to $165,958 over the past decade, while the middle class and those at the bottom of the economic ladder lost ground ... According to the national data, almost all families saw their income, when adjusted for inflation, grow or remain about the same over the past 10 years, but that was not the case in New Jersey.”
—Donna Leusner (Newark Star-Ledger, 2000-01-18)

“Several months ago my aunt died at my home. According to her wishes, I contacted a local funeral director and requested an immediate cremation. There would be neither a viewing nor an elaborate funeral. Because her ashes were being buried, an urn was not needed. The funeral director ... explained that New Jersey law permitted ‘bundling of expenses,’ which is another way of saying that you are paying for services you do not use. He removed her body, delivered it to the crematorium, returned her ashes, placed one obituary and brought me the death certificate. For this, I was charged $2,496. ... I complained to the state Board of Mortuary Sciences and was told that it dealt only with ‘gross injustices.’ ”
—Elizabeth J. Baird (letter, Newark Star-Ledger, 2000-06-20)

“A state investigation has found that 2,201 inmates have not been granted parole hearings even though the dates on which they were eligible for release have passed. The figures ... contrast sharply with assertions by ... Parole Board chairman Andrew Consovoy and other state officials who recently pegged the number of backlogged cases at between 200 and 300. The investigation ... could prompt the state to settle a civil rights lawsuit on behalf of inmates ... It could also spell further trouble for Consovoy, who is [being investigated for] favorable treatment to several inmates, including some mobsters.”
—Brian Donohue (Newark Star-Ledger, 2000-07-11)

“Many hotels in New Jersey are hitting customers with energy surcharges, even though electric rates here are capped until 2003 and natural gas prices have dropped more than 25 percent from their winter level. The energy surcharge fees—as much as $3 per room per night—began in California and have spread to other states, including Nevada and Florida. Now they're showing up in New Jersey, where $3 usually buys enough electricity to power an average home for 2-1/2 days.”
—Josh Margolin (Newark Star-Ledger, 2001-06-02)

“Police in Jersey City are looking for a construction worker who punched a woman in the face after she objected to a rude remark he made. The 33-year-old city woman ... was walking past a construction site ... when the construction worker began verbally harassing her, police said. The woman told the worker he wouldn't talk that way if her man was there, police said. The worker then said, ‘Tell this to your man’ and punched her in the face.”
—Newark Star-Ledger, 2001-12-02

“... Census 2000 figures on income show that ... New Jersey's median household income grew only 3.8 percent during the [1990s] ... The ... total of income earned by New Jersey residents grew 20 percent. ... Median household income fell in 163 of 566 New Jersey towns ...”
—Mary Jo Patterson and Robert Gebeloff (Newark Star-Ledger, 2002-05-24)

“A day after the Census Bureau revealed that New Jersey has the highest median household income in the nation, a new study concluded that many Garden State residents are barely scraping by because of the state's high cost of living. ... A parent raising a preschool child would need an income of $28,623 [to live in] Camden County.... In Hunterdon County, the same parent would need $39,022 to live without any government assistance. ... The federal poverty standard says the same parent and child would meet the legal definition of poor only if they earned less than $11,940 a year. The parent would have to make no more than $23,880 a year to qualify for FamilyCare, the state's subsidized health insurance program for the working poor.”
—Susan K. Livio (Newark Star-Ledger, 2002-06-06)

“A murder, robbery, rape or assault occurred nearly four times an hour, on average, somewhere in New Jersey last year. Less than half of the violent crimes were solved. Car thieves made off with $320 million worth of vehicles. The New Jersey Uniform Crime Report for 2001 shows that, like the rest of the country, the state saw an end to a decline in crime over the previous decade. But ... the turnaround here was more pronounced. Murders in New Jersey spiked 18 percent last year, about six times the increase nationally. The hike in auto thefts and burglaries was nearly twice as great as in the country as a whole. Aggravated assaults and robberies also were higher.”
—John P. Martin (Newark Star-Ledger, 2002-09-22)

“Saying New Jersey has not made ‘meaningful progress’ against drunken driving in recent years, [Mothers Against Drunk Driving] gave the state a C on a national report card issued yesterday.”
—Susan K. Livio (Newark Star-Ledger, 2002-11-22)

“As New Jersey gained the distinction of being the most affluent state in the nation during the 1990s, the number of poor residents in the state grew by 126,516 . . . ”
—Susan K. Livio (Newark Star-Ledger, 2002-12-04)

“He was born with a deformed jaw and needed a trachea tube just to breathe. He could not speak, or defend himself. ... Yet the specially trained foster mother the Division of Youth and Family Services chose for this child regularly smacked him in the head, kicked him in the buttocks and cursed him. He wore clothes that were too small. He was bathed once a week. For this, his foster parents from Millville, Burlington County, collected at least $1,000 a month.”
—Susan K. Livio (Newark Star-Ledger, 2003-05-01)

“Essex County prosecutors cut a deal with a Mafia hit man two years ago, securing his early release from prison in return for his help in making a case against two students later charged with setting the fatal Seton Hall University fire.”
—Newark Star-Ledger, 2003-07-08

“New Jersey has failed a federal audit of its embattled child welfare system and may have to give back as much as $10 million in U.S. aid, according to officials familiar with the review. ... The problems included: * Failing to document [that] it has made reasonable efforts to keep children out of foster care, or reunite foster children with their families as soon as possible. * Placing children in foster homes without proof that they had been licensed to certify their safety, cleanliness and the character of the foster parents. * Keeping children that parents have voluntarily placed in foster care longer than six months without a judge's approval. * Seeking reimbursement for a foster child who does not live in poverty. The federal government requires individual states to foot the bill for foster children who do not qualify for welfare benefits.”
—Susan K. Livio (Newark Star-Ledger, 2003-08-06)

“I can attest to the decline even as prices have skyrocketed. I attended a concert [at the PNCBank Arts Center] ... and was appalled at the putrid condition of the restrooms and at the astronomical concession stand prices. Parking lot attendants did little to help direct motorists, and security officers simply walked past while patrons stood in the aisles blocking people's view. And the main viewing screen wasn't working. ... Facilities fees, box office fees, convenience charges and the like amount to an elaborate shell game. ... Customers must pay an additional $30 for the privilege of parking near the facility. Otherwise you have to park at the outer reaches and walk—or ride a bus—a lengthy distance uphill to reach the venue. ... I long for the old Garden State Arts Center.”
—Edward Bove, letter (Newark Star-Ledger, 2003-08-17)

“A Picatinny Arsenal engineer who volunteered to work a security gate at the Army post claims he was beaten up by the base police chief and two officers after he reported that a car ran a checkpoint. Roderick Bachman ... said ... that he was working at a security gate on Oct. 30, 2001, when a white Honda jumped out of line and sped through the checkpoint. Bachman and other volunteers followed the car and eventually tracked it down to a Picatinny parking lot ... Concerned that a vehicle could easily speed through the checkpoint, Bachman told two of his Army supervisors ... Three days later, while Bachman was working at the gate, Arsenal Police Chief Bruce Gough, Lt. Lawrence Van Pelt and Capt. Alfred Boehm approached hin, and the chief began to yell at him ... When Bachman tried to get in his car to leave the gate, the three surrounded him, threw him to the ground and beat him, according to the lawsuit.”
—Kristen Alloway (Newark Star-Ledger, 2003-10-21)

“Bloomfield's may be the first public library in the nation to charge library card holders for the Internet, national library officials said. ... Library officials said the $1 [hourly] fee is necessary to offset its increasing computer costs, which are estimated at about $12,000 a year. ... Bloomfield, in Essex County, is a working-class community with a growing immigrant population.”
—Kasi Addison (Newark Star-Ledger, 2004-04-01)

“Camden has become the nation's most dangerous city, ... The rankings are in Morgan Quitno's City Crime Rankings, an annual reference book of crime statistics ... The rankings look at the rate for six crime categories: murder, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, and auto theft.”
—Associated Press, 2004-11-22

“New Jersey streets and roadways have more litter than almost anywhere in the nation, second only to New York, according to the most recent study commissioned by the New Jersey Clean Communities Coalition. ... The state's urban streets have almost twice as much litter as other states surveyed; our highways and rural roads are 10 percent more littered than a sample of six other states. ... Deliberate litter rates were 35 percent higher in New Jersey than in other states.”
—Brian Donohue (Newark Star-Ledger, 2008-04-22)

“When I arrived at Round Valley State Park after a 50-minute drive, I was greeted with the sign ‘Swimming Area Closed.’ At the entrance, I found another welcoming sign: ‘Admission: $10.’ When I asked why there was no swimming on a major holiday, the ... attendant replied, ‘Lifeguard shortage’ ... Inquiring about the doubled admission fee, I got a cheery ‘It's just for this weekend!’”
—Louis Maini, letter (Newark Star-Ledger, 2008-06-07)

“Forget planning a pleasant picnic in a state park this summer ... unless you aren't bothered by police in SUVs zigzagging on the grass through the picnic areas right over the corner of your blanket and going from family to family, interrogating people throughout the day about the liquids they are consuming. No, these families were not rowdy or behaving strangely. They were just regular people trying to enjoy the day. And none of them was consuming alcohol. But the accusations and interrogations by the police ... including examining people's water bottles, created an extremely unwelcoming atmosphere and one I'd like to forget.”
—Mary Chaps, letter (Newark Star-Ledger, 2008-06-07)

“Public Service Electric and Gas, the state's largest utility company, said they expect peak electric demand to reach 7,500 megawatts ... ‘We're not anticipating any problems,’ said Karen Johnson, a PSE&G spokeswoman.”
—Newark Star-Ledger, 2009-04-25