With a crisp $5 bill and a cold Coors Light draft in a plastic cup, a Camden tradition was reborn and redefined yesterday, all before 11 a.m.

County and local officials yesterday called for a federal investigation into Camden's Northgate I apartment building, a troubled high-rise that authorities say has long been the scene of drug dealing and gang activity.

A senior investigator for the New Jersey Department of Labor pleaded guilty yesterday in federal court to taking more than $1.8 million in bribes from a series of temporary employment agencies he was supposed to be auditing.

After a lengthy trial on charges that he plotted to have his wife killed, Philip Castagna anticipated a resolution to a six-year legal saga that included his suspension as police chief of Bordentown City.

Veteran Burlington County Freeholders William S. Haines Jr. and James K. Wujcik announced yesterday they would not seek reelection, saying they needed to spend more time attending to business.

TRENTON - Gov. Corzine said yesterday that he supported allowing illegal immigrants to pay in-state tuition at New Jersey colleges, but called a proposal to let undocumented residents obtain driver's licenses "problematic."

A Hi-Nella volunteer firefighter charged with setting a series of Dumpster fires in Camden County last year has pleaded guilty to creating a false public alarm, authorities announced yesterday.

TRENTON - Four New Jersey unions have asked a court to stop furloughs of public workers. The New Jersey Policemen's Benevolent Association and the Communications Workers of America filed separate actions yesterday in the New Jersey Appellate Division. Together they represent 93,000 police officers, firefighters, and rank-and-file state and municipal workers.

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. - The National Weather Service confirmed yesterday that part of Sunday's severe weather in south-central Pennsylvania was a tornado.

PATERSON, N.J. - Paterson's Great Falls is now a national historical park. President Obama signed the legislation, sponsored by New Jersey Sens. Frank Lautenberg and Robert Menendez and U.S. Rep. Bill Pascrell Jr., in Washington yesterday.

SCRANTON - A federal judge has blocked a prosecutor from filing child-pornography charges against three northeastern Pennsylvania teenagers over racy cell-phone pictures of themselves.

Terence Jones is still distraught three months after his acquittal in a case that is now under scrutiny by the New Jersey State Conference of the NAACP and its Gloucester County chapter.

CAPE MAY, N.J. - Shortly after World War II, U.S. intelligence learned that the Germans had planned a Pearl Harbor-like attack on the strategic industrial centers along the Delaware River and Bay, including the shipyards in Philadelphia and Camden, oil refineries in Chester, and the DuPont munitions and chemical plants in Wilmington.

About 150 school district staff, parents and other residents came out Tuesday night to protest a cut of up to 62 teachers and other employees provided in the Board of Education's proposed $78 million budget for 2009-10.

The Board of Education adopted its 2009-10 school budget of $14.03 million Tuesday night.The budget is up $255,961 from last year and is within the state tax levy cap of 4 percent.

Tens of thousands of Americans, from teenagers to baby boomers, soon will get a fresh chance to lend a helping hand in a time of need.

The priorities of the new administration — addressing intertwined economic, emissions and energy problems — will not be achieved as partisan issues, say two environmental experts.

Two coffins filled with empty wallets are the centerpiece of a tax and cost-of-living protest at the Statehouse in Trenton.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said today she supports the controversial employee verification program called E-Verify and wants to see it extended beyond the Sept. 30 expiration date.

A pedestrian was struck by a vehicle on Route 9 and was flown to an area trauma center for treatment about 3:30 p.m., said Police Lt. James Veltri.

Fire gutted one bedroom of a house at 1416 Clearview Drive today, said Kevin Flynn, chief of the Forked River Fire Company.

It's been a dream for a decade: a single daily pill combining aspirin, cholesterol medicine and blood pressure drugs — everything people need to prevent heart attacks and strokes in a cheap, generic form.

The school board is holding a public hearing Wednesday on next year's proposed budget that calls for a 3.6 percent tax rate increase, the district's business office said.

Mayor Stephen C. Acropolis is expected to present to the Township Council tonight a proposed budget that cuts spending and increases taxes.

A Jersey City man admitted in federal court today that he stole more than $39,000 from nine banks in two states last year during robberies where he donned a wig and dressed as a woman.

Monmouth County's detention center for youth offenders -- recently considered for closure because of its $5.48 million annual operating price -- could in the future have a small portion of its costs offset if per-diem detainees from outside the county are taken in.

The Board of Education will hold a public hearing on its proposed $7 million district budget at 7 p.m. at the elementary school, 515 Brinley Ave.

A Jersey City man has pleaded guilty in a scheme that netted more than $573,000 through fraudulent applications for Homestead Rebate checks.

A Camden man has been charged with fatally beating his girlfriend's 9-year-old son.

Online dating service eHarmony has launched a new Web site catering to same-sex singles.

New Jersey Gov. Jon S. Corzine has signed three pieces of legislation promoting clean energy.

Borough school officials will explain the 2009-2010 $18.05 million school budget, which keeps the local school tax rate stable at a public hearing at 7:30 tonight in the Primary School cafeteria.

An off-duty Little Egg Harbor policeman escaped serious injury this afternoon after he was struck by a car in the parking lot of the local library.

A senior state investigator said Monday he took almost $2 million in bribes from temporary-labor firms in South Jersey that he was supposed to monitor.

West Deptford officials said they aren't done with the township's budget but that they had to introduce a spending plan on Monday morning to have a chance to again earn extraordinary aid from the state Local Finance Board.

Two longtime Republican freeholders in Burlington County announced Monday they are not seeking re-election.

A Superior Court jury acquitted the suspended Bordentown City police chief of arson Monday but could not reach a verdict on a charge of conspiracy to murder his estranged wife.

Six public employee unions, headed by the Communications Workers of America, filed papers Monday with a New Jersey appeals court seeking to block the emergency rule allowing state workers to be furloughed.

Gov. Jon S. Corzine supports allowing illegal immigrants to pay in-state tuition to attend New Jersey's public colleges, but said extending state driving privileges to them is a matter for the federal government to decide.

Creating a pollution control zone around the U.S. coastline that would ban the world's dirtiest ships is the only way to clean up the nation's ports, a spokesman for the South Jersey Port Corp. said Monday.

Appel Farm's Annual Arts & Music Festival won't be on this year.

One day after a Courier-Post article detailing living conditions in Camden's Northgate I, officials called for a federal probe into the owners.

Six local municipalities have been tapped to install red-light cameras aimed at catching drivers who drive through some of the area's busiest intersections.

Today is the deadline for voters to register or change their address for upcoming school elections, according to the League of Women Voters of New Jersey.

Two Burlington County men have admitted their role in the death of a holdup victim.

A city man was sentenced to 16 years in state prison for a Halloween night slaying in 2007.

No dealer? No deal.

An Osage School student has a suspected case of meningitis, district officials said Monday.

A local pharmacy has been robbed for the second time in a week, police said Monday.

A volunteer firefighter has admitted he set multiple fires in trash bins at a Hi-Nella apartment complex, officials said.

A city man has been sentenced to three 25-year prison terms in connection with three separate slayings here.

Burlington County health officials are again warning residents to avoid stray animals, after a rabid raccoon was found here.

9th District Delegation Opposes Offering Driver's Licenses & In-State Tuition to Illegal Immigrants

Senator Christopher J. Connors, Assemblyman Brian E. Rumpf and Assemblyman Daniel M. Van Pelt today expressed deep concern over the Governor's ambivalence to the recommendations offered by his own Blue Ribbon Advisory Panel on Immigrant Policy, which including allowing the issuance of driver's license for undocumented aliens as well as in-state tuition for foreign-born New Jersey students...

Senators Steve Oroho and Marcia Karrow, members of the Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee, called on the Corzine Administration to hold back any grants from the Special Municipal Aid Program until the intended recipients implement cost savings measures...

Panel of Senators Would Have Subpoena Power

Senators Joe Pennacchio and Bill Baroni are drafting legislation that would create a bipartisan commission to investigate the state's handling of its depleted $59 billion pension system and come up with a plan to restore it to solvency...

Proposals to offer illegal immigrants in-state college tuition rates and driver's licenses face an uphill battle in garnering public support, according to a Monmouth University/Gannett New Jersey poll.

Now a moment of silent appreciation for humble politicians who pass up millions in the private sector to serve in elective office.

WILLOW a ' Alaska's Mount Redoubt volcano erupted five times overnight, sending an ash plume more than 9 miles into the air in the volcano's first emissions in nearly 20 years.

New Jersey's local governments are supposed to have certified recycling managers in place by next January, but that deadline may be extended by two years.

Cory Booker says he's more interested in continuing to serve as Newark's mayor than in running for lieutenant governor with Gov.

TRENTON The New Jersey Supreme Court heard arguments Tuesday on whether municipalities can restrict where convicted sex offenders live.

Property tax relief without the gimmickry. That's what lawmakers in the New Jersey Assembly have in mind as they renew the push to replace politically popular rebate checks with more pragmatic tax bill credits.

EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson is due back in New Jersey on Monday to announce measures to address air pollution at Port Newark.

The New Jersey Senate unanimously passed a bill requiring the state to publicly report preventable patient-safety errors at all New Jersey hospitals, CongressDaily reports.

Gulotta says racetrack slots will produce a lot of winners Wednesday, March 25, 2009 - by Carol Hodes, for the SBOA of New Jersey Montclair, NJ --- Owner-breeder Michael J. Gulotta told a panel of state senators that slots in New Jersey's racetracks will be a winner for the state's budget as well as horsemen.

New Study Contradicts Flawed COAH Housing Projections

Senator Christopher "Kip" Bateman, a member of the Senate Environment Committee, insisted today that the Corzine Administration immediately release the study on housing growth presented to the State Planning Commission by a Rutgers University expert.

The Commission's new study contradicts earlier projections by the Council On Affordable Housing (COAH) that are being used to justify huge increases in subsidized housing mandated by state laws and regulations adopted in the summer...

Pennacchio: 10 Reasons New Jersey Economy Is the Worst in the Region

Senator Joe Pennacchio (R-Morris/Passaic) issued a top-ten list today of how a Governor Corzine and his allies in the Legislature have implemented policies to ensure that New Jersey has the highest Unemployment rate in the region. His penchant for raising taxes and increasing bureaucratic red tape, rather than cutting the cost of government, has cost New Jersey jobs...

Senator Marcia Karrow (R-Warren/Hunterdon) expressed her deep concern today after New York announced that its unemployment rate is significantly lower than New Jersey's.

"It pains me to see fear grip New Jersey families faced with the loss of jobs and income," Karrow stated. "Governor Corzine has to stop touting his alleged 'successes' and start leading the way in asking why New Jersey has proportionally more workers out of work than neighboring states do. Then we need him to lead on coming up with a far more comprehensive plan for diversifying our economy and reviving the entrepreneurial culture that once made New Jersey an economic powerhouse.

A fishing boat sank off the New Jersey coast Tuesday morning, killing at least one person and leaving four others missing in near-freezing water, the Coast Guard said.

New Jersey's jobless rate continued to climb last month, surpassing the national rate for the first time in two years and keeping the state firmly entrenched in the global recession, according to analysts.

New Jersey's physician shortage will worsen unless an $8 million budget cut to teaching hospitals is restored, a doctor told the Assembly Budget Committee Tuesday.

The U.S. Senate has joined calls for Brazil to return a boy living there to his father in New Jersey.

VENTNOR - The Planning Board cleared the way Wednesday for a developer to build 32 condo units at the corner of Ventnor and Nashville avenues, directly across the city's main commercial street from a 24-unit condo project the board OK'd last month. The members voted 7-0 to give a...

Region: Bob Zlotnick, the husband of newly appointed Northfield City Councilwoman Julie Zlotnick, is not related to Norman Zlotnick, former Hamilton Township solicitor. Incorrect information was included in a story in the Jan. 25 edition....

A local economy built on service and entertainment finally has an entertainment service available to fill a little-known void in the area's offerings. Call it Dial An Elvis. Ted Prior, of Galloway Township, a veteran of the area Elvis industry, is taking calls to deliver singing telegrams, performing in...

From our wire services WASHINGTON - New Jersey Republicans in Congress have joined the chorus of opposition to Democratic Gov. Jon S. Corzine's plan to balance the state budget by hiking tolls on Garden State highways. The delegation of six representatives sent a letter to the governor Wednesday outlining...

A look at the lighter, quirky and colorful side of the news. Your license, please Buzz reader Harry Cottrill, of Linwood, said he was driving in Atlantic City when he spotted a minivan at Ventnor and Harrisburg avenues. The car had a Pennsylvania license plate that read: "BLIND MN."...