The NJ Blog

He talked of waking up three months after the fire. The burns over 50 percent of his body. Of seeing his severaly scarred face for the first time. Of the more than 30 surgeries he has endured.

And finally, he told of the one question he's always wanted answered.

"Why? What was the reason for this fire?"

"Aaron was fun-loving but also a serious student. He didn't get all As but he made the honor roll most of the time . . . AK was not one-dimensional. He loved music . . . He enjoyed snow-boardng ... He was taking up tennis and he also loved video games."

"My son had a wisdom about him that transcended his age . . . I admired how he had the ablity to look at the big picture and yet he could write about something as small as a bead of sweat. . . ."

"For someone who was only 18 years and three months when he was killed, AK left a remarkable legacy."

He discussed the circumstances of the starting of the fire after the Joseph LePore and Sean Ryan were chased from the lounge by dorm counselor: "By their own admission, they both returned to the lounge and ignited the paper. This was an indication to me that this was a premeditated act."

"These two never regretted what they did . . . they were only worried about their own hides . . . Those are not the actions of pranksters. They are the actions of criminals.''

He said his son had to be identied from dental records, he was burned so badly. "We never had the chance to see him one last time. We had to have a closed casket.'' He said many of his son's friends had to go through therapy after his death.

He said he wanted to see the defenahts serve the full five years. "I promise them both I will muster up an army of victims to appear before the parole board every time they are eligible.''

He said justice will be served when the defenants face the "ultimate judge" after death. "They won't be able to have fancy lawyers represent them."

"They have displayed a total callousness and complete disregard for their victims ... The perpetrators of this hoocaust deserve no mercy whatsoever.''

"No sentence will ever bring us closure. The holes in our hearts will never heal. We will never have Aaron back."

The new version of the bill would stop lawyers and engineers from tacking together taxpayer-funded retirement benefits from various local governments. But it carves out an exception for other professionals including health officers, tax collectors and municipal clerks.

It marks the latest of a host of reforms recommended by a special legislative panel last year to fall by the wayside as lawmakers attempt to reach consensus on pension reform.

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Senate President Richard Codey, D-Essex, sponsor of the reform bill introduced Tuesday, said the professionals affected by the new provisions are distinct from lawyers and engineers, in that they generally are direct municipal employees without income from private firms.

But a list compiled last year by state pension officials showed that assessors and other professionals can rack up hefty combined salaries and retirement benefits from multiple public jobs.

When told that six of the 20 highest total paychecks on the list went to people who would be exempted from the new legislation, Codey said that provision might have to be reviewed.

The most highly paid assessor on that list, Edward L. Kerwin, collected a total of $243,124 in salaries from eight communities in Somerset and Hunterdon counties last year.

New Jersey has warned squirrel hunters near a toxic waste dump about consuming the critters because they could be contaminated with lead.

It is the first time the state has cautioned Ringwood residents — many who are members of the Ramapough Mountain Indian tribe who hunt and fish in the area — about their squirrel intake, said Tom Slater, a spokesman for the Department of Health and Senior Services.

A lead-contaminated squirrel was found in the area two months ago, prompting the agency, along with the state Department of Environmental Protection, to send out letters advising that adults eat squirrel no more than twice a week and even less for children and pregnant women.

"It looks like problems with Sen. Hillary Clinton's new presidential campaign are cropping up close to home," said Clay F. Richards, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute.

"She has established her front-runner status among Democrats and she enjoys positive favorability ratings, but a big chunk of New Jersey voters have negative feelings about the Senator next door - enough to show two Republicans giving her a run for her money in this traditionally Democratic state," Richards added.

"It's easy to explain why she trails 9/11 hero Rudolph Giuliani; less clear why Sen. John McCain from faraway Arizona is so close. Looking more deeply into the numbers, Sen. Clinton is losing Democratic voters to GOP rivals and she trails among the state's large bloc of independent voters. While it's very early, one has to wonder how Sen. Clinton will play in the rest of the country when she has these numbers right next door."

"New Jersey voters are clearly skeptical that Gov. Corzine and the State Legislature will provide meaningful property tax relief this year. Despite apparent agreement on a plan, only about a third of voters say property tax reform is likely this year and a majority disapprove of the way both the Governor and Legislature are handling the issue," said Clay F. Richards, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute.

Assemblyman Sean Kean is sponsoring legislation that would make it illegal for someone to use a dead soldiers name or picture for political or commercial purposes without the consent of a family member. Kean says these people have paid the ultimate sacrifice and now someone is using them to make a buck. The Eleventh District Republican's proposal would fine violators up to $10,000 for a first offense and up to $20,000 for any subsequent offense.

Bradley Beach resident Sue Sullivan supports the measure. Her son, Lance Corporal Vincent Sullivan died while fighting in Iraq. She later found out that anti-war t-shirts were being sold on the internet with her son's name on them. She was appalled and angry when she asked the person selling the t-shirts to take her son's name off and he refused. Sullivan then contacted Assemblyman Kean to see if he could help.

The legislation was introduced last month. Kean says two other states have passed similar laws. He says Federal legislation is pending.

The comptroller plan now includes language preventing the office from auditing developers' agreements with municipalities. Other changes would eliminate automatic audits of government entities that spend $100 million or more and require the comptroller's office to first review existing local government audits before starting its own investigations.

Ashley Harder, the current Miss New Jersey USA, has resigned from the pageant post because she is pregnant, The Philadelphia Daily News reported in Monday's newspapers.

Harder, 20, told the newspaper she voluntarily stepped down because it's against pageant rules to compete while pregnant. She could not immediately be reached for comment by The Associated Press.