Essex County News

Local coverage of Newark and more from The Star-Ledger

• Adubato stepping down as Newark center head
For nearly 40 years, Steve Adubato has run the North Ward Education and Cultural Center in Newark like a proud parent.

• Exhibit celebrates the valor of B-17 bomber pilots of yore
Throttling up the propellers on the B-17 for takeoff, pilot Sam Bass often thinks about the men who once sat where he does today.

• Man pleads guilty to Medicaid fraud
A 41-year-old ex-convict accused in a $2 million insurance fraud pleaded guilty yesterday to luring homeless AIDS patient to a Newark clinic so he could bill Medicaid for prescriptions in their names.

• Defendant in Newark killing is arrested again
In 2004, Shareef "Sug" Thomas, a reputed member of a Bloods gang in Newark, was charged in the robbery and killing of a man in the city's South Ward.

• Caution urged on West Nile carriers
Routine monitoring in Newark and Irvington has found pools of mosquitoes that have repeatedly tested positive for West Nile virus, Essex County officials said yesterday.

• Ex-official from Montclair wins fight in court over contracts
Former Montclair councilor Ted Mattox yesterday claimed victory in his lengthy courtroom fight challenging the township's awarding of no-bid contracts to two quasi-public entities.

• Berra museum to present program on youth sports
A local sports museum is hosting a panel discussion aimed at helping parents to better understand the roles, benefits and obst acles kids face in youth sports programs.

• Berra museum to present program on youth sports
A local sports museum is hosting a panel discussion aimed at helping parents to better understand the roles, benefits and obst acles kids face in youth sports programs.

• Newark school board to fight survivors' lawsuit
The Newark Board of Education, facing a lawsuit over last summer's schoolyard shootings, will be in court next week to argue that state law relieves it of liability for criminal actions on school property.

• Primary schools to get uniforms
Uniforms will be required for Newark's approximately 30,000 elementary school students this school year as part of a sweeping change to the district's dress-code policy that could eventually affect all youngsters attending city public schools.

• Newarkers struggle as their income slips
Belinda Scott works a full-time and a part-time job at two Newark social service agencies to support her two teenage children, but she still makes less than $40,000 a year, with no health insurance.

• Giving kids a pat, and a pack, on the back
These are not your usual backpacks.

• 6 families homeless after Newark blaze
Six families were left homeless last night when a two-alarm blaze destroyed a three-story frame house in Newark's Ironbound section, fire officials said.

• 6 families homeless after Newark blaze
Six families were left homeless last night when a two-alarm blaze destroyed a three-story house in Newark's Ironbound section, fire officials said.

• Caldwell purchase will add new park
It's a long, narrow piece of property that will one day become a park for Caldwell's residents.

• Caldwell purchase will become park
It's a long, narrow piece of property that will one day become a park for Caldwell's residents.

• DNA test on shirt leads to arrest in year-old Glen Ridge burglary
A DNA match in a year-old break-in of a Glen Ridge carriage house has led authorities to a would-be burglar, police said yesterday.

• DNA test on shirt leads to arrest in year-old Glen Ridge burglary
A DNA match in a year-old break-in of a Glen Ridge carriage house has led authorities to a would-be burglar, police said yesterday.

• Hockey hopefuls take a shot at a dream
The stands were deserted, but on the ice, the action was continuous.

• Vernon finalizing choice of new superintendent
A finalist to replace Earl Kim as Verona's next superintendent of schools has emerged. The school trustees tonight are expected to settle on a contract contingent on the outcome of a visit to the finalist's home district.

• Russo walks and talks 3 years early
Robert "Bob" Russo, Montclair's one-time mayor, has been described as a political animal.

• Toppling her fears with a bulldozer
The demolition equipment seemed to come out of nowhere.

• Pay hike sought for 63 Newark employees
Newark Mayor Cory Booker's administration is proposing to give a retroactive 3.5 percent salary increase to 63 city employees, including the business administrator, city clerk and other department directors who are not represented by a union.

• Pay hike sought for 63 Newark employees
Newark Mayor Cory Booker's administration is proposing to give a retroactive 3.5 percent salary increase to 63 city employees, including the business administrator, city clerk and other department directors who are not represented by a union.

• Campers learn to shoot for the stars
Basketball wasn't the only thing on the agenda at the first-ever Greater Newark Basketball and Enrichment Clinic that took place last week at Newark Technical High School and Essex County College.

• A mother and caregiver now needs care herself
Two months ago, Lisa Motessi of Short Hills had just finished celebrating her daughter's graduation from Hartshorn Elementary School when she began feeling run-down and noticed bruises on her skin.

• Newark teen admits guilt in shooting of a 3-year-old
A Newark teenager who accidentally shot a toddler in the head last year has pleaded guilty to attempted murder and other assault charges.

• Orange looks to replace public housing complex
Fed up with unrelenting crime and vandalism at the Dr. Walter G. Alexander public housing complex in Orange, officials have a plan to sell the property, raze the two high-rises and create a mixed-income housing complex in its place.

• Newark schools retain use of building
Once the old Central High School building along Summit Street is no longer needed by the Newark Schools, the New Jersey Institute of Technology, the structure's neighbor and new owner, can begin using it.

• A city mourns loss of a magnetic teen
The honor guard of classmates held it together as best as they could yesterday.

• New schools chief to hire ombudsman
NEWARK: In order to better field complaints from parents and community members about city schools, Superintendent Clif ford Janey plans to establish the position of ombudsman.

• Essex back-to-school bonus: Parking
Essex County College students will have a welcome surprise when they return to classes after Labor Day.

• Deadly Florham Park fire called accidental
Damage from an early morning fire that claimed the life of a 52-year-old Florham Park man and injured his wife and daughter was so extensive a precise cause cannot be determined, authorities said yesterday.

• E. Orange woman, 84, assaulted
East Orange police are seeking an intruder who assaulted an 84-year-old woman last night in her home on North Arlington Avenue.

• Man arraigned in death of sleeping teen
A Newark hospital orderly was arraigned yesterday on charges that he fired a military-style assault rifle through the ceiling of his apartment, killing a sleeping 15-year-old on the floor above.

• Montclair arena fiscal woes listed in analysis
The Clary Anderson Arena apparently is on thinner financial ice than some imagined.

• Obama names director for N.J.
Officials with Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama's campaign announced yesterday that Pablo Fonseca will be the new political director for its New Jersey campaign.

• Uncovered markers of lives lost long ago are adrift in time
They are forgotten tombstones in search of a resting place.

• Newark gets $400K for environmental work
The federal government is giving Newark a helping hand in evaluating contamination levels at brownfield sites in the city.

• Elite car theft cops star in dramatic new A&E series
The ability to move undetected in the night has been behind the success of the Essex/Union Auto Theft Task Force since it began targeting car thieves in 1991. Tonight millions of people across the country will get a chance to see members of the tactical team at work.

• Newark removes jobs from website
Four high-profile job openings with Newark were removed from Craigslist after state officials raised questioned about the advertisement.

• Berra museum to present program on youth sports
A local sports museum is hosting a panel discussion for parents to better understand the role of youth sports in a child's life.

• MORRIS BLAZE TURNS DEADLY
An early morning house fire yesterday killed a Florham Park father of two and injured his wife, daughter and daughter's friend before the three women jumped out of a second-floor window, authorities said.

• Struggling city theater faces closure
When Newark officials opened the doors to a six-screen cinema on Springfield Avenue in 1993, they touted it as the first family-oriented theater to operate in the city in 30 years.

• A garden where knowledge grows
Sue Mazur pointed to thriving tomato and basil plants, then at a pumpkin patch that was mostly eaten by chipmunks. But instead of bemoaning the failed patch, Mazur took the chance to teach a life lesson at the Essex County Environmental Center in Roseland.

• Prisoner aid effort will lose 2nd chief
Wanda Moore, the director of Newark's prisoner re-entry program, is leaving next month to take a similar position at the state level.

• Man outside laundry faces drug charge
BLOOMFIELD:Complaints about drugs being sold outside a local laundry led to the confisca tion of more than $3,000 worth of heroin and the arrest of a Newark man, police officials said.

• Newark school expected to open on time
There is still work to be done to finish building Newark's new Central High School, but it will open in time for the first day of school, state school construction officials said during a community meeting.

• Judge refuses to gag lawyer in false arrest suit
A Superior Court judge yesterday refused to slap a gag order on the attorney for a man who claims that Belleville police falsely arrested him for drunken driving as part of an ongoing effort to harass him.

• Pair admit offering bribes to ex-mayor
Two contractors have pleaded guilty to offering bribes to former Irvington mayor Michael Steele in his role as business administrator for the township board of education, state law enforcement authorities said yesterday.

• Benchmark of 'integrity and justice'
After his name was removed from an arena, former governor Brendan T. Byrne was taking no chances yesterday when Essex County officials dedicated a new plaza outside the county courthouse to him.

• Pond at Branch Brook Park gets a spritz to freshen up
The green algae is gone in a large pond on the northern end of Branch Brook Park, thanks to two new aerators that have been installed by Essex County.

• Woman fatally shot in Central Ward
NEWARK: A woman in her 30s was shot and killed in Newark yesterday, police said.

• Church to give kids school supplies
NEWARK: On Saturday, the Metropolitan Baptist Church will sponsor its Sixth Annual Back to School Book Bag Drive at its newly acquired Willing Heart Community Center, at 555 Mar tin Luther King Blvd.

• Police accuse lawyer of vendetta in suit alleging false arrest
Ever since a Belleville man filed a lawsuit accusing township police of concocting drunken-driving charges against him, the department and some of its officers have been exposed to more than a little embarrassment.