Charter School Fight in Top State News

The message from several elected officials, school representatives and residents on Tuesday night was that they are wholly unhappy with the process for approving charter schools in New Jersey, and demand that their opinions be . In a town hall-style meeting at Bartle Elementary School in Highland Park, residents and officials gathered to discuss the process of charter school approval. Attendees included Assemblymen Patrick Diegnan and Peter Barnes, mayors from Highland Park and Edison, and superintendents of the Edison, Highland Park and New Brunswick school districts as well as school board members and Middlesex County freeholder representatives.

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The University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey will hire additional staff to help perform abortions after a group of nurses said they were forced to participate in the procedures despite religious objections, the university said Friday night. [NJ.com]

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The first hearing on a proposal to build 15 Princeton University faculty dwellings on land adjacent to the Princeton Battlefield  on Thursday, and offered a preview of a contentious and drawn-out fight. At least 200 people crowded into the main meeting room at the Princeton Township Municipal Complex for a hearing that included lawyers, sworn testimony and attorney cross-examination of township staff.

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Jon Corzine is in demand in Washington, with one committee subpoenaing him to testify, another getting ready to vote to do that, and a third negotiating with his lawyers about appearing. [NorthJersey.com]

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Occupy Newark protesters in Military Park  Monday night—one that packs a political punch. Arriving at 7:30 p.m. with a sleeping bag and Coleman tent, Newark councilman Ras Baraka made good on a promise to stay overnight in support of the social movement.

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A public hearing will be held Dec. 14 in Howell on New Jersey American Water's request for a 20 percent rate increase. [Asbury Park Press]

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Hoboken, state and county officials  to symbolically open the Hoboken University Medical Center since its ownership has been transferred to private owner HUMC Holdco. Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno—also acting governor for the day because Gov. Chris Christie was out of state—together with health commissioner Mary O'Dowd attended the ceremony in the hospital's emergency room.

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Four major lawsuits, a dozen union demonstrations that drove business away, more than $16 million in losses, sexy billboards, stage shows and circuses that garnered widespread free publicity, and a broken back. That's what Dennis Gomes, co-owner of Resorts Casino Hotel, has to show for his first year running New Jersey's oldest casino, the first one in America to open outside Nevada. [Associated Press]

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An off-duty retired fireman  out of a burning car around 5:45 a.m. in Holmdel Nov. 27, police said. Todd D. Stathum was driving a 2004 Suzuki Forenza when his vehicle struck a curb, left the roadway and traveled 50 yards before striking a telephone pole near Galloping Hill Circle, Sgt. Vincent Imperato said. The off-duty fireman, Nicholas Crosta, 56, of Toms River, witnessed the accident and helped Stathum to get out of the car before it was engulfed in flames, Imperato said.

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Nearly 5 million New Jersey residents will see $6.7 billion altogether in tax relief if a 3.1 percent percentage point cut in the employee payroll tax is preserved, according to an analysis by the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Tax Policy. [WhiteHouse.gov, .pdf]

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A standoff with a man who  in his Erial home Tuesday morning, at times shielding himself with a juvenile and threatening that he was armed, reportedly ended without major incident several hours after the local SWAT team responded to the scene. The standoff began at around 5:35 a.m. when police went to a home on Hickstown Road to serve a criminal warrant on 50-year-old Anthony Giordano in connection with a prior dispute there, according to Gloucester Township Police Capt. Anthony Minosse. As responding officers approached the home, Giordano broke out a window to the residence and yelled at police to get off his property, threatening that he was armed with a weapon and did not intend to come out, Minosse said.

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A 21-year-old man who  during an overnight visit to Fairleigh Dickinson University's Florham Park campus has been identified as a Sparta resident, the Morris County Prosecutor's Office said. Patrick A. Parisi Jr. was found unresponsive Wednesday afternoon in a friend's dorm room and later pronounced dead at Morristown hospital. Foul play does not appear to be a factor, Prosecutor Robert A. Bianchi said in a prepared statement Wednesday night.

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A Camden man was  late Wednesday night in Paulsboro, marking Gloucester County's third murder of the year. Police said Jamaal A. Barker, 25, of South 8th Street in Camden, was shot multiple times while visiting an acquaintance on West Washington Street, and died at the scene of the shooting. Barker was a repeat offender, having served jail time for forgery, theft and various drug convictions over the past six years.